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Topic: All time Goofy Season, 1984
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betarhoalphadelta · « **Reply #14 on:** April 16, 2025, 01:21:52 AM »

I don't remember. I was 6 years old

Cincydawg · « **Reply #15 on:** April 16, 2025, 06:40:12 AM »

I recall after the Dawgs' run 1980-1983, I had the notion they had "arrived" and would remain significant as a power in CFB from that point. It was not to be the case of course. They started the season unranked (actually at 21 technically), just ahead of BYU. Auburn started at the top. UGA made it as high as 8th at 7-1 before losing to UF, Auburn, and GT, and then tying FSU in a bowl game.

FearlessF · « **Reply #16 on:** April 16, 2025, 08:34:22 AM »

friggin Sooner Magic

medinabuckeye1 · « **Reply #17 on:** April 16, 2025, 10:58:01 AM »

Moving on to the ACC, final standings with AP ranking where applicable:

6-0/9-3 Maryland, #12
5-2/7-4 Clemson* *This was vacated based on NCAA violations
3-2-1/6-4-1 GaTech
3-2-2/8-2-2 Virginia, #20
3-3-1/5-5-1 North Carolina
3-4/6-5 Wake
1-6/2-9 Dook
1-6/3-8 NCST

The no great teams theme continues. Maryland did go undefeated IN the league but they lost three OOC games. They lost at home to a mediocre Syracuse team and a bad Vanderbilt. They also lost on the road to a mediocre Penn State team. In the SunBowl they narrowly beat Tennessee. Also note that UMD and GaTech were the only two ACC teams not to play a full round-robin. Thus, UMD missed one of the better teams in the ACC.

Clemson looked great early with a win over a 1aa ApSt and a 55-0 thrashing of a Virginia team that ended up ranked but then they lost two straight (GA, GaTech). They then won five straight before losing their last two (UMD, USCe).

medinabuckeye1 · « **Reply #18 on:** April 16, 2025, 11:20:33 AM »

Out on the West Coast, the Pac10:

7-1/9-3 USC, #10 got as high as #7
6-1/11-1 Washington, #2 got as high as #1
5-2/9-3 UCLA, #9 got as high as #4
5-2/7-4 Arizona not ranked during 1984
4-3/6-5 Washington State, not ranked during 1984
3-4/5-6 Arizona State, NR but started #13 and got as high as #12
3-5/6-5 Oregon not ranked during 1984 (same for the rest)
3-5/5-6 Stanford
1-7/2-9 Oregon State
1-8/2-9 California

One thing that stands out right away that we are NOT accustomed to in the modern era is the varying number of league games:

9 games, played every Pac10 team: California
8 league games, missed one: USC (OrSU), Oregon (Stan), Stanford (Ore), Oregon State (USC)
7 league games, missed two: Washington (UCLA, ASU), UCLA (Udub, Zona), Zona (UCLA, WSU), WSU (Zona, ASU), ASU (Udub, WSU)

The Pac did very well in the bowls with:

#4 Washington beat #2 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl 28-17
#14 UCLA beat #13 Miami in the Fiesta Bowl 39-37
#18 USC beat #6 Ohio State in the Rose Bowl 20-17

The flip side is that two of those were one-score wins so we might not want to read too much into those results.

Washington is hard to evaluate. The win over Oklahoma (Orange Bowl) is great as is the 11-1 final record but they lost to USC, missed UCLA, and played a crap OOC so they finished the year with only one win over a ranked (final) team, the Orange Bowl win. They scheduled Michigan and beat them in Ann Arbor but that sounds more impressive than it actually was considering that Michigan finished the year 6-6. OTOH, their nine point win in Ann Arbor is obviously more impressive than BYU's 7 point win in San Diego.

USC (LSU and Notre Dame) and UCLA (Nebraska) played good opponents OOC but they lost to them so that doesn't help. They each finished 9-3 with good moments and bad. More of the no great teams theme.

medinabuckeye1 · « **Reply #19 on:** April 16, 2025, 11:32:42 AM »

Now for the league that @utee94 's team played in back then, the SWC:

6-2/10-2 Southern Methodist, #8
6-2/-5 Houston
5-3/8-4 Texas Christian
5-3/7-4-1 Texas
5-3/7-4-1 Arkansas
4-4/5-6 Baylor
3-5/6-5 aTm
2-6/4-7 TxTech
0-8/1-10 Rice

Just like the rest of the leagues, the SWC had a bunch of pretty good teams and no great ones. SMU lost to Houston and Texas, played a crap OOC, and beat a mediocre Notre Dame in the Aloha Bowl.

