Since winning the national championship in 2000, Bob Stoops continued to keep Oklahoma football squarely in the national elite. Over the ensuing seven seasons, the Sooners added five more Top 10 finishes and had played for the title in both 2003 and 2004 before coming up short. The pursuit of Stoops’ second ring in 2008 […]
Mike Leach came to Lubbock in 2000, bringing with him a high-powered passing offense that spread the field and blew out scoreboard lights. It was not necessarily accompanied by stingy defense, and while Leach’s teams played consistent winning football, they had not been a national contender. In 2008, Texas Tech football had one of the […]
In the two years that followed Texas’ magical 2005 national championship run with Vince Young, the Longhorns had been good, but not elite. In each season, they followed a 9-3 season with a minor bowl game victory. In 2008, Texas football began a two-year run of serious contention and it took a controversy at the […]
Phillip Fuler had coached Tennessee since 1993. Over the previous 14 seasons, the Volunteers had been a consistent SEC contender. It was a stretch that included six finishes in the national top 10, four Eastern Division crowns, two conference championships and the national title in 1998. In 2007, the Vols added Fulmer’s fifth SEC East […]
Alabama football was in a funk as the 2007 season began. Since the proud program last won the national championship in 1992, the Crimson Tide had made just one major bowl game, spent time on probation, and had only three Top 10 finishes. While one of those had come as recently as 2005, it was […]
Georgia football was on a strong run of success under head coach Mark Richt coming into the 2007 season. Richt came to Athens in 2001 and had since won two SEC titles and finished in the national top 10 four times. The ’07 Bulldogs, after an uneven start, built on that success. THE FUTRE PROS […]
No team had ever won college football’s national championship with two losses. The 2007 LSU football team became the first, surviving a chaotic and crazy season and a pair of triple-overtime losses to become the first, thanks to some come-from-behind mojo and dominance of the running game on both sides of the ball.
Ohio State football was, even by its own high standards, on a good roll coming into the 2006 season. Over the previous four years, head coach Jim Tressel had won the national title in 2002 and added two more top-5 national finishes. The Buckeyes were primed for more in ’06 and for the entire regular […]
Michigan football came into the 2006 season looking for a bounce back year. They were coming off a 7-4 season that ended with a bowl loss. During an otherwise successful tenure for head coach Lloyd Carr, that was below standard. The ’06 Wolverine edition got right back into the national picture and stayed in the […]
Wisconsin football was at a threshold point entering the 2006 season. Barry Alvarez, the “godfather” of the program’s modern era, was stepping down after a 14-year run where he transformed the Badgers from Big Ten bottom-dwellers into a team that went to three Rose Bowls and became a consistent contender. Bret Bielema was the new […]
Penn State football came into 2006 looking to sustain a comeback. After going through four losing seasons in five years from 2000-04 and raising questions over whether the legendary Joe Paterno was finished, the Nittany Lions won a piece of the Big Ten title in 2005 and finished third in the nation. Was that comeback […]
The University of California football program has had a bit of a star-crossed history, at least since winning two national championships in the early 1920s and going to three straight Rose Bowls from 1948-50. The 1975 Cal football team was the last edition of the Golden Bears to even share a conference championship. AN EXPLOSIVE […]