ESPN's Schlabach ranks the BCS National Champions

05' horns would've beaten every NFL team from the past 25yrs.

If you would've given them baseball bats, they would've taken the world series. If you sent them to Iraq, we'd all be vacationing in Baghdad now. And give just one of the o-linemen a microscope and cancer is treatable with over the counter chewy tablets that taste like cherries.

That should balance out the above sooner homerism.
 
football is a game of matchups, just like hoops, but not to the same extent. When faced with a brutal defense, any team would relent.IMO, USC2004 beats UT2005 24-20. We know the USC 2005 defense was inferior to the 2004 and the USC 2005 offense was superior to the prior one (but was it really that much better in 2005 than vs. at the end of the year??). Peterson had 249 vs UT but was stopped cold by USC.

We've had USC 2004 vs. 2005 Defensive comparisons on this thread

'04 defense
#6 TOTAL defense
#1 rush defense
#34 pass defense
#3 scoring defense
#1 turnover margin (38 defensive turnovers)

'05 defense
# 48 TOTAL defense
#31 rush defense
#73 pass defense
#35 scoring defense
#2 turnover margin (38 defensive turnovers)

here is the Offense

2004 Offense
Total Offense #12
Rush # 33
Pass # 13
Scoring # 6

2005 Offense
Total offense # 1
Rush # 6
Pass # 5
Scoring # 2


yes, it is true the O improved over the 1 year but the D worsened and to a greater degree than the O improved.
 
I'm going to stick up for 00 OU in part. The depth of their schedule that season was very difficult. Their rise from the ashes was a great story, and what Stoops accomplished with JUCO's and Blake's spare parts was nothing short of genius. That being said, they belong at #5. They did not beat one team as good as OSU or USC. By the end of the season their offense had slowed to a crawl. They relied on a smart, incredibly well-coached defense to win an ugly BCS game 10-2. The 2001 Orange Bowl will never be mentioned with the 2006 Rose Bowl. Stoops is a great coach and has taught Brown many hard lessons, but none of his OU teams would have stayed within 10 points of 05 Texas.

Teams change tremendously from year-to-year. Since 73 makes a good point about USC 04/05, but then loses his credibility lumping 04/05 Texas into the same column. 01 Miami was much stronger and hungrier than 02. 95 Neb may have been the greatest team of all time, but 04 Neb was not even close despite the MNC (should have been split with PSU). 04 USC was a monster. They graduated some top flight defensive talent. 99 FSU was also a top echelon BCS champ, 00 was not even close. The loss of Ced Benson in 05 actually made the Texas offense more wide open and harder to defend. The emergence of Taylor and Charles put more pressure outside the hash marks on every down. My rankings (BCS only):

04 USC
(tie) 05 Texas
(tie) 01 Miami
99 FSU
00 OU
 
By the way, if you remove their bowl games (because 2005 USC obviously played a superior opponent compared to 2004 USC
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) -

2004 USC scored 36.75 points per game in the regular season and allowed 12.92 points per game

2005 USC scored 50.00 points per game in the regular season and allowed 21.33 points per game
 
2004 Oklahoma monster -

28-13 over 8-4 Texas Tech
31-21 over 4-7 Kansas State
38-35 over 7-5 Oklahoma State
42-35 over 7-5 Texas A&M

Not to mention the fact that their offense wasn't nearly as good as you want to think. They only scored 12 points in that same game where they shut out Texas. On a defense that only allowed that few in two other games all season (Texas beat Colorado 31-7 and North Texas 65-0).

Sorry, that team doesn't warrant mention among the best of the era. And that's before the blowout loss. The fact that you would rank a team #1 based on a single performance during their season speaks volumes.
 
final polls are also a beauty contest with human opinion and objective facts.

Stats don't tell the whole story, ever. You have to consider matchups and the character/maturity/coaching strategies of teams which numbers don't fully explain.

So for you geeks who rely solely on numbers, you are way way off.

OU deserved to play USC just as much as Auburn did (yes I know they finished 2nd and would also have been blown out in 2004).

Remember the USC Fresno game? what kind of defense was that?
 
I guarantee you that Auburn would have played USC a lot better than ou did. I have never seen a team come in as under prepared as ou did. They "deserved" to be there I guess, but no more than Auburn did and sucked when they got there. I am sorry but they do not get mentioned a great team when you lay an egg in the biggest of the year.

Furthermore, anyone who compares 2004 VY vs 2005 VY is an idiot. The difference is enormous. 2005 VY was one of the greatest college football players in history. 2004 VY was a good college football player.
 
I will take 2005 VY and his o-line against any college defense in any year in any era. VY was unstoppable when the game was on the line. Our o-line was as good as it gets, or close. Our WR's & RB's were good enough, although not great. David Thomas was a playmaker, period.

Send in 02 Miami, 00 OU, 04 USC or any defense you want to name and VY is still standing in the confetti and bringing home the trophy.

Other than 95 Nebraska, there is not an offense I can think of who could have put the points on our 05 D that USC did. So even if one of the great defenses could have slowed us down and held us under 40, it is unlikely and of those offenses would have scored 30 on our D.
 
That 00 sooner team should be thankful they got to play the Seminoles minus one of their prime weapons. If they had to play Miami (who beat FSU), they would have lost. But I would rate them higher than the 2 loss LSU team.
 
I still have the GOTC on tape. I love watching it every now and again.

Ahhh, nostalgia...
 
You don't think Texas' offense was also more polished by season's end?

Again, those are excuses. Smith was no more effective than Zwick against Texas' D, and the story would have been the same at the end of the year.
 
One more thought about that 2001 Miami team. It was a terrific team, perhaps the most talented team ever. However, coaching is a factor, and their coach was fired 5 years later and is still unemployed. Doesn't that say something?
 
continuing with the comedy, please tell us Laphro (or TaylorT) who was the best team in 2004. Auburn? I bet if USC killed Auburn in the BCS title game, a few would claim an undefeated OU was really the best.

When I look at UT's oppenents, I check the yards per play (rush and pass attempt/completion) given up by their defense. If the D is giving up about 2.75 yards per rush or less, that is a very very good front 7.

2004 USC 2.62, only FSU was better at 2.39
2005 USC 3.82, tOSU 2.35 and OU 2.77 . (UT had 203 net rushing vs. OU on 40 carries including the 80yd JC run - take out the big run and it's about 3.0 vs. OU)

stats don't tell the whole truth, you have to visualize athlete vs. athlete, strengths vs. weakness in groupings and coaching philosophies.

anyway, the stats show that USC lost significant run contain ability from 2004 to 2005.
 
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