Clockwise from top left - Cartier
Walker turns upfield on his way
to a touchdown after recovering
a blocked UNLV punt.
Nebraska's Terry Rodgers is
corralled by UNLV defenders.
Nebraska's Ken Clark uses a stiff
arm to escape a potential tackier
(no penalty was called.) UNLV's
Bernard Jackson looks for a way
out as several Nebraska players
close in on him. UNLV's Charles
Price and a teammate argue an
intentional grounding calL Price
uses Clark's stiff arm technique
to avoid being sacked by
Nebraska's Lawrence Pete.
Rebels’ risky offense
tries to attack Nebraska
Nick Hodge
Staff Reporter
When the University of Nevada
Las Vegas attempted an onsidc-kick
against Nebraska Saturday on the
game’s opening kick off, the Rebels
showed the Cornhuskers they had
come to play.
UNLV coach Wayne Nunnely said
his team went with the strategy be
cause they weren’t going to concede
the contest to the Huskers, who posted
a 48-6 victory against the Rebels
Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
“We wanted to be on the attack,”
Nunnely said. “We wanted Nebraska
to know we came here to play a foot
ball game. We weren’t going to come
out and be passive, kick the ball to
them and let them return it down our
throats.”
.Nunnely said he knew UNLV had
a chance to score if they would have
recovered the onsidc-kick.
But rather than falling in the hands
of one of the UNLV defenders, Ne
braska offensive lineman Bill
Bobbora recovered the loose ball at
the Rebel 48-yard line.
**We were going to try to get the
ball—gel the ball on offense. Nun •
nely said. “We knew if we got the ball
it would be on their side of the field.
We have an excellent field goal
kicker. We were just going to move
the ball close enough. We knew we
would get three points out of the deal
early.”
UNLV’s defense forced the Husk
ers to punt on their first two posses
sions. The Rebels played Nebraska to
a scoreless standstill until Huskcr
running back Ken Clark scored a
louchdown with 2:06 remaining in
the 1 st quarter.
Early in the 2nd quarter,
Nebraska’s defense stopped UNLV
and forced them to punt from its 42
yard line. Husker outside linebacker
Mike Crocl blocked the kick and
comcrback Cartier Walker picked up
the loose ball and ran 34 yards for a
louchdown to give the Huskers a 14
0 lead.
Nunnely said the blocked punt was
critical.
“That was probably the biggest
play of the game, in my opinion,’’ he
said. “That gave them a quick six
points and that hurt us. That gave
them the momentum back. At that
lime, I think there was a lull for
Nebraska.”
UNLV quarterback Charles Price
said the Rebels had a good attitude
about Saturday’s game.
“We didn’t have anything to lose,
so why not go for the gusto,” Price
said. ‘Try to win the big one. We
could have put UNLV on the map.”
Price said the Huskers' defense
played well.
“Nebraska has a great defense,
especially their defensive ends (out
side linebackers),” Price said. “I have
to give a compliment to Broderick
Thomas. He's a good finesse player
with a lot of speed on the outside.”
Price said the Rebels' perform
ance against Nebraska Should give
them confidence heading into next
week’s game with Big West Confer
ence rival Pacific.
“This is going to be a big momen
tum booster for us,” Price said. “We
came here to Nebraska, on their field
and fought all the way until the last
I_____
second ticked off the clock.”
Nunnely said he was pleased with
his teams’ effort
‘Tm very, very proud of the way
our kids fought the entire game,”
Nunnely said. We made our snare of
mistakes and gave them some oppor
tunities to score some big ones. We
could have done a little better job of
making some of the tackles they
broke.
“I was proud of the way our kids
fought. We stopped them on fourth
and short sometimes. We slopped
them when we needed to at times.”
Photos by Doug Carroll, Eric Gregory and Dave Fahlesen
