friday, november 17, 1978
page 10
daily nebraskan
sports
Tigers hope for letdown
by Nebraska on Saturday
By Ed McClymont
Amidst bowl game gossip and national
rankings, the Nebraska Cornhuskers must
face the Missouri Tigers Saturday. And the
Tigers would like nothing better than to
sneak up on UNL and ruin any chance Ne
braska has of capturing a national cham
pionship. All hopes of reaching that elusive posi
tion hinge on what takes place in Memorial
Stadium Saturday afternoon. With Penn
State nearly committed to go to the
Orange Bowl, only a Husker victory against
the Tigers will enable a possible national
championship showdown with the Nittany
Lions.
Warren Powers will bring his Missouri
Tigers to Memorial Stadium marking the
second consecutive year he has brought a
team to play the Huskers in Lincoln. Last
year, however, it was Powers' Washington
State Cougars that faced Nebraska in a
game that has not been forgotten.
Looking for a letdown
Washington State, led by the quarter
back Jack Thompson, upset Nebraska in
the first aame of the 1977 season, 19-10.
No one is making Missouri nine point
favorites, but Powers couldn't have created
a better situation for himself.
Nebraska is fresh off the biggest win in
Lincoln in years, 17-14, over number one
Oklahoma, and Missouri figures on a Ne
braska letdown. With the bowl game gossip
pouring out like a burst dam, Tom Osborne
will have a double hard job this week: get
ting visions of oranges out of the Huskers'
heads, and convincing his team of the
quality of the Missouri Tigers.
Murderers row
Facing their usual "murderers row"
schedule, the Tigers have compiled a 6-4
record. Their biggest win was over Notre
Dame in the season opener 3-0. Of their
losses, two came at the hands of Oklahoma
and Alabama, both ranked number one at
the time.
Their latest win was a 48-0 drubbing of
Kansas last weekend. Powers thinks the Ti
gers are in a good frame of mind for the
game this weekend.
"There is a lot of excitement this week
with Nebraska and a possible bowl bid with
a victory," Powers said. "The players are
going to be ready."
With the graduation of Pete Woods last
year, Missouri was supposed to be weak at
quarterback, but Phil Bradley took care of
that problem.
Airborne
The sophomore stepped in to lead the
Tigers and in his first Big Eight season was
named All Big Eight along with Thomas
Lott of Oklahoma. Bradley is completing
passes at a .615 clip, having racked up close
to 1600 yards in yardage.
The Tiger passing game is made stronger
by All Big Eight tight end Kellen Winslow
and flanker Leo Lewis, who have 23 and
27 catches respectively. On the ground,
Earl Gant is the Tigers' leading rusher with
a 74.1 average.
Assistant Husker coach Jake Cabell,
who scouted the Tigers, said "Gant is as
good as I.M. Hipp, Rick Berns, and Billy
Sims."
The Missouri defense this year isn't
quite up to the usual Tiger standard. They
are giving up to close to 330 yards a game.
Game control
Although Nebraska didn't roll up their
national leading average of 499.8 yards
against Oklahoma, Osborne said he felt the
Huskers did control both the offensive and
defensive lines. He expects the Huskers will
have to do the same against Missouri.
"Well have to control the football Sat
urday. Their (Missouri) offense is as good
as Alabama's," Osborne said.
UNL may pass a little more this Satur
day against the Tigers. They are seventh in
the Big Eight in pass defense.
"They're not as quick as Oklahoma, but
they do have good size. We may pass
more," said Nebraska fullback Andra
Franklin.
Win it all
Franklin put in a full 60 minutes against
Oklahoma last Saturday. He is one of the
few Nebraska fullbacks to play nearly the
entire game in recent years, and he relished
the role.
"It sure was my best game," Franklin
said. "My blocking was better and I ran
pretty good. The cold weather was a big
reason why 1 played all the game. I didn't
tire out as fast."
For the fans, the hitting looked vicious
against the Sooners, but Franklin said they
ranked second to Oklahoma State in that
category.
The hitting will be tough again
tomorrow against the Tigers, and Osborne
wants to make sure Nebraska is ready for
it.
"They've (players) had a good attitude
and confidence, and I think they want to
win it all."
r iEh XJf 1w
4v m 4 X3
All Big Eight
guard Steve
Lindq uist
blocks Mis
souri lineback
er Bill Bess
(47) in last
year's game.
Both Bess and
Chris Garlich
(68) return at
linebacker for
the Tigers this
year.
1 Photo by Ted Kirk
Mizzou game to be nip and tuck
n i rj i. n..i m 11 vi.i i. i :
Predictions by Rick Huls
The season-ending traditional rivalries
highlight the college football scene as the
1978 season winds down.
Some of this week's bitter battles
include UCLA-USC, Oklahoma-Oklahoma
State, Kansas-Kansas State, Stanford-California,
Virginia Military-Virginia Tech,
Georgia-Auburn and Virgnia-North Carolina.
A few of next week's rivalries include
Notre Dame-Southern Cal, Ohio State
Michigan, Georgia-Gerogia Tech, Indiana
Purdue, North Carolina-Duke, Mississippi
Mississippi State, Washington -Washington
State, Oregon-Oregon State, Arizona-Arizona
State, Utah-Utah State, Penn State
Pittsburgh and Clemson-South Carolina.
Big game
Saturday's Nebraska-Missouri contest
can't be left off the lists of rivalries. Going
into the 72nd meeting between the two
schools, Nebraska owns a 37-31-3 lead in
the series.
