NU expresses mixed emotions about rout
By Mike KJuck
Staff Reporter
MANHATTAN, Kan. — Nebraska’s Sieve
Taylor would have preferred to stay in Lincoln
Saturday instead of traveling here to face
Kansas Slate.
Taylor, the Comhuskers' All-Big Eight
quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate,
helped the 7-1 Huskcrstoa48-3 victory against
Kansas State at KSU Stadium.
“I’d rather be home scrimmaging, to be
honest about it, or have a bye,” Taylor said.
“It’s really hard to gel up for a game like this,
but you have to come out and play it. We respect
them, but it’s really hard emotionally to get up
for a game like that, especially when you’re on
the road.”
Taylor, who had five touchdowns — two
passing and three rushing — in Nebraska’s 63
42 victory against Oklahoma State a week ago,
had one score against the Wildcats. Taylor
passed to senior wingback Dana Brinson for a
52-yard touchdown with 9:19 left in the second
quarter. That touchdown capped a two-play,
63-yard drive that lasted 34 seconds and gave
r—.. . ■ ——■ ■
the Huskers a 24-3 lead.
But not everyone on Nebraska’s roster ex
pressed Taylor’s sentiments. Husker kicker
Gregg Barrios said he treats each game like an
Oklahoma game because he's battling Chris
Drennan lor a starting job. On Saturday, Bar
rios was perfect on six extra points and kicked
two second-quarter field goals — one from 36
yards the other from 37. Barrios’ second field
goal came w ith 4:28 left and gave the Huskers
a 27*3 lead.
“I’m preparing for every game because me
and Chris Drennan arc at battle,” Barrios said.
“Every game’s an Oklahoma game.”
Husker senior I-Back Tyreese Knox said it
was hard to prepare for Kansas State. Knox
rushed for four touchdowns, including the
Huskers’ final three scores, on runs of two, six,
two and 26 yards. Knox finished the day with
108 rushing yards on 19 carries.
“I really felt it was an OK performance
today,” Knox said. “I really wanted to have
longer runs than what 1 had today but overall we
got the win and had a pretty good day, I
thought.”
Husker junior I-back Ken Clark also had a
productive day. Clark rushed for 225 yards on
20 ^tempts and scored a touchdown — a 32
yaru run on the Husker’s opening drive. That
jaunt capped an 11-play, 80-yard drive that
lasted 3:57.
Clark rushed for 256 yards last week. The
last Husker running back to rush lor more than
200 yards in back-to-back games was Heisman
Trophy winner Mike Rozier in 1983. But it
wasn’t the Huskcrs’ offense that Nebraska
coach Tom Osborne praised Saturday. Instead,
he had special words for Nebraska’s defense,
which was criticized last Saturday for allowing
the Cowboys’ 42 points.
“I was particularly proud of the defense,”
Osborne said. ”1 think Kansas State has a good
offensive team and we were able to hold them
to three points. We gave up some yards and I
thought their quarterback threw well and their
receivers did a good job and we managed to
keep them out of the end zone. It was probably
one of our better defensive days.”
Kansas State scored on its First possession.
On the Wildcats’ First play, sophomore quarter
back Carl Straw completed a 38-yard pass to
junior wide receiver Greg Washington.
Alter Kansas Stale moved to the Huskers’
33-yard line, a holding penally pushed them
back to the 43. The Wildcats’ then settled for a
school-record, 61-yard field goal by senior
Mark Porter. The kick was one yard short of
tying a Big Eight record.
On the Wildcats second possession, they
moved from their 25-yard line to Nebraska’s 27
before sophomore strong safety Reggie Cooper
intercepted Slraw’spasson the Huskers’ 1 -yard
line.
Kansas Slate moved from its 20-yard line to
the Nebraska 30 on its third possession, but
Husker senior linebacker LcRoy Etienne
sacked Straw on fourth and 10 for a five-yard
loss.
