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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 30, 1991)
Could this be NU’s year? I ms is it. 1 ne Dig one. l he toot ball season everyone has been wait ing for. Gather ‘round, everyone, and get the kids out of bed. This is important, damn it! Ah-hem . .. drumroll, please . . . the Comhusker football team is going to win the national championship this season. No more excuses. No more whin ing. No more patsies on the schedule. This is it, baby. The 1991 Huskers are going to be unstoppable. They’re going to pass more than usual... maybe even on first down. Ooooh ... ahhh! It’s going to be a hot fall this year in Lincoln. Coach Tom Osborne is hot. He’ll be tanned, rested and ready for another major Division I onslaught. Even if some of his players can’t remember what lime — or days — to show up for football practice, he’ll be primed. No prisoners will be taken this year by the Huskers. This is serious business, and the Blackshirt death squads will be out for blood. Nebraska’s schedule is hot, too. No more Minnesota, Northern Illi nois or Montana Cub Scout Troop 451. Next season is chock full of Washingtons and Arizona States and Oklahomas and Colorados. Even Colorado State, a bowl winner last season, will make an appearance at Memorial Stadium. But it won’t be bowl time for the Rams in September. The Huskers will butt heads with them until the paint peels from their helmets. Speaking of helmets, some of those crazy Huskers had X’s on their hel mets throughout the spring, and even during the Red-White game. How can you lose with that kind of frolick ing, fun-loving spirit? There will be X’s on Nebraska’s helmets and O’s under the other team’s name on the scoreboard in ’91. It will be a regular tic-lac-toe on the gridi ron. Chuck Green Footballs will fly in Memorial Stadium, and an unusual number of them will be thrown by Husker quar terbacks. Most of those passes will be caught by wingbacks and split ends with blistering speed. But back to the Blackshirts, a.k.a. the defensive starters. Gone arc Mike Croel, Kenny Walker, Pat Tyrance and the regular names in the defen sive backficld. Most of them are off to the National Football League. Good luck, guys, and take care. Your teammates here will carry on your tradition, as always. The Husker defense that is left has a lot to prove, to itself and its critics. They’ll be hitting a little bit harder, covering opposing receivers and run ning backs that much closer and gen erally making life miserable for play ers and coaches who come to Lincoln looking for a win at Nebraska’s ex pense. Not this year. Recess is over. This team will look a lot like the 1971 Huskcrs, revered by many — especially in Nebraska — as the great est college football team of all time. But 20 years later, the Huskcrs will be a trip down memory lane. They’ll play alike. Sometimes they’ll walk alike and talk alike ... what a crazy pair. Any way you look at it, ’91 will be remembered throughout the college football community as “The Year of the Husker.” Add to all that Inc fact that Ne braska won’t be ranked highly to start off the season, and you’ve got the main ingredients of a national cham pionship season. Miami, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Washington, with their legions of returning starters, will be the August favorites of coaches and sports writ ers alike to compete for the right to party hearty in January, with their index fingers pointing to the humid Miami or Tempe skies. But they’ll all be sadly mistaken. The Huskers will go about their busi ness quietly, demolishing teams, ranked and unranked throughout September and October, then taking aim at the Big Eight crown and a trip to the beach. Before anyone knows what hap pened, Nebraska will be 11-0 and ranked atop the Division I heap. After the smoke clears from the Orange Bowl game, the Huskers will be dancing on Biscayne Boulevard and being fitted for their national championship rings. Yessiree, this is the year die Husk ers finally win the big one. People around here have been saying it for, oh, about 20 years now, and have always ended up disappointed for one reason or another. But this is the year the Huskers take all the marbles. Right? Right.. ? Uh-huh. And this is also the year Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny will break dance on the Sower’s head atop the State Capitol on Christmas morning while eating a plate of nachos and sour cream. Recess IS over. The Huskers will lose four games, including the bowl game, and finish third in the confer ence. But don’t fret. Eight wins in a season is a great accomplishment. There are lots of teams and coaches who would love to have Tom Osborne’s record in January. Or so I’m told ... and told ... and told ... Green is a senior news-editorial major, a Daily Nebraskan senior sports reporter and a copy desk editor. repm says more qualifiers needed By Chuck Green Senior Reporter After one of Nebraska’s best-cvcr performances at the Drake Relays, track and field coach Gary Pepin is still restraining his optimism about the Comhuskers’ chances at the NCAA outdoor championships. The Husker men and women each captured two event titles in the Re lays last weekend, but did not qualify any more athletes for the NCAA out door championships, which will be held May 29-Junc 1 in Eugene, Ore. “It does concern me. It always docs,” Pepin said. “You always want more qualifiers than you have. But there’s just not much you can do. I don’t sit around and dwell on it.” But, Pepin said, he hopes more Huskcrs will use the season’s three remaining meets — two of which are at home — to qualify. i nc Huskers will travel to Seattle Saturday for a triangular with Wash ington and Washington State. After that, Nebraska will host the Twi-Light Invitational on May 11 and the Big Eight championships May 19-20. “We just need some good weather and some good performances, and we’ll be just fine,” he said. In the men’s competition at Drake, Anthony Adkisson won the 100-me lerdash in 10.49 seconds and Stephen Golding won the 110 high hurdles in a personal-best time of 13.9 seconds. The women’s 3,200 relay team won in 8:37.25 — the second-best time in school history — and the 1,600 relay won in 3:34.89. The Huskers came close in other events. The men’s and women’s 400 rel; learns were second. crall, Pepin said, the Husker teams had “a terrific meet.” “The meet went pretty much as expected," he said. “We did well in the events we’ve done well in all year, and we didn’t do so well in the other ones. It was one of the best meets Nebraska’s ever had out there, so it’s hard to cut it down. “But there still arc areas we need to work hard on.” One area in particular is the women’s jumping events. But, Pepin said, Nebraska suffered from a lack of competitors at Drake. The Huskers were without entrants in both the long jump and high jump. “It’s not a true concern, where we have weaknesses, but we do hope we can make more improvement,” Pepin said. “Time is running out.” Pepin said Saturday’s triangular with Washington and Washington State won’t be easy to qualify at, either, because of the weather and the com petition. Washington State is one of the favorites to win the NCAA men’s championship. -1 Rec Scoreboard Results from Sunday s games. B St Andrews Slicers Jantzi 10, Beta Sigma Psi 5; Ace in the Hole 6, Jagers Co rec sottba1 5; Andrews Slicers-Jantzi 3, Ace in the Hole 2. A C Abel 11 & 13 by forfeit over Lambda St Andrews Slicers 11, Alpha Tau Chi Alpha & Friends; 69'ers 12. Omega/Alpha Phi 9; Free Dirt 4, Law 44 Prichard's Dry Riders 3; 69'ers 8, Abel 2; St. Andrews Slicers 13, Free Dirt 6 111. CONSIDER UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN College Independent Study If you are considering taking a course this semester, consider UNL College Independent Study. College Independent Study credit is UNL credit. Credit that can keep you on your academic timetable. Credit that can be the difference between graduating and not graduating. Choose from more than 81 credit and 10 noncredit courses. Set your own study and exam schedules Complete a course in five weeks or take up to a year. Learn from UNL faculty. UNL Independent Study Division of Continuing Studies 269 Nebraska Center East Campus, 33rd A Hoidrege Cad 472-1926 for Details uncoin, ne 68S83-o9oo R f G J_S T E_R_NOW East Division W L Pet. 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