Nebraska walked into Thanksgiving Day 1993 with the kind of offensive numbers that usually tell the whole story. The Huskers were No. 1 nationally in rushing and 14th in total offense, so a game that ended with just 122 rushing yards and 179 total yards had no business turning into a comfortable win.
And yet that’s exactly what happened at Memorial Stadium.
Tom Osborne’s team beat Oklahoma 21-7, a result that looked nothing like the stat sheet. The 16th-ranked Sooners, sitting at 8-2, opened the game with a 74-yard march on 13 plays and scored 5:16 into the first quarter. After that, Nebraska’s defense slammed the door.
The Blackshirts were forced to do it without All-America outside linebacker Trev Alberts, who left on the ninth play with a dislocated elbow. They were also already missing linebacker Ernie Beler, who was out with a knee injury. Still, the defense settled in and held Oklahoma to 33 yards in the second half.
“All of us (on defense) are a little tired of have everything built around offense,” defensive coordinator Charlie McBride said.
Nebraska’s own start was clunky. The Huskers managed only one first down in the opening quarter, punted on their first three possessions of the second, and then saw Tommie Frazier throw an interception on the fourth drive.
But the defense answered right back. Toby Wright picked off a Cale Gundy pass and returned it 25 yards to the Oklahoma 15.
Three plays later, after a penalty, Frazier ran in from 2 yards to tie the game at 7. Osborne said that getting to halftime tied, considering how the game had unfolded, “was kind of a major upset.”
Until the middle of the second quarter, he said, “we were getting dominated on both sides of the ball.”
He also said he wouldn’t have given a “plugged nickel” for Nebraska’s chances at that point.
The third quarter stayed scoreless, but Nebraska took over from there. Corey Dixon’s 11-yard punt return set up a nine-play, 38-yard drive that ended with Frazier hitting Abdul Muhammad for an 11-yard touchdown. Muhammad finished as Nebraska’s leading receiver with that catch and one other grab for 12 yards.
Then the game flipped again almost instantly. On the kickoff, Mike Minter forced a fumble and David Seizys recovered at the Oklahoma 20. Calvin Jones turned that into a 20-yard touchdown run.
The two scores came just 13 seconds apart.
Jones led Nebraska on the ground with 82 yards on 25 carries. Frazier added 37 rushing yards on 15 carries and threw for only 57 yards, completing 5 of 17 passes.
Gundy finished 8 of 22 for 85 yards. Dwayne Harris took over after Alberts’ injury and sacked him three times, while defensive tackle Kevin Raemakers also got to Gundy.
Mike Anderson paced the Blackshirts with nine tackles. Wright had eight, and Harris and cornerback John Reece each had seven.
With 18 seconds left, fans began pouring onto the field. Osborne wasn’t having it.
“Get off the field,” he said. “What’s the matter with you people?”
The celebration marked Nebraska’s first undefeated regular season since the “Scoring Explosion” offense in 1983. The Huskers had slipped to No. 2 in the AP poll during the off week after then No.
1 Notre Dame lost to Boston College 41-39, while one-loss Florida State moved up. Nebraska still sat first in the coaches’ poll.
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