Sports
NelSraskan
Thursday, August 5,1993
Scholarship reduction ends Steer’s NU career
By Derek Samson
Staff Reporter
With the blink of an eye, Tom
Steer’s lifelong dream of playing foot
ball for Nebraska was over.
Steer’s football days at Nebraska
ended last spring when he was in
formed by Osborne that he would be
given a medical scholarship and not
be allowed to continue playing foot
ball.
“At the end of spring ball, every
player goes in and has a quick meeting
with Coach Osborne,” Steer said. “I
was expecting to hear everything was
going good like I did the year before.
“Instead, I was told I had the option
of cither accepting a medical scholar
ship or transferring schools.”
The medical scholarship would pay
for the rest of Steer’s school, but
would not allow him to play football.
“Basically, they cut me and felt
bad about doing it so they offered me
a medical scholarship,” he said. “They
fell that would justify it.”
Steer, a former all-state player for
Crete, said he had recovered from the
hamstring injury that caused him to be
offered a medical scholarship.
“I only lost one-tenth of a second
off my 40 (yard dash) time and it
wasn’t because of my hamstring be
cause I’m recovered from that,” he
said. “They thought it was because of
the injury, but I think it was because
I beefed up for them.”
Osborne said the need to get Ne
braska under the NCAA-imposed 88
players on scholarship played a role in
Steer being placed on medical schol
Strength coach pleased
despite stadium construction
uy Derek Samson
Staff Reporter
Nebraska football players wrapped
up their summer of strength and con
ditioning training Tuesday night and
strength coach Boyd Eplcy said was
pleased with the Comhuskers' perfor
mance.
“It was a consistