The 50 greatest college football teams throughout history

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Playing for Texas Christian University, O’Brien calmly aims his pass while surrounded by Arkansas Red Shirts. /

24. Best college football teams of all-time: 1938 TCU

We’re going way back in the years once again for this 1938 version of the TCU Horned Frogs. A solid offense was led by the cool, calm and collected play of quarterback Davey O’Brien, who threw for over 1,400 yards and 19 touchdowns.

For this team, though, we’ve got to give a lot of love to the big men in the trenches. The team had four offensive linemen eventually drafted into the NFL and center Ki Aldrich and tackle I. B. Hale were drafted in the first round. The TCU team used their stacked line of big men to protect Heisman-winner and Maxwell Award-winner O’Brien in the pocket, allowing him the time to pick apart every defense they played.

This TCU team may sound like your run-of-the-mill team of olden days gone by — but I assure you they are far more than that. This team outscored opponents by an average of 19 points in an era where total points scored was nowhere near what it is today.

TCU didn’t allow a team to score double-digits in their 11 games and outscored their opponents 209-62, en route to flat out dominating nearly every form of opposition and winning the national title.