On this day: Evans, Newcombe lead NU to 55-7 beatdown of Washington

Coming off its third national championship over the previous four years, Nebraska football was used to winning its share of big games.

But when No. 9 Washington came to Lincoln to face the No. 2 Huskers on Sept. 26, 1998, NU laid down one of the most lopsided high-profile beatings of its magical 90s run.

Sophomore I-back DeAngelo Evans, who hadn’t played since the 1996 Big 12 Championship, stole the show in his return to the backfield, rushing 13 times for a career-high 146 yards and three touchdowns in the win.

The game also saw the return of quarterback Bobby Newcombe, who injured his knee in the season opener and missed the next two starts vs. Alabama-Birmingham and California.

Newcombe rushed 14 times for 79 yards and three touchdowns while throwing for 84 more, as the Huskers racked up 434 yards on the ground and 527 total.

On the other side of the ball, Nebraska’s defense forced a whopping six turnovers from quarterback Brock Huard and the Huskies, which were converted in 34 points.

With ESPN’s College GameDay in attendance, the Huskers scored on five of their first six possessions and led 35-0 just 25 minutes into the contest. They didn’t even need to score a point in the fourth quarter to win their 18th straight game and their 64th victory in 67 outings.

In the end, the 48-point final margin marked the largest victory over an AP Top 10 team in school history, topping the 45-point win over Colorado in 1992.

For a player who broke Barry Sanders’ high school rushing record and had one of the best freshman seasons ever by a Nebraska I-back, performances like the one vs. Washington in 1998 were supposed to be closer to the norm.

But a lingering abdominal-pelvic injury led to a medical hardship during his second NU season in 1997, and then a knee injury during fall camp forced him to miss the first three games of the ’98 season. Then a tailbone injury and turf toe limited Evans to just three outings as a redshirt sophomore.

His lack of availability and other talented running backs making the most of their opportunities in his absence led to Evans’ role reducing significantly as a junior in 1999. After getting just six carries in NU’s 45-0 win over Cal in Week 2 of the ’99 campaign, Evans decided to quit the team and eventually transferred to Emporia (Kan.) State.

"I told (head coach Frank Solich) that unless some major changes were made, I was through," Evans told The Associated Press after leaving Nebraska. "And all he said was, ‘Do you want your release (from your scholarship)? He never told me to calm down and think it through or anything like that. That just egged me on."

While his fallout in Lincoln was ugly, his performance in that blowout of Washington showed just how good Evans could have been had things worked out differently.

The Wichita, Kan., native scored on runs of 60, 14, and 19 yards in the first half alone against a Husky defense that had national championship aspirations. For his efforts, Evans was named the ABC/Chevrolet NU Player of the Game.

“It was really kind of a fairy tale today," Evans said, as reported by the Omaha World-Herald. “I thought everything worked out well.”

Evans wasn’t the only Husker who was out for a little redemption at Washington’s expense.

As Newcombe watched Nebraska’s second and third games of the season from the sideline after tearing his PCL in the opener against Louisiana Tech, he saw a redshirt freshman by the name of Eric Crouch step in and lead two straight convincing wins.

There was plenty of chatter regarding a potential quarterback controversy for NU heading into that marquee showdown with the Huskies, but Solich named Newcombe the starter after a healthy week of practice.

Newcombe rewarded that decision with one of his best overall games of the ’98 season, tallying 163 total yards, three touchdowns, and leading an offensive attack for which Washington simply didn’t have an answer.

It turned out that Newcombe still wasn’t fully recovered from his knee injury in the win, and his time as the starting quarterback ultimately came to an end after Nebraska lost two of its next five games.

Newcombe’s last start of the season came in a 20-16 loss at Texas, and Crouch took over for the final four games, including NU’s Holiday Bowl loss vs. Arizona.

But the return to the No. 1 spot on the depth chart for a contest with the importance of Washington meant everything for Newcombe, as starting center Josh Heskew described after the game.

"Right before kickoff, I had never seen Bobby like that," Heskew told the Kansas City Star. "He's usually calm, but he's jumping all around, yelling and screaming. That gave me the chills."

Coming into his first trip to Memorial Stadium, Washington quarterback Brock Huard was being talked about as an All-American candidate and a potential top NFL Draft pick.

By the time the final whistle sounded after the Huskies’ 55-7 defeat, Huard may as well have just been called a piñata.

The 6-foot-5, 220-pound junior was beaten, battered, and bruised by the Blackshirts from start to finish. Even though he was only sacked three times, he was hit on the vast majority of his 35 dropbacks.

Huard ended the game 18-of-32 passing for 160 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions before eventually being pulled from the game in the third quarter. He had thrown for a combined 496 yards and five scores in the Huskies’ first two games of the season.

The 55-7 loss ended up being Washington’s worst loss since 1975.

"You've got to give them the credit for taking us out to the back side of the barn and beating us pretty good," Huard told reporters after the game. "They, as a team, dominated in every facet…

"This stings. This hurts. You just want to crawl into a hole."

The loss to the Huskers set the tone for the rest of a disastrous season for Huard and the Huskies, who finished 6-6 for their first non-winning record since 1975. Head coach Jim Lambright was later fired after a 43-25 loss to Air Force to end the year.

Huard still ended his college career holding numerous Washington passing records, including career passing yards (5,742) and touchdown passes (51).

But that whipping by the Huskers stood as the turning point of where Huard’s career changed completely.

"It was just a bad, bad day," Huard said. "That's about all you can say. Nebraska was everything they were cracked up to be. They were ready, and we weren't. We weren't up to their level by any means today."