Mickey Joseph crouched under center to collect the snap on third-and-8 during the first quarter of a Nov. 23, 1990, game in Norman.
The Nebraska dual-threat quarterback called his receiver in motion to confuse the Oklahoma defense before a designed play-action pass. After faking a handoff, scanning the field and avoiding an onslaught of crimson jerseys, Joseph decided to tuck the ball and run like he had countless times before.
But this carry, the 154th of his college career, would change everything.
After dancing for 13 yards and picking up the first down, Joseph put on the brakes and trudged toward the sideline. Sooners linebacker Reggie Barnes was trailing him, but couldn’t slow his pursuit in time and dove toward Joseph before they both collided with OU’s bench on the sideline.
Due to the collision, Joseph suffered a severe laceration to his right leg and his calf muscles were cut to the bone, requiring a one-and-a-half hour surgery that ended his season.
Joseph returned for his senior season briefly in 1991, however, due to the injury he suffered at Nebraska, he was forced to retire from playing and pursue coaching.
Fast forward 31 years and Joseph is the interim head coach at his alma mater after Nebraska fired Scott Frost following four straight losing seasons. And in his first game as a Division I head coach, Joseph battles the team his playing career ended against in Lincoln on Saturday.
In addition to it being the location of life-altering circumstance, Joseph has several connections to the state of Oklahoma. He served as running backs coach at University of Central Oklahoma from 2004-05 and was an assistant coach at Langston University for four years before serving as the Lions’ head coach from 2011-12.
Now, the ex-Husker quarterback is tasked with fixing a program Frost left in shambles until he or someone else is hired to take over full-time while preparing to face Big Red’s old foe.
Former Cornhuskers quarterback and current Nebraska interim head coach Mickey Joseph during his playing career.
‘It was an unfortunate accident’
Barnes distinctly remembers how the play that hurt Joseph unfolded.
“I was rushing from the back side, jumped over a guy, ran all the way over there,” said Barnes, the father of Robert Barnes, a former Sooners defender from 2017-20. “And so we both went out of bounds about the same time and slid into our benches. And that's what hurt his leg, just the sheer velocity of sliding. And at that time, we wet the turf, and so there’s water over there and that's why we slid into the bench.”
Joseph remained down for several minutes as he received medical attention from the Nebraska trainers. All Barnes knew was that he had just knocked one of the Huskers’ most pivotal players out of the game.
“Well, obviously, we didn't know the severity of the injury,” Barnes said. “I saw the blood on the sideline and knew that he wasn't coming back in that day. But I also remember (thinking) that because of the option that they run … ‘OK, are the Huskers gonna come after me now since I've hurt their quarterback?’”
Joseph underwent surgery that would change his life forever later that night when the team returned to Lincoln. While he was concerned about the potential backlash regarding the incident, Barnes says there was never any ill-will expressed to him by anyone.
“(That program) is first class, it never was an issue,” Barnes said. “No one said anything. It was just one of those plays that happened that was unfortunate. But yeah, it was an option play away and I'm just chasing the ball trying to be Reggie.”
Sideline safety in college football has been a talking point for years, after incidents like when former Sooners receiver Sterling Shepard fell on a photographer’s equipment and injured himself in 2014 in Norman. OU enacted new policies for media members on sidelines following the incident.
In 2020, NCAA officials expanded sideline areas for teams to increase social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. After the season, coaches expressed a desire to keep the new sideline policy as it gave their staff and players more space and the NCAA made it a permanent change in 2021.
While Joseph and Barnes didn’t know each other personally prior to the devastating play, they had common friends. Barnes knew one of Joseph’s backup quarterbacks at Nebraska, Keithen McCant, from high school. Eventually, Joseph and Barnes met and developed a close friendship that still stands.
“Years later we met and talked about it,” Barnes said. “He knows there was no malice in what I was trying to do and it definitely wasn’t intentional. It was just one of those things that happened, and like I said, it was an unfortunate incident but we got through it.”
Barnes used to have Joseph help him with his NFL Character Camp and they still talk two to three times a year to catch up. Barnes even texted his unlikely pal to congratulate him when he heard about his promotion to interim coach.
He saw firsthand how energetic Joseph was as a coach when he brought his Langston staff to his camp. Barnes also believes Joseph is the right person to lead Nebraska’s players during this tough time.
“He’s definitely fiery,” Barnes said. “He knows how to motivate young men, I think he’s going to get those kids to play hard. All of the kids that play for Mickey, they know where he stands. There’s no elephant in the room. You know what you have to do to have success. … He knows what good football looks like.”
Nebraska interim head coach Mickey Joseph during the Cornhuskers' 2022 spring practices.
‘You knew when the Oklahoma week was’
Joseph reflected on his memories of the OU-Nebraska rivalry Tuesday when he addressed the media for the first time in his new position.
He remembers when the two historic rivals played each other every season, first in the Big Eight Conference and then in the Big 12.
“I played in the Big Eight where we had to face them every year and it was always a big game,” Joseph said. “I have friends over there, they’re excited. It means a lot to see OU come in here because when they went to the Big 12 it split it a little bit, but it’s an exciting time and it brings back old memories.”
Joseph knows the importance of renewing the game in Lincoln and the pressure of taking the job ahead of the Oklahoma matchup. He told his team to block out the noise surrounding the program and is trying to keep their minds focused on Saturday’s game alone.
After watching film on the Sooners, Joseph is impressed with what Oklahoma coach Brent Venables has implemented in his first two games as head coach. There is familiarity between the two, as they coached against each other during the 2020 National Championship when Venables was the defensive coordinator at Clemson and Joseph was the wide receivers coach at LSU.
“We respect everything they do,” Joseph said. “(Venables) is a really good coach. I went against him when he was at Clemson, he's a really good defensive coordinator, now he’s a head coach, so I know some of the things they are doing on defense.
“(Oklahoma) is a solid football team, they play really good defense, they’re solid on special teams and they’re really good on offense.”
The pageantry surrounding the upcoming game has brought Joseph back to a time when the Sooners and Huskers were giants in college football. While Nebraska certainly isn’t where it once was, Memorial Stadium expects to sell out for the 385th straight game, a streak which dates back to 1962, when the Sooners roll into town.
“You knew when the Oklahoma week was,” Joseph said. “You knew, the fans would let you know, the coaches would let you know, the students would let you know. So you knew it was a big game and you knew that they were gonna come in and be just as talented as you.
“Because at that time it was OU, Nebraska and Colorado, those were the three top dogs. And you were excited because you got to play a really good football team, and you knew this was your opportunity to come out and show the world you were a good football team.”
Joseph, who is the first Black head coach at Nebraska in any sport, admitted Tuesday he would be interested in taking over as the Huskers’ permanent head coach after the 2022 season. While Barnes is hoping for Joseph’s overall success in Lincoln, he’ll be rooting against his friend Saturday.
“Hopefully he does a good job,” Barnes said. “I just don’t want him to win this week.”