Houston was the league Champion due to the H2H over SMU but they lost OOC to Washington (badly)and to a horrible Louisville team then lost the Cotton Bowl to BC (badly).

Texas is notable because they impacted the overall race with a win over Auburn and their tie with Oklahoma but they lost in the league to Houston, Baylor, and aTm and got drilled in the Freedom Bowl by Iowa.

utee94 · « **Reply #20 on:** April 16, 2025, 11:35:55 AM »

Quote from: medinabuckeye1 on April 16, 2025, 11:32:42 AM

Now for the league that @utee94 's team played in back then, the SWC:

6-2/10-2 Southern Methodist, #8
6-2/-5 Houston
5-3/8-4 Texas Christian
5-3/7-4-1 Texas
5-3/7-4-1 Arkansas
4-4/5-6 Baylor
3-5/6-5 aTm
2-6/4-7 TxTech
0-8/1-10 Rice

Just like the rest of the leagues, the SWC had a bunch of pretty good teams and no great ones. SMU lost to Houston and Texas, played a crap OOC, and beat a mediocre Notre Dame in the Aloha Bowl.

Houston was the league Champion due to the H2H over SMU but they lost OOC to Washington (badly)and to a horrible Louisville team then lost the Cotton Bowl to BC (badly).

Texas is notable because they impacted the overall race with a win over Auburn and their tie with Oklahoma but they lost in the league to Houston, Baylor, and aTm and got drilled in the Freedom Bowl by Iowa.

That was a really awful Texas team with some pretty good individual talent. That season was really the end for Fred Akers, it just took a couple more years to get the ball rolling. It was also the beginning of a decade+ downturn for the program. Dark times indeed.

medinabuckeye1 · « **Reply #21 on:** April 16, 2025, 11:50:13 AM »

Here are the Independents that finished ranked and a couple others that had notable wins:

10-2 Boston College, #5
10-2 South Carolina, #11
7-3-2 Florida State, #17
8-5 Miami, FL, #18
7-5 Notre Dame
6-5 Syracuse

More good but not great.

Boston College's record is gaudy but they lost to WVU and Penn State both of whom finished unranked and their only win over a team that did finish ranked was a squeaker over #18 Miami.

South Carolina's only win over a team that finished ranked was a 12 point home win over #17 FSU and, as mentioned upthread I think by @OrangeAfroMan  they got drilled by a sub.500 Navy team and lost their bowl to OkSU.

Florida State played a schedule that nobody could complain about but they lost to most of the good teams on it. They did have a 35 point win over Miami in the Orange Bowl (stadium not game) but they tied Memphis?, tied UGA in the Citrus Bowl, and lost to Auburn (by 1 at home), USCe (by 12 on the road) and Florida (by 10 at home).

Miami started off great with an upset of preseason #1 Auburn in the Kick-off Classic and giving Florida what would be their only loss (by 12 in Tampa) but then in their next three games they lost by 8 in Ann Arbor, won by 11 in West Lafayette, and got obliterated at home by FSU. After that they won five straight but the only decent team in that stretch was Notre Dame and when they started playing better teams again they lost their last three to UMD (at home by 2), BC (at home by 2), and UCLA (Fiesta Bowl by 2).

Notre Dame had notable wins over SEC quasi-Champion LSU and PAC Champion USC but they also lost to Purdue, lost badly to Miami, lost by two scores to Air Force, and lost the Aloha Bowl to SMU.

Syracuse had HUGE wins and BAD losses. They beat ACC Champ Maryland and Big8 co-Champ Nebraska but they got shutout at home by Rutgers, got shutout in the Swamp, lost to WVU, lost to PSU, and lost to BC.

