I hunt manatees
in the 'glades with propeller blades
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2248889
some interesting picks/views...
Encyclopedia: Elevens, Part I
<!-- end pagetitle --><!-- begin bylinebox -->ESPN College Football Encyclopedia
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The following is reprinted from ESPN College Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Game
, edited by Michael MacCambridge
<TABLE id=inlinetable width=195 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TH style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #a50400">BUY THE BOOK</TH><TR style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ececec" vAlign=top><TD width=195>Click here to buy
"ESPN College Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Game" Edited by Michael MacCambridge</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Most of the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia is designed to settle arguments. This section is meant to start a few. We asked a panel of some of the foremost experts on college football to weigh in with their personal judgments on the best players, games and teams they've seen during their time spent watching college football.
There weren't many hard-and-fast rules. We asked the panel to name the 11 best players they ever saw, either live or on television, selecting one player from each of the main position groups, then adding four more wild-card choices from any position (denoted by an "x"). The other 11 bests and favorites are self-explanatory, entirely subjective, occasionally idiosyncratic and always deeply, passionately felt.
Furman Bisher
Longtime columnist, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
North Carolina, 1938; Furman, 1999
<TABLE class=tablehead cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=stathead><TD colSpan=2>Bisher's Best 11</TD></TR><TR class=colhead vAlign=top><TD>POSITION</TD><TD>PLAYER </TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>QB</TD><TD>Steve Spurrier, Florida</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>RB</TD><TD>Charlie Justice, North Carolina</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>WR</TD><TD>Terry Beasley, Auburn</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>OL</TD><TD>Moon Pie Wilson, Georgia</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DL</TD><TD>Richard Seymour, Georgia</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>LB</TD><TD>George Morris, Georgia Tech</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DB</TD><TD>Terry Kinard, Clemson</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-RB</TD><TD>Jackie Parker, Mississippi State</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-TB</TD><TD>George McAfee, Duke</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-FB</TD><TD>Herschel Walker, Georgia</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-QB</TD><TD>Fran Tarkenton, Georgia</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Bisher's 11 Best
Best Team: Duke, 1938.
Best Season: 1938, when Duke ripped through the season unscored on until the final minute of the Rose Bowl.
Best Game: Tennessee 6, Georgia Tech 0, 1956.
Biggest Upset: Georgia Tech 41, Virginia 38, 1990.
Best Bowl Game: 1964 Sun Bowl -- Georgia 7, Texas Tech 0. Vince Dooley's first UGA team: little talent, lots of heart.
Best Stadium: Kenan Stadium, Chapel Hill.
Best Fans: Furman University.
Best Uniforms: Any that I can read the numbers on, such as not Tennessee.
Best Book: Don't know that I've seen one better than the one I was involved with, titled The College Game.
Favorite Coach: (Tie) Bobby Dodd and Vince Dooley.
Favorite Player: So many of them -- Ray Beck, Sam Huff, George Morris, Charlie Justice, Ace Parker, Bob King (Furman, 1937), Hootie Johnson.
Beano Cook
Writer, historian, commentator, ESPN analyst
Pittsburgh, 1954
<TABLE class=tablehead cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=stathead><TD colSpan=2>Cook's Best 11</TD></TR><TR class=colhead vAlign=top><TD>POSITION</TD><TD>PLAYER </TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>QB</TD><TD>Jim Plunkett, Stanford</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>RB</TD><TD>O.J. Simpson, Southern California</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>WR</TD><TD>Larry Fitzgerald, Pittsburgh</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>OL</TD><TD>Orlando Pace, Ohio State</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DL</TD><TD>Bruce Clark, Penn State</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>LB</TD><TD>Chuck Bednarik, Pennsylvania</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DB</TD><TD>Johnny Lattner, Notre Dame</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-RB</TD><TD>Tony Dorsett, Pittsburgh</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-TB</TD><TD>Dick Kazmaier, Princeton (single-wing)</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-TB</TD><TD>Doak Walker, SMU (single-wing)</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-QB</TD><TD>Johnny Lujack, Notre Dame (also a super DB)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Cook's 11 Best
Best Team: As the 1946 Notre Dame team did, the 1947 Fighting Irish won the national title. And as the 1946 team did, they never trailed once.
