I have never in my life seen an offense as complete as Penn State's in '94. I've seen teams with better run or pass offenses, but this one was deadly in every possible way. They could have easily put up 30 points centering their offense around a power running game or an air raid passing offense. Instead, they averaged 47 per game using both seamlessly.
I'm not convinced that the 1994 Penn State offense BY ITSELF wasn't the "best team ever." Then you add in fine special teams plus a solidly above-average defense (a very underrated one) and it's all roses.
@@greggoryzimmerman6365 Not only would Nebraska’s defense not have stopped Penn State (since Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, and USC couldn’t do that), but Nebraska’s defense wasn’t even any better than PSU’s underrated D. Nebraska played 1 very good offense (Colorado), 5 mediocre or average ones, and 6 awful ones. Penn State played 3 very good ones (Michigan, USC, and Oregon), 6 average ones (one of which, Illinois, had the benefit of a 21-0 lead), and 3 bad ones. Penn State’s defense played a much tougher schedule than Nebraska. The 6th best offense Penn State played (Iowa) was better than the 2nd best offense Nebraska played (Miami). The worst offense Penn State played (Northwestern) was a) not that bad and b) better than 6 of the offenses Nebraska played, including Pacific (not even D1A) and absolute trash like Oklahoma State. The 2nd best offense Nebraska played was Miami, and if Miami had had an actual QB, Nebraska would have been in serious trouble. Luckily Frank Costa played very badly. Nebraska's only really impressive result was beating Colorado 24-7. But the reality is that early points by the NU offense and mistakes by Colorado forced Colorado out of balance and into a throwing contest that heavily suited Nebraska. Also, the Husker offense simply controlled the clock and bludgeoned the Buffs. Thus, holding CU to 7 is nowhere near as impressive as it sounds. Then there were games like Wyoming (a mediocre offense to which Nebraska gave up a lot of points) and Oklahoma. Oklahoma was funny. NU held OU to 3 points but only scored 13 itself. And Osborne was throwing the ball unnecessarily late in that game, desperate to run up the score because he knew how bad a 13-3 win at a bad OU team looked. Despite the fact that the starting defense for PSU usually was out after two and a half quarters and only played 2 full games (Michigan and Illinois), Penn State’s defense only gave up 8.5 more points per game than Nebraska. Take out the hogwash at the end of the Indiana game and the self-inflicted 21-0 deficit at Illinois (which was due to uncharacteristic offensive mistakes), and the Penn State defense, playing a much tougher schedule, was barely a field goal “worse” than Nebraska’s defense. In my opinion there’s no question that Penn State had as good a defense - if not a better defense - than Nebraska. Since 1) PSU usually rested its starters, which reduces their numbers, 2) Nebraska played a much weaker schedule, and 3) Nebraska benefitted from a ball control offense rather than one that scored in 2 minutes (on average) like the PSU O. Considering differences in schedule strength, there's really no clear evidence that 1994 Nebraska was notably better than any of Michigan, Ohio State, or Illinois. Maybe a little, but not by much. Nebraska's only chance against Penn State would be for fluky mistakes like PSU made against Illinois, but if PSU could overcome a 21-0 deficit on the road in poor weather, even that is no guarantee for NU. And there's a good chance that PSU simply whips Nebraska. Nebraska as "national champ" for 1994 is the fakest national title ever; they don't even deserve a split. NU had a great season in 1995, so NU fans can do us all a favor and stop bothering PSU people in our comment sections about a season where our team just performed at a supremely high level.
@@greggoryzimmerman6365 We'll never know and that's the biggest "what if?" in college football I have. That would have been one of the biggest matchups in college football history and we were robbed of it. I didn't see much of Nebraska that year so I can't comment on their defense, but I will say that I don't think that PSU played a defense as stout as Nebraska's, nor Nebraska played an offense as potent and complete as PSU's. It would have been a thrilling matchup to watch. Keep in mind, Penn State pulled their starters prior to the 4th quarter in 5 of 11 games (including the *2nd quarter* against Iowa). Their starters only played a full game 3 times, with the third one being their final game - senior night - against Michigan St (which they won 59-31). Pulling their starters so much may have cost them the national championship. Imagine that offense going full tilt all the way. I mean, the average halftime score that year was 29-9. Maybe Nebraska did the same so it all evens out, I don't know. All I'm saying is, don't rule out PSU's offense out of hat. Even with their starters out so much, they still averaged over 520 yards of offense per game split pretty evenly (251 yards rushing, 269 yards passing).They had 2 1,000-yard receivers who averaged 20 yards per catch and Carter averaged nearly 2 yards more per rush than Phillips did.
