Nebraska, second-ranked, led Kansas State, ninth, 7-6 at halftime in Manhattan in the Huskers’ seventh game of the 1994 season. Sophomore walk-on Matt Turman had directed the one-point lead before giving way to junior Brook Berringer late in the half.
Berringer was held out at the start, coming back from a partially collapsed lung. Tommie Frazier was dealing with a blood-clot issue, and might be lost for the season. Might be.
Turman had relied on I-back Lawrence Phillips, who carried 16 times for 53 yards and the touchdown and caught both of Turman’s pass completions for 15 yards in the first half.
Phillips had 68 of the Huskers’ 90 total yards at halftime.
Late in the half, after catching a screen pass, a defender hit Phillips’ left thumb with his helmet. At halftime, after his teammates went to the locker room, Phillips was carted off the field and taken to a hospital to have the thumb X-rayed. No Frazier. A recovering Berringer. Now no Phillips?
Clinton Childs started the second half at I-back.
The X-ray revealed no break, and Phillips returned to KSU Stadium. He returned to the field for Nebraska’s second possession and carried 15 times in the second half, finishing with 117 yards rushing, Forty of Nebraska’s 61 plays from scrimmage were inside the tackles.
The Huskers scored 10 points in the fourth quarter — a 15-yard touchdown run by fullback Jeff Makovicka and a 24-yard field goal by Darin Erstad — for their seventh-consecutive victory, 17-6.
Kansas State’s only points came on a second-quarter touchdown, the extra-point kick blocked.
The Blackshirts were dominant.
Kansas State quarterback Chad May, who would lead the Big Eight with 2,571 passing yards and share first-team all-conference recognition with Colorado’s Kordell Stewart, completed 22-of-48 passes for 249 yards and the touchdown. But the Blackshirts intercepted him once and sacked him six times.
He had been sacked seven times all season, and the interception was his first. He had thrown 148 consecutive passes without an interception.
Linebacker Troy Dumas made the interception. Cornerback Barron Miles had six pass breakups. Freshman outside linebacker Grant Wistrom had two of the sacks. Linebacker Ed Stewart was the Huskers’ leading tackler with nine, including a sack.
Wistrom’s first sack came on Kansas State’s third play from scrimmage, setting the tone. His second wrapped up things, coming on the last play of the game.
Nebraska’s defensive game plan was to knock May off his game plan, according to Husker defensive tackle Christian Peter, who had eight tackles and a sack. The six sacks resulted in 53 yards in losses, leaving Kansas State with a net of minus-7 yards rushing.
With Frazier sidelined, “coming down here, I wasn’t sure they weren’t better,” said Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne. “I think they can beat anybody left on their schedule.”
Kansas State would lose its next game, 35-21 at Colorado, and to Boston College in the Aloha Bowl, 12-7, to finish 9-3 and ranked 19th in the Associated Press poll.
Despite the victory, Nebraska’s 26th in a row against the Wildcats, the Huskers dropped to No. 3. Kansas State Coach Bill Snyder would have voted them one.
“They miss Frazier, but they’re still a great, great football team. Until they get beat, they should be right up there,” he said. “And they deserve it.”
