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daily nebraskan
thursday, november 20, 1980
Game is a run for the sun in Miami or Texas
Big Red hungry for
oranges in Florida,
not for Texas tamales
By Tad Stryker
Looking at it from Barry Switzer's point of view, it
might be called "the game for stone crabs." But Switzer's
comments about Saturday's game and the respective
cuisine of Miami, Fla., and El Paso, Texas, are being more
or less ignored by Head Coach Tom Osborne and the Ne
braska team, Osborne said.
"I think it's strange that Barry arranged the whole Sun
Bowl deal and then told us to go down there and eat
tamales," Osborne said.
Judging by the way practice has gone this week,
Osborne said he is confident of avoiding a trip to El Paso.
"I think we're well prepared," he said. "We've done all
we can. I think we're going to play well, possibiy the best
game we play all year."
Osborne said that the defense had an especially good
practice Wednesday.
"We've looked pretty good against the wishbone," he
said. "The scout team has been giving us a good picture
(of OU) and it's usually difficult to do that." Several
freshmen have been moved to the scout team to add some
speed, Osborne said.
"But you still have to be a step or two quicker on Sat
urday," he said.
Everyone healthy
The Huskers are in excellent physical shape, and should
be at full strength this Saturday, Osborne said.
"Derrie (Nelson) is all right," he said. "Everybody's
healthy and ready to play. We got through the contact
part of the week without further injury, and we shouldn't
have any problems tomorrow when we work out in
sweats."
Osborne recalled last year's Husker-Sooner game, when
both Andy Means and Russell Gary were lost because of
injuries suffered during the game.
"We had to play for about a half without both of
them," he said. "It hurt us a lot against both the pass and
the run. We hope to stay healthy during the game this
year."
Having enough time to prepare a defense against the
wishbone is always a problem, Osborne said.
"You'd always like to have some time to get ready for
it," he said. That's why Nebraska wouldn't allow ABC-TV
to move the game up to Friday, he said.
"Then they (ABC) wanted to move the game to Dec. 6,
but Oklahoma said no. They don't want to give us that
much time to prepare."
Weather hurts OU
In the past, poor weather has cut into the Huskers'
preparation time prior to the Oklahoma game. This year,
the shoe seems to be on the other foot. The Lincoln area
has had no precipitation this week, while Norman, has
been covered with several inches of snow.
"We've usually got bad weather here (before the
game)," Osborne said. "I guess this year we'll have to tell
them to come up here to some warm weather."
Osborne was asked if he plans to pull any more trick
plays out of his hat against the Sooners this year.
"Sure, we've got lots of 4em," he said with a smile.
"We've been working on the guard-around a lot, plus the
Bumeroosky." He said the Huskers had been able to find
time to work against the wishbone, also.
Osborne said that, actually, trick plays or cocky-sounding
predictions from Norman don't concern him much.
"All we're concerned with is playing up to our poten
tial," he said. "People can talk all they want, but they've
got to play us."
NU-OU telecast at 11
Kickoff for Saturday's Nebraska-Oklahoma game
has been moved up to 11:35 a.m. because of ABC
Television's decision to cover the game regionally.
The network will begin coverage of the game at 1 1
a.m. The Husker game will be followed by the
national broadcast of the USC-UCLA contest.
The OU-NU game will be shown to only a few
puts of the country, however. All of the Big Eight
s j'w'S will see the game along with the Florida area.
V st of the nation, according to ABC Sports, will
see the Ohio State-Michigan game.
Nebraska fans who attend the game can watch a
delayed broadcast. The ESPN Network (Lincoln
Cablevision channel five) will replay the game three
times throughout the week. The first showing will
be at 3:30 p jn. Sunday.
In spite of numerous
injuries, OU coaches
expect 'heck of a game
By Pat Beecham
Even though some Oklahoma coaches talk as if Okla
homa just isn't that good this year, there probably aren't
a whole lot of Nebraska fans that feel sorry for the
Sooners.
Oklahoma has beaten Nebraska eight out of the last
nine years and has a 38-2 record for the month of No
vember over the last 10 years. Even so, Sooner Coach
Barry Switzer said that this year's Sooner team doesn't
measure up to some other Sooner teams.