@Greggory Zimmerman Well, put it this way, Vegas had a line that year because of the argument, my Nittany Lions 🦁 were a 6 point favorite if they would have played on a neutral site!!!! WE ARE 🏈 Unrivaled
This was simply the greatest offense in college football history. They had 5 teams down by 30 pts at the half. Not just scoring 30 in a half but led by 30 5 times including 2 all-time top 10 programs in Ohio St. & So. Cal. (both 35-0) who both went to bowl games that season. Penn St. scored at least 31 pts in all 12 games, 44 PPG, averaged PG 250 yds passing & 250 yds rushing despite the starters not playing the 4th qtr. in 6 games. The Big 10 was 4-1 in bowl games & the Big 8 was 2-2. Neb. beat by only 7, a Miami team that lost to unranked Wash. by 18 at HOME & won by 5 over a 3-8 Pitt team at home. The Big 8 was still at that time a mainly rushing conf. & Neb. would likely struggle with PSU's incomparable balance while PSU almost always did well vs a rushing offense. Knowing all that, what would make anyone with brain cells believe that Neb. would likely beat PSU. The Colorado lucky "hail Mary" win over Mich. is the game that cost PSU at least a share of the national title.
They were the most balanced and complete offense in the history of college football!!! Kerry Collins was so big and obviously not nimble of foot, but pocket presence and strong arm, he actually had a hitch in his throwing motion because he was a great pitcher growing up, and threw a 95 mile per hour fastball, but anyway he was amazing 👏!!! Him or Ki-Jana should have won 🏆 the Heisman easily!!!! It pisses me off, because this team got screwed out of the national title, literally!!! Our defense was very good, and listen to this, they were on the field all day, in a good way though, because our average scoring was less than 2 minutes!!! WE ARE 🏈 Unrivaled
Weird how CFB didn't let them play 1994 Nebraska, but Penn State stole 1982 away from Nebraska. That guy who caught the ball was 100% out of bounce, Nebraska deserves the 1994 title.
How do you determine that if they do not play each other? It is not like either team played a competitve schedule. However almost all of PSU games were over before Halftime, some by the 1st qtr. Only UM and Illinois were close...... Nebraska actually seemed much more formidable the following season.
lol. Oh my. Penn State couldn't score less than 35 that year. The entire offense went to the NFL, most of them for a long time. Nebraska won one game all year, against Colorado, and if Michigan doesn't give up a hail mary to them they wouldn't have been relevant passed September.
I have never in my life seen an offense as complete as Penn State's in '94. I've seen teams with better run or pass offenses, but this one was deadly in every possible way. They could have easily put up 30 points centering their offense around a power running game or an air raid passing offense. Instead, they averaged 47 per game using both seamlessly.
I'm not convinced that the 1994 Penn State offense BY ITSELF wasn't the "best team ever." Then you add in fine special teams plus a solidly above-average defense (a very underrated one) and it's all roses.
Nebraska would have stopped tha offense that year if the would have played..
@@greggoryzimmerman6365 Not only would Nebraska’s defense not have stopped Penn State (since Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, and USC couldn’t do that), but Nebraska’s defense wasn’t even any better than PSU’s underrated D.
Nebraska played 1 very good offense (Colorado), 5 mediocre or average ones, and 6 awful ones.
Penn State played 3 very good ones (Michigan, USC, and Oregon), 6 average ones (one of which, Illinois, had the benefit of a 21-0 lead), and 3 bad ones. Penn State’s defense played a much tougher schedule than Nebraska.
The 6th best offense Penn State played (Iowa) was better than the 2nd best offense Nebraska played (Miami). The worst offense Penn State played (Northwestern) was a) not that bad and b) better than 6 of the offenses Nebraska played, including Pacific (not even D1A) and absolute trash like Oklahoma State.
The 2nd best offense Nebraska played was Miami, and if Miami had had an actual QB, Nebraska would have been in serious trouble. Luckily Frank Costa played very badly.
Nebraska's only really impressive result was beating Colorado 24-7. But the reality is that early points by the NU offense and mistakes by Colorado forced Colorado out of balance and into a throwing contest that heavily suited Nebraska. Also, the Husker offense simply controlled the clock and bludgeoned the Buffs. Thus, holding CU to 7 is nowhere near as impressive as it sounds.
Then there were games like Wyoming (a mediocre offense to which Nebraska gave up a lot of points) and Oklahoma. Oklahoma was funny. NU held OU to 3 points but only scored 13 itself. And Osborne was throwing the ball unnecessarily late in that game, desperate to run up the score because he knew how bad a 13-3 win at a bad OU team looked.
Despite the fact that the starting defense for PSU usually was out after two and a half quarters and only played 2 full games (Michigan and Illinois), Penn State’s defense only gave up 8.5 more points per game than Nebraska. Take out the hogwash at the end of the Indiana game and the self-inflicted 21-0 deficit at Illinois (which was due to uncharacteristic offensive mistakes), and the Penn State defense, playing a much tougher schedule, was barely a field goal “worse” than Nebraska’s defense. In my opinion there’s no question that Penn State had as good a defense - if not a better defense - than Nebraska. Since 1) PSU usually rested its starters, which reduces their numbers, 2) Nebraska played a much weaker schedule, and 3) Nebraska benefitted from a ball control offense rather than one that scored in 2 minutes (on average) like the PSU O.
