Gill led Nebraska on an 80-yard drive in the closing minutes and scored from a yard out for a 24-21 lead with 1:18 to play. Todd Blackledge then marched the Lions 65 yards and hit tight end Kirk Bowman for a 2-yard TD with only four seconds left to give PSU the thrilling victory.
That was Nebraska’s only loss that season, and there are folks in the Husker camp who feel they were robbed in the game by the officials. It turns out they may be right.
Penn State tight end Mike McCloskey made a 15-yard catch down to the 2 to set up the game-winning TD, but there was controversy over whether McCloskey was out of bounds when he made the grab.
Even McCloskey has admitted he was indeed out of bounds.
In 1998, McCloskey attended a Nebraska function in Omaha and introduced Gill, then the Huskers’ quarterbacks coach. McCloskey owned up to being out of bounds on the controversial catch.
‘‘That’s the first time I’ve ever said I was out,’’ McCloskey told The Associated Press that night.
‘‘Maybe it was a good thing I was out of bounds because it kind of made me famous.’’
Proving that what goes around comes around, the Huskers may have felt they were robbed of a chance at the national title in 1982, while Penn State feels it was robbed in 1994 despite being undefeated. None other than Nebraska won the title that year.
‘‘There are no hard feelings, since we got our championship in 1994 and they didn’t,’’ Gill said at that 1998 event that featured McCloskey.
‘‘I know what happened in 1982,’’ McCloskey said that evening, ‘‘but that still wasn’t as bad as what the rotten pollsters did to us in 1994. We deserved a share of the title.’’