The Nebraska Cornhuskers and head coach Tom Osborne were the most successful team in college football during the 1990s, but that success could’ve reached another stratosphere had they landed future Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk.
Osborne and the Huskers offered Faulk, who ended up playing for the San Diego State Aztecs from 1991 to 1993, but they didn’t want him to play running back. Instead, they wanted his help on the defensive side of the ball.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers wanted Marshall Faulk to play cornerback
According to Marshall Faulk himself on the “Bussin’ with the Boys” podcast, coach Osborne wanted him as a cornerback. Osborne and the Nebraska Cornhuskers weren’t the only team that wanted Faulk as a cornerback.
Along with the Nebraska Cornhuskers, the Miami Hurricanes, LSU Tigers and Texas A&M Aggies all wanted Faulk to play the cornerback position.
Two of the most powerful programs of the 1990s, Nebraska and Miami, both had legendary players come through their respective programs. Despite fielding some of the best teams in college football, those two teams tried to get one of the greatest running backs to ever play the game to play on the other side of the ball.
Nebraska did just fine without Faulk, but they didn’t win their championships until after Faulk went to the NFL. Every year in which Faulk played college football, the Huskers lost in the Orange Bowl.
Most notably, Osborne and the Huskers lost by two points to the Florida State Seminoles in a tight Orange Bowl game. Quarterback Tommie Frazier led the Cornhuskers down the field for a game-winning field goal attempt, which was missed.
It is hard to say how things would’ve played out had Faulk been a weapon in Nebraska’s triple-option offense, but it wouldn’t be crazy to think one of the greatest running backs in the history of football could’ve helped Nebraska to at least one more National title.
Marshall Faulk excelled as a running back in college and the NFL, despite what the Nebraska Cornhuskers thought would happen
Marshall Faulk went on to have great success at the running back position in college and in the NFL. He was an All-American in every season at SDSU.
Faulk was the nation’s leading rusher in 1991 and 1992 with 1,429 yards and 1,630 yards, respectively. While he didn’t take home the rushing title in 1993, he still amassed 1,530 yards on the ground. His final year saw a massive jump in receiving ability, which is what made him so electric in the NFL.
In 1993, he saw a slight dip in rushing yards, but his total yards from scrimmage were the best of his collegiate career. He had 644 yards receiving which boosted his total yards from scrimmage to 2,174. Before that, his most yards from scrimmage was 1,758.
Faulk was a three-time Heisman Trophy finalist and set the single-game rushing record in his first career start (386 yards). While that record has since been broken, many records of his still stand. His 12.1 points per game is still an NCAA FBS record and he is in the top 10 for rushing yards per game and all-purpose yards per game.
Faulk’s elite play put the Aztecs and the Western Athletic Conference on the map, as he explained in an article from the San Diego Tribune.
“First of all, I think what helped for us was playing on Thursday nights. That was the birth of Thursday Night Football in a sense. And our games coming on late on Saturday when we did play. Most of the time when you play early on Saturday, you’re competing with big conferences,” Faulk said.
“And our night games really got a lot of attention. And with ESPN really starting to ramp up their coverage with college football. The exposure at night to catch a game that was still going on when they were doing SportsCenter, it was always fun that they were tracking my yards and touchdowns and stuff like that. It got a lot of exposure for the Western Athletic Conference at the time.”
Faulk went on to solidify himself as a legend in the NFL with just under 20,000 total yards, which was good for sixth all-time. He led the league in yards from scrimmage as well as rushing and receiving touchdowns combined twice. He led the NFL in rushing touchdowns once en route to an MVP, three Offensive Player of the Year nods and an Offensive Rookie of the Year.
The six-time All-Pro earned himself a gold jacket by being the first player in NFL history to attain 2,000 yards from scrimmage in four straight seasons. He was the ninth-ranked rusher in the history of the NFL when he retired.
As good as Nebraska was in the 1990s, they didn’t produce a lot of successful NFL talent. Faulk’s HOF career could’ve been another notch in Tom Osborne’s legendary cap.
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