Best #14 in Husker history
- Thread starter rrthusker
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Hard to argue with these choices. What a great number in Husker history -- Dennis Claridge, John O'Leary, Mark Heydorff and Billy Todd, winner of the '78 OU game.
Tagge and Miles are alright with me.
Osborne said Miles was actually his best punt returner and would have been in that role had he also not been the team's best punt blocker. Two specific plays from Barron Miles stick out for me:
1. Punt block at Oklahoma State in 1993. Essentially won the game.
2. Interception against Wyoming in 1994. Talk about athleticism.
Chad May also tried to pick on him in 1994 at Kansas State, and he help up admirably. I believe he set the school record for pass breakups in a game until that was broken by Ralph Brown against Colorado in 1996.
Read this on his Huskers.com profile: "... he served as the backup punter on the road and even practice at quarterback earlier in the season when Frazier and Berringer were ailing."
Honorable Mention...
- SS Daniel Bullocks.
- FS and current Army officer Dion Booker.
- QB Gerry Gdowski. One magical season with him as a senior in 1989. Too bad he wasn't redshirted in 1986 or 1987, but we were pretty thin with just Steve Taylor and Clete Blakeman, therefore, Gdowski was needed for depth. Had a lot of good sophomore QBs on the 1989 roster (Mickey Joseph, Keithen McCant, Mike Grant, Tom Haase), so it's not like we were hurting after Gdowski graduated.
- QB Travis Turner.
I was a fan of WB Lance Brown. He did a backflips on the sideline after making a big play a few times, like Cardinals SS Ozzie Smith. However, one play that is etched in my memory was a negative play from the 1996 Colorado game in the rain that turned to sleet. It's a fumble at about 1:19:52 in the following clip if it doesn't go straight to that point:
Luckily, Colorado went three and out on the next possession.
What a fantastic game that was, with so many story lines leading in (winner goes to the inaugural CCG, Terrell Farley's suspension) and in the aftermath (flu impacts against Texas in the CCG).
EDIT: Lance Brown was also the receiver who caught the pass on Matt Turman's audible with 38 seconds left in the 1995 Arizona State game to extend the Husker lead to 77-28. While it was the "right" audible call by Turman, this led to ASU head coach Bruce Snyder to accuse Tom Osborne of running up the score (Nebraska led 63-21 at the half and Clinton Childs scored on the first play of the game before going out with a knee injury). Needless to say, Arizona State didn't forget what happened in the 1995 game when the teams met in Tempe in the 1996 season.
Osborne said Miles was actually his best punt returner and would have been in that role had he also not been the team's best punt blocker. Two specific plays from Barron Miles stick out for me:
1. Punt block at Oklahoma State in 1993. Essentially won the game.
2. Interception against Wyoming in 1994. Talk about athleticism.
Chad May also tried to pick on him in 1994 at Kansas State, and he help up admirably. I believe he set the school record for pass breakups in a game until that was broken by Ralph Brown against Colorado in 1996.
Read this on his Huskers.com profile: "... he served as the backup punter on the road and even practice at quarterback earlier in the season when Frazier and Berringer were ailing."
Honorable Mention...
- SS Daniel Bullocks.
- FS and current Army officer Dion Booker.
- QB Gerry Gdowski. One magical season with him as a senior in 1989. Too bad he wasn't redshirted in 1986 or 1987, but we were pretty thin with just Steve Taylor and Clete Blakeman, therefore, Gdowski was needed for depth. Had a lot of good sophomore QBs on the 1989 roster (Mickey Joseph, Keithen McCant, Mike Grant, Tom Haase), so it's not like we were hurting after Gdowski graduated.
- QB Travis Turner.
I was a fan of WB Lance Brown. He did a backflips on the sideline after making a big play a few times, like Cardinals SS Ozzie Smith. However, one play that is etched in my memory was a negative play from the 1996 Colorado game in the rain that turned to sleet. It's a fumble at about 1:19:52 in the following clip if it doesn't go straight to that point:
Luckily, Colorado went three and out on the next possession.
What a fantastic game that was, with so many story lines leading in (winner goes to the inaugural CCG, Terrell Farley's suspension) and in the aftermath (flu impacts against Texas in the CCG).
EDIT: Lance Brown was also the receiver who caught the pass on Matt Turman's audible with 38 seconds left in the 1995 Arizona State game to extend the Husker lead to 77-28. While it was the "right" audible call by Turman, this led to ASU head coach Bruce Snyder to accuse Tom Osborne of running up the score (Nebraska led 63-21 at the half and Clinton Childs scored on the first play of the game before going out with a knee injury). Needless to say, Arizona State didn't forget what happened in the 1995 game when the teams met in Tempe in the 1996 season.
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Just read this article on the 1996 Colorado game trying to find the Lance Brown fumble play.
At that time and including the 1996 game, Colorado had did not thrown a TD pass at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln since 1983. Colorado had two TD passes in Lincoln in 1998. Six games without giving up a TD pass against the same (good) opponent ain't bad.
