2B - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSWednesday - Wednesday, January 10, 1996 tHE FiEsTA BOWL k;tqi. AP PHOTO Fiesta Siesta: Nebraska tmmples lorid62-24 By Barry Sollenberger The Cornhuskers have now won 25 takes in the schemes," Wuerffel said. Daily Sports Editor games in a row and 36 of their past 37. "They came at the right times from TEMPE, Ariz. - The Fiesta Bowl's Word has it that they want to replace a right places. They did a good job getting national championship matchupbetween couple of college teams on their 1996 the pressure that disrupted us." top-ranked Nebraska and No. 2 Florida schedule with a couple of NFL teams. That pressure was evident in the mas- actually lived up to its hype. Anything for a little competition. sacre known as the second quarter. After Well, at least for a quarter. They concluded their remarkable sea- Nebraska tailback Lawrence Phillips After a back-and-forth first 15 minutes son by completely dominating a Florida scored on a nifty 42-yard run to give his ofplay that ended with the Gators up, 10- team that hadn't been seriously challenged team a 13-10 lead with 13:11 left uptil 6, the Huskers exploded for 29 unan- in registering a 12-0 record during the halftime, Wuerffel and company found swered points in the second period en season. themselves pinned deep in their own end. route to a 62-24 romp in front of 79,864 at Nebraska outgained the Gators, 629- On third and long from the one, the Sun Devil Stadium. 269, and rushed for a bowl record 524 Cornhuskers' Jamel Williams burr With the victory, Nebraska (12-0) be- yards. The Cornhuskers also won their Wuerffel in the end zone for a safety. came the first team since Oklahoma in first Fiesta Bowl in five tries. Nebraska led, 15-10. 1955 and 1956 to win unanimous back- The Gators' offensive attack, nick- After the ensuing free kick, tle to-backnational championships. Lastsea- named Fun 'n' Gun, had anything but a Cornhuskers' signal-caller Tommtie son the Cornhuskers went 13-0 to claim jolly time against Nebraska. The Frazier set up Ahman Green's one-yard their first national title since 1971. Cornhuskers made life miserable for touchdown plungg with a 32-yard runon "We weren't as emotional as we were Florida's All-American quarterback third-and-7. last year," Nebraska coach Tom Osborne Danny Wuerffel, tallying seven sacks Nebraska led, 22-10. After that, the said. "The players were expecting to win and three interceptions. Cornhuskers' Kris Brown put three more it. It wasn't 'ho hum,' but it was more "A coupletimes,we didn'thaveenough points on the board with a 26-yard boot matter-of-fact." blockers, and other times we had mis- and then the Gators, already entering * panic stage, gave Nebraska another six I.4 when Michael Booker returned an errant WV . Wuerffel pass 42 yards for a score. Weffebraska led, 32-10. And inone ofthe most highly touted matchups in recent memory, CBS began to lose millions of .. , ". ;' viewers - about two hours before it Nebraska's Jamel Williams drills Gator quarterback Danny Wuerffel for a second quarter safety. Wuerffel had this view of the Sun Devil Stadium turf quite often Jan. 2 as the Cornhuskers sacked him seven times In their 62-24 romp. i t Tap-ranked Corn/iuskers take their p~ace among EMPE, Ariz. - Florida coach Steve Spurrier did not make any excuses after his team lost the national championship to Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl, 62- 24. He didn't throw any tantrums. He didn't shed any tears. BARRY And he didn't SOLLENBERGER 'blame the loss Sollenberger in on the media Paradise like so many people love to do these days after a tough loss. He just told it like it was. "Nebraska is just way better than us," Spurrier said. "We've been on the good end of these scores and now we're on the bad end." - Before the game, many thought Spurrier's squad had a solid shot of slaying Nebraska and capturing its first-ever national championship. " 13 3 rhutoy sgr Florida hadn't been seriously challenged in going 12-0 during the season. Spurrier had one of the best signal-callers in the nation in Danny Wuerffel - a guy who threw for a marathon through the air this season. And the Gators also boasted an underrated defense, one that was rated among the top 20 statistically. Over a week later, it's clear to everyone that all of those stats and victories didn't add up to a hill of anything against Nebraska. The Cornhuskers were too good. How good? To beat the Cornhuskers, it actually helps to lead Osborne's bunch during the course of a contest. Nebraska trailed during a game three times all season -- once against Washington State, 7-0, (Nebraska won, 35-21) and twice against Florida, 3-0 and 10-6. When facing the Huskers, it helps to put some pressure on the quarter- back. No one was able to do that either. When Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier was tackled behind the line late in the game against the Gators, it marked the first time all 3 rat teams season that Osborne's offensive line allowed a sack. This means that while running the option, Frazier was not stopped for negative yardage a single time during the regular season. Yeah, but did they play anybody, you might ask. Try three of the 10 best teams in the nation. The Big 8 was by far the best and most competitive league in college football this year. It placed four teams in the top 10 of the final Associated Press poll. In addition to No. 1 Nebraska, No. 5 Colorado, No. 7 Kansas State and No. 9 Kansas all cracked the top 10. The Cornhuskers beat those three teams 44-21, 49-25 and 41-3, respectively. My 21 years of age didn't allow me to see those great Oklahoma teams of the 1950s, or the Texas and Notre Dame powerhouses of the '60s and '70s, but could anybody have been more dominant than Nebraska was this season? The Cornhuskers did not come See SOLLENBERGER, Page 46 wanted to. The halfended mercifully for Florida a couple of minutes after Booker's return, but not before Brown tacked on anothi three to make it 35-10 at intermission "Once this offense gets going,"'Frazier said, "it's pretty hard to stop." Nah ... really? The second half was the best time of your life if you're a Nebraska fan and your worst experience if you bleed Gator orange. TheCornhuskers stampededtheir way to a Fiesta Bowl record 62 poinfs, making the contest the most lopsided No.1 versus No. 2 matchup since Ar" beat Notre Dame 48-0 in 1946. Frazier and Phillips led a cast of what seemed like 100 heroes for Nebraska. Phillips finished with 165 yards rushing and three touchdowns, while Frazier rushed for 199 yards and two scores and threw for another. But the real key to the blowout might have been the Cornhusker defense. Florida's 269 yards of total of- fense was almost 300 yards below its season average. Midway through the see- ond quarter, the Gators had as much tot offense as they did when the game started - zero - The Associated Press contributed to this report. AP PH Nebraska senior quarterback Tommie Frazier rarely lost during his collegiate career. The Cornhuskers dropped just one game in his final three seasons. N U 01 Si Macintosh Performs 636CD 8MB RAM/500MB hard drive, CD-ROM drive, 15"color monitot keyboard, mouse and all the software you're likely to need. Looking for a great deal on a computer and a printer can be awhole lot easier than finding a roommate. Because right now, whenyou purchase a Macintoslf Performa* can get your work done faster it will look great and you can receive an extra $150 at the same time.So take a moment to look into the power that can keep A ,. j i I.,