I was going to say the 2005 Trojans, as the best team in history, were obviously number 0 on the list. Its just a shame theres no way that you could directly compare the best team in college football history (2 heisman trophy winners on the same field, are you kidding me) to any of those listed above.

Schlabach went to UGA and used to write for the AJC. I doubt he has some sort of bias against Texas in favor of Miami, USC, or FSU based on that.

I do agree that ‘05 Texas should be no lower than #2, and I could be convinced of #1 based on the “Who stops Vince Young?” argument that Peter made. The best team of my lifetime (since ‘85) though is definitely ‘95 Nebraska. I think Tommie Frazier just scored again…

half of their defense got hurt in 2005. offense was a little better, but the defense was quite a bit worse.

if these three played each other texas or usc would probably win and the only reason i would say texas might win is vy. usc just had too many big game breakers to ignore.

is “which team was the most dominant and "good" within their respective year/era,” then it would be hard to not put 01 Miami 1st (although an argument could still be made for Texas), but Texas was definitely more “dominating” and “good” than 2004 USC

You focus mainly on the defense. One could argue that the 2005 USC team had the highest scoring offense in NCAA history and THAT alone makes them superior. The 2005 team actually had more All-Americans, (two at RB) and an additional Heisman winner. They struggled to hold teams during the regular season, because of injuries, not because of talent.

Talent wise the 2004 and 2005 USC teams are a wash on defense. But the 2004 USC was just a more complete "team".

there was a thought there, but I decided Johnnie Cochran did a better job explaining it, and didn’t manage to delete it before hitting post.

More may have been written about Chris Weinke, Peter Warrick, Dan Kendra, Travis Minor and Sebastian Janikowski than any other group of players in history. Their ranking on his list in pretty comic since they’re the inverse of Miami, the only serious NFL talent starting for that team was Corey Simon and maybe Janikowsi, who was a drunk kicker before it was cool to be so.

As you say, they weren’t as impressive as others ranked below them, but I figure the level of overexposure skewed his list, which seems to be based on no set criteria in the first place.

We are not forgetting. We are outscoring. With Vince Young. Who proved unstoppable.

No way to know for sure, but it’s far from unreasonable to believe he’d beat any team, anywhere.

Far be it for me to put facts out on the table, but in 2005:

Texas had the 10th ranked overall defense in the nation. Including 4th nationally against the pass, and 8th in scoring defense, despite the fact that we had several blowouts, and didn’t have our starters out for entire games.

3 games that year teams didn’t score more than a field goal against Texas. Those teams combined record: 18-17
The top rated D in 2005 (VaTech) did the same to three teams. Those teams combined record: 10-23

Besides the title game, only 4 teams scored more than 20 points against our D, all were away games for Texas; none scored over 30.

If thats pedestrian, Ill take it just about any year. Last years defense was pedestrian, 2005 was at the very least, a good defense.

Yes USC put up 38 points on us, yet they averaged 50 points a game going into the game, and 55.7 points per game at home.

they only give points for rushing in Fantasy Football.

The 2005 defense was good enough to ensure an average of a 33.8 point margin of victory. To put that in perspective, UT’s 2005 average margin of victory was higher than the average number of points the 2005 A&M team scored per game.

That they allowed so few close games is a much better indicator of defensive ability than simple rushing statistics.

your my hero

drawn from a game against a Jim Tressel led offense? Jim Tressel, the guy who makes RC Slocum look like Mike Leach with his conservative nature on offense? Really?

IIRC, that Ohio State team was still rotating starting QBs; Tressel had yet to figure out that Troy Smith was the future of his offense, mainly b/c Smith had yet to play in a game that season, sitting out a suspension for taking money from a booster.

And your other evidence is a Buffalo team that sucked?

That’s the best you can do?

Hell, while we’re at it, why not throw in a sorry Baylor team? You shut them out, remember?

You can’t give up 700+ yds rushing in 3 games and claim to be a good defense. End of story.

Is where some folks disagree. That ‘04 Trojan defense was superior, and the offense far from shabby.

Nothing wrong with your argument, either, but it’s not unreasonable to take the ‘04 Trojans as the better of the two.