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Huskers through Hurricanes: Gazette, fans agree it's No. 1
LINCOLN, Neb. — After five weeks and over 90,000 votes Husker Nation has narrowed down 32 moments to the top moment in Husker Football history - the 1995 Orange Bowl against Miami.
Nebraska did more than deliver Tom Osborne his long-awaited first national championship that January night in South Florida.
Gazette scribber R.B. Headley picked this as his No. 1 moment last month after going through those 32 great ones featuring Husker football.
The Huskers, in somewhat therapeutic fashion, unleashed years of frustration against that same team, on that same field, that left so many people questioning whether this day would ever come.
From that missed two-point conversion to those lopsided games against speedier, more athletic Miami teams, the Orange Bowl had become a house of horrors for Osborne and his Huskers.
Even this game, at one point, seemed maybe it could follow the same pattern.
Miami led, 17-7, and the Hurricanes immediately regained possession.
Here we go again.
Except this time, back-to-back penalties pushed Miami up against its end zone, and Dwayne Harris bolted through the Hurricanes’ line to sack Costa for a safety, a huge momentum-changer.
Still trailing 17-9 entering the fourth quarter, Nebraska’s brute and force up front took its toll on gasping Miami defenders. Behind quarterback Tommy Frazier and I-back Lawrence Phillips, the Huskers began gaining yards in chunks. Cory Schlesinger scored on a 15-yard run with 7:38 remaining in the game.
Then, in that same end zone where Turner Gill’s two-point pass deflected incomplete 11 years earlier, Frazier zipped a pass that Dwayne Harris caught for a two-point conversion to tie the game at 17-17.
The Blackshirts did their part to give the offense possession, and the Huskers moved quickly yet methodically, with Schlesinger again scoring on a fullback trap, this time from 14 yards, for a 24-17 lead with 2:46 remaining.
Miami, which hadn’t earned a first down in the fourth quarter, didn’t come close on its final drive, either. The Huskers sacked Costa twice and celebrated when Kareem Moss intercepted his fourth-and-long attempt.
“And bring that trophy back to Lincoln!”