What are the most memorable Husker touchdowns for every yard on the field, from 1 to 100? HuskerExtra revisits the Lincoln Journal-Star's 2016 series on the 100 greatest touchdowns in Nebraska football history.
57 yards: Green spoils CU's party
The distance: 57 yards
The star: Ahman Green
The date: Oct. 28, 1995
The outcome: Huskers 44, Colorado 21
Colorado didn’t have red-hating Bill McCartney as head coach anymore, but that didn’t mean the Buffaloes’ distaste for Nebraska had vanished.
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New coach Rick Neuheisel did his best to keep alive the Buffaloes’ self-proclaimed rivalry with the Huskers. Before this top-10 tilt between two of the Big Eight Conference’s top teams in 1995, Neuheisel had his team enter the field through the aisles of the student section.
Ralphie was let loose. The crowd went nuts.
Then Ahman Green touched the ball, and Folsom Field went quiet.
On Nebraska’s first play from scrimmage, Green took an option pitch from Tommie Frazier and ran 57 yards untouched down the left sideline for a touchdown. Fullback Jeff Makovicka took out two Buffaloes to help Green spring free, and split end Brendan Holbein screened off another defender downfield.
(Hyped-up Folsom Field crowds were growing used to quick letdowns against hated Nebraska, though. The Huskers had also scored touchdowns on their first play from scrimmage in Boulder in 1989 and 1993, and did so again in 1999.)
Said ABC announcer Keith Jackson about Green before the play even unfolded: “Get used to the name, folks. He’s only a freshman, but he is terrific, and he’s going to be around a good long time.”
Green, playing in place of suspended running back Lawrence Phillips, rushed for 97 yards and two touchdowns and caught two passes, including a screen play that saw Frazier get rid of the ball just in time to avoid a sack — one his many highlight-reel plays that season.
Nebraska played its third straight game without a turnover, and went penalty-free in a game for the first time since 1976.
So impressive were the Huskers in their 44-21 victory that AP voters bumped them from No. 2 to No. 1.
Nebraska replaced Florida State, which had been idle that weekend, and never relinquished the top spot the rest of the season.
