Editor’s note: This was a game story written by Joe Guise after Syracuse beat No. 1 Nebraska that was published in The Daily Orange on Oct. 1, 1984. 

Dick MacPherson knew something special was going to happen on Saturday afternoon.

The night before, the Syracuse University football coach and his staff made their usual rounds at 9 p.m. to “check on the players and bring them lunches.” This time, however, most of the team was sound asleep.

“They have to get up at 7 a.m., so we usually give them the food at nine and they’re asleep by 10,” MacPherson said. “Only on Friday night, I knew something was up because we had to wake up 70 percent of the guys.

“It reminded me of the time I was coaching at UMass and we were playing Western Illinois the next day for the championship,” he continued. “Those guys were sound asleep early also, and we went on to win that game. So I knew we were going to do something special this Saturday. It’s amazing they were asleep, because you know how hungry football players get.”

On Saturday, the Orangemen showed just how hungry they can be by feasting on some corn. Well, Cornhuskers to be more exact, as SU registered a stunning 17-9 upset of top-ranked Nebraska before 47,280 delirious fans at the Carrier Dome.

For SU, the victory marked the school’s biggest win since the 1959 Orangemen defeated Texas, 23-14, in the Cotton Bowl to win the national championship. And it was the first time in 95 years of football that the Orange beat the nation’s top ranked team. SU’s previously highest-ranked victim was No. 4 UCLA in 1967, when the Orangemen held Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Gary Beban to just 17 yards in a 32-14 victory.

The win may not have put Syracuse in the same position as that illustrious team, but it did put Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne inane unfamiliar situation. For the first time in 24 regular-season games, Osborne had to explain why his team last. Not since the Cornhuskers dropped a 27-24 decision to Penn State back in 1982 was he forced to do that.

But the nation’s third winningest active coach behind Oklahoma’s Barry Switzer and the Nittany Lions’ Joe Paterno had a simple explanation for the biggest college football upset of the year thus far.

“They were more physical than we were,” said Osborne, who has featured a program of virtual man-eaters for the past 11 years. “We got banged around pretty good today, and their defense probably played as good a game of football as anybody has played against us in three or four years.

“I said before the season that Syracuse would be one of the two toughest teams we’d play this year,” he continued. “They certainly showed that today. We made too many mistakes (including two fumbles and one interception) and they didn’t make many at all. Syracuse just outplayed us.”

One week ago, that didn’t seem possible. After a humiliating 19-0 loss to Rutgers in its home opener, SU entered the game a 25-point underdog. But the Orangemen (3-1) used stingy defense and ball-control offense to hand the Cornhuskers their worst defeat since a 20-7 loss to Alabama in the 1978 opener.

“We went from the doghouse to the penthouse in one week,” MacPherson said. “We played outstanding defense. Anytime you hold the nation’s premier offense to just seven points, you have to be happy.

“But you also have to give a lot of credit to our offense,” he continued. “They bounced back from all the turnovers last week and moved the ball really well today. If they hadn’t held on to the ball for so long (SU enjoyed a possession time margin of 37 minutes to 23), our defense may not have been had the game it did.”

Sparking defense

Except for the Orange’s two touchdown drives, though, the defense did steal the spotlight. Ranked fourth in the nation in total defense and second in pass defense prior to the game, SU held the Cornhuskers’ 531-yard, 40.7 point-per-game offense to just 214 total yards and a lone first-quarter score. It was Nebraska’s lowest output since a 6-0 victory over Missouri in 1981, and it marked the eighth consecutive time the Orangemen held their opponent to only one touchdown.

“We said to ourselves that they had 11 men on the field just like we did,” said SU defensive tackle Tim Green, who recorded two sacks and breezed past Nebraska’s left offensive tackle Mark Behning so often the 6-foot-7, 290 pound giant looked more like a Dome revolving door.

“They execute better than any offense I’ve ever seen, but it wasn’t like they had twice as many guys on the field as we did, though it sometimes looks that way on the field,” he continued. “Who’s to say just because it’s Nebraska or the Pittsburgh Steelers that we can’t beat them?”

That attitude surfaced in the game’s opening series as the Orangemen forced the Cornhuskers to punt for only the ninth time all year. Nebraska did, however, open the game’s scoring 7:09 into the first quarter as quarterback Craig Sundberg followed a beautiful play-action fake to running back Doug Dubose with a perfect 25-yard touchdown strike to tight end Todd Frain.

