COLLEGE FOOTBALL: THE BOWL GAMES : Nebraska Lifts Osborne to Top : Orange Bowl: Frazier comes off the bench to rally the No. 1 Cornhuskers past No. 3 Miami, 24-17, and help coach close in on elusive national title.

You have seen him in Nebraska red for 33 seasons, the last 22 as its head coach. You have seen him gamble and lose, grimace and go on. You have seen him average nearly 10 victories a year, convert his detractors and become more visible in the state than corn silos.

But until Sunday night’s Orange Bowl, when Coach Tom Osborne’s No. 1-ranked Cornhuskers defeated No. 3 Miami on its home field, 24-17, you had never seen him like this.

Wearing an embarrassed smile, his shirt and hair soaked with ice water after a victory dousing, Osborne received a postgame shoulder taxi from his players. Done in front of an Orange Bowl-record 81,753 fans, it had to be the most wonderful joy ride of his life.

At last, after 268 games, after seven consecutive bowl losses, after so many near misses, after so much criticism, Osborne is likely to earn the national championship he says he doesn’t crave. Members of the media and coaches polls have yet to cast their final votes, but it seems inconceivable that the Cornhuskers won’t find themselves with at least half of a national title and probably more.

“The monkey’s really never off your back,” Osborne said. “But for at least tonight, I’m going to enjoy things.”

Of course, there is still this matter of the Rose Bowl, but for all intents and purposes, Nebraska has done its duty. The Cornhuskers finished the season 13-0 (only the third team in NCAA Division I history to do that), beat the Hurricanes on a field where Miami had previously lost only once in 64 games and did it with a quarterback who hadn’t played in 14 weeks.

Penn State, who plays Oregon today, asks for equal ballot consideration, but Nebraska asks for history to repeat itself. No team has done what the Cornhuskers have--end the regular season ranked No. 1 and then won its bowl game--and not clinch a national championship, mythical or otherwise.

“I told Joe Paterno that I wasn’t going to lobby (for votes) and I’m not going to,” Osborne said. “If they give it to us, we’ll certainly be very grateful and we’ll take it home. If we don’t we’ll understand that too.”

If it happens, if Nebraska gets its first national title since 1971, the Cornhuskers will have earned every bit of their title. They trailed, 10-0, at the end of the first quarter and were still behind by eight points going into the fourth quarter. Standing between them and victory was the Hurricane defense, rated first in the nation, and the Cornhuskers’ night-long knack of committing turnovers at the worst possible times.

A fumble by substitute quarterback Brook Berringer deep in Miami territory ended one crucial drive late in the third quarter. Then Berringer made another terrible mistake, throwing a fourth-quarter interception on a first-and-goal situation at the Miami four-yard line.

Normally that would have been enough for the Hurricanes. It has in past championship seasons.

But this time Miami wore down. Tommie Frazier, who hadn’t played since Sept. 24 because of blood clots in his right calf, re-entered the game and did what the Hurricanes insisted he couldn’t do: He ran the option and by doing so engineered the comeback that Nebraskans will be talking about for harvests to come.

“Everyone was very confident,” said Frazier, who started the game, played the first quarter, but didn’t return until 12:07 remained in the final period. “We knew their defensive front was tired and their defensive front is the heart of (their team). All we had to do was pound them. We knew we were going to drive them five, six yards.”

Sure enough, Nebraska tied the game midway through the fourth quarter.

The Cornhuskers did it on the ground, covering 40 yards on two runs, with fullback Cory Schlesinger doing the honors with a 15-yard score. The two-point conversion pass from Frazier to tight end Eric Alford made the score 17-17.

Then, with 2:46 left in the game, Schlesinger scored again, this time on a stumbling, bumbling 14-yard run up the middle.

Miami had one last chance, but Frank Costa’s desperation fourth-down pass was intercepted by defensive back Kareem Moss in the waning moments.

“We were swarming to the ball until the end of the game,” said Miami All-American defensive tackle Warren Sapp. “And then we didn’t make some tackles. You have to make plays to win. They made the plays in the end and we didn’t.”

In the newsreel that is Osborne’s coaching career, there might not have been a better night than Sunday. If nothing else, there has never been a better Nebraska team during his tenure.

The Cornhuskers dispelled several Miami pregame myths with the victory. For starters, they proved speed doesn’t always kill. The Hurricanes had said that their superior speed would prevent Nebraska from running the option and that their defensive line would clog up the middle.

Instead, the Cornhuskers rushed for 199 yards, with Lawrence Phillips finishing with 96 of them and Schlesinger with those two scoring runs, both of them up the middle. And Frazier, especially in the critical fourth quarter, turned his share of corners while running the option.

“Frazier’s a special athlete and he can make some things happen,” Osborne said. “He really gave us something there at the end and made some things happen.”

Nebraska also showed that Washington’s upset of the Hurricanes earlier in the season wasn’t a fluke. Miami is no longer invincible at home.

The Hurricanes not only blew a lead, but they committed 11 penalties for 92 yards and their offense went icebox cold in the second half.

Costa was nine of 17 for 153 yards and one touchdown in the first half, nine of 18 for 95 yards and one score in the second. But the numbers that really count: 15-0 in favor of Nebraska in the final period.

“You couldn’t hear yourself think,” said Frazier of the postgame celebration. “You had people hugging you, you had people crying. It was just a moment to savor for a lifetime.”

For Osborne, it was something more. It was vindication of sorts--even if he doesn’t want to admit it.