The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, November 09, 1992, Page 6&7, Image 6

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    I
Huskers blow out
No. 13 Jayhawks
By Nick Hytrek
Senior Reporter
It was another big game.
It was another nationally televised
contest.
And it was another blowout of a
highly rated opponent for the Nc
raska football team.
The No. 7 Cornhuskcrs scored 35
hrst-half points and cruised to a 49-7
win over No. 13 Kansas Saturday
before a national television audience
on ESPN and 76,165 fans at Memo
rial Stadium.
The Husker offense rolled up 533
total yards — 351 of those on the
ground — on a Jay haw k defense that
had been giving up only 283.3 yards
per game and only 113.8 rushing yards
a game.
Last week, the Huskcrs defeated
Colorado 52-7, and the second con
secutive lopsided win over a rated
team left Nebraska coach Tom
Osborne confused.
“The last two weeks have been
hard for me to explain," he said. “1
thought both ol them would be lough
games.”
Entering the game, Osborne said,
he was especially worried about Kan
sas.
“I’m always a little more concerned
with a team that can run the ball, a
team that has the type of diversity that
Kansas had shown,” he said. “I really
thought that if we played real well we
might beat them by a couple touch
downs.”
Also worrying Osborne was the
fact that the Huskcrs seemed a little
Hat in the locker room before the
game and might not have been ca
pable of pulling out the same effort as
they had against Colorado a week
earlier.
"The thing that was bothering me
was just whether we’d be able to play
hard and play with emotion tw o weeks
in a row," he said. "I didn’t feel quite
the same attitude that I fell last week.”
Nebraska I-back Calvin Jones, w ho
rushed for 107 yards and two touch
downs on 13 carries, said the Huskcrs
were ready to play.
“We were ready to go,” Jones said.
“I don’t know' if it was quite like it was
a week ago against Colorado. That
was one of the concerns with the
coaches was how we were going to
come out and play alter a so-called
big victory last week.
“The team stepped up well.”
Husker defensive tackle John
Parrella said the defense was fired up
from the start.
“We felt this was another big
game,” he said. “When the big game’s
on the line, we come to play. ’
It was obvious that Nebraska had
come to play on the Huskcrs’ first
Nebraska-Kansas
Scoring Summary
|H .I-1
m
NU-Armslrong, 11 yd, pass from Frazier (Bennett kick)
NU-Dixon, 46 yd, pass from Frazier (Bennett kick)
KU-Ooug^as, 4 yd. run (Eichloft kick)
NMones, 5 yd, run (Bennett kick)
U-Jones. 6 yd. run (Bennett kick)
NU-Byrd, 30 yd. interception return (Bennett kick)
NU-Lewis, 5 yd. run (Bennettkick)
bally Nebraskan
possession. On the second play, I
back Derek Brown broke through the
Kansas defense for a 24-yard gain.
Brown, who led all rushers with
156 yards on 15 carries, said that play
set the tone for the rest of the game.
“After that first carry, I thought
that alter that we could do anything
we wanted with them,’' Brown said.
“Wccould have run anylhingal them.”
Three plays later, freshman quar
terback Tommie Fra/icr threw a 36
yard touchdown pass to tight end
Gerald Armstrong.
But Nebraska was lucky to get that
first score, Osborne said.
“I hale to admit it, but that first
touchdown pass was a disaster,” he
said. “It wasn ’t even close to the play
that was called. How it worked I’ll
never know.”
Nevertheless, with only a minute
and a half gone in the game, Nebraska
had a 7-0 lead.
The two teams traded punts until
the end ol the lirst quarter, when the
Huskers began driving again. On the
I irst play of the second quarter, Fra/icr
and Armstrong hooked up again, this
time from 11 yards to make the score
14-0. Fra/ier finished the game 6-for
II passing for 161 yards and three
touchdowns. Once again, he didn’t
throw an interception and the Huskcr
offense refused to turn the ball over.
It was soon 21-0 alter the Huskcr
defense held Kansasagain and Fra/ier
threw his third touchdown pass of the
game.
Nebraska’s defense held Kansas to
273 total yards and only 128 yards
rushing, 120 yards under the
Jayhawks’ average going into the
game.
Kansas did show an offensive spark
on its next possession. The Jayhawks
went 80 yards in eight plays and cut
the Husker lead to 21-7 on Maurice
Douglas’ 4-yard touchdown run.
It took Nebraska less than two
minutes to get that score back. After
Dixon returned the kickoff 28 yards to
the Nebraska 39, Jones capped a five
play drive with a 5-yard touchdown
run. Jones scored again in the quarter
on a 6-yard run to give the Huskers a
35-7 lead at halftime.
At that point, Nebraska had al
ready piled up 343 yards in offense,
compared with Kansas’ 157.
Brown said most of the credit was
due to the offensive line.
“I can’t congratulate the offensive
line enough because they do such
great jobs,” he said. “I’m just really
happy to be right behind them.”
After the second play of the second
half, few Jayhawks were happy.
Husker safety Tyrone Byrd stepped in
front of a Chip Hillcary pass, inter
cepted it and returned it 30 yards for
another Nebraska touchdown to make
the score 42-7.
“I just really focused on my re
ceiver,” Byrd said. “I got a really
good break on the ball. I looked back
just in time and the ball was right
there.
“I was just really determined to
catch it and make sure I got in the end
/one.”
Nebraska got in the Kansas end
/one once more on a 5-yard run by
Lance Lew is midway through the third
quarter. From then on, the Nebraska
reserves held Kansas in check and ran
out the clock.
Now at 7-1 and 4-0 in the Big
Eight, the Huskers hold the upper
hand in the race for the conference
championship. Osborne said lie hoped
the race for a second straight Orange
Bow l berth wouldn’t overshadow his
team’s accomplishments in the past
two games.
