In control
Calm Osborne takes
bowl success in stride
By Jeff Zeleny
Editor
MIAMI — The scoreboard reads
1:01 to go in the 4th. Nebraska 24,
Miami 17. The orange of a once
menacing bowl is alive with red.
Black national championship
shirts and white hats are handed
out to cover the red jerseys and
white helmets. Nearly everyone on
the sideline is holding them,
wearing them. Equipment manag
ers, trainers, third-stringers,
starters.
The governor’s shirt says
Nebraska is No. 1. The university
president’s says it, too.
Time ticks away.
Fifty-nine seconds.
Fifty-eight.
Fifty-seven.
Fifty-six.
Who can wait?
Players crowd the field, in search
of one man. The man who brought
them to this field of dreams deep t
within the inner city of Miami.
The man. The coach. The
legend.
Two players quickly find him. In
perfect synchronization, they raise
an orange cooler filled with ice
water. They follow him to midfield,
but beforfc he fnakes it, he is given
the ritual baptism of a national
championship.
His everyday tranquil expression
momentarily turns to a wincing
grin. But before you blink, his
expression turns back.
•••
Tom Osborne won yet another
football game on Jan. 1, giving him
a total of 219. On the outside, the
win seemed almost as routine for
him as any other game. But this one
was different. Much different.
Those close to Osborne are the
only ones who know what the
• national championship really
means to him.
“It makes it more worthwhile,”
says Nancy Osborne, the coach’s
wife. “It’s just nice to have the
world’s recognition. It’s nice to
have the respect.
“It’s a wonderful moment.”
Osborne has been within reach
of the title four times during his 22
years as Nebraska football coach. In
1984, a deflected pass in the east
end zone of the Orange Bowl gave
the national championship to the
Miami Hurricanes. In 1994, a field
goal, also in the east end zone,
went wide left and sent the champi
onship trophy to Florida State.
Osborne has consistently lost a
bowl game for the last seven years.
It didn’t seem to matter where
Nebraska played. Orange Bowl.
Citrus Bowl. Fiesta Bowl. The
Comhuskers’ luck always fell short
after the regular season.
But the 1994-1995 team was
different. There was much adversity
to overcome. One quarterback, then
two, then three. And Osborne was
quick to silence naysayers about his
team’s depth.
“We have other people,”
Osborne sternly told reporters after
Tommie Frazier’s blood clot was
~ discovered.
Osborne’s outspoken confidence
this year comes from building a
solid program, says Lee Corso, an
ESPN football analyst who often
criticizes Osborne’s decisions and
philosophy.
“He realized he doesn t have to
be silent,” Corso said. “He can
show the other side of his personal
ity, show the man he really is — a
good man.”
Earlier in the season, Osborne
lobbied bowl officials for two non
Florida teams to be paired in the
Orange Bowl.
Two days after Osborne’s team
defeated Miami, he still says he
would have liked to play a team
other than Miami.
“The players wanted to play
Miami in Miami,” Osborne says. “I
didn’t particularly want to do it, to
tell you the truth.”
But the story wasn’t about which
team the Huskers played, but which
quarterback would play against the
Hurricanes.
Three days before the game at
the Orange Bowl media day,
Osborne said Frazier would start at
quarterback over Brook Berringer.
This announcement develops into
a 60-minute episode for Osborne.
At least 100 reporters and
photographers swarm Osborne
during his press conference. He
patiently answers most questions,
but appears annoyed at the con
tinual questions about Frazier’s
condition.
“The guy that’s been treating
him is the guy that operated on my
heart,” Osborne says. “So when ^
he’s got your heart stopped, laying
out on a table, you tend to put a lot
of confidence in what he says.”
The pack of reporters following
Osborne don’t leave. Reporters
from national media organizations
probe him, each trying to get their
own personal account of Osborne’s
life.
The coach seems more patient
with print journalists.
“Weren’t you over there when I
said that? I know you were. I saw
you,” Osborne barks at a television
reporter. “You just want to get an
exclusive. That’s not fair.”
The broadcaster turns around
and leaves the interview circle.
Another reporter soon fills the
empty space.
While listening to reporters’
questions, he frequently stops to
sign a small plastic football or an
autograph card.
He is the man of the moment.
Patience prevails, but as the
afternoon continues, he confesses
the media’s questions have become
more difficult than deciding if
Frazier or Berringer would start.
“The main burden has been
answering a lot of questions about
it,” Osborne says. “I haven’t lost
any sleep over it.”
By the end of the hour, Osborne
has answered hundreds of questions
and changed clothes once for a live
television appearance.
But Osborne is used to the public
spotlight.
He is one of Nebraska’s favorite
sons.
And many of the boys he has
played a father to over the years
came to Miami to watch him earn
his first title.
“This is the premier program in
the nation that has tried to be
copied,” says Trev Alberts, the
1993 Butkus Award winner.
“Obviously this is the biggest game
they will play in their life.”
And what a game it was.
Osborne will be credited for the
game’s outcome, just as he has been
criticized for the last 21 seasons.
But in his own modest words, the
victory wasn’t his doing.
“I’m still the same guy who lost
seven straight bowls,” Osborne says
Scott Bruhn/DN
Tom Osborne remained optimistic throughout the 1994 Nebraska football season as he dealt
with losing two quarterbacks and a free safety to injuries. By the season’s end, both
quarterbacks were healthy, and Osborne had his first national championship.
the day that the final polls are
released. “I’m no smarter today
than I was. last year or the year
before.”
Smarter or not, Osborne finally
has won the big one, and should
earn respect, says Bob Devaney, his
predecessor who has won two
national titles.
“Well, I think Coach Osborne
has been the finest coach in die
country for a long while,” Devaney
says. “I hope everybody just
appreciates what a great man he is
and a great coach.
“I mink he’s got respect. Now
they can never say he don’t win the
big ones — he’s won it.”
•••
About 45 minutes after the
game, the Orange Bowl Stadium
lights are turned off. During those
45 minutes, Osborne has quite a
ride.
He is asked over and over to sum
up what the victory means to him.
Twenty-two years in 45 minutes —
that’s no small task.
Most of the reaction is typical
Osborne.
A few smiles.
A few autographs.
A lot of humility.
The celebration on the field and
near the locker room is chaotic. But
Osborne doesn’t take part in most
of the craziness. He is dressed in a
conservative blue blazer — not a
championship T-shirt.
He hugs Frazier, shakes hands
with many bureaucrats and accepts
congratulations from players.
And then his own special
moment begins.
Standing below a handmade
“Nebraska Beats Canes” sign,
Osborne holds his grandson, Will.
Gerik Parmele/DN
One day after defeating Miami in the Orange Bowl, Nebraska
coach Tom Osborne and his undefeated team came home to
greet more than 13,000 fans at the Bob Devaney Sports
Center. The next day, Nebraska was rated No. 1 in both
football polls.
He is surrounded by his wife and
children. This moment, where
Osborne looks the most relaxed,
lasts for only minutes.
Seventy minutes after the
championship bath, the Osborne
family walks down a corridor
outside Gate 12C at the Orange
Bowl Stadium. Osborne takes time
to chat with his children before they
are greeted by another throng of
screaming Husker fans.
After signing autographs and
waving, Osborne leaves his family
and climbs the four steps onto team
bus No. 5095. He sits directly
behind the driver and begins to
unwrap a sandwich. He looks
straight ahead without saying a
word.
He doesn’t have to.
The sign posted in the front
window of the bus tells the com
plete story:
“National Champions —
Nebraska 24, Miami 17.”