The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, September 25, 1990, Page 7, Image 7
NelJraskan Tuesday, September 25,1990 NU’s Osborne still pondering Minnesota rout From Staff Reports Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne was still stunned Mon day from theComhuskers’ 56-0 blowout of Minnesota two days before. “You can’t appreciate the win with such a point spread,” Osborne said. The victory margin affects the fans, too, he said. “People have been mentally conditioned to think that the game wasn’t worth it if it wasn’t a close game,” Osborne said. Nebraska’s injured skill position players should be back when, the Huskers attempt an other rout Saturday against Oregon State. Leodis Flowers, Scott Bald win and Nate Turner, who missed the Minnesota game, were back at the half-pad practice Mon day. Flowers, the starting I-back, has been out with a knee injury and Baldwin, Flowers’ alternate, has been plagued by a turf toe. Turner was X-rayed again Monday to check his recovery from a broken collarbone that has kept him out of Nebraska’s first three games. Osborne said the junior wingback was still sore. Onenew skill position player missed practice. Jon Bostick, the team’s leading receiver, sat out but should return today, Osborne said. NU junior varsity defeats Bethany By Todd Cooper Staff Reporter The Nebraska junior varsity team was afflicted with breakdowns in the first half of Monday’s game against Bethany (Kan.) junior varsity, but the game ended with a healthy 45-0 vic tory over the Swedes. Plagued by turnovers and penal ties that ended numerous scoring threats, the Cornhuskers could only manage seven points after 28 minutes of the first half. ‘ ‘Offensively we didn’t get rolling like we anticipated,” JV coach Bill Weber said. “We had a number of good plays, but our drives were get ting about 10 to 12 plays long and we’d start having breakdowns.” With two minutes left in the first half, Bethany had some breakdowns of their own. A Jeff Lang punt sailed to the 1 -yard line when Bethany’s Jay Miller bobbled the ball. Nebraska split end Travis Grant recovered the foot ball at the 1, and I-back Bob Cook scored on the next play. Two changes of possession left Bethany with the ball once again. Nebraska safety Jason Simdom then picked off a Jeremy Bacckel pass and returned it to the Swedes’ 26 with 30 seconds left. Nebraska moved into field goal range when wingback Jeff Hughes caught a 31-yard pass from quarter back Matt Jones on the next play. With time running out, Lang nailed a 19-yard field goal to put Nebraska up 17-0. Although a 17-point lead was comforting, Weber said he was disap pointed with the three turnovers and four penalties Nebraska suffered in the first half. “Their defense was doing a good job of making us go the full distance, we just weren’t disciplined enough to execute,” Weber said. “You get concerned that something wasn’t quite right... they needed to be jostled or something (at halftime) to get going.” j But Nebraska’s defense didn’t need much jostling, Weber said. “We were pretty confident that the 17 points we had would hold up based on how our defense was play- 1 ing,” he said. And it did. Led by linebacker Leroi Jones with six total tackles, Nebraska’s defense held the Swedes to five first downs in 1 the game. ‘ ‘We did a good job of not giving up the big play,” Weber said. “We got a lot of pressure on the quarter back and (when) that happens they’re not going to be successful.” i Matt Jones was successful more times than not on Monday. After a sub-par passing performance in Ne braska’s opening win against Snow, the freshman completed 9 of 11 passes for 171 yards and one touchdown. I “He’s a good thrower,” Weber said. “When he gets his feet set and makes a good decision, he can really throw it in there.” Despite the 45 points, Weber said the junior varsity will have to im prove on offense for the Oct. 5 match up with the Air Force junior varsity, a team that beat Nebraska 38-34 a year ago. “We’re really going to have to improve our execution on offense. . .we play in spurts,” he said. “At times we’re just not hitting on all cylinders and that’s our goal. Nebraska junior varsity’s Michael Bowen breaks up a pass from Bethany’s Jeremy Baecket in the fourth quarter Mon day. USC plunges in AP poll; Nebraska remains No. 8 The Associated Press Southern Cal and Arkansas plummeted in the rankings after losing their first games, and Vir ginia jumped to its highest spot ever in The Associated Press col lege football poll. Southern Cal dropped 13 places to No. 18 after gelling blanked by Washington 31 -Oand Arkansas fell 10 notches to No. 23 following a 21-17 loss to Mississippi. Virginia’s 59-0 thrashing of Duke moved the unbeaten Cavaliers up three spots to No. 7. The best pre vious ranking for Virginia was No., 9 in 1949 and 1952. Nebraska remained eighth after crushing Minnesota 56-0 Saturday. Notre Dame remained No. 1 for the third straight week after edging Michigan Stale 20-19. The Fight ing Irish received 43 first-place votes and 1,478 points from a na tionwide panel of sports writers and broadcasters. Florida State is second, followed by Auburn and Brigham Young. Florida State, which beat Tulane 31-13, got 11 first-place voles and 1,397 points. Auburn and BYU each received three fim-place votes, but the Tigers out-pointed the Cougars 1,384 1,261. Auburn had the week off, and BYU beat San Diego Slate 62 34. Tennessee is fifth, followed by