Bill Lucas;1917512; said:
Why is your fanbase buying into the speed hype (as in the Big Ten has none) and believing that the SEC "owns" the Big Ten when the record between the conferences since the inception of the BCS in nearly dead even?
Here's the gist of this statement from some of our fans:
Back in the early 90s, then defensive coordinator Charlie McBride had a pretty 'decent' defense. They were a powerful run-stopping defense that was physical up front. They would dominate games during the regular season with no problems for the most part....then the bowl season would happen.
Ergo if you look at two games specifically - the three game bowl slide in the Orange Bowl from 1991 - 1993. Nebraska's defenses were torched in those games (especially that game against the U), looking extremely slow. After that last loss to FSU, there was talk about a McBride ouster.
Doc Tom, in his typical low key self, gave McBride his support. In turn, McBride decided he was going to stop recruiting the slow, might look good on paper guys (like tOSU fan favorite Trev Alberts
), and start building a more speedy, pass stopping oriented defense. He concentrated especially on the two rush ends, beefed up his middle linebackers with run stoppers, put athletic outside backers who could run in pass coverage, and concentrated on his secondary more. The plan paid off, in spades, I might add.
McBride's defenses in the mid 90's were some of the most dominant in college football history (especially that 95 team, who is considered amongst many as the most dominant team in NCAA History). They became a ball hawking, aggressive defense that lead the country in turnovers, tfls, and maiming QBs on a regular basis.
Fast forward a few years. Solich takes over, McBride retires. Nebraska was looking pretty in 2001. Craig Bohl arrived as the new Defensive coordinator.
Then the Colorado game happened.
62 - 36. Started the slide that took years to recover from.
Bohl, along with a bunch of other guys like George Darlington, Milt Tenopir, and others were fired. Solich went looking for a fresh, young mind. He asked a guy who was having some success as a head coach (Pete Carroll) for a new name.
2003. The legend of Bo Pelini was born in Husker lore. And the snake that is Steve Peterson arrives.
Huskers are winning games, but only because of the defense that Bo places on the field. Josh Bullocks leads the country in picks, Fabian Washington would be a first round draft pick. Demorrio Williams and others would also be drafted. But Solich would fail to keep his job, fired after going 9-2 that year. Bo coaches the bowl game, wins. Many here think he's the guy.
And then the epic bag of fail that is Bill Callahan is born.
Fast forward years later, and now Bo is again the guy. Since then, the SEC has 'positioned' themselves as the dominant force in the BCS, having won a bunch of the championships. It just so happened that tOSU played in two of those games...and lost them. But what some Husker fans forget - is that Oklahoma played in three of them as well....and lost.
The thought is that there's more 'team speed' in the SEC. I don't think it's hard to agree with that - look at the number of athletes that are drafted out of the SEC on a regular basis. Many are skill position players.
BUT.....
Some forget.....that same thing was said in:
1994 - Miami had Ray Lewis, Warren Sapp, hell, they even had The Rock. They were supposed to run circles around the Huskers. Didn't matter. Doc Tom's team wore them down through superior conditioning.
1995 - The Fun N' Gun was going to throw all over the Nebraska D. Not so much, ol' Ball Coach.
1997 - Some guy named Peyton was the QB. Didn't matter. They got handled as well.
It's all about perception. Speed is good - but if a game plan can negate speed....anybody can win.
