WHAT IF?? Alternative Husker History

[runningblind]

16 minutes ago, TGHusker said:

I want to address this one.  In various GOAT surveys, Tom has been rated in the top 3-5 .  Saban, Bear Bryan being consensus 1 & 2. 

If his 93 team had won the NC game vs FSU he would have played in 4 NC and won 4 NC within 5 years.  Would that have been enough to move him up to # 1 or # 2 on the GOAT list?

 

There is no shame for Husker fans to have Tom ranked anywhere in the top 5.  We can be proud as fans of his standing.  With that said, I think he would move to # 2 if he had won 1 more NC.  If we combined that with 82 & 83 - He'd be a clear # 1 IMHO.  Alternatively, he may not have stayed until 1997 if he had won the NCs in the 1980s.  

I argue this every time, but you can't just jump from made FG in 93 to 4 titles in 5 years.  That changes a lot, including motivation levels going into 94/95.  Maybe they remain that high and they do win 2 or 3 in a row, but TO probably retired in 95 then and that removes 97.  I think changing one year from a crushing loss to a W changes a LOT of things moving forward and it is highly unlikely it would have turned out with 4 out of 5. 

 

IF 4 out of 5 happened, I think he is in the conversation for #2, but still not #1 with being 2/3 titles less overall. 

[Guy Chamberlin]

I always thought that if the 2018 Opener against Akron had not been canceled, we get the win and get the jitters out, allowing us to beat Colorado and Troy on the way to a 6 win bowl season in Frost's first year, changing the whole narrative moving forward.

 

Now I'm thinking Frost gets fired in the middle of his fifth season regardless. 

 

Sometimes I wonder about the two plays in the 2009 Virginia Tech and Texas games that could have had Nebraska 11-2, with one of the worst offenses in recent history.

 

Which makes me wonder what that 2009 team would have done if they's saved a season of eligibility for Joe Ganz. 

[runningblind]

47 minutes ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

I always thought that if the 2018 Opener against Akron had not been canceled, we get the win and get the jitters out, allowing us to beat Colorado and Troy on the way to a 6 win bowl season in Frost's first year, changing the whole narrative moving forward.

 

Now I'm thinking Frost gets fired in the middle of his fifth season regardless. 

 

Sometimes I wonder about the two plays in the 2009 Virginia Tech and Texas games that could have had Nebraska 11-2, with one of the worst offenses in recent history.

 

Which makes me wonder what that 2009 team would have done if they's saved a season of eligibility for Joe Ganz. 

Frost had no $%&%$!# clue what he was doing.  He was going to be fired regardless. The only what if I wonder about is if he'd have turned us down, and if we'd actually be in a better spot because we had to hire literally anyone else.

[Guy Chamberlin]

46 minutes ago, runningblind said:

Frost had no $%&%$!# clue what he was doing.  He was going to be fired regardless. The only what if I wonder about is if he'd have turned us down, and if we'd actually be in a better spot because we had to hire literally anyone else.

 

Of this I am 100% sure: if Nebraska had hired anyone other than Scott Frost in 2017, we would have spent every season believing Scott Frost would have done better. 

[runningblind]

16 minutes ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

 

Of this I am 100% sure: if Nebraska had hired anyone other than Scott Frost in 2017, we would have spent every season believing Scott Frost would have done better. 

Of course, but we would have been dead wrong.  In my scenario note that I said he turned us down, instead of we hired someone instead of him. I was among those wanting to hire him, not trying to say I wasn't after the fact.

[TGHusker]

23 hours ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

Which makes me wonder what that 2009 team would have done if they's saved a season of eligibility for Joe Ganz.

I suspect we would have been playing for a NC - that D with Ganz's leadership on O.    Was T-Mart a true freshman that year?- if so, instead of redshirting him - play him wt the 2009 D.  Either way we missed a great opportunity to match good QBs wt that D. 

[HuskersNC949597]

20 hours ago, TGHusker said:

I suspect we would have been playing for a NC - that D with Ganz's leadership on O.    Was T-Mart a true freshman that year?- if so, instead of redshirting him - play him wt the 2009 D.  Either way we missed a great opportunity to match good QBs wt that D. 