Michigan, Virginia, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Miami, Texas A&M, Washington, Houston, Illinois, Ohio State, Arizona, Florida, Southern Cal, Clcmson and Colorado. Round ing out the Top 25 are Arizona State, Michigan Slate, Arkansas, Fresno Stale and South Carolina. Fresno State and South Caro lina moved into the rankings for the first time this season, replacing Texas and Pittsburgh. Fresno rose to No. 24 after beat ing New Mexico Stale 42-3 and South Carolina moved up to No. 25 after downing Virginia Tech 35 24. It is the second straight season that Fresno has been ranked. Last year, the Bulldogs got as high as 23rd. Texas, 22nd last week, is 1-1 after losing to Colorado 29-22 and Pittsburgh, last week’s No. 25, is 2-1-1 after tying Syracuse 20-20. JV player Cook says he scored touchdown for ill grandmother By Sara Bauder Schott Staff Reporter Nebraska I-back Bob Cook has no miracle cure, so he ran hard to give his grandmother what he could in Monday’s junior varsity football game. Cook had just found out that his grandmother, who was in the stands, has cancer. ‘T just wanted to score a touch down for her,” Cook said. ‘‘I wanted to do well for her. It makes you real ize there’s more to life than foot ball.” Cook did score that touchdown for his grandmother, as the Com huskers beat Bethany College, 45-0. He also was the leading rusher for the Huskers, gaining 78 yards on 17 car ries. The 5-foot-9,180-pound freshman from Omaha said he was happy with the Huskers' performance. He thinks the team is well-prepared for the rest of the season, he said, but lacks con centration. The Huskcr victory was marred by mistakes like six fumbles and seven penalties -- four of the fumbles and four of the penalties coming in the first half. “We need to cut down on mis takes and get more consistent,” he said. “We need to get everyone - all 11 guys on the field -- concentrat ing.” Cook said Nebraska’s recent dominance over Bethany made con centration on the game more diffi cult. In the past three years, Nebraska has outscorcd Bethany 199-0. With that kind of imbalance, it easy to look past Bethany to the other teams on the JV schedule, Cook said. At times, Cook dominated the Nebraska offense. In the Huskers’ first drive of the second quarter, he ran the ball four consecutive times, gaining 26 yards and two first downs. Cook said eventually he’d like to run the football more. “I’m real happy that all the I backs got in today,” Cook said, “In the future, I hope to get a few more snaps, but I’m not complaining.” Cook, who played at Millard South, came to Nebraska in 1989. A knee injury kept him from playing for the J V last year, and he received an injury redshirt. He said he has recovered from the injury, but has to wear a brace on his knee. “It slows me down a little, but I just put my head down and go,” he said. Joseph manages to find flaw in weekend whipping By Paul Dometor Senior Reporter Mickey Joseph had the luxury of nitpicking. Saturday the junior quarterback led the Comhusker offense to six touchdowns in eight scries, and 368 yards in 50 plays. But after Nebraska’s 56-0 plaster ing of Minnesota, Joseph was still bugged by a first-quarter interception and his three-game interception streak. That’s a good sign, when the worst part of the day is a pass thrown into a 25-mph wind, tipped into the air and caught by a Golden Gopher defender with no effect on the game’s out come. But that’s the kind of day Jo seph had, beginning with a 13-play, 89-yard drive to start the game. “You can feel it from the begin ning of the game that everything’s going smoothly,” Joseph said. “When you get a drive like that, you get going pretty good.” Joseph, wno was making his sec ond start, finished with 32 yards rush ing and 117 yards passing. Joseph said he was pleased with his 7 of 11 passing, other than the interception. Ncbraskacoach Tom Osborne said Joseph only made one bad audible, and estimated that Joseph changed the play about half the lime. Particularly impressive, if simply because it was so obvious, was a 21 yard touchdown pass to Derek Brown in the third quarter. Joseph looked over the defense and audibled to a new play, one that called for the spread formation instead of the I formation. I-back Derek Brown, though, couldn’t hear the check call, so Jo seph had to turn and wave Brown into a flanker position. Joseph took the snap, Brown look a few steps downficld and turned out, and Joseph flipped the pass to the wide-open back. Brown scored without being touched. So the passing and play-calling was there. Also evident was Joseph’s strength in effectively running the option against the Gophers. More than once Joseph ducked under one defender, only to have another player challenge him. Joseph had to regain contact with the trailing back and make the pitch. Only once did he miss on a pitch, and it rolled harmlessly out of bounds. “You just got to keep going out with him,' I-back Derek Brown said. Joseph faces the prospect of stand ing on the sidelines most of the lime next week again si Oregon Suite. Mike Grant, who started the first game, is expected to be back from his bruised knee. “We did not play Grant today because he said before the game that he’d rather not play,” Osborne said. “Hopefully next week we can play Mike and play him a lot.” Joseph took that prospect better than he did the interception. “Mike’s got to get back in a rhythm, too,” Joseph said. “It’s only fair that he get back in there.”