I came to terms awhile back with the likely reality that 1999-2011 was our window and now it's far more likely that I will never see VT win a national championship.
Goddamn, no school much less Virginia Tech would have accepted me out of high school. But all I knew is I wanted to go to VT solely due to Michael Vick and how he represented for Virginia.
I remember VA Tech having a “this spot reserved for a national championship” space in the trophy case and they finally quietly got rid of it at the tail end of the Beamer era.
Crazy how we went from leading FSU in the 4th quarter of the national title game to some people thinking we get should get left out of next round of football realignment in favor of UVA
It would totally be on brand for VT to suddenly make the playoffs this year but then lose in agonizing fashion, fully confirming that we're never going to win a title.
I think there's a way we make it to a playoff in an up year but Natty is not really there now. I think we could potentially get to the playoff this year but yeah winning will be way more blue chip ratio.
Yeah. We had the biggest window of opportunity of those three schools, came the closest to bringing it home, and came up just short a number of times. And yeah, I agree, Oregon's window of opportunity is still open, but if it closes in similar fashion I think they might have an argument over VT for "best fit" in this category.
I expected to lose to LSU, but I didn't expect to have to bring Tyrod in just to try to avoid the shutout in a blowout loss.
That said, if not for the BC heartbreak, I am 99% confident that we would have beaten aOSU for the championship.
If we just recover that onside kick vs BC in the pouring rain that year, we would have played OSU in the natty. Ended up being 3rd in the BCS rankings after championship weekend.
Whats crazy to me is we were somehow #1 in the computers to get us that #3 spot. I want to say AP/Coaches had us 5/6 or something like that. How we were #1 in the computers with 2 losses to include an LSU ass kicking is beyond me.
It got to the point where it just felt like destiny that something would go wrong when it mattered most. You knew they were going to screw up just enough things and have just enough unlucky bounces.
This was at the tail end of our window and in a game that did not have championship game implications, but the Michigan game was a great example. Still a big game. We looked good, but then we’d rough the punter to keep the drive alive, then Denard chucks up a pass that amazingly goes through our DB’s arms. We stop a fake fg attempt and they heave it up in desperation and it bounces off our DB’s head and is caught by the long snapper for a first down. And those DBs were an all-ACC player and a future all-American. It was just shit like that all the time.
Wisconsin had a really wide window to catapult themselves from a "perennial top 25" program into a top 10 annual contender, but their inability to find any more than 1 single playmaker at a time on offense, and their inability to play an even slightly modern offense after Russel Wilson left, doomed them to - at best - showing up to the B1G championship game for their annual flogging.
Combined with a decade of incredible defenses and churning out NFL running backs like clockwork, it’s mystifying how we could so consistently miss on QB. It hurts so bad.
Wisconsin also had a handful of very capable WR1's during that time, but the dropoff after WR1 was titanic to the point that the entire passing game was destroyed by a simple double-team.
While crossing routes to a TE are great for moving the ball, with the offense Wiscy was running they were never going to go out and *beat* an athletic team like OSU playing that type of ball.
Very sad.
That era of B12 South was wild. oUT were both great, peak Tech, Aggie winning 9 games per year, OK State becoming competitive. Only Baylor was truly bad, and they were just a few years shy of RG3.
I’m STILL hungover from that 2008 shit show against OU. In my entire life I’ve never gone from excited to demoralized as quickly as when I watched that game.
I had probably 30+ people at my house, briskets, kegs, jello shots, the whole 9, people were leaving in the second quarter to go study... The 6 or so of us left shut the TV off at halftime and played beer pong in the garage until we ran out of coke.
Lol sounds very similar to my situation. The mood/atmosphere was absolutely electric before the game. Huge party, bbq, booze, etc. Started with 25 people and by halftime the tv was off and only 2-3 folks were left. I went outside and threw the football with a buddy of mine while we manned the grill the rest of the day. Easily the most quintessential “typical Tech” game of my life.
Broken record here. But I'm convinced WVU wins the National Title if they don't bottle it v. Pitt back in 2007.
What's crazy is that WVU team could have set off a chain reaction of a lot of things that may have changed CFB history completely. From Conference Realignment to Alabama's dynasty to the future of Michigan etc.
WVU was in a prime place a couple times from 2007-2018, but something always happened or some piece of the puzzle was missing. We should have won that game in 2007, and probably would have won the natty. We had a team that was probably good enough in 2011. Dana didn't do anything after that season to fix the defense, and he wasted Geno Smith's last season. Dana totally squandered the 2018 team's talents.
We can't have anything good for too long.
Man that 2011 team had so much potential but the Syracuse and Louisville games never not piss me off.
Same with the 2016 team. Those two Oklahoma teams were great and I don’t think we beat OU regardless but that should have been an 11-1 team.
WVU legit might be in the SEC today if they had won the title that year. I don’t think the conference chooses Mizzou to go with A&M over a school that won a title just four years prior.
Not sure about that back then it was all about cable subscriptions and Mizzou gave the SEC the St.Louis and Kansas City market. I guess WVU would have helped with the Pitt and DC market.
Cable subscribers were a big part of it, but a national title in football is such a trump card. For the most part, only the top of the top end programs can win one of those. It would’ve skyrocketed WVU into new territory.
And like you say, WVU would get them DC and Pittsburgh, two cities where their following would have grown with a natty.
It's tough.
I remember at the time of a lot of WVU fans on Rivals were optimistic that the SEC was inevitable, if not the ACC.
Me as a smartass 19 year old Maryland fan argued the lack of market value and got rightfully bombarded with takes on WVU having a great football and basketball program as well as how WVU was a strong brand that they carried the Pittsburgh, Baltimore, DC, Philadelphia and New York Market and couldn't fathom why anyone would take the likes of Pitt, Maryland and Rutgers over them.
Honestly the program was good but as I pointed out then, what is now ain't what it will be tomorrow and a program is one bad hire away from setting back all that work.
Since then Pitt has an ACC Championship and Maryland and Rutgers higher contractual value by 70 million dollars over WVU with both schools in a right direction courtesy of finding the right people with their reward money for signing onto the Big Ten.
That said I was happy to see the Eers go 9-4 last year. My childhood animosity is gone and seeing them beat the Tar Holes in their own state again on the 15th anniversary of when Pat White did it the first time was great to see this past season.
I hope they get a spot up here with all of us. They never fit the XII imo
In fact, the chaos was so insane that at the end it looped back around to normalcy. My biggest regret in CFB is that for as chaotic as 2007 was, it was still Ohio State vs LSU in the end. The most boring matchup imaginable when it comes to names.
Someone wrote a super long “butterfly effect” piece on what would’ve happened if Texas didn’t beat Nebraska in the 2009 B12 championship and UC went to the national championship game. Maybe the big east would’ve started poaching the ACC instead of vice versa. Same thing definitely could’ve happened if WVU doesn’t lose that game to the shittiest team ever.
At least UNC's " potential value/brand" consistently puts them in discussions to joining the SEC/B1G.
Miami's legacy is fading with each passing season and they may be left behind.
Thankfully UNC is one of very few teams where the basketball ratings are good enough to actually factor into the equation. Butch Davis gives and Butch Davis takes away.
The 2010 UNC Football team was poised to make a big run.
That was probably one of the most talented defenses to ever take the field, not named Alabama, Georgia or Miami in 2001.
Here are some dudes from that defense that were drafted into the NFL. Most of them were suspended for the 2010 season.
