Headed For A Fall?

In the Fiesta Bowl, Nebraska started four partial or non-qualifiers (cornerback Michael Booker, defensive tackle Christian Peter, cornerback Tyrone Williams and defensive end Jared Tomich), and two others, wideout Reggie Baul and outside linebacker Jamel Williams, played almost as much as the starters. According to Nebraska officials there were at least 12 partial or non-qualifiers in the program last fall. "Among elite schools Nebraska is a true haven for partial and non-qualifiers," said the coach of another elite school.

Osborne's view on partial and non-qualifiers—he calls them "Props," harking back to Proposition 48, which created the aforementioned eligibility guidelines that affected incoming freshmen in 1986—is similar to his reasoning for reinstating Phillips, who was suspended from the team after he was arrested for assaulting his former girlfriend on Sept. 11. (Phillips eventually pleaded no contest and was restored to the team on Oct. 24.) In both cases, the argument goes, kids were given academic opportunities they might not otherwise have found. And Nebraska landed impact players.

"I hope [the Big 12 presidents] will take a look at the fact that the Big Eight has four teams in the top 10 [Nebraska, No. 5 Colorado, No. 7 Kansas State and No. 9 Kansas]," said Osborne, after the Fiesta Bowl. "We did it with Big Eight rules." (Actually, the Big Eight has no policy on partial and non-qualifiers.) If the Big 12 does not amend its rules, Osborne could threaten to pull Nebraska out of the conference. But it is unlikely that the Big East, Big Ten or Pac-10, the other major conferences that have no policy on partial and non-qualifiers, would welcome Nebraska because of its modest academic standards or remote location.

Prop 48—which is scheduled to be replaced by Prop 16 this summer—is still one of the hot-button issues in college sports: Who deserves an athletic scholarship? But in Nebraska's case, consider this: Two of the four partial or non-qualifiers who started in the Fiesta Bowl (Tyrone Williams and Peter) were among the five Cornhuskers charged with crimes in the last 22 months. Yet, if there have been occasional problems with partial and non-qualifiers at Nebraska, there has also been a significant athletic benefit. Both Williamses, Booker and 1994 cornerback Barron Miles (also a partial qualifier) were among the players who upgraded Nebraska's defense from the plodding bunch that couldn't keep up with Miami and Florida State in the late 1980s and early '90s to the swift, attacking unit that crushed Florida.

Osborne is no fool. Nebraska's hold on greatness is tenuous; that large gap between the Cornhuskers and everybody else could close quickly. Take away Frazier, Phillips and the partial and non-qualifiers, and Nebraska's 12-0 record this season could have been 10-2, which might have put the Huskers in a meaningless Cotton Bowl matchup instead of in a showdown for the national championship.

Osborne's staff is trying desperately to sign a quarterback who will be able to start next year as a freshman, just as Frazier did in '92. But a find like Frazier is rare, so there's a good chance that next year's Sugar Bowl, the site of the national championship game, will be played without Nebraska.

Florida will challenge for the national title again. Don't laugh. Think of the Gators as the football parallel to Duke's 1990 basketball team, which was drilled 103-73 by UNLV in the NCAA championship game and then came back the next year to beat the Runnin' Rebels en route to the first of its back-to-back titles. Gator quarterback Danny Wuerffel returns, along with two of his top three receivers and five other offensive starters. Yet for Florida to reach the title game—the Southeastern Conference title game—it will again have to dispose of Tennessee and its quarterback, Peyton Manning, whose poise and maturity only make him seem as if he's 30 years old and an NFL veteran. And Florida will travel to Knoxville this fall.

Or perhaps the national champion will come out of the Big East, where Syracuse quarterback Donovan McNabb might have the impact on his team that Frazier had on the Huskers, and where Miami has found a new quarterback in Ryan Clement and retains several experienced starters on both sides of the ball.

Assuming Michigan running back Tshimanga Biakabutuka doesn't go to the NFL and quarterback Scott Dreisbach recovers from the injured thumb on his right hand, the Wolverines will be the Big Ten favorite. Kansas State's nonleague schedule is again laughably soft, and next season Nebraska must travel to Manhattan, Kans., to play the Wildcats.

The field is open again. Keep your '96 Fiesta Bowl videotapes in a safe place, because you won't see dominance like that again. There are no more Nebraskas. Not even in Nebraska.