Lawrence Phillips Season 1994

Honors & Awards

• Drafted by the St. Louis Rams (1996 - 1st Round, Pick #6)
• Member of Two Nebraska National Championship Teams (1994, 1995)
• Finished Eighth in Heisman Race (1994 - 40 Points)
• Football News Offensive Player-of-the-Year Finalist (1994)
• Second-Team All-American (AP, Football News, UPI, CS, 1994)
• First-Team All-Big Eight (AP, Coaches, 1994)
• Big Eight Offensive Player-of-the-Week (vs. Texas Tech, 1994)
• ESPN/Nebraska Player-of-the-Game (vs. Texas Tech, 1994)
• Two-Time Athlon National Offensive Player-of-the-Week (vs. UCLA, OSU, 1994)
• Five-Time Big Eight Offensive Player-of-the-Weeks Nominee (1994)

Career

Lawrence Phillips forwent his senior year and declared early for the NFL Draft. Despite his off-the-field issues, he was drafted by the St. Louis Rams as the sixth overall pick in the 1996 NFL Draft.

1995 (Junior)

Phillips was an early front-runner to compete for the Heisman Trophy his junior year. He averaged more than 11 yards per carry and had scored six touchdowns after games against Oklahoma State and Michigan State to begin the year. In the game against Oklahoma State, Phillips had a career-high run of 80 yards which resulted in a touchdown. He followed that performance by rushing for 206 yards and four touchdowns on 22 carries at Michigan State. Leading up to the third game of the year, Phillips was suspended by Tom Osborne for off-the-field issues. He would go on to miss the next six games before being reinstated for the Iowa State game, although Ahman Green continued to start. Phillips also saw playing time against Kansas and Oklahoma. He would finish the regular season with 547 yards on 71 carries, finding the end zone nine times. He averaged 7.7 yards per carry and 109.4 yards per game.

1996 Fiesta Bowl vs. Florida: Phillips was named the starter for the Fiesta Bowl, which pitted No. 1 Nebraska against No. 2 Florida for the national championship. In the game, Phillips rushed for 165 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries and scored a touchdown on his lone 16-yard reception in the Huskers' 62-24 victory.

1994 (Sophomore)

Phillips became just the seventh sophomore to rush for 1,000 yards in a season and set the record for rushing yards by a Husker sophomore with 1,722 yards on 286 carries and 16 touchdowns, passing Bobby Reynolds' 1,342 in 1950. He averaged 6.0 yards per carry and 143.5 yards per game to rank second in the Big Eight behind Heisman Trophy winner Rashaan Salaam and third in the nation behind Salaam and Bryan Pruitt of Central Michigan. He bettered Thurman Thomas' Big Eight sophomore rushing record (1,553 yards in 1985) and finished second on the NU season rushing chart, ahead of Rozier's 1,689 in 1982, but 426 yards short of Rozier's school-record 2,148 in 1983. He also finished second in receptions, one behind Abdul Muhammad with 22 catches for 172 yards (7.8 per reception). Phillips' 22 receptions were the most for a Husker running back in one season since Jeff Kinney snagged 23 passes for 252 yards in 1971. Phillips averaged 157.8 all-purpose yards per game to rank second in the Big Eight and seventh nationally and his 8.0 points per game were second in the league and 13th in the nation. For his efforts, Phillips was a unanimous first-team All-Big Eight, a second-team All-American, was a finalist for the Football News Offensive Player-of-the-Year Award and finished eighth in the Heisman race.

Phillips began the season with 126 yards against No. 24 West Virginia in the Kickoff Classic. He had a then-career-high 175 yards and two touchdowns against Texas Tech, 178 against No. 13 UCLA and 138 against Pacific on just nine carries. He recorded his fifth-straight 100-yard rushing day with 168 yards against Wyoming and three touchdowns. He again scored three times against Oklahoma State and his career-high 221 yards against the Cowboys was the 12th-best rushing day by a Husker. In that game, Phillips became the 19th Husker to run for over 1,000 yards in a season, and only the second NU back to rush for over 1,000 yards in the first six games of a season, as his 1,006 yards (in six games) trailed only Reynolds' 1950 six-game mark of 1,010. Both Reynolds and Phillips did so as sophomores. Phillips earned more than an "A" for effort in a hard-fought 117 yards against No. 16 Kansas State. The "one-armed man," as Osborne called him, when he was nursing a severely sprained thumb, was hardly used as a decoy against KSU as the Huskers were down to their third quarterback against the Wildcats and 40 of NU's 61 plays went between the tackles. Phillips carried the ball 31 times against K-State (including every play on NU's first touchdown series) and 22 against Missouri for 110 yards in two quarters of play, while Osborne could count on one hand the number of options he called. As a result, Phillips average per carry dropped a yard in those two games, but the important issue was team victory. Against No. 2 Colorado, a team which ranked No. 12 nationally in rushing defense (allowing just 99 yards per game), Phillips led the Huskers to a 17-0 first-half lead while rushing 14 times for 67 yards, nearly double that of his Heisman counterpart Rashaan Salaam. Phillips finished with 103 on 24 carries. Despite a groin pull, Phillips bettered the school record for consecutive 100-yard rushing games to open a season (Reynolds had eight to open 1950 sophomore season) with his ninth against Kansas with 153 yards on 21 carries. Against Iowa State, he carried the ball a career-high (and school-record tying) 36 times for 183 yards (5.1 per carry) and two touchdowns. He also caught a career-best four passes for 40 yards. In the fourth quarter alone, Phillips changed his shoes and totaled 120 yards on just nine carries (13.3 ypc) and a touchdown. In the regular-season finale against Oklahoma, Phillips' record 100-yard game streak was broken as he was held to 50 yards on 21 carries but also caught three passes for 24 yards.

