Nebraska (13-0) Fires Parting Shots

MIAMI —  As the final seconds of Tom Osborne’s coaching career ticked off the scoreboard clock Friday night, hundreds of Nebraska fans turned toward the Pro Player Stadium press box with angry faces and index fingers--signifying No. 1--punching the evening air.

Unfortunately for Osborne, the Big Red rooting section is not represented on either of the college football poll panels that likely will confine Osborne’s final Cornhusker team to No. 2 despite a 13-0 record culminated by Friday’s 42-17 Orange Bowl victory over Tennessee.

Michigan, which defeated Washington State in Thursday’s Rose Bowl to remain unbeaten at 12-0, is likely to hold onto the top ranking it owned in both the final regular-season Associated Press and USA Today/Coaches polls.

“The AP has pretty much given it away. Barring a miracle, AP has given it away,” Nebraska quarterback Scott Frost noted, which is why he immediately began lobbying the coaches.

“So, it’s up to the coaches. I’m so proud of this team and Coach Osborne, I don’t want to see him go out without a championship. I basically have two points for the coaches:

“One, if you can look yourself in the mirror and say if your job depended on playing either Michigan or Nebraska to keep your job, who would you rather play? You watched the Rose Bowl and the Orange Bowl. Michigan won with a controversial play at the end. We took apart the third-ranked team in the country.

“The second point I have is: I can’t see how any coach outside the Big Ten or the Pac-10 would vote for Michigan. Because if somebody from North Carolina, Florida State, West Virginia, Notre Dame--wherever it might--if they were undefeated and won the Alliance bowl game, they would expect to share the national title.

“It’s been split before. Colorado and Georgia Tech split it. Washington and Miami split it. It’s OK to split it. It should be split and it’s up to the coaches.”

Nebraska defensive tackle Jason Peter picked up where Frost’s impassioned plea left off, imploring the coaches not to “give it to Michigan just because they haven’t seen it in 45 years. Give it to us, because we’re the best team in the country.”

Added Frost: “I don’t know who would win the game if we played Michigan. I think I know. I think all you guys know. The thing I’d like to say is: Who would be favored?

“I’d like to see the line on that game, because I think it would be seven, 10, 14 points (in Nebraska’s favor). Any time that it’s that way and you vote the other way, you’ve got to be crazy.”

If precedent is any gauge, the Cornhuskers are wasting their breath. Only once has a team ranked No. 1 in both final regular-season polls won its bowl game and been overtaken for the championship.

That happened in January 1991, when No. 1 Colorado edged Notre Dame, 10-9, in the Orange Bowl and No. 2 Georgia Tech routed Nebraska, 45-21, in the Citrus Bowl. Colorado retained the top spot in the final AP poll, but the coaches reconsidered and moved Georgia Tech to No. 1 in their rankings.

Do not cry for Osborne. Three years ago, he was presented his first national championship under similar circumstances--his 1994 Nebraska squad being voted No. 1 at the expense of another unbeaten team, Penn State.

Today, the tag of Undefeated National Runner-Up is, in all probability, on the other foot. In the most recent AP poll, released before the bowl games, Michigan received 69 of 70 first-place votes. In the final regular-season USA Today/Coaches poll, the gap was not quite as cavernous but still substantial, Michigan garnering 53 1/2 first-place votes to 8 1/2 for Nebraska.

What goes around comes around to spoil a not-as-grand-as-Lincoln-had-hoped finale for college football’s second winningest active coach, who leaves Nebraska with an overall record of 255-49-3--a dizzying 60-3 in his last five seasons.

This despite Nebraska averaging more than 46 points and 510 yards a game and beating 13 consecutive opponents by an average of more than 30 points a game.

So how does the super alliance sound to you, Doctor Tom?

Osborne won’t be around to participate in college football’s latest stab at sorting out its traditional who’s-No. 1 mess without resorting to a wholly reasonable playoff system. Under the new “super alliance” format, which begins next year, Michigan and Nebraska would have been permitted to decide the championship on the same field instead of lobbying for it on separate coasts.

“It surprises me that the powers that be in college football have not been able to get this thing organized until 1998,” Osborne said earlier this week. “It’s inconceivable we’re still at a point where it’s possible for two undefeated teams not to get together.”

In front of an Orange Bowl crowd of 72,385, Nebraska made its case the only way it could--by “beating the snot out of Tennessee,” as Cornhusker defensive lineman Grant Wistrom said.

It took a while for the machinery to shift into puree mode, as Nebraska led only 14-3 at halftime on a one-yard scoring run by Ahman Green and a 10-yard touchdown sprint around right end by Shevin Wiggins. Both touchdowns were set up by Tennessee turnovers.

But in the third quarter, Nebraska’s superior speed and size finally pounded the Volunteers into submission. Frost scored on runs of one and 11 yards, Green--who rushed for an Orange Bowl-record 206 yards--added another touchdown burst of 22 yards and suddenly it was a 35-9 Cornhusker runaway.

“Tom Osborne’s a great gentleman, I think,” Tennessee Coach Phillip Fulmer said. “He wasn’t too kind in the second half, though.”

Fulmer, who who does vote in the USA Today poll, said his ballot would be topped by Nebraska. “I haven’t seen every team in America,” Fulmer said. “Nebraska is the best team I’ve seen, and they will get my vote.”

Nebraska’s Wistrom said, simply, “Do the math.

“The bowl teams Michigan beat were 0-7 [in bowl games]. Ours finished 2-2. We beat . . . the No. 2 team in the country, Washington [in September]. We beat . . . Tennessee tonight. We beat . . . Kansas State, which was No. 7 at the time. And everybody watched us destroy Texas A&M;, and they were No. 20 at the time. . . .

“If you’re going to give it to Michigan because they haven’t won it in 45 years, then who cares, we don’t want it anyway.”

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TALE OF THE TAPE

COMPARING MICHIGAN AND NEBRASKA

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MICHIGAN NEBRASKA 12-0 13-0 Record 26.8 46.7 Scoring Average 9.5 16.5 Average points allowed 387.7 515.2 Yards per game 222.8 261.8 Yards allowed per game 1 1 Highest ranking of 1997 15 7 Lowest ranking of 1997

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