Journal Star Friday, November 26, 1971 HUSKER EXTRA SC SCANNING the wires BY DAN JENKINS Sports Illustrated 10 30. 127 045 753 Continued From 1D soft-handed best. With the Cornhuskers facing third-and-8 from the Oklahoma 46, quarterback Jerry Tagge sent his receivers out to run hook patterns. Tagge, however, had to elude a pass rush and nearly took off trying to run for the first down. Next thing he sees is Rodgers crossing the middle between two linebackers, and so he fires a throw that the 5-foot-10, 181-pounder needed to go to his knees to cradle for an 11-yard gain. Two plays later, Rodgers gained 7 yards on a reverse, and from there Kinney needed four bull rushes for the final 15 precious yards. His 2-yard burst off the left side of the line into the end zone left the Sooner faithful looking as if they had just relived Rodgers' dazzling punt return. "All I ever told my blockers was, 'Meet me at the goal line,'" Rodgers said. Just 3:32 into the game, they did. JOURNAL STAR LIBRARY Oklahoma quarterback Jack Mildren (11) is pressured by the Cornhusker defense. NORMAN, Okla. In the land of the pickup truck and cream gravy for breakfast, down where the wind can blow through the walls of a diner and into the grieving lyrics of a country song on a jukebox - - - - - - down there in dirt-kicking Big Eight territory - they played a football game on Thanksgiving Day that was mainly for the quarterbacks on the field and for self-styled gridiron intellectuals everywhere. The spectacle itself was for everybody, of course, for all those who had been waiting weeks for Nebraska to meet Oklahoma, or for all the guys with their big stomachs and bigger Stetsons, and for all the luscious coeds who danced through the afternoons drinking daiquiris out of paper cups. But the game of chess that was played with bodies, that was strictly for the cerebral types who will keep playing it into the ages and wondering whether it was the greatest collegiate football battle ever. Under the agonizing conditions that existed, it might well have been. Quality is what the game had more of than anything else. There had been scads of games in the past with equal pressure and buildup. Games of the Decade or Poll Bowls or whatever you want to call them. Something in a brimmingover stadium for limb, life and a a a a a a a a a a national championship. But it is impossible to stir the pages of history and find one in which both teams performed so reputably for so long throughout the day. In essence, what won it for Nebraska was a pearl of a punt return in the game's first 3½ minutes. Everything else balances out, more or less, even the precious few mistakes Oklahoma's three fumbles against Nebraska's one, plus a costly Nebraska offside, NU's only penalty in the game. There was an unending fury of offense from both teams that simply overwhelmed the defenses, maniacal though they were. But that is the way it is with modern college football. You can't away every weapon. Both Nebraska and Oklahoma stopped the things they feared the most, but in SO doing gave up practically everything else. BY WILLIAM GILDEA The Washington Post NORMAN, Okla. - "This is the greatest victory of my career," Nebraska Coach Bob Devaney said. President Nixon tried to reach Devaney by phone just seconds after the final gun. It took the President 30 minutes to get his man in the center of the Cornhuskers' tumultuous locker room celebration. Nebraska certified its No. ranking and stretched its unbeaten streak to 30 Thursday by driving 74 yards in growing darkness to beat No. 2 Oklahoma, 35-31, in the final minute and 38 seconds. The winning march failed to diminish the valiant effort by Oklahoma, which rallied twice from 11-point deficits under the direction of quarterback Jack Mildren, who ran for two touchdowns and threw two touchdowns to split end Jon Harrison. BY TOM WRIGHT Oklahoma Joumal NORMAN, Okla. - The Big One was all it was billed to be. •All those newspaper articles, magazine features and radio and television specials were not a lot of hogwash. The Game of the Decade was exactly that as the powerful, clutchplaying Nebraska Cornhuskers proved their claim to the No. 1 ranking in college football with a 35-31 victory over Oklahoma Thursday afternoon on Owen Field. BY VOLNEY MEECE Daily Oklahoman NORMAN, Okla. - Nebraska's No. 1 But Nebraska won't argue if you want to rank Oklahoma No. 1⅛ in the world. Sometimes sensational and sometimes methodical but always relentless and always poised, Nebraska conquered explosive, but fumbling Oklahoma, 35-31, here this chilly Thanksgiving afternoon before a crowd that was 61,826 officially but 63,385 counting newsmen and officials. BY