It’s Wednesday — usually an off day in the Bites — so I’ll keep this short. As a follow-up to my Sunday column about Nebraska’s turnover margin, some Husker fans asked me to do a little more digging.
First, here are Nebraska’s turnover margins (takeaways/giveaways) since 1993:
2011: minus-1 (18/19)
’10: minus-1 (23/24)
’09: +5 (28/23)
’08: minus-11 (17/28)
’07: minus-17 (11/28)
’06: 0 (25/25)
’05: minus-2 (22/24)
’04: minus-12 (21/33)
’03: +23 (47/24)
’02: minus-3 (21/24)
’01: +1 (26/25)
’00: +2 (19/17)
’99: +5 (35/30)
’98: +9 (27/18)
’97: +3 (24/21)
’96: +11 (33/22)
’95: +15 (32/17)
’94: minus-1 (22/23)
’93: minus-1 (18/19)
’92: +16 (31/15)
As you can see, Nebraska’s two worst turnover margins came during its worst two seasons — 2004 and ‘07. No surprise. What is surprising, I think, is NU’s turnover margin in 93-94. The Huskers went 11-1 and 13-0 in those seasons. Hard to believe they did it with negative margins.
In fact, Nebraska ’94 is the only national champ of the past 20 years with a negative turnover margin:
‘11: Alabama +8
’10: Auburn +5
’09: Alabama +19
’08: Florida +22
’07: LSU +20
’06: Florida +5
’05: Texas +7
’04: USC +19
’03: LSU +5/USC +20
’02: Ohio State +13
’01: Miami +26
’00: Oklahoma +6
’99: Florida State +8
’98: Tennessee (not available)
’97: Nebraska +3/Michigan +9
’96: Florida +5
’95: Nebraska +15
’94: Nebraska minus-1
’93: Florida State +6
’92: Alabama +16
In ’94, NU turned the ball over five times against West Virginia — and still won 31-0. It was minus-1 against Colorado and minus-2 against Miami. Pretty impressive that Nebraska went undefeated despite those numbers.
In ’95, Nebraska reversed the trend and compiled one of the most dominant seasons in history. It throttled four top-10 teams. In each victory, NU was plus-2 in turnovers. It won the turnover battle in 10 of 12 games, a remarkable feat. The only exceptions were Pacific and Washington State; NU was minus-3 against the Cougars, which explains the closest final score of the season.
Most of Nebraska’s turnovers during the Osborne era came on fumbles, obviously. But the fumble woes haven’t gone away. In fact, they’re still the primary factor in Nebraska’s poor turnover margin. In tomorrow’s Bites, I’ll get into this in more detail.
>> Alex Gordon doesn’t have a contract extension yet — he’s headed to arbitration. A KC columnist says the Royals shouldn’t let Gordon get away.
>> The Big 12 realignment mess is creating huge problems in scheduling. Oklahoma still has two open dates for 2012 — three if West Virginia can’t play in the Big 12. I say it’s not too late for an NU/OU non-conference game in Dallas or Kansas City.
RSS Feeds
A game against Oklahoma in Dallas would be great.
The Nebraska fans in Texas would be able to go and it would be good for recuriting.
If Nebraska had a reaccuring game every three to four years that would make sense to me!
Looks like the average for the past 20 years has been 25/23. I’m kind of surprised that our turnovers were well below average this year. Lack of takeaways seems like the real problem here.
These numbers support my comment earlier this week, that Pelini hasn’t traditionally run such a conservative D. That +23 in ’03 was largely the result of aggressive D game plans.
Exactly the same numbers as the “93 team that lost that heartbreaker to FSU and a probable National Championship. Sometimes it’s the numbers. Sometimes it’s not.
Play OU on a neutral field. Better bring a calculator to keep track of the Sooner scores. With a defense worse than this years and another year of a second string safety a qd, you might as well schedule the 49ers.
Lil’ Herbie good ol’ boy doesn’t have to bloody WORRY bou’t his SACRED secular sports DEITY playing Boomer Sooner in the near future. Or anytime soon for that matter.
Simply because Lil’ Herbie pigskin absolutely goes out of it’s way to schedule strong non-conferenc foes. Eh.
For instance, when Lil’ Herbie’s former A.D. negotiated a deal to play the MIGHTY Men of Troy, in the mid-nineties, U.S.C. was absolutely lame arse WEAK. If you know what I mean, bUbba!
In other words, said past Lil’ Herbie A.D. thought with absolute certainty, that the Men of Troy would still be a below .500 team. Too bad SLICK Pete came on the scene and turned Trojan football matters around QUICKLY. Eh.
And as major college pigskin HISTORY points out. U.S.C. bloody well SHAMED and MOLESTED that Lil’ Herbie pigskin unit. Howdy!
???
Yep Michael that’s the beloved Macjones… no one really knows what it is he says ???
Except for the fact that when we played OU last year OU only won by 3 and had to overcome a 17 point deficit in the second half to do it against a Nebraska team with a banged up D-line and hobbled QB. But other than that and the fact that we beat OU 10 – 3 in 2009, I am sure somewhere out there someone believes that what you wrote would be considered factual.
wasn’t bradford hurt and landry jones had only a couple of starts under his belt. i thought so.
Dream on, Dirk. I’m there with you- until I wake up. No way OU or NU are adding a game like that this late in the game. Too bad, would have been fun; the school that first pointed out Dan Beebe was a puppet- and the one that had the clout to make him walk the plank when they got tired of his act.
Let’s just hope they can get a mid-level school that will be respectable and they can beat. The B1G isn’t going to get any easier next year.
The biggest problem is that the offense sucks, and so does the defense.
With Tom Delaney now formalizing an agreement between the B1G and the PAC 12 for OOC games the odds that we would schedule OU in an OOC game start to diminish. However, there is nothing stopping Nebraska or OU to schedule an OOC game when Nebraska’s OOC Pac 12 opponents are the likes of Cal or Utah, or Oregon st. or Washington St. Or when OU’s OOC opponents in the SEC are the likes of, well, just about every SEC team asside from Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, and Auburn. It would be difficult but it could still happen.