After watching them on BTN they were a bunch of bad ass dudes at every position, and after looking at 2018 team I think only one player could possibly start for the 97 team J.D. Spielman.
1997 Football Team
- Thread starter Dude122
- Start date
Davidson had 6 TD’s in 4 years. If it wasn’t for the one catch nobody would know his name
Just the mentality on those guys was far ahead of where we are today. Granted those guys were coming off from championship years, had an amazing and proven coaching staff to guide them. What sticks out in my mind more than anything is how luck follows the best teams. Teams like Bama, OSU, Georgia have the ball and calls go their way because they have a refuse to lose mentality. Just like we had it during the 90s.
But wait... The Grand Illusion that NU was just walk ons wasn't true in their championship years?
Fact remains, he MADE that catch.
In addition to what others have said, keep in mind the following stats from the years Davison was on the team:
1997 Offensive Touchdowns
Receiving: 5 (Davison SE 1, Sheldon Jackson TE 2, Bobby Newcombe WB 1, Joel Makovicka FB 1)
Rushing: 66
Kenny Cheatham and Ahman Green led with 14 catches each, Lance Brown had 12, Davison had 11.
1998 Offensive Touchdowns
Receiving: 7 (Shevin Wiggins WB 1, Sheldon Jackson TE 4, Kenny Cheatham SE 1, Tracey Wistrom TE 1)
Rushing: 37
Davison led the team in receptions with 32 but did not score.
1999 Offensive Touchdowns
Receiving: 9 (Davison SE 2, Newcombe WB 3, Wistrom TE 2, Applegate SE 1, Eric Crouch QB/WB 1)
Rushing: 37
Davison led the team in receptions with 29.
2000 Offensive Touchdowns
Receiving: 11 (Davison SE 3, Wistrom TE 5, John Gibson SE/WB 1, Buckhalter IB 1, Jon Bowling TE 1)
Rushing: 45
Davison led the team in receptions with 21.
Nebraska didn't really throw much when Davison was playing at Nebraska. He was the leading receiver for three seasons. The season he didn't lead (1997), he was three off the lead, which was 14. Not much need to throw other than when needed when you are able to run for 66 TDs. And as @Bugeater pointed out, he MADE that catch.
Outside of 1999, a tight end led NU in receiving TDs each year Davison played.
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I think you are on to something about luck, calls, breaks...whatever you want to call it. There is a will present on the side of dominant programs as doubt to enters the mind of the other side.
I have posters in my garage from the 94 and 95 teams....includes game results. It s a reminder that I think we forget - even those great teams did not dominate everyone....they had tough games...but put games away late, got the timely play, etc. Just tough as nails. That's not saying games were close, but 10 point wins against putrid programs like iowa state, and others we faced were parts of those seasons.
As Frost rebuilds, and goes to where we hpe the program goes, there seems to be an illusion we use to always throttle people. I also believe the Big Ten is much tougher...even the west than what we saw week inn and week out. Made even tougher because the mystique opponents had just seeing Nebraska get off the bus is long gone....breaks, calls, luck are harder to come by when the opponent is wetting their pants when a game is on the line.
Step one is to quit being the team that wets its pants at the first sign of adversity.
I would hope mo Barry would be in the two deep roster back then but I concur JD for sure. I don't think Davison was a starter but was on the 2 deep
We need to realize that quite a few of the guys on our 2 deep now WOULD have been on the 2 deep back then IF they had been developed by Tom and his staff for a couple of years. There's talent on this team but in quite a few cases IMO we've only scratched the surface on what some of these guys could be. Frost was not lying when he stated last spring that we had more talent than a 4-8 team. It just has to be developed and integrated in to a completely new offensive and defensive system.
Yeah the fond memories of those gritty, gutty overachievers aren't necessarily inaccurate. They just happened to be surrounded by a bunch of NFL talent.
And for them to be motivated, I still say that's one of the biggest issue is some can't motivate themselves
