Talent shows at Nebraska scrimmage
Offense improves,
scores 38 points
By Tim Hartmann
Senior Reporter
The situation was the same, but the
outcome was vastly different during
the Nebraska football team’s scrim
mage Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
The Comhusker’s No. 1 offense, which
on Tuesday scored one touchdowm
against the defense, tallied 38 points
as quarterbacks Steve Taylor and Clete
Blakeman threw a combined four touch
down passes. The Husker offense also
scored on I-back Ken Clark’s 3-yard
touchdown run and on a 39-yard field
goal by sophomore Chris Drennan.
Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne
said he was not concerned about the
number of points because the defense
has played well throughout the fall.
"Last Tuesday you were worried the
other way around. It looked like we
might scrimmage all day and not score
at all,” Osborne said. ‘‘Some of the
things that bothered the first defense
were just a couple of broken coverares,
and I think they did have a lot of diiijt
ent combinations in the secondary. We
were rotating guys in and out, so it
wasn’t necessarily our top four guys
back there all the time.”
Taylor produced the scrimmage’s
first score when he hit tight end Tom
Banderas with a 47-yard touchdown
pass during the No. 1 offense’s second
series.
Taylor completed six ol nine passes
on the day for 115 yards and three
touchdowns. Blakeman connected on
four of fwe passing attempts for 53
yards and led all rushers with 59 yards.
“1 thought both the top two quarter
backs did a nice job, and we have some
receivers who are pretty good players at
the present time," Osborne said.
The Red team, comprised of all the
offensive players, was forced to resort
to Drennan's field goal on its third
offensive series when a 12-yard touch
down pass from Blakeman to split end
Rod Smith was nullified by a holding
penalty.
The next time the No. 1 offense got
the ball, Smith was able to score. On a
drive highlighted by a 12-yard run by
Clark, Smith scored on an 8-yard toucl
down pass from Taylor.
Osborne said he is pleased with the
improvement of Clark, a redshirt sopho
more from Omaha Bryan.
‘‘Ken’s playing really well,” Osborne
said. ‘‘He's hard to knock down. We’ll
have to look at the film, but he may be
our No. 2 I-back right now."
Blakeman’s 29-yard run with 22 se
conds left in the second quarter gave
the Red team 24 points in the first half.
The final scores of the scrimmage came
on a 6-yard pass from Taylor to Bande
ras and Clark’s run.
Osborne said he was pleased with
the scrimmage, which included offi
cials and piped-in crowd noise.
"I think it was a good workout,” he
said. "We had a little crowd noise and
officials add a dimension to a ball game
you don’t have at a normal scrimmage."
Andrea Hoy/Dally Nebraskan
Nebraska freshman quarterback Mickey Joseph (No. 2) eludes Nell Smith (No. 99) during the Cornhuskors' scrim
mage Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Joseph finished wjth 72 yards rushing on four carries.
“Offensively, I think the first unit
executed pretty well,” Osborne added.
“We had a few penalties which you
don't like to see. The first defense was
maybe not as dominant as they were
last Tuesday and had a couple of
broken coverages that hurt badly and
just a few bad plays. The second
defense generally did a good job against
the second offense.”
Osborne said the scrimmage also
gave the coaches a good chance to
evaluate the kicking game.
“We got a pretty good look at the
kicking game," he said. “I guess that
was a little rough yet, but that’s to be
expected at this point. We really hadn't
run any kickoffs until yesterday and
that was in sweat clothes, so we looked
at some of those things today. We had a
fair amount of punting and punt re
turns.”
There were a number of injuries at
the scrimmage, but none were consi
dered very serious. Lineman Andy Keeler
and 1-back Terry Rodgers both had
strained knees. Safety Mark Blazek had
a fractured finger, wingback Dana
Brinson sprained his ankle, and 1-back
lyeese Knox bruised his shoulder.
None of the injured players are expected
to miss much time, trainer Oeorge Sul
livan said.
Two other iqjured players, defensive
tackle Tim Rothe (hamstring) and cor
nerback Lorenzo Hicks (shoulder), did
not scrimmage but should return to
practice Monday.
Nebraska will scrimmage for the
final time next Saturday in preparation
for their opening game Sept. 5 against
Utah State. The scout squad will imitate
Utah State’s offensive and defensive
sets in the scrimmage.
Aggies to play percentages against NU
By Jeff Apel
Senior Editor
Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne
ranks third on the active coaches win
ning list, but the percentages still will
he in Utah State’s favor when the teams
meet this fall.
Osborne, who became coach in 1973,
has compiled a 137-32-2 record for an
' .807 winning percentage. That mark
trails only Oklahoma coach Bany Switzer
, 4- .
m
and Penn State coach Joe Paterno, who
have .837 and .816 winning percentages.
But Osborne’s coaching record on
opening day is 0-4-1, which means that
Utah State improved its chance of vic
tory by .164 percentage points when its
contest with the Buskers was moved to
Sept. 5.
The game, which originally was
scheduled for Sept. 19, was moved back
because Nebraska wanted two weeks
to prepare for Arizona State. The Com
huskers will face the Sun Devils Sept.
26.
Utah State coach Chuck Shelton
said he never thought about the differ
ent percentages when he agreed to
change the game date.
"1 just don't think that fast,” Shel
ton said.
He said the schedule change "isn't
that big of a deal" because none of the
Aggie coaches will have to play against
Nebraska. He said Utah State will
approach the game with the Huskers as
a great opportunity.
"We have to keep it in perspective,"
he said. "It’s an opportunity to play a
great football team."
Shelton said the Aggies’ offense
improved enough during spring prac
tice that they won’t have to call a drive
a "hell of an outing" if they make three
consecutive first downs.
Shelton said Utah State’s offense
will be built around wide receiver
Kendal Smith and running back Deme
trius Brown. Smith caught 26 passes for
474 yards and seven touchdowns last
season, while Bron rushed for 289 yards
on 97 carries.
Shelton said both players' statistics
should improve this season.
"Our offense is going to be good,"
Shelton said. "It’s not going to be great
or outstanding, but it’s going to be
good."
Defensively the Aggies have to fill
two linebacker and two defensive line
positions, Shelton said. Utah State fin
ished spring practice without anyone
stepping forward at those positions.
Shelton said the strength of the
Aggies' defense will be the secondary,
where free safety Darren Long and
comer back Tony Brown return. Long
made 63 tackles and intercepted six
passes last season, while Brown had 45
tackles and five interceptions.
“The difference we’re going to have
this year is in physical ability,’’ Shelton
said. “We’re going to have more of it.”
Shelton said that Utah State’s im
provements on both offense and defense
will improve its 3-8 record from last
season.
Utah State last season defeated New
Mexico State 42-9, UNLV 7-6 and Pacific
14-10.
“We will be improved in every aspect
of the game,” Shelton said. “I have no
way of telling ju^t how successful we’re
going to be, but it should be an inter
esting season.”