Yeah Martinez was apparently tearing up the scout team in '09.

[RedDenver]

21 hours ago, TGHusker said:

I suspect we would have been playing for a NC - that D with Ganz's leadership on O.    Was T-Mart a true freshman that year?- if so, instead of redshirting him - play him wt the 2009 D.  Either way we missed a great opportunity to match good QBs wt that D. 

We lost 4 games that year. The ISU one was particularly embarrassing. I doubt Ganz alone could have made up for that.

[Mavric]

4 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

We lost 4 games that year. The ISU one was particularly embarrassing. I doubt Ganz alone could have made up for that.

 

We lost three of those games - including Iowa State - by a combined four points, not scoring more than 15 in any one of them.  It's hardly a stretch to think that any semblance of QB could have won us those three games.

 

Really the only question would have been Texas Tech, which we lost 31-10.  It's tough to say one player would have made a 21 point difference but we were favored and had more total offense yards, just couldn't score.  So I don't think it's out of the question.

[RedDenver]

3 hours ago, Mavric said:

 

We lost three of those games - including Iowa State - by a combined four points, not scoring more than 15 in any one of them.  It's hardly a stretch to think that any semblance of QB could have won us those three games.

 

Really the only question would have been Texas Tech, which we lost 31-10.  It's tough to say one player would have made a 21 point difference but we were favored and had more total offense yards, just couldn't score.  So I don't think it's out of the question.

I don't think it's out of the question we win a few more games, but I doubt we win them all, which we would have had to do to play for the NC.

[Mavric]

21 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

I don't think it's out of the question we win a few more games, but I doubt we win them all, which we would have had to do to play for the NC.

 

And yet the only one you talked about to make your point was the Iowa State game which was the most winnable.

[RedDenver]

17 hours ago, Mavric said:

 

And yet the only one you talked about to make your point was the Iowa State game which was the most winnable.

Ok. It's a subjective opinion. You're welcome to think we play for the NC just from putting Ganz on that team. I doubt we do.

[Lorewarn]

40 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

Ok. It's a subjective opinion. You're welcome to think we play for the NC just from putting Ganz on that team. I doubt we do.

 

 

I'm also highly skeptical. Ganz alone wouldn't have solved how flat and uninspired we came out against Texas Tech, and even if he was, some other butterfly effect somewhere down the way in relation to Bo's inexperience and emotion and the team still not being used to winning would have resulted in at least one slip up at minimum imo.

[knapplc]

23 hours ago, Mavric said:

Really the only question would have been Texas Tech, which we lost 31-10.  It's tough to say one player would have made a 21 point difference but we were favored and had more total offense yards, just couldn't score.  So I don't think it's out of the question.

 

Two things I remember about that game (which have nothing to do with this conversation) are the circus catches the TT receivers made over and over. Fingertips on the ball? Catch. Blanket coverage? Catch. One of the only times that happened to that defense.

 

The other thing I remember was the TT Guard (whose name I forget) who really slowed Suh down. One of the very few players to single-handedly have such a huge effect on Suh. Kept their QB comfortable in the pocket most of the game.

[TGHusker]

On 2/8/2024 at 4:45 PM, runningblind said:

Frost had no $%&%$!# clue what he was doing.  He was going to be fired regardless. The only what if I wonder about is if he'd have turned us down, and if we'd actually be in a better spot because we had to hire literally anyone else.

But would we?  If Frost had gone 7-6 or even 8-5 and we went with another coach, I think eventually the Frost traits that we saw at Nebraska would have eventually shown through.   Perhaps we give Frost too much credit for his 13-0 team.  He did it primarily with the previous coach's players.  In saying that I don't want to distract from what he accomplished, and I was on the bandwagon to get him here because of the season 2  results at UCF.  But the proof would later be seen in the pudding - he had 6 losing seasons out of 7 years as a HC. He wasn't ready for prime time.