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2010 May 30
30/1980 BEST PLAYERS: No. 1
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Welcome to Husker Locker’s “30 Best Players since 1980” portion of the Summer 30 series. Check throughout May to see our updated rankings; the previous rankings will be housed at the bottom of this blog post.
Like or dislike our pick? Comment on it below.
Not a member, but would like to comment? Join Husker Locker today - it's free!.
Remember, too, to weigh in on the Best Individual Performances and Best Games since 1980. Also stay tuned for our ranking of every team, 1980-2009, at the end of the series!
No. 1 Quarterback Tommie Frazier (1992-1995)
When he arrived on campus, NU hadn’t beaten a top ten team in three seasons, and serious questions as to whether option football - and thus Nebraska football - was any longer viable had begun to crop up. Even Bill McCartney at Colorado had made the switch to a more wide open, passing offense. Oklahoma had Cale Gundy. The nation’s best teams in 1991 - Miami and Washington - had both thrashed the Huskers thoroughly with a combination of dominant defenses and speedy, multiple offenses.
While Charlie McBride went to work on the Blackshirts, Tom Osborne landed the most significant recruit of his time at Nebraska. The one who delivered T.O. his first two national titles and served as general to what many consider the greatest college football team in history.
Touchdown Tommie Frazier.
He was immediately capable when he stepped on campus, and started midway through his freshman season, leading the Cornhuskers to lopsided wins over top-ten-ranked Colorado and Kansas. He suffered hiccups in 1992 - a loss at Iowa State was one of them - but he showed a rare confidence and physicality as a runner that many option quarterbacks, undersized as they often were, didn’t possess.
In 1993, he blossomed into a complete player, throwing for 1,159 yards and rushing for 704, accounting for 21 total touchdowns. NU slugged out many close wins that year, but couldn’t close its hands on a national title, losing 18-16 to Florida State in the 1994 Orange Bowl. Frazier did what he could in that loss, and it’s notable that, on NU’s final three offensive plays - when a touchdown might have sealed FSU’s fate - Osborne never gave Frazier the run/pass option he so excelled at. It was a mistake that, at a crucial time one year later, Osborne wouldn’t repeat.
To 1994, where it appeared Frazier was headed for a Heisman Trophy campaign until he sent to a hospital bed with blood clots. He watched as Brook Berringer - and at times Matt Turman - delivered the Huskers to an undefeated regular season. Frazier was healthy enough to start the 1995 Orange Bowl. He didn’t initially play well vs. Miami. But he came off the bench, with the Huskers trailing 17-9, and delivered the two of the most memorable drives in Husker history. Although Frazier scored neither touchbdown - those belonged to Cory Schlesinger - he completed a key two-point conversion pass to tight end Eric Alford. Frazier made the play he wasn’t allowed to make the season before and Turner Gill did not make in the 1984 Orange Bowl.
In 1995, Frazier was unstoppable and brilliant, amassing almost 2,000 total yards - not counting the bowl game, which is counted in all stats today - while leading what some Husker fans consider the best offense in team history. While a hailstorm of bad media swarmed NU in that season, Frazier was the stalwart - steady, confident, tough. Not necessarily liked by all of his teammates, Frazier unquestionably had their respect, and it was always about where Tommie was going - not where he’d been.
He finished second in the Heisman, but the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. He saved his best performance - and best play - for last, rushing for 199 yards in a 62-24 romp over Florida in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, which included a 75-yard run where Frazier broke free of a gang of Gators on his way to the end zone.
Sometimes it goes beyond numbers. Frazier had fine stats, but Jammal Lord and Crouch broke all of his season and career rushing records, while Zac Taylor and Joe Ganz now own most of the passing records. Frazier is not likely to ever be eclipsed as a winner, however. In his entire career, he lost just three starts. Bravo to that.
Check Out the Entire List!
Honorable Mention, No. 30, No. 29, No. 28, No. 27, No. 26, No. 25, No. 24, No. 23, No. 22, No. 21, No. 20, No. 19, No. 18, No. 17, No. 16, No. 15, No. 14, No. 13, No. 12, No. 11, No. 10, No. 9, No. 8, No. 7, No. 6, No. 5, No. 4, No. 3, No. 2
Like or dislike our pick? Comment on it below.