LYNN GARNAUD Daily Oklahoman NORMAN, Okla. - The Oklahoma Sooners found out Thursday afternoon at Owen Field that when you try to shuck a Nebraska Corn- Game Continued From 1D game by rumbling over the left side of the line behind tight end Jerry List, tackle Daryl White and guard Dick Rupert. Rich Sanger's extra-point kick made it 35-31 with 1:38 remaining, "I felt helpless," Mildren said of his state of mind on the sideline as he watched Nebraska's decisive march. "I thought we'd stop them one way or another." Kinney was a workhorse, carrying 31 times for 174 yards and four touchdowns, with a long run of 23 yards. Nebraska finished with 362 total yards, including 297. on the ground. However, the Cornhuskers managed only 91 total yards in the first half. "I think the adjustments we made a at halftime were the key to the game," Austin said. He said Nebraska changed how it ran isolation plays. Instead of Kinney running the ball "over the guards, he ran it over the tackles. "They (the Sooners) just never figured it out," Austin said. "It was so subtle. Maybe that's why it messed them up." Oklahoma, the nation's rushing leader entering the game, finished with 279 yards on the ground and 467 overall. Mildren carried 31 times for 130 yards and two TDs, with a long run of 13 yards. The Cornhusker defense, thanks mostly to end Willie Harper, was effective at taking away Mildren's outside pitches to halfback Greg Pruitt, who finished with 53 yards on 10 carries. He had been averaging 158 rushing yards in the Sooners' wishbone attack. "Nebraska was determined to prevent the pitch at the expense of everything else," Mildren said. "Other teams tried to do that, but it didn't quite work the same." Rodgers' 72-yard punt return sparked Nebraska's victory, though the play gets somewhat lost in a back-and-forth struggle that featured several key plays and outstanding individual performances. Devaney beamed with pride afterward. "The pride the guys have in Nebraska football has been built up in the guys who have played us for three years," he said. "And the young kids who haven't been beat don't want to be beat.' Mildren, though dejected, realized the signifi- husker, you don't find com underneath the husk, you find true grit. Nebraska, finding itself behind by three points with 7:10 left in the game, showed its intestinal fortitude and poise that makes a No. 1 team with a 74-yard drive that pulled out a 35-31 victory over the Sooners. BY NEIL AMDUR New York Times NORMAN, Okla. - Unbeaten, top touchdown ranked in the Nebraska final two scored minutes a Thursday to outlast Oklahoma, its national challenger, 35-31, in a college football classic that surpasses expectations for the Thanksgiving Day excitement. Orange Bowl-bound Cornhuskers, who had never trailed through 10 previous victories this year, had to come from behind twice to register their 21st consecutive victory and t their 30th without a loss. It took a pressure -filled 74-yard drive that consumed more than five minutes of the final period for Nebraska to regain 1 the lead from the aroused. Sooners, who had trailed by as many as 11 points in the third quarter before rallying, Jeff Kinney, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound running back who seems destined for greater achievements as a professional, carried the last four times and 15 yards in the drive, including the final two for the decisive touchdown through a hole opened by Dick Rupert, the All-American guard. BY HERSCHEL NISSENSON The Associated Press beat Oklahoma ... at its own game. Not only did the Cornhuskers defuse Oklahoma's volatile wishbone attack, but they out rushed the nation's best rushing team 297 yards to 279, and they did it on five fewer carries. That was the story of Thursday's classic seesaw showdown, which wound up with top-ranked Nebrasdefending national champions turning back runner Oklahoma 35-31 on Jeff Kinney's fourth touchdown of the game, a 2-yard thrust off left tackle with 1:38 left to play, capping a 74-yard, 5½-minute drive. Nebraska's top-rated defense, although it was stretched for 467 yards the nation's most offensive minded team, never snapped, and, took away the ignites the Sooner attack - the end sweeps by speedy Greg Pruitt. NORMAN, Okla. Nebraska BY CHARLIE SMITH United Press International NORMAN, Okla. -P.T. Barnum and "Ben Hur" met on a football field Thursday. It was one of those rare occasions in sports when the product was as great as the promotion. No. 1-ranked Nebraska defeated No. 2-ranked Oklahoma, 35-31, but it was one of those games that had no loser. The conflict transcended the victory. BY TOM WEIGEL Chicago Daily News NORMAN, Okla. - Leon Crosswhite