CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Five => Big Ten => Topic started by: OrangeAfroMan on July 20, 2018, 04:14:42 PM
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Edited and fixed - removed a guy who never made All-American and replaced him with a guy who won 2 of everything.
Re-vote!
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Just because "college only" my be hard, c'mon guys. We can do it.
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I went with Hardy... and created a 3 way tie.
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Boomer Sooner
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Boomer Sooner
Yeah.
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I thought Fitzgerald would run away with this.
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well, the 2 Big Ten guys split 8 votes
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For a kid in Florida, Illinois had 3 great LBs in that era. Rice was the pass-rusher expert. Howard was the heaps and heaps of tackles guy. Didn't really have Hardy pegged. Yet he was the #2 draft pick one year.
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For a kid in Florida, Illinois had 3 great LBs in that era. Rice was the pass-rusher expert. Howard was the heaps and heaps of tackles guy. Didn't really have Hardy pegged. Yet he was the #2 draft pick one year.
4. They had John Holecek too.
That group was absolutely unreal. They made Illinois football sort of ok in the the mid-90s, just by being that good at one unit...on defense.
In 1994 I believe they had the #1 defense in the nation, and still only went 7-5 because of just how awful their offense was. They held 7 of 12 opponents to 10 points or less (and actually lost one of those games 10-9). They also lost 22-16 to Purdue, 19-13 to 3rd place Wisconsin and 19-14 to 4th place Michigan. They beat 2nd place Ohio State 24-10.
Of course the one game their defense let them down is what that team will be remembered for, and led to a 25 year "who was the national champ" debate by taking a 21-0 lead on Penn State like 5 minutes into the game, but ultimately losing 35-31.
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Oh, yeah, I forgot about him.
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In 1994 I believe they had the #1 defense in the nation, and still only went 7-5 because of just how awful their offense was. They held 7 of 12 opponents to 10 points or less (and actually lost one of those games 10-9). They also lost 22-16 to Purdue, 19-13 to 3rd place Wisconsin and 19-14 to 4th place Michigan. They beat 2nd place Ohio State 24-10.
not many would remember Washington state's defense that season
Opponent's points per game top 5
1 Washington State Pac-10 6.19
2 Illinois Big Ten 7.45
3 Miami (FL) Big East 8.58
4 Ohio State Big Ten 10.26
5 Alabama SEC (West) 10.30
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They didn't give up only 6.2 points per game, but they were good. I have no clue where you got that number from.
They went 8-4, and in the losses, their offense never scored more than 10 points while the D never surrendered over 23.
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My favorite 'where did that come from' defense was Arizona's Desert Swarm in 92-93.
Usually, the best run defense in the country gives up just under 100 yds per game, maybe as low as 90 or 80 - all-timers a little less.
In 1992, Arizona allowed 65.1 yards rushing per game @ 1.9 per carry. That's nuts, off-the-radar, crazy good. And the team went 6-5-1. That's awful, considering.
So we go to 1993, see if they can maintain that level of defensive dominance. No, but they improved on it! 30.1 rushing yards per game allowed!!! It's impossible! And at 0.9 per carry, they allowed fewer rushing yards than opponents had carries!!! It breaks my brain.
That squad went 10-2 (how did they lose 2???) and shut out Miami in the Fiesta Bowl.
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well, obviously playing run defense in the PAC is different than playing run defense in the Big Ten or SEC
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They didn't give up only 6.2 points per game, but they were good. I have no clue where you got that number from.
They went 8-4, and in the losses, their offense never scored more than 10 points while the D never surrendered over 23.
https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/years/1994-ratings.html (https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/years/1994-ratings.html)
sorry, didn't check the source
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Whoa, adjusted for SOS. Cool.