The Official Nebraska vs ][V][ichigan Game Thread

[Michchamp]

It?s the 1997 curse of Scott Frost.

Like the curse of the Bambino, or the 1908 Cubs curse of the goat, who knows when it will end?

Not in my lifetime, I hope.

They need to officially renounce their Tom Osbourne Retirement Gift '97 Coaches' Title to undo the curse. Can they do it?

 

[byco42]

It?s the 1997 curse of Scott Frost.

Like the curse of the Bambino, or the 1908 Cubs curse of the goat, who knows when it will end?

Not in my lifetime, I hope.

I place as much blame on Fulmer, Manning, and Tennessee for laying down like Pentangeli had to for the Rossato Brothers. However, that sub-par performance by Manning should lay to rest forever as to who truly deserved the Heisman that season.

 

[Michchamp]

I place as much blame on Fulmer, Manning, and Tennessee for laying down like Pentangeli had to for the Rossato Brothers. However, that sub-par performance by Manning should lay to rest forever as to who truly deserved the Heisman that season.

I never looked at that game more than the box score. Looks sloppier than advertised... both teams lost 2 fumbles. Manning had pretty lousy stats (21-31, only 134 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT). And they pulled him for Tee Martin.

 

[byco42]

^^^^ One sporting outcome that still rankles me ^^^^^

Others include: USA-USSR '72 Gold Medal Basketball Game (though in hindsight, more tragic events than that transpired to place matters in perspective); Game 2 of the 2013 ALCS; Game 5 of the 72 ALCS, Game 5 of the '87 ALCS, and M-OSU 2016.

 

[bphillips4gg]

The fact that Nebraska needed one of the most miraculous catches in CFB history to force overtime against 7-5 Missouri is my biggest issue with the whole thing. Michigan beat 7 ranked teams in 1997 to Nebraska's 4. IIRC Michigan had the toughest SOS that year, but I don't recall if that was just preseason or not. The most points Michigan gave up that year was 24 to Iowa, 7 of which were a punt return and 7 more were off of an interception returned to the 1 yard line. That defense was ridiculously good whereas Nebraska just outscored everyone and that's what always impresses people.

But I do think the whole "give Tom one more" crowd was bullshit, especially since it was other coaches that would've been just as outraged if it had been their team that got screwed. Fulmer was a whiney bitch throwing a temper tantrum, but the rest of the coaches who went along with it were even bigger twats than Fulmer.

Oh, and fuck Scott Frost.

 

[Michchamp]

My biggest issue is the jump after bowl week, and the way it happened. It would be one thing if Mich/Neb were 1 or 2 in every poll after that week, but people had to intentionally underrank us to give Nebraska the #1 place, right? It's not like someone watched both games and said "I'd give Nebraska the edge over Michigan 1/2" someone ranked us 4th. That's some bullshit there.

 

[Michchamp]

Saw a stat today that's kinda impressive: JJ hasn't played a single 4th Q down so far.

It's still early, and while we haven't played any predicted to be very good yet, we've seen closer-than-expected results against both Rutgers and Nebraska before, and so to beat each of them almost effortlessly shows our potential. We're making it look easy

 

[byco42]

My biggest issue is the jump after bowl week, and the way it happened. It would be one thing if Mich/Neb were 1 or 2 in every poll after that week, but people had to intentionally underrank us to give Nebraska the #1 place, right? It's not like someone watched both games and said "I'd give Nebraska the edge over Michigan 1/2" someone ranked us 4th. That's some bullshit there.

I'm reasonably certain that that vote was cast by Fulmer. He was upset that Peyton didn't get the Heisman. Other scuttlebutt suggests that Paterno voted Michigan #2.

So it doesn't appear that objectivity was a factor in many votes, given that Michigan was the first team in CFB history to fall in the rankings after winning its final game.

 

[Michchamp]

As much fun as we all have ripping on Nebraska I can't help but root for Matt Rhule. Good dude.

https://youtu.be/yadkrDSIHxI

Thanks for posting that. I've been thinking we should add the post game press conference comments to the game threads. We all sometimes argue over stuff that could be settled if we heard it "straight from the horse's mouth," you know?

Agree Rhule seems like a good guy. He has no problem giving the opponent credit when due. Some of those questions are so dumb, like, no shit Nebraska can't match up against us, and it has nothing to do with "intensity."

I hope they can clean up their mistakes and play better, because it seems like they have potential. They found a couple seams against us, but couldn't make us pay b/c our secondary is solid. Or in that one case, the tip by #28 saved what could've been a Nebraska TD in the 2nd half.

 

[bphillips4gg]

Thanks for posting that. I've been thinking we should add the post game press conference comments to the game threads. We all sometimes argue over stuff that could be settled if we heard it "straight from the horse's mouth," you know?

Agree Rhule seems like a good guy. He has no problem giving the opponent credit when due. Some of those questions are so dumb, like, no shit Nebraska can't match up against us, and it has nothing to do with "intensity."

I hope they can clean up their mistakes and play better, because it seems like they have potential. They found a couple seams against us, but couldn't make us pay b/c our secondary is solid. Or in that one case, the tip by #28 saved what could've been a Nebraska TD in the 2nd half.

Ya, the questions like "So you got your ass beat, care to either detract from the team doling out the ass-whooping OR throw your own players under the bus?" And he handled them all well. Those reporters must be so used to Scott Frost they're having a difficult time getting click-bait headlines when Rhule won't step on 18-21 year old kids to avoid personal accountability.

