Comeback!

Wildcats bounce back and out-muscle Nebraska in second half

For the first time this season, the Arizona football team found itself trailing at halftime.

But for the 12th time this year, the Wildcats came out on top two quarters later.

No. 5 Arizona (12-1) defeated No. 14 Nebraska (9-4) 23-20 in the Culligan Holiday Bowl Wednesday night, ending the best season in school history on a high note.

"Beating Nebraska just put the exclamation point on our season," senior cornerback Chris McAlister said.

McAlister was the linchpin for the Wildcats' defense, with two interceptions, one pass broken up, four tackles and a fumble recovery.

His second interception stifled the Cornhuskers' drive with 3 minutes, 10 seconds left. Nebraska would get the ball back once more, but McAlister knocked down Eric Crouch's final pass with no time remaining to end the game.

"He's Mister All-American, baby," junior outside linebacker DaShon Polk said.

"You know what they say, big players make big plays in big games."

The Wildcats' defense was "sluggish" in the first half, as was the offense, junior free safety Rafell Jones said.

"Once we came out and established ourselves in the second half we knew it would be over," he said.

The two keys for Arizona going into the second half were stopping the Nebraska running game and establishing its own. UA had -1 yards rushing as a team and junior running back Trung Canidate had only 33 yards at the half.

By the end of the game Canidate had 101 yards and the team had 107.

"We had to get tough," junior right guard Yusuf Scott said of Arizona's offensive line. "To enable for us to win we had to overpower them." Scott said it came down to Arizona being a better conditioned team than Nebraska, especially as the Wildcats wore down the Huskers in the second half.

"We proved how tough we were," he said.

Canidate credited the line with his success against a Nebraska defense ranked 16th against the rush.

"We didn't do anything differently," he said of the game plan in the second half.

"It was all the offensive line. They said they were going to come out and establish us and they did."

While Canidate was able to run the ball against the Huskers in the second half, the Huskers were being stuffed on the ground by the UA defense, rushing for only 87 yards after averaging 253.8 yards per game in the regular season.

"To finish against a powerhouse like this with a win and for our defense to come and limit them to less than 100 yards is just unbelievable," UA junior linebacker Marcus Bell said.

Polk said the Huskers were a bit surprised at how tough Arizona was against the run.

"It shocked them," he said. "We wanted to show them we could come out and play with the big boys. They were talking about how the Pac-10 is all soft and just passes a lot while the Big 12 was all tough. But after a couple series they knew they had a game on their hands."

Huskers receiver Matt Davison said his team's inability to run led to the loss.

"If we have to throw 40 times in a game we're not getting the job done in our running game," he said.

Nebraska head coach Frank Solich said the blitz was the key to Arizona stopping the Huskers' running game.

"They blitzed a lot to shut down our running game, which opened up the passing game for us, and we, unfortunately, did not capitalize on it," he said. "All season we tried to establish the run, and that's why we never went away from it tonight."

The scoring in the game began after Nebraska's Shevin Wiggins fumbled a punt return, with McAlister recovering the ball on the 21-yard line. A touchdown pass from junior quarterback Keith Smith to junior wide receiver Brad Brennan was called back because of a holding penalty, but junior kicker Mark McDonald was able to nail a 38-yard field goal to make it 3-0.

McDonald then nailed two more field goals, from 25 and 48 yards, respectively, to give Arizona a 9-0 lead early on.

UA had another touchdown called back when the officials saw an illegal block in the back during a punt return for a touchdown by McAlister.

"The penalty on the punt return was a bad call," UA head coach Dick Tomey said.

The momentum, though, swung to the Huskers after UA sophomore quarterback

Ortege Jenkins fumbled on the UA 37-yard line.

A field goal made it 9-3, but then UA got stuffed deep, went three and out, and Nebraska got the ball back and two plays later a pass from redshirt quarterback Crouch to Wiggins went for 45 yards and a score to put Nebraska up 10-9.

On the very next play UA junior wide receiver Dennis Northcutt fumbled the kickoff return, and the Huskers recovered at the 9.

Another field goal made it 13-9 at the half, and the third quarter saw both defenses dominate with no further scoring.

On the first play of the fourth quarter Smith found Brennan, who stretched out in midair to catch the slightly errant pass for a 15-yard touchdown strike, and this time it was not called back because of a penalty.

"It's always great to catch a touchdown," Brennan said. "This one wasn't that much tougher than any of the others."

Brennan was pressed into a greater role after senior receiver Jeremy McDaniel injured his hip on his only reception of the game.

"I had a great opportunity today," Brennan said. "Jeremy came up to me and said 'you have to do this.' That really inspired me out there." With Arizona back up 16-13, the Huskers put together their most impressive drive of the game.

The Huskers went 88 yards on eight plays in 3:42 to retake the lead, 20-16, on a lob pass from Crouch to tight end Tracey Wistrom. The Wildcats countered with a gutsy, time-consuming drive of their own, going 68 yards in nine plays in 4:37.

Smith had a 20-yard run, Canidate had a 15-yard scamper and then Smith had an 8-yard dash to the 1-yard line, followed by senior running back Kelvin Eafon's plunge into the endzone for his 17th TD on the season.

McAlister's interception sealed the victory for Arizona, ending the best season in school history with 12 wins, the most of any team in the country.

"12-1 proves we are the best team in Arizona history," Scott said. "We are one of the best teams in the country."

For McAlister, the game marked the end of his college career. When he came to Arizona, he said he "never could have imagined" ending it all by beating Nebraska in a bowl game.

"All things are possible, though," he said. "My parents made me believe that. I knew my senior year I'd go out a winner. The way we ended this against Nebraska was just perfect."