Cincydawg · « **Reply #22 on:** April 16, 2025, 11:56:05 AM »

So, it seems the better teams had both good wins and surprising losses, more than is typical.

medinabuckeye1 · « **Reply #23 on:** April 16, 2025, 01:54:58 PM »

Quote from: Cincydawg on April 16, 2025, 11:56:05 AM

So, it seems the better teams had both good wins and surprising losses, more than is typical.

What I think makes 1984 weird is two things:

First there simply weren't any really great teams. You can make arguments for some but there are valid counterarguments for all of them:

Washington: Gaudy 11-1 record, solid win over OU in the Orange Bowl. Ok, but ONE win over a team that finished ranked.
Florida: Three wins over final ranked teams and shutout the Syracuse team that beat Nebraska and Maryland. Ok, but they lost to a Miami team that finished 8-5 and tied a mediocre LSU and their three wins over ranked teams were over teams ranked in the teens not actual contenders.
Nebraska: Obliterated UCLA, solid win over SEC Quasi-Champ LSU, loss to good OU team is understandable. Ok, but they lost badly to Syracuse and finished with two losses.
Boston College: 10-2 record. Ok, but only win over a ranked team was close over #18.
etc etc
Ohio State: Three plays from .500 and a blowout win over Iowa. Ok, but finished with 3 losses and only one win over a ranked team (#16 Iowa).

Second, none of the large collection of good but not great teams was lucky enough to win all the close ones. On an individual basis it is REALLY unlikely that any given team will but in a large group it is very likely that some team will. BYU obviously doesn't win the title if Washington wins at USC or if Florida beats Miami and LSU or if Nebraska beats Syracuse and doesn't get dropped by the Sooners or if Ohio State makes one more play each against Purdue, Wisconsin and USC.

It is just REALLY unusual to have both no dominant teams AND no lucky teams among the better teams in the sport and that opened the door enough for BYU to sneak through.

Gigem · « **Reply #24 on:** April 16, 2025, 02:15:19 PM »

One thing you all are leaving out about the BYU team is that they were on a multi-year roll at that point.

Starting in 1979 they won 11 games, and three years before that they won 9 games every year. So they won 9,,9,9,11,12,11,8*,11,13,11. The 8-win season was the only won of those years where they won less than 9 games out of that period. So just like everything else in CFB, what happened last year and the immediate time before that affects everything.

They were the TCU of their day.

847badgerfan · « **Reply #25 on:** April 16, 2025, 02:29:10 PM »

I'm still pissed at Michigan for letting them win.

Brutus Buckeye · « **Reply #26 on:** April 16, 2025, 02:31:01 PM »

Quote from: Gigem on April 16, 2025, 02:15:19 PM

One thing you all are leaving out about the BYU team is that they were on a multi-year roll at that point.

Starting in 1979 they won 11 games, and three years before that they won 9 games every year. So they won 9,,9,9,11,12,11,8*,11,13,11. The 8-win season was the only won of those years where they won less than 9 games out of that period. So just like everything else in CFB, what happened last year and the immediate time before that affects everything.

They were the TCU of their day.

Think of the QBs that they had over that time period.

847badgerfan · « **Reply #27 on:** April 16, 2025, 02:35:35 PM »

Quote from: Brutus Buckeye on April 16, 2025, 02:31:01 PM

Think of the QBs that they had over that time period.

Marc Wilson
Jim McMahon
Steve Young
Robby Boscoe

Pretty great run there.

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Topic: All time Goofy Season, 1984

betarhoalphadelta

Re: All time Goofy Season, 1984

Cincydawg

Re: All time Goofy Season, 1984

FearlessF

Re: All time Goofy Season, 1984

medinabuckeye1

Re: All time Goofy Season, 1984

medinabuckeye1

Re: All time Goofy Season, 1984

medinabuckeye1

Re: All time Goofy Season, 1984

utee94

Re: All time Goofy Season, 1984

medinabuckeye1

Re: All time Goofy Season, 1984

Cincydawg

Re: All time Goofy Season, 1984

medinabuckeye1

Re: All time Goofy Season, 1984

Gigem

Re: All time Goofy Season, 1984

847badgerfan

Re: All time Goofy Season, 1984

Brutus Buckeye

Re: All time Goofy Season, 1984

847badgerfan

Re: All time Goofy Season, 1984