On July 28th the 49th annual Shrine Bowl Football Game will take place at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. The South team will be led by Brandon Cool of Kearney High School. Mr. Cool is becoming one of the best high school coaches in Nebraska.
One of the assistant coaches is Sam Dunn, head coach at Minden High School. Sam is originally from Alma and previously coached Southern Valley before going to Minden. Matt Uher is assisting the South also. He had previously coached Falls City and was only the third coach to take them to the playoffs. He is a new principal at Tri County High School. Andy Means, who coaches for Millard South, is another coach named as an assistant coach. Means is a former Holdrege Duster and starter for the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
The fourth assistant coach is Matt Turman. He coaches the Omaha Skutt football team. But this writer remembers the day Matt started for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. In 1994, Nebraska was 6-0 and headed to its third national championship game. This would be the first for Tom Osborne.
Nebraska was to face #11 Kansas State in Manhattan. Tommy Frazier was out with blood clots and Brook Berringer was injured with a collapsed lung. Sophmore Matt Turman, our third team QB, would start. Could the national championship be down the tube? The game plan would be simple; run, run and run.
On Nebraska's second possession, Lawrence Phillips carried the ball on every play of the drive. He scored on a two yard gain to give NU the lead. In the second quarter K-State QB Chad May hit Mitch Running for 29 yard touchdown pass. K-State missed the extra point and Nebraska led at half 7-6.
Brook Berringer returned the second half but because of his injury was only able to complete 2-7 passes.
Neither team scored in the third quarter but on a Jeff Mackovicka 15 yard run in the fourth period, NU led 14-6. Later in the game the Huskers ended the scoring with a 24 yard Erstad field goal. NU led 17-6 and that was how the game ended.
Matt Turman and Brook Berringer played a conservative game and the NU defense dominated that day. K-State was held to a negative seven yards rushing and the K-State QB's were sacked six times and pulled in one interception.
Nebraska went on and beat Missouri 42-7, Colorado 24-7, Kansas 45-17, Iowa State 28-12, and Oklahoma 13-3. They then played one of the best games a NU team has ever played beating Miami 24-17 in the Orange Bowl.
This made them national champs and was Tom Osborne's first championship. Matt Turman was an important part of that championship.
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