Seven Awesome Individual Performances in Husker History

Nebraska’s football history is, to put it simply…awesome.

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Our rosters past and present have been made up of studs from all over the country, but once they show up in Lincoln, something magical happens. The players embrace the blue-collar work ethic of the people of the state. They learn to dig, fight, scratch and claw for every yard, every tackle, every play that they can make. They won’t give up until the final whistle. They make us proud.

In short, they become great…the stuff of legends.

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And then, every once in a while, one of those players rises up and pushes himself even further. He takes his game to the infamous “next level” and raises the bar on what we consider to be a awesome performance. He pushes the bad awesomeness envelope. He makes the use of cliches seem cliched. And most importantly, he makes the other team (and more than a few fans) say “What the heck just happened?”

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That’s an awesome performance.

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We’ve had quite a few of them in Husker history. Some were in title games, some were in conference rivalries, and some of them were against junk teams from the Sun Belt (or Pac-10, whichever happened to be worse that particular year). No matter who it was against, they stand out in our minds. So I thought I would list seven awesome individual performances from Husker History. I’m not saying these are the Top 7 Awesome Performances of All-Time, but they were seven that stood out in my mind. You may think others deserve more recognition, and maybe you’re right, but these are the ones I’m going with. So go get yourself some snacks, put on your cornhead (you know you have one), and maybe a foam “#1″ finger and relish in the awesomeness…

7. Steve Taylor vs. UCLA, 1987
#3 UCLA already had to live with the fact that they were career victories #1 and #100 for Tom Osborne…now they were coming to Lincoln to face #2 Nebraska on the 150th consecutive sellout. Determined not to become another milestone win, the Bruins set out to stop the dreaded Husker option attack. With linebackers Ken Norton Jr. and Carnell Lake leading the way, it looked like they had the defense to do just that. At the end of the first quarter, UCLA was up 7-0. NU had only 30 yards on the ground, had given up three fumbles, and quarterback Steve Taylor had been sacked for an 11-yard loss. Osborne thought about pulling Taylor, who had bruised his left shoulder on the sack, but Steve convinced his coach not to. One thing Steve and the coaches in the box had noticed was that with all the blitzing that UCLA was doing, a funny thing happened…the tight ends were wide open on seam routes. A few minutes later, Taylor threw a 9-yard TD pass to Tom Banderas. Less than five minutes later, he threw an 11-yard TD pass to running back Ken Clark. After a “Hey Coach! This forward pass stuff actually works!” moment, TO decided to junk the option and switch to the run-and-shoot. Okay not really, but UCLA kept stacking the line, and Taylor kept hitting the tight ends, allowing Rod Smith and Todd Millikan (twice!) to actually pretend that they were receivers and catch TD passes, if only for a day. The Huskers opened up a 42-17 lead, and coasted to a 42-33 victory. Taylor ended the day 10 of 15 passing for 217 yards and FIVE touchdowns, which tied a Big 8 record which had stood for 50 years. His QB rating for the day was an unheard of 298.2.

6. Irving Fryar vs. Minnesota, 1983
Having 230 yards of total offense is a pretty good game for any player. Scoring three touchdowns in that same game makes it that much sweeter. Accomplishing that all in ONE HALF makes people sit up and take notice. The fact that a player can accomplish this on only FIVE touches (41 yards per touch) makes heads explode. Yet this is what Irving Fryar did against Minnesota at the Metrodome in 1983. Now let’s be clear…Minnesota in 1983 wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire. Millard North probably could’ve scored 40 on them that year. And they were facing the #1 team in the country, with the offense dubbed “The Scoring Explosion”. And to be sure, the Gophers couldn’t stop anybody wearing Husker Red that night. Mike Rozier had 196 yards on 15 carries. Turner Gill had 100 yards on 4 carries. Backup QB Craig “I’m actually getting in the game?” Sundberg had two rushing TDs, including a 44-yarder. All this happened on the road to an 84-13 Husker rout. But Fryar stood above the rest. He had TD catches of 68 and 70 yards in the first quarter, and a 41-yard run early in the second. If I remember correctly, TO only had Fryar on the field for like five plays in the second half, because every time he came out to the field, the Minnesota secondary would just drop and curl up in the fetal position, saying “Make the bad man go away!”.

5. Lawrence Phillips vs. Kansas State, 1994
126 yards on 31 carries. That’s almost 4 yards a carry. A good day for a running back…not stellar totals, mind you, but a decent, workman-like effort. That is until you stop and look at the situation surrounding those totals. Three weeks before this game, NU lost Heisman Trophy candidate Tommie Frazier for an undetermined time with blood clots. Two weeks before, backup QB Brook Berringer had suffered a collapsed lung, which saw him play at about 50% against Wyoming and Oklahoma State. Now, the #2 Huskers were traveling to Manhattan to take on #16 Kansas State. The Wildcats had lost 25 straight to NU. They had a decent QB named Chad May, and NU was countering that with sophomore walk-on Matt Turman. The Wildcats smelled upset. No way was Turman going to air it out on a windy, rainy day. The only weapon NU had was RB Lawrence Phillips. The Wildcats were going to put 9 guys in the box, and their tough defense was going to lay the wood to Phillips every time he touched the ball. But Phillips refused to go down. Time and again, he ran behind NU’s “Pipeline” and pounded away at the K-State defense. They tackled him high, and he ran them over. They came at him low, and he bulled through. Arm tackles? Don’t even think about it. Phillips scored the first TD for NU in the first quarter, then NU hung on and played the field position game with the Cats. Berringer did play in the second half, but Phillips still carried the load. Berringer would eventually get better, as would Frazier, but Phillips’ legacy as a workhorse RB would be cemented by this game.

