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Alabama-Birmingham Blazers |
Nebraska Cornhuskers © |
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Played September 5, 1998 at Memorial Stadium Lincoln, Nebraska |
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Teams' Belt Records
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Team |
Belt Reigns |
Overall Record |
Home Record |
Away Record |
Neutral Record |
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W |
L |
T |
PCT |
W |
L |
T |
PCT |
W |
L |
T |
PCT |
W |
L |
T |
PCT |
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| Alabama-Birmingham | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Nebraska © | 2 | 12 | 2 | 0 | .857 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 5 | 2 | 0 | .714 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 |
Previous Belt Meetings: None
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1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
Final |
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Alabama-Birmingham |
0 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
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Nebraska |
7 |
14 |
0 |
17 |
38 |
The Alabama-Birmingham Blazers of coach Watson Brown opened their season by traveling to Lincoln to battle the 4th ranked, 1-0 Nebraska Cornhuskers of first-year coach Frank Solich. Nebraska’s Blackshirts defense, after being shredded by Louisiana Tech's passing attack, dominated the Blazers holding them to a single score in a 38-7 win. Nebraska started redshirt freshman QB Eric Crouch due to an injury to QB Bobby Newcombe. Crouch showed his nerves on the Cornhuskers first two drive that totaled 7 plays & 33 yards. Nebraska's WR Shevin Wiggins set-up the first score of the game with a 35-yard punt return giving the Cornhuskers the ball at the Alabama-Birmingham 33-yard line. Six plays later, Nebraska took a 7-0 lead when RB Joel Makovicka scored on a 3-yard touchdown run. The score seemed to settle Crouch's nerves & he directed a 13-play, 71-yard drive throwing a 15-yard touchdown pass to TE Sheldon Jackson early in the 2nd quarter for a 14-0 lead. Alabama-Birmingham QB Daniel Dixon led a 16-play, 80-yard drive capped by a 2-yard touchdown run by RB Ortavious Miles to close the score to 14-7. Crouch finished the 1st half scoring with an 11-yard touchdown run as the Cornhuskers went to the locker room with a 21-7 lead. Neither team scored in the 3rd quarter but the 4th quarter saw 17 Nebraska points. PK Kris Brown hit a 24-yard field goal, Crouch added a 59-yard touchdown run, & QB Monte Christo connected with TE Tracey Wistrom on a 63-yard touchdown pass. Crouch rushed for 2 touchdowns & passed for another in the win. Dixon threw for just 56 yards in the loss while the Blackshirts held the Blazers to just 210 total yards. Nebraska finished the season 9-4; ranked 19th nationally while the Blazers finished 4-7. Alabama-Birmingham has not played for The Belt again.
