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By Paul Domeier
Senior Reporter
NORMAN, Okla. — The Nebraska Comhuskers helped perform HLgHB
their own burial Friday in Oklahoma’s Memorial Stadium.
Nebraska dug a hole with two late first-half turnovers that led to two
Oklahoma touchdowns and a 21-3 Sooner halftime lead. Nebraska
handed the Sooners the shovel with five more turnovers in the second |
half. The seven turnovers led directly to 31 Sooner points.
Oklahoma’s 45-10 victory is the worst defeat for Tom Osborne in his
18 years as Nebraska ’ s coac h and the worst t or the program s i nee 1968,
when Osborne was an assistant and Oklahoma won 47-0.
“Naturally, I'm totally embarrassed at the outcome,” Osborne said.
“It was one of the poorest performances in the 28 years I’ve been at
Nebraska will take a 9-2 record to face Georgia Tech in the Citrus * |
Bowl Jan. 1. Oklahoma’s season came to a probation-forced end with p J
The Nebraska seniors ended their final Big Eight season with their
First loss to Oklahoma in three years.
“We hated lo do that—to lose first of all, then this embarrassing loss jHk
to Oklahoma, one of our rivals,” said senior center David Edcal.
Nebraska lost quarterback Mickey Joseph early in die first quarter.
On a third-and-eighi play from Nebraska’s 33-yard line, Joseph rolled
out to the left, scrambled back to the right and out of bounds, where he
was pushed late.
Joseph slid into the metal bench and suffered a cut all ihe way to the jJwjt
bone on his lower right leg. Joseph will not play in the Citrus Bowl. ■
Edeal said he didn’t see much of the push, but he saw the injury. :r&T
“I could see the size of the cut, even from the middle of the field,” ,
Edcal said. I:- IBSpl
VuarierDacK rviiKe cjram came in iu cummue uie game piau, which nw
Edeal said was to pass more, even before Joseph was injured. jap
On the next Nebraska possession, Grant led the Huskers to a 30-yard
field goal by Gregg Barrios to give Nebraska a 3-0 first-quarter lead.
The Sooners responded with an 86-yard drive to go up 7-3. Tailback
Dewcll Brewer sparked the drive with 32 yards on an option. Tight end
Adrian Cooper caught a 36-yard touchdown pass from Calc Gundy,
beating Husker safety Tyrone Byrd with a Willie Mays-type, over-the
Nebraska’s first turnover led to Oklahoma’s next touchdown. Grant &»
threw a short pass over the middle to wingback Nate Turner.
Sooner linebacker Reggie Barnes caught Turner with a brutal hit to
force a fumble. Oklahoma’s Frank Blevins recovered and returned the
ball 13 yards to the Nebraska 12. Four plays liter, Gundy scored on a , Cj&t
quarterback sneak.
After Nebraska got the ball back, Grant threw an interception. - gy-T
Gundy threw to Cooper again, this lime for 40 yards on a pass almost
intercepted by Tyrone Lcgcttc, and fullback Mike McKinley scored on |||lEs|
a nine-yard run. |
Grant completed 8 of 19 passes for 107 yards and three interceptions. fl|fl||l
“We did some good things in the passing game,” Osborne said, “but
we obviously had too many turnovers to beat a good football team.”
The Huskci running game could do nothing. Until midway through
the fourth quarter, Johnny Mitchell was the team’s leading rusher with
17 yards on a tight end reverse. Nebraska had two other runs of 10 or
more yards, one of those Joseph’s scramble for his injury.
The Huskers had some abysmal rushing totals: Leodis Flowers, 9
carries, 13 yards; Scott Baldwin, 7-14; Derek Brown, 6-27; Lance
Lewis, 6-14; Grant, 5-10.
Despite those problems, Nebraska threatened to make a game of it ^
in the second half. Mike Croel forced Gundy to fumble on the first scries ^ 3 T
Grant threw a 24-yard pass to Jon Bostick and Flowers scored from
two yards out to make the score 21-10. The Nebraska defense forced
Oklahoma to punt, and the Huskers took over at their 21. H
Blevins spoiled things with a leaping interception on a pass over the ^B 1
middle. McKinley pounded in the touchdown. ^B ’
Nebraska took possession, Grant fumbled and the Sooners recov- '
ered. McKinley, who gained 87 yards on eight carries and scored three PH
times, broke through the middle for a ^8-yard touchdown run.
On the second play of the fourth quarter, Oklahoma strong safety - ■
Greg DeQuasic intercepted a Grant pass, returned it 43 yards for the ^ •
touchdown and Nebraska was buried. HP
Not buried alive, though. Kgr /
“It didn’t seem like we played with the heart I expected,” Osborne
Nebraska had a week without a game before the Oklahoma contest,
and Flowers said he has seen that cause past Nebraska teams to come jg|g
“I figure that happened today,” he said. “1 didn’t sec q. lot of ^B
Several players said they thought Nebraska had gained the momcn- g|J
turn after the first touchdown after the second half. But the turnovers gig
“I think they tried,” Osborne said. “The turnovers and mistakes
make it hard to play.”
