Greatest Teams of the 2000s

[Spartan Warrior]

Finished 2015 Houston last night. They were easy because a lot of the guys from the team were already on the roster.

They had a dream season, finished 13-1, won the American, and beat Florida State in the Peach Bowl. A lot of great players on their defense and Greg Ward had a great year as their QB.

[Spartan Warrior]

Managed to get 2002 NC State and 2006 Rutgers done today.

2002 NC State is an interesting team. They opened 8-0 before losing three straight one score games, then upset Florida State in the season finale and smoked Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl to finish 9-3.

They've got Philip Rivers at QB throwing the ball to Jerricho Cotchery. Defense features a freshman Manny Lawson that I've got all over the depth chart at Defensive End and Linebacker plus Terrence Holt (Torry's brother) anchoring the secondary.

I took them for a test drive and was up 28-7 on Virginia when I turned it off. Rivers is a beast and they've got a strong O-Line.

2006 Rutgers miraculously went 11-2, including probably the biggest win in program history when they beat Louisville on a Thursday night on national TV. At that point they were 9-0 and ranked #7 in the country before they lost two of their last three games. They dominated Kansas State in the Texas Bowl.

They've got Ray Rice and Brian Leonard in the backfield, Kenny Britt and Tiquan Underwood at receiver. Jeremy Zuttah anchors the offensive line. On defense they've got Eric Foster who was an absolute menace at Defensive Tackle this year. Plus both Devin and Jason McCourty in the defensive backfield.

I played West Virginia and was up 17-7 when I had to quit. The Rutgers QB (Mike Teel) isn't great but if you can run the ball, stay on schedule, and allow him to throw off play action you'll do okay.

[Spartan Warrior]

Finished 2000 Oregon State and 2020 BYU today, will upload the new file tomorow morning.

2000 Oregon State was basically Dennis Erickson bringing the Miami swagger to the west coast. Team loaded up with all the best JUCO players. They absolutely crushed Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. They had Chad Johnson, TJ Houshmanzadeh, Ken Simonton, DeLawrence Grant, Nick Barnett, and Dennis Weathersby.

2020 BYU almost went undefeated against a weak schedule. I don't remember who they were originally supposed to play but I assume they lost out on all their major conference opponents because of COVID. They were a close loss to Coastal Carolina from going undefeated.

2020 Coastal Carolina has me thinking about teams who aren't in the game who I might want to add. I'm not really sure how, maybe take a small school with similar uniforms? Like UAB looks sort of like Coastal Carolina.

2020 Coastal Carolina and 2007 Appalachian State are definitely expamples of FCS teams that oculd be on this roster. There's probably an Eastern Washington or South Dakota State team that could make it too.

[Spartan Warrior]

2021 Pitt and 2001 Maryland have both been added. Both ACC Champions, both teams who moved conferences during this period.

2001 Maryland was a strong team. Shaun Hill was a really good NFL backup QB. Bruce Perry was a really good college running back. Defense is anchored by E.J. Henderson at Middle Linebacker and Chris Hill at Nose Tackle. They won Maryland's first ACC Championship since 1985. They took a beating from Florida in the Orange Bowl but that doesn't diminish one of the best seasons in program history.

I took on 2001 Miami and thought I was going to pull the upset when I went into the fourth quarter up 17-10. But Miami scored on all three of their fourth quarter possessions to win 27-17. A really good game, the Hurricanes were just too much for me.

2021 Pitt of course was led by Kenny Pickett throwing to Jordan Addison. They're one of the few post-pandemic teams on the roster which means they have a lot of experienced players, lots of fifth year guys and some sixth year guys. They won Pitt's first ever ACC Championship and first conference championship since 2004. They lost to Michigan State in the Peach Bowl with Pickett sitting out the game.

I'm down to just a few more major conference teams I haven't done: Syracuse, North Carolina, Arizona, Arizona State, and UCLA. I can probably knock those out before this weekend.

[Spartan Warrior]

2013 Arizona State and 2014 Arizona added to the file.

2014 Arizona managed to win ten games and make it to the PAC-12 Championship Game and Fiesta Bowl. They scored a huge upset over Oregon and beat Cal on a Hail Mary on the final play of the game.

Not a ton of huge names but Scooby Wright was a really good college linebacker and Anu Solomon showed a lot of promise before he had to retire from concussions. Also they've got Ken Griffey Jr.'s son Trey Griffey at receiver.

2013 Arizona State made it to the PAC-12 Championship Game and finished 10-4 with a loss to Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl. They've got some impressive talent with Jaelen Strong, Will Sutton, and Damarious Randall.

[Spartan Warrior]

2015 North Carolina and 2007 Boston College have been added.

2007 Boston College is of course led by Matt Ryan. O-Line is strong with Anthony Castonzo and Gosder Cherilus. They've also got current Bears GM starting at Left Guard. I thought B.J. Raji was on this team but it turns out he had to sit the season out due to bad grades. They've got Ron Brace, Mark Herzlich, and Jamie Silva.

Team went 11-3 and lost the ACC Championship Game to Virginia Tech. Beat Michigan State in the Champs Sports Bowl.

2015 UNC had a lot of talent, they came up seven points short of winning the ACC Championship against Clemson (who of course went to play for the National Championship against Alabama that year). They've got a really deep group of receivers, a QB who can both run and throw in Marquise Williams, and Elijah Hood ran for 1,500 yards this season.

I thought about doing 2020 UNC since they got to the Orange Bowl but I think the 2015 team was better. That pandemic season was so weird I've tried to avoid using teams from it because I think a lot of teams had flukey good records due to opposing teams being unprepared or missing so many players.

Last two major conference teams to go are 2001 Syracuse and 2013 UCLA.

[Spartan Warrior]

2013 UCLA added. This is the kind of team that makes this roster great, I didn't remember them at all but they've got a ton of fun players.

Brett Hundley is their QB. Shaq Evans is their #1 receiver. They're stacked with NFL talent on defense including probably the best group of linebackers on the file: Eric Kendricks, Anthony Barr, and Myles Jack.

Jack also played running back so I put him on the depth chart at RB, FB, and TE. That way he should get some snaps on offense.

I took on 2004 USC with them and pulled off the upset 31-26. I was up 17-6 in the first half but SC came back and got the lead 20-17 going into the fourth quarter. I put together a TD drive to get the lead back and then the game swung on Leinart throwing an interception in the red zone. I broke off a big run with Hundley and then Jack scored his third TD of the game to put me up 31-20 and I held on to win. SC made a dubious decision to go for it on fourth down when they could have kicked a field goal. It didn't really matter because I stopped their two point conversion on their next drive but I would have really been sweating if that was for the tie.

[Spartan Warrior]

2001 Syracuse now added. A good team that won ten games and their bowl game.

Dwight Freeney is obviously their standout player. They've got some other solid pros in David Tyree and James Mungro. They were an old-school, run heavy team that used two backs most of the time and ran a fair amount of option. A very different look than you get from most teams on this roster.

With that I've completed the major conferences. Next priorities are the top non-major teams I haven't done yet: Tulane, Memphis, Hawaii, and Fresno State.