[Osborne: Huskers lived nightmare
By Nick Hodge
Staff Reporter
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said
Sunday that UCLA’s 28-point, first
quarter scoring outburst in its 41-28
victory over Nebraska was the worst
quarter of Comhusker football he can
remember.
“Thatfirstquartcrwaslikcanight
mare,” Osborne said.
The only other time Osborne could
recall a similar first quarter was in the
1983 Orange Bowl when the Miami
Hurricanes opened a 17-0 first-period
lead. Miami hung onto its lead and
won the game, as well as the national
championship, by defeating the
Huskers 31-30.
Osborne said Nebraska’s inability
to stop UCLA forced the Huskers out
of their game plan early in the contest.
“We got taken out of what we
wanted to do so early,” he said. “We
didn’t hold defensively and had some
bad things happen offensively. Once
it got 28-0, and even 21-0, we had to
do a lot of throwing, run a lot of draw
plays, and run lots of options and
reverses - things we don’t do so
much.”
Osborne said poor defensive exe
cution resulted in more long scoring
plays against a Nebraska team than he
has ever seen before.
“I’ve never seen so many big plays
where we just missed some key tack
les,” Osborne said. “We were almost
too aggressive in our pursuit because
the secondary was up within a couple,
three yards of the line-of-scrimmage
that once (the Bruins) got out of there
they were gone.”
UCLA amassed 344 yards of total
offense in the first half in taking a 38
13 lead. The Huskcr defense limited
UCLA to just 94 total yards in the
second half and only three points.
Osborne said he thought Nebraska
played respectively once the “night
mare” first quarter ended.
“I think we probably played a little
better than they did in the second half,
and we maybe played them fairly
evenly in the second quarter, but they
had some 330 yards or so at the half,”
he said.
‘That first quarter
was like a night
mare'
—Osborne
Osborne said Nebraska’s week of
preparation prior to the UCLA game
led him to believe the Huskers would
play well.
“I thought we were ready to p*ay,”
he said. “The players had a good
attitude, they practiced well. It’s kind
of unexplainable.”
Osborne said the Huskers’ offense
also struggled in the opening quarter,
enabling the Bruins to build their
lead.
"The few times we had the ball in
the first quarter we didn’t execute,”
Osborne said.
On Nebraska’s initial drive fol
lowing the Bruins’ first touchdown,
the Huskers were faced with a third
down and eight on UCLA’s 38-yard
line. Split end Morgan Gregory
dropped a pass thrown by quarterback
Steve Taylor that would have given
Nebraska a first and ten inside the
Bruins’ 30-yardlinc. Instead, Ne
braska was forced to punt and UCLA
scored on tailback Shawn Wills’ 50
yard touchdown run six plays later to
make the score 14-0.
Osborne said he thought the Husk
ers would have gotten some points on
the board had Gregory held onto the
ball, which would have taken some
momentum away from UCLA.
On the Huskers’ first play from
scrimmage after the kickoff, the
Bruins recovered a fumble by wing
back Dana Brinson on Nebraska’s 47
yardline. Three minutes later, UCLA
led 21-0. On Nebraska’s next series,
the Bruins’ defense held the Huskers
to four downs and a punt. UCLA’s
Darryl Henley returned the punt 75
yards for a touchdown, giving UCLA
a commanding 28-0 period advan
tage.
Osborne said he expects his play
ers to bounce back from the loss.
“If they’d have laid down in the
second half, I wouldn’t feel very
good,” he said. “If you look at the
second half and the effort they gave
us, I think you would have to say they
aren’t quitters.”
Osborne said there are changes
that need to be made if Nebraska is to
be successful the rest of the season.
“We’re going to have to get some
things improved in a hurry or we
could be looking at a real tough year,”
he said. “Arizona State will probably
come in here 2-0 — with a good
team.”
Big Eight goes 5-3 in 1st week
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - For
the first lime in five years, the Big
Eight Conference has cracked the
.500 mark on its first full weekend of
the football season.
Since 1984, the league had gone 4
4 on opening weekend. But
Saturday’s action counted only three
losers. Kansas State and Kansas were
expected to lose. But the third Big
Eight team to come up short not only
lost a game but, temporarily at least,
saw national championship aspira
tions fly out the window as well.
