Trick Play a Husker Treat

“Flash” is not a motion or emotion often associated with Nebraska football and it’s probably the last thing an opponent would expect in a game with a possible national championship at stake.

Nebraska is as conservative as a cloth coat, so what the Cornhuskers unveiled in the fourth quarter Saturday against Oklahoma has to unequivocally qualify as “element of surprise.”

The play that clinched No. 3 Nebraska’s 20-10 victory over No. 2 Oklahoma on Saturday, the gadget-junk-gizmo 63-yard scoring pass play that sent the Memorial Stadium crowd of 78,031 home in a red lather, was pulled from a bag of tricks no one knew Nebraska had in its trunk.

That was the beauty of it. Nobody saw it coming, including Oklahoma.

The “play” helped Nebraska (9-0) bully its way, front-and-center, into the national championship race, end Oklahoma’s 20-game winning streak and gave the schools something to chew as they anticipate a possible rematch Dec. 1 in the Big 12 championship game.

The victory all but assures Nebraska will be No. 1 in Monday’s bowl championship series rankings, taking the top spot from Oklahoma, which fell to 7-1.

Yet, what about this razzle-dazzle Cornhusker twist?

You don’t imagine former coach Tom Osborne would have partaken in such tomfoolery if his job depended on it, but fourth-year Coach Frank Solich, almost desperate to separate himself from Osborne’s legend, mustered the necessary courage to make the call.

The play was “41 Flash Pass,” and it now takes its place in the lore of this fabled rivalry.

Nebraska sat on the play all week, made everyone pinky-swear promise not to tell, even moved Friday’s practice indoors to ensure secrecy.

“We knew there would be a place for that play in this ball game, we just didn’t know when,” Solich said late.

The “when” whim struck Solich in the fourth quarter, with his team protecting a three-point lead, after a Cornhusker drive was graciously prolonged on a penalty.

Oklahoma stopped Nebraska cold on a third-and-two play at its own 32, but Sooner defensive end Cory Heinecke was flagged for a five-yard face mask penalty on quarterback Eric Crouch, giving Nebraska a first down at the 37.

With 6:31 left, Oklahoma might have expected Nebraska to keep the ball on the ground and use up the clock.

Isn’t that what Nebraska always does? But Solich called “41 Flash Pass.”

Seldom-used freshman Mike Stuntz, a former high school quarterback, sneaked into the game and set up at right end. Stuntz prayed Oklahoma coaches had not seen him warming up his arm on the sideline.

Crouch took the snap and handed the ball to Thunder Collins, “flashing” in motion along the line of scrimmage. Collins sprinted toward right end but then flipped the ball to Stuntz, heading left.

Stuntz caught the toss, double-clutched to get a better grip, and flipped a pass to Crouch, who had slipped left behind coverage and took the ball in stride at the Oklahoma 38. Crouch easily outran defensive end Kory Klein into the end zone to help put Nebraska up, 20-10.

Stuntz’s first pass was instantly registered into Nebraska-Oklahoma history, just as the freshman thought it might.

See, Stuntz had some time on his hands. He had been in on only one previous play and admitted he caught himself watching jumbo video screen highlights of the Oklahoma-Nebraska series.

“I try to keep my head in the game,” Stuntz said, “but some of those TV timeouts are kind of long.”

Stuntz thought of making history all week, the minute the coaching staff inserted the trick play into the game plan.

The question: Would Solich have the guts to try it?

“I kind of thought maybe we wouldn’t use it,” Stuntz said.

Added linebacker Jamie Burrow: “I was surprised.”

Solich, a guy you imagine might take 15 minutes to pick out socks, bit his lip and went for it.

“The ball was on the right hash mark, the down and distance were ideal for it,” Solich assessed.

Funny how top-secret trick plays work, though. As Solich agonized for the right moment to make his call, he might have suffered a small coronary late in the first half when Oklahoma, trailing 10-7 and driving, ran their own version of “41 Flash Pass.”

The Sooners would have scored a touchdown, and perhaps changed the course of the game, had wide-open quarterback Nate Hybl not fallen down in the right flat as he maneuvered to catch receiver Mark Clayton’s flea-flicker pass.

“Our reverse throw back, our guy fell down and we couldn’t complete it,” Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops said. “Theirs was completed for a touchdown and there’s the game. It’s a swing of 14 points. There’s more to it than that, but when I saw him running down the sideline, I almost had to chuckle to myself, ‘I’ll be a son of a gun, theirs worked and ours didn’t.”’

The play was the highlight in an otherwise tight game. The teams combined for 20 punts and spent most of the time between the 20-yard lines. Oklahoma finished with 339 yards to Nebraska’s 329, but neither team was willing to take many chances.

Oklahoma’s incredible 20-win run is over, a stretch in which the Sooners won a national title, went 8-0 against top-10 opponents and got just about every break a team needs to make history.

Last year, the Sooners did not suffer a significant injury to a starter en route to the national title, but this year’s linear progression might be called Heupel to Hybl to Hobble.

Hybl, the heir to quarterback Josh Heupel, has been banged up for weeks and finally lost his starting job last week to sophomore Jason White.

White, though, was knocked out in the first half because of a left knee injury, forcing Hybl to play.

In the second half, after Hybl was knocked wobbly, White limped back while Hybl recovered.

Still, Oklahoma played well enough to win, which should inspire the Sooners in their quest to forge a return matchup in the Big 12 title game.

“Losing is a strange feeling in our locker room, because we haven’t experience this in quite a while,” Stoops said.