Sports

Fiesta Bowl: Nebraska Tops Tennessee, 31-21

Classic NU ground game undoes the Tennessee Talkers

by Ed Howard

January 03, 2000

NU Coach Frank Solich (NU Sports Information Office)

New millennium. Same old stronger-than-anybody-in-the-stretch Cornhuskers.

Nebraska put together a pair of classic smash-mouth, kick-butt drives in the second half that iced a 31-21 Fiesta Bowl victory over Tennessee in Tempe, Arizona on Sunday night.

In the annals of grind 'em up, grind it out football, those Husker drives of 96 yards and 99 yards will live as classics.

NU Coach Frank Solich (NU Sports Information Office)

Toward the end of the game, the Tennessee Volunteers looked like conscripts who'd had enough. These were the same Volunteers who had promised to teach NU a lesson about physical football. How'd you like to have that kind of nerve in a tooth?

Although the New Year didn't usher in the dawn of common sense among the ritualistic voters in the AP college football ball, the chances are good that Nebraska will finish the season ranked second in the nation - behind the winner of the Florida State - Virginia Tech title game this week.

Nebraska's display of power football when it counted Sunday night probably had Ohio State's Woodie Hays spinning in his grave - with joy. He always promoted football of the "three yards and a cloud of dust" variety.

There was no dust on the field at Sun Devil Stadium, and Nebraska averaged a lot more than three yards per carry on those two crucial drives. But the spirit was there. The spirit of knock 'em off the ball, run over 'em and then punish 'em when they do make a tackle.

Amid the joy in Nebraska's lockerroom there was also sorrow in this season of Auld Lang Syne. Charlie McBride, the veteran NU defensive coordinator, announced his retirement. It was McBride whose modernization of Nebraska's defense made the 90s the decade of the Huskers. Characteristically, McBride thanked former ASU Coach Frank Kush for giving him his start, and he thanked everyone at Nebraska for a part in his tremendous career. And he had generous words, a commodity with which McBride has ever been judicious, for his last team.

"This is a special group, folks. They're self-motivated and they can play like hell," McBride said. "As far as I'm concerned, they are Number One. Anybody that wanted to step up against us, we can win."

Maybe you have to know something about Charlie McBride to appreciate what those words meant. To those in the know, they meant a lot.

Now, then. The game, the game, the game.

It will be remembered among the legions who populate the Red Sea as a good one. Maybe a great one. NU Coach Frank Solich said before and after the contest that this season's Husker squad had reflected character and discipline. They did that Sunday night, again.

Tennesee couldn't do spit, as they might say in the hollers of the Volunteer State, against the Husker Black Shirt defense.

Outstanding player that he is, Tennessee quarterback Tee Martin spent most of the night trying to avoid NU tacklers who were bent on committing violent trespass upon his vaunted person.

The southern gentlemen who populated the line of scrimmage in front of Mr. Martin were not so lucky. Neither were their colleagues on the Tennessee defensive unit. NU center Dominic Raiola and his teammates on the Husker offensive line gave the Tennessee Talkers a lesson in what Nebraska's strength training program really means. It means you will get smacked as hard in the third and fourth quarters as you did in the first quarter - and, sometimes harder.

Dan Alexander capped the Huskers' first possession with a 7-yard TD run. The drive went 43 yards in four plays. Later in the same period, Bobby Newcombe returned a punt 60 yards for NU's second score. Let it be noted here that the great Ralph Brown, the Nebraska cornerback who started every game for NU since he was a true freshman, made the final block that sent Newcombe into the endzone. Brown flattened the UT kicker who looked sorry for getting in the way even before he hit the ground - and bounced. Nebraska 14, Tennessee 0.

Josh Brown booted a 31-yard field goal (that bounced off the upright and through) in the second period for NU. Tennessee got on the board when Martin hit Donte Stallworth with a 9-yard pass. Nebraska 17, Tennessee 7.

The opening of the second half did nothing to signal the Husker onslaught that was to come. I-Back Dan Alexander fumbled on the first play and Tennessee recovered. It was time for the TV guys to remind us that NU lost 25 fumbles this season. UT's Travis Henry scored on a 4-yard-run that capped a 25-yard march. Nebraska 17, Tennessee 14.

And then, Tennessee got a great break from its special teams guys. They pinned the Huskers on their own 4-yard-line.

It was then, like jolly red giants, the Huskers began to pound down the Vols and move up the field. A 13-yard pass from QB Eric Crouch to Aaron Golliday capped a 9-play drive. That pass was set up when Willie "I'd rather go over than around" Miller ripped off a 46-yard run on a patented NU up-the-gut play. Nebraska 24, Tennessee 14.

Maybe UT Coach Phil Fulmer should have told his young men not to further antagonize the NU offense. But he didn't, and the Vols pinned the Huskers on their own 1-yard line. It took 10 plays to eat up those 99 yards, which were strewn liberally with knocked down, worn out Volunteers. I-Back Correll Buckhalter scored from the 2-yard line. He had set the stage for his own glory, having picked up 27 yards on a carry that took NU to the Tennessee 19. Nebraska 31, Tennessee 14.

The Volunteers got on the board one more time with a trick play. Martin made a lateral toss to Cedrick Wilson who unloaded a 44-yard TD pass to Stallworth. Nebraska 31, Tennessee 21.

The Tennessee offense spent the game's remaining 7:25 on the bench, watching the Huskers put on a third consecutive display of the kind of blocking that makes defenders argue in the lockerroom over whose turn it is to use the whirlpool.

Nebraska finished the season 12-1, with a Big 12 title to accompany the Fiesta Bowl trophy.

Tennessee, ranked No. 5 and 6, fished 9-3.

Nebraska's only loss came at the hands of Texas. NU avenged that defeat by downing the Longhorns in the conference title game.

The Husker situation will lead to yet more talk of a need for a playoff system.

In the old days, if FSU and VT weren't playing one another, Nebraska would have had a shot at the national title - if both the other teams lost their bowl games.

The folks who came up with the system that puts the top-ranked team against the second-ranked team hadn't figured on the likes of Virginia Tech - a decidedly capable ball club, but one that plays a weak sister schedule that made it comparatively easy to finish undefeated. Not one Big 12 team finished the season with a perfect mark - in part because the teams in the conference had to play other teams in the conference.