Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 3, 1994 TAG: 9401030007
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: jack bogaczyk
DATELINE: MIAMI LENGTH: Long
The Big East Football Conference officiating crew trying to sort out one of the most memorable finishes in bowl history explained to the Florida State coach that despite the sea of Seminoles who had flooded the field in the first few minutes of Sunday morning, there was one more second to play in the Orange Bowl.
FSU was one second from the national championship. Nebraska was one play from the same. And certainly by that time, no one was asking, "What about West Virginia?"
"What was I thinking when they told me there was one second?" Bowden said. "I was thinking they might beat us."
Imagine what was going through Bowden's title-tortured mind a few seconds later when he was told that Nebraska would be getting the ball at the FSU 28 - after Big East referee John Soffey correctly checked the NBC telecast replays to end the confusion about where the ball should be spotted.
The chaos was created when it seemed the clock had finally struck 0:00 on the unbeaten Cornhuskers' impressive performance. It was repeated that second later, when the last boot of Nebraska kicker Byron Bennett's career - a 45-yard field-goal try - sailed wide left.
The irony of that struck Bowden. For years, against the team that calls the Orange Bowl home, the Seminoles' national championship hopes always fluttered off differently.
"Obviously, we've learned something," Bowden said after FSU's rally for an 18-16 victory. "We've lost national championships on wide right. Tonight, we won one. The secret is to have wide left."
He smiled, but he wasn't playing the coach who swallowed the canary. Bowden got chills from the Orange Bowl long before his players doused him with an ice-water bath when they thought the game was over. The ACC champions, averaging a nation-leading 43.2 points per game, won the national championship on a night when they scored only one touchdown.
"It's hard to believe we won the doggone game," said Bowden, not only among the most colorful but the most candid coaches as well. "It was just our time, finally. Nebraska played as good or better than we did. We won it twice, and then they won it and then we won it again and then they had another chance to win it.
"Let me tell you, Nebraska is much better than I thought they would be. They deserved to win as much as we did. It is tough to play somebody who is undefeated, who is doggone good and you tell them they ain't no good, and then you have to try and beat them."
Nebraska was hurt by a couple of phantom penalties, including a clipping call that wiped out Corey Dixon's long first-quarter punt return for a touchdown. However, the biggest pain for the Cornhuskers was an obvious out-of-bounds hit by cornerback Barron Miles, turning a 21-yard air gain on the Seminoles' final drive into first-and-10 at the Nebraska 18.
That did more than the magic of FSU's Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Charlie Ward to put the Seminoles in position for Scott Bentley's 22-yard, game-winning field goal with 21 seconds left. And Nebraska coach Tom Osborne, whose national championship total matched Bowden's entering the game, didn't complain.
FSU was a 17-point favorite, but there's no way the Cornhuskers were dogs. Nebraska's sophomore quarterback, Tommie Frazier, returned to his home state and did a Ward imitation that was almost good enough to wrest the game MVP honor - not to mention the national title - from the Heisman recipient.
The Cornhuskers' defense held FSU scoreless longer than any other team this season, until 7:54 remained before halftime. Nebraska stuffed FSU's running game, and when it couldn't turn the corner offensively against the Seminoles' defense, began pounding effectively between the tackles.
Had Nebraska won, it would have been the biggest against-the-odds triumph in the cavernous stadium since the New York Jets jolted the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III a quarter-century ago. As Orange Bowls go, longtime watchers could recall only one that could compare - Miami's 31-30 edging of Nebraska for the national title 10 years earlier when a gutsy Osborne went for a two-point conversion into the teeth of the Hurricanes.
Had Bennett's 27-yard field goal with 1:16 left won the game 16-15 for Nebraska, he would have been an appropriate hero for a stunning Poll Bowl fueled by the noise and emotion from an Orange Bowl record crowd of 81,536. Until Bennett made that kick, he hadn't booted a field goal since Oct. 16.
Bentley was no sure shot, either. His freshman season was an inconsistent 13-for-20, including 2-for-7 outside the 30.
"Bentley was great for us, tonight," Bowden said.
Then, having coaxed FSU into extending its bowl record to 11-0-1 over the past 12 years, Bowden had what he wanted, he thought. He was worried about Notre Dame, which beat the Seminoles, but had lost to an underrated Boston College, which was 13th in the final poll.
His national championship was still in someone else's hands, as was the Orange Bowl trophy it turned out. When bowl president Robert Epling tried to hand Bowden the orange-topped silver bowl, the FSU coach backed off for the first time on the night that ended what had become a career obsession.
"Can you just hold it?" Bowden wondered. "It's not worth a hernia, and I don't want to drop it after we finally won one."
by CNB