It seems neither the penn state '69 defense nor the '94 offense are anybody's top 10/30/50 lists. Now maybe I'm just being a homer -- and I'm not suggesting either were the best of all time, but both seem to warrant consideration -- but i think both belong in the top 50.
I'll skip the offense because most recall how potent it was (and virtually unstoppable when they were motivated). Given the talent assembled, I'd place them top 25.
The defense is harder because the competition is stronger and we're trying to compare kids from the 60s with today's monsters. I will say that the job that team did on an exceptionally powerful mizzou offense pretty much summed it up. That team had Joe Moore (11th guy taken in the 71 draft), Mel Gray, and Jon Staggers. They crushed (ran wild) a pretty good michigan team in ann arbor (a team that would later knock off #1 ohio state 24-12). As the mizzou coach noted, they hadn't see anything like penn state's D.. period.
With one loss to colorado, they came into the game having scored at least 17 points in a game and averaged nearly 50 over their last 4 before facing us. We held them to 3 and turned them over 9 times. That team was physicaally much bigger than people really are aware of... as I've posted in the past, mano v mano, we were physically superior to texas. Because we were an independent from the east we were perceived by many to be smaller, slower, less physical... when the exact opposite was true.
Anyway, enough talk. Anyone who feels like chiming in, I'm open to your pov... again, i might be wearing too much B/W make-up and you can call me on it. If nothing else, those are feel-good memories
I'll skip the offense because most recall how potent it was (and virtually unstoppable when they were motivated). Given the talent assembled, I'd place them top 25.
The defense is harder because the competition is stronger and we're trying to compare kids from the 60s with today's monsters. I will say that the job that team did on an exceptionally powerful mizzou offense pretty much summed it up. That team had Joe Moore (11th guy taken in the 71 draft), Mel Gray, and Jon Staggers. They crushed (ran wild) a pretty good michigan team in ann arbor (a team that would later knock off #1 ohio state 24-12). As the mizzou coach noted, they hadn't see anything like penn state's D.. period.
With one loss to colorado, they came into the game having scored at least 17 points in a game and averaged nearly 50 over their last 4 before facing us. We held them to 3 and turned them over 9 times. That team was physicaally much bigger than people really are aware of... as I've posted in the past, mano v mano, we were physically superior to texas. Because we were an independent from the east we were perceived by many to be smaller, slower, less physical... when the exact opposite was true.
Anyway, enough talk. Anyone who feels like chiming in, I'm open to your pov... again, i might be wearing too much B/W make-up and you can call me on it. If nothing else, those are feel-good memories
