Arizona State took the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards on 10 plays for a touchdown, on a 25-yard pass from Jake Plummer to Keith Poole. As it turned out, that’s all the Sun Devils needed.
As Tom Osborne indicated following Nebraska’s 1996 opener two weeks before, a defense-oriented, 55-14 victory against Michigan State, the Husker offense would need time to develop. That was underscored in dramatic fashion at Sun Devil Stadium, as the top-ranked Huskers fell 19-0.
The Plummer-to-Poole pass was the game’s only touchdown. Arizona State’s Robert Nycz kicked field goals from 27 and 44 yards. And the Huskers contributed six points on safeties.
That’s correct, Nebraska had three safeties, the first Ahman Green’s fumble of a Scott Frost pitch out of the end zone 2 minutes after the game-opening touchdown.
“Basically, the story of the game was, they just whipped us,” said Osborne.
In addition to the safeties, the Huskers lost three of their six fumbles and managed just 226 yards of offense, including 130 rushing on 40 carries. Green had 20 of the carries for 87 yards.
The loss ended Nebraska’s 26-game winning streak, including 37 in a row during the regular season, and was the first time the Huskers had been shut out in 51 games. The last was in the 1992 Orange Bowl, 22-0 by top-ranked Miami. Arizona State was ranked 17th.
“We felt over the last two or three weeks we’ve been given a lot of credit for what happened the last two years,” Osborne said, referring to Nebraska’s back-to-back national championships.
Senior rover Mike Minter echoed Osborne. “You can look at tonight and tell we bought into the hype,” he said. “We can’t live off the last three years. We had only played one game (in 1996).”
Remember, the Huskers were close to winning a third national championship in 1993.
Nebraska had a week off to prepare for the Sun Devils, who played that Saturday.
After a slow start, the Husker defense shut down Arizona State, allowing only four first downs and 103 yards of offense in the second half. Linebacker Jamel Williams finished with 17 tackles. Free safety Eric Stokes and tackle Jason Peter each had 11 tackles. The Blackshirts sacked Plummer six times, including two each by Williams and rush end Chad Kelsay. And Minter had an interception.
“After we got in the rhythm of things defensively, we needed to generate some offense, and we didn’t do that,” said Osborne. “We had to rely heavily on the pass as the game went on and couldn’t protect the passer. We needed a big play and just couldn’t make it.”
Frost was 5-for-14 for 44 yards in the second half and was sacked three times in the game, giving him an official “rushing” total of minus-7 yards on 10 carries.
“The thing we needed to do was hold onto the ball and wear them out, but we couldn’t do it,” Osborne said. “Arizona State was probably about as ready to play as they’re ever going to be this season, but in our situation, we’ve got to be good enough to take people’s best shot each week.”
Though of no consolation to Nebraska, the Sun Devils would finish the regular season 11-0 and ranked second before losing to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. They climbed to sixth following the Nebraska victory. The Huskers dropped to eighth, the lowest since the third week of the 1993 season.
