1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers - Best College Football Team Ever

By the end of the 1991 season, these two words had come to define Nebraska football. In truth, one more adjective could be added to really capture the essence of Tom Osborne's teams of the 80s and early 90s. And that's "powerful".

Big, slow and powerful. Two superlatives and a liability. After 19 seasons as Nebraska's head coach, Tom Osborne had amassed a 186-42-3 record. His teams never fared worse than 9-3 in any season. They were college football's version of the Monsters of the Midway. They ate lesser teams for breakfast. Smashed them into the dirt. They punched gridiron equals straight in the mouth like a heavy-weight palooka and, more often than not, the Huskers remained the last men standing.

But a beast cannot devour what it can't catch. And on January 1st, 1992 in Miami, the Big Red monster found itself shutout 22-0 by the fleet-footed hometown Hurricanes. On that night, Miami claimed a share of its fourth national title in nine years -- ironically, the first of those was won on the same field against the same team. But that game was a 31-30 classic with one of the most storied finishes in -- not just college football -- but the whole wide, wide world of sports.

The 1992 Orange Bowl, on the other hand, was simply pathetic. At least from Nebraska's point of view. Not only were the Huskers skunked, but this was the fifth straight bowl loss for Nebraska -- all to speedy teams from the South -- and the margins of loss were growing increasingly wider.

The game had evolved. Speed was the key. Nebraska would refocus its recruiting efforts to compete with the Florida schools. But amazingly, not to the detriment of the Cornhuskers' long-time hallmarks -- size and power.

The result was a dominance never seen before in the modern realm of college football. Mirroring the mid-90s Chicago Bulls of the NBA, college football became a veritable one-team league from 1994 to 1995. Penn State can take issue with that charge for 1994. But certainly in 1995 no team could come close to the size, power and speed of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. A team which perpetrated irrefutably the greatest onslaught of domination ever in Division I football.

Let's have a look a the statistics for the season.

Nebraska's 1995 schedule and results:

Beat Oklahoma State 64-21
Beat Michigan State 50-10
Beat Arizona State 77-28
Beat Pacific 49-7
Beat Washington State 35-21
Beat Missouri 57-0
Beat Kansas State 49-25
Beat Colorado 44-21
Beat Iowa State 73-14
Beat Kansas 41-3
Beat Oklahoma 37-0
Beat Florida 62-24

The Cornhuskers outscored their opponents 638-174 for an average final of 53-14.

In twelve games, Nebraska trailed only three times. Once against Washington State and twice against Florida. The 1995 Huskers never trailed any of its opponents after the second quarter.

With the exception of Washington State, Nebraska outscored all of its opponents' final scores by halftime. Six of Nebraska's opponents were outscored by the end of the first quarter.

In twelve games, Nebraska amassed 6,748 total yards while holding opponents to just 3,586 for an average of 562 yards to 298.

The key games.

Nebraska vs. Michigan State. September 9, 1995

This game was the first indication that there was something perhaps unique about the 1995 Cornhuskers. The match was in East Lansing and, while the 1990s hadn't been particularly good to Michigan State, the 1995 team was regarded as a solid middle Big 10 team and more than capable of giving the defending National Champions a good showing on their home turf.

They did not.

Nebraska blasted the Spartans for 666 total yards (nearly double MSU's) as they rolled to an easy 50-10 victory. No other team on the Spartan's slate would come close to the racking up the same kind of numbers as MSU would later beat instate rival Michigan 28-25 and lose a close-fought match 20-24 to Penn State on the same field.

But smashing good teams would eventually become the M.O. for the '95 Huskers.

Nebraska vs. Kansas State. October 21, 1995.

It was Homecoming for the Big Red. The Huskers and Wildcats each brought in 6-0 records, 2-0 conference records and AP Top 8 rankings. (Nebraska was #2)

Kansas State also had statistically the best defense in the country going into the contest. And Coach Snyder's men had reason to be confident. The first six Wildcat opponents could only muster six touchdowns and a field goal against the purple jerseys. But by the time the Wildcats left Lincoln, the Huskers would add another seven touchdowns to that tally.

That's right. In four quarters Nebraska outscored what Wildcat opponents had put up in the previous 24.

To Kansas State's credit, their vaunted defense did manage to do what no other team did all season. They stopped Nebraska's fearsome running attack, holding the Huskers to 190 yard on 46 carries. But Nebraska would use a passing game and a blistering defense (KSU had -19 rushing yards themselves) to score 35 points by halftime. With the score 42-6 at the end of the third quarter, the Wildcats never seriously threatened Nebraska's lead. The final: 49-25.