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4. Grant Wistrom vs. Washington, 1997
Everyone looks to the stats of a game to find out who the MVP was…most yards, most TDs, most tackles, and on it goes. Stats are nice. But sometimes stats don’t tell the entire story, and sometimes stats don’t even matter. Case in point…#7 NU traveled to #2 Washington in September 1997. The Seattle crowd was as loud as there had ever been for a game…947 decibels (okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but it was estimated to be as loud as a jet airliner taking off). The Huskies had a huge offensive line, and a solid backfield. If there was ever a team that was going to impose their will on the late 90s Huskers, this was it. Washington drove the ball to NU’s 20 on their first drive, but missed a field goal. Nebraska drove the ball the length of the field and scored to go up 7-0. The shootout appeared to be on. Then something happened. DE Grant Wistrom remembered to take his All-American pills (available only with a prescription). Wistrom, at about 285 pounds, was going up against a pair of 300-pounders, including All-American OL Benji Olsen. Defensive coordinator Charlie McBride turned Wistrom loose, and Wistrom began physically manhandling Washington’s left side. He could never quite get to Husky QB Brock Huard, but he was getting closer. NU scored again, and was now up 14-0. The Huskies had to throw, so Wistrom pinned his ears back and kept coming. Finally, near the end of the first quarter, Wistrom got there. He shoved Olsen out of the way and rolled up on Huard’s ankle. Huard limped off to the sideline, but the injury was every bit as psychological and physical. Huard came back in for a few more plays before sitting out the rest of the day, as the Huskers rolled to a 27-14 win. I think Wistrom was only credited with 3 tackles on the day. I don’t know for sure, and it doesn’t matter. Husker fans still get chills watching Wistrom’s performance from that day.

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3. Jeff Kinney vs. Oklahoma, 1971
Think of the “Game of the Century” and what comes to mind? Johnny Rodgers’ punt return? Highlight reel for sure, but it didn’t win the game for us. Rich Glover’s 22 tackles? Awesome, but the defense still gave up 467 yards. When I think of that game, I think of the NU running back with the tearaway jersey flapping in the breeze as he dragged defenders all over the field…Jeff Kinney. We all know the story behind the game…#1 vs. #2. NU Coach Bob Devaney knew he was going to have to milk the clock in order to keep OU’s vaunted wishbone off the field. Sure, Rodgers was the playmaker for the Huskers, but Devaney knew he would need his workhorse Kinney to carry the game. OU knew the Huskers would run the ball…Tagge was no threat to be compared to Johnny Unitas, and as long as they didn’t let Rodgers get deep, they would be okay. So they loaded up against the run and tried to shut down Nebraska’s option attack. Kinney ended up with 171 yards on 31 carries, and scored four TDs. To show how important Kinney was to the Husker offense, you need only look at the NU’s last drive of the game. The Huskers went 74 yards, and Kinney had 50 of them. In fact, he carried the ball on the last four plays, including a two-yard TD run to give the Huskers a 35-31 lead. Maybe Kinney wasn’t as flashy as Rodgers, but he just got the job done.

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2. Tommie Frazier vs. Florida, 1996 Fiesta Bowl
Sometimes an awesome player piles up a ton of stats. Sometimes he is the on-the-field general who wills his team to victory. And sometimes he plays with a chip on his shoulder because he got screwed out of a Heisman Trophy. Tommie Frazier did all of that and more, leading the #1 Huskers to a 62-24 rout of #2 Florida. Was it one of the greatest performances in college football history? Critics might argue that Frazier was a very pedestrian 6 of 14 passing for 105 yards…not to mention having two interceptions. But those critics were also probably among the seemingly hundreds of Florida defenders that were left in the dust, trying to tackle Frazier.  His 75-yard, third quarter touchdown run is one of the most iconic plays in Husker history. A die-hard Husker fan can watch that play over and over again, oblivious to the fact that Kent Pavelka keeps forgetting that there’s an R at the end of “Frazier”. Frazier racked up 199 yards on 16 carries (12.4 per carry), rushed for two TDs, and threw one TD pass (choke on that, critics!) to Lawrence Phillips.

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1. Ndamukong Suh vs. Texas, 2009
Awesome players tend to become more awesome-y in big games. I doubt that has ever been more true in Nebraska football history than when Nebraska took on Texas in the 2009 Big 12 Championship Game. Let’s face it…if you weren’t from the states of Texas or Nebraska, and if Suh hadn’t been so dominant on defense, this game would’ve been pretty boring. Both teams had decent defenses, and everyone knew there was no way NU’s offense was going to drive the length of the field on Texas. But in arguably the biggest game of his career, Suh came up with arguably one of the greatest defensive performances in college football history. From the opening play, Suh was hunting down Texas QB Colt McCoy. Yes, I said hunting…because McCoy had a deer in the headlights look, and Suh was the 18-wheeler ready to run him down. On several plays, Suh caused McCoy to have a Jesus Moment and a Depends Moment, simultaneously. Before the game, I think a lot of people were ready to give McCoy the Heisman Trophy…not necessarily because he earned it, but because he was the only one of the “Big Three” (McCoy/Tim Tebow/Sam Bradford) not to win it, and because he was college football’s all-time winningest quarterback. In four quarters of football, not only did Suh knock McCoy out from being the front-runner, but earned himself a trip to the Downtown Athletic Club. 12 tackles, 6 of which were for losses, and 4.5 sacks. Yes it was in a losing effort, but when it was over, I didn’t feel like I’d just watched a loss as much as I felt I’d just witnessed college football history.

And it was an awesome feeling…

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