Tom Osborne was a little “apprehensive” before Nebraska football’s game against Iowa State the previous week, considering a possible emotional letdown after back-to-back victories against top-10 teams.
As indicated in the previous Historical, there was no letdown. The Huskers won 73-14.
This week in Lawrence, Kansas, however, there might’ve been a letdown at the start of Nebraska’s 10th game in 1995 against 10th-ranked Kansas. Offensively anyway.
“It seemed like we were a little out of sync the first half,” Osborne said.
Although the Huskers led 14-3 at halftime, Kansas out-yarded them 199 to 110. And Nebraska’s touchdowns were the result of Jayhawk fumbles, the first on a mishandled punt the Huskers’ Jon Vedral recovered in the end zone, the second Tony Veland recovered at the Kansas 30-yard line.
Three plays later Tommie Frazier scored from 1 yard, and Kris Brown kicked his second extra-point. With 1:17 remaining in the first quarter, Nebraska led 14-0.
But the Huskers wouldn’t score again until early in the third quarter. “I was very concerned at the half. Other than those breaks, it should have been an even ballgame,” said Osborne.
The early-third-quarter touchdown came on a 1-yard Frazier-to-Vershan Jackson pass. Eight minutes later, Lawrence Phillips scored on a 6-yard run. In the fourth quarter, Frazier ran 5 yards for a touchdown and Mike Fullman returned an interception 86 yards for a touchdown.
Phil Ellis and Tyrone Williams also intercepted passes. The Huskers converted the Jayhawks’ five turnovers into 27 points. Final score: Nebraska 41, Kansas 3.
“They had a few more yards than we would have liked for them to have. But when you keep the 10th-ranked team out of the end zone … I think defensively we did really well,” said outside linebacker Jared Tomich, who had a quarterback sack, as did defensive tackle Christian Peter.
Kansas managed only 146 yards in the second half, a second-quarter field goal remained its only points. The Huskers finished with 375 yards of offense, their second-lowest total of the season.
Kansas State limited them to 338 yards in a 49-25 victory.
Frazier again stood out on offense. He rushed for 99 yards and the two touchdowns on 10 carries and completed 10-of-15 passes for 86 yards and the touchdown, though he also threw an interception. The pick was his first after 100 consecutive passes, through 22 quarters.
Frazier surpassed Jerry Tagge’s Husker career record for total offense, bringing his total to 5,313 yards. He also broke Dave Humm’s Nebraska career record for touchdown passes with 42.
Ahman Green carried 10 times for 45 yards to become the fourth freshman in Big Eight history to rush for 1,000 yards. Green’s total was 1,042, with one regular-season game to play. Bowl games, and conference championship games, weren’t included in official NCAA statistics until 2002.
The victory was Nebraska’s 23rd in a row and 35th-consecutive regular-season win. With it, the Huskers earned at least a share of their fifth-consecutive Big Eight championship.
The Jayhawks came into the game with an 8-1 record, their lone loss to rival Kansas State two games before. They were ranked sixth at the time.
Next up, top-ranked Nebraska’s final regular-season game against rival Oklahoma, which had struggled to a 5-4-1 record.
