The 23 most perfect offenses in the history of college football

Saunders

Heisman Trophy Winner
Our college football memories are local and recent -- we remember our teams and our conferences, and we remember teams that played during our time. Where we went to school and when will directly impact who we think of as the greatest players, or teams, or coaches, or units.

This makes sense, of course. College football's history is immense, and you cannot know everything, so you dial down into what you can know. But here's where numbers can add layers and context to our memories. We can never compare teams from the 1900s or 1940s to the present day because of size and general improvements in athleticism, but we can compare them on the greatness scale. Greatness happens every year, but which eras or teams or offenses had the greatest greatness?

...

1995 Nebraska

Since the era of scholarship limitations kicked in, only two teams have produced perfect offenses. The 1995 Huskers were one, and it's almost boring to talk about them because we all acknowledge how unstoppable they were. They played a scheduled that featured seven teams that finished .500 or better and four that won at least 10 games. They averaged 53 points per game. They outscored Michigan State and Arizona State in September by a combined 127-38, and wrapped up a perfect regular season with a 37-0 win over Oklahoma that could have been much worse.

Average score against those four 10-win teams: NU 49, Haplessly Overmatched Foe 18.

This team was just ... actually ... I don't need any more words. I only need this (and you knew what it was before you even saw there was a video embedded here):


 
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My favorite anecdote from 1995 is how the O Linemen used to tell some of their opponents what plays they were going to run later in games. They'd get to the line of scrimmage, line up, and tell the D Line, "We're running a trap off left tackle," or "This is going to be an Option to the short side." Then they'd run the play, steamroll the opponent, get a first down, and laugh at them as they went back to the huddle.

 
My favorite anecdote from 1995 is how the O Linemen used to tell some of their opponents what plays they were going to run later in games. They'd get to the line of scrimmage, line up, and tell the D Line, "We're running a trap off left tackle," or "This is going to be an Option to the short side." Then they'd run the play, steamroll the opponent, get a first down, and laugh at them as they went back to the huddle.
I've heard Brendan Stai mention that more than once. Good stuff.

 
Well they might have told them the play but if you are on defense what are you supposed to do? Trust the guy on offense?

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMJ8qh95BBU

They barely mentioned the '83 Husker offense. If you look at its stats, it was probably better than the '95 offense.
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Well the '83 scoring explosion and the '95 and '97 offenses should be included in the top 23 in my view. I would actually say the '83 team might have been better in some ways. But none of them would be stopped by any of the championship teams since. Now, the '83 defense was very average by comparison and struggled. Had we fielded a strong defense, '83 would have been comparable to '95. Gill, Rozier, Fryar, Schellen, etc. were very tough. As a group, they certainly compare with Frazier and company. The O line did as well. Our passing game was better in '83 and not sure any starting I back averaged over 8 yards per carry for 2000 yards like Rozier. Teams knew what we were going to do in '83 as well but could not stop it.

 
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