Third-string quarterback Tom Haase came in to throw one last ||B 1
interception, leading to one last field goal by R.D. Lashar with nine
seconds remaining. '4^ ^
“Some times we have played well and got beat,” Osborne said.
“Today didn’t feel like one.”
I Photos by Shaun Sartin
I Sciockwise from top left: Okla
: Bhoma’s Adrian Cooper catches
t-. fla Pass for a gai n of 40 yards. T he
■play gave the Sooners the ball
I Hat the Nebraska 9-yard line.
% j§Nebraska’s Mickey Joseph is
■tackled by Oklahoma’s Scott
: HEvans early in the first quarter.
■ Cooper evades the tackle of Ne
■braska’s Tyrone Byrd. Cooper
Lflcaught three passes for 96 yards
■and a touchdown.
L« Nebraska coach Tom Osborne
■talks to Comhusker special team
* 9members before a kickoff.
11 Oklahoma coach calls victory a turning point
By Chuck Green
Senior Editor
■9 ———-■■■'■ ■ in ■
NORMAN, Okla. — Tom
» Osborne’s worst defeat as Ne
braska football coach was the
best win yet for second-year
| Oklahoma coach Gary Gibbs.
After two years of NCAA
) sanctions for various rules
infractions, Oklahoma pummelcd
lOth-ranked Nebraska 45-10 in
front of a nationally televised
‘ audience Friday in a game Gibbs
called a turning point for the
Sooner program.
“This is a tremendous feeling
i for a football team,’’ Gibbs said.
“We’re making a move in the
right direction. Last year, we
were getting pushed around,
giving up a lot of easy scores.
| But today, we saw a lot of
S positive signs.’’
Negative signs were hard to
I find for Gibbs, or anyone else as
sociated with Oklahoma’s team.
Less than three minutes into the
third quarter, the Sooners had
scored more points on the
Comhuskers — 28 — than any
other team had all season.
From there, it only got worse.
The 35-point margin was the
worst suffered by a Nebraska
team since Osborne took over as
coach in 1973. In 1977, Nebraska
lost 38-7 to the Sooners.
After Nebraska’s Greg Barrios
booted an early field goal, the
Sooners took charge. Tight end
Adrian Cooper hauled in a 36
yard pass from quarterback Cale
Gundy with 11:19 left in the
second quarter. The extra point
by R.D. Lashar gave Oklahoma a
7-3 lead, and the Sooners never
trailed again.
Gibbs said the catch was the
biggest play of the lirst hall lor
the Sooners.
Cooper, who was snubbed in
favor of Nebraska’s Johnny
Mitchell for first-team All-Big
Eight light end, said he had
something to prove in the game.
“This was my best game,” he
said. “They picked the Nebraska
guy as the Big Eight tight end
and I am here to tell you, I am
the best light end in the league.”
Cooper finished with three
catches for 96 yards and the
touchdown. Mitchell caught one
pass for 11 yards.
“He didn’t do anything
today,” Cooper said of Mitchell.
Despite a 21-3 lead at
halftime, Gibbs said, he and his
coaching staff knew the game
was far from over.
“1 didn’t think that lead was
reasonable,” he said. “Actually, 1
don’t think we executed real well
in the first half.”
After Cooper’s touchdown re
ception, the other first-half
Sooner scores were after Ne
braska turnovers.
Thirty-one of the Sooners’
total points were the result of
Husker turnovers. The Huskers
lost three fumbles and threw four
interceptions against Oklahoma.
The Sooners rolled up 396
yards of offense, 277 of which
came on the ground. Oklahoma’s
defense allowed only 118 yards
rushing for the Huskers, and 229
total yards.
Sooner fullback Mike McKin
ley led all rushers with 87 yards
and three touchdowns on 8
carries, while Dcwell Brewer,
another fullback, added 85 yards
on 16 carries.
Gundy completed 5 of 8
passes for 119 yards and a
touchdown.
But, Gibbs said, the key to
Oklahoma’s success was defense.
Linebacker Joe Bowden led
the Sooner defense with 11
tackles, seven of which were
unassisted. Linebacker Mike
Coals added seven more tackles
against a Husker offense that was
not difficult to stop, according to
another linebacker.
“They had to keep it on the
ground.” linebacker Reggie Bar
nes said. “Once we shut that
down, they didn’t have much to
fall back on.”
Barnes, a sophomore, said he
is optimistic about Oklahoma’s
chances next season when the
Sooncrs again will be eligible for
postseason play.
“If we keep playing hard and
everything, we’ll make some
noise next year,” he said.
“Today, we looked like a football
team.”.
Overall, Gibbs said, the prog
ress made by this year’s team
was encouraging.
“I can’t sit here and reflect on
what could have been this year,"
he said, referring to Oklahoma’s
three losses. “We had some
chances to have a better record,
but a record doesn’t always
indicate how good a team is.
