[personal] Re: [Husker] ESPN: 1995 Huskers Still the Greatest

[Bob Beach]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alan Siporin" <alans at efn.org>
To: "Theodore Heise" <theo at heise.nu>; "Husker List" <husker at tssi.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 3:04 PM
Subject: Re: [personal] Re: [Husker] ESPN: 1995 Huskers Still the Greatest


> Didn't any of these experts on college football history know that the 71
> team threw the ball to their Heisman trophy winner, Johnny Rodgers? The 71
> team had a balanced offense that ran and passed about equally. I couldn't
> tell you what the season totals were, but I remember games where I checked
> the stats on saw approximately 250 passing, and 250 rushing.



     There aren't a lot of stats I could find on the 1971 team.  I remember 
them running a lot more than they passed.  Here are the stats from the Game 
of the Century:

                         NU        OU
First downs              19        22
Rushes-yards         59-297    64-279
Net passing yards        65       188
Total net yards         362       467
Passes               6-13-0    6-11-0
Punts-Avg.           5-36.4    2-34.0
Fumbles-lost            1-1       5-3
Penalties-yards         1-5       0-0


     I think this was fairly typical for most games that year.  Here is the 
Orange Bowl stats against Alabama that year:

    The first column is NU.

      First Downs
     15
     16

      Rushing, Net
     183
     241

      Passes Att., Comp., Int.
     20-11-0
     13-3-2

      Passing, Net
     159
     47

      Total Offense
     342
     288





     This is a little more balanced by still weighted toward rushing. 
Johnny Rodgers was definitely thrown to but major contributions were made by 
him on punt returns, kickoff returns, wingback reverses as well.


Bob Beach

I never learned anything when I was the one doing the talking.