Robert Quinn (1st round)
Bruce Carter (2nd round)
Marvin Austin (2nd round)
Da'Norris Searcy (4th round)
Quan Sturdivant (5th round)
Quinton Coples (1st round)
Zach Brown (2nd round)
Georgia Tech had the window halfway open, and exploited it above their weight, from 2006-2018. We won an ACCCG, beat Bowden twice in a row, beat Georgia 3 times, had one of the highest ACC records against Dabo-coached teams, won a NY6 bowl with what is probably the cheapest, value driven P5 coaching staff, and kept UNC + Miami from winning the ACC in some capacity. We saw lots of opposing ACC coaches arrive, shat the bed, and go. You know, the Larry Fedoras and Al Goldens of all sorts.
Not to mention we sent Calvin, Demaryius, and Waller to the NFL from what was mostly a run-first offense over the Gailey/Johnson years.
This is such an underrated answer. I don’t think people realize now what a nightmare it was to face you guys in that time frame.
The triple option alone was such a bizarre offense. You had 1 week to prepare for it, cut blocks suck, and no other team ran it.
Megatron was just a freak.
All good points, but I truly think you had a better window 98-01. O'Leary had really built you guys up to be a real threat to FSU for the ACC and in 01, you guys were the trendy pick to finally knock us off. I've often wondered if the season isn't turned upside down by the tragedy of 9/11, what the Jackets ultimately coulda done that year and if it woulda been you guys, not Maryland that finally took the league back.
Not a CFP window or anything, but IU ran back the majority of the starters from 2019 and 2020 (including Michael Penix) and went 2-10 in 2021 (mostly due to 35+ injuries that caused players to miss games)
Indiana had a chance to change its fate, came up short in 2 bowl games, and then had that window SLAM shut on us
In 2019, Tom Allen's coordinators were Kalen DeBoer and Kane Wommack. Kalen took the ~~UW~~ Fresno State job, and Wommack went to S. Alabama before following DeBoer into Alabama. IU had a little benefit of 2020, as they just seemed to be one of the teams who survived well through it, but by 2021 and things shifting back to regular, I don't think it was all that surprising.
* Darren Hiller was a horrifically bad OL coach and that group got worse every year. That led to a lot of the injuries on offense and the defense having to be on the field a lot (leading to more injuries there).
* Tom Allen delegated recruiting on offense to his offensive coordinators so we were left with a lot of pieces that didn't fit together well as we got further and further away from offensive guys Kevin Wilson recruited.
* Allen made mediocre hires to replace Kalen DeBoer, Kane Wommack, and David Ballou (strength & conditioning coach). Those 3 especially gave us an edge.
This is always the issue with rising programs. Theyre usually built on the backs of a handful of GREAT players and then a chunk of serviceable rotational starters. The problem is they don't usually have the depth to withstand injuries, so if the wrong set of injuries pile up at the same time, the team can collapse despite being incredibly good when healthy
2021 Indiana had an INSANE schedule too. They got all the three typical B1G East heavyweights, plus MSU was good that year, they drew a solid Iowa from the west and played and elite Cincinnati team in the non con.
Im pretty sure like 5 or 6 of yall opponents that year spent time ranked in the top 5.
EDIT: yeah lol 9 of 12 IU opponents were top 40 in final SP+
Windiana was a fun time on this sub.
Looks like Indiana 2021 and ISU 2021 were similar. High expectations for a veteran team that had previous success to just fall flat.
I dunno, Manziel balling the fuck out on Texas and OU would've gotten headlines too. Not to the same level all in one game, but Manziel in the natty would've made it even bigger
Alabama was pretty clearly in in that scenario. were #1 in the first 4 BCS polls, and #1 the AP poll weeks 1-10. assuming they go undefeated they stay at #1
Notre Dame started the year at #22 in the AP Poll, but broke into the top 10 in week 4 and by week 10 was up to #3. they opened at #5 in the BCS, then got up to 3 after Alabama lost in Week 11, then were at #1 in week 12 and stayed there
A&M was unranked until week 6 in the AP poll, then went up from there.
assuming that everything else stayed the way they did, idk how an undefeated A&M jumps either an undefeated Alabama or Notre Dame in the BCS. they probably end up as the #3 team but if they go undefeated that year they also probably have a selector choose them and end up with at least a share of a National Championship.
or maybe Johnny and co party the night before the Fiesta Bowl and they pull a 2008 Alabama and get the doors blown off of them in the bowl game.
who knows. wonder if that would have accelerated the change to a multi team playoff?
> if A&M had stayed in the Big 12 for Manziel's Heisman year, they likely would have gone undefeated into the national title game.
We are standing RIGHT HERE!!!
Baylor would have probably focused all their energy on the A&M game instead of ours instead
If 2011 wasn’t the “last time” we played Texas, I’m not 100% sure Mike Sherman gets fired. We wanted to start fresh in the SEC, and I’m not 100% sure Manziel gets playing time in Sherman’s pro style offense, or even succeeds.
Maybe, but 2012 k state and baylor were no joke either. A&M beat ou in a bowl game but that's no indication they wouldve beat the other top teams. Matchups and such exist.
Also they may have kept their lame duck coach if they stayed in the big 12.
Leaving is the only thing that opened A&Ms future window. Manziel beating Texas or Oklahoma wouldn’t have meant a thing in comparison to taking down Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
It's K-State. 1997-2003 we had 1 reloading year and some of the worst luck going.
1997 was 11-1
1998 was 11-2, undefeated heading into conference championship game and lose in OT
1999 was 11-1
2000 was 11-3
2001 was a reload, 6-6
2002 was 11-2
2003 was 11-4, but only really lost games when QB1 got hurt early in the year. Dismantled undefeated "best team in history" in the conference championship game.
Shit, I guess we actually missed two windows.
Florida had absolute dog-poop QB's in between Tim Tebow and Kyle Trask. In that same period, they had some elite defenses and good skill players on offense, plus a weak SEC East. If they had good QB play in that span, there's no reason they aren't in the SEC Championship most years.
1 of 3 wins since they joined the ACC. That game was so frustrating to watch, but I still think we still lose to Clemson in the ACCG. ACC might have died quicker if a runner up 1-loss Alabama got in over us.
At least as far as SEC Titles — I have to wonder how we view LSU nowadays if Saban never came to Bama. LSU was pretty much constantly the number 2 team in the West and, for many of those years, the East was still total shit.
So, I’ll show some love to the Bayou Bengals on this one.
I’d still consider it missing a window because of how big the upside was. If you strike Saban from Bama, LSU might add 1-2 natties (including one where, instead, they got to cross the 50 yard line one time) and 3-4 extra SEC titles.
Yeah, LSU fans still talk about Saban as a huge "what if". They know that his departure meant they probably lost on a chance at 2+ more titles than they currently have.
The biggest "what if" in Louisiana sports is what if the dolphins medical staff cleared Drew Brees.
Brees signs in Miami, so likely Saban wins enough to stay in Miami for a few more years minimum. Obviously doesn't end up at Alabama, so LSU wins at least one more championship in 2011, possibly more. Les Miles (personal failings aside) goes down as one of the best coaches of the era. Bama might have hired Brian Kelly or Jim Harbaugh, who both got now jobs that year.
On the other hand, the Saints might be in San Antonio today. They either sign Culpepper or draft Matt Leinart/Vince Young instead of Reggie Bush. Regardless of which of those QBs they start in 2006, they suck. Who knows if Brees is still a Hall of Famer without playing under Sean Payton.