But that was the last time the Cornhusker offense put any points on the board. Sundberg, bothered by a sore shoulder, did not throw the ball particularly well, completing just five-of-13 passes for 60 yards and throwing an interception to SU’s Ron Hobby in the second quarter that looked more like a dying quail plummeting to earth than a forward pass.

The running game was also not up to par. Though DeBose led all ball carriers with 107 yards, the Nebraska backfield’s longest run from scrimmage was only 20 yards. And even that came on a broken play when Sundbuerg was flushed out of the pocket. In defense of the Cornhuskers, the unit may have suffered slightly from the loss of I-back Jeff Smith, who rushed for 476 yards in Nebraska’s routs over Wyoming, Minnesota and UCLA but sat out Saturday’s contest with a sprained ankle. But Osborne doesn’t agree.

“With or without Jeff Smith, this was a tough game for us and I hope they don’t get any tougher,” he said. “I don’t think he would’ve made any difference because they beat us at the line of scrimmage, both offensively and defensively, and that’s where games are won.”

That the Orange were able to dominate the trenches was quite a surprise, especially when the Nebraska program has always been known for the players at those positions with the strength of a moving freight trains. But the SU offensive line began to take charge late in the second quarter as the Orange drove from its own 17-yard line to the Nebraska six, using up more than eight minutes. Though the Orangemen hat to settle for a 24-yard field goal, it gave them confidence that they could move the ball against the nation’s second-ranked defense.

“We got killed by them last year (63-7 at Lincoln) and they just beat UCLA, 42-3, the week before, so that drive and being down only 7-4 really got our confidence up,” said SU halfback Jaime Covington, who rushed for 99 yards on 30 carries. “At that point, we knew we could sustain a drive with no problem. We were just mad we didn’t punch it into the end zone.”

There was plenty of time for that. SU did find the end zone with 4:50 left in the third quarter. On a second-and-21 situation, quarterback Todd Norley (9-18-1 for 106 yards) threw a 40-yard rainbow to Mike Siano at the gaol line. The 6-foot-4 junior wide receiver out jumped Nebraska defensive backs Dennis Watkins and Bret Clar and grabbed the ball to give the Orangemen their first lead of the game.

Strangely enough, Norley never saw Siano catch the ball. The junior was on the ground at the time after Cornhusker defensive and Scott Strasburger leveled him from behind.

“I looked up from the ground and saw the referee’s hands go up,” said Norley, who suffered a slightly sprained knee and had to be helped off the field. “The crowd’s reaction was enough to know we’d scored.”

While it first appeared Norley might be finished for the game, the Warriongton Pa. native came back on the very next series. And even though the dramatic Norley-Siano connection was all the scoring SU needed for the victory, fullback Harold Gayden provided some insurance 1:29 left in the game. He capped a 60-yard, 13-play drive with a one-yard touchdown run around right end — the first rushing touchdown this season against the previously miser-like Nebraska defense.

Celebration

That play initiated a celebration in the stands that filtered on to the field for almost an hour after the game had ended. SU punter Jim Fox closed out the game’s scoring by deliberately taking a safety as time ran out.

“Everybody had piece of this victory,” said Steve Villanti, SU’s right guard, who made the key block on Gayden’s touchdown run. “This type of game can only happen when everybody helps. They (Nebraska) come at you so hard, but we just went right back at them and maybe even a little harder. That’s the kind of football I like. It was great, great, great.”

Now, all that remains is whether the upset will be enough to catapolt the Orange into either the AP or UPI Top Twenty or both. Those polls will come out on Monday and Tuesday respectively. But for the time being, the Orangemen can sit back, relax and enjoy the fact that they shocked the college football world.

“This wasn’t a fluke,” MacPherson said. “We played hard. I’m sure they’ll tell you that. Maybe now, some people will realize that we have a decent football team. That’s what we’re after — some respect.”

And they certainly earned it Saturday.

“We’re not embarrassed,” Nebraska’s All-American center, Mark Tranowicz, said. “Like Coach (Osborne) said, we didn’t fall on our face. Down deep, I don’t quite understand what happened to us — except that they just played better than us.”

Published on October 10, 2014 at 1:20 am