I ByMHwRdltey
I Sate quanertMck Mike Gundy and
I tailback Thurman Thomas got a close
up look at the new artificial turf at
Lewis Stadium on Saturday.
Thomas, who entered the game as
the nation’s leading rusher with a 140
yard per game average, was held to
seven yards rushing on nine cairies in
Nebraska’s 35-0 victory.
Gundy didn’t find the turf any
softer. He completed 20 of 43 pass
attempts for 221 yards, but was sacked
four times for 25 yards in losses.
“Gundy saw the turf a lot,” said
Nebraska defensive end Broderick
Thomas, who had two sacks. “We
heard they got new turf put in down
here, so we took the wood to him.'’
Oklahoma Stace coach Pat Jones
said the Cowboys’ offensive line
couldn’t stop Nebraska’s pass rush,
a game and averaging 446 yards total
offense.
“I knew going in it was going to be
tough,” Thurman Thomas said, “but I
didn’t think it would be this tough.
They weren’t going for any of the
fakes or anything like that. Overall,
they just stopped our rush com
pletely.”
Nebraska’s defense also frustrated
Oklahoma State split end Hart Lee
Dykes. Dykes caught five passes for
113 yards.
“Nebraska has a great defense,”
Dykes said. “We couldn’t run on
them. We tried to throw, but we just
couldn’t pull off the big play.”
Broderick Thomas said
Nebraska^ defense was determined
Nebraska defensive tackle Neil
Smith said the Huskers approached the
game with a fired-up attitude because
it was televised nationally by CBS, He
said it was only appropriate that Ne
braska posted its first shutout of the
season against the Cowboys,
“We like to show we’re better than
our opponent, which we did,” Smith
said. “We played good football all the
way around.”
Nebraska fullback Micah Heibel
agreed.
“This was the first lime all year that
we played a good game from start to
finish,” Heibel said. "We showed to
day that we’ve got a good football
team.”
Nebraska took a 7-0 lead in the first
quarter when Husker quarterback
Steve Taylor threw a 29-yard touch
down pass to split end Rod Smith. The
The Huskers increased their lead to
14-0 in the second quarter when Clark
scored on a 28-yard run, and then built
their lead to 21 -0 when Jones scored on
a 5-yard run.
Osborne said he was impressed
with Clark and Jones. ~
“We thought our running backs
held up well, Osborne said. ‘ We’re
pleased with them.”
Osborne said the success of Clark
and Jones could be traced to the Ne
braska offensive line. He said the
Husker line dominated the Oklahoma
State defensive front from “tackle to
tackle.”
Nebraska offensive lineman John
McCormick said although Oklahoma
State’s defense was quick, they lacked
the physical strength to match the
Huskers.
“We controlled the line pretty
good,’’ McCormick said. “We had a
few' breakdowns, otherwise we could
have scored 17 more pints.”
Nebraska extended its lead to 28-0
in the third quark* when Jones capped
a lOplfcy, 74-yard drive with a 17-yard
touchdown run. The play was set up
when Heibel rambled 17 yards to die
Oklahoma State 37-yard line and
Taylor clashed 10 yards on a quarter
back (taw.
Nebraska scored its final pints of
the game when Clark scored on a I
yard rgn with 11:43 remaining in the
fourth quarter.
Osborne said he was pleased with
the victory because he entered the
game weary of Oklahoma State. He
said he thought the Cowboys had an
excellent chance of defeating Ne
braska!
But Osborne said the Husker’s vic
tory doesn’t mean he’s ready to make
any bold predictions about the rest of
the reason.
“We’ll have a chance to do well in
the Big Eightand nationally,”Osborne
said. But I don’t want to get excited.”
Smith said the victory represents
another step in Nebraska’s quest for
the 1987 Big Eight title and an auto
matic Orange Bowl berth. He said the
Huskers are hungry after being denied
an Orange Bowl berth the last three
seasons.
“We’re just going week by week,”
Smith said. “One of our goals is to win
the Big Eight, and to do that we have to
take arid week at a time.”
Heibel said it’s also important for
Nebraska to keep the win in perspec
tive. He said the fact that Nebraska
defeated Oklahoma State by 35 points
shows that the Huskers are improving,
“I think this was the first time all
year that we played a good game from
start to finish,” Heibel said. “We feel
we’ve got a good football team — and
we showed it.”
Heibel said the Huskers will spend
the remaining five weeks of their sea
son thinking about Oklahoma and
Colorado. Nebraska will face the
Sooners Nov. 21 in Lincoln, and will
travel to Boulder, Colo., on Nov. 28 to
play the Buffaloes.
Nebraska comerback Charles Fryar
agreed with Heibel, but also said he
would have no trouble getting moti
vated for the games against Kansas
State, Missouri and Iowa State. Kansas
State will invade Memorial Stadium
on Oct 24, while Nebraska faces
Missouri on Oct. 31 and Iowa State on
Nov. 7.
“Those games are important,”
Fryar said, “because I need some
stats.”
Fryar said he doesn’t know what to
expect from Nebraska’s game against
Oklahoma because the two teams
haven’: met yet
#41uas
g ^’r,;'’^-'fr Vf.v'-'' ■■• • "
.., .... >' ' —..
Photo*, by
Andrea Hoy