The Hail Varsity Historical series focusing on Nebraska football during the 1990s, suspended when the baseball season began, resumes today.
Nebraska led Missouri 21-7 at halftime of the seventh game of the 1993 season. But Husker defensive coordinator Charlie McBride wasn’t satisfied, far from it.
During the intermission, he “went crazy on us,” Nebraska safety John Reece was quoted.
The players responded, big time. Missouri managed 33 yards passing, minus-1 yard rushing and one first down in the final 30 minutes. The Tigers’ first five second-half possessions went three-downs-and-punt. They managed a first down on their sixth before another three-downs-and-punt.
And the sixth possession was their last. Total offense for the game, 172 yards, in sharp contrast to the previous victory, in which the Huskers gave up 565 yards and 28 points to Kansas State.
“That’s a little more like it,” Coach Tom Osborne said of the victory, and not just because of the defensive play; the offense showed more consistency, beginning to end.
Some of the offensive inconsistency could be the result of injuries to quarterback Tommie Frazier and I-back Calvin Jones. Both were ready for the Missouri game. Jones rushed for 129 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries and teamed with Frazier on a 55-yard touchdown pass with 34 seconds remaining in the first half. Frazier rushed for 81 yards and two touchdowns, on only 11 carries, and also threw a touchdown pass to wingback Clester Johnson, 36 seconds into the second quarter.
I-backs Lawrence Phillips and Jeff Makovicka scored the other touchdowns.
Outside linebacker Trev Alberts led the Blackshirts with 10 tackles and two sacks, bringing his season total to 12 and increasing his Husker career record to 26.5. Outside linebacker Dwayne Harris and defensive tackle Billy Wade each had one sack.
Linebackers Troy Branch and Darren Williams were held out because of injuries, as was tight end Gerald Armstrong. The offense suffered a serious blow; starting right guard Brenden Stai and back-up center Jon Pedersen suffered broken legs and would miss the rest of the season.
Stai suffered the injury getting off a pile, said Osborne, “not even a contact deal.”
As a result of the injuries, center Ken Mehlin would work some at guard. Left guard Rob Zatechka, who had also been working at tackle, would stay at guard. Aaron Graham was next up at center. Graham would remain the starting center in the Huskers’ 1994 and 1995 national championship seasons.
Nebraska used 93 players against Missouri, 27 of whom were credited with at least one tackle.
Giving up the touchdown in the first half was unacceptable McBride told the defense at halftime, in so many words. “You can’t win any type of championship without defense,” he said afterward.
In his estimation, he told his players, Nebraska was among seven teams capable of winning a national championship at that point and the Huskers had the lowest rankings in defense and punt returns, while being “probably the best in offense.” So the defense needed to step up.
Actually, it had for the most part, except in the Kansas State game, an aberration. But that seemed to be the focus on the past just as Colorado, next up for the Huskers, was the fan focus even before the Missouri game. For the record, while Nebraska was pummeling the Tigers, Kansas State was playing the Buffaloes to a 16-16 tie, dropping Colorado from 14th to 20th in the Associated Press rankings.
Despite the decisive victory against Missouri, the Huskers dropped one place, to sixth, and Miami, previously sixth, climbed to fourth following a 49-0 victory against 23rd-ranked Syracuse.
