FIESTA BOWL / Nebraska 62, Florida 24 : Florida Little More Than Gator Bait in This Mismatch

TEMPE, Ariz. —  Oh, you mean it was the Fiesta Bowl? The way Florida snoozed through the thing, they must have thought they were in the Siesta Bowl or something.

Those guys in the red shirts from the Nebraska fraternity Beta Ata Gator had a pleasant evening in the only college bowl game sponsored by taco chips that happened to decide the national championship.

The final score was Nebraska 620, Florida 24 . . . not really, it just seemed that bad. Actually, it was Nebraska 62, Florida 24, although most people probably lost track of it in the second half when it became clear there was only one thing left to say about the game.

Pass the guacamole dip.

“We got clobbered,” said Florida Coach Steve Spurrier. “I’m embarrassed we couldn’t make a game out of it . . . for the people who were watching early, I guess.”

Luckless Florida just happened to be on the field to witness the most points scored by a team in the 25-year history of the bowl. In fact, the last time a gator was treated so badly, somebody was trying to make a pair of shoes out of it.

As millions watched the matchup between No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2 Florida on television and a crowd of 79,864 looked on at Sun Devil Stadium Tuesday night, a new hit TV series debut. It was called “Frazier.”

After a while, the only suspense was if Nebraska’s Tommie Frazier or Lawrence Phillips would be the first one asked to pay property taxes for owning the Florida end zone.

Frazier ran for 199 yards and scored twice and passed for 105 yards and another touchdown. Phillips rushed for 165 yards and scored three times.

Spurrier apologized for the Gators’ effort, the tackling, the score and would have said he was sorry about that slight chill in the air if he had thought of it in a brief post-game interview session.

“We had trouble tackling anyone who was carrying the ball,” he said. “That was embarrassing. I don’t know how many guys played their hearts out tonight.”

On the Cornhuskers’ side, it didn’t hurt that both Frazier and Phillips were sprung by a huge offensive line that featured three 300-pounders that happened to be football players. After all, anything this size usually has a brand on it.

Meanwhile, Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel was sacked seven times. He spent so much time with his orange-clad legs in the air, he looked like a couple of traffic cones.

Wuerffel felt awful afterward.

“They got some guys in there clean and got a few good hits,” he said. “But that’s football. They were coming at the right time at the right places.”

Maybe the worst place to be this spring will be Florida’s practice field on campus in Gainesville. Spurrier sounded a warning. There’s nothing like losing by 38 points to get a coach upset.

“Well, I imagine it’ll be a little more intense,” he said. “We won’t be patting each other on the back.”

After giving up eight touchdowns, two field goals and a safety and 629 net yards and nearly eight yards a play, the Gators knew they hadn’t exactly reached their zenith in this particular game.

“As time passes, we’ll have some better memories, I guess,” said wide receiver Chris Doering.

The Gators found themselves in a 35-10 swamp at halftime. To Wuerffel, this meant that they wouldn’t give up.

“We kept playing,” he said. “But they kept playing too.”

Yeah, that was unfortunate, but that was Nebraska. Tom Osborne’s second national title remains two more than Spurrier.

“They’re the champions and they deserve it,” he said. “They just completely beat us every way you could. We were outmatched. We have a long way to go before we’re as good as Nebraska.”

For the second year in a row, at least it’s the same for everybody else. How far do you have to go? The road to the national title leads through Lincoln.