AP game story: 1982 Nebraska vs. Oklahoma football
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Huskers grind Sooners 28-24 LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Fullback Doug Wilkening, only fifth on Nebraska’s awesome 1982 list of runners, scored on bursts of 2 and 14 yards in the second period Saturday and led the third-ranked Cornhuskers to the Big Eight championship and a berth in the Orange Bowl with a 28-24 victory over archrival Oklahoma. ” – Nebraska’s high-powered offense No. 1 both in total offense and rushing plowed through Oklahoma’s defense for 272 first-half yards en route to a 21-10 lead at the intermission. A total of 205 yards came on the ground, with Wilkening, tailbacks Mike Rozier and Roger Craig and quarterback Turner Gill all contributing vital chunks. The victory was Nebraska’s eighth in a row and sent the Cornhuskers off to Honolulu for next week’s regular-season windup against the University of Hawaii with a 10-1 record and their second consecutive Big Eight crown after winning all seven conference games. They will meet LSU in Miami on New Year’s night, while llth-ranked Oklahoma, 8-3 overall and 6-1 in the Big Eight, heads to the Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl against either Arizona State or Washington. Wilkening’s 2-yard touchdown run at 3:39 of the second period gave Nebraska a 14-10 lead and capped a 78-yard drive, which included a tricky 37-yard pass from wingback Irving Fryar to backup tight end Mitch Krenk after Gill intentionally bounced an overhand backward pass to Fryar, a play designed to look like an incompletion and make Oklahoma’s defense ease up. That erased a 10-7 lead that Oklahoma built on freshman Marcus Du-pree’s 2-yard run in the first period and Michael Reeling’s 27-yard field goal early in the second quarter. Nebraska had taken an early 7-0 lead on Gill’s 14-yard run on fourth-and-one, 10 plays after Oklahoma’s Scott Case fumbled a punt and Dean Steinkuhler recovered for the Cornhuskers on the Sooners’ 44. Less than 4 -minutes after Wilkening’s first touchdown, the Cornhuskers stormed 62 yards in seven plays, with Wilkening ramming between center and right guard the same place as his first TD and scoring virtually untouched from the .14. Oklahoma made it close in the third period, scoring on an 86-yard run by Dupree who finished with 149 yards on 25 carries and Stanley Wilson’s 1-yard dive around ir3-yard run by Nebraska’s Craig. : The triumph was Nebraska’s second in a row over Oklahoma, but only the Cornhuskers’ third in the lastll2 meetings with the Sooners. It marked the 36th time in the last 38 years lhat the winner of this annual shootout has won or shared the Big Eight title.; A crowd of 76,396 Nebraska’s 124th consecutive sellout dating back to 1962 and a national television audience watched these two bitterlri-vals put on a torrid offensive shpw for three periods. I With Nebraska threatening to put the game away early in the second half, Dupree got the Sooners back into it with his 86-yard sprint doym the left sideline on the third play; of the second half. That made it 21-17 Oklahoma had disdained a chip-shot field goal with 3:09 left in the first half, a move that backfired when quarterback Kelly Phelps overthrew a receiver in the end zone but Nebraska marched 80 yards in 12 plays for the decisive touchdown midway through the third period. The key plays were an 11-yard keeper by Gill on third-and-14 at the Nebraska 31, plus a personal foul against Oklahoma; an 18-yard run by Craig and a 10-yard pass from Gill to Todd Brown at the Oklahoma 3. Craig, who has played second-fiddle to Rozier most of the season, then circled left end with a pitchout and a 28-17 lead at 8:35 of the period. Oklahoma, helped by a 15-yard penalty against Nebraska for having 12 men on the field, retaliated with a 78-yard drive, with backup tailback Fred Sims carrying six times for 35 yards and Phelps running for three key first downs, before Wilson vaulted oyer the line with 30 seconds left in the third quarter. , “. : ‘: The Sooners reached the Nebraska 34- and 35-yard lines in the final period, but Phelps failed to complete any of his last 10 passes and both threats fizzled. Rozier, gamely playing on a sprained ankle, led Nebraska’s 298-yard ground assault the Cornhuskers had averaged 395.5 over their first 10 games with 96 yards on 15 carries, although he limped off twice in the first half before giving way to Craig for good early in the third period.