Nebraska Leaves UCLA Seeing Red--in the Mirror : College football: Cornhuskers break modern Bruin record with 484 rushing yards in a 49-21 victory.

LINCOLN, Neb. —  Nebraska is red cars, red shirts, go Big Red and red hot on offense.

UCLA is red-faced after a 49-21 loss Saturday, and Tommie Frazier is a large part of the reason. Numbers had something to do with it, though most of them weren’t his.

“I made the comment before the game that I thought Tommie Frazier was in an elite class of athletes in college football,” Bruin Coach Terry Donahue said of the Cornhusker quarterback. “After having played him this year on AstroTurf, I probably feel stronger about my belief than before the game. He’s the type of player that makes your whole football team totally different.

“He’s a Michael Jordan-type player that just makes a difference in a game.”

It wasn’t so much that Frazier’s numbers were impressive. He carried seven times for 29 yards, scoring one touchdown and two two-point conversions, and he completed only five of 11 passes for 59 yards and two touchdowns.

But he operated Nebraska’s option so well that I-back Lawrence Phillips had 178 yards in 19 carries, usually facing only one Bruin after Frazier had strung out the defense, then pitched the ball.

“We established the running game and every running play was working,” Frazier said.

The Cornhuskers finished with 484 rushing yards, most against UCLA in what the Bruin record book calls “the modern era,” which isn’t defined but seems to have something to do with the Great Depression.

“It wasn’t so much that he beat us with his athleticism,” said UCLA safety Abdul McCullough, who spent much of the afternoon chasing Frazier. “It became a numbers game. He would get to the line of scrimmage and count players on each side of the center. Then he would call ‘opposite,’ and run the play to the fewest numbers.”

It got personal.

“I saw fear in their eyes,” Frazier said. “A couple of their linebackers looked like, ‘What are they going to run next? And is it going for a big gain?’ ”

Frequently, it did. And whether the look was fear or respect is open to question.

“The rest of the players are all right,” McCullough said. “I mean, Phillips isn’t that fast. We’ve got backs as good as him, but that Frazier dude is the difference.”

He was the difference early, when Nebraska took a 12-0 lead in the first quarter on Frazier’s 23-yard touchdown pass to Eric Alford and Phillips’ one-yard touchdown run. And he was the difference late, after the Bruins had closed to within 28-14 and Bjorn Merten missed a 42-yard field-goal attempt in the third quarter that would have made it interesting.

Frazier didn’t carry on the next series, but he pitched to Phillips on a 60-yard run that included missed tackles by everyone in the secondary. Probably tired, Phillips turned the I-back job over to Clinton Childs for the final eight yards and a 35-14 lead with 2:23 to play in the third quarter.

Childs got his name in the scoring summary, but he knew where the credit went.

“Tommie audibled and ran the option, so they played him, and after I got the ball I knew I had one man to beat (Andy Colbert). I let him tackle me earlier in the game on a big-play opportunity, so I knew I had to get by him this time, and I did.”

Frazier’s nine-yard touchdown pass to Brendan Holbein made the score 42-14, and after his 11-yard run on Nebraska’s final scoring drive, Frazier called it a day, turning the offense over to Brook Berringer with 12:44 to play.

The Bruins closed to within 49-21 on a Ryan Fien-led drive that covered 85 yards and ended with an 11-yard scoring run by James Milliner with 8:07 to play. It was Fien’s first playing time this season, and it began when UCLA quarterback Wayne Cook left the game after being hit on an incomplete pass.

“I just had the wind knocked out of me,” Cook said. “I could have come back in. It was a coach’s decision.”

Cook completed 15 of 28 passes for 217 yards and had a 20-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Jordan. It was the third time the two have hooked up on scoring passes this season, meaning all of Cook’s touchdown passes have gone to Jordan.

Cook’s four interceptions in the last two games have gone all over the place. Cook had only four all last season, including one in the Rose Bowl, but threw two last week against Southern Methodist that kept the Mustangs close and two more came Saturday in the second quarter.

The first came after Nebraska had taken a 20-7 lead on Frazier’s 12-yard option run with 9:34 to play and his two-point conversion run. UCLA was driving, with Sharmon Shah picking up 19 yards and Cook completing passes to Jordan and Daron Washington to the Nebraska 49. Looking for Bryan Adams on a short pass, Cook instead found linebacker Clint Brown, who put the Cornhuskers in business at midfield.

Eight plays later, they were in the end zone, Damon Benning diving over from two yards to end a drive that used the second-string backfield, except for Frazier, who punctuated it by running in for a two-point conversion.

Cook’s second interception came when he overthrew Jordan, who apparently missed a pass route adjustment.

“When we go into the game knowing if we give the ball away more than we get it, it’s just going to be too hard,” Cook said. “We wanted to stay out there and give the defense a break . . . but we couldn’t do it.”

Instead, he got a chance to be a spectator, watching Frazier and the Nebraska attack.

“Their offense is awesome,” Cook said. “If that team is going to get beat, it will be from defense.”

That showed when 13th-ranked UCLA (2-1) moved the ball on Nebraska well enough, but mistakes kept the Bruins at bay. Mistakes also are one reason they were embarrassed.

“It’s one thing to get beaten if we played our best,” tackle Jonathan Ogden said. “It’s embarrassing to get beaten like this when we didn’t play our best.”

Added Cook: “We got our butts kicked. We’re embarrassed we lost by so much.”

“An embarrassment for us,” McCullough said.

Maybe less so today, if Nebraska (3-0) regains the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press poll.