"I can't say we're that good by traditional standards
in Oklahoma football," Switzer said. "1 just don't think
we're as good of a team as in the past."
Although Oklahoma may not be as good as some of
their teams in the past, they were good enough to defeat
Missouri last week without six starters. Defensive coordin
ator Rex Norris did have a few words of praise for the
Sooners on their victory.
"It was a super effort considering we had six starters
out," Norris said. "But Missouri was not as sharp as they
could have been and we got a few breaks."
Three of the six starters held out last week were from
the defensive unit. Two of the players, defensive end Mike
Weddington and safety Ken Sitton, are not expected to
play this week either.
Not a single-star team
But this year's Oklahoma defense is not built around
one or two players, Norris said.
"We don't have any superstars like the people we've
had in the past," Norris said. "There aren't any Rod
Shoates, George Cumbys or Selmons. We don't have the
dominating players. We have to get by a lot on effort."
Switzer also said the Sooner offense is not as good as
it has been in the past.
"Last year Billy Sims made the difference for us, but
now he's witli the detroit Lions," Switzer said.
With the. departure of Sims, halfback David Overstreet
lias taken over the bulk of the Sooner running game.
Overstreet has rushed for 659 yards so far this year
which is fifth in the conference. He is also tied with Ne
braska's Jarvis Redwine for the number one spot in the
nation in average yards per rush, averaging 7.2 yards.
Quarterback J.C. Watts and fullback Stanley Wilson are
no slouches in the Sooner backfield. They have rushed for
540 and 524 yards respectively and Watts is fifth in the
nation in scoring, averaging 8.7 points a game.
Key factors
Norris said he thinks three factors will decide the
game's outcome.
"The key to these games are always penalties, turn
overs and the kicking games," Norris said.
Switzer also said the Sooners will have to play errorless
ly to win the game.
"We're going to have to keep down our mistakes and
be able to move the ball against their defense," Switzer
said.
Besides Weddington and Sitton, defensive end Steve
Whaley, running back Jerome Ledbetter, tight end Forrest
Valora, Overstreet and Wilson also did not play against
Missouri either.
These players are expected to be able to play by Sat
urday but will probably be a little sore.
As far as playing Nebraska in Lincoln, Norris said he
doesn't feel it is that big of a factor to the players.
"You'd have to talk to the players, but I don't think it
makes any difference where we play in a big game like
this," Norris said.
"It's more of a stimulant to the fans and the press than
to the players," Norris said. "We could play in an empty
stadium and still have a heck of a game."
Quinn leads Watts in Big Eight passing stats
Nebraska quarterback Jeff Quinn continues to lead the
Big Eight in passing efficiency, according to the statistics
released from the conference office this week. The confer
ence rates quarterbacks on a point system which takes
into account completions, interceptions and total yards.
Quinn received 160,5 points, far above Oklahoma's J.
C. Watts with 121.8 points. Quinn's 158.4-yard average
in total offense ranks second behind Missouri's Phil
Bradley.
Third-string l-back Roger Craig has regained the lead
in Big Eight scoring, with an average of nine points per
game.
Jarvis Redwine is averaging 129.2 yards per game,
placing second among all-purpose runners. Redwine
also is third in rushing with a 1 20.9 average.
Dave Liegl continues to hold onto the number two
spot in punt returns with an eight-yard average. Larry
Crawford of Iowa State has an 8.2 average to lead the
conference.
Nebraska's Todd Brown has a total of 416 yards to
come in fourth among the league's pass receivers.
In team statistics, the Big Red continues to lead in
six of the nine categories. The Huskers lead in rushing
offense with an average of 384.7 yards per game, and
scoring offense with an average of 42.2 ponts per
game.
Nebraska is also tops in rushing defense, allowing only
70.1 yards per game. The Huskers' 7.2 average in scoring
defense also leads the Big Eight.
The Cornhuskers are the leaders in both total offense
and total defense with averages of 518.6 and 202.5.
respectively.
In this week's major college football polls. Nebraska re
mained third in the UPI coaches' poll and fourth in the
AP sportswriter's poll. Both wire services listed Georgia as
number one and Notre Dame in second place