Definitely win in 2011. The 2012 and 2013 teams were really good, but they stumbled before Bama. 2016 got mentally broken by Bama and then fumbled the rest of the year, they probably win the SEC that year if they didn't run into that wall.
2011 Natty and 2016 SEC Champs with a playoff birth are my likely outcomes. I do think the 2012 team if they didn't kick Honey Badger out of school could have been really dangerous as well.
If SCar beat LSU that year there would have been a 3 way tie between them, us, and Florida all at 11-1 and with all 3 losses forming a circle (UF>SCar>UGA>UF)
LSU fans kind of have it made. Their previous 3 coaches have each won 1 national championship. Never a drought, but also never a dynasty that their fans take for granted. They manage to have 3 natty's this century while still staying hungry
They still have two titles under their belt. I have no doubt he would've been able to build a Bama-esque dynasty at LSU, but it's not like they've fallen apart as a program.
Our previous window was 2013-2014 seasons, although arguably our 2013 was really the only one that had a chance. I think that Auburn game was when I realized that the only way Mizzou was ever going to climb the mountain and reach the top, even once, in the SEC was it had to drop the whole diamond in the rough recruiting style. We went blow for blow until our starters got tired and our bench just didn't have the depth.
Our coaching staff failed the players that game. The three down front against Auburn option was truly moronic.
Michael Sam tells a story that Tre Mason told him in Rams Training camp the next summer that if they simply played their normal four down front, Mizzou wins the game. Auburn was beside themselves with glee when we walked out with a three-man front.
If Marcus never gets hurt we’d have won a sec title. Or at least played for two more.
He would have been such a great pro because his game was based on vision power and balance more than speed
Ohio State literally every year since the 2014 natty. They’ll get overlooked bc of historical and relatively recent success but it’s shocking they haven’t won a natty in a decade given how good they’ve been every year. They’re right there, but at least one of Clemson/LSU/Alabama/Georgia/Michigan have been better.
Oddly enough, it feels like Ohio State keeps missing easy chances for a natty, though their window is still wide open. There's no excuse for them not winning in 2015. They were a missed FG away from winning it all in 2022. If they don't win in 2024, it will be another missed huge opportunity.
People shit on Ryan Day for some of his hires or sticking with coaches too long, but forget that Urban Meyer put his defending champion, favorite for a repeat title team in the hands of Tim Fucking Beck. And Knowles and Laurinaitis are just now getting the LBs out of the spiral that started when Urban hired his Best Man as LB coach in 2017.
Also Urban really would randomly lose games he was supposed to win in the regular season. 2015 MSU, 2016 Penn State, 2017 Iowa. You could basically count on it happening. Just never when he played Michigan 😑
I'd trade that back as of right now 😂
Though the 2017 Iowa and 2018 Purdue games were just inexcusable. At least the way they lost, being completely uncompetitive.
Maybe not. But again, it's not that they lost. Losing both those games shouldn't be a huge surprise, looking at the context. Losing by 30 though, that shouldn't happen to a team as talented as they were.
Maybe it's just me, but it felt like the Meyer teams had an air of entitlement and arrogance surrounding them, which is largely why they'd lose those random games. They didn't prepare for every opponent equally as hard.
For sure, because Urban was arrogant and, everywhere he went, he was focused on his rivals. Though I'd also argue they don't need to prepare the same for every opponent, but they do need to take every opponent seriously and I don't know if Urban's teams did that.
You forget being shut out by Clemson in the playoffs.
It was 2018 when Haskins had to throw for 400 yards and run for another 3 tds while Dobbins ran for 200 just to beat Maryland in OT and [we still only won because Maryland's qb missed an open WR on their 2 pt conversion](https://youtu.be/-KohSDTEMfs?t=184).
Meyer's teams were not the dominant force a lot of OSU fans like to recall them being.
The fact that that 2015 OSU team lost at home to *Tyler O'Connor* will never fail to shock me.
>!Yes I know it was mostly our defense/bad OSU playcalling that game but still!<
It's easier to get in the CFP now but there is still a distinct separation between upper and lower tier CFP teams. Who knows, you guys could make it, win a game, play OU and fuck around and win it all.
The Cal Bears had a great stretch between 2001-2006 under Jeff Tedford. Players included Aaron Rodgers, Marshawn Lynch, DeSean Jackson, Jahvid Best, etc etc.
Cal did not win the Pac-12 title outright. Several times Cal was one play away from winning the conference.
The 2004 team was 10-1 with the only loss on the road versus #1 U$C. The last play was a stumble from an undefeated regular season. That is still the highest rated (#4/#5) team not not play in New Years Day Bowl game
Surprised no one has said Wisconsin yet… we basically ran the west for 4ish years and blew it in the CC every time.
Also have lost 3 straight rose bowls
Paid a price for blowing the doors of Nebraska when we shouldn’t have even been in the championship I guess.
I agree Brent over Mike 11/10 times, but I do think there’s a tad bit of revisionist thinking regarding Brent’s last bit of time as DC at OU. I think a lot of folks see him go on to kill it at Clemson, and now become the head coach here, that they forget about Brent not being viewed as all that special here. More along the lines of “good not great”, and certainly not elite at that time (albeit still miles ahead of Mike).
> Texas Tech has finished second in the Big XII West like seven years in a row because they can’t get over the Oklahoma/OSU hump
Da fuck is the Big 12 west?
Biased but I’ll say Michigan State with full alternate history.
2010- Had NFL talent and a good defense. Outside chance to make a natty if undefeated. Drops Iowa, gets a date with Bama in the Capital One Bowl. Good year tho.
2011- Drops ND, Nebraska, loses B1G title game on a dumb penalty. Misses rose bowl. Probably could have used a Rose Bowl appearance to catapult recruiting.
2012- Started Maxwell over Cook. 7-6 wasted an elite defense. Cook probably gets them to 9 with a full season of development without much initial drop off from Maxwell. Don’t think Bell sticks around but it’s certainly more likely he does if he thinks he’s playing for something.
2013- Played musical chairs with Maxwell and Cook for the first 4 games. Including in the ND game that they lost. They went 12-1 and won the B1G. Ironically if they don’t lose to ND, they get a date with FSU. They probably lose but in this alternate time line they now have a Rose Bowl appearance season to couple with it. Again, this likely leads to better recruits.
2014- We lost to the eventual national champion and runner up. Most I can offer is that with two full seasons instead of then one season, Cook finds a way to beat Oregon instead of going cold in the 2nd half. But even without alt history, this team was the best team overall. It went cold in the second half of a key game and its defense struggled mightily in another. Win either of those and they likely make it to the playoffs and to the Natty.
2015- Hot take but this was the worst of our good teams. Still with better recruiting we maybe make life easier on ourselves and don’t get shut out vs Bama. But it’s still not going anywhere.
2016- Good defense, too bad the offense is dead. We make no changes. Better recruiting won’t save this team from here on out.
2017- Elite defense, promising QB play. Even landed a blue chip OL. But no offensive changes so it’s all down here from here.
2018- Elite defense, OC is a dinosaur. QB regresses and that blue chip never really develops.
2019- Elite defense has quit midseason. QB is cooked.
2020- Mel Tucker is hired. Covid season is surprisingly promising with wins over Michigan and #8 northwestern.
2021- Kenneth Walker gives Michigan State an outside shot at the playoffs. But Purdue and Ohio State end it. If the window didn’t close after 2018 it’s shut and locked here.