Best Season: (Tie) 1946 and 1973. Just as there's no such thing as a bad Bogart movie, there's no such thing as a bad football season.
Best Game: Nebraska 35, Oklahoma 31, 1971. Oh, what a beautiful game. Great games must mean something on a national level, and something must happen late in the game. This game had both.
Biggest Upset: Navy 14, Army 2, 1950. Army lost its first game since 1947 -- and the national title to Oklahoma.
Best Bowl Game: 1973 Sugar Bowl, which featured the first meeting ever between two national giants: Notre Dame 24, Alabama 23.
Best Stadium: Ohio State's Ohio Stadium. It's all in the eye of the beholder.
Best Fans: Nebraska. They show respect for teams and display sportsmanship, even to hated Oklahoma, in an age in which sportsmanship seems to be lacking more and more, even in Pee Wee football.
Best Uniforms: Army. As noted, it's in the eye of the beholder.
Best Book: Saturday's America, by Dan Jenkins. Nobody captures the color, the passion and the scene in college football better than Jenkins.
Favorite Coach: Carmen Cozza, Yale. A class act for 32 years. He still has nightmares about the 29-29 tie with Harvard in 1968. Can you blame him?
Favorite Player: Mike Ditka, Pittsburgh. In his senior year, 1960, Mike went 7-for-7 on all-opponent teams. (Three teams didn't vote.) At the conclusion of the Army game, an Army player told Mike as he was getting helped off the field after being injured on the last play of the game, "You, Mike Ditka, are the greatest player I've ever seen."
Lee Corso
Player, coach, ESPN College GameDay cohost
Florida State, 1957
<TABLE class=tablehead cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=stathead><TD colSpan=2>Corso's Best 11</TD></TR><TR class=colhead vAlign=top><TD>POSITION</TD><TD>PLAYER </TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>QB</TD><TD>Roger Staubach, Navy</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>RB</TD><TD>Archie Griffin, Ohio State</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>WR</TD><TD>Braylon Edwards, Michigan</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>OL</TD><TD>Tony Boselli, Southern California</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DL</TD><TD>Warren Sapp, Miami, Fla.</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>LB</TD><TD>Tom Jackson, Louisville</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DB</TD><TD>Deion Sanders, Florida State</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-RB</TD><TD>Ernie Davis, Syracuse</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-QB</TD><TD>Michael Vick, Virginia Tech</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-QB</TD><TD>Matt Leinart, Southern California</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-TE</TD><TD>Kellen Winslow, Missouri</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Corso's 11 Best
Best Team: Southern California, 2004. In a big-time game, the Trojans destroyed an excellent Oklahoma team 55-19. They could have scored 70 points that day.
Best Season: The 1959 season, highlighted by a dominant Syracuse team, the best defensive team in history.
Best Game: Ohio State's win over Miami in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl for the national title.
Biggest Upset: Troy 24, Missouri 14, 2004.
Best Bowl Game: 1979 Holiday Bowl: Indiana 38, Brigham Young 37. There were eight lead changes in the game.
Best Stadium: Neyland Stadium, Tennessee, at night.
Best Fans: Nebraska.
Best Uniforms: Michigan.
Best Book: Championship Football by 12 Great Coaches, edited by Tom Ecker and Paul Jones.
Favorite Coach: My own coach and mentor, Tom Nugent, one of the fathers of presnap motion in the Straight I. A terrific coach at VMI, Florida State and Maryland.
Favorite Player: Roger Staubach, because he single-handedly took the Naval Academy to a shot at the national title in his junior year. Greatest season-long performance I ever saw.