is the fullback on Oklahoma's wishbone-T attack. And all week before the Sooners' "Game of the Century" with defending national champion Nebraska, a little voice inside Leon was saying "Don't fumble on Thanksgiving, you hear?" It's too bad for Oklahoma fans that Leon's little voice couldn't have played Jiminy Cricket for the other Pinocchios in the Sooner backfield. Because while Leon didn't fumble, quarterback Jack. Mildren, halfback Greg Pruitt and substitute fullback Tim Welch did. BY DICK WADE Kansas City Star NORMAN, Okla. - Proud and resilient Nebraska, its back jammed to the wall for the first time this season, stormed 74 yards and scored with 1:38 left to knock back freewheeling Oklahoma 35-31. The victory kept Nebraska's reputation intact as college football's finest team but only after a stirring game that matched the nation's No. and No. 2 giants in all their glory. BY CLYDE BOLTON Birmingham (Ala.) News NORMAN, Okla. - Jeff Kinney, who runs the football for Nebraska, stood in the dressing room in the tatters of a -away jersey and summed up the Cornhusker-Oklahoma game. "We knew before the game we had to score the last touchdown." cance of the game he had just finished. "It was really the epitome of why men and boys go to schools like Nebraska and Oklahoma," he said. "It was truly a special day. The ending wasn't the way I wanted, but that's the way life is sometimes." Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com. 30 30 MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD Nebraska's Johnny Rodgers (20) sent a buzz through the crowd at Owen Field Thursday, weaving his way through the Oklahoma defenders for a 72-yard punt return in the first quarter of NU's 35-31 victory. Rodgers took Joe Wylie's punt at the NU 28-yard line, evaded OU's Greg Pruitt (30), squirted around teammate Jim Anderson (18), got a key block from Joe Blahak (27) along the Oklahoma sideline, then raced into the end zone for a celebration with his teammates. McKeever JOURNAL STAR LIBRARY Rodgers hauled in a towering 34-yard kick from Joe Wylie. Greg Pruitt was there to lay a lick on the Nebraska speedster, but Rodgers put his hand to the turf to regain his balance, retraced his steps before cutting sharply to his left and taking off down the sideline. "That's a forever play," Blahak said. "I was in front, so I got to see the moves ... up until the block." After making the block, the junior from Columbus wasn't sure he wanted to look up, because of the reaction he was hearing from the Sooner sideline. "My first thought was 'Did they throw a flag?' " Blahak said. "Harrison was going to get Johnny, and so I peeled back and I thought I got him cleanly. When I look around and don't see a flag, I'm saying to the (Oklahoma) players, 'Well, then, I guess there wasn't a clip.' He's wrong about that, you know. There was a clip. It lasted 60 minutes and there's sure to be a special place reserved for it in Nebraska's history book. Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or Continued From 1D Rodgers, Jerry Tagge and Jeff Kinney stand up. Cool in the huddle as always, Tagge led the march that won it for the Orange B Cornhuskers. But he couldn't have done it without Kinney and some beautiful blocking up front. "All of us were like, We've got to take this ball down and score."" Kinney said. Kinney finished the day with 174 yards and four touchdown runs, the biggest being a goahead 2-yarder with 1:38 left. Kinney got behind fullback Maury Damkroger, and after Damkroger cleared linebacker Mark Driscoll out of the way, Kinney plowed into safety John Shelley on his way to the end zone. Magical mission accomplished. Once the Cornhuskers realized that they had pulled out the win, it was an unbelievable feeling. "We were intent on basically winning the game and being undefeated," NU offensive guard Dick Rupert said. "Emotionally, it was fabulous that we got the job done." Of course, a nail-biter like this one doesn't come without its share of what-ifs. What if lead coverage man Pruitt had wrapped up Rodgers when he had the chance on Rodgers' first-quarter TD return? What if Kinney had dropped the football on that pitch play when he started to lose the handle near the OU goal line? What if the officials called it a fumble on the next play when Kinney lost the ball as he hit the turf? What if Sooner quarterback Mildren hadn't overthrown split end Jon Harrison on first down on OU's final drive? What if we hadn't had the pleasure of seeing this incredible football game? "It was just a great, great ballgame," Tagge said. "It was fun to play." And even more fun to watch. Reach John Mabry at 473-7320 or jmabry@joumalstar.com. Mabry
