Wide Left

So, by 8 p.m. eastern, things were coming up Seminole. And that's when Florida State's offensive line went out and played like large lumps of Limburger cheese. Quarterback Charlie Ward was in danger of continuing the glorious tradition of the last four Heisman Trophy winners who played for the national championship—Miami's Gino Torretta and Vinny Testaverde, Nebraska's Mike Rozier and Georgia's Herschel Walker—all of whom lost. "N...B...A!" shouted Nebraska fans joyfully as Ward, who will now resume his duties as the Seminoles' point guard, took hard charges from the Nebraska defense. All week he had his own police officer protecting him everywhere he went, but where was that guy now? Ward was sacked four times in the first half alone, twice by Nebraska's ornery linebacker Trev Alberts.

By halftime Nebraska had a 7-6 advantage, its first lead in a bowl game in four years. Still, things could have been better for the Cornhuskers. Their quicksilver punt returner, Corey Dixon, ran back a ball 71 yards for a touchdown, but the officials called a clip on Nebraska. Lots of witnesses disagreed, including NBC announcer Bob Trumpy, who thought the refs had mistakenly called the clip on Cornhusker cornerback Tyrone Williams. "The officials obviously don't have the benefit of instant replay," NBC spokesman Vince Wladika told The Miami Herald, "but none of our replays show a conclusive clip. We looked at it four or five times from different angles and could not find a clip." Well, they looked in the wrong place. Williams didn't clip anyone—fullback Lance Gray did.

Then again, things could have been worse. Nebraska's only touchdown was lucky. A pass from quarterback Tommie Frazier bounced off the hands of Florida State safety Devin Bush and into those of Cornhusker split end Reggie Baul, a backup who hadn't made a catch in five games. Baul's jersey number? Seven.

By the end of the third quarter, the Seminoles were ahead 15-7 thanks to a third field goal by Scott Bentley and a one-yard, did-he-fumble-or-not touchdown by fullback William Floyd, but nobody thought the game was over. The Cornhuskers were just starting to roll with a freshman back named Lawrence Phillips, a man who so overwhelmed the Nebraska football program that he had to share his number (1) with a teammate and was somehow omitted from the Cornhusker depth chart, which went 99 deep. Phillips would score from 12 yards out on the prettiest little draw play you ever saw to make it 15-13, and Osborne, as he had done 10 years earlier in the Orange Bowl against Miami, went for two.

As Frazier rolled right, he somehow did not see his tight end, Gerald Armstrong, wide open in the corner. The quarterback tried to run the ball in but was bumped out-of-bounds at the one. Later, when the game was over, Frazier would hold back tears as he was consoled by Turner Gill, the ex-Nebraska quarterback who had thrown the pass on the two-point attempt in 1984 that was batted down, along with the Cornhuskers' national-title hopes. At Nebraska, disappointment is a legacy.

And still the Cornhuskers refused to lose. With four minutes to go Frazier drove them downfield again, and Bennett kicked a 27-yard field goal that seemed to wash all those years of Nebraska frustration out of that hexed stadium. The Cornhuskers led 16-15.

One minute and 16 seconds to play. Florida State ball on the Seminole 35. Well, Charlie?

"Everybody was looking at me," Ward said of that first huddle. "I got no problem with that. I know I'm going to have to make a play sooner or later." He began sooner. He hit his roommate, Warrick Dunn, with two passes, the cruncher coming on a little down-and-out route and going for 21 yards. And when Nebraska's Barron Miles hit Dunn two feet out-of-bounds, a yellow fabric swatch flew. Fifteen more yards. Two plays later Florida State wideout Kez McCorvey beat Nebraska cornerback Toby Wright so badly that all Wright could do was tackle him before the ball arrived or give up a touchdown. Another three fabric swatches, and the Seminoles had the ball on the Nebraska three.

But that is when Bowden's brain left to beat the traffic. He ran one play, then called timeout with 24 seconds left to set up a 22-yard field goal. What he should have done was let the clock run down at least another 10 seconds and then call timeout. "We weren't organized," Bowden later admitted. "Tom [Osborne] did a better job than I did."

Now all eyes turned toward Bentley, the anti-Phillips, a freshman with more interview time under his belt than many news anchors. Bentley, the Rolls-Royce of recruits. The kid who stiffed Lou Holtz and Notre Dame at the last minute.