Bill Curry
Player, coach, ESPN color commentator
Georgia Tech, 1965
<TABLE class=tablehead cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=stathead><TD colSpan=2>Curry's Best 11</TD></TR><TR class=colhead vAlign=top><TD>POSITION</TD><TD>PLAYER </TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>QB</TD><TD>Byron Leftwich, Marshall</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>RB</TD><TD>Bo Jackson, Auburn</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>WR</TD><TD>Larry Fitzgerald, Pittsburgh</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>OL</TD><TD>John Davis, Georgia Tech</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DL</TD><TD>Derrick Thomas, Alabama</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>LB</TD><TD>Maxie Baughan, Georgia Tech</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DB</TD><TD>Charles Woodson, Michigan</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-LB</TD><TD>Mike Curtis, Duke (also a FB)</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-DL</TD><TD>Pat Swilling, Georgia Tech (also a LB)</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-QB</TD><TD>Peyton Manning, Tennessee</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-WB</TD><TD>Johnny Rodgers, Nebraska (also a KR)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Curry's 11 Best
Best Team: Alabama, 1961. They refused to lose. Gritty, lightning quick, near perfect in their fundamentals.
Best Season: 1997, my first year as an ESPN analyst, when Michigan and Nebraska were co-national champions. We broadcast four Michigan games, and I got to see Lloyd Carr surface as a big-game coach, Brian Griese become a championship quarterback and Charles Woodson win the Heisman by starring in all three phases of the game.
Best Game: Arkansas at Ole Miss, 2001. Arkansas won in seven overtimes, and the score was so big I don't even remember it. [Ed.'s note: It was Razorbacks 58, Rebels 56, Coach.]
Biggest Upset: North Carolina 31, Miami 28, 2004. Going in, Miami was 60 and ranked No. 4, while the Tar Heels were 0-37-1 against Top 5 opponents. Now they're 1-37-1.
Best Bowl Game: 2001 Rose Bowl: Washington 34, Purdue 24. A perfect Pasadena day. It's the only Rose Bowl I've ever attended. Nothing else in college football matches it. Purdue's Drew Brees and Washington's Marques Tuiasosopo were the marquee players, but the event itself was the star.
Best Stadium: Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge, at night. I first encountered this magical venue in 1961, when I was a Georgia Tech sophomore. I'd never heard a sound like that crowd. I've gone back as coach of two programs and as an analyst. I've only attended night games, and don't wish to be there in the light of day. The spirits would surely vanish.
Best Fans: Bobby Bowden told me a story, one echoed by other Nebraska rivals, about a time in the 1980s when he took an upstart Florida State team to Lincoln. Somehow FSU escaped with a win, and Bobby said he worried about getting his players out of the stadium without incident. To his amazement, the people in red stood and escorted the Seminoles off the field to a standing ovation.
Best Uniforms: Penn State. Simplicity and tradition. That says what JoePa believes, and what he believes is the truth.
Best Book: Bootlegger's Boy, by Barry Switzer. No artifice, no self-flagellation, no self-aggrandizement. It's unvarnished truth, and it's compelling. And it explains the basis for Switzer's amazing success at Oklahoma.
Favorite Coach: Bobby Dodd, with no close second. My college coach was light-years ahead of his time. In 22 years at Georgia Tech, 92% of his players graduated from one of the country's toughest schools. He won big, but so did his student-athletes. Bear Bryant often said, "Saturday, I'd rather look across the field and see anybody other than that damn Dodd. He can beat you with his brain!"
Favorite Player: After my first two years at Georgia Tech, our record was 2-19-1. Two kids I was recruiting, linebackers Ted Roof and Pat Swilling, could have gone almost anywhere. They were persuaded to join us by the idea of building a unique team. Four years later, we were a Top 20 program. That wouldn't have happened without Ted and Pat. Roof's now head coach at Duke. Swilling had a long career in the NFL and later served as a state representative in Louisiana.