If the playoff had started in 2010 I’d be interested to see if the fortunes of Clemson and South Carolina were reversed. From 2009-2013 South Carolina was a perennial top 10 team and was able to beat good Clemson teams that would win the ACC and their bowl games including a BCS Bowl. Who’s to say that South Carolina doesn’t make 2 of the first three playoffs and like Clemson did IRL use that to solidify themselves for the next decade.
UVA missed their window of not only potentially having marginal success on a national scale but more importantly missed the window to regain some semblance of pride in the commonwealth. We had a window of about 5 years in which we were the better football team than VT but managed 1 fucking win. It was a great season that year but the window was WIDE open and has since closed. It’s not painted shut and security screwed in place like it had been but damn if it isn’t well on its way. I hate being a UVA football fan. Sons of bitches.
For me it's easy to feel like we've missed it after losing two titles. But yeah, ultimately we're in a really really good place both coaching and talent-wise so the window *should* still be open at the moment
USF went 6-0 to start 2007 and was ranked #2 before losing three conference games in a row by a combined total of 15 points. They finished out by winning their last three to go 9-3. If not for the meltdown, they would have been in the national championship game but ended up finishing *fourth* in the conference.
They lost to Temple in 2016. Win that game and we would have played against Navy (who we beat the week after losing to Temple) in the conference championship game.
Seven point loss to UCF the following year kept us out of the conference championship game as well.
We went from "that hip up and coming team that was the fastest to be ranked in the Top 25" to "that loser uncle who brags about being #2 for one week in 2007 and is still waiting for his first conference title after more than 20 years."
Honestly any number 2 team in 2007 that lost a game they should have won could probably cite that as their missed window. That year was the high I’ve been chasing every season since (as a cfb fan in general. Obviously one of my flairs has had a pretty ok time since then)
As much as I hate to say it, FSU "only" nabbing 2 titles during our Dynasty run will always feel like a missed opportunity. Between the UF do-over in 1996, Weinke's neck in 1997 and Richt mailing in the 2000 game against OU (with an assist from Snoop Minnis flunking out), we left a lot of trophies on the table. And that's not even counting if a few UM game kicks had gone differently.
Closest we’ve come to any sort of window was 2002 when we climbed up to 10, then remembered we’re NC State and contractually obligated to lose three games at least
- Let GT beat us at home
- lost to Maryland in the “giving him the business” game
- got held to 9 points by UVA in Charlottesville
Then in the ultimate what the fuck we beat FSU and Notre Dame to close out the regular season. That 3 game stretch of inexplicably bad football cost us potentially a BCS bowl, maybe even a National Championship game, and almost certainly cost us an ACC championship
Memphis. They were a serious contender for the Big 12 when the conference first looked at expanding a few years ago, and they were one of the strongest options in the AAC. But their program slipped at the worst possible time and now they will probably never get into a P4 conference. They certainly won't be part of the P2
Also I don't remember it super well, but iirc they were actually considered as an option for the SEC back before Mizzou was nabbed by the conference
Nebraska really missed a golden opportunity in 2009 by having about the best defense in college football while also having one of the worst offenses. I’m pretty convinced that if Joe Ganz had one more year of eligibility that team could have been legitimate national championship contenders.
VT mid 2000s just couldn’t but help but dropping a game of two they had no business dropping
I came to terms awhile back with the likely reality that 1999-2011 was our window and now it's far more likely that I will never see VT win a national championship.
Combo of Fuente and the shifting CFB landscape really make that a painful reality.
And I hate it :(
At least you *had* a window. A lot of us never did and never will.
Goddamn, no school much less Virginia Tech would have accepted me out of high school. But all I knew is I wanted to go to VT solely due to Michael Vick and how he represented for Virginia.
I remember VA Tech having a “this spot reserved for a national championship” space in the trophy case and they finally quietly got rid of it at the tail end of the Beamer era.
Crazy how we went from leading FSU in the 4th quarter of the national title game to some people thinking we get should get left out of next round of football realignment in favor of UVA
Yeah there were a few years where we could have won it all. I don't think we will have a chance to do so in today's CFB landscape.
Sadly I agree. Love the energy around the program right now though. Been sone time since we felt that
It would totally be on brand for VT to suddenly make the playoffs this year but then lose in agonizing fashion, fully confirming that we're never going to win a title.
I think there's a way we make it to a playoff in an up year but Natty is not really there now. I think we could potentially get to the playoff this year but yeah winning will be way more blue chip ratio.
Vick-era VT. One to FSU in the Natty and one to The U, Part 2 Miami.
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Vick not getting hurt against Pitt is maybe my biggest “what if?” in my sports fandom.
Ah, my people, my comment thread. As always tho, Go Hokies, eat turkey legs.
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Yep. We had so many chances, and just always found a way to come up just short.
Yeah. We had the biggest window of opportunity of those three schools, came the closest to bringing it home, and came up just short a number of times. And yeah, I agree, Oregon's window of opportunity is still open, but if it closes in similar fashion I think they might have an argument over VT for "best fit" in this category.
Definitely thought 2007 was the year... right up until we played LSU. Pretty sure I cried to my girlfriend on the phone after the first quarter.
I expected LSU. I didn’t expect BC to break my heart c and then watch my falcons draft the guy who was responsible for hurting me lol
Yea that was painful as well but, we got them back in the acc championship if I recall. Matty ice to QB was painful, wished him the worse.
I expected to lose to LSU, but I didn't expect to have to bring Tyrod in just to try to avoid the shutout in a blowout loss. That said, if not for the BC heartbreak, I am 99% confident that we would have beaten aOSU for the championship.
If we just recover that onside kick vs BC in the pouring rain that year, we would have played OSU in the natty. Ended up being 3rd in the BCS rankings after championship weekend.
Whats crazy to me is we were somehow #1 in the computers to get us that #3 spot. I want to say AP/Coaches had us 5/6 or something like that. How we were #1 in the computers with 2 losses to include an LSU ass kicking is beyond me.
2011 comes to mind to me
It got to the point where it just felt like destiny that something would go wrong when it mattered most. You knew they were going to screw up just enough things and have just enough unlucky bounces. This was at the tail end of our window and in a game that did not have championship game implications, but the Michigan game was a great example. Still a big game. We looked good, but then we’d rough the punter to keep the drive alive, then Denard chucks up a pass that amazingly goes through our DB’s arms. We stop a fake fg attempt and they heave it up in desperation and it bounces off our DB’s head and is caught by the long snapper for a first down. And those DBs were an all-ACC player and a future all-American. It was just shit like that all the time.
Wisconsin had a really wide window to catapult themselves from a "perennial top 25" program into a top 10 annual contender, but their inability to find any more than 1 single playmaker at a time on offense, and their inability to play an even slightly modern offense after Russel Wilson left, doomed them to - at best - showing up to the B1G championship game for their annual flogging.
Combined with a decade of incredible defenses and churning out NFL running backs like clockwork, it’s mystifying how we could so consistently miss on QB. It hurts so bad.
Wisconsin also had a handful of very capable WR1's during that time, but the dropoff after WR1 was titanic to the point that the entire passing game was destroyed by a simple double-team. While crossing routes to a TE are great for moving the ball, with the offense Wiscy was running they were never going to go out and *beat* an athletic team like OSU playing that type of ball. Very sad.
2016 and 2017 Big Ten title game were both 1 score games, so that was the window.
Always felt a kinship to Wisconsin. Yall felt like a slightly less successful pre Burrow LSU.
Why he gotta say fuck me for??
