Nebraska Rides High

As Tagge remembers it, their conversation went something like this:

Tagge: "I know we can score, coach, but I've been worried about eating up the time."

Devaney: "We're going for the touchdown. There won't be any ties."

Tagge: "We'll get it."

Devaney: "What's your best play?"

Tagge: "I think it's the off-tackle with Jeff."

Devaney: "O.K. Let's run it without any mistakes."

Jerry Tagge and his friends did exactly that. Kinney slammed into the left side behind Tackle Daryl White, knocked down somebody again and made four yards. So Tagge called the same play and Kinney rammed into the end zone. That, plus the extra point, made it 35-31 and sent an estimated 30,000 ecstatic residents of Lincoln, Neb. scurrying out to the airport to greet the football team that would keep all of the town's cocktail waitresses in their red sweatshirts with the white No. 1s on them until New Year's Day at least. And probably longer.