Sports
Quarterback may be redshirted, lose eligibility
By Robert Richardson
Senior Reporter
According to NU head football coach Tom
Osborne, quarterback Mike Grant could be
redshirted next year. This would make Grant
ineligible for his senior season of play, he said.
Other quarterbacks that would be in conten
tion for the starting nod are Mickey Joseph,
Tom Haase and Keithen McCant. All are re
dshirt seniors in their last year of eligibility —
making Grant the only expendable player.
At home for summer break in Valrico, Fla.,
Grant said he realizes that he is the only ex
pendable player, but remains optimistic about
his chances for the upcoming season.
“Right now the decision is not definite for
me,” Grant said. “So I can still come back for
fall camp and be head of the pack, and I can still
be the starter.”
Grant’s Brandon High School coach, Larry
Bass, talked to the quarterback in Florida re
cently and told Grant that if he decided to
redshirt, Grant should be firm in his decision.
“The only advice I gave him was that before
he does that, is if you’re going to be redshirted,
you’re going to be redshirted,” Bass said. “There’s
no going to be coming back in the middle of
your senior year if a couple kids get hurt or a
couple kids quit, etc.
“It’s ail or nothing. He needs to tell them
(UNL coaches) that. That’s the only advice I
gave him.”
Bass is not upset at the possibility to redshirt
Grant — he said he wants the best for his
former high school star and thinks a redshirt
season would let Grant finish his college career
on top.
“All the other guys are gone next year,”
Bass said. “He can use it (redshirting) towards
his advantage, which is not a selfish thing in
itself. I think they’re asking a lot of him to
redshirt his senior year and come back one
more year.”
But Bass stressed that he thinks Grant is in
the right frame of mind about his decision,
whatever it may be.
“He’s going to make it work,” Bass said.
“He wants to go out a winner, and that makes
me feel real good about him.”
Having to work hard tor that top quarter
back spot goes with the territory. Grant has the
confidence to step up to the challenge, but said
he’s not sure if Osborne has the confidence in
him.
“I think that maybe he showed a lack of
confidence in me, but that (confidence) is
something you have to earn — it’s not given,”
Grant said.
Regardless of confidence, Grant said he has
a handle on what he has to do to impress the
coaches in the fall.
“I need to work a lot on my passing this
summer, work hard on my agility and just be
healthy,” he said. ‘‘I still feel confident that I
can be the man for the job.”
N U baseball
signees keep
family ties
From Staff Reports
The Nebraska baseball team has
gone a familiar route to obtain one of
its 1991 spring recruits—through the
bloodlines.
Comhusker coach John Sanders
signed his son Craig, a first baseman
and pitcher, to play for Nebraska next
season. He is among seven new re
cruits the Huskers signed last week.
In the fall, Sanders made another
familial connection, signing outfielder
Rayme Benjamin from Columbus,
Ohio. Benjamin’s brother Bobby was
an All-Big Eight first baseman who
last played for Nebraska in 1990.
Last season at Lincoln Southeast
High School, the younger Sanders hit
.406 and earned All-City honors. He
is playing for the Beatrice Bruins this
summer and has pitched in six in
nings already, allowing only one run
and striking out 13 baiters.
Shortstop Darin Petersen, a high
school teammate of Sanders, also
signed with Nebraska.
Petersen, a shortstop from Firth,
hit .526 last season, the highest aver
age in the stale. He was also all-state,
all-conference, and was named Lin
coln Player of the Year. He only
See SPORTS on 11
UINL athletes
to compete
in festival
By David Moyer
Staff Reporter
Two of the University of Nebraska
Lincoln’s top women’s basketball
players, Karen Jennings and Meggan
Yedsena, will be playing with many
of the nation’s best players when they
compete in the U.S. Olympic Sports
Festival, July 13 through 15 in Los
Angeles.
Jennings, a 6-2 junior who lead the
Comhuskers in scoring last season
with 20.5 points-per-game, will be
making her third straight appearance
in the festival, while sqphomore point
guard Yedsena is competing for the
first time.
Jennings said she is looking for
ward to this year, especially because
she will be joined by her Husker team
mate Yedscna.
“I’m looking forward to it because
Meggan is such a great player,” she
said. “It is always great to play with
the best competition.
“Meggan and I have been around
each other, and we know what each
other does, so when you play with
other players you have some feel for
what is going to happen already.”
Yedsena agreed it will be beneficial
See DAVID on 11
Shai/n Sartin/Daily Nabraskan
Saaaaafe!
Mike Mooney, playing for the Beavers, attempts to make an out during a game against
the Animal Science Graduate Student Association team. Karen Wedekind siided
safely into third base. '
Most coaches don’t give a damn
NCAA laws no problem for cooperative teams
Despite a seemingly endless stream
of scandals, including one painfully
close to home for Comhusker fans,
collegiate men’s basketball is now a
belter sport.
Earlier this month, longtime Uni
versity of Nevada-Las Vegas Coach
Jerry Tarkanian announced that he
would resign after the 1991-92 sea
son.
Tark, one of the winningest bas
ketball coaches of all time, led UNLV
to a national championship two sea
sons ago, and almost took the Run
nin’ Rebels down the same path last
.. season, before Duke derailed them in
the Final Four of the tournament.
But now, Tarkanian — sometimes
affectionately known as “The Shark”
by fans and adversaries — plans to
hang it up at UNLV. His plans for the
future remain uncertain, but probably
hold more than a few professional
coaching offers.
UNLV fans are sad to see him go.
The rest of the country should be
dancing in the streets. Possibly the
most crooked coach of our lime will
soon be but a bad memory.
Kind of like jock itch.
Throughout the years, the NCAA
has all but set up a permanent office
in Las Vegas, just to watch the U NL V
program. The team has been in trouble
as often as the NCAA tournament,
and has certainly come aWay smell
ing like garbage more times than not.
Three weeks ago, the latest scan
dal occurred, and it was the straw that
broke the Shark’s back.
In that episode, photographs were
published of three UNLV players
shown sitting in a hot tub, drinking
beer, with convicted sports fixer Rich
ard Perry. Other photos began to pop
up of the players playing basketball
with the gambler, and otherwise frol
icking with him as if they were all the
best of friends.
Tarkanian is the primary reason.
Throughout his 18-year UNLV ca
reer, he has been harassed by the
NCAA, which has investigated eve
rything from grade fixing to cash ofTers
to recruits to payments to players.
Tark has taken it all head-on, usu
ally pointing his wrinkled finger back
at the NCAA and blaming it for most
of the problems his program has suf
fered. f
Last week, he and Louisiana Stale
Coach Dale Brown took pot-shots at
the NCAA before the House Sub
committee on Commerce, Consumer
Protection and Competitiveness.
For more than an hour, the tfwo
lambasted the NCAA for what they
called its “reign of terror.”
“The biggest problem in college
sports? The NCAA, period,” Tarkanian
said in an Associated Press story.
He cited various examples of the
See GREEN on 11