Black 41 Flash Reverse – University of Nebraska

When the Time is Right

According to Stuntz, that play was actually in the works for the entire week leading up to the game—he just wasn’t sure if it would get called.

Nebraska’s coaching staff had scouted some of Oklahoma’s defensive tendencies in advance and drawn up the Black 41 Flash Reverse on a Sunday. The Huskers spent the entire week going over the play in meetings and implementing it in practice.

“I always knew it was a possibility, but never a certainty,” Stuntz said. “They told me a few times during the game itself to ‘get ready for it’, but the call never came.” 

He waited and waited—and waited.

In the first quarter, nothing happened.

It was the same in the second quarter. 

And even in the third quarter—the same thing—it didn’t happen.

It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that they finally made the call.

“I was actually surprised at that point because it was so late in a close game,” Stuntz said. “But was I nervous when they did? Not really. Maybe it was the fact that I was so young and didn’t know any better. Maybe it was the simplicity of the play, at least from my perspective. All I had to do was catch a very easy pitch from one guy and make the throw to the other guy that’s hopefully incredibly open. It was something we’d done a million times.”

For Stuntz, it didn’t really matter who they were playing, how big the game was, how many people were in the stadium, or any of that stuff, really. He was convinced that if you’ve practiced it enough and everyone was on the same page, you can execute it. 

“Of course, that’s a lot easier said than done,” he added. “But that’s how I approached it. And honestly, keeping that in mind just made everything easier.”