Hey everyone,
Even though I just kicked off the Cornhusker Blog, I figured it was fairly lame to only have one post, so I thought I'd throw one more post out there before hitting the sack. This time of year, when I'm seriously jonesing for some Husker football, but the season is still months away, I start pulling out tapes from my well-worn Nebraska football video collection. Of those tapes, here are my five favorites...
1) Huskers vs. Hurricanes, 1995 Orange Bowl -- Okay, this is an easy one. Dr. Tom's first national championship. I watched this epic tilt again about a week ago and still got a little emotional when Kareem Moss picked off the Frank Costa pass to end the game. I dropped a few notches in the eyes of my wife and kids that day, but I still enjoyed it. A quick bit of trivia: if you watch that game closely, you can see Dwayne Johnson, aka the Rock, playing as a reserve for the Miami defensive line.
2) NU vs. Florida, 1996 Fiesta Bowl -- Yeah, another easy one. The previous year's national championship was far more dramatic and probably meant more since it was T.O.'s first, but the mauling of the Gators was more fun. There were just so many great plays in this one, from Tommie Frazier's "how many tackles can one man break?" touchdown run, to the tide-turning safety of Danny Wuerrfel, to Michael Booker's interception return for a TD near the end of the first half. Despite what Kirk Herbstreit might think, the 1995 version of the Big Red is the standard for great college football teams. Period.
3) Huskers vs. Mizzou, 1997 -- It's hard to come up with a more exciting finish to a game than this gem. Tigers signal caller Corby Jones played lights out and stymied a tough Blackshirt D all day, but in the end (of regulation, anyway) Scott Frost, Matt Davison and Shevin Wiggins' Addidas saved the day and made it possible for Tom Osborne to win a share of the national title in his final season as coach. It was also a fitting end to the game when Missouri natives Grant Wistrom and Mike Rucker converged on Jones to seal the Husker victory.
4) Huskers vs. Sooners, 2001 -- Of all the epic NU/OU games over the years, this is the best one...I have on tape. Seriously, you could argue this was Nebraska's last great win (a fairly depressing statement). It wasn't a pretty, highlight-filled game, but it had plenty of drama and the reverse pass to Eric Crouch certainly goes down as one of the most memorable plays of the last 40 years of Husker football. The Blackshirts really played tough in this one, making it so mind-bloggling when they played so badly against Colorado three games later.
5) NU vs. CU, 1994 -- With Tommie Frazier out with a blood clot in his leg, Brook Berringer filled in marvelously as the Huskers upset a tough Colorado team. While Berringer was understandably got most of the headlines afterward, it was the tough as nails Husker D that set the tone in this one. Future NFL'er Kordell Stewart was hit hard and hit often as the men in red rolled to a decisive 24-7 win.
Honorable mention: 2000 Alamo Bowl win over Northwestern (good, old-fashioned running up the score), 1997 victory over Oklahoma (Dr. Tom's 250th win, OU was horrid, Bobby Newcombe made some nice plays), 1986 season opener against Florida State (Steve Taylor was impressive, Bobby Bowden was still old back then).
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6 comments:
This comment is from a Hokie and delivered with only the best of intentions. I say that such a list cannot have much validity without the 1971 Nebraska-Oklahoma game listed No. 1. It truly was the game of the century and won by Nebraska. I am sure you have it in your collection, as no true Husker would be true without it.
Best of luck with all your games this season except one.
Go Hokies!!!
Jim
Bill - I'd agree with Jim on the '71 OU game. I wasn't even born yet and I love watching it.
A few more nominations from my own recollection:
'92 Colorado - the Nightmare on 10th Street
'95 Colorado - some great plays by Reggie Baul & Tommie Frazier lead to a win in Boulder
ANY game from '83 - just to see the Triplets in action, especially Mike Rozier.
Great to see you here - I'll be back often.
Thanks Rev Scott. My bad on omitting the Game of the Century. I was only a year old at the time, but I have watched the game several times. Obviously, it's a classic.
One I wish I had on tape is the 1994 game against K-State. Essentially, NU won that one exclusively using Lawrence Phillips and an awesome D.
Even though we lost it, I caught the '94 Orange Bowl on ESPN Classic this past year, and thought it was a great game.
If Byron Bennett puts away that 45-yarder on the last snap, it would've been the first of 3 straight titles, and Tommie Frazier would be the CONSENSUS best QB in college football history.
Yeah, we got jobbed on some calls in that 94 Orange Bowl. What a crazy finish though.
The '71 OK game is the top choice hands down, of course. My second choice, if it's available on tape, would be the '62 Gotham Bowl at the end of Devaney's first season. We watched it 3 times in a row at the time. It was broadcast nationally on a delay but broadcast to Nebraska and the Miami area live just before that. Then the Nebraska station showed it a third time right after.
As I recall (if memory serves me right after 46 years), the lead changed hands about 8 times before NU pulled out its first bowl win ever over the favored Miami team with George Mira before about 100 frozen fans in New York.
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