Nebraska vs. Colorado. October 28, 1995.

Just a week after the Kansas State game, Nebraska headed to Boulder to face what would be the Huskers' most formidable opponent of the regular season.

Colorado was 6-1 and ranked #7 in the AP poll. The Buffalos had posted convincing wins over Wisconsin, Texas A&M and Oklahoma but a recent loss to Kansas would have CU itching to prove themselves against their designated nemesis. The Buffalo offense was on a roll, nailing its first seven opponents with 38 touchdowns. And, outside the Kansas game, the defense was pretty stingy, too.

But Nebraska was none too impressed. The Huskers smoked the Buffalos with 467 total yards and 44 points. And, yet again, a contest versus a Top 10 conference opponent was over by halftime.

Nebraska vs. Kansas. November 11, 1995.

The Jayhawks were 8-1 and ranked 10th in the AP when the Cornhuskers showed up in Lawrence late in the season.

Let's see... a one-loss, top-ten conference opponent. Does this sound familiar?

The outcome will, too. Nebraska 41, Kansas 3.

To be fair, the game was not actually as lopsided as the score would indicate. The Jayhawks were one of the few teams to hold Nebraska to under 400 total yards and the Huskers got two defensive touchdowns to pad the point margin. Indeed, Kansas' defense was the strong suit of the 1995 team. But Nebraska's own defense was just as good. And the Husker offense was considerably better than Kansas'.

Nebraska vs. Florida. January 2, 1996.

The infamous Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in which college football fans from around the country would simultaneously mouth the words, "My God! Who ARE these guys?"

The Florida Gators entered the game 12-0 and ranked #1 in the country. Held next to the Cornhuskers' 11 wins, Florida's own regular season rampage looked -- dare we say it -- even more dominating than the Huskers. The Tennessee Volunteers, for example, lost just one game that season. And it was 62-37 at the hands of Florida.

Indeed, conventional wisdom had it that Steve Spurrier was fielding a gridiron juggernaut the likes of which had never been seen before. The prognosticators' predictions came down squarely on Florida's side by a roughly 5-3 ratio. One Tampa sports writer chided, "The Cornhuskers aren't playing Kansas anymore" in predicting a Florida blowout.

Well... a rematch with Kansas might have provided a more competitive match-up in Tempe. The Gators got destroyed.

Florida held a 10-6 lead at the end of the 1st quarter. The only time Nebraska trailed past the 1st quarter the entire season. But the party would not last as, moments into the second period, Lawrence Phillips smashed through a bevy of Gator defenders for a 42-yard touchdown run. It was the start of a 29-0 second quarter scoring explosion.

Nebraska ran all night to the tune of 524 yards (while holding Florida to -28 on the ground). Nebraska put another 105 yard through the air -- though, they probably didn't need them as the Florida thrashing would finally end with the Huskers up 62-18. A 93 yard kick-off return after Nebraska's final touchdown would give the Gators 24 points in all.

It was Nebraska's second consecutive National Title (having barely missed out on a three-peat with a shanked field goal in the 1994 Orange Bowl) and a fitting Swan Song for not only Tommy Frazier and a bevy of remarkable Nebraska seniors, but also for the Big 8 conference. The final year before morphing into the Big 12 produced arguably the best year ever in conference history. (1971 is another contender for that title.)

So how do the 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers rank among the best college football teams ever? I have a formula for answering that question.

How to calculate the greatest college football team ever.

There are four teams that consistently show up in the "best ever" debate. 1971 Nebraska, 1972 USC, 1995 Nebraska and 2001 Miami. There are plausible arguments for each of these great teams. But I happen to find 1995 Nebraska's case to be the most convincing.

No other National Champion can boast wins over 4 other AP Top 10 finishers. That in and of itself is impressive, but when you consider Nebraska beat those four teams by a combined score of 196-73, one wonders if such a feat can ever be matched. Minus the Nebraska defeats, those four teams had a combined record of 42-3. And the Big 8 schools administered those three losses to each other. Nebraska's opponents knocked off a bevy of marquis names including Arkansas, Oregon, Georgia, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, Boston College, Michigan, BYU, Tennessee, LSU, UCLA, Auburn and Florida State.

Indeed, Nebraska's 1995 schedule was ranked 24th toughest out of 113 Division I teams. To have a steamrolled its opponents the way it did, to have never been challenged beyond halftime by any team in its path, to destroy 4 Top 10 finishers and to humiliate an otherwise remarkable Florida team (much the same one that would win the National Title the following year) is to cast a shadow of greatness that no other team has ever quite stepped out of.

And I'm betting probably none ever will.