Unforgettable: Nebraska 20, Oklahoma 10

Huskers win a game that will live in NU-OU history

LINCOLN - The clock kept running and 78,031 fans kept wondering: Who would do it?

Would No. 3 Nebraska or No. 2 Oklahoma put together that final, fourth quarter drive to win what some vocal locals in both states were calling "The Game of the New Century."

As fate and a little trust in youth would have it, it was a storybook ending for Nebraska and a kid who was playing high school football in Iowa last year. For Oklahoma it was grim, but no fairytale.

The comparatively dull but all-important fact is that Nebraska won, 20-10. The win lifted NU to 9-0 overall, and 4-0 in the Big 12 Conference. Oklahoma fell to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the Big 12. Oklahoma was ranked No. 1 in the BCS standings. NU was No. 2.

But, back to the fourth quarter. It had everything.

NU was up, 13-10. There was 8:54 left on the clock and Nebraska had the ball on its own four yard line. Oklahoma had suckered NU into that spot with a field goal attempt that turned into a poochie little punt.

Eric Crouch, the home-state hero and Heisman Trophy hopeful, picked up 19 yards on one run in a drive that eventually stalled at the NU 32.

With third down and two yards needed for a first down, Crouch was thrown for a seven-yard loss. The Sooner defense had done its job. It looked for a moment like Oklahoma would quickly get a shot at one of those dramatic drives that have broken Husker hearts in years gone by. But the same play that saw Crouch tossed for a loss saw Oklahoma charged with a face mask penalty. It wasn't a flagrant foul, but Nebraska picked up five yards and a first down. Whew!

And for the record: While the face mask penalty wasn't flagrant, it was decidedly real. After the game, the Nebraska sports information crew replayed the tape of the play over and over again at the request of some doubtful (and mostly from Oklahoma) reporters.

A short time later came the play that will go into the already enormous history of this storied gridiron rivalry. It featured Mike Stuntz, an 18-year-old freshman who graduated from St. Albert High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa just last year. It was Stuntz, a left-hander, who completed a pass to Crouch on a play that covered 63 yards and gave Nebraska the victory.

While Oklahoma watched in collective stupefaction -- fans, coaches and players -- Stuntz had shaken off the role of wingback (which he was supposed to be) taken the ball in the backfield and heaved it to Crouch, who beat feet for the endzone. Pandemonium among the Husker faithful. Crouch had pitched the ball to I-back Thunder Collins. Collins had handed it off to Stuntz. Stuntz connected with Crouch, who outran one big Sooner lineman and a late-arriving defensive back.

The clock read 6:17. The Big Red Sea roiled and roared in approval. It was 20-10 in favor of the home team, and the home crowd was thrilled -- on one hand. On the other, there was that anxiety in the air that comes every autumn, like when Lucy holds the ball and Charlie Brown tries to kick it, and always winds up on his back. Oklahoma had risen from what seemed like sure defeat too many times against the Huskers. Nebraskans don't count the Sooners out just because they are down.

Oklahoma had two more possessions to try to even things up or win. The Lord and a million or so Husker fans know that the Sooners are capable of such heroics. But this year it was not to be. Oklahoma didn't advance past its own 40 yard line in the remainder of the game.

That was it. But it was one of the great ones in this perennial rivalry that has survived the dingbat scheduling required by a conference that admitted four schools from Texas a few years back, and then let them make up the rules. Because of that scheduling, NU/OU is not an annual event. But it remains a constant love affair among fans.

The first half had been a thriller. The first quarter was scoreless, but not wanting for excitement. Nebraska was twice blessed with excellent field position, but couldn't convert either opportunity into points.

Oklahoma took a 7-0 lead in the second quarter. The Sooners marched 77 yards and scored when Trent Smith caught a four-yard TD pass from Nate Hybl. That's right. Hybl. Starting quarterback Jason White bunged up his leg earlier in the drive. It appeared that he suffered the injury while making a pass. He didn't appear to get hit on the play prior to his departure.

Oklahoma was on the NU 22 when Hybl came in. NU got slapped with a pass interference penalty that took the Sooners to the Husker seven. Quentin Griffin picked up three yards on the next play, and then Hybl put OU on the board with the pass to Smith.

The Huskers responded like a bunch of guys who had been insulted in their own home. Crouch kept NU moving with a 13-yard pass to Wilson Thomas; a 19-yarder to Kyle Ringenberg; another 9-yard completion to Wilson; and a 17-yard pass to Tracey Wistrom that put Nebraska on the visitor's 18 yard line. Dahrran Diedrick picked up 16 yards on the next play, then scored from the two yard line to tie the game. It was 7-7.

Oklahoma went three and out on the next series and DeJuan Groce returned the punt 33 yards to the OU 30. Nebraska marched as far as the Sooner 10 before the drive stalled. Josh Brown booted a 27-yard field goal and NU was up, 10-7.

All those predictions about a close game were coming true. It was a nail-biting kind of truth. With both defenses playing tough, it seemed that any score would loom large. Any mistake would be a big one.

Oklahoma kept that feeling alive. Hybl took the helm and completed passes of 11, 16 and 32 yards, the latter to Antwone Savage, setting OU up at the Nebraska 20.

The Sooners then rolled out razzle, dazzle and zippity-doo-dah, all in one play. It was a double reverse that wound up with Mark Clayton tossing a pass in the direction of a wide open Hybl -- who fell down with the ball coming right to him and nothing but open field in front of him. The Sooners will remember that one as a woulda' coulda' shoulda' for a long time. Hybl will remember it longer than that.

Hybl hit Josh Norman for 18 yards on the next play and the Sooners were at the NU two yard line. Griffin tried two runs at the Husker line with no result, and Hybl's pass to Clayton was incomplete. Tim Duncan booted a field goal from the 20. The Sooners had come 77 yards, but could pry just three points away from the Husker defense.

On the final play of the half, NU's Crouch was intercepted when he tossed a Hail Mary that was caught at the OU three by Brandon Everage.

At the half: NU 10, OU 10.

Nothing, but nothing seemed ordinary about this contest.

Oklahoma opened the third quarter with Hybl going 19 yards on a quarterback draw. It looked like the Sooners were pumped. Next play. Hybl lets fly a pass that seems destined to drop like a mortar round into the arms of his intended receiver. Instead, it drops onto the helmet of NU defender Erwin Swiney at the NU 36 yard line, and thence into Swiney's open arms.

With the ball on its own 36, Nebraska sent I-back Thunder Collins left -- and fast. He came down 39 yards later with an apparent ankle injury at the OU 25. Nebraska made it to the Sooner 3, then got pushed back to the nine. Josh Brown kicked a field goal from the 26. NU 13, OU 10.

On its next two possessions in the third period, Oklahoma advanced to its own 47 and its own 41.

When the fourth quarter rolled around, it was youth (Stuntz) and experience (Crouch) which combined to co-author another chapter in the continuing Husker-Sooner saga.

Nebraska's victory put an end to Oklahoma's 20-game winning streak, and probably dissolved the Sooners' hopes for snatching a second straight national title.

The two teams could play again this season. Thanks to the Big 12 Championship game, which enriches the conference coffers while hurting the national championship and bowl hopes of one or both teams, NU and OU could meet again when the regular season ends.

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