Chris Fowler
ESPN College GameDay cohost
Colorado, 1985
<TABLE class=tablehead cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=stathead><TD colSpan=2>Fowler's Best 11</TD></TR><TR class=colhead vAlign=top><TD>POSITION</TD><TD>PLAYER </TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>QB</TD><TD>Tommie Frazier, Nebraska</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>RB</TD><TD>Barry Sanders, Oklahoma State</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>WR</TD><TD>Randy Moss, Marshall</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>OL</TD><TD>Orlando Pace, Ohio State</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DL</TD><TD>Warren Sapp, Miami</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>LB</TD><TD>Cornelius Bennett, Alabama</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DB</TD><TD>Deion Sanders, Florida State</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-RB</TD><TD>Herschel Walker, Georgia</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-LB</TD><TD>Zach Thomas, Texas Tech</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-LB</TD><TD>Pat Tillman, Arizona State</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-RB</TD><TD>Marshall Faulk, San Diego State</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Fowler's 11 Best
Best Team: Nebraska, 1995. Unbeaten champs who grew more untouchable as the season progressed, destroying Florida 62-24 in the Fiesta Bowl. Scary to watch.
Best Season: 1990. A frantic championship chase, with upsets shaking up the polls through November. My alma mater, Colorado, won the AP's piece of the title, despite a loss and a tie, by holding on against Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. Having been there in the depths of 110 seasons, I enjoyed a proud moment, untangling myself from a microphone cord in the postgame chaos and getting the first interview with coach Bill McCartney.
Best Game: Ohio State's win over Miami in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl had everything: high stakes, overtime drama, controversy, heartbreak (I witnessed up close the excruciating mangled knee suffered by Willis McGahee) and triumph (the Buckeyes' first post-Woody national title).
Biggest Upset: Temple 28, Virginia Tech 24, 1998. The Owls won in Blacksburg as five-touchdown underdogs. Payback was brutal the next year: Virginia Tech 62-7 in Philly.
Best Bowl Game: 2003 Fiesta Bowl. (See Best Game, above.)
Best Stadium: My favorite is the Rose Bowl, hands down. My favorite on-campus stadium is Florida's Swamp.
Best Fans: South Carolina. Unquestioned loyalty and packed houses through thick and thin, mostly thin.
Best Uniforms: LSU's home whites, USC's home cardinal and gold.
Best Book: The Junction Boys, by Jim Dent.
Favorite Coach: Steve Spurrier: enigmatic, entertaining, honest, brilliant.
Favorite Player: Warren Sapp. A destructive force on the D-line, he was charismatic and very, very quotable.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
some interesting picks/views...
Encyclopedia: Elevens, Part I
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The following is reprinted from ESPN College Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Game
<TABLE id=inlinetable width=195 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
There weren't many hard-and-fast rules. We asked the panel to name the 11 best players they ever saw, either live or on television, selecting one player from each of the main position groups, then adding four more wild-card choices from any position (denoted by an "x"). The other 11 bests and favorites are self-explanatory, entirely subjective, occasionally idiosyncratic and always deeply, passionately felt.
Furman Bisher
Longtime columnist, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
North Carolina, 1938; Furman, 1999
<TABLE class=tablehead cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=stathead><TD colSpan=2>Bisher's Best 11</TD></TR><TR class=colhead vAlign=top><TD>POSITION</TD><TD>PLAYER </TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>QB</TD><TD>Steve Spurrier, Florida</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>RB</TD><TD>Charlie Justice, North Carolina</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>WR</TD><TD>Terry Beasley, Auburn</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>OL</TD><TD>Moon Pie Wilson, Georgia</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DL</TD><TD>Richard Seymour, Georgia</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>LB</TD><TD>George Morris, Georgia Tech</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DB</TD><TD>Terry Kinard, Clemson</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-RB</TD><TD>Jackie Parker, Mississippi State</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-TB</TD><TD>George McAfee, Duke</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-FB</TD><TD>Herschel Walker, Georgia</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-QB</TD><TD>Fran Tarkenton, Georgia</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Bisher's 11 Best
Best Team: Duke, 1938.
Best Season: 1938, when Duke ripped through the season unscored on until the final minute of the Rose Bowl.
Best Game: Tennessee 6, Georgia Tech 0, 1956.
Biggest Upset: Georgia Tech 41, Virginia 38, 1990.