Not a member, but would like to comment? Join Husker Locker today - it's free!.
Remember, too, to weigh in on the Best Individual Performances and Best Games since 1980. Also stay tuned for our ranking of every team, 1980-2009, at the end of the series!
No. 1 Quarterback Tommie Frazier (1992-1995)
When he arrived on campus, NU hadn’t beaten a top ten team in three seasons, and serious questions as to whether option football - and thus Nebraska football - was any longer viable had begun to crop up. Even Bill McCartney at Colorado had made the switch to a more wide open, passing offense. Oklahoma had Cale Gundy. The nation’s best teams in 1991 - Miami and Washington - had both thrashed the Huskers thoroughly with a combination of dominant defenses and speedy, multiple offenses.
While Charlie McBride went to work on the Blackshirts, Tom Osborne landed the most significant recruit of his time at Nebraska. The one who delivered T.O. his first two national titles and served as general to what many consider the greatest college football team in history.
Touchdown Tommie Frazier.
He was immediately capable when he stepped on campus, and started midway through his freshman season, leading the Cornhuskers to lopsided wins over top-ten-ranked Colorado and Kansas. He suffered hiccups in 1992 - a loss at Iowa State was one of them - but he showed a rare confidence and physicality as a runner that many option quarterbacks, undersized as they often were, didn’t possess.
In 1993, he blossomed into a complete player, throwing for 1,159 yards and rushing for 704, accounting for 21 total touchdowns. NU slugged out many close wins that year, but couldn’t close its hands on a national title, losing 18-16 to Florida State in the 1994 Orange Bowl. Frazier did what he could in that loss, and it’s notable that, on NU’s final three offensive plays - when a touchdown might have sealed FSU’s fate - Osborne never gave Frazier the run/pass option he so excelled at. It was a mistake that, at a crucial time one year later, Osborne wouldn’t repeat.
To 1994, where it appeared Frazier was headed for a Heisman Trophy campaign until he sent to a hospital bed with blood clots. He watched as Brook Berringer - and at times Matt Turman - delivered the Huskers to an undefeated regular season. Frazier was healthy enough to start the 1995 Orange Bowl. He didn’t initially play well vs. Miami. But he came off the bench, with the Huskers trailing 17-9, and delivered the two of the most memorable drives in Husker history. Although Frazier scored neither touchbdown - those belonged to Cory Schlesinger - he completed a key two-point conversion pass to tight end Eric Alford. Frazier made the play he wasn’t allowed to make the season before and Turner Gill did not make in the 1984 Orange Bowl.
In 1995, Frazier was unstoppable and brilliant, amassing almost 2,000 total yards - not counting the bowl game, which is counted in all stats today - while leading what some Husker fans consider the best offense in team history. While a hailstorm of bad media swarmed NU in that season, Frazier was the stalwart - steady, confident, tough. Not necessarily liked by all of his teammates, Frazier unquestionably had their respect, and it was always about where Tommie was going - not where he’d been.
He finished second in the Heisman, but the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. He saved his best performance - and best play - for last, rushing for 199 yards in a 62-24 romp over Florida in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, which included a 75-yard run where Frazier broke free of a gang of Gators on his way to the end zone.
Sometimes it goes beyond numbers. Frazier had fine stats, but Jammal Lord and Crouch broke all of his season and career rushing records, while Zac Taylor and Joe Ganz now own most of the passing records. Frazier is not likely to ever be eclipsed as a winner, however. In his entire career, he lost just three starts. Bravo to that.
Check Out the Entire List!
Honorable Mention, No. 30, No. 29, No. 28, No. 27, No. 26, No. 25, No. 24, No. 23, No. 22, No. 21, No. 20, No. 19, No. 18, No. 17, No. 16, No. 15, No. 14, No. 13, No. 12, No. 11, No. 10, No. 9, No. 8, No. 7, No. 6, No. 5, No. 4, No. 3, No. 2
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Home > Blogs > Official Husker Locker Blog > 30/1980 BEST PLAYERS: No. 1
The 83 team was not the best ever. They lost.
Certainly, they could have won the game, they should have--but they didn't. That '83 Miami team was a good team playing at home without the huge pressure of expectation--but they weren't even remotely close to several other Miami teams that followed them--including '94 and 2001.
