Your team's most talented backfield.

[Killian]

Just to give you an idea how talented Notre Dame was in the early 90's, they lost their entire backfield to the NFL after 1992 (Rick Mirer, Jerome Bettis and Reggie Brooks) and those three were the top vote getters for the offensive ROY in 1993. After losing all that talent, ND finished #2 in the country.

The most talent they had in my lifetime was likely 1990. Ricky Watters, Rodney Culver, Tony Brooks, Jerome Bettis and Jeff Burris all in the same backfield. Burris was moved to CB because he couldn't get carries and was a first round pick.

Mirer - 11,969 yards passing, 50 TDs
Watters - 10,643 yards rushing, 4,248 yards receiving, 78 TDs
Bettis - 13,662 yards rushing, 1,449 yards receiving, 94 TDs

24,305 rushing yards, 11,969 passing yards for a total of 36,274 yards. Throw in 5,697 yards receiving and you get over 40,000 yards of total offense in the NFL.

I have no idea how Holtz didn't win at least one more title with the level of talent he had. 1990 was because their DC, Gary Darnell, sucked huge amounts of dick.

[Left Seater]

For Rice the decade of the 50s was a very good one. 30 Owls were drafted in the decade with 7 alone in 1954.

Of course everyone knows that we beat the crap out of Alabama in the 1954 Cotton Bowl and Dicky Moegle was tackled by a Bama player who came off the bench. The officials awarded him the TD and it went into the record books as a 95 yard TD run. Moegle went on to a long career in the NFL after that.



Three years later Rice had an amazing backfield that was strange in that it was two QBs who highlighted the group. Both QBs would stay on the field at times with the one not under center lined up at HB. Frank Ryan and King Hill both went on to play in the NFL and had long careers. King Hill was the first overall pick in the 1958 draft.

In my life the best backfield at Rice was the 1990 and 1991 season. Trevor Cobb was the Doak Walker winner and a consensus AA. Donald Hollas was the QB in 1990 and Bert Emanuel in 1991. Big part of the reason I went to Rice.

[Goober McTuber]

Ryan attended graduate school during the first part of his playing career, and in 1965, he earned his Ph.D. from Rice. He worked for seven postgraduate years under Dr. G. R. MacLane, one of the best geometric-function theorists, and produced the dissertation "Characterization of the Set of Asymptotic Values of a Function Holomorphic in the Unit Disc." In 1966, Ryan published two fundamental papers on the set of asymptotic values of a function holomorphic in the unit disc in Duke Mathematical Journal.

He started teaching at Rice during his career and, during his time with the Browns, he became an assistant professor at the Case Institute of Technology in February 1967. Ryan had a full teaching load, which includes undergraduate and graduate courses, and conducting research in complex analysis. While at training camp, Ryan taught math in the morning and went to football practice in the afternoon. Ryan taught his last course at Case Western Reserve in the spring of 1971. He was promoted to associate professor that summer. After taking a leave of absence for the next three years, he resigned his faculty position in 1974.

Ryan learned computer programming and software through the Chi Corp., Case Western Reserve’s then newly launched private computer company. He compiled advanced statistics to apply what he learned to football. The Browns was shown his results and liked the project but didn't offer the extra cash to move it forward.

Ryan’s second career was fodder for many jokes by sportswriters. Red Smith wrote that the Browns' offense consisted of a quarterback who understood Einstein’s theory of relativity and ten teammates who didn’t know there was one. Ryan was somewhat put off by the focus on his academic life, as he considered himself to be a regular football player.

[King Crimson]

i remember that cribbs and lionel little train james backfield.

for OU,

my vote conditioned by my age and weird fascination for option football....is the JC Watts/David Overstreet/Billy Sims/Kenny King Sooners.

Overstreet was really good. Sims was the Heisman winner and all pro and all that...and just one of those people you saw in person where all the rules are different. but Overstreet is an all american star out of Big Sandy Texas on any other team. first round draft pick anyway, real player for the Dolphins before his death. Watts before becoming a Congressman, was one of the first run-pass option guys. his throwing looks pretty mediocre by today's standards but still. won the Gray Cup a couple times. King was one of the greatest OU FB's....Lydell Carr is there too....and had a long career for Uncle Al in Oakland. at one time maybe still had the longest run from scrimmage for a TD in the Super Bowl.

hon mention: 77 you have Sims, Elvis Peacock (another first round pick who tore up his knee in the NFL with the Rams...and I think he was on the cover of SI with the Rams...the LA ones), King, and Thomas Lott....who Switzer says was the best "pure" wishbone QB. and is in my avatar. but Sims was early years and freakish, Lott couldn't throw a lick but the Sooners didn't care then.

[The Seer]

Some would argue for 1988

QB - Troy Aikman

RB - Gaston Green / Eric Ball

[King Crimson]

some would:

jason white (heisman winner)
adrian peterson. jd runnels. great blocker at the FB position.

except they got assraped by USC. Jason White was one of the best Qb's i've ever seen on 3rd and long. but he lost his games against USC and LSU......so he's no Jimmie Harris or Steve Davis in OU fan mind

another vote that is not my team is

turner gill, mike rozier, roger craig, tom rathman.

[Mikey]

Probably John Elway / Darrin Nelson, Andrew Luck / Toby Gerhart or Luck / Stepfan Taylor.

I'm hoping that all of these will be surpassed next year by Kevin Hogan / Barry Sanders.

[MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan]

Kordell Stewart and Rashaan Salaam in '94 is pretty hard to top: a Heisman trophy-winning tailback paired with one of the best QBs in the nation at the time. But my favorite backfield was probably the '89 trio of Darian Hagan, Eric Bieniemy and J.J. Flannigan. I will never get tired of watching this...