Told the moderators here I was looking into the correlation between senior classes and results. Well I hit the old media guides and did a little crucnhcing, apologize in advance for the guys whose names I have spelled wrong
1990 11-1-1-
Seniors
Mike Pritchard, A solomon, J garten, M Vanderpool, G hemingway, M Simmons, E Bienemy, A Williams, G Howe, K McGhee, D Mcloughan, D gibbs, t James
1991 8-3-1
Hagan, Leeuwenberg, S Brown, R Smith, J Steed, G Thomas
1992 9-3
J Hansen, C Brown, G Biekert, D Figures, R Bradford
1993 8-3-1
C Johnson, J Hill, R Woolfork, B Dyet, S. Rogers, G Lindsay, D davis, D Collier
1994 11-1
C Fauria, Westbrook, Kordell, D West, D Holland, T Johnson, C Hudson
1995 10-2
C Moore, H Irwin, B Stoltenberg, TJ Cunningham, D Leomiti, D. Price, K Hicks
1996 10-2
R Carruth, J Kidd, K Smith, M Lepsis, K detmer, g Jones, M Russell, S Rosga, D Simmons
1997 5-6
P Savoy, A Welsh, A Wade, M Thomas, H Troutman, R Olson, V Maumau, R Merkerson, R Black, R Sutter
1998 8-4
Chiaverini, A Reed, M Barnes, H Navies, B Southward
1999 7-5
M Stiggers, R johaningmyer, B Bedell, S Cook, M Moschetti, F Jones, D Wheeler, R Barnes
2000 3-8
J Green, T Ashworth, S Jarne, B Mcdonnell
2001 10-3
J Minardi, R hollowell, A Gurode, V Rogers, D Graham, C Johnson, J Bannan, J Sykes, M Lewis, R Robinson
2002 9-5
J Bates, W Lucier, B Drumm, T Brayton, D Wahlroos, D Strickland, R Sneed
2003 5-7
D McCoy, J Donahoe, K Allis, Q Sypnewski, P Jackson, M Moorer, M Harris, S tufts
I quit after this season cause, quite honestly, the records started going downhill due to a lot of things other than the quality of the seniors.
A few things I noted
Almost every great season we had was wrapped around a stellar senior class. Look at the names on that 90 list for crying out loud, as well as 94-96
An early stutter step was much easier overcome with a strong senior class (90 1-1-1) than with a weak one (93's 2-2 start caused the team to fracture)
A bad set of seniors not only foretold a bad season, but the loss of a great senior class the year prior, with no equal players to fill the void, really results in a sharp turn downward
Many of the stellar seniors single-handedly won games as captains. Remember Tyler Brayton his senior year drawing the line winning the UCLA game? Or Rae Carruth (hard to ignore his post CU failings but still) scoring on the first play of the game at A&M in 96? How about Gurode and Rogers pushing Huskers into the wall out the end zone in 2001? Or Graham being a stud that year against Missouri? Or Charles Johnson taking over games in 93 like Baylor. Or Maumau and Detmer putting on a show down 14-0 in the Holiday Bowl
All this being said, we haven't had a great senior class since Hawk has been here (decent but not great) and I fear a bad year this year may set the table for a new head coach in 2010. But my biggest fear about our 09 buffs is the lack of a great senior class. That being said, we have a lot of juniors on this roster who are practically seniors experience wise and may be able to step it up. Salaam comes to mind as a junior who was like a senior captain in 94.
Anyways we shall see.
Jeff Gerardi