Seasons that didn't live up to expectations.

[druski_2k5]

Questions #1 and #3 are different. We are talking about what year hurt the most that we didn't win, and what year where we had the talent to win, but we just didn't.

 

Some years we were headed in the right direction and are probably a success: 1983, 1993, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010. However, that is not what I am asking.

 

A trip down memory lane poll.

 

Read the polls, pick an answer.

 

Every time I see the North End-zone, I always think to myself, what could have been?

 

Some might be run-away favorites for the National Championship seasons, but I'm interested to see how the rest of it pans out. Those years hurt for many different reasons.

 

So many asterisks, so many expectations and chances to succeed.

 

***Which year HURT the most we SHOULD HAVE won the National Championship?

 

***What year was the most DISAPPOINTING ending with the expectations that are at Nebraska?

 

***What year did we had the MOST TALENT but FAILED to win a National Championship, due to different reasons?

[NUance]

'93 hurt the most. Basically, we got screwed by a couple of bad calls. Then missed a very makable field goal to hand the game away.

 

 

'83 hurt too. Have you ever seen a replay of that game? It was played on Miami’s home field and they watered the hell out of it to slow our offense down. They watered it even though it rained during the days leading up to the game. What a bunch of cheaters. It’s not surprising that so many Hurricanes went on to become convicted felons.

[74Hunter]

You forgot the 82 team, and the way it was cheated at PSU. Same offense as 83, except that we had Remington at C, and a much, much better defense.

 

The 81 team had the chance to win the NC if we would have beat Clemson.

 

It was kind of a tossup for me, 82, 83, 93, and 96 were are all painful losses.

 

As to underacheiving, losing the NC game or the bowl game pales in comparison to losing the 4 games we did this year in the fashion we did. While not as talented as the NC teams, this team shouldn't have lost 4 games. Epic underacheivement.

[ESPY]

This poll is just full of warm fuzzies, isn't it?

[WYHusk]

'93 was the absolute freakin' worse. We were supposed to get run over, and we hung right in there, and then got ripped off on a couple calls, and then the shanked FG after Tommie Frazier's last-second heroics ... I'll never forget getting that SI in the mail, and there our defeat was all over again.

 

Kinda puts this years dumbassery in perspective.

 

'83 was without question the most talented team never to win it all. If they had won, they'd be in contention for greatest team ever ... competing with the '95 Husks.

 

As for underachieving, maybe it's just because it's still raw, but this year was it for me. We had a clear path to the NCG. We just flubbed it up in unbelievable fashion. Again.

[druski_2k5]

'93 hurt the most. Basically, we got screwed by a couple of bad calls. Then missed a very makable field goal to hand the game away.

 

 

'83 hurt too. Have you ever seen a replay of that game? It was played on Miami’s home field and they watered the hell out of it to slow our offense down. They watered it even though it rained during the days leading up to the game. What a bunch of cheaters. It’s not surprising that so many Hurricanes went on to become convicted felons.

 

I've seen clips of the game, I need to watch the whole thing unfold though. I knew it was in Miami, on their home field, just like the rest of the time we played the Orange Bowl, but I did NOT know that they watered it down to attempt to slow down our offense?

 

That's amazing. Amazingly bad. I did not know that, is there anywhere you have more information about that and I wonder how badly it could have or how much it did slow down our offense?

 

I know after the game players had a lot of stains on them, being a grass field and all, but it looked like it was kind of wet or muddy as well. Perhaps that's the case.

 

I remember hearing a while back at Notre Dame, they keep the grass a "little longer" than most natural surfaces to slow down opposing offenses.

 

Let's not start comparing field turf though, as I remember seeing videos of the "Nebraska won't win because they are playing Florida on a natural surface" in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl. I think since that game, surface has never mattered.

 

But the Orange Bowl being watered down sure does interest me now.

 

 

You forgot the 82 team, and the way it was cheated at PSU. Same offense as 83, except that we had Remington at C, and a much, much better defense. The 81 team had the chance to win the NC if we would have beat Clemson.It was kind of a tossup for me, 82, 83, 93, and 96 were are all painful losses. As to underacheiving, losing the NC game or the bowl game pales in comparison to losing the 4 games we did this year in the fashion we did. While not as talented as the NC teams, this team shouldn't have lost 4 games. Epic underacheivement.

 

Good call on the 1982 Penn State game. That was probably one of the worst calls I've ever seen right next to Cortney Osborne's "late hit" in this years A&M game. Also, I did forget about our blunder against Clemson, and yes we massively underachieved this year.

 

I don't think the 1999 team gets talked about enough. Our defense was national championship caliber that year and we had a nice offense to go with it. We just happened to fumble our way to a loss at Texas as I think at that point we had a school record of most fumbles in a year until the 2010 team broke it [how could they have not broken it] and Fumbleitis in 1999 could have been due to the numbers on the jerseys being stitched on there, as opposed to screen printed on. I found that very interesting, not an excuse, but interesting none the less, it was brought up in a post about a month ago or so.

 

 

'93 was the absolute freakin' worse. We were supposed to get run over, and we hung right in there, and then got ripped off on a couple calls, and then the shanked FG after Tommie Frazier's last-second heroics ... I'll never forget getting that SI in the mail, and there our defeat was all over again. Kinda puts this years dumbassery in perspective.'83 was without question the most talented team never to win it all. If they had won, they'd be in contention for greatest team ever ... competing with the '95 Husks.As for underachieving, maybe it's just because it's still raw, but this year was it for me. We had a clear path to the NCG. We just flubbed it up in unbelievable fashion. Again.

 

I had just started remembering Husker games in 1993, as I started in 1992, first game in 1991 I had no recollection over the loss to Washington, I was born in 1987.

 

Yes, I remember how badly that night ended. I re-watch it time and time again, hoping, just hoping Dixon's punt return is held up with no flag. Or that supposed fumble is not called a fumble. I believe that was Phillips correct? Or that Bennett makes the game winning kick, after Frazier threw a dart down the field. My dad always told me "I remember holding onto you before that kick went up and when he missed it we were all just completely devastated." I'm pretty sure I cried myself to sleep that night, and it wouldn't have been the last either, but I grew up as a kid during 60-3, so that made up for it, which is why it's so hard to watch us lose Championships and try to get back to the biggest stage possible.

[knapplc]

I wonder if everyone who responded to these polls would have responded the same had they watched the 1983 Orange Bowl live. That team was the most talented I've ever seen that did not win a title. The 1983 team would give most any of our other teams a hell of a run for their money. Straight up, that 1983 team would beat any Husker team post-1999, without question. They were that talented.

 

We got hornswoggled and outcoached in 1983. Osborne felt he could line up and smash them, and it would be our game. Schnellenberger layed in the weeds for us and did us in with unexpected athleticism. It showed the advantage of Speed over Strength, and that game led to modern football as much as any single game could.

[cb1954]

1983 (and 82) still hurt.. Those two teams should have been undefeated NC's

[T_O_Bull]

1983 hurt the most but I was never prouder of Tom Osborne.

T_O_B

[bshirt]

99 hurt me the most.

 

Even with the fumbled game vs Texas was revenged in the BigXII ccg but VT got in the NC game despite beating "nobody" that year. It still pisses me off.