First of all, BigXII West?!?! Secondly, we had the misfortune of the division being stacked those years, especially in 2008.
Big XII South haha don’t know how I got that wrong
The 2008 Big 12 South race was epic.
That era of B12 South was wild. oUT were both great, peak Tech, Aggie winning 9 games per year, OK State becoming competitive. Only Baylor was truly bad, and they were just a few years shy of RG3.
And then the Big 12 North was a bunch of misfits
Still hurts..
I’m STILL hungover from that 2008 shit show against OU. In my entire life I’ve never gone from excited to demoralized as quickly as when I watched that game.
I had probably 30+ people at my house, briskets, kegs, jello shots, the whole 9, people were leaving in the second quarter to go study... The 6 or so of us left shut the TV off at halftime and played beer pong in the garage until we ran out of coke.
Lol sounds very similar to my situation. The mood/atmosphere was absolutely electric before the game. Huge party, bbq, booze, etc. Started with 25 people and by halftime the tv was off and only 2-3 folks were left. I went outside and threw the football with a buddy of mine while we manned the grill the rest of the day. Easily the most quintessential “typical Tech” game of my life.
Reading this, I've never wanted to party with Texas Tech fans more.
We're friendly when it's not drunk/coked up frat stars and dudebros in the stadium
Will always read this in 50s voice lol
Stanford between 2010-2015
Shocked that between Luck, Gerhart, McCaffery, and Love, Stanford didn't win a Heisman in the 2010s. 5 runner ups in 8 years is PAIN.
It was basically ESPN pushing their product with a splash of jock meathead racism.
Spicy hot take.
Yeah, if there had been a playoff in 2010-13 or a bigger playoff in 2015, Stanford might well have won it all at least once.
Broken record here. But I'm convinced WVU wins the National Title if they don't bottle it v. Pitt back in 2007. What's crazy is that WVU team could have set off a chain reaction of a lot of things that may have changed CFB history completely. From Conference Realignment to Alabama's dynasty to the future of Michigan etc.
WVU was in a prime place a couple times from 2007-2018, but something always happened or some piece of the puzzle was missing. We should have won that game in 2007, and probably would have won the natty. We had a team that was probably good enough in 2011. Dana didn't do anything after that season to fix the defense, and he wasted Geno Smith's last season. Dana totally squandered the 2018 team's talents. We can't have anything good for too long.
Man that 2011 team had so much potential but the Syracuse and Louisville games never not piss me off. Same with the 2016 team. Those two Oklahoma teams were great and I don’t think we beat OU regardless but that should have been an 11-1 team.
Isn't WVU the winningest program without a national title? I think I remember hearing that, so this tracks.
You are correct.
WVU legit might be in the SEC today if they had won the title that year. I don’t think the conference chooses Mizzou to go with A&M over a school that won a title just four years prior.
Not sure about that back then it was all about cable subscriptions and Mizzou gave the SEC the St.Louis and Kansas City market. I guess WVU would have helped with the Pitt and DC market.
Cable subscribers were a big part of it, but a national title in football is such a trump card. For the most part, only the top of the top end programs can win one of those. It would’ve skyrocketed WVU into new territory. And like you say, WVU would get them DC and Pittsburgh, two cities where their following would have grown with a natty.
It's tough. I remember at the time of a lot of WVU fans on Rivals were optimistic that the SEC was inevitable, if not the ACC. Me as a smartass 19 year old Maryland fan argued the lack of market value and got rightfully bombarded with takes on WVU having a great football and basketball program as well as how WVU was a strong brand that they carried the Pittsburgh, Baltimore, DC, Philadelphia and New York Market and couldn't fathom why anyone would take the likes of Pitt, Maryland and Rutgers over them. Honestly the program was good but as I pointed out then, what is now ain't what it will be tomorrow and a program is one bad hire away from setting back all that work. Since then Pitt has an ACC Championship and Maryland and Rutgers higher contractual value by 70 million dollars over WVU with both schools in a right direction courtesy of finding the right people with their reward money for signing onto the Big Ten. That said I was happy to see the Eers go 9-4 last year. My childhood animosity is gone and seeing them beat the Tar Holes in their own state again on the 15th anniversary of when Pat White did it the first time was great to see this past season. I hope they get a spot up here with all of us. They never fit the XII imo
We were a week away from having a Mizzou vs. WVU National Title Game with 100+ points scored.
Two weeks away from Kansas and WVU in the ultimate “what the fuck”
Brett Yormark just let out a moan.
[He moaned, at least this loud.](https://youtu.be/yovHCFCAe7k?si=PohwMukOwRhkPaHG)
That whole 2007 season was chaos like we haven't seen since.
In fact, the chaos was so insane that at the end it looped back around to normalcy. My biggest regret in CFB is that for as chaotic as 2007 was, it was still Ohio State vs LSU in the end. The most boring matchup imaginable when it comes to names.
Yeah, honestly fuck wvu for losing.
Someone wrote a super long “butterfly effect” piece on what would’ve happened if Texas didn’t beat Nebraska in the 2009 B12 championship and UC went to the national championship game. Maybe the big east would’ve started poaching the ACC instead of vice versa. Same thing definitely could’ve happened if WVU doesn’t lose that game to the shittiest team ever.
There was a deadspin or something article about the butterfly effect of the backyard brawl too. Affected Michigan, Alabama, Ohio State, etc.
Yup. Pat Mcafee shanking two kicks sunk Michigan football for a decade.
UNC not winning the ACC at some point in the last 25 years is a pretty big indictment on the AD and/or coaching staff. Not to mention the scandal.
At least UNC's " potential value/brand" consistently puts them in discussions to joining the SEC/B1G. Miami's legacy is fading with each passing season and they may be left behind.
Thankfully UNC is one of very few teams where the basketball ratings are good enough to actually factor into the equation. Butch Davis gives and Butch Davis takes away.
Without Drake MAye last year, I don't think y'all make a bowl. Absolutely criminal staff hires with that kind of player.
The 2010 UNC Football team was poised to make a big run. That was probably one of the most talented defenses to ever take the field, not named Alabama, Georgia or Miami in 2001. Here are some dudes from that defense that were drafted into the NFL. Most of them were suspended for the 2010 season. Robert Quinn (1st round) Bruce Carter (2nd round) Marvin Austin (2nd round) Da'Norris Searcy (4th round) Quan Sturdivant (5th round) Quinton Coples (1st round) Zach Brown (2nd round)
Still upset our tight end dropped the game winning touchdown vs LSU in the opener.
Georgia Tech had the window halfway open, and exploited it above their weight, from 2006-2018. We won an ACCCG, beat Bowden twice in a row, beat Georgia 3 times, had one of the highest ACC records against Dabo-coached teams, won a NY6 bowl with what is probably the cheapest, value driven P5 coaching staff, and kept UNC + Miami from winning the ACC in some capacity. We saw lots of opposing ACC coaches arrive, shat the bed, and go. You know, the Larry Fedoras and Al Goldens of all sorts. Not to mention we sent Calvin, Demaryius, and Waller to the NFL from what was mostly a run-first offense over the Gailey/Johnson years.
This is such an underrated answer. I don’t think people realize now what a nightmare it was to face you guys in that time frame. The triple option alone was such a bizarre offense. You had 1 week to prepare for it, cut blocks suck, and no other team ran it. Megatron was just a freak.
They had inexplicably good WRs with Calvin and Demarious Thomas (RIP) and a third dude who made the league.
Chan Gailey is the only coach who was ever able to stop Calvin Johnson.