Best Bowl Game: 1964 Sun Bowl -- Georgia 7, Texas Tech 0. Vince Dooley's first UGA team: little talent, lots of heart.
Best Stadium: Kenan Stadium, Chapel Hill.
Best Fans: Furman University.
Best Uniforms: Any that I can read the numbers on, such as not Tennessee.
Best Book: Don't know that I've seen one better than the one I was involved with, titled The College Game.
Favorite Coach: (Tie) Bobby Dodd and Vince Dooley.
Favorite Player: So many of them -- Ray Beck, Sam Huff, George Morris, Charlie Justice, Ace Parker, Bob King (Furman, 1937), Hootie Johnson.
Beano Cook
Writer, historian, commentator, ESPN analyst
Pittsburgh, 1954
<TABLE class=tablehead cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=stathead><TD colSpan=2>Cook's Best 11</TD></TR><TR class=colhead vAlign=top><TD>POSITION</TD><TD>PLAYER </TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>QB</TD><TD>Jim Plunkett, Stanford</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>RB</TD><TD>O.J. Simpson, Southern California</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>WR</TD><TD>Larry Fitzgerald, Pittsburgh</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>OL</TD><TD>Orlando Pace, Ohio State</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DL</TD><TD>Bruce Clark, Penn State</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>LB</TD><TD>Chuck Bednarik, Pennsylvania</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DB</TD><TD>Johnny Lattner, Notre Dame</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-RB</TD><TD>Tony Dorsett, Pittsburgh</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-TB</TD><TD>Dick Kazmaier, Princeton (single-wing)</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-TB</TD><TD>Doak Walker, SMU (single-wing)</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-QB</TD><TD>Johnny Lujack, Notre Dame (also a super DB)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Cook's 11 Best
Best Team: As the 1946 Notre Dame team did, the 1947 Fighting Irish won the national title. And as the 1946 team did, they never trailed once.
Best Season: (Tie) 1946 and 1973. Just as there's no such thing as a bad Bogart movie, there's no such thing as a bad football season.
Best Game: Nebraska 35, Oklahoma 31, 1971. Oh, what a beautiful game. Great games must mean something on a national level, and something must happen late in the game. This game had both.
Biggest Upset: Navy 14, Army 2, 1950. Army lost its first game since 1947 -- and the national title to Oklahoma.
Best Bowl Game: 1973 Sugar Bowl, which featured the first meeting ever between two national giants: Notre Dame 24, Alabama 23.
Best Stadium: Ohio State's Ohio Stadium. It's all in the eye of the beholder.
Best Fans: Nebraska. They show respect for teams and display sportsmanship, even to hated Oklahoma, in an age in which sportsmanship seems to be lacking more and more, even in Pee Wee football.
Best Uniforms: Army. As noted, it's in the eye of the beholder.
Best Book: Saturday's America, by Dan Jenkins. Nobody captures the color, the passion and the scene in college football better than Jenkins.
Favorite Coach: Carmen Cozza, Yale. A class act for 32 years. He still has nightmares about the 29-29 tie with Harvard in 1968. Can you blame him?
Favorite Player: Mike Ditka, Pittsburgh. In his senior year, 1960, Mike went 7-for-7 on all-opponent teams. (Three teams didn't vote.) At the conclusion of the Army game, an Army player told Mike as he was getting helped off the field after being injured on the last play of the game, "You, Mike Ditka, are the greatest player I've ever seen."
Lee Corso
Player, coach, ESPN College GameDay cohost
Florida State, 1957
<TABLE class=tablehead cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=stathead><TD colSpan=2>Corso's Best 11</TD></TR><TR class=colhead vAlign=top><TD>POSITION</TD><TD>PLAYER </TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>QB</TD><TD>Roger Staubach, Navy</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>RB</TD><TD>Archie Griffin, Ohio State</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>WR</TD><TD>Braylon Edwards, Michigan</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>OL</TD><TD>Tony Boselli, Southern California</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DL</TD><TD>Warren Sapp, Miami, Fla.</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>LB</TD><TD>Tom Jackson, Louisville</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DB</TD><TD>Deion Sanders, Florida State</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-RB</TD><TD>Ernie Davis, Syracuse</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-QB</TD><TD>Michael Vick, Virginia Tech</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-QB</TD><TD>Matt Leinart, Southern California</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-TE</TD><TD>Kellen Winslow, Missouri</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Corso's 11 Best
Best Team: Southern California, 2004. In a big-time game, the Trojans destroyed an excellent Oklahoma team 55-19. They could have scored 70 points that day.
