Post by EvilVodka on Apr 1, 2020 18:16:55 GMT
what's an Also-Ran?? It is the very loose terminology that I apply to teams that had National Championship potential but just fell short for whatever reason. Bad Calls, unlucky, frowned on by the Football Gods
2019 is a good example:
Ohio State 2019, Clemson 2019, and I will throw in Alabama 2019 as well.
Ohio State 2019 ran into some tough calls against Clemson. Clemson ran into a historical legend in LSU. Alabama got their star QB hurt. IMO, all three were National Championship level teams and could have won under different circumstances.
2018 Ohio State - I think you could make an argument for Ohio State, and I will on behalf of the Buckeyes on this board. Who knows how Ohio State would have handled a playoff though. Clemson 2018 was pretty loaded, and Alabama had a healthy Tua
2017 Oklahoma - THIS Boomer Sooner team was the one. This team should have won the championship that year. They had conquered the Buckeyes. They beat Texas and survived TCU twice. They had Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield. Everyone wanted to see Alabama vs. Oklahoma. How the hell did they let Georgia back in the game? Just a choke job of epic proportion. Really good team though.
2016 Alabama - This Alabama team beat almost everyone, almost went wire to wire, conquered Ole Miss and Auburn, survived LSU, beat Florida in the SEC Championship. They had Clemson on the ropes until the last drive. The literally dominated the season until the very last play. Deshaun Watson sunk the Tide.
2014 TCU - Such a shame they were left out of the playoff. No telling how good that defense was, but Baylor beat them, and the Big 12 said "cochamps" or some crap, and Ohio State butchered Wisconsin, and yadda yadda yadda
2012 Ohio State - I put this team up for Buckeye fans, but hard to get past probation. Buckeyes sort of shot themselves in the foot...and no telling if they could have gotten past a very strong Bama team
2011 LSU Tigers - This team was on a roll similar to LSU 2019. They beat #2 Alabama, #3 Oregon, #3 Arkansas, #12 Georgia in the SEC Championship game. They had a star-studded defense with Tyrann Mathieu, Bennie Logan, Morris Claiborne, Eric Reid. They just didn't have the QB to get them over the hump against Alabama twice. Toward the end of the season, you could tell Les Miles didn't know what he was doing at QB. There was a battle between Jarrett Lee and Jordan Jefferson. Hell, Les Miles switched QBs DURING the game against Bama Round 1. The defense tried to hold out in the National Championship game, but the offense was crushed by the '11 Bama Defense. Game Over.
2010 TCU - Led by Ginger menace Andy Dalton, this team went undefeated. Could they have won a playoff? I think the '10 Hornfrogs were good, but I think they would have gotten ran over by Auburn or Oregon. It took a grandiose effort to get past Wiscosin
2009 Texas - Really talented, survived Nebraska (with Suh) and Oklahoma, only to have their stat QB Colt McCoy get hurt in the Championship.
2008 Texas - Absolutely loaded, beat Oklahoma, but lost a fluke game to Texas Tech, and got left out because of some tiebreaker rule. (Big XII and their funny logic)
2008 USC - somehow 2008 USC was left out of every National Championship conversation. This was a pretty talented USC team though, and probably Pete Carroll's best defense with the Trojans. Absolute studs at LB with Brian Cushing, Clay Matthews, and Rey Maualuga. Mark Sanchez was pretty good as well at QB. Oh if there had been a playoff that year.
2007 West Virginia - brief mention for the '07 Mountaineers. If they were ever going to bust through to the big time, it was this season. Rich Rod has them on a roll. They would have played an underwhelming Ohio State team in the BCS Championship game. Somehow they got punked by Pittsburgh on their last game! Sad Mountaineers
2006 Ohio State - Led by Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith and Ted Ginn Jr., they rolled through the schedule beating #2 Texas and #2 Michigan. They nearly went wire to wire. Until Florida happened and Urban Meyer punked the Bucks. At least Meyer made up for it in '14.
2005 USC - obviously one of USC's best teams. ESPN was already showing segments of USC beating historically great teams, like Notre Dame '88, etc. Could not stop Vince Young though.
2004 Auburn - The Tigers went undefeated, beating #5 LSU and #8 Georgia. Totally left out because of the BCS...and the term "Auburned" was invented. Oklahoma got scorched in the championship, and USC eventually had to vacate the win. Has there been a team more screwed over than Auburn 2004?