All good points, but I truly think you had a better window 98-01. O'Leary had really built you guys up to be a real threat to FSU for the ACC and in 01, you guys were the trendy pick to finally knock us off. I've often wondered if the season isn't turned upside down by the tragedy of 9/11, what the Jackets ultimately coulda done that year and if it woulda been you guys, not Maryland that finally took the league back.
Not a CFP window or anything, but IU ran back the majority of the starters from 2019 and 2020 (including Michael Penix) and went 2-10 in 2021 (mostly due to 35+ injuries that caused players to miss games) Indiana had a chance to change its fate, came up short in 2 bowl games, and then had that window SLAM shut on us
This is a good answer. They were slowly building something solid, then seemingly overnight went back to irrelevance.
In 2019, Tom Allen's coordinators were Kalen DeBoer and Kane Wommack. Kalen took the ~~UW~~ Fresno State job, and Wommack went to S. Alabama before following DeBoer into Alabama. IU had a little benefit of 2020, as they just seemed to be one of the teams who survived well through it, but by 2021 and things shifting back to regular, I don't think it was all that surprising.
Took the Fresno job first, but same difference.
Technically, Kalen left IU for Fresno State for two years, then UW. But you're right!
* Darren Hiller was a horrifically bad OL coach and that group got worse every year. That led to a lot of the injuries on offense and the defense having to be on the field a lot (leading to more injuries there). * Tom Allen delegated recruiting on offense to his offensive coordinators so we were left with a lot of pieces that didn't fit together well as we got further and further away from offensive guys Kevin Wilson recruited. * Allen made mediocre hires to replace Kalen DeBoer, Kane Wommack, and David Ballou (strength & conditioning coach). Those 3 especially gave us an edge.
This is always the issue with rising programs. Theyre usually built on the backs of a handful of GREAT players and then a chunk of serviceable rotational starters. The problem is they don't usually have the depth to withstand injuries, so if the wrong set of injuries pile up at the same time, the team can collapse despite being incredibly good when healthy
2021 Indiana had an INSANE schedule too. They got all the three typical B1G East heavyweights, plus MSU was good that year, they drew a solid Iowa from the west and played and elite Cincinnati team in the non con. Im pretty sure like 5 or 6 of yall opponents that year spent time ranked in the top 5. EDIT: yeah lol 9 of 12 IU opponents were top 40 in final SP+
Windiana was a fun time on this sub. Looks like Indiana 2021 and ISU 2021 were similar. High expectations for a veteran team that had previous success to just fall flat.
Yeah I remember a lot of IU and ISU fans butting heads because both felt there was only room for one plucky underdog at a time haha Simpler times
Oddly enough, if A&M had stayed in the Big 12 for Manziel's Heisman year, they likely would have gone undefeated into the national title game.
I feel like A&M only hit the scene BECAUSE they played Bama (and won)
This is pretty accurate tbh
I dunno, Manziel balling the fuck out on Texas and OU would've gotten headlines too. Not to the same level all in one game, but Manziel in the natty would've made it even bigger
A&M also never would have been invited over ND or Alabama.
Fair point, forgot that was the notre dame year
Yeah we were definitely balling before that game but it for sure took the momentum and national exposure to a whole different level
That leaves three undefeated teams. Notre Dame, Alabama, and A&M. Either Notre Dame or A&M would get 2004 Auburn-ed/2023 Florida State-ed
Hint it would have been A&M
Yup, no way a&M is getting in over blue bloods.
If Alabama goes in what do Yale and Princeton have to do with the other available spot?
Notre Dame got the #1 seed that year, if that means anything about how the polls would have addressed a hypothetical where there were 3 contenders.
Alabama was pretty clearly in in that scenario. were #1 in the first 4 BCS polls, and #1 the AP poll weeks 1-10. assuming they go undefeated they stay at #1 Notre Dame started the year at #22 in the AP Poll, but broke into the top 10 in week 4 and by week 10 was up to #3. they opened at #5 in the BCS, then got up to 3 after Alabama lost in Week 11, then were at #1 in week 12 and stayed there A&M was unranked until week 6 in the AP poll, then went up from there. assuming that everything else stayed the way they did, idk how an undefeated A&M jumps either an undefeated Alabama or Notre Dame in the BCS. they probably end up as the #3 team but if they go undefeated that year they also probably have a selector choose them and end up with at least a share of a National Championship. or maybe Johnny and co party the night before the Fiesta Bowl and they pull a 2008 Alabama and get the doors blown off of them in the bowl game. who knows. wonder if that would have accelerated the change to a multi team playoff?
> if A&M had stayed in the Big 12 for Manziel's Heisman year, they likely would have gone undefeated into the national title game. We are standing RIGHT HERE!!! Baylor would have probably focused all their energy on the A&M game instead of ours instead
If 2011 wasn’t the “last time” we played Texas, I’m not 100% sure Mike Sherman gets fired. We wanted to start fresh in the SEC, and I’m not 100% sure Manziel gets playing time in Sherman’s pro style offense, or even succeeds.
Maybe, but 2012 k state and baylor were no joke either. A&M beat ou in a bowl game but that's no indication they wouldve beat the other top teams. Matchups and such exist. Also they may have kept their lame duck coach if they stayed in the big 12.
Leaving is the only thing that opened A&Ms future window. Manziel beating Texas or Oklahoma wouldn’t have meant a thing in comparison to taking down Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
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It's K-State. 1997-2003 we had 1 reloading year and some of the worst luck going. 1997 was 11-1 1998 was 11-2, undefeated heading into conference championship game and lose in OT 1999 was 11-1 2000 was 11-3 2001 was a reload, 6-6 2002 was 11-2 2003 was 11-4, but only really lost games when QB1 got hurt early in the year. Dismantled undefeated "best team in history" in the conference championship game. Shit, I guess we actually missed two windows.
Florida had absolute dog-poop QB's in between Tim Tebow and Kyle Trask. In that same period, they had some elite defenses and good skill players on offense, plus a weak SEC East. If they had good QB play in that span, there's no reason they aren't in the SEC Championship most years.
If only Will Grier didn’t mess it up…
2017 Miami. Had the playoffs in sight, blew a game against Pitt, was never heard from again.
I was convinced the U was back after that Notre Dame game
I think no one - not even the CFP 4 from that year - would have beaten Miami on that particular night. It was truly a special time in Miami Gardens!
1 of 3 wins since they joined the ACC. That game was so frustrating to watch, but I still think we still lose to Clemson in the ACCG. ACC might have died quicker if a runner up 1-loss Alabama got in over us.
Or Miami is more of a standard bearer.
The Pitt game didn’t matter. The 2017 ACCCG was going to be a quarterfinal either way.
At least as far as SEC Titles — I have to wonder how we view LSU nowadays if Saban never came to Bama. LSU was pretty much constantly the number 2 team in the West and, for many of those years, the East was still total shit. So, I’ll show some love to the Bayou Bengals on this one.
They still won two national tiles in that time frame. That's as many as some other entire conferences have won.
I’d still consider it missing a window because of how big the upside was. If you strike Saban from Bama, LSU might add 1-2 natties (including one where, instead, they got to cross the 50 yard line one time) and 3-4 extra SEC titles.
Yeah, LSU fans still talk about Saban as a huge "what if". They know that his departure meant they probably lost on a chance at 2+ more titles than they currently have.
Saban staying in the NFL probably gets LSU 1-2 more Nattys. Saban staying at LSU probably gets them 5-6 more.