Considering differences in schedule strength, there's really no clear evidence that 1994 Nebraska was notably better than any of Michigan, Ohio State, or Illinois. Maybe a little, but not by much. Nebraska's only chance against Penn State would be for fluky mistakes like PSU made against Illinois, but if PSU could overcome a 21-0 deficit on the road in poor weather, even that is no guarantee for NU. And there's a good chance that PSU simply whips Nebraska.
Nebraska as "national champ" for 1994 is the fakest national title ever; they don't even deserve a split. NU had a great season in 1995, so NU fans can do us all a favor and stop bothering PSU people in our comment sections about a season where our team just performed at a supremely high level.
@@greggoryzimmerman6365 We'll never know and that's the biggest "what if?" in college football I have. That would have been one of the biggest matchups in college football history and we were robbed of it. I didn't see much of Nebraska that year so I can't comment on their defense, but I will say that I don't think that PSU played a defense as stout as Nebraska's, nor Nebraska played an offense as potent and complete as PSU's. It would have been a thrilling matchup to watch.
Keep in mind, Penn State pulled their starters prior to the 4th quarter in 5 of 11 games (including the *2nd quarter* against Iowa). Their starters only played a full game 3 times, with the third one being their final game - senior night - against Michigan St (which they won 59-31). Pulling their starters so much may have cost them the national championship. Imagine that offense going full tilt all the way. I mean, the average halftime score that year was 29-9.
Maybe Nebraska did the same so it all evens out, I don't know. All I'm saying is, don't rule out PSU's offense out of hat. Even with their starters out so much, they still averaged over 520 yards of offense per game split pretty evenly (251 yards rushing, 269 yards passing).They had 2 1,000-yard receivers who averaged 20 yards per catch and Carter averaged nearly 2 yards more per rush than Phillips did.
@Greggory Zimmerman Well, put it this way, Vegas had a line that year because of the argument, my Nittany Lions 🦁 were a 6 point favorite if they would have played on a neutral site!!!! WE ARE 🏈 Unrivaled
They were National Champs that year and everybody knows it!
Them and Nebraska would have been a great game.
This was simply the greatest offense in college football history. They had 5 teams down by 30 pts at the half. Not just scoring 30 in a half but led by 30 5 times including 2 all-time top 10 programs in Ohio St. & So. Cal. (both 35-0) who both went to bowl games that season. Penn St. scored at least 31 pts in all 12 games, 44 PPG, averaged PG 250 yds passing & 250 yds rushing despite the starters not playing the 4th qtr. in 6 games. The Big 10 was 4-1 in bowl games & the Big 8 was 2-2. Neb. beat by only 7, a Miami team that lost to unranked Wash. by 18 at HOME & won by 5 over a 3-8 Pitt team at home. The Big 8 was still at that time a mainly rushing conf. & Neb. would likely struggle with PSU's incomparable balance while PSU almost always did well vs a rushing offense. Knowing all that, what would make anyone with brain cells believe that Neb. would likely beat PSU. The Colorado lucky "hail Mary" win over Mich. is the game that cost PSU at least a share of the national title.
Wow, well put!
They were the most balanced and complete offense in the history of college football!!! Kerry Collins was so big and obviously not nimble of foot, but pocket presence and strong arm, he actually had a hitch in his throwing motion because he was a great pitcher growing up, and threw a 95 mile per hour fastball, but anyway he was amazing 👏!!! Him or Ki-Jana should have won 🏆 the Heisman easily!!!! It pisses me off, because this team got screwed out of the national title, literally!!! Our defense was very good, and listen to this, they were on the field all day, in a good way though, because our average scoring was less than 2 minutes!!! WE ARE 🏈 Unrivaled
Oh you are not only rivaled but you are submissive rivals to both Michigan and Ohio State
@@DubLubbnot that team! Destroyed OSU & beat UM in the big house.
Carter was so good. He never fully came back from his knee injury, and that's a shame
RIP Keith Jackson and Tom Mees.
Dang penn st used to look like Georgia and Bama back then! They were unbelievable especially Carter lol
WE ARE. PENN STATE
Probably never see so many offensive weapons ever again
Ah, 1994 Penn State, the gold mine that never stops giving its gold.
Weird how CFB didn't let them play 1994 Nebraska, but Penn State stole 1982 away from Nebraska. That guy who caught the ball was 100% out of bounce, Nebraska deserves the 1994 title.
What a team. Big ten rose bowl win. Really wish Joe had retired that year
Nebraska was by far the better team that year. I wish they could Have played tha year.
How do you determine that if they do not play each other?
It is not like either team played a competitve schedule.
However almost all of PSU games were over before Halftime, some by the 1st qtr.
Only UM and Illinois were close......
Nebraska actually seemed much more formidable the following season.
lol. Oh my. Penn State couldn't score less than 35 that year. The entire offense went to the NFL, most of them for a long time. Nebraska won one game all year, against Colorado, and if Michigan doesn't give up a hail mary to them they wouldn't have been relevant passed September.
@@dereklatshaw3017 Thank You!
I'm not sure about that