2002 Miami - While not as good as the 2001 version, they still were beating people left and right. They struggled pretty hard against Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, and despite what anyone thinks about "The Call", they still had a chance to win it. Ken Dorsey sort of deflated in overtime.
2001 Florida - While this team lost a couple of really close games, the Spurrier offense was a sharp as ever. In a year where there really weren't a lot of good contenders to challenge Miami, the '01 Gators might have been the best competition. If they just could have beaten the Vols on the last week (they lost 32-34), they would have played a green Saban-LSU team that they had throttled earlier in the year, and that might have pushed them up enough to play Miami in what would have been a HUGE showdown. Just imagine: 2001 Spurrier and Gators vs. 2001 Miami. Instead they lost to the Vols, Nebraska got pounded by Colorado, but still jumped Joey Harrington and the Ducks and the Colorado team that had just pounded them. Nebraska '01 had to be the weakest BCS Championship team in history.
2000 Miami - For all we know, this team might have been better than the '01 team. Despite losing to another really good Also-Ran in Washington, they got over the hump with #1 FSU, and beat #2 Virginia Tech with Michael Vick. The BCS edged them out of the championship game, and they never got a shot at Oklahoma.
2000 Washington - They beat Miami 2000 early in the season, and followed them up the rankings, also to get left out. If only we had a playoff in 2000...
1999 Nebraska - The Nebraska hordes on the Pick Six Twitter feed loved this team, so I put them up here. They did do pretty well in the regular season, except for a 4 point loss to Texas, which they avenged later on in the Big XII Championship. Nevertheless, I wonder if they would have gotten past Virginia Tech with Michael Vick, much less an absolutely loaded FSU team.
1998 Ohio State - Led by senior QB Joe Jermaine, the Buckeyes beat #11 West Virginia, #7 Penn State, and #11 Michigan. A late season loss put them behind Florida State, even through all of the late season upsets. FSU with a 3rd string QB got selected instead.
1997 Florida State - '97 FSU had hovered in the top 5 all year, and lost by 3 points to the Florida Gators. This allowed Tennessee to slip past them with a 1 point win vs. Auburn in the SEC Championship. And Tennessee and Payton Manning got stomped by Nebraska. The media focused on the split National Championship between Nebraska and Michigan. FSU had beaten #23 USC, #16 Clemson, #21 Georgia Tech, and #5 North Carolina -coached by Mac Brown. They were loaded on defense and would have been the team no one wanted to play in a playoff.
1996 Ohio State - Similar to FSU '97, they rolled all the way until their last game, where they lost by 4 to Michigan. I don't know how well they would have handled FSU or Florida in '96, but they were good enough to deserve a shot.
1994 Penn State - Kerry Collins? Kijana Carter? Penn State was pretty stacked on both sides of the ball. They went undefeated and got pidgeonholed out of the National Championship picture. Nebraska got to play a 1-loss Miami team instead. It was a total screwjob on Penn State. At least in '97, Michigan got a share of the title.
1993 Notre Dame - One of Lou Holtz's best team, they beat the Seminoles in the vaunted Game of the Century, only losing to the Boston College Eagles a week later. They definitely would have made a playoff, had there been one that year. In the first game against FSU, they got the jump on them early in a high profile showdown. I wonder if they could have done that twice.
1992 Florida State - The '92 Noles were just a younger version of the '93 team. Their only loss was a 3 point Wide Right II against Miami. Had there been a playoff, I wonder how this team would have fared against '92 Alabama. The Bama defense that year was solid, and they were built to squash a slow QB like Gino Toretta. Miami hadn't exactly looked dominant, eeking out wins against Arizona (8-7), FSU, and Penn State (17-14).
1990 Miami and 1990 Florida State - Both the Noles and the Canes had dropped 2 games each. Miami lost to Ty Detmer-BYU and #6 Notre Dame. They destroyed #3 Texas in the Cotton Bowl. FSU lost to #9 Miami and #5 Auburn, but beat #6 Florida to end the year. The National Champions that year were 10-1-1 Colorado and 11-0-1 Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech was matched up against #19 Nebraska in the Citrus Bowl, while Colorado got extremely lucky against Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. Did we truly get the best teams that year? I can only imagine how the National Champions that year would have fared against the Noles and Canes that season.
so....at this point I might add some more later on. But I have run out of steam today