Best Season: The 1959 season, highlighted by a dominant Syracuse team, the best defensive team in history.
Best Game: Ohio State's win over Miami in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl for the national title.
Biggest Upset: Troy 24, Missouri 14, 2004.
Best Bowl Game: 1979 Holiday Bowl: Indiana 38, Brigham Young 37. There were eight lead changes in the game.
Best Stadium: Neyland Stadium, Tennessee, at night.
Best Fans: Nebraska.
Best Uniforms: Michigan.
Best Book: Championship Football by 12 Great Coaches, edited by Tom Ecker and Paul Jones.
Favorite Coach: My own coach and mentor, Tom Nugent, one of the fathers of presnap motion in the Straight I. A terrific coach at VMI, Florida State and Maryland.
Favorite Player: Roger Staubach, because he single-handedly took the Naval Academy to a shot at the national title in his junior year. Greatest season-long performance I ever saw.
Bill Curry
Player, coach, ESPN color commentator
Georgia Tech, 1965
<TABLE class=tablehead cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=stathead><TD colSpan=2>Curry's Best 11</TD></TR><TR class=colhead vAlign=top><TD>POSITION</TD><TD>PLAYER </TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>QB</TD><TD>Byron Leftwich, Marshall</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>RB</TD><TD>Bo Jackson, Auburn</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>WR</TD><TD>Larry Fitzgerald, Pittsburgh</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>OL</TD><TD>John Davis, Georgia Tech</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DL</TD><TD>Derrick Thomas, Alabama</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>LB</TD><TD>Maxie Baughan, Georgia Tech</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DB</TD><TD>Charles Woodson, Michigan</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-LB</TD><TD>Mike Curtis, Duke (also a FB)</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-DL</TD><TD>Pat Swilling, Georgia Tech (also a LB)</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-QB</TD><TD>Peyton Manning, Tennessee</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-WB</TD><TD>Johnny Rodgers, Nebraska (also a KR)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Curry's 11 Best
Best Team: Alabama, 1961. They refused to lose. Gritty, lightning quick, near perfect in their fundamentals.
Best Season: 1997, my first year as an ESPN analyst, when Michigan and Nebraska were co-national champions. We broadcast four Michigan games, and I got to see Lloyd Carr surface as a big-game coach, Brian Griese become a championship quarterback and Charles Woodson win the Heisman by starring in all three phases of the game.
Best Game: Arkansas at Ole Miss, 2001. Arkansas won in seven overtimes, and the score was so big I don't even remember it. [Ed.'s note: It was Razorbacks 58, Rebels 56, Coach.]
Biggest Upset: North Carolina 31, Miami 28, 2004. Going in, Miami was 60 and ranked No. 4, while the Tar Heels were 0-37-1 against Top 5 opponents. Now they're 1-37-1.
Best Bowl Game: 2001 Rose Bowl: Washington 34, Purdue 24. A perfect Pasadena day. It's the only Rose Bowl I've ever attended. Nothing else in college football matches it. Purdue's Drew Brees and Washington's Marques Tuiasosopo were the marquee players, but the event itself was the star.
Best Stadium: Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge, at night. I first encountered this magical venue in 1961, when I was a Georgia Tech sophomore. I'd never heard a sound like that crowd. I've gone back as coach of two programs and as an analyst. I've only attended night games, and don't wish to be there in the light of day. The spirits would surely vanish.