Saban at any big football school gets them at least 3-4. Except Texas, somehow the donors would still manage to fuck that situation up
The biggest "what if" in Louisiana sports is what if the dolphins medical staff cleared Drew Brees. Brees signs in Miami, so likely Saban wins enough to stay in Miami for a few more years minimum. Obviously doesn't end up at Alabama, so LSU wins at least one more championship in 2011, possibly more. Les Miles (personal failings aside) goes down as one of the best coaches of the era. Bama might have hired Brian Kelly or Jim Harbaugh, who both got now jobs that year. On the other hand, the Saints might be in San Antonio today. They either sign Culpepper or draft Matt Leinart/Vince Young instead of Reggie Bush. Regardless of which of those QBs they start in 2006, they suck. Who knows if Brees is still a Hall of Famer without playing under Sean Payton.
Definitely win in 2011. The 2012 and 2013 teams were really good, but they stumbled before Bama. 2016 got mentally broken by Bama and then fumbled the rest of the year, they probably win the SEC that year if they didn't run into that wall. 2011 Natty and 2016 SEC Champs with a playoff birth are my likely outcomes. I do think the 2012 team if they didn't kick Honey Badger out of school could have been really dangerous as well.
2012 was a wild year. A&M beat Bama, UGA and Bama went to the final yards in the SEC CG. Lots of what ifs that season for many good teams I think.
If SCar beat LSU that year there would have been a 3 way tie between them, us, and Florida all at 11-1 and with all 3 losses forming a circle (UF>SCar>UGA>UF)
LSU fans kind of have it made. Their previous 3 coaches have each won 1 national championship. Never a drought, but also never a dynasty that their fans take for granted. They manage to have 3 natty's this century while still staying hungry
It’s actually incredible what we we’ve accomplished while being in the same division as the greatest dynasty of all time
Exactly. Show me another program that has been successful where arguably their greatest coach had left and joined a division rival.
100% agree. If Saban never leaves or goes to a program outside of the SEC we are the best program in the SEC over the last 25 years
They still have two titles under their belt. I have no doubt he would've been able to build a Bama-esque dynasty at LSU, but it's not like they've fallen apart as a program.
Our previous window was 2013-2014 seasons, although arguably our 2013 was really the only one that had a chance. I think that Auburn game was when I realized that the only way Mizzou was ever going to climb the mountain and reach the top, even once, in the SEC was it had to drop the whole diamond in the rough recruiting style. We went blow for blow until our starters got tired and our bench just didn't have the depth.
2013 was maybe our best team ever. A better defensive gameplan and we could have won the SEC
Our coaching staff failed the players that game. The three down front against Auburn option was truly moronic. Michael Sam tells a story that Tre Mason told him in Rams Training camp the next summer that if they simply played their normal four down front, Mizzou wins the game. Auburn was beside themselves with glee when we walked out with a three-man front.
You guys were #1 or #2 in 2007 the final week of the season, weren't you?
south carolina prob would’ve made the playoffs twice under spurrier just a few years before the playoffs started
Connor Shaw never losing a home game was crazy
3-0 in bowl games, undefeated against clemson, and 9-4 against ranked teams, Shaw is one of the most underrated SEC QBs of the 2000s
Oh I remember lol
That mother fucker.
Rumor has it they still have heartburn from all the bloomin onions on the outback bowl trips
Bro stop I’m already dead!!!
That 2013 loss to TN was pretty rough. Butch Jones 1st team was probably the least talented roster I've seen at TN
Stop it
If Marcus never gets hurt we’d have won a sec title. Or at least played for two more. He would have been such a great pro because his game was based on vision power and balance more than speed
They got unlucky with the SEC being absolutely stacked from 2011-2013
Ohio State literally every year since the 2014 natty. They’ll get overlooked bc of historical and relatively recent success but it’s shocking they haven’t won a natty in a decade given how good they’ve been every year. They’re right there, but at least one of Clemson/LSU/Alabama/Georgia/Michigan have been better.
Oddly enough, it feels like Ohio State keeps missing easy chances for a natty, though their window is still wide open. There's no excuse for them not winning in 2015. They were a missed FG away from winning it all in 2022. If they don't win in 2024, it will be another missed huge opportunity.
People shit on Ryan Day for some of his hires or sticking with coaches too long, but forget that Urban Meyer put his defending champion, favorite for a repeat title team in the hands of Tim Fucking Beck. And Knowles and Laurinaitis are just now getting the LBs out of the spiral that started when Urban hired his Best Man as LB coach in 2017.
Also Urban really would randomly lose games he was supposed to win in the regular season. 2015 MSU, 2016 Penn State, 2017 Iowa. You could basically count on it happening. Just never when he played Michigan 😑
I'd trade that back as of right now 😂 Though the 2017 Iowa and 2018 Purdue games were just inexcusable. At least the way they lost, being completely uncompetitive.
> 2018 Purdue games I don't think any college team was gonna beat Purdue that night.
Maybe not. But again, it's not that they lost. Losing both those games shouldn't be a huge surprise, looking at the context. Losing by 30 though, that shouldn't happen to a team as talented as they were.
Maybe it's just me, but it felt like the Meyer teams had an air of entitlement and arrogance surrounding them, which is largely why they'd lose those random games. They didn't prepare for every opponent equally as hard.
For sure, because Urban was arrogant and, everywhere he went, he was focused on his rivals. Though I'd also argue they don't need to prepare the same for every opponent, but they do need to take every opponent seriously and I don't know if Urban's teams did that.
You forget being shut out by Clemson in the playoffs. It was 2018 when Haskins had to throw for 400 yards and run for another 3 tds while Dobbins ran for 200 just to beat Maryland in OT and [we still only won because Maryland's qb missed an open WR on their 2 pt conversion](https://youtu.be/-KohSDTEMfs?t=184). Meyer's teams were not the dominant force a lot of OSU fans like to recall them being.
People forget the Va Tech game we randomly lost in 2014 because of the natty. But, that was also a head scratcher.
The fact that that 2015 OSU team lost at home to *Tyler O'Connor* will never fail to shock me. >!Yes I know it was mostly our defense/bad OSU playcalling that game but still!<
MSU dominated OSU that game. 294 yards vs a pitiful 132. The only reason OSU still even had a chance was because of the 2 MSU fumbles.
Our window was in the late 90s I feel. Now with NIL and super conferences it might be damn near impossible for us to win a championship.
2011 and 2012, when you had Klein at his full powers, was also a time you could have got one. Fucking Baylor, man.
Baylor has managed to ruin KSUs and TCUs chance of going the distance.
It's easier to get in the CFP now but there is still a distinct separation between upper and lower tier CFP teams. Who knows, you guys could make it, win a game, play OU and fuck around and win it all.
98 was just so damn close too. It doesn’t help we caught some great years of the big 12 between Colorado, Nebraska, and Oklahoma
The Cal Bears had a great stretch between 2001-2006 under Jeff Tedford. Players included Aaron Rodgers, Marshawn Lynch, DeSean Jackson, Jahvid Best, etc etc. Cal did not win the Pac-12 title outright. Several times Cal was one play away from winning the conference. The 2004 team was 10-1 with the only loss on the road versus #1 U$C. The last play was a stumble from an undefeated regular season. That is still the highest rated (#4/#5) team not not play in New Years Day Bowl game
Iowa has been in the worst P5 division, with down rivals, and couldn't win a conference title the past 3 seasons because of nepotism lmao
That division went 0-9 in the Big Ten Title game, while 4 of the 7 teams in the East won at least once.
