(*Beginning this week, Historicals will go game-by-game through Tom Osborne’s first national championship season, 1994.)
OFF TO A GOOD START
At the end of the telecast of Nebraska’s 18-16 loss to Florida State in the 1994 Orange Bowl, NBC’s Dick Enberg noted the controversial officials’ calls affecting the outcome would “give the Cornhuskers something to chew on in Lincoln this winter.”
A victory would have given the Huskers the mythical national championship.
As Enberg pointed out, the loss might have been motivation for Nebraska in the off-season, reflected by the Huskers’ 31-0 victory against West Virginia in the 12th annual Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, August 28, 1994, just over two weeks after a Major League Baseball strike began, causing cancellation of post-season play, including the World Series.
Nebraska had also played, and won, the first and sixth Kickoff Classics. The final Kickoff Classic, a 22-0 Notre Dame victory against Maryland, was played August 31, 2002.
The 1994 game matched teams that had been 11-0 going into bowl games at the end of the 1993 season. As mentioned in last week’s Historical, despite the unblemished records, they were ranked behind 11-1 Florida State, Nebraska No. 2, West Virginia No. 3.
The Huskers went into the 1993 season ranked No. 4. Florida, which had routed West Virginia in the 1994 Sugar Bowl, was No. 1, followed by Notre Dame and Florida State.
West Virginia was No. 23 in the Coaches poll, No. 24 in the Associated Press media poll.
Husker quarterback Tommie Frazier hadn’t been in favor of playing the game, which “makes the season so much longer and gives you more chances of injury,” he said.
Nevertheless, he didn’t hold back, accounting for all of the game’s touchdowns, on runs of 25, 27 and 42 yards and a 12-yard pass to wide receiver Reggie Baul.
Tom Sieler opened the scoring with a 32-yard field goal with 34 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
Three of the touchdowns came in the second quarter for a 24-0 halftime lead. The Huskers “kind of relaxed in the second half,” said sophomore I-back Lawrence Phillips. “Luckily, we have a good defense to help us out. We still need a lot of work, but all-in-all, it was a good effort.The defense is playing tremendously, but the offense needs to start clicking.”
Start clicking? The Huskers had 468 yards of offense, including 368 rushing. Frazier, 8-of-16 passing for 100 yards, was the leading rusher, with 130 yards on 12 carries. Phillips had 126 yards on 34 carries. Both had more yards rushing than West Virginia had total, 89.
Nebraska lost three fumbles and Frazier threw two interceptions. But the Blackshirts offset those with two interceptions, a fumble recovery and eight sacks—eight, count ‘em.
Defensive tackle Christian Peter had 2.5 sacks among his seven tackles, second to MIKE linebacker Doug Colman’s eight tackles. Rover Sedric Collins intercepted a pass on the final play of the game. Cornerback Barron Miles had the other interception.
Peter, Colman and Miles were all from New Jersey.
“This is an ideal game for me,” said Colman. “I had 106 friends and family here today. Before the game I was a little choked up and there were tears in my eyes as I boarded the bus from the hotel.”
“I think we came out today and showed them that we are (national championship) contenders,” true freshman outside linebacker Grant Wistrom said, prophetically.
As for Enberg’s point?
“I don’t think the (1994) Orange Bowl was on anyone’s mind,” said Frazier. “This is a different team and a different season, and we recognized that.”
Mike Babcock