The Wildcats recorded 140 yards of offense
in the first half but were held to 59 yards in the
second while moving into Husker territory
once. For the game Kansas Slate managed 145
yards passing and 44 rushing.
Nebraska, meanwhile, rolled up 622 total
yards, including 479 rushing and 143 passing.
UNO's lack of practice
helps Huskers win game
By Kyle Schurman
Staff Reporter
Four-and-one-half hours of
practice lime was not enough for
the University of Nebraska at
Omaha junior varsity football team
to upset Nebraska.
Just about, though.
UNO trailed the Comhusker
junior varsity 16-14 after three
quarters before Nebraska cruised
to a 36-14 win Friday, with a 20
point fourth quarter at Memorial
Stadium.
UNO does not have enough
players to allow its junior varsity
team to practice separately, as
Nebraska's docs. So the Maverick
junior varsity practiced together
just 45 minutes each day for six
days prior to the game.
Maverick coach Bruce South
well said he was pleased with his
team’s performance considering
what little practice time it had and
because it lost a couple of players
to the varsity who normally would
have played for the junior varsity.
“We played very well,” South
well said. “We did show some very
good potential for our program
We can’t be satisfied with losing,
but we showed some people we can
Mavericks wasted little
time in showing the Nebraska de
fense that it came to play. Running
back Bruce Marlins broke the sec
• ond play from scrimmage for a 72
yard run to the Husker 5-yard line.
Eric Hill scored on fourth-and-goal
from the 1, giving the Mavericks a
7-0 lead.
Nebraska, 4-0, struck back on
its next drive. Quarterback Mike
Grant had runs of 27 and 13 yards,
which set up his 43-yard touch
down run, tying the score at 7-7.
Grant ran for 133 yards and two
touchdowns, and threw for 60
yards and two more touchdowns.
“We kind of put it right back in
their face,” Grant said of his first
touchdown run. “It was good so the
defense wasn ’ t down 7-0 and had to
go right back out there.”
Husker coach Shane Thorcll
said Grant played well but can still
improve. *
“(Grant) has a lot of ability that *
hasn’t been shown yet,” Thorcll
said. “He can play better than he
did. He’s going to get better.”
Thorcll said that before the
game, he wanted Nebraska to cut
down on its menial mistakes and
penalties. However, a holding
penalty on Nebraska’s second pos
session nullified a touchdown run.
Bob Hoover kicked a 35-yard field
goal, though, and Nebraska led for
the first time, 10-7, early in the
second quarter.
The Huskers, who had averaged
13 penalties for 122 yards a game in
their first three wins, committed
nine penalties for 82 yards against
the Mavericks.
Nebraska’s Tyrone Legette
intercepted a pass two possessions
later, and returned it to the UNO
11-yard line. Grant hit Jon Bostick
with a 7-yard touchdown pass on
third down, giving Nebraska a 16
7 lead.
UNO then drove from its 30
yard line to the Husker 9-yard line
with 1:01 left in the half. But
Nebraska linebacker Paul Wight
Erie Qregory/Dally Nebraskan
Nebraska junior varsitv l-back Scott Baldwin tries to elude the grasp of University of
Nebraska at Omaha’s Chris Grass during the Cornhuskers’ 36-14 win Friday at Memorial
Stadium. The win improved Nebraska’s record to 4-0.
man sacked UNO quarterback Dan
Scllon, forcing a field goal attempt.
Abel Fernandez's kick sailed wide
to the left.
“It would’ve been nice to get
that field goal," Southwell said.
“We still felt we were in the game,
though.’’
Nebraska tried a fake punt late
in the third quarter, but UNO
stopped Husker fullback Jerry
Kleidosty inches short of the first
down. UNO then drove from the
Husker 40-yard line to the 3, where
Martins scored on a fourth-down
run, pulling the Mavericks to 16-14
with four seconds left in the third
period.
