Would Abdul Muhammad make all time top ten WR at NU?

[OH HSKR FAN]

I would put him in the Top 10 of all time. His performance against Miami in the Orange Bowl was money.

[Hercules]

Probably... Johnny Rodgers and Irving Fryar are the top 2. After them, you have a bunch of guys like Matt Davison or Clester Johnson or Nate Swift, and you'd probably have to throw Mo Purify in there too... But Abdul Mohammed would be right at the top of that second tier.

[knapplc]

I would put Abdul third behind Irving Fryar and Johnny Rodgers.

[Moiraine]

I'd put him top 5. He always made the plays when we really needed them.

[NUance]

He won us a national title. Can't be outside the top three or four. Plus he gets bonus points for playing with a bullet embedded in him.

[OH HSKR FAN]

Who were some of the receivers when Tagge, Humm and Ferragamo played? (The Jet excluded?) Anyone that would stand out?

[knapplc]

Who were some of the receivers when Tagge, Humm and Ferragamo played? (The Jet excluded?) Anyone that would stand out?

 

Back then you're talking about guys like Tom Penney and Dennis Richnafsky. I haven't watched them play, so I don't know where they'd rate. Muhammad has better stats than they do, I think, but mostly that's a judgment call.

 

Tom Osborne said after the 1995 (1994) Orange Bowl that Muhammad was the "toughest" guy on the team. Not sure if that answers any questions about how "good" he was, or where he rated, though.

[NUance]

My top 10:

 

1. Irving Fryar

2. Johnny Rodgers

3. Nate Swift

4. Mo Purify

5. Abdul Muhammad

6. Terrence Nunn

7. Todd Peterson

8. Matt Davison

9. Niles Paul

10. Guy Ingles

10. Todd Brown

 

I'm giving Muhammad bonus points for his OB win over Miami. His career stats alone put him somewhere down around 15th or 20th.

[knapplc]

That's like judging Zac Taylor by his rushing stats. You can't judge Muhammad by his stats alone when we passed something like 15% of the time. We literally had games where we didn't pass the ball 10 times during his time here.

[NUance]

That's like judging Zac Taylor by his rushing stats. You can't judge Muhammad by his stats alone when we passed something like 15% of the time. We literally had games where we didn't pass the ball 10 times during his time here.

Same with Fryar. Half the guys on that list have better stats at NU than Fryar. But he's the most talented of the bunch.

[General Blackshirt]

Was Muhammad the one who was our best kick returner and punt blocker that year? Not a good combination, by the way.

[flatwaterfan]

Not in any order. Here are some of my favorites.

 

Guy Ingles, Frost Anderson, Todd Brown, Tim Smith, Chuck Malito, Bobby Thomas, Jon Bostic, Nate Swift, Purify, Nunn. There are other WB's that I liked like von Shephard, Kenny Brown, Richard Bell, Shane Swanson (now there was a tough kid). Corey Dixon Dana Brinson, Curtis Craig. Muhammed is in my top 20 or 25.

[knapplc]

That's like judging Zac Taylor by his rushing stats. You can't judge Muhammad by his stats alone when we passed something like 15% of the time. We literally had games where we didn't pass the ball 10 times during his time here.

Same with Fryar. Half the guys on that list have better stats at NU than Fryar. But he's the most talented of the bunch.

Not really. We ran more of a pro-style offense when Fryar was here. Osborne didn't switch to the running attack until the late 70s when he saw how Oklahoma was killing us with the Wishbone.

 

The Option Offense that everyone associates with Osborne didn't really show up until the late 70s and wasn't perfected until Turner Gill in the early 80s.

[VA Husker Fan]

Guy Ingles held some records before Rodgers smashed them all. Tony Jeter and Freeman White were All-America, but I'm not sure if they played TE or WR. You could look at the Husker HOF for others, like Tim Smith and Dana Brinson. I don't buy the "won us a national title" argument. It's a team game, you can't control who you played with and you don't know that someone else wouldn't have stepped up, though Muhammad clearly was a clutch receiver--as was Davidson, who also won us a national title.

 

Yeah, you could make a case for him being top 10. Everyone will have their own criteria--stats, which are pretty meaningless to compare someone from the 80s and 90s with those from Callahan's passing teams; NFL career (sorry, Chris Brooks may have had the potential to be top 10, but you can't put him in the top 100 for what he did here), team success (again, I think this has limited value), and other less tangible things, like leadership and downfield blocking (Fryar was the difference at times between a 15 yard gain and a long TD for Rozier, and IIRC Muhammad was a strong blocker too).

[VA Husker Fan]

That's like judging Zac Taylor by his rushing stats. You can't judge Muhammad by his stats alone when we passed something like 15% of the time. We literally had games where we didn't pass the ball 10 times during his time here.

Same with Fryar. Half the guys on that list have better stats at NU than Fryar. But he's the most talented of the bunch.

Not really. We ran more of a pro-style offense when Fryar was here. Osborne didn't switch to the running attack until the late 70s when he saw how Oklahoma was killing us with the Wishbone.

 

The Option Offense that everyone associates with Osborne didn't really show up until the late 70s and wasn't perfected until Turner Gill in the early 80s.

You do realize that Fryar played with Gill from 81-83, right?