Yesterday, Corn Nation went in the Way Back Machine and taught us about the inception of the Big Ten.
Today, we'll move on to 1995. '95 was a good year for the Huskers. We had that one team that ran over everything in their path, and then we had the football team. Did you know that those guys won a national championship team, too?
Before we jump into that, '95 was also the year that the Husker Volleyball team won their first national championship. They had always been a powerhouse, but Terry Pettit and the ladies just couldn't close. That was until Allie Weston, Christy Johnson and company brought the hardware home.
Now, back to that football team. At the time, I never considered them to be the greatest team ever put on a football field. I knew they were good, but I didn't know they were that good. That was, however, until that fateful night in Tempe. Nebraska ran roughshod through their regular season. They ran through teams like Charlie Sheen ran through, ahem, briefcases. Washington State was the only team that gave them any trouble, by winning a 35-21 "squeaker" which, really, wasn't even that close.
Let's just recap who tried to get in their way (final AP rankings in parentheses):
- Kansas State (7) - 49-25
- Colorado (5) - 44-21
- Kansas...yes, Kansas (9) 41-3
- Iowa State (not ranked) - 73-14
Sorry, just had to write the fact that the Huskers hung 73 on ISU. That never gets old.
The Huskers, even without
Lawrence Phillips for most of the season, they still could not be stopped on offense. Frazier, Green, and the Pipeline was just too much for everyone. The best part of it was that everyone
knew they were going to run the option and they
still couldn't stop it.
On the other side of the ball, the Huskers were just as dominant. Booker, Farley, Wistrom, the Peters, etc. The list goes on and on. No one....no one....outplayed them. They were fast and fierce and when they took the field, the battle was practically over.
Back to the Fiesta Bowl. On the national landscape, virtually no one gave the Huskers a chance. Florida's Fun-n-Gun was going to be too much for the Huskers. The Huskers will be slow on grass. I'd even bet that a lot of Husker fans were sweating it before kickoff. After the Big Red's first touchdown, though, we breathed a sigh of relief. They were playing their own game and you could tell they were already dominating. And, by early in the second quarter, Spurrier, his offense, his ego, and his visor were a footnote in college football history as the Most Lopsided National Championship Game.
The best part was of course,
Tommie's Run. I was at that game and just couldn't believe what we were witnessing. What we were watching was the most dominant performance by The Greatest College Football Team of All Time.
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