Nebraska, which manhandled
l ( LA in their previous meeting, got
hit with a 28-point first-period salvo
and never recovered cn route to
bowing 41-28 to the Bruins.
I’ve never been down that many
points in the first quarter in any game
in my life,” Nebraska linebacker Jeff
Mills said. “I don’t sec any big differ
ence in UCLA from last year. Our
execution just wasn’t crisp. They
shouldn’t even beat us.”
While the Huskcrs arc certain to
tumble far from the No. 2 national
ranking they’ve been occupying, the
fourth-ranked Sooncrs of Oklahoma
will doubtlessly remain at least
among me lop live. With quarter
backs Jamcllc Holicway and Charles
Thompson both looking sharp, the
Sooners carved out a workmanlike
28-0 victory at North Carolina.
Oklahoma Slate and Colorado,
both bidding for national recognition,
were also big winners. The Buffs got
a big night from Barry Sanders in
crushing Miami of Ohio, 52-20, and
Colorado clobbered Fresno Slate, 45
3.
Missouri, also hoping to regain
some long-lost respectability, rallied
lo open its season with a 35-21 con
quest of plucky Utah State. And Iowa
State exploded for 17 quick points to
put away Tulane 30-13.
Kansas State and Kansas both gave
good accounts of themselves in the
•irst half against heavily favored
opponents. Stan Parrish’s Wildcats
trailed No. 17 Iowa by only seven
points at halftime, but suffered five
interceptions and finally bowed 45
10. Glen Mason made his debut as
Kansas coach by leading his youthful
Jayhawks lo a mighty effort before
Baylor emerged with a27-14 victory.
Oklahoma, already hit hard by
injury, lost all-Big Eight center Bob
fatham for 6-8 weeks with a knee
injury. But in the meantime, the
fourth-ranked Sooners showed better
execution on offense than they some
times do early in the season.
“I was figuring it would take the
offense the second quarter, maybe the
third, to get going,” said Thompson,
who scored Oklahoma’s second
touchdown late in the first period. “I
was surprised by our team’s perform
ance.”
Oklahoma rushed 71 times for 391
yards and lost only two of their seven
fumbles.
Sanders made sure Oklahoma
State fans are not worried about re
placing Thurman Thomas. Sanders,
the successor to last year’s leading
rusher in the Big Eight, carried 18
times for 178 yards and two touch
downs and also returned a kickoff 100
yards for a touchdown the first lime
the Cowboys touched the ball. He also
did the very same thing in the Cow
boys 1987 opener against Tulsa.
“Thurman Thomas is a great
player,” said Sanders. “I didn’t come
here to replace Thomas. I came here
to contribute.”
Colorado, abandoning its wish
bone for a powcr-I set, finished with
508 total yards, including 446 on the
ground, and held Fresno to 177 total
yards.
“Our defense controlled the game,”
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“We kept constant pressure on the
quarterback, and that was the key.
Offensively, we weren’t hitting on all
cylinders. We weren’t in sync at
times. We made progress, but we’re
not there yet.”
Utah State scared Missouri, rally
ing to tic thc'game 21 -21 in the second
half. But junior halfback Smiley
Elmore may have emerged as the
Tigers’ newest star by rushing for 187
yards and two touchdowns. It’s the
fifth-highest single-game rushing
total in school history, and Elmore
gave credit to his teammates.
“1 commend them for doing a great
job,” Elmore said. “The line was
blocking and my fellow backs were
blocking really well.”
Elmore had touchdowns runs of 1
and 2 yards, including the go-ahead
tally in the fourth quarter.
Iowa State needed three games to
score a touchdown last year and five
to get a victory. Judging from the
victory over Tulane, Coach Jim
Walden is right when he says his
second Iowa State team is better than
his first.
“We played much better than we
did a year ago,” said Walden, who lost
to Tulane 25-12 last year. “We were
able to score some touchdowns and
move the ball down the field. It feels
really good to have scored some
touchdowns in the opening game
because it took us so long to get them
on the board last season.”
Brad Quast tied an Iowa record
with a 94-yard interception return
against Kansas Slate and teammate
Brian Wise returned another inter
ception 81 yards to score.
‘‘We have to learn which color
jersey our guys wear and which color
the other guys arc wearing,” Parrish
said.
Baylor did not break in front of
Kansas’ freshman-laden squad until it
got a touchdown with 1:36 left.
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