“My experience over the years is
that these kind of games somehow get
written off rather quickly,” he said. "I
hope that just because it was a sound
victory on our part that it isn’t over
looked somehow.”
That should be hard to do, Jones
said.
“If you look atlast week’s film and
this week’s film, it speaks for itself,"
lie said. “This Nebraska team has
really been playing well. Everyone is
coming together.
“I think it’s going to be great to sec
how we finish the year.”
■ Kansas team on rebound
from painful loss to NU
By Jeff Singer
Senior Reporter___
As the Kansas football players left
Memorial Stadium Saturday night,
they were showered with the chant
“Beat CU . .. BcatCU.”
But the Nebraska crowd’s support
of the Jayhawks for their gamcagainsl
Colorado next week failed to help
case the pain of the 49-7 defeat to the
Comhuskcrs. .
The loss dropped Kansas into sec
ond place in the Big Eight and all but
dashed the Jayhawks’ hopes of going
to the Orange Bowl for the first time
in 24 years.
“It knocks my hopes down a little
bit, because it was good to be in the
driver’s scat lor as long as we were,
but now the Big Eight title doesn’t rest
in our hands anymore,” Kansas offen
sive guard Hcsslcy Hempstead said.
The 13th-rankcd Jayhawks lost
their first conference game to drop
their record to 4-1 in Big Eight play
and 7-2 overall.
Kansas quarterback Chip Hillcary
said it was embarrassing to lose by 42
points in such an important game.
“I definitely was expecting a lot
closer game, and I think everybody
around us was,” Hillcary said. He had
-St-- troublcallnighigctling the Jayhawks’
Erik Unger/DN
\
offense in gear.
“We just didn’t show up to play,”
he said.
Kansas defensive tackle Dana
Stubblefield agreed.,.4
“Everybody expected us to play
better than that,” Stubblefield said.
“I’m not surprised at the way we
played—I'm disappointed at the way
we played.”
Coming into the game, Kansas had
either led or been tied at halftime in 16
of its last 19 games. But at the half
Saturday, the Jayhawks trailed 35-7.
Hillcary said Kansas’ slow start
led to its defeat.
“It seems like every game we’ve
come into this year, we’ve set a tone
early by scoring in the first series, and
that didn’t happen today,” Hillcary
said.
“It’s hard when you’re down three
or four touchdowns rightolT the bat—
I think that has a lot to do mentally.
With a Nebraska football team that
can keep pulling points on the board,
it’s tough.” . *
Hillcary, who’entered the game
with only eight interceptions this year,
threw two against the Huskers. He
said he wished the fans that wanted
Kansas to beat Colorado next Satur
day would have been more supportive
of the Jayhawks against Nebraska.
“We had a hard time with the
Ians,” Hillcary said. “They had in
crcdiblc noise in thisplacc,and I think
that’s a big factor.”
As for Kansas’ postseason hopes,
the second-place Big Eight team goes
into a bowl coalition involving nu
merous major bowls, while the third
place team from the conference will
play in the Aloha Bowl on Christmas
Day.
The Kansas players said they would
rather beat Colorado next week and
solidify a spot in the coalition than
spend Christmas in Honolulu.
“Rebounding won’t be a problem
— I’m looking forward to the Colo
rado game,” Hempstead said.
The Jayhaw ks’ only other loss this
year was a 27-23 setback to Califor
nia, and Kansas went on to post a four
game winning streak following that
defeat.
Stubblefield said he w as expecting
the same kind of Kansas resilience
this time around.
“We did it once and we can do it
again,” he said.
Hempstead agreed.
“We’re having one of our best
seasons around here that Kansas has
had in quite a while, so we’ve just got
to keep keeping it on,” Hempstead
said.
•V- '
Clockwise from top: Derek Brown turns the corner against the
Jay hawks. Brown rushed for 156 yards on 15 carries, the second
highest rushing total of his NU career,
Nebraska’s Corey Dixon catches a 46-yard touchdown pass from
Tommie Frazier while evading KU’s Robert Vaughn in the second
quarter. *
NU s Steve Carmer, left, Travis Hill, middle and John Reece, right,
celebrate an unsuccessful KU first down attempt in the second
quarter. r
Tight end Gerald Armstrong scores on a second-quarter Tommie
Frazier pass to put the Cornhuskers up 14-0.
i
MMm
1992
AS OF 11/7/92 RECORD PTS PVS.
jL Miami (61) 8-0-0 1,549 _2^
2 Alabama (1) 9-0-0 1,463 _3
^ Michigan 8-0-1 1,424 4
4 Texas A&M 9-0-0 1,340 _5
5 Florida St. 8-1-0 1,313 6
6 Washington 8-1-0 1,201 1
Nebraska 7-1-0 1,192 7^
9 Notre Dame 7-1-1 1,092 8
9 Arizona 6-2-1 1,074 12
EO Syracuse 8-1-0 1,033 10
LI Florida 6-2-0 886 14
L2 Georgia 7-2-0 830 15
L3 Colorado 7-1-1 788 16
E4 N. Carolina St. 7-2-1 699 17
L5 Stanford 7-3-0 626 21
L6 Mississippi St. 7-2-0 588 19
17 Boston College 7-1-1 571 9
L8 Southern Cal 5-2-1 515 11
L9 Ohio St.' 7-2-0 467 22
20 Kansas 7-2-0 370 13
21 Washington St. 7-2-0 298 25
22 Penn SI. 6-3 0 280 23
23 Tennessee 5-3^ 190 24
24 Hawaii_7-1-0 151
25 N. Carolina 7-3-0_67 18
( ) - First place voles AP
A