Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 21

I Lincoln Journal Star Saturday. November 25. 1995 5C Page design: Kail Vogel Frazier not thinldn' Heisman after rout li 3- ft 9 HUSKERS 1 Hi-' BY STEVE SIPPLE Lincoln Journal Star 1 v'4, ter was his. longest passing play from scrimmage. His longest run was an 11-yard burst in the second quarter.

Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne said he didn't think Frazier was pressing during the game, nor did he ever consider replacing Frazier with fellow senior Brook Berringer while the outcome was in doubt "On the interception, he had a guy in his face, and he couldn't see where he was throwing the ball" Osborne said. Oklahoma cornerback Larry Bush intercepted Frazier's pass ear-" ly in the third quarter on a second-and-13 play from the Sooners' 30-yard line. It was Frazier's fourth interception of the season. Osborne prefers not to tout players for individual honors. But he called Frazier "a great player." Friday's game did nothing to diminish that opinion.

"He sure has meant a lot to this program in a four-year period," Osborne said. Frazier entered the game having completed 58 percent of his passes but saw his percentage dip to 56.4, He is now 92-of-163 for 1,362 yards with 17 touchdowns. He has rushed 97 times for 604 yards an average of 6.2 per carry. Frazier averaged 3.5 yards per rush against Oklahoma's defense, which was ranked fifth in the country. He said Oklahoma did a lot of shifting on its defensive line, and that the Sooners' linebackers pursued well.

"They did some things against us that other teams weren't able to do," Frazier said. Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier didn't wow Heisman Trophy voters with his performance Friday. But Frazier, as usual, said he cared more about his team's effort than his own. "I think this game will help us more than it will hurt us," Frazier said after top-ranked Nebraska's 37-0 triumph against Oklahoma at Memorial Stadium. Frazier a top contender for the Heisman completed 12 of 25 passes for 128 yards and one touchdown with one interception.

He rushed 10 times for 35 yards. After the game, of course, everyone wanted to know how Frazier felt the performance would affect his Heisman chances. i "I don't know if it hurt me or helped me," said Frazier, a senior from Palmetto, Fla. "I don't care right now. It's left in the voters' hands.

The best guy is going to win it If that's me, then I'll win it. If that's Eddie George (of Ohio State), then he'll win it." Frazier said he didn't think he played a bad game. "I really can't grade it until I look at the film," he said. Heisman ballots must be turned in to the accounting firm of Deloitte Touche by 4 p.m. on Dec.

7. College football's most prestigious award will be presented Dec. 9 in New York. The Heisman voters there are 921 of them who watched Frazier Friday saw a solid but unspectacular performance. He guided Nebraska to one touchdown and three field goals.

His 38-yard touchdown pass to Jon Vedral early in the fourth quar GAIL FOLOAUncoki Journal Star Cornhusker quarterback Tommie Frazier (1 5) swings a pass to I-back Lawrence Phillips in the first quarter Friday. Frazier, a senior from Bradenton, Fla was chosen the Associated Press' Big Eight Conference offensive player of the year. Three Cornhuskers take league honors ir -IE- I If til Wl IliVtM IAN OOREMUSUncdn Journal Star A Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne embrace before Frazier is announced to tne sellout crowd in Memorial Stadium on Seniors Day. Tommie Frazier's career statistics f- I till IIMIIl-Mti Year GS Rushing TD Passing Yds TD Play Yds 96 86-399 7 44-100-1 727 10 186 1126 1993....:...... ......1111 126-704 9 77-162-4 1159 12 288 1863 1994 44 33-248 6 19-44-2 273 4 77 521 1995.

1111 -97-605 14 92-163-4 1362 17 260 1967 Career 3532 342-1956 36 232-469-11 3621 43 811 5477 AVERAGES: rushing 5.72 per carry; 55.88 per game; passing 7.72 per attempt; 103.46 per game; total offense 6.75 per play; 1 56.49 per game Small Fullman plays big role for Huskers KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) The secret is out. Most of the good players in the Big Eight belong to No. 1 Nebraska. Not only the veterans, but the young newcomers as well.

As one might expect, a panel of media observers named seven Cornhuskers to the first unit of The Associated Press 1995 All-Big Eight team, more than any other school got. Now the voters have declared Huskers winners of all but one of the Big Eight player specialty awards. Quarterback Tommie Frazier is The Associated Press offensive player of the year for 1995. Linebacker Terrell Farley is the AP's Big Eight defensive newcomer, and running back' Ahman Green is a double-winner of the awards for Big Eight offensive newcomer and Big Eight freshman of the year. Only Kansas State's Tim Colston prevented the Huskers from making a clean sweep.