At that time and including the 1996 game, Colorado had did not thrown a TD pass at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln since 1983. Colorado had two TD passes in Lincoln in 1998. Six games without giving up a TD pass against the same (good) opponent ain't bad.
Who were those announcers? They both agreed that it wasn’t a fumble but an interception? Did they formerly have careers as referees in the B1G?
After Tagge and Miles the ones that come to mind are Dennis Clariage winning the first Conference title Since 1941,John O’Leary with his somersault against Minnesota,Billy Todd’s game winning FG against OU, Mark Heydorf and Gerry Gdowski who only had one year to start and could have been one of the great one’s if he had started more than a year..
Looks like Musburger and Vermeil ...
Fri 11/29, Colorado @ Nebraska, ABC, 2:30 pm, Brent Musburger, Dick Vermeil
Just a slight correction on the Lance Brown TD against ASU. It wasn't an audible. TO sent the play in. It was on 3rd down and TO wanted a first down to run some more offensive plays with the scrubs. Brown was supposed to run a dig route at the 1st Down marker. But the play had a read for the receiver and QB that if both safeties blitzed, the receiver ran a go route. That's what happened and the TD was the result. I remember the ASU coach bitching about it and TO apologizing. But when the ASU coach wouldn't shut up TO essentially said "I should have told Turman and Brown to run the dig route only, but given the score and where we were in the game, I didn't think the coach would be so stupid as to blitz both safeties." Of course, TO phrased it more politely.
All the players who came to mind for me, including Tagge and Miles at the head of the class, have been mentioned. But in honor of O'Leary the thread needs a Bummeroosky video (narrated by Lyell the Great!):
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In the book Bob Devaney and Friends (1981) one of the chapters is titled "Claridge might have been our greatest quarterback; he just came too soon".
In reading the book 24th & Glory about Omaha's greatest generation of athletes including Bob Gibson, Gayle Sayers, Bob Boozer, Johnny Rodgers and others there is an interesting story on Sayers. Gayle Sayers signed a grant in aid with Nebraska in 1961. On a recruiting visit in 1961 to Lincoln, Sayers stayed in a dorm room basement that had pipes that were noisy during the night. He was invited to a dance with other black recruits and there were only 2 females there (both black). Later, Sayers went on a Kansas recruiting visit and was treated much more to his liking. The dance he went to was attended by many more females of both races. It probably didn't help that Kansas had defeated Nebraska the previous 3 years. Back then recruits could reneg on the grant in aid. Next year the NCAA changed to the binding National Letter of Intent signing day.
Devaney was named Nebraska's head coach in 1962 and the Huskers beat Kansas each year Sayers was there. Nebraska was Big 8 champs in 1963, 64 and 65. Claridge was QB in 1963. Bob Brown was an All-American offensive lineman. Nebraska beat Auburn 13-7 in the Orange Bowl that season and had a 10-1 record. Dennis Claridge ran for 108 yards in the Auburn game.
Nebraska could have won other national championships had there been overtime (Miami '83) or instant replay (Penn State '82).
One can only imagine what difference Sayers might have made had he been a Husker.
In reading the book 24th & Glory about Omaha's greatest generation of athletes including Bob Gibson, Gayle Sayers, Bob Boozer, Johnny Rodgers and others there is an interesting story on Sayers. Gayle Sayers signed a grant in aid with Nebraska in 1961. On a recruiting visit in 1961 to Lincoln, Sayers stayed in a dorm room basement that had pipes that were noisy during the night. He was invited to a dance with other black recruits and there were only 2 females there (both black). Later, Sayers went on a Kansas recruiting visit and was treated much more to his liking. The dance he went to was attended by many more females of both races. It probably didn't help that Kansas had defeated Nebraska the previous 3 years. Back then recruits could reneg on the grant in aid. Next year the NCAA changed to the binding National Letter of Intent signing day.
Devaney was named Nebraska's head coach in 1962 and the Huskers beat Kansas each year Sayers was there. Nebraska was Big 8 champs in 1963, 64 and 65. Claridge was QB in 1963. Bob Brown was an All-American offensive lineman. Nebraska beat Auburn 13-7 in the Orange Bowl that season and had a 10-1 record. Dennis Claridge ran for 108 yards in the Auburn game.
Nebraska could have won other national championships had there been overtime (Miami '83) or instant replay (Penn State '82).
One can only imagine what difference Sayers might have made had he been a Husker.
Barron Miles. Very close for me, but I gotta land here. He was a very large part of that attitude that got our Husker's on top for TO's first.
Not the biggest physical specimen, but he was a fighter and a winner and a great leader. Seemed to play every down like it was his last. That 1994 Orange Bowl against Florida State (in a loss), was an all-timer. Huge CFL career and now a coach in that league.
Not the biggest physical specimen, but he was a fighter and a winner and a great leader. Seemed to play every down like it was his last. That 1994 Orange Bowl against Florida State (in a loss), was an all-timer. Huge CFL career and now a coach in that league.
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