Best Fans: Bobby Bowden told me a story, one echoed by other Nebraska rivals, about a time in the 1980s when he took an upstart Florida State team to Lincoln. Somehow FSU escaped with a win, and Bobby said he worried about getting his players out of the stadium without incident. To his amazement, the people in red stood and escorted the Seminoles off the field to a standing ovation.
Best Uniforms: Penn State. Simplicity and tradition. That says what JoePa believes, and what he believes is the truth.
Best Book: Bootlegger's Boy, by Barry Switzer. No artifice, no self-flagellation, no self-aggrandizement. It's unvarnished truth, and it's compelling. And it explains the basis for Switzer's amazing success at Oklahoma.
Favorite Coach: Bobby Dodd, with no close second. My college coach was light-years ahead of his time. In 22 years at Georgia Tech, 92% of his players graduated from one of the country's toughest schools. He won big, but so did his student-athletes. Bear Bryant often said, "Saturday, I'd rather look across the field and see anybody other than that damn Dodd. He can beat you with his brain!"
Favorite Player: After my first two years at Georgia Tech, our record was 2-19-1. Two kids I was recruiting, linebackers Ted Roof and Pat Swilling, could have gone almost anywhere. They were persuaded to join us by the idea of building a unique team. Four years later, we were a Top 20 program. That wouldn't have happened without Ted and Pat. Roof's now head coach at Duke. Swilling had a long career in the NFL and later served as a state representative in Louisiana.
Chris Fowler
ESPN College GameDay cohost
Colorado, 1985
<TABLE class=tablehead cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=stathead><TD colSpan=2>Fowler's Best 11</TD></TR><TR class=colhead vAlign=top><TD>POSITION</TD><TD>PLAYER </TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>QB</TD><TD>Tommie Frazier, Nebraska</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>RB</TD><TD>Barry Sanders, Oklahoma State</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>WR</TD><TD>Randy Moss, Marshall</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>OL</TD><TD>Orlando Pace, Ohio State</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DL</TD><TD>Warren Sapp, Miami</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>LB</TD><TD>Cornelius Bennett, Alabama</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>DB</TD><TD>Deion Sanders, Florida State</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-RB</TD><TD>Herschel Walker, Georgia</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-LB</TD><TD>Zach Thomas, Texas Tech</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow vAlign=top><TD>x-LB</TD><TD>Pat Tillman, Arizona State</TD></TR><TR class=oddrow vAlign=top><TD>x-RB</TD><TD>Marshall Faulk, San Diego State</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Fowler's 11 Best
Best Team: Nebraska, 1995. Unbeaten champs who grew more untouchable as the season progressed, destroying Florida 62-24 in the Fiesta Bowl. Scary to watch.
Best Season: 1990. A frantic championship chase, with upsets shaking up the polls through November. My alma mater, Colorado, won the AP's piece of the title, despite a loss and a tie, by holding on against Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. Having been there in the depths of 110 seasons, I enjoyed a proud moment, untangling myself from a microphone cord in the postgame chaos and getting the first interview with coach Bill McCartney.
Best Game: Ohio State's win over Miami in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl had everything: high stakes, overtime drama, controversy, heartbreak (I witnessed up close the excruciating mangled knee suffered by Willis McGahee) and triumph (the Buckeyes' first post-Woody national title).
Biggest Upset: Temple 28, Virginia Tech 24, 1998. The Owls won in Blacksburg as five-touchdown underdogs. Payback was brutal the next year: Virginia Tech 62-7 in Philly.
Best Bowl Game: 2003 Fiesta Bowl. (See Best Game, above.)
Best Stadium: My favorite is the Rose Bowl, hands down. My favorite on-campus stadium is Florida's Swamp.
Best Fans: South Carolina. Unquestioned loyalty and packed houses through thick and thin, mostly thin.
Best Uniforms: LSU's home whites, USC's home cardinal and gold.
Best Book: The Junction Boys, by Jim Dent.
Favorite Coach: Steve Spurrier: enigmatic, entertaining, honest, brilliant.
Favorite Player: Warren Sapp. A destructive force on the D-line, he was charismatic and very, very quotable.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
beat Miami 
.