Late in the first half of the third game of the 1995 season, against Arizona State at Memorial Stadium in mid-September, Nebraska took a timeout before a Sun Devil punt.
The timeout seemed odd, considering Nebraska led 56-21.
Coach Tom Osborne said he wouldn’t have taken the timeout if the Huskers had been shutting Arizona State down. “But they had scored so quickly on three occasions,” he said.
Sun Devil quarterback Jake Plummer threw touchdown passes of, 2, 80 and 38 yards to wide receiver Keith Poole. None of the 80-yard “drives” took more than six plays.
So, Osborne figured, “if we had a chance, we’d better score,” he said.
Which the Huskers did, on a four-play, 41-yard drive, beginning with a 36-yard, Tommie-Frazier-to-Reggie Baul pass and capped by Frazier from 3 yards, with 39 seconds remaining for a 63-21 lead.
That was different than Nebraska’s final score in the 77-28 victory.
With 38 seconds remaining, on third-and-13, reserve quarterback Matt Turman passed 39 yards to wingback Lance Brown for a touchdown, after which Brown, sans helmet, did a backflip on the sideline.
“The last touchdown was bad. It was my mistake,” said Osborne. “I apologized to (Coach) Bruce (Snyder), and it was something that never should’ve happened. I feel bad.
“I should’ve just run a draw play. My apologies to Arizona State.”
He’d had good intentions, hoping to pick up a first down so more players could get in the game. As it was, 98 Huskers saw action in the blowout, the most points Nebraska had scored since an 84-13 victory at Minnesota in 1984 and the seventh time an Osborne-coached team scored 70 or more.
“Winning margins are a lot of baloney,” said Osborne.
His teams “never tried to do that,” he said of running up the score in a victory.
The second-ranked Huskers—top-ranked Florida State also scored 77 points in a victory against North Carolina State—were without its top-two I-backs, Lawrence Phillips and Damon Benning. Phillips was suspended indefinitely while Benning was hampered by a pulled hamstring.
As a result, Clinton Childs, who had been primarily a back-up fullback, got his first career start at I-back, responding with 143 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries.
He ran 65 yards for a touchdown on the game’s first play from scrimmage.
Childs credited the offensive line, the “Pipeline,” for his success.
Just over 9 minutes into the game, Nebraska led 28-0.
Freshman I-back Ahman Green carried 13 times for 111 yards and two touchdowns. Frazier rushed for two touchdowns and completed 7-of-10 passes for 191 yards and touchdowns to wingbacks Jon Vedral, 27 yards, and Clester Johnson, 28 yards.
Fullback Jeff Makovicka ran 13 yards for a touchdown and weakside linebacker Terrell Farley scored the next-to-last touchdown on a 21-yard interception return, his second of the season.
Cornerback Michael Booker also intercepted a pass. Rover Mike Minter led the defense with eight tackles. And outside linebacker Jared Tomich had the game’s only sack.
Nebraska rolled up 686 yards of offense, including 394 rushing.
“They’re the best team I’ve ever played against,” said Arizona State’s Poole, who had six receptions for 200 yards and the three touchdowns. “I give them all the credit in the world.”
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Osborne took a lot of flak from the national media because of off-the-field controversy, including the suspension of Phillips. “People ask me how the week has affected the players and I really don’t know, because each individual player is his own person. I didn’t think anyone was distracted or disturbed. We’ve kind of come to expect it around here, and I don’t think it’s bothered anybody,” he said.
“We wanted to win this one for Coach,” said center Aaron Graham. “We wanted to show how much he means to us. We know he’s behind us. We wanted to show we’re behind him.”
