Nebraska Win Isn’t Sweet Enough

In the way they smashed into every Volunteer, in the way they manhandled every Tennessee football player in their way, in the two macho 90-something-yard drives for touchdowns, the Nebraska Cornhuskers were telling the world something.

They didn’t use their voices, they used their muscle. But the message was loud and clear. The Cornhuskers believe they should be playing Florida State on Tuesday night in the Sugar Bowl for the national title. They believe in their superiority over Virginia Tech. If only they could have beat Texas twice instead of only once this season.

So No. 3 Nebraska went out and showed off against No. 6 Tennessee in front of 71,526 at the Fiesta Bowl on Sunday night, beating the defending national champions, 31-21. The pummeling could have been worse. The Cornhuskers pulled up inside the Tennessee 10 and ran off the field with 13 seconds left. It seemed as if the Volunteers had left the field hours earlier.

Tennessee (9-3) was crunched, munched, punched and had for lunch. The Volunteers were rolled over, bowled over. They were as fresh as year-old leftovers, which is what they were. In this same place a year ago, Tennessee had completed a 13-0 season with a 23-16 victory over Florida State. Too bad the Volunteers came back.

“We were manhandled pretty good,” Tennessee Coach Phillip Fulmer said. “This doesn’t happen to us often, giving up two 90-yard drives. But it happened tonight.”

When the game was in doubt, after Nebraska tailback Dan Alexander had fumbled on the first play of the third quarter and after Tennessee had scored in four plays from the 25-yard line to close to 17-14, the Cornhuskers commandeered the game. They scored on a nine-play, 96-yard drive and followed that with a 10-play, 99-yard drive.

These were the kind of drives where Cornhusker linemen clobbered the Volunteers. These drives were led by sophomore quarterback Eric Crouch. These drives, Nebraska Coach Frank Solich said, “were the kind of drives that Nebraska is known for, wants to be known for.” These drives left the Volunteers gasping for breath, clutching their chests, lying on the ground in pain, with tears in their eyes.

“You’d look around and see them laying there,” Crouch said. “I don’t know if it was a little bit of injuries or if they were tired or what, but we were definitely the most physical team out there.”

The 96-yard drive was highlighted by a 47-yard, tackle-breaking run by 6-foot-1, 245-pound Willie Miller. Tennessee linebacker Eric Westmoreland finally dove and wrapped two hands around Miller’s ankle, yanking the fullback down at the Tennessee 13. Westmoreland needed both hands but the effort didn’t matter, for on the next play Crouch passed 13 yards to tight end Aaron Golliday for a touchdown. Nobody touched Golliday. Nobody was near Golliday in the end zone.

Maybe like the Tennessee hound dog that was napping on the sideline undisturbed by the Volunteer effort, the players were resting too. Golliday’s touchdown made the score 24-14 with 4 minutes, 44 seconds left in the third quarter.

When the Volunteers downed another punt at the Nebraska one at the start of the fourth quarter, the Cornhuskers slapped their helmets and laughed. Running back Correll Buckhalter had the biggest gain on this drive, a 27-yard run around the left end. He was given the honor of finishing the drive with a two-yard touchdown run. He, too, was not brushed by Volunteer hands.

With 12:01 left, the Volunteers were done. They had one trick play left, a lateral from quarterback Tee Martin to receiver Cedrick Wilson, who threw a 44-yard scoring pass to Donte’ Stallworth. That score came with 7:25 left and the Volunteers never got the ball back.

The Cornhuskers had 321 rushing yards. Alexander had 108 yards in 21 carries. Crouch added 64 rushing yards and 148 passing yards on nine completions in 15 attempts.

Charlie McBride, the Nebraska defensive coordinator who announced his retirement after the game, said in a teary-eyed farewell that, “As far as I’m concerned, we’re the best in the country. Anybody wants to step up against us, we could win.”

McBride was only saying in words what his players had said with their pounding play.

Can’t beat us now. And could we have that 24-20 loss to Texas back, please?