Just over 6 minutes into Nebraska football’s fifth game of the 1995 season, Sept. 30, Washington State’s Frank Madu broke free and ran 87 yards for a touchdown. With 8:44 remaining in the first quarter, the Cougars led 7-0, much to the surprise of a majority of the 75,777 at Memorial Stadium.
It would be the only time in Nebraska’s regular season the Huskers trailed.
During the week leading up to the game, Madu had been quoted: “I hope (the Huskers) don’t think they’re going to stomp on us like they stomped on Arizona State. It’s not that type of party on this side. We’re going to pick Nebraska apart.”
Remember, two weeks before, second-ranked Nebraska had defeated Arizona State, like Washington State a member of the Pac-10 Conference, 77-28.
The Cougars’ lead lasted 9 minutes. On the first play of the second quarter, Ahman Green ran 24 yards to the Washington State 4-yard line, and on the second play, Tommie Frazier carried into the end zone. Frazier scored another touchdown, on a 20-yard run, and Kris Brown kicked field goals of 33 and 22 yards, while the Blackshirts held Washington State scoreless.
Nebraska led 20-7 at halftime, and 28-7 before the Cougars scored again. The final score was 35-21, not a repeat of the Arizona State game, nevertheless …
In addition to Madu’s pregame comment, Washington State defensive end Dwayne Sanders had reportedly said: “The Nebraska game is going to shock a lot of people because we’re going to win. You heard it here first, from Dwayne Sanders.”
Washington State claimed Sanders’ quote was taken out of context. How so?
Not that the Huskers needed motivation. But “when a team talks as much as they did, you take it personally, at least I did,” Frazier said. “If they had won, they could have made those comments.”
Frazier finished with 70 yards and the two touchdowns on 15 carries and completed 9-of-19 passes, without an interception, for 99 yards, including a 35-yard touchdown to tight end Mark Gilman. That came midway through the fourth quarter, to give the Huskers a 35-14 lead.
Nebraska finished with 527 yards, including 428 rushing on 63 carries. Green led the Huskers with 176 yards and a touchdown, on 13 carries. His touchdown, with 27 seconds remaining in the third quarter, preceded a Brown-to-Brian Schuster two-point conversion.
“The scoring wasn’t commensurate with the yards,” Coach Tom Osborne said.
One reason, in part, was because Nebraska fumbled five times, losing three.
Clinton Childs was still sidelined by injury, so Damon Benning and Green handled I-back duties.
Washington State managed 350 yards of offense, including 72 rushing on 24 carries. Take away Madu’s touchdown run and the Cougars would have finished with negative rushing yards, the result of sacks by outside linebacker Grant Wistrom and defensive tackle Christian Peter.
The sack was the first of Wistrom’s Husker career. He would finish with 26.5 for his career, second only to Trev Alberts’ 29.5. Wistrom would have a career-record 58.5 tackles-for-loss.
Linebacker Doug Colman led the defense with six tackles.
Taken in context of the season, the pre-game comments by Madu and Sanders were definitely ill-advised. The Cougars, who came to Lincoln 2-1 following a 24-15 victory against 16th-ranked UCLA, finished 3-8.
