COLLEGE FOOTBALL BOWL GAMES : A LONG-RUNNING HIT : Nebraska Quarterback Tommie Frazier Rarely Loses, and Stewart’s Success Should Make It Easier for Him to Keep It Going in the NFL

Thrown by a trick question with the media interview session clock winding down at Sun Devil Stadium, Tommie Frazier hurriedly tried to recount the number of times he has lost a game.

Not only this season, or last, or in college.

But in his life.

“I’ve never played on a losing team,” the Nebraska quarterback said.

Not peewee football, flag, touch, or fuzz-ball electric.

The scoreboard clock, the same one that counted out former Arizona Coach Buddy Ryan on Monday night, ticked toward zero as Frazier looked at his hands for the answer.

How many losses?

“I could probably count on one hand,” Frazier said. “If you want to count high school, then two hands.”

The Clippers lose more games between Thanksgiving and Christmas than Frazier has since kindergarten. Ryan, the recently deposed Cardinal Coach, lost 12 times this year. More than Frazier ever has.

As Frazier prepares for his final collegiate challenge, Tuesday’s Fiesta Bowl, he is difficult to size up.

The numbers don’t do him justice. While he has led the Cornhuskers to their third consecutive national championship game appearance, Frazier cannot dazzle you with his stat sheet.

He rushed for 604 yards this season, but plenty of others rushed for more. He completed 56% of his passes, nice, but nothing compared to Florida’s Danny Wuerffel, who set the NCAA record for efficiency rating with his mark of 178.4.

If Frazier boasted, which he rarely does, he could point to only one relative statistic since his arrival in Lincoln four years ago:

He is 32-3 as the Cornhuskers’ starting quarterback, having stepped in as a true freshman and going 5-2.

Since 1992, Frazier’s record is 28-1, the lone defeat coming in the 1994 Orange Bowl when kicker Byron Bennett missed a 45-yard field goal attempt with one second left in an 18-16 loss to Florida State.

“The worst record I’ve had was 9-3, my freshman year,” Frazier said. “That was probably the worst team I’ve ever played on, and we were a good team that year.”

Next week, Frazier faces his final option when No. 1 Nebraska faces No. 2 Florida in a ballyhooed battle of undefeateds.

The last thing on Frazier’s mind when he runs through the tunnel next week?

Losing.

“When a quarterback goes out and shows that he’s confident he’s going to win, I think that rubs off on all the other players,” Frazier said.

Nebraska players are covered with Frazier smudge marks.

Frazier said he has nothing to prove against Florida, which he doesn’t, but it doesn’t remove the fact that Frazier remains one of the greatest quarterback ever allowed to escape the state of Florida.

Frazier, raised in Bradenton, simply wasn’t Florida’s type. In a state that cultivates quarterbacks, schmoozes them, raises and redshirts them, Frazier crossed the border without a whimper.

Florida, Steve Spurrier’s school and Tuesday’s opponent, looked at Frazier early, but it was not an earnest pursuit.

“I never considered going to any of the Florida schools, because I know the style of quarterback I was I wouldn’t be able to fit into the system the way they want,” Frazier said without anger.

The state schools--Miami, Florida and Florida State--are mostly drop-back programs, finishing schools for future NFL quarterbacks. Charlie Ward was an exception at Florida State, but Frazier wasn’t going to take the chance.

At Nebraska, he was a perfect fit, the next-in-line option quarterback in Tom Osborne’s meat-grinding option machine.

In Lincoln, Frazier would woo and excite, and lead the Cornhuskers to heights never known. But he would also fight the stereotype of being a great athlete who happens to play quarterback.

Frazier didn’t leave Florida because he didn’t think he could play in a pro style offense.

“I never said that,” he said. “What I meant by that was that I didn’t think I’d get a fair opportunity to play quarterback. I never once said I didn’t think I could run the offense. When I came out of high school, we did it all. We ran option, we ran drop-back.”

Truth is, option schools such as Nebraska are not good prep schools for the NFL. The pros prefer their prospects scrubbed and brushed when they arrive as rookies.

But Aaron Graham, Nebraska’s All-American center, says the NFL would be foolish to underestimate Frazier.

“He won’t tell you,” Graham said of Frazier. “But I can tell you. He can do anything. If you want him to run it, he’ll run it. If you want him to catch it, he’ll catch it, if you want to throw it, he’ll throw it. He’s even our backup punter.

“Something he’ll bring wherever he goes is good luck. He doesn’t lose.”

Still, the draftniks are wary.

One preseason publication opined: “Improved passing skills might be his ticket to the CFL [Canadian Football League].”

Frazier’s salvation may be the emergence of Pittsburgh Steeler all-purpose man Kordell Stewart, the former Colorado option quarterback who has proved there is a place for all kinds under the NFL’s big tent.

Charles Bailey, a Steeler scout, said Stewart has opened the doors for players such as Frazier.

“There’s definitely a place for big-time guys like Tommie Frazier,” Bailey said. “You can carry him as a wide receiver, he can go in and play quarterback. There are a lot of things you can do. I think Kordell has given these type athletes the mental frame of mind of how to approach playing in the NFL.”

Frazier said he doesn’t know what impact Stewart’s NFL success will have on his future.

“That’s something I really can’t answer,” he said. “You never know what teams are looking for. You can say he was just in the right place at the right time.”

Frazier takes nothing for granted. He hasn’t since early in the 1994 season, when a blood clot in his right calf jeopardized his career, and his life.

After the clot was discovered on Sept. 25, Frazier had surgery Oct. 6 to tie off a small vein in the leg. He was prescribed blood-thinning drugs and sat out the last eight games of the regular season.

Frazier feared he might never play again.

‘I thought about it every day that passed,” he said. “When you have the problem I did, it could be life-threatening. I thought about it every minute that I wasn’t playing.”

Frazier returned to lead Nebraska to two fourth-quarter scores in a 24-17 Orange Bowl victory over Miami that clinched the national championship.

Frazier’s worries weren’t over, though. Late this season, soreness in his right calf returned. He feared the worst, but a series of tests found nothing more than a muscle bruise.

“It made me realize that one hit could end everything,” he said of the initial injury. “That’s when I really buckled down, hit the books harder, and started looking at life, hanging out with my friends more. Because after that, I realized anything could happen.”