The Best Tiger Team Ever

The best college football team that TigerBlog ever saw was the 1983 Nebraska Cornhuskers.

That team was dominant in every way, reaching 40 points nine times and, perhaps most extraordinarily, reaching 60 points in five separate games. Yup, those Cornhuskers were the best - right until Miami beat them in the Orange Bowl 31-30.

You might be familiar with that game. Nebraska got behind early and made a huge run late, scoring a touchdown with less than a minute to go to make it 31-30.

Back in those days, there was no playoff of any kind - and no overtime - and the national champion was determined by the polls. Had Nebraska kicked the extra point, it would have been a tie, and the Huskers almost surely would have been voted national champion.

Instead, Nebraska coach Tom Osborne went for perfection, and for the two-point conversion and the win. Unfortunately for the best team ever, the play didn't work, and Miami won the game.

What would you have done?

Anyway, Miami jumped from fifth to first in both major polls, and Nebraska had to settle for second. That Nebraska team is still the best TB has seen though.

In conjunction with the 150th anniversary of college football, ESPN put up a story the other day listing the 150 best teams in the history of the sport. TB noticed that five of the top 10 are from this century, including last year's Clemson team at No. 5.

The No. 1 team was the 1971 Nebraska team, one that defeated Oklahoma 35-31 in what was called by many the best game of the 20th century. TB watched it on TV.

As for the 1983 Huskers? Their one-point loss relegated them to 36th place.

Princeton of course played in the first college football game, against Rutgers on Nov. 6, 1869. There is one Princeton team on ESPN's list, and that team is a little surprising to TigerBlog.

It's not the 1950 or 1951 teams that went unbeaten and were led by 1951 Heisman Trophy winner Dick Kazmaier. TB assumed the 1951 team would be there.

Instead, it was the 1933 Tigers, who were ranked as the 140th best team in college football history, right behind the 1920 Cal Bears and right ahead of the 1941 Minnesota Golden Gophers. TB assumes massive arguments broke out when it came to separating those three.

Whether or not that actually happened, the ranking suggests that whoever was involved in this process thought the 1933 team was the greatest in Princeton history. Here's ESPN's writeup:

140. 1933 Princeton (9-0)
Titles: None (Michigan won CFRA, HAF, NCF)
Coach: Fritz Crisler
Led by: G Jac Weller, B Pepper Constable
What to know: In 1932, Crisler's first class of recruits at Princeton included 30 prep team captains. A year later, those sophomores anchored a team that gave up eight points all season and beat Columbia, the Rose Bowl winner, 20-0 (Princeton didn't go to bowls at that time). In three seasons through 1935, Crisler's first class went 25-1.

If you were going to choose one Princeton team to include in this, which would it be?

The best Princeton team TB has seen was last year's 10-0 team. The historian in him knows that the unbeaten 1964 team was also dominant, with four straight shutouts in midseason, and the 1922 "Team Of Destiny" was equally unbeaten (and national champion) and had a hugely dramatic 21-18 win at powerhouse Chicago to bolster its resume.

And of course, there are those 1950 and 1951 teams. Maybe having the Heisman winner pushes 1951 over the top?

The 1935 team won the national championship while going 9-0, and only two teams stayed within seven points of the Tigers that year. Which two? Penn, whom Princeton beat 7-6 in the opener, and, of all schools, Williams, whom Princeton beat 14-7 in Week 2.

So why 1933?

Well, those Tigers did give up only eight points all year, and none of those eight came in the first seven weeks of the season. Even when Princeton did give up points, they didn't really matter, as the Tigers beat Rutgers 26-6 in Week 8 and Yale 27-2 in Week 9.

There was also that 20-0 win over Rose Bowl-champ Columbia that ESPN referenced. And a 45-0 win over Williams.

Interestingly, Princeton also played seven of its nine games in Palmer Stadium that year, with the only road games at Brown and Yale.

Anyway, that's who ESPN picked as the best Princeton team ever.

TB might not have gone with that one, but as he went through the scores from that year, he was struck by one thought - how cool would it have been to see what a gameday in 1933 was like?