“Legette came up with another
big kickoff return and he had a nice
interception return for us,”Thorell
said. “He’s probably the defensive
guy that helped us the most.”
UNO quarterback Marty Kracl,
who entered the game at halftime,
could not bring the Mavericks back
as the Husker defense shut down
the Maverick passing game. UNO
completed seven of 17 passes for
69 yards, and had three inter
cepted.
Grant hit Bostick witha47-yard
pass and Tom Werner caught a 22
yard pass from Bart James to ac
count for Nebraska's final 14
points.
Grant said Nebraska seemed to
wear down the Maverick defense.
The Huskers gained 369 yards,
including 178 in the final quarter.
“In the fourth quarter, (UNO’s
defense) were getting really tired
and they weren ’ t talking as m uc h or
playing as emotional as they had
been,” Grant said.
Husker defense tames Wildcats 48-3
By Nick Hodge
Staff Reporter
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said
Sunday that the Comhusker defense
had perhaps their best performance of
the season in Nebraska’s 48-3 victory
over Kansas State Saturday in Man
hattan, Kau., at KSU Stadium.
Last week, Nebraska beat Okla
homa State 63-42 and the Husker
defense gave up more than 400 yards
of total offense. Meanwhile, Kansas
State lost to Oklahoma 70-24, but the
Wildcats piled up 419 total yards —
347 through the air.
Osborne said most of Kansas
State’s yards came after the game’s
outcome had been decided, but said
the Wildcats still had the ability to
move the ball offensively. He said the
Nebraska coaching staff wanted to
see the defense stop Kansas State
better.
“We really wanted to see our de
fence start shutting someone down a
little bit," Osborne said.
‘We really wanted
to see our defense
start shutting some
one down a little
bit‘
—Osborn*
The Husker defense would have
notched their first shutout of the sea*
son without the 25*mph wind blowing
in Manhattan.
After Nebraska took the game’s
opening kickoff and scored, Kansas
State quarterback Carl Straw hit wide
receiver Greg Washington on a 38
yard pass to the Husker 33-yard line
on the Wildcats’ first offensive play.
Nebraska’s defense stiffened and
forced Kansas State into a fourth-and
20 at Nebraska’s 43-yard line. With
the wind at his back. Wildcat senior
kicker Mark Porter connected on a
61 -yard field goal, one yard short of a
Big Bight record, to cut the Husker’s
lead to 7-3 with more than 10 minutes
remaining. Kansas State would not
score again.
The Nebraska defense limited
Kansas State to just 189 total yards—
44 rushing and 145 passing. Mean
while, the Husker offense racked up
< M II » t • I f 1 « , ( m < • H t
its fourth straight game of gaining
more than600 yards—rolling to622.
Osborne said he was pleased with
the overall effort of Nebraska’s de
fense because second team players
played almost half of the game.
Osborne said the Wildcats’ score
was set up by the long pass play when
the receiver was well coverod and was
followed by the “horrendously long
fieldgoal.”
“Tney really didn’t mount very
many serious sewing threats during
the day,” Osborne said.
Osborne said the Husker defense
still made some mistakes against the
Wildcats, but part of that was related
to some different offensive looks
presented by Kansas State.
Osborne said he was pleased be
cause the Husker defense was able to
force three Wildcat tumQvers.
■
NU Rugby Club
finishes season
The University of Nebraska
Lincoln Rugby Club won two
games and Tost two while fin
ishing in fourth place at last
weekend’s 11-team Jackalope
Tournament at Laramie, Wyo.
The Comhuskers, who fin
ished their fall season with 4-5
record, lost to eventual runner
up Colorado State 15-3 after
being tied 3-3 at halftime of the
first-round game.
After two straight wins
against Metro State of Denver,
Nebraska suffered a 12-3 loss to
Air Force after trailing 6-3 at
halftime. Air Force’s final
score came during the game’s
final minutes.
The Huskers will begin their
spring schedule in March.