The 6-1, 275-pound lineman was voted AP's Big Eight defensive player of the year. Frazier went into Friday's regular season finale against Oklahoma with a four-year record as a starter of 31-3. "He's the thing that separates Nebraska from the other great college teams," Iowa State Coch Dan McCarney said. "I think he's the best in, college football," Kansas Coach Glen Mason said. Since Frazier became a starter just six weeks after arriving on campus in 1992, Nebraska has won four straight Big Eight titles and a national championship.

The slickest option quarterback in the nation, the 6-2, 210-pounder went into the Oklahoma game with 569 yards rushing and 1,234 passing. Injured much of last season, he came off the bench in the national championship showdown against Miami in last year's Orange Bowl and led the Huskers to a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns. "When you run as much option football as we do and don't turn it over so to speak, you've really got to have a special guy pitching the ball," Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne said. The 6-foot, 210-pound Green is the only Nebraska freshman to rush for 1,000 yards. Last spring, he won the Nebraska Class A 100-meter dash in 10.61 seconds, the 200 in' 21.91 and anchored the 400-relay championship team.

This fall, he kept Nebraska's vital I-back position strong after starter Lawrence Phillips was "I cramped up when I first caught the ball. I was trying to get as many yards as I could," said Full-man, who slowed up before getting pulled down by the collar from behind by OU's Wendell Davis. Fullman didn't look gimpy when the play started, though, as he sped through a hole and found open territory in the middle of the field. "It's not good to be back there hesitating," he said. "You just go and when you're going one way all-out and they're going the other, it's harder for them to break down." Fullman required medical attention on the field for his cramping, but he wasn't quite finished for the day.

Later in the quarter, he took a punt, broke right and when a wall of blockers failed to form he cut back left and zig-zagged to the Oklahoma 29 before being pushed out of bounds into an equipment trunk. To add insult to injury, the play was brought back because of an illegal block. On the kickoff following a Nebraska touchdown that made it 30-0, Fullman smashed into the Sooners' P.J. Mills to stop him at the OU 12. "It's just a part of my job getting down on the kickoff," Fullman said.

"Every game, no matter who we play, we put a big emphasis on the kicking game. "Coach Osborne said maybe we would help put 10, 14 points on the scoreboard. I think we did the job GREEN fop freshman FARLEY top newcomer suspended for six games and other reserves went down with various injuries. "I've gone through some big games, and some tight games so far," Green said. "I didn't think I would get 1,000 yards.

At this point, it's really a shock to know where I'm at." Farley, 6-1, 205, transferred from Independence, Community College and is one of the few junior college transfers ever to make an immediate impact on an Osborne team. Through 10 regular season games, he had two blocked punts and three interceptions, returning two for touchdowns. "The coaches told me at the beginning that I had a long way to go, so I studied the playbook a lot," Farley said. "Then I ended up doing pretty well in the spring and it's worked a senior, anchored a Kansas State defense that ranked No. 2 in the nation at the end of the season.

Going into the Holiday Bowl, he has 54 unassisted and 27 assisted tackles and seven sacks. Frazier collected all but four votes from a panel of sports writers and sportscasters. The other four went to Iowa State's Troy Davis. Colston drew 10 votes for defensive player of the year while teammate Chris Canty had four. Nebraska's Jared Tomich and Colorado's Matt Russell had one each.

Green got 13 votes for offensive newcomer. Kansas State's Matt Miller, Colorado's John Hessler and Iowa State's Patrick Augafa got one each. Eight votes went to Farley for defensive newcomer. Kansas State's Travis Ochs got five, Oklahoma State's R. W.

McQuarters two and Nebraska's Jay Foreman one. McQuarters got the only two votes for top freshmen that did not go to Green. '1 and quarterback Tommie Frazier glad to be there." Jon Vedral was wide-open on his 38-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter, but the wingback had to do a quick 180-degree turn and keep his balance in order to turn the play into his fifth TD catch. "I thought I was either going to fall or get tackled," Vedral said. "Then, I'm 'Hey, I'm in the end Linebacker Jamel Williams scored his first Nebraska touchdown when he returned an interception 36 yards in the first quarter.

"I wanted to hug Jamel I wanted to ring his neck," said Osborne, who thought Williams might get flagged for taunting when he high-stepped the final yards to the end zone. "But these guys get excited." The Cornhuskers will begin preparations for their bowl game Tuesday. Osborne said he prefers to conduct light workouts for a couple of weeks as opposed to taking the time off because "with option football, if you take two weeks off sometimes you never get the timing back." havoc Oklahoma had picked up two first downs and driven to the NU 45-yard line. On first down, tailback James Allen run up the middle and tried to cut left. Tomich chased him down from behind, made two tomahawk swings of his arm at the ball and forced it loose.

