I just counted it up. Tom Osborne is basically Houston Nutt with 3 national championships.
From 1973-1984, he was 28-22 against teams that ended the year with eight wins. And MOST of those wins game from 1981-84, one specific class. He actually had a losing record against 8-win foes in the 1970s.
Then he got REALLY bad from 1985-1993 by compiling a 13-17-1 record against 8-win foes (I'm not counting the Northern Illinois game in 1991 because that's a joke). So Tom Osborne - allegedly one of the greatest ever coaches - has a record pre-1994 against 8-win teams of 41-39-1. Basically, a .500 ball coach against good competition, and I would argue that some of those 8-win foes weren't even all that good but benefited from soft schedules themselves (several of those were against CU and OU in years those teams only won 8 games total, not 9, 10, or 11).
Now he did finish out at 14-1 against 8-win foes from 1994-1997 when he won three national championships. But he didn't really play all that many good foes. 15 eight-win teams in 53 games. That's not to take away from what was clearly a stellar team at the end of his career, but four years does not an all-time great make. Osborne made his name by hanging 60 points on the Little Sisters of the Poor repeatedly through the years. (His lone loss to a good team in his last four years was to Arizona State in 1996 - when they got shut out).
This shows that Osborne made his name primarily upon two recruiting classes around 1980 and two more around 1992. Hardly the long-term success story of a Bryant (national titles in the 60s and 70s, and in contention for one on the final day of the 1981 season), Rockne or Wilkinson.
From 1973-1984, he was 28-22 against teams that ended the year with eight wins. And MOST of those wins game from 1981-84, one specific class. He actually had a losing record against 8-win foes in the 1970s.
Then he got REALLY bad from 1985-1993 by compiling a 13-17-1 record against 8-win foes (I'm not counting the Northern Illinois game in 1991 because that's a joke). So Tom Osborne - allegedly one of the greatest ever coaches - has a record pre-1994 against 8-win teams of 41-39-1. Basically, a .500 ball coach against good competition, and I would argue that some of those 8-win foes weren't even all that good but benefited from soft schedules themselves (several of those were against CU and OU in years those teams only won 8 games total, not 9, 10, or 11).
Now he did finish out at 14-1 against 8-win foes from 1994-1997 when he won three national championships. But he didn't really play all that many good foes. 15 eight-win teams in 53 games. That's not to take away from what was clearly a stellar team at the end of his career, but four years does not an all-time great make. Osborne made his name by hanging 60 points on the Little Sisters of the Poor repeatedly through the years. (His lone loss to a good team in his last four years was to Arizona State in 1996 - when they got shut out).
This shows that Osborne made his name primarily upon two recruiting classes around 1980 and two more around 1992. Hardly the long-term success story of a Bryant (national titles in the 60s and 70s, and in contention for one on the final day of the 1981 season), Rockne or Wilkinson.
