A look back at the ‘95 Huskers

The year was 1995, Tom Osborne and his Huskers fresh off a national championship with a win over Miami in the Orange Bowl. It was a win for the ages giving Tom his first championship as a head coach.
So how do you top that?

Simple. Merely by having one of the most dominant seasons in college football history.
Tommy Frazier. Ahman Green. Lawrence Phillips. Jeff Mackovicka. Brooke Berringer. Damon Benning. Jared Tomich. Jay Foreman. Aaron Graham. Mike Minter. Jason Peter. Mike Rucker. Aaron Taylor. Eric Warfield. Kris Brown. Grant Wistrom.

Some all-time Husker greats.

The Huskers got things rolling in what was the Big 8’s final season on Aug. 31 in Stillwater, Okla., a game nationally televised by ESPN.

Phillips ran for three first-half touchdowns as the Huskers led 36-7 at the intermission, never looking back in scoring 64 points. The Huskers now led the series against OSU 38-5-1.

The next week at Michigan State and head coach Nick Saban (yes that Nick Saban), Nebraska again rolled to a huge win, but it was later that night or early Sunday morning when Phillips would beat up his girlfriend, getting suspended from the team.

If you remember, Osborne took a lot of heat for not dismissing him permanently, but as he has said on many occasion, the coach just didn’t want to throw the running back from California away, knowing what bad things would eventually happen to him if he did.

That sub-plot would be an underlying current all season from the national media.

Week 3 against Arizona State in Lincoln saw Clinton Childs score from 65 yards out on the first play from scrimmage. I remember sitting in the north end zone and seeing the huge holes for Husker running backs, which I could have run through. Nebraska rolled up 304 yards of total offense after the first quarter and 77 points total, but Sun Devil coach Bruce Snyder was less than thrilled at Matt Turman’s 39-yard touchdown pass with 38 seconds left in the game, telling Osborne just that when the two shook hands at midfield.

Nebraska’s closest game all season came two weeks later against Washington State in Lincoln, a 35-21 victory. When the Cougars took a 7-0 first quarter lead, it would be the only time the Huskers would trail during the regular season. That lasted all of a little over nine minutes on the play clock.

Ah yes, the good ol’ days.

Big Red would then steamroll their way past Missouri, Kansas State, No. 7 Colorado, Iowa State and Kansas by averaging nearly 53 points per game, setting up their annual regular season finale against Oklahoma and head coach Howard Schnellenberger, the former coach at Miami whose Hurricanes tied Nebraska in the 1984 Orange Bowl to ruin their undefeated season and a national championship.

Nebraska’s Blackshirts dominated the game in Lincoln, holding the Sooner offense to just 51 yards rushing, and forcing OU to punt 10 times during a 37-0 rout. It was the Huskers’ first shutout of Oklahoma since 1942 and finished off their third straight undefeated regular season.

A month later, Schnellenberger resigned under pressure, resurfacing three years later at Florida Atlantic where he helped get the football program started and served as head coach for 11 seasons. In the school’s debut in 2001, FA lost to Slippery Rock 40-7, but then Schnellenberger was named the Sun Belt Coach Of The Year in 2007. He would go on to record a perfect 6-0 record in the post-season before retiring, the most of any coach without a loss.
A perfect regular season set the Huskers up against Steve Spurrier and Florida in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 2, 1996 for all the marbles. Both teams came into the game 12-0, Spurrier’s “fun ‘n gun” offense imploding under the constant pressure of the Blackshirts, while Frazier, Phillips and Co. ran wild through the Gator defense.
Nebraska’s offensive line simply bullied Florida defenders into submission time and time again, the suspense over at halftime following 29 unanswered second quarter Husker points.

Big Red’s 62 points set a school record in a bowl game, and were the second most points in any bowl game, period.
All told, Nebraska ran for 524 yards and ended up with 629 total yards. That’s especially staggering against an undefeated team from the state of Florida.
Indeed, Osborne had assembled one of college football’s greatest teams. It was one of college football’s most physical teams; one of college football’s most disciplined and determined teams.
That’s certainly a fun scarlet and cream season to remember 25 years later.
DAVE BRADLEY can be reached at advertising@hamilton.net(link sends e-mail).