Nebraska was ranked No. 2 after blasting West Virginia in the Kickoff Classic and Texas Tech in Lubbock when UCLA came to Lincoln for the 1994 home opener.

With the unveiling of the HuskerVision screens and the tunnel walk, ESPN's GameDay crew in attendance and questions from Tom Osborne about the quality of NU's first two opponents, the Huskers rolled again.

"This is the first time we'll be facing comparable athletes," Osborne said of the Bruins.

But five minutes into the game Tommie Frazier hit Eric Alford with a touchdown pass. Nine minutes later, Lawrence Phillips scored on a short run and Nebraska never looked back.

Before the end of the game, Nebraska had 484 yards rushing and 555 yards total in a 49-21 win against UCLA, which had pushed NU the previous year before losing 14-13.

Walk-on Clint Brown of Arlington intercepted a pass and teammate Tony Veland, in his first start (replacing the injured Mike Minter) also picked off a UCLA pass. A year before, Veland was backup to Frazier at quarterback.

Nebraska's Zach Wiegert (who won the Outland Trophy that year) was named the game's MVP,  while Troy Dumas and Kareem Moss led the Husker defense with 10 tackles apiece. The secondary was helped by Octavious McFarland coming out of his redshirt year. 

Osborne said of the Nebraska offensive line, "They are comforting to have."

— Ken Hambleton

Brendan Holbein caught first TD catch a few days after he was shot

All week long before the Huskers played UCLA, the Nebraska sports information office told Holbein he was not to talk to the media.

"I got shot the week before and since things were kind of crazy with other stuff going on, they didn't want the news to get out," Holbein said.

"I was outside of a house when I got shot by someone, we never did find out who, and Troy Dumas took me to the hospital," Holbein said.  After getting 10 stitches to repair the damage from a bullet that hit his left side, Holbein was back in class and watching football practices.

By Thursday, he was cleared to go through a light practice. By game time, the sophomore split end from Cozad was in the game and feeling pretty good, "except when I had to reach for a pass."

Five seconds into the fourth quarter, Tommie Frazier shoveled a pass to Holbein for a 9-yard gain and NU's sixth touchdown against UCLA.

Despite wearing a special hip protector, Holbein threw crucial blocks on two long option runs by I-back Lawrence Phillips and caught a 5-yard pass to keep a drive for Nebraska's third touchdown alive.

"I had a good game and a great time," said Holbein, now finance manager for Tex Earnhardt Ford in Tempe, Ariz. "That offense was so much fun to be with. We had such a big day against UCLA and such a great season, nothing was going to stop us.

"And we had so many crazy things happen that year and still won."

Holbein, who has lived in Arizona the last seven years, said he keeps in touch with former NU and Cozad High teammate Chris Dishman, Dumas, Jon Hesse and many others from the 1994 and 1995 teams.

"We gave it all for each other and we had a pretty good team."

 — Ken Hambleton