I MIGHT give the '83 team the nod for best OFFENSE in NU history--although the 94, 95, 97, and 99 versions were no slouches. Defensively, however, it wasn't even close. The defenses from about 92 to 2000 at Nebraska were dominant, especially in the title years.
Having said all that, no matter what you think of him as a person--Frazier was a winner, and he did what winners do, and what many in the 20 years before him could not--he WON.
– Jun 2, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Jarvis, I seem to recall that Miami did not have much of a defense, here is what the stats say about that year.
I suspect you may be to young to remember.
The 1983 University of Nebraska Cornhuskers had one of the most explosive football teams of all time.With an offense that included Heisman trouphy winner Mike Rozier,and Heisman canidates Turner Gill and Irving Fryer they lit up the scoreboards with almost unbelievable numbers all season including 84 points against Minnesota, 63 vs Syracuse,69 vs Colorado,72 vs Iowa St.,67 vs Kansas and so on.They lost the National Championship by one point against Miami in the Orange Bowl when Osborne decided to go for a 2 point conversion and a win instead of kicking a field goal for a tie and a for sure National Championship after a final scoring drive late in the fourth Quarter.
Had our defense been better we may have won the game, if we could mix and match teams and years. Had we had the 83' offense last season, our boys would be sporting shiny new championship rings.
– Jun 2, 2010 at 12:18 pm
@AZHusker94. I couldn't concur more with your assessment of Frazier off-field. I had the same experience with him on more than one occasion. I was tutoring a couple of players in Psych in '94, and they had the same read on him as what was stated in the blog, not liked by his team mates, but respected for his playing ability. I wonder how much of that still held true, and affected the desertion of his team when he was head coach at Doane? BTW, Roger Craig, phenominal player. Hardest hit I ever took was by him, convinced me as a Freshman to walk-off the same day I walked-on!
– Jun 1, 2010 at 10:55 pm
jredwine12: couldn't agree with you more!
– Jun 1, 2010 at 3:07 pm
May we all NU QBs not be well liked by all teammates if they are to deliver like Tommie did. Like the greatest quarterbacks, and I believe he is the greatest college quarterback I ever watched, you don't remember numbers or awards, you remember moments. The pass against Iowa St in 92, running over Chris Hudson in the 92 CU game, the last ditch drive against FSU in the 93 champ game, the third and three against Miami in the 94 champ game, the throw while being crushed against CU in 95, the run and about a hundred more. In time, the numbers will dull, and someone will paint a picture of someone else as the best, but it will be nonsense.
All due respect, if the 95 Huskers had lined up against the 83 Miami Hurricanes, Bernie Kosar would have had his body donated to science in a 56-21 romp. The difference between the 95 defense and the 83 NU defense is a chasm. (And Craig was gone in 1983, but even if he wasn't, it wouldn't make up the difference, Craig didn't play defense.)
– Jun 1, 2010 at 1:13 pm
By the way, the 83 team is the best team that the Huskers ever put on the field. Had we beaten Miami, we would be calling them the greatest, Gill, Rozier, Fryer, Craig, What a group.
– May 31, 2010 at 3:10 pm
This guy was the biggest ass to ever walk on campus, I went UNL with this this jerk. His off the field behavior about cost him his Sr. year. While I was walking though the Union I saw a little boy maybe 11 or so, come up to Fraizer and ask for his autograph. Fraizer told the kid to F@ck off, I immedately confronted Fraizer on this. I am 6'5" 320 former Linebacker, I explained to him that he would appologize and give the kid an autograph, or I would pick him up and drive his thowing shoulder into the concrete floor. Having just gotten out of the Military, I had little tollerance for his ego. Needless to say he gave the boy his autographed and appologized. I have to say he was an exciting QB, but the run vs Florida was more a funtion of poor tackling not his supperior running. Gill is the best QB I ever saw at Nebraska, and I have been to 69 home games.
– May 31, 2010 at 3:06 pm
By the way, perhaps it is not the forum, but since Nebraska fans are the #1 team in anyone's book on sportsmanship, one of the great acts of sportsmanship ever took place after that Fiesta Bowl. Danny Wuerfel, who was absolutely mauled in that game, came on to the field as the only Florida player to stand with the Huskers as they got their national title award. Such examples should not be forgotten.
