"We'll take it," the coach said as the Nebraska fans booed the question.

Lawrence Phillips, the junior Husker running back whose legal problems focused intense attention on Nebraska's off-the-field problems, ran for 165 yards on 25 carries and scored 3 touchdowns on runs of 42 and 15 yards and a 16-yard reception. Frazier, whose teams won 33 of the 36 games he started, also completed 6 of 14 passes for 105 yards.

"I'm embarrassed that we couldn't make a game of it," said Steve Spurrier, the Florida coach.

Of all the potential scenarios that were discussed going into the 11th meeting of top-ranked teams in bowl game history, the one that unfolded tonight was perhaps the most unthinkable. The Gators gained zero yards in a nightmarish second quarter.

The Huskers, in preparing for the most efficient passer in college football history, had concentrated on two areas in the hope of making Danny Wuerffel vulnerable. Nebraska wanted to apply constant pressure -- not necessarily the kind that produces sacks but the type that would disrupt Florida's remarkably successful timing patterns.

And the Huskers were concentrating on shutting down Florida's considerably improved rushing game with the idea that the Gators would be less effective if they became a one-dimensional team. Nebraska did all that, to a degree that even the most loyal Husker fan would have found difficult to imagine.

Nebraska intercepted three of Wuerffel's passes, including Michael Booker's 42-yard return for a touchdown. The Huskers sacked the Gator quarterback seven times, including the safety that gave Nebraska a 15-10 lead in the second quarter, created by the blitzing tackle of Jamel Williams.

The Gators, who had allowed a total of 23 sacks in their 12 previous games, were crushed partly because of their own mistakes. They repeatedly failed to respond to Nebraska's blitzes. They committed 9 penalties for 78 yards, including several that turned Florida's field position from bad to worse, placing even more pressure on a struggling unit.

Nebraska gained 195 of its 256 first-half yards on the ground, led by Phillips, who was making his first start since Sept. 9. Phillips, who was suspended for six games as a result of the assault of a former female friend on Sept. 10, exceeded the 100-yard mark in the first half.