LINCOLN, Neb. -- It was the first time anyone could remember Frank Solich had ushered Nebraska indoors to Cook Pavilion on Friday afternoon before a home game.

Eric Crouch hauls in the culmination of deception and execution to knock Oklahoma out of No. 1 in the BCS.(AP)

That time is reserved for the "walk-through," a college football tradition where teams, minus helmets and pads, casually mimic the next day's plays in an empty stadium.

Casual and empty weren't good enough for Solich the day before the biggest game of his career. He wanted the secrecy of Nebraska's indoor practice facility.

"That's the reason we wanted to keep it out of the eye of everyone that was going to be (around)," Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch said, "in case you had snitches."

Following their 20-10 victory over No. 2 Oklahoma on Saturday, the Huskers weren't even sure they worked on the day's defining moment -- a gadget play called "Black 41 Flash Reverse Pass." But that was the beauty of the biggest play of Nebraska's, and perhaps college football's, season.

The trickery that helped No. 3 Nebraska beat Oklahoma Saturday was so complete, it even confused the team that pulled it off.

Agate type will record Nebraska true freshman wingback Mike Stuntz throwing a 63-yard fourth-quarter scoring pass to a wide-open Crouch as the play that ensured the end of Oklahoma's 20-game winning streak. Romantics will remember an afternoon when the Big Red's effort was defined by a rosey-cheeked teen-ager from Council Bluffs, Iowa, becoming Everybody's All-American for a day.

"This will be something that 40 years from now, when we're all old men, you're going to see that on a tape somewhere," Nebraska I-back Dahrran Diedrick said.

Stuntz and Black 41 Flash Reverse Pass elbowed their way into Oklahoma-Nebraska lore alongside Johnny Rodgers' punt return in the 1971 Game of the Century. Or "The Fumblerooski" of the late 1970s, when Nebraska snuck the ball to a down lineman against the Sooners.

At the same time, Solich became a big-game coach, if only for a day. It was a title that had eluded him in his four years as Nebraska's head man. Crouch became perhaps a front-runner for the Heisman. Those "Jesus Crouch" and "Vote Crouch, The Only Option" signs finally becoming more credible than clever.

And the Huskers got back to the top spot in the top conference, if only for a moment.

"There's a 'but' every time Oklahoma comes up," Nebraska I-back Thunder Collins said. "Nebraska's a great football team but Oklahoma is this and that. ...' Now they can say Oklahoma got beat by Nebraska.

"There's no doubt in my mind we're going to play them again in the Big 12 championship. And we're going to do way better than we did today."

The trash talk should be laid down Saturday, considering the teams could meet again five weeks from now in the Big 12 title game. Considering the rash of unbeatens that fell around the country, the rematch could be for the Rose Bowl, not just the conference title. That's how even the two teams are.

"It wasn't finesse," Crouch said. "It wasn't 500 or 600 yards, but we got the job done when we needed to. It's nice to show our critics that we can win the big game."

For now, Saturday's showdown will be remembered by a first-down call by Solich from his own 37 with 6½ minutes left and his team leading 13-10.

Collins came down the line, took a handoff from Crouch and pitched to Stuntz, who was running in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, Crouch had snuck out of the backfield and was running uncovered down the left sideline.

Stuntz's first career attempt was the pass of a lifetime. After taking the ball in stride, Crouch had only to outrun lumbering 275-pound tackle Kory Klein and fast-closing cornerback Derrick Straight.

"It never worked that way in practice," Stuntz said.

An agonizingly close game was busted wide open at the Memorial Stadium seams. Solich finally let go of the reigns that had been tied to Crouch, who was considered by some here to be Nebraska's greatest quarterback ever. But without another conference or national championship ring, there is no tangible way to really prove it.

Solich himself was only 1-3 against top five teams. That lone victory came almost two years ago against Kansas State. Win or lose, Nebraska's offensive game plan is usually as plain as the landscape.

It was the innovative Sooners who made Solich reach deep into the goody bag.

"I saw him and said, 'You crazy son of a gun,'" Nebraska linebacker Jamie Burrow said of Solich. "I've seen the offense run that play in practice, and I've just been waiting to see it on the field."

"Black 41" had been in the playbook but broken out as part of the game plan for only a few games this year. It had been installed for Oklahoma specifically.

"If we ran it out in the stadium, somebody might have had the opportunity to see it," Diedrick said of the walk-through. "The fact that we didn't and it worked showed that was the right move."

"The tendency is, you're up by three and you try to have ball control," Solich said. "To be very honest with you, against a defensive team like Oklahoma, if you don't take some chances, if you don't make a few calls, you're not going to move the ball at all."

Stuntz was chosen to run the play because he had been a quarterback at Council Bluffs St. Albert. Usually, he would have been redshirted because of Nebraska's quarterback depth. But Stuntz was such a good athlete, he was moved to wingback. Next spring, Solich has promised him he'll be back at quarterback.

Most likely with some stories to tell the incoming freshmen.

"A couple of series before, the coaches told me we might use it," Stuntz said. "I was warming up on the sidelines. I kind of tried not to be too blatant about it. When I went in I saw some Oklahoma coaches motioning with their hands like we were going to throw it.

"I was kind of hoping it wouldn't come down to that. Once I got the ball, I saw Eric open, I thought it was going to work unless the wind got it or something."

Oklahoma's amazing run of success finally ended after starting quarterback Jason White was injured "fairly significantly" in the second quarter, according to coach Bob Stoops. As is his habit, Stoops didn't provide details, but replays showed White landed awkwardly on left leg after throwing an incomplete pass.

Backup Nate Hybl entered and completed a drive that ended in a field goal to tie it 10-10 at halftime.

An early third-quarter Hybl interception was converted into a Nebraska field goal. By then it was apparent Nebraska's "Blackshirt" defense was taking a toll. Hybl was knocked out for a play on the next series, only to be replaced by a badly limping White.

Still, in similar situations in the past, Oklahoma (7-1) had always come up with a big play to win the game. Instead, Solich turned the Sooners' strategy on themselves. Stuntz's pass had been set up earlier in the game when Collins ran a couple of end-arounds without pitching.

"Yeah," Collins said. "Oklahoma really didn't know who Stuntz was. If we had (backup quarterback) Jammal Lord line up as receiver, they would have known it was a pass."

Oklahoma had its chance to add to its big-play legacy in the third quarter. Stoops called for a double reverse that ended with receiver Mark Clayton throwing to Hybl in Nebraska territory. Hybl, wide open, slipped and fell as the pass fell short.

"Their's went for a touchdown and there's the game," Stoops said. "It's a swing of 14 points. There's more to it than that, but when I saw Crouch running down the sideline, I almost had to half chuckle to myself, 'I'll be a son-of-a-gun. Their's worked and ours didn't.'"

Oklahoma walked off knowing that on a crazy Saturday, its Rose Bowl hopes weren't dead. Nebraska walked off knowing its title run might have just begun thanks to a fresh freshman and his new, favorite target.