I don't expect them to get back to where they were in the 90s, I don't even expect them to get into the top 5 perennial programs in the conference, especially with the addition of USC and Oregon. I don't think that the removal of divisions helps them in any way either. The West is so dreadful and they still couldn't win it once. That said, I do think that a perennial 8-9 win team with the occasional 10 win season is realistic for them.

 

[Michchamp]

^^^^ One sporting outcome that still rankles me ^^^^^

Others include: USA-USSR '72 Gold Medal Basketball Game (though in hindsight, more tragic events than that transpired to place matters in perspective); Game 2 of the 2013 ALCS; Game 5 of the 72 ALCS, Game 5 of the '87 ALCS, and M-OSU 2016.

I'd add the "Phantom Foul" against Bill Laimbeer in the 1988 NBA Finals, where everyone was like "eh... maybe he didn't foul, but he probably deserved it."

2001 "Clockgate" against MSU... my senior year. That was infuriating at the time.

The 2004 UM-OSU game pissed me off too, even though the outcome didn't change anything, it did give Lloyd a losing record against those bums. They had the Ohio State Police hold up our bus for hours because of a "terrorist threat." And after struggling all season with a different QB, Troy Smith comes in and leads a comeback to beat us, and is then promptly suspended for improper benefits.

Whatever it takes to win, I guess...

I'm reasonably certain that that vote was cast by Fulmer. He was upset that Peyton didn't get the Heisman. Other scuttlebutt suggests that Paterno voted Michigan #2.

So it doesn't appear that objectivity was a factor in many votes, given that Michigan was the first team in CFB history to fall in the rankings after winning its final game.

So I tried to see if anything conclusive has ever been published about this, and it seems like the answer is still "NO," but there's a lot of speculation about the Fulmer vote (he has apparently denied it, but the links to the article are all dead), and also speculation that JoePa voted us down, and blamed one of his assistants after. Fulmer and JoePa... good company. If those two are the reason we had to split a title, I consider us morally superior to everyone else in CFB.

 

[byco42]

So I tried to see if anything conclusive has ever been published about this, and it seems like the answer is still "NO," but there's a lot of speculation about the Fulmer vote (he has apparently denied it, but the links to the article are all dead), and also speculation that JoePa voted us down, and blamed one of his assistants after. Fulmer and JoePa... good company. If those two are the reason we had to split a title, I consider us morally superior to everyone else in CFB.

Paterno refused the Michigan HC position that Bo accepted. And there's that his 1968 and 1969 PSU teams were unbeaten and didn't win a national title. And, the 34-8 drubbing in College Station, Altoona, Green Valley, Happy Acres, or where ever the Kittenee Lions play.

 

[Michchamp]

Wikipedia has the AP and Coaches' Polls week-by-week.

In the AP, we were #1 starting week 12, after moving to 9-0 by beating then #2 Penn St @ Penn St, 34-8; Nebraska had been #1, but eked by Mizzou in the Flea Kicker game, in which they should have lost. From Weeks 14-16, we had 69 First Place Votes and Nebraska had one (1). After Bowl Week, in the AP, we had 51 1/2 First Place votes and Nebraska had 18.

In the Coaches', Florida State was still ahead of us after the Penn St game, until Week 14, when they lost. After Week 14 our regular season was done. Prior to Bowl Week, we had 53 1/2 First Place Votes and NE had a measly 8 1/2. After the Bowl game, it was 32-30 in favor of NE. Wowza.

"In the final Coaches Poll of the 1997 season, Nebraska leapfrogged Michigan to secure a share of the national championship, making it the 3rd split championship of the 1990s.[19] Eight coaches split their first-place votes, with a final tally of 32 first-place votes for Nebraska and 30 for Michigan."
​

- link to the article is dead, so I can't see if there's any more information on who voted which way.

Pathetic.

Here's what Lloyd Carr had to say about it (this was in 2014):

?I got a phone call the day after Nebraska played Tennessee (in the Orange Bowl), and I had stayed in Los Angeles (after the Rose Bowl) for recruiting, and I got that phone call that said ?coach you just won the national championship from The Associated Press,? ? Carr recalled in a television interview, according to MLive.com. ?And I knew, based on what we had done (that we would win the AP national title), and I fully expected to win the coaches? vote.?

"(But) it was explained to me that we had lost and the way the balloting ended up, one coach voted us fourth or two coaches voted us third,? Carr explained. ?I didn?t tell the team that, I didn?t want them to dwell on negatives. But I was extremely bothered by it and I still am.?
​

As far as I can tell, this is all Tom Osbourne said about it:

"We were undefeated, and Michigan was undefeated, and we very badly wanted to play Michigan and we were pretty much a free agent and able to move at that time, but Michigan had contractual obligations with the Rose Bowl," Osborne told Sirius XM radio recently. "So as the champion in the Big Ten they had to go to the Rose Bowl and they couldn?t? play us. We weren?t allowed to go to the Rose Bowl at that time.
"I think those kinds of scenarios led to the BCS and the desire to get 1 and 2 together.
​

That same article has Scott Frost's whiny quotes. Sounds like he already knew the AP vote favored Michigan, and so was lobbying coaches, specifically ACC and SEC coaches.

 

[byco42]

Osborne probably would have gone ballistic had the coaches voted PSU #1 after the 1994 bowl games.

And the #1 and #2 teams playing the other in bowl games, though hit and miss, happened with some degree of regularity (six times) from 1980-1998.