Sports
Huskers win, withstand passing onslaught
By Chuck Green
Senior Editor
On paper, Nebraska’s season-open
ing football game against Utah State
Saturday was supposed to be a mis
match of colossal proportions.
A rout. A 60-point farce. A college
football joke.
But someone forgot to tell Utah
State’s players and coaches. At least
until late in the third quarter.
Utah State quarterback Ron Lopez
completed 23 of 41 passes for 373
yards and three touchdowns— a new
regular-season passing record against
Nebraska — and even a 19-minute,
third-quarter lightning delay couldn’t
keep Lopez from riddling the Corn -
husker secondary.
But fortunately for Nebraska, it
wasn’t enough.
. The Huskcrs pul on an offensive
show of their own, generating 787
yards of total offense cn route to beating
Utah State 59-28 before 76,115 rain
drenched Ians at Memorial Stadium.
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne was
impressed with the Aggies.
“Utah State is not a great team, but
they’re an awfully good team,” he
said. “I think you’ll sec them beating
a lot of people this year.”
Osborne wasn’t impressed, how
ever, with the mistakes made by
Nebraska’s defense. Most of the pass
ing yardage came against the top
Husker defenders.
“We held up well against the run,
but we didn’t play the pass well,”
Osborne said. “Lopez is a great pas
ser. But we were a little limited in
some of the things we had in. We’ll
get belter. •.* ,/:/
“In our base defenses, we were
strictly zone. We didn’t have the
capability — because of the younger
kids and not having worked on it — to
play man-io-man underneath, and that
guy was good enough to pick apart a
zone.”
Nebraska defensive coordinator
Charlie McBride couldn’t help but
agree.
“We’ve just got to do belter on
pass defense,” McBride said. “Any
time someone gets over 10 yards
passing against us, 1 get concerned.
“But if they throw on every down,
you don’t gel as concerned as if they
throw 20 limes and get 300 yards.”
Nebraska played without its two
starting defensive tackles. Kevin
Ramackcrs was held out because of a
back injury, and John Parrclla sat out
for disciplinary reasons. Brian Brown
and Jamie Liewer started in their places.
But, McBride said, the absence of
Ramackcrs and Parrclla didn ’t have a
big impact on Nebraska's pass rush.
“I don’t think we’d have gotten to
(Lopez) anyway,” McBride said.
“Their offense is a three-step drop
and fire the ball. We got better pres
sure in the second half, but they still
were pretty effective against us.
“What bothered me was our breaks
on the ball.”
Husker defenders intercepted Lopez
twice, both in the second half.
Offensively, Osborne’s concern
centered on the running backs. Start
ing 1-back Scott Baldwin was knocked
out of the game with a severe ankle
sprain alter scoring Nebraska’s first
touchdown of the day on a 29-yard
run, and fullback Lance Lewis left
early with knee and ankle sprains.
“We have a lot of good running
backs, but we started running out of
them pretty early,” Osborne said.
But sophomore Derek Brown led
all rushers with 175 yards on 23 car
ries.
Starling quarterback Mickey Jo
seph completed only 1 of 6 passes in
the firstquartcr,a22-yard touchdown
to wingback Vincent Hawkins. His
other passes in the quarter were either
underthrown or sailed over the re
ceivers.
Joseph finished the game 4 for 10
for 68 yards. He also rushed for 36
yards and a touchdown.
After the game, Joseph was visibly
upset with his performance.
Michelle Paulman/Dally Nebraskan
f
Nebraska quarterback Keithen McCant gets off a pass Saturday against Utah State during the third-quarter downpour,
caused a 19-minute delay. The Huskers beat Utah State 59-28 before 76,115 rain-drenched fans downpour.
“1 wasn ’ t hav ing a good day throw -
ing the ball,” Joseph said solemnly.
“So we had to go with someone else
who could get the job done. Keithen
was that man.”
Early in the second quarter, Kei
then McCant was sent in to replace
Joseph. He connected on 6 of 10
passes for 101 yards and one inter
ception and hit tight end Johnny Mitch
ell on a 27-yard touchdown strike in
the second quarter. McCant also rushed
for 87 yards on nine carries.
McCant said he wasn’t surprised
he was brought in so early in the
game.
“I always envisioned that if 1 got a
chance to come in, it was up to me to
play well and keep the team going,”
McCant said. “1 think I did all that.”
On his touchdown pass to Mitch
ell, McCant rolled right, looking for
his primary receiver. Because Utah
Stale’s defense was. flowing with
McCant, the senior quarterback had
to look for his secondary target.
When he saw Mitchell, McCant
threw the ball across the field for the
score.
“Keithen did a nice job, consider
ing he’s never played when a game
was still in doubt,” Osborne said.
Because of Utah State’s passing
attack, the game remained in doubt
until the third quarter, when the Husk
ers scored the first of four touch
downs that put the game away.
Lopez connected on a 51-yard
touchdown pass to split end Rod Moore
with 38 seconds left in the game to
narrow the gap.
Osborne said that although he was
See OPENER on 7
I Lightning causes delay j
From Staff Reports
The 19-minuie lightning delay
during Nebraska’s season opener
against Utah State Saturday was
the first one any press box veterans
could remember at Nebraska.
With 2 minutes 10 seconds re
maining in the third quarter, the
game was postponed because of
severe lightning. Both teams were
sent to their locker rooms, and many
of the fans in Memorial Stadium
hurried down to the field to play in
the puddles caused by heavy rains.
The temperature dropped 17 de
grees when the thunderstorm moved
through Lincoln.
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne
said he thought the delay helped
Utah State regroup.
“I’m not a big one for going in.
I never would have thought of that,”
Osborne said. “But safety-wise,
you have to think of the fans first.”
Osborne said he had no idea
that rain would be a part of the
game.
“1 usually call the flight service
to get the forecast,” he said. “They
said there was a 20 percent chance
of rain after 8 p.m.”
Osborne said, “I guess I should
have gotten an updated report.”