Free saftely Tony Veland then scooped it up on one bounce and returned it 57 yards for a touchdown to put Nebraska ahead 204). "Turnovers key games." Tomich said. "Any time you see brown the ball you try and go for it." Tomich finished with five tackles to go along with his forced fumble. His performance was typical of all the NU defensive linemen. Outside linebacker Grant Wistrom had six tackles and was named by ABC-TV as Nebraska's player of the game.

Defensive tackles Christian and Jason Peter combined for nine stops. "The front four is as intense a group I've ever been around," said NU defensive coordinator Charlie -McBride. "These guys were wired." Tomich thinks he has a good idea why that's the case. "The whole defensive line we try to compete with each other and that just gives us a little edge," he said. "Plus, it's a fun game when it's a defensive struggle.

Really, thought Nebraska's defense didnt nave much of a struggle. Just ask Osborne. Nebraska notes Nebraska has won 24 games in a row, 36 straight regular season games, 30 in a row at home and is only the third team in NCAA history to win 35 games in three years (Brigham Young and Toledo are the others). For Tom Osborne it was the 230th in 23 years as head coach. Freshman Ahman Green ran for 44 yards and finished his first season with 1 ,086 yards (7.7 per carry and 98.7 per game), and finished 41 yards short of the Big Eight Conference record for freshmen.

When asked about celebrations, Green said, "There was a little celebrating today, but I don't think anybody wants to let it all hang out untilJanuary." NU, center Aaron Graham said he would like to play Florida State in the Fiesta Bowl. "They are one of the teams we never beat since I came here. The other was Washington. But what the heck, I'll play anybody to win the national championship again. We're just throwing thanks to some gutsy individual efforts.

But he also spent a lot of time running for safety because Nebraska shut down the Sooners' running game. At the end, OU had just 51 yards rushing, its lowest total since Colorado held the Sooners to 49 yards last "Wejust tried wear them down more than anything," Tomich said. Defensively, we knew we had to havea real physical Tomich, who also had second-quarter came up with a key play in the third quarter after fmrnumm- yi' hum fmmw jmww BY CURT MCKEEVER Lincoln Journal Star Leave it to the smallest man on the field to make the biggest difference in special-teams play Friday. Mike Fullman, 5-foot-6, 160 pounds, packed a wallop during Nebraska's' 37-0 win against Oklahoma. Fullman, a junior from Rose-He, N.J., returned four punts for 79 yards, helping the Cornhuskers win the key battle of field posi FULLMAN return expert tion and also setting up a field goal.

"I wouldn't say it was exceptional, but I had a good day," said Full-man. He couldn't have picked a better time for it Although Nebraska had to scrap offensively, the Cornhuskers got 110 yards of field position out of their seven punt returns. Fullman got 12 andt15 yards on of his first two returns before taking another in the third quarter 48 yards to the OU 32-yard line to set up a 35-yard field goal by Kris Brown. And had it not been for cramping in his legs, Fullman might have gone all the way. Tomich, BY CURT MCKEEVER Lincoln Journal Star One series by the Nebraska defense was all it took to make Coach Tom Osborne believe his team was about to wrap up a third straight unbeaten regular season with a win Friday against Oklahoma.

"I really never felt today we were going to get beat," said Osborne, who watched the Cornhusker defense dominate during NU's 37-0 victory. Outside linebacker Jared Tomich gave Osborne reason for that confidence. The junior from St. John, spent a good portion of the afternoon causing chaos in the Sooners' backfield. "We knew they were a real good defensive team, so before every series we said this game is up to us," Tomich said of the Nebraska defense.

"There was nothing typical about this game. Ever since last week, we were acked for this game." Nebraska limited Oklahoma to 241 yards of offense and blanked the Sooners for the first time since 1942. "It isn't terribly surprising to me that we shut them out," Osborne said. The Black Shirts produced a score on OU's first series a Black Shirts wreak TED KMCLmcom Journal Star Nebraska outside linebacker Jared Tomich (93) and free safety Tony Veland (9) combine to stop OU running back James Allen, r': 36-yard interception return by linebacker Jamel Williams to give the Cornhuskers a 10-0 lead. Tomich ended Oklahoma's next possession with a sack of freshman quarterback Eric Moore.

The Sooners also punted after three plays on their next possession, At the end of the first quarter, OU had gained just seven yards on 10 plays, and Coach Howard Schnellenberger was ready to replace Moore with senior Garrick McGee. McGee did have some success t. i. TED KrHKUnooin Journal St Husker outside linebacker Grant Wistrom (98) celebrates his tackle of Oklahoma flanker P.J. Mills for an 1 1-yard loss..