But in the past ten years the Huskers
and Tigers havs split, each winning five
games. Nebraska has won three times in
Columbia; Missouri has won three times in
Lincoln. In fact, the home team has lost
each of the last four years.
There's only one distinct difference in
the last ten years -Missouri has never won
by more than 1 1 points and Nebraska has
never won by less than 1 1 points. On that
basis it should be easy to pick either a close
Missouri win or a Nebraska runaway.
Known for upsets
But Missouri is notoriously known for
its stunning upsets and the Huskers are ripe
for one unless they can come off of cloud
nine. After last week's 17-14 upset of
Oklahoma, Nebraska needs an impressive
win to remain number two ahead of
Alabama.
Despite all the facts and figures, Nebras
ka coach Tom Osborne would like to get
even with former pupil and current
Missouri coach Warren Powers. Powers
grabbed a 19-10 win over the Huskers last
year in his coaching debut at Washington
State. So, how about a "close" Nebraska
victory?. . . .Nebraska 24, Missouri 22.
Other Big Eight games:
Kansas at Kansas State -Kansas owns
the upper hand in this series 52-19-4.
Kansas State has mustered only two wins
and a tie in the last two decades while
being shutout seven times. Despite the
firing of Bud Moore, the Jayhawks will have
trouble staying with K-State this year. . .
Kansas State 24, Kansas 10.
Oklahoma State at Oklahoma-The
Sooners, who lead the series 55-11-6, will
be out to release their frustrations on the
Cowboys this week. That's bad news for
Okie-State. . .Oklahoma 48, Oklahoma
State 14.
Iowa State at Colorado-Colorado has
dominated the ISU series as easily as Ne
braska has dominated the Buffs. Iowa
State has not beaten Colorado since 1963,
and the Cyclones are going for a third
straight 8-3 record. But, Colorado and es
pecially Bill Mallory need the win just as
bad. . .Colorado 20, Iowa State 18.
After enjoying three weeks of 80
percent accuracy on the college games, the
bottom fell out last week. The score was
27-14-1 for a percentage of .655, dropping
the season's mark to 313-104-7 (ties count
half right, half wrong), for a .746
percentage.
Wild party goal disappears when post comes up short
By Kevin Schnepf
To the Daily Nebraskan :
I would appreciate it if you could relay
this letter to Bob Devaney for me since
your sportswriters have better access to
him than I do. In appreciation of this
favor, I have enclosed an extra copy of
the letter which you may keep to publish
in your newspaper if you should desire to
do so.
Thanks again,
A Poor College Student
with a valuable souvenir
Monday, November 13, 1978
Dear Bob,
Sunday night on the Tom Osborne
Show, Tom mentioned that they needed
one more goalpost. I thought he was just
joking. But it was announced this morning
on the radio that they needed another goal
post. I don't consider myself a thief, as a
matter of fact, the only thing I'd ever
stolen was a pack of lifesavers from the
grocery store when I was five and then I
got caught. But I do have your goalpost.
Bob.
Being a sentimentalist, I would find it
very hard to part with this metal relic (and
it also took a considerable amount ol
effort to carry the goalpost from the stadi
um). However, I am also a capitalist and
would be willing to give you the goalpost
in return for some reasonable compensa
tion. So I guess you could call this a
ransom note:
1 - Round trip tickets and an all expense
paid trip to Miami for my roommates and
myself.
2- My tuition paid in full for each sem
ester I have reamaining here at UNL.
Most honestly.
A Poor College Student
with a valuable souvenir.
P.S.-To contact me. just reply through the
Daily Nebraskan "personals" section.
The poor college student who had the
valuable souvenir still is poor. Promised
by University Police that a $100 check
would be mailed to him next week for his
returning the curved base of the South
Stadium's goalpost, Jim Bertrand probably
now wishes his ioke ransom letter was
serious. They informed Bertrand Thursday
that the metal piece he returned was only
five to six feet in length which police called
"useless."
Wednesday night, Bertrand, a 20-year-old
education major from North Platte,
said he was a little skeptical about getting
paid. His skepticism proved right. Now
without the $100 he was hoping for, Ber
trand's plans for a huge party in December,
have gone down the drain.
How did Bertrand end up with the valu
able piece in the first place? Well, Daily
Nebraskan sports editor Jim Kay and my
self were on the scene when the valuable
scrap of metal disappeared.
We decided to examine the ruins of the
field Saturday after we left the Nebraska
locker room. Walking down the east side
line, we spotted two familiar faces stum
bling in the empty, desolate and garbage
ridden east stadium.
They were friends of ours. Bertrand and
one of his roommates, Doug Faulkner, also
of North Platte. We began to communicate,
although their words were severely slurred.
It seemed we ended up following the two
wherever they went.
Doug spotted a piece of metal about ten
feet long on the Astro-turf resting only ten
yards from a cluster of almost a dozen
police officers. The policemen were joking
and laughing, evidently about the game and
its aftermath. Meanwhile, Doug and Jim
casually walked by them and moments
later, were carrying the heavy piece of
metal through the South Stadium's gates.
As we carried it by many fevered
Nebraska rooters, praise was addressed to
us for performing such a feat. Jim and
Doug began jokingly shouting such offers
as, "Go Big Red goalpost for sale, $10 an
inch."
The two, unaware that the goalpost was
so valuable as to justify a $100 reward,
transported the metal in a car-with both
ends sticking out the back windows.
"We just took all the side streets we
could on the way home." Bertrand said.
The metal stayed in their living room
with plans of displaying it with a sign de
scribing the outcome of the game.
It would have been a truly pleasant gift
for reacting to ones emotions after the big
game.