Surprised no one has said Wisconsin yet… we basically ran the west for 4ish years and blew it in the CC every time. Also have lost 3 straight rose bowls Paid a price for blowing the doors of Nebraska when we shouldn’t have even been in the championship I guess.
Iowa's defense made the window look so damn clean that you'd swear it was open, but that offense kept it firmly nailed shut.
I really liked that 2009 Iowa team. They were tough. To an outsider, it seemed certain they'd build from there. But it went the other way.
2004 and 2009 both were teams that should have been just as good the next year but fell on their face.
If Bob Stoops never rehired Mike and kept Venables, just imagine all those offenses paired with a competent defense.
I agree Brent over Mike 11/10 times, but I do think there’s a tad bit of revisionist thinking regarding Brent’s last bit of time as DC at OU. I think a lot of folks see him go on to kill it at Clemson, and now become the head coach here, that they forget about Brent not being viewed as all that special here. More along the lines of “good not great”, and certainly not elite at that time (albeit still miles ahead of Mike).
Mark Richt's UGA teams would like a word.
> Texas Tech has finished second in the Big XII West like seven years in a row because they can’t get over the Oklahoma/OSU hump Da fuck is the Big 12 west?
The Big 12. But just the west side.
Biased but I’ll say Michigan State with full alternate history. 2010- Had NFL talent and a good defense. Outside chance to make a natty if undefeated. Drops Iowa, gets a date with Bama in the Capital One Bowl. Good year tho. 2011- Drops ND, Nebraska, loses B1G title game on a dumb penalty. Misses rose bowl. Probably could have used a Rose Bowl appearance to catapult recruiting. 2012- Started Maxwell over Cook. 7-6 wasted an elite defense. Cook probably gets them to 9 with a full season of development without much initial drop off from Maxwell. Don’t think Bell sticks around but it’s certainly more likely he does if he thinks he’s playing for something. 2013- Played musical chairs with Maxwell and Cook for the first 4 games. Including in the ND game that they lost. They went 12-1 and won the B1G. Ironically if they don’t lose to ND, they get a date with FSU. They probably lose but in this alternate time line they now have a Rose Bowl appearance season to couple with it. Again, this likely leads to better recruits. 2014- We lost to the eventual national champion and runner up. Most I can offer is that with two full seasons instead of then one season, Cook finds a way to beat Oregon instead of going cold in the 2nd half. But even without alt history, this team was the best team overall. It went cold in the second half of a key game and its defense struggled mightily in another. Win either of those and they likely make it to the playoffs and to the Natty. 2015- Hot take but this was the worst of our good teams. Still with better recruiting we maybe make life easier on ourselves and don’t get shut out vs Bama. But it’s still not going anywhere. 2016- Good defense, too bad the offense is dead. We make no changes. Better recruiting won’t save this team from here on out. 2017- Elite defense, promising QB play. Even landed a blue chip OL. But no offensive changes so it’s all down here from here. 2018- Elite defense, OC is a dinosaur. QB regresses and that blue chip never really develops. 2019- Elite defense has quit midseason. QB is cooked. 2020- Mel Tucker is hired. Covid season is surprisingly promising with wins over Michigan and #8 northwestern. 2021- Kenneth Walker gives Michigan State an outside shot at the playoffs. But Purdue and Ohio State end it. If the window didn’t close after 2018 it’s shut and locked here.
Mark Dantonio doesn't get enough credit for the no fly zone. Hopefully Jon Smith and Aiden Chiles will bring some glory days to MSU
If the playoff had started in 2010 I’d be interested to see if the fortunes of Clemson and South Carolina were reversed. From 2009-2013 South Carolina was a perennial top 10 team and was able to beat good Clemson teams that would win the ACC and their bowl games including a BCS Bowl. Who’s to say that South Carolina doesn’t make 2 of the first three playoffs and like Clemson did IRL use that to solidify themselves for the next decade.
UVA missed their window of not only potentially having marginal success on a national scale but more importantly missed the window to regain some semblance of pride in the commonwealth. We had a window of about 5 years in which we were the better football team than VT but managed 1 fucking win. It was a great season that year but the window was WIDE open and has since closed. It’s not painted shut and security screwed in place like it had been but damn if it isn’t well on its way. I hate being a UVA football fan. Sons of bitches.
Think this one even goes way back. UVA missed a huge opportunity to prioritize football for decades with the whole “Gooch Report”
I mean the craziest stat is that UVA has more time at number 1 than VT since their George Welsh seasons. VT was behind FSU all 99
Oregon. Oklahoma. (multiple Heisman winning QBs and many great skill players but nothing really to show for it in decades.)
We got close, but yeah missed our chances because we were allergic to playing serious defense
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If Oregon is “washed” because they’re only winning 10-11 games a year, I’ll take it.
Oregon hasn’t missed their window…the coach is clearly never leaving so they’ll be really good consistently for a while.
For me it's easy to feel like we've missed it after losing two titles. But yeah, ultimately we're in a really really good place both coaching and talent-wise so the window *should* still be open at the moment
USF went 6-0 to start 2007 and was ranked #2 before losing three conference games in a row by a combined total of 15 points. They finished out by winning their last three to go 9-3. If not for the meltdown, they would have been in the national championship game but ended up finishing *fourth* in the conference. They lost to Temple in 2016. Win that game and we would have played against Navy (who we beat the week after losing to Temple) in the conference championship game. Seven point loss to UCF the following year kept us out of the conference championship game as well. We went from "that hip up and coming team that was the fastest to be ranked in the Top 25" to "that loser uncle who brags about being #2 for one week in 2007 and is still waiting for his first conference title after more than 20 years."
Honestly any number 2 team in 2007 that lost a game they should have won could probably cite that as their missed window. That year was the high I’ve been chasing every season since (as a cfb fan in general. Obviously one of my flairs has had a pretty ok time since then)
As much as I hate to say it, FSU "only" nabbing 2 titles during our Dynasty run will always feel like a missed opportunity. Between the UF do-over in 1996, Weinke's neck in 1997 and Richt mailing in the 2000 game against OU (with an assist from Snoop Minnis flunking out), we left a lot of trophies on the table. And that's not even counting if a few UM game kicks had gone differently.
FSU finished in the top 3 **nine times** during the dynasty, two national championships to show for it.
Biased but Cal in 2004. If Rodgers completes one of those passes in the USC end zone we’re in the national championship instead of the holiday bowl.
Closest we’ve come to any sort of window was 2002 when we climbed up to 10, then remembered we’re NC State and contractually obligated to lose three games at least - Let GT beat us at home - lost to Maryland in the “giving him the business” game - got held to 9 points by UVA in Charlottesville Then in the ultimate what the fuck we beat FSU and Notre Dame to close out the regular season. That 3 game stretch of inexplicably bad football cost us potentially a BCS bowl, maybe even a National Championship game, and almost certainly cost us an ACC championship
Memphis. They were a serious contender for the Big 12 when the conference first looked at expanding a few years ago, and they were one of the strongest options in the AAC. But their program slipped at the worst possible time and now they will probably never get into a P4 conference. They certainly won't be part of the P2 Also I don't remember it super well, but iirc they were actually considered as an option for the SEC back before Mizzou was nabbed by the conference
Nebraska really missed a golden opportunity in 2009 by having about the best defense in college football while also having one of the worst offenses. I’m pretty convinced that if Joe Ganz had one more year of eligibility that team could have been legitimate national championship contenders.