1. Schlessinger's first TD against Miami to tie the game. Schlessinger's touchdown was The Play that told long-suffering Husker fans, This Time It Will Be Different. We'd just lost seven straight bowl games, including the previous year's National Championship on a wide-left FG attempt in heartbreaking fashion. The 1994 team was ready to change 20 years of Osborne Era frustration. Unfinished Business pulled that team through the season undefeated, and with a shot at Miami for the National Championship, the table was set. But Miami came out firing, and we gave up a disastrous touchdown to Miami on the opening drive of the 2nd half. Nebraska was down 17-7, seemed to be foundering, and that "Oh no" feeling once again settled over Husker Nation. The rest of the third quarter was a scrum, but the Huskers slowly gained the upper hand and began exerting their will. Midway through the fourth quarter, the Huskers down 17-9, Schlessinger rumbled through an exhausted Hurricanes defense and scored the tying touchdown. I would argue that was the single most important touchdown in the last 50 years of Nebraska football. That game was tied, but we may as well have had a 10-point lead. Tight limbs were loosed. The defense, who had been playing well before this, began flying around like hellions, burying Miami's Costa over and over. The Miami run game disappeared, and Nebraska got the ball back, leading to the winning touchdown. On both sides of the ball, Nebraska was a team possessed, exorcising the demons of 20 years of frustration and failure.
2. Johnny "The Jet" Rodgers tearing them loose from their shoes. Johnny Rodgers may have been the best player ever at Nebraska. His best TD, scored in The Game of the Century, has to be considered for #1 as well. "Here's Wiley's kick. It's high... it holds up there. Rodgers takes the ball at the 30. He's hit and got away. Back upfield to the 35, to the 40. He's to the 45, he's to the 50 to the 45! To the 40, to the 35! To the 20, to the 10, he's ALL THE WAY HOME! HOLY MOLY!! Man, woman and child, did that put 'em in the aisles! Johnny the Jet Rodgers... just tore 'em loose from their shoes!"
3. The Flea Kicker: Frost to Wiggins' foot to Davison. The TD that saved the 1997 National Championship was the most improbable of a string of very improbable plays, when Missouri improbably gave the Huskers more game than they wanted, taking the lead with one minute left in the game, and Nebraska 67 yards from the end zone. That 1997 team wasn't built for a hurry-up offense, but Frost engineered a 10-play scoring drive, every yard coming through the air, going 5/10, with the touchdown pass caught on 3rd-and-ten as time expired not three inches off the turf.
I fondly remember Martinez' crazy run against Wisconsin. That may have been a top-five individual effort by any Husker, ever. But it didn't affect anything, and it lacked importance in the grand scheme of things.
Tommie Frazier's run against a demoralized and lackluster Florida defense late in the 1995 National Championship game doesn't merit consideration. Tommie himself doesn't think that was his best effort, and it didn't affect the outcome of anything. It was, perhaps, the most fun touchdown in Husker history, coming as it did in the midst of a three-quarter long celebration of Nebraska dominance, but the game was far out of reach by the time this run happened, and Florida very clearly just wanted to get off the field.