– May 31, 2010 at 11:36 am
I would still go with Turner Gill if you were trying to put together a team. Maybe I am prejudiced because that was my class (had Gill in Western Civ class), but I think he was every bit the leader that Frazier was, albeit in a more quiet Montana than a Favre way. He had the talent; he had the confidence. He was surrounded by greatness for sure, but he was the starter and the ignition.
Also, I didn't cover my eyes every time he dropped back to pass. Fryar was the threat he was because Gill could deliver it to him, or run, or pitch (and make the smart decision which). Aside from that Colorado pass, Frazier was not near the passing threat that Gill was - which totally opens up the offense. If Frazier didn't have that massive line that crushed everyone, he would have been limited to what he could do. I was at the Florida - Nebraska Fiesta Bowl. What an awesome game. That game was just as much about that Danny Wuerfel could not throw off his back as the offense. Both were incredible.
But I would still take Gill. Talent, athleticisim, brains, leadership, QB skills.
– May 31, 2010 at 11:32 am
Oh...and by the way, I'm predicting that kind of energy in Lincoln on 10/16 this year...check the schedule if you're not sure who's in town that weekend
– May 31, 2010 at 11:09 am
I agree with Tommie @ #1. What you have to consider is that Nebraska has had many good and great 'teams' in the past 30 years. it's difficult to determine who did their job better.for instance, it's tough to compare a center to a linebacker. Frazier should be #1 because he was more than just numbers. Think back to his second start...against colorado in '92. We hadn't beat them since '88 and they came in a top ten team. Final score...52-7. His numbers weren't spectacular, but we don't win in that fashion...or even close to that...with Mike Grant starting.
He had an energy that spread amongst those who played next to him. Remember 'Black Friday 2001.' I'm still trying to forget. Point is...I could see that coming from 200,000 miles away. Five straight years of close losses...some in agonizing fashion, and a chance to knock us off the top of the todem pole had them foaming at the mouth and sniffing for husker blood. The energy in the stadium that day was for too much for NU to overcome...they were doomed before kickoff. That kind of energy is what Frazier carried with him every time he stepped on the field...the kind you couldn't put a finger on or even put in words, but it was there. That's why I think he's a no-brainer for tops on this list, whether you like him or not.
– May 31, 2010 at 11:00 am
What did you mean by, "not necessarily liked by all of his teaammates." Walter
– May 31, 2010 at 10:33 am
...and speaking of teams, can USC come out and play (again)?
– May 31, 2010 at 9:31 am
I agree with Micarl, this list assumes the impossible - that players achieve things as individuals. Yet - it's fun to recall these players as individuals. I talked with Tommy after the victory over Oklahoma this year - and the last thing I said was "thanks for the memories." He didn't give us the 1992-1995 era alone - but he was a big part of one of the most dominating periods for any team in College football history.
– May 31, 2010 at 9:05 am
I agree, Roger Craig was probably Nebraska's greatest runningback, had he been on the 83 team, they would have beat Miami and won the National Title
– May 31, 2010 at 8:41 am
Watching this list count down, it just becomes more apparent how much football is a team sport. The stupidest stat in all of football is that "he just lost 3 starts." What if he didn't have that offensive line? What if they didn't have that defense that killed Florida? What if he had the defense that Turner Gill had to play with, or with a defense coached by Kevin Cosgrove? If Gill, Fryar, and Rozier had the defense of the '95 team, NO ONE would have come within 3 touchdowns of them - including Miami. That offense in '83 and '84 was unreal.
Winning records are team records.
I think Gill, Crouch and Frazier were great QB's, but notice everytime we have a great QB,who is on the line: Gill (Rimington, Steinkuhler), Frazier (Treu, Graham, Dishman), Crouch (Incognito, Fonoti). It is poignant to say the team was undefeated with Berringer (maybe #1 on the all time most respectable team).
This poll was fun and interesting. I think Roger Craig has never gotten enough credit. I am glad to see he got his just reward in the NFL.
Great players all, but for once and for all, quit saying this or that player won x amount of games. Teams win. Teams lose.
– May 31, 2010 at 7:47 am