THE BATTLE FOR NUMBER 1: Nebraska vs. Florida Tonight, 5:30 p.m. Channel 2 : Can Dinosaurs Survive Star Wars?

TEMPE, Ariz. —  Tonight’s Fiesta Bowl showdown between No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2 Florida is more than the best matchup in college football since Bear Bryant met houndstooth.

The national championship game at Sun Devil Stadium, held together by a bowl alliance thread--did you get those flowers, Michigan?--is more than the can’t-miss game of the ‘90s.

Nebraska versus Florida represents a clash of the most diverse football philosophies imaginable. This is Stone Age versus Space Age, rotary dial versus the Internet.

The 11-0 Cornhuskers come rumbling off the Big Eight Plains with an option offense as tried and true as some of the sport coats in Coach Tom Osborne’s closet.

The 12-0 Gators come hurtling out of Southeastern Conference cyberspace with a video game brand of Coach Steve Spurrier’s “ball” called Fun ‘N Gun.

Nebraska’s steamroller option attack has never been more foreboding, Florida’s passing attack never more imposing.

“It’s like a Joe Frazier-Muhammad Ali fight,” Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier, no relation to Joe, said of the matchup. “You got one guy who’s strictly power, and you got one guy who’s finesse.”

As in boxing, the outcome will probably be decided by a less glamorous factor: defense. The key for each team is to get the ball back to its offense, sooner rather than later.

The Cornhuskers led the nation in rushing average (400 yards per game) and scoring (52).

Spurrier’s worst fear is that the Cornhuskers will control the clock with eight-minute drives that end in touchdowns.

“You can’t let them run it up and down the field, obviously,” he said.

That scenario, of course, would deprive the world of the chance to witness Spurrier’s passing concerto.

The same strategy holds for stopping Florida, which has more quick-strike capabilities with the nation’s No. 2 pass offense (361 yards per game).

“The more I look at the film, the more I don’t want to look at it,” Nebraska defensive coordinator Charlie McBride said.

McBride would be best served watching Florida’s Sept. 30 game against Mississippi. The Ole Miss defense limited the Gators to eight possessions in the game. Florida scored touchdowns on half of those and won, 28-10, but you get the point.

Cornhusker defenders have promised to harass Gator receivers Ike Hilliard and Chris Doering, who run crisp pass routes that lead to soft spots in opposing zone defenses.

Most teams don’t have the athletes to challenge Florida with bump-and-run coverage.

Nebraska feels it does.

“Playing off, that just ain’t for me,” Nebraska cornerback Tyrone Williams said. “You see guys laying off get eaten alive. I don’t believe in letting a guy have all that grass to work with.”

At stake in all of this, of course, is history.

This is the third consecutive title appearance for the defending national champion Cornhuskers, who have won 24 consecutive games since their 1994 Orange Bowl loss to Florida State. Nebraska hasn’t lost a regular-season game in three years.

And while this should be coronation time for Osborne, he has had to weather a season in which his program has been taken to task for off-the-field problems that have some comparing Nebraska to the bad-boy Miami program of the 1980s.

Osborne has 230 career victories and a lifetime winning percentage of .827, but his decision last week to reinstate Lawrence Phillips as starting tailback has damaged his credibility and incurred the wrath of a nation’s media.

“In some ways it’s been a great year and in other ways, it’s been a negative year,” Osborne said Monday. “It hasn’t changed my outlook on athletics or what I’m doing. I’m ready for a vacation, though.”

Phillips was suspended for six games in the aftermath of the Sept. 10 beating of a former girlfriend and was reinstated, first in a backup role for three games, before getting the Fiesta Bowl start.

“I tried to determine what was best for the team, for society and for the individual,” Osborne said.

Society aside, Phillips was a top Heisman Trophy candidate entering the season and only improves Nebraska’s chances of winning.

“Oh yeah,” Frazier said. “Lawrence doesn’t even look like he’s missed a beat right now.

Phillips and Ahman Green, who gained 1,086 yards in his freshman season, provide the Cornhuskers as good a one-two punch as Joe Frazier ever had.

Add Tommie Frazier to the mix of punches and, well, most days you’re looking up from the canvas.

“I heard one of the linebackers from Colorado say that it’s three yards and a cloud of dust,” Florida linebacker James Bates said of the Nebraska offense. “But they’ve turned it into nine yards and a cloud of dust.”

Frazier, Nebraska’s option quarterback nonpareil, has recovered from his blood clot-marred 1994 season to lead the Cornhuskers to the brink of history. A victory tonight will secure for Nebraska the first unanimous consecutive national titles since Oklahoma in 1955 and ’56.

Because this is Florida’s first title-game appearance, some give title-tested Nebraska the psychological advantage.

“It’s not just another game,” Nebraska cornerback Williams said. “They’ll find out come Tuesday. Building up to the game, they’ll definitely feel the pressure.”

The Gators claim they know about pressure games from playing in, and winning, the last three SEC title games.

“We’re not shocked to be here,” Spurrier said.

Bates put it this way.

“We’re not running around like they seem to think we are, with everyone’s teeth chattering,” he said. “I haven’t seen anyone with chipped teeth.”