1995 Orange Bowl vs. Miami: Phillips rushed 19 times for 96 yards and caught four passes for 13 yards in the Orange Bowl. On Nebraska's last two scoring drives in the fourth quarter, Phillips rushed four times for 31 yards, including a 25-yard gain on first and 10, one play prior to Cory Schlesinger's 15-yard touchdown to pull NU within 17-15. Nebraska would go on to defeat Miami 24-17 to give Tom Osborne his first national championship and Nebraska it's third (first since 1971).

1993 (Freshman)

A true freshman scholarship athlete, Phillips played in every game except the opener. He was the Huskers' third-leading rusher with 508 yards on 92 carries and five touchdowns. He averaged 5.5 yards per carry and 50.8 per game. He ranked 10th in the Big Eight in rushing per game and had the third-best all-time rushing season for a Husker freshman. He also caught two passes for six yards. After not playing in the season opener, Phillips tallied 80 yards on 14 carries in game two against Texas Tech, including a 30-yard touchdown; he came off the bench at UCLA, in front of his home state family and friends, and rushed for a then-career-high 137 yards on 28 carries with a five-yard touchdown (his 137 yards marked the Big Eight's 11th-best single-game total); he added 79 yards on 14 carries and a seven-yard score against Colorado State; carried once for three yards against Oklahoma State; 5-73 against Kansas State including a season-best 46-yard touchdown; 2-27 against Missouri with a 25-yard score; 16-58 against Colorado; 5-16 against Kansas; and 7-35 against Iowa State. He had three carries of 25 yards or better in his initial season and one, 100-yard rushing day.

1994 Orange Bowl vs. Florida State: Phillips came off the bench when Calvin Jones left the game with a shoulder injury, and dazzled the crowd with 13 carries for 64 yards and a touchdown. His first carry of the game was the second to last play of the third quarter, when he dashed up the right side for 16 yards. The first play of the fourth quarter, Phillips took it in untouched for a 12-yard touchdown run with 14:55 remaining, a score which brought the Huskers within two points at 15-13. On Nebraska's second to last drive, leading up to Byron Bennett's 27-yard field goal which put NU up 16-15 with 1:16 remaining in the title game, Phillips again got the call on the first play of the drive and went left for 17 yards. All but one of Phillips' 13 carries came in the fourth quarter.

Before Nebraska (Baldwin Park High School)

Phillips gained 1,752 yards rushing as a senior at Baldwin Park for Coach Tony Zane and was rated as the ninth-best high school player in the West in 1993 by national recruiting analyst Tom Lemming. He was one of three high school players unanimously named to the Best in the West list by Long Beach Press-Telegram, as he also had 250 yards receiving and scored a total of 25 touchdowns. In his two-year career, he rushed for nearly 3,000 yards, scored a total of 38 touchdowns, had 500 receiving yards and 140 tackles. Phillips was a two-time All-CIF first-team selection and earned All-San Gabriel Valley honors as a senior, as selected by the Los Angeles Times and was the San Gabriel Tribune Player-of-the-Year. Baldwin Park went 22-3-1 in Phillips' two years at the school, including a CIF Championship his junior year. Phillips also competed on the track team as a sprinter and long jumper.

Personal

The son of Lawrence and Juanita Phillips, he was born on May 12, 1975, in Little Rock, Ark. Lawrence was a volunteer speaker for the SPICE Program.

Phillips' Career Statistics

	Rushing
Year	G/S	Att.	Yds.	Y/C	Y/G	TDs
1993	10/0	92	508	5.5	50.8	5
1994	12/12	286	1,722	6.0	143.5	16
1995	5/2	71	547	7.7	109.4	9
Totals	27/14	449	2,777	6.2	102.9	30

100-Yard Rushing Games: 14 (11 - 1994, 2 - 1995)
Longest Run: 80 vs. Oklahoma St. (TD), 1995

	Receiving
Year	Games	No.	Yds.	Avg.	TDs
1993	10	2	6	3.0	0
1994	12	22	172	7.8	0
1995	5	4	14	3.5	0
Totals	27	28	195	6.9	0

1994 Orange Bowl vs. Florida State: Rushing, 13-61-1
1995 Orange Bowl vs. Miami: Rushing, 19-96-0
1996 Fiesta Bowl vs. Florida: Rushing, 25-165-2; Receptions, 1-16-1