*Beginning this week, Hail Varsity Historicals will go game-by-game through Tom Osborne’s second national championship season, 1995.
During a news conference the Monday before Nebraska football’s 1995 opener against Oklahoma State, Thursday night in Stillwater, Tom Osborne was asked about the Huskers winning a second-consecutive national championship. They were on a 13-game winning streak.
Nebraska was “as capable as anybody out there,” Osborne said. “Somebody has to win the national championship; it might as well be us.”
But that came with a qualification.
“Most people in Nebraska probably have it a little out of kilter how easy it could be,” said Osborne. “It’s going to be very difficult. But I don’t want the players thinking they can’t do it.
“I want them to believe they can, and to expect to do it.”
Plus, Oklahoma State presented the challenge of a new head coach, Bob Simmons. As a result, “it was a gamble playing this game,” Osborne said post-game.
The Huskers showed they believed and dismissed the gamble, pounding the Cowboys 64-21. In addition to 42,100 at Lewis Field, a national television audience on ESPN watched the lopsided outcome. With the Huskers leading 50-14, ESPN cut away to show an at-bat by the New York Yankees’ Paul O’Neill, who had hit three home runs, and ESPN wanted to show him if he hit a fourth.
He did not. O’Neill struck out.
While he was striking out, freshman I-back Ahman Green scored his first touchdown as a Husker, running 14 yards on the second play of the fourth quarter.
Nebraska, which had four new starters in the offensive line, rolled up 671 yards of offense, including 513 rushing yards on 55 carries. I-back Lawrence Phillips carried 12 times for 151 yards and three touchdowns. Quarterback Tommie Frazier rushed for 64 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. He was 6-of-10 passing for 88 yards and touchdowns to Reggie Baul (76 yards) and Jon Vedral (5 yards).
The touchdown passes came on the first two possessions of the third quarter.
I-back James Sims and linebacker Terrell Farley, a junior college transfer, scored the other touchdowns, Farley on a 29-yard interception return early in a 30-point second quarter.
Freshman Kris Brown kicked a 24-yard field goal and 7-of-8 extra points.
Junior linebacker Jon Hesse, among six first-time starters on defense, had a team-high nine tackles. Junior outside linebacker Jared Tomich, also a first-time starter, had two of Nebraska’s four sacks.
The new “Pipeline” starters were tackles Chris Dishman and Eric Anderson and guards Aaron Taylor and Steve Ott. Senior Aaron Graham was the returning starter at center.
Dishman and Ott were also seniors, Anderson and Taylor juniors.
All 66 Huskers who made the trip to Stillwater saw action.
“We got a lot of experience to a lot of young players,” Osborne said.
Nebraska punted once, Oklahoma State seven times. “We’ve had some tough games down here,” said Osborne. “It went a little easier than I thought it would.”
Tough games in Stillwater or not, Nebraska hadn’t lost to Oklahoma State since 1961, with one tie during the streak. Nebraska’s 64 points were the most in the Cowboys’ 94-year history. The victory was the Huskers’ first on an opponent’s field to open a season since 1967.
A 43-point road victory was a good way to start another national championship run for Nebraska, which, inexplicably perhaps, began the season second-ranked behind Florida State. The Seminoles had finished the 1994 season ranked fourth, with a 10-1-1 record. Go figure.
