Match-up: #2 Nebraska vs. #3 Tennessee
Date: January 2nd, 1998
Outcome: 42-17 Nebraska
We've finally arrived at the 1998 Orange Bowl which means the kickoff to the 2017 season is exactly one week from today! I'm going to miss waking up each Saturday morning, creeping into the living room and flipping on a game from the glory years while I munch on my breakfast. Reviewing these national championship games has been a fun, wacky trip through time. So let's do it one more time!
Just a few weeks before the entire country would become obsessed with finding out whether Bill Clinton did or did not have sexual relations with that woman, the college football nation was obsessed with determining who was truly the number one team in the land. At the end of the regular season Michigan was #1 and Nebraska was #2 and of course they would soon play each other in a New Years bowl game and settle it on the field once and for all.
Just kidding. That solution makes too much sense. And college football in 1997 most certainly didn't make sense. It still doesn't make a lot of sense sometimes.
The stupid bowl rules of the time stated that the Big Ten and Pac-10 champions had to play in the Rose Bowl. This meant Michigan, who was the Big Ten Champion, had to play Pac-10 Champion Washington State. #1 Michigan barely nudged by #8 Washington State 21-16 which meant #2 Nebraska had to beat #3 Tennessee to have a shot at being voted national champions.
Oh and did I mention this was Tom Osborne's last game? So there was quite a bit riding on this game. Now of course I'm biased, but I truly believe Nebraska would have beat Michigan in the 1998 Hypothetical Bowl. There's no way Nebraska would have let Tom Osborne lose his final game, but we'll never know for sure.
What we do know is that Nebraska thrashed Peyton Manning and the #3 Tennessee Volunteers 42-17 in the Orange Bowl. Yep, while Michigan was content to barely scrape by the #8 team in the land, Nebraska settled for nothing less than making Peyton Manning start his 1998 by crying on the sideline. That tells you all you need to know about the respective motivation of Nebraska and Michigan.
Tennessee actually came out pretty strong in this game and did a great job of shutting down Nebraska's running attack and forcing Tom Osborne to throw the ball. And Scott Frost actually slung it around pretty good, completing 7 of 10 passes for over 100 yards and a touchdown in the first half. Despite holding Nebraska to 69 rushing yards in the first half, Tennessee trailed 14-3 at halftime.
Date: January 2nd, 1998
Outcome: 42-17 Nebraska
We've finally arrived at the 1998 Orange Bowl which means the kickoff to the 2017 season is exactly one week from today! I'm going to miss waking up each Saturday morning, creeping into the living room and flipping on a game from the glory years while I munch on my breakfast. Reviewing these national championship games has been a fun, wacky trip through time. So let's do it one more time!
Just a few weeks before the entire country would become obsessed with finding out whether Bill Clinton did or did not have sexual relations with that woman, the college football nation was obsessed with determining who was truly the number one team in the land. At the end of the regular season Michigan was #1 and Nebraska was #2 and of course they would soon play each other in a New Years bowl game and settle it on the field once and for all.
Just kidding. That solution makes too much sense. And college football in 1997 most certainly didn't make sense. It still doesn't make a lot of sense sometimes.
The stupid bowl rules of the time stated that the Big Ten and Pac-10 champions had to play in the Rose Bowl. This meant Michigan, who was the Big Ten Champion, had to play Pac-10 Champion Washington State. #1 Michigan barely nudged by #8 Washington State 21-16 which meant #2 Nebraska had to beat #3 Tennessee to have a shot at being voted national champions.
Oh and did I mention this was Tom Osborne's last game? So there was quite a bit riding on this game. Now of course I'm biased, but I truly believe Nebraska would have beat Michigan in the 1998 Hypothetical Bowl. There's no way Nebraska would have let Tom Osborne lose his final game, but we'll never know for sure.
What we do know is that Nebraska thrashed Peyton Manning and the #3 Tennessee Volunteers 42-17 in the Orange Bowl. Yep, while Michigan was content to barely scrape by the #8 team in the land, Nebraska settled for nothing less than making Peyton Manning start his 1998 by crying on the sideline. That tells you all you need to know about the respective motivation of Nebraska and Michigan.
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| He's fighting back the tears |
Tennessee actually came out pretty strong in this game and did a great job of shutting down Nebraska's running attack and forcing Tom Osborne to throw the ball. And Scott Frost actually slung it around pretty good, completing 7 of 10 passes for over 100 yards and a touchdown in the first half. Despite holding Nebraska to 69 rushing yards in the first half, Tennessee trailed 14-3 at halftime.
Of course Nebraska put the petal to the metal in the 2nd half. Ahman Green, who surely must have been kidnapped in the first half and replaced by a much less effective clone, had escaped his captors and showed up for the 2nd half. After being held to 69 rushing yards in the first half, Nebraska exploded for over 250 rushing yards in the 3rd quarter alone. Green finished with over 200 yards and 2 touchdowns as Nebraska rolled over Tennessee in the 2nd half.
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| Fun Fact: Ahman Green's professional career with the Green Bay Packers is the only reason I became a Packers fan. |
The beatdown Nebraska was putting on Tennessee in the final two quarters was so severe that the TV commentators, who are supposed to be neutral, began lobbying for Nebraska to be voted national champs. They began saying the Big Ten was an overrated conference, that Michigan's highest profile wins weren't actually that impressive, and that Nebraska's road win over #2 Washington earlier in the year was more impressive than any of Michigan's wins. Of course as a Nebraska fan, all you can do is smile and soak it all up.
At the same time it's infuriating because as we all know the AP voters were apparently still hung over from New Year's and didn't bother to watch the Orange Bowl. As a result they voted Michigan the national champs. Nebraska was voted national champs by the coaches poll and today we have a split national championship with Michigan.
Which poll is better? Well I've long maintained that the AP is made up of sportswriters, the vast majority of which have never strapped on a pair of pads in their lives. The voters of the coaches poll, on the other hand, are infinitely more knowledgeable of the game. Comparing the opinion of a division 1 football coach and an AP writer is kind of like comparing the opinion of a professional doctor and a kid dressing up like one on Halloween. Of course the problem with the coaches poll is that coaches simply don't have the time to watch nearly as much football as AP writers. But of course since the season was already over for the vast majority of teams by New Year's, I'd wager almost every coach that wasn't coaching a game was watching both the Rose Bowl and the Orange Bowl.
Of course we'll never know for sure who would win between 1997 Nebraska and 1997 Michigan. The debate still rages on today and it's all because of stupid bowl rules. Either way Tom Osborne went out a winner and remains to this day the only coach in college football history to win a national championship in his final season.
And that's it for my review of Nebraska's national championships. Next week we actually get to watch a FREAKING GAME! Good thing all the crazy conspiracy theories about the solar eclipse turned out to be false because I would have been pissed if the world ended right before football season. Now we just have to get through 7 days without a nuclear war. Knock on wood...
You can help kill the final 7 days until kickoff checking out my thoughts on Nebraska's previous 4 national championships below.
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