Moving the Chains: Best.  Team.  Ever.

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Now that the 157^th National Champion in college football has been crowned, now is a good time  to select:  the Best.  Team.  Ever.  (BTE)  

*A champion was not selected in 1871.  Don’t ask me why; I wasn’t there.

You might want to check with Paul Finebaum.

I only had two criteria for making my selection: (1) it had to be a team from **1970 or later, the year I started watching college football, and (2) I had to see the team play at least once.

**The first game I ever saw was also the greatest game I ever saw: December 6, 1969,

 at Razorback Stadium.  Texas – 15, Arkansas – 14.  In the 100^th year of college football, 

it was hyped as the Game of the Century.’  More than half a century later, it still is.

You may be surprised that going undefeated is not one of my criteria.  When we get to my selection, I’ll tell you why.

First I’ll begin with the teams that I took into consideration (I’ll limit it to my ‘final five’).  Here they are in chronological order:

1971 Nebraska Cornhuskers.  13 – 0 record.  Outscored opposition by 403 points (scored 507, allowed 104).  Defense held opponents to single-digits in 10 games (three were shutouts).  Beat #2 Oklahoma in another ‘Game of the Century’ on Thanksgiving Day, 35 – 31.  Beat #2 Alabama 38 – 6 in the Orange Bowl to claim the National Championship.  Bob Devaney was the head coach, and Tom Osborne was the offensive coordinator (remember the name).  

1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers.  12 – 0 record.  Tom Osborne was the head coach.  Outscored opposition by 464 points (scored 638, allowed 174)  for a 38.7 point average margin of victory.  Beat Steve Spurrier’s #2 Florida gators 62 – 24 in the Fiesta Bowl to win the National Championship.  Quarterback Tommie Frazier won every award in the country with the exception of the Heisman (Eddie George of Ohio State won, Frazier was 2^nd, and Florida’s Danny Wuerffel was 3^rd (remember the name).  

1996 Florida Gators.  12 – 1 record.  And yes, this is basically the same team that was blown out by the Cornhuskers in last year’s Fiesta Bowl.  Led by Heisman-winning quarterback Danny Wuerffel, the Gators, SEC champions for the 4^th straight time, entered their regular season finale against Florida State as the #1 team in the country.  For the first time in their rivalry, both teams came into the game with perfect 10 – 0 records.  FSU won the game 24 – 21, so the Gators’  chance for a National Championship looked slim.  Then the Gators beat Alabama 45 – 30 in the SEC championship game  (Wuerffel threw for 6 touchdowns) and earned a rematch against FSU in the Sugar Bowl.  The Gators won easily, 52 – 20, and with the victory came their first national title.  For the season, the Gators outscored their opponents by 391 points (scored 612, allowed 221).           

2001 Miami Hurricanes.  12 – 0 record.  First-year head coach Larry Coker’s team won the Big East Conference title.  Beat #4 Nebraska 37 – 14 for the National Championship.  Outscored their opposition by 395 points (scored 512. allowed 117).  Thirty-eight players on the team were eventually drafted by the NFL; 17 of them in the first round.    

2019 Louisiana State Tigers.  15 – 0 record.  Coach Ed Orgeron was in his 3^rd season in Baton Rouge.  Beat #2 Georgia 37 – 10 for the SEC championship, then beat a pair of #1 seeds in the playoffs to win the National Championship: 63 – 28 over Oklahoma, and 42 – 25 over Clemson.  Outscored opposition by 398 points (scored 726, allowed 328).  Quarterback Joe Burrow won the Heisman and every other major award in the country while setting a record for most TD passes in a season (60) and highest QB rating ever (202.0).     

Let’s see we are at this point.  Five teams with a composite record of 64 – 1, 5 National Championships, and 2,051 more points scored than their opponents.  

Not bad, but not the BTE.  That would be the:

2008 Florida Gators.  13 – 1 record.  Led by defending Heisman-winning QB Tim Tebow and 4th-year head coach Urban Meyer, the Gators beat #1 Alabama 31 – 20 for the SEC championship, and then beat #2 Oklahoma 24 – 14 for the National Championship.  Outscored opposition by 430 points (scored 611, allowed 181).  Percy Harvin was untouchable on offense, Brandon Spikes was unstoppable on defense, and Aaron Hernandez (yes, that Aaron Hernandez) was the best tight end I’ve ever seen at the collegiate level.  

But these are not the only reasons I put the 2008 Gators at the top of my list.  There’s more.

During the regular season, the Gators beat four SEC teams that were coached by men with National Championships on their respective resumes: Tennessee’s Phil Fulmer, LSU’s Les Miles, South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier, and Alabama’s Nick Saban.

But that’s not all.  The Florida State team they beat in their regular season finale was coached by Bobby Bowden, and the Sooner team they beat for the title was coached by Bob Stoops.  

Now, about that one loss.  It was a heartbreaking one-point loss at home to Ole Miss, 31 – 30.  Florida had more first downs (24 to 10) and yardage (443 to 325) and committed one turnover to three by Ole Miss.  Tebow overthrew wide-open receivers twice late in the game that would have been certain touchdowns.  So the Gators definitely had their chances, but on this day they fell one point short.  

You probably remember what happened after the loss to Ole Miss.  Tim Tebow made his promise.  Look it up if you don’t know what I’m referring to.

And Tebow stuck to his word.  The Gators won their next 10 games by an average score of 47 – 13.  They beat Arkansas by 31, #3 LSU by 30, Kentucky by 58, and #8 Georgia by 39 (next day’s headline: Dogs Pounded 49 – 10).  They won the SEC.  They won the National Championship. 

They earned the title of the …

Best.  Team.  Ever.