Looks like Clemson, Nebraska in Gator Bowl
By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
Tuesday, Dec 02, 2008 - 08:02:51 pm CST
It was a New Year’s Day almost 27 years ago now when they last collided. Amid a clash of red and orange in the stands, Nebraska and Clemson met to figure out the national championship that night in the Orange Bowl.
With an injured Turner Gill sidelined, Nebraska spent a sweltering night in Miami laboring on offense, going three-and-out on eight of 12 possessions. A 34-year-old Alabama boy named Danny Ford rode off on the shoulders of his Clemson players with a 22-15 victory, the youngest coach to win a national title.
It’s a game worth recollecting right now.
It seems Nebraska and Clemson will play again this New Year’s Day — the implications not as grand, but the passion still plenty enough from both fan bases to have Gator Bowl officials riding high about their Jan. 1 contest in Jacksonville.
Multiple reports say Clemson will be offered a bid to the Gator Bowl today, a major coup for a team that went 7-5 and had a coaching change in midseason.
And though Gator Bowl officials likely won’t be able to announce Nebraska as Clemson’s opponent until Sunday, there is little mystery that the Huskers will also receive an invite.
The Huskers (8-4) cannot be officially announced yet because Big 12 Commissioner Don Beebe is not allowing conference teams to be chosen until Saturday night’s Big 12 championship game.
That seems no worry to Gator Bowl Association President Rick Catlett, who basically told the Journal Star on Monday night the Huskers were his bowl’s pick.
“We’re going to get a very good game, and eventually I think we’ll get the game we wanted,” Catlett told the Florida Times-Union on Tuesday. “We might not be able to announce both teams before Sunday, but it’s going to be an absolutely wonderful game.”
A Nebraska appearance in the Gator Bowl has been on the radar screen for a couple weeks, but the emergence of Clemson as the foe maybe surprised some.
Many considered Florida State likely to get the nod, given the Seminoles’ home-state presence, better record (8-4), their past history with Nebraska and ability to draw good TV ratings.
But Clemson is on a hot streak (having won four of its last five) and has an enthusiastic fan base after it was announced this week that Dabo Swinney would have the interim tag removed from his title and be the team’s permanent head coach.
Swinney is a 40-year-old coach with plenty of the same passion that draws Husker fans to their first-year head coach Bo Pelini.
Clemson’s fan base also has represented itself well at the Gator Bowl, a game the Tigers have played in eight times. The average attendance of Gator Bowls involving Clemson has been 74,000.
Attendance certainly is an important factor in the Gator Bowl’s decision, especially considering that last year’s contest between Texas Tech and Virginia drew just an estimated 40,000.
If FSU had been the pick, it would be the third time the Seminoles have played in Jacksonville in 15 months.
The Noles played there as recently as late September against Colorado. The game drew a crowd of less than 40,000. Clemson, on the other hand, hasn’t played in Jacksonville since 2001.
Clemson started the season with head coach Tommy Bowden at the helm, and was a hot pick by many pundits to do some serious damage, starting the year ranked in the top 10.
But the Tigers lost their opener 34-10 to Alabama, a loss that doesn’t seem as embarrassing now as it did then, and then lost to Maryland and Wake Forest to fall to 3-3. Bowden resigned. Swinney took over.
He lost his first game as head coach to Georgia Tech (21-17), but the Tigers have since won four games, with the only other loss coming to Florida State. The Seminoles beat the Tigers 41-27 in Tallahassee.
It will be the first time a five-loss team has played in the Gator Bowl, but Catlett is optimistic the place will still be packed. Clemson fans are as renowned for traveling as Nebraska fans.
The hope of Gator officials is that Husker fans will be excited to see NU’s first appearance in the Gator Bowl’s 64-year history. It will also be just the second time since Jan. 1, 1994, that NU has played on New Year’s Day.
“We’re excited about having them there,” Catlett told the Journal Star on Monday night. “ When we signed up with the Big 12, we wanted to have the ability to bring Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska to our game.”
Briefly
Clemson will have to make do in its bowl game without defensive coordinator Vic Koenning, who resigned Tuesday, one day after the Tigers officially hired Swinney as head coach.
Koenning said in a statement released by the school his role with the team next season was in question so he decided to leave before Clemson’s bowl game to have more job options.
Koenning had been defensive coordinator and secondary coach for the past four seasons. Clemson’s defense led the ACC in scoring defense and ranked ninth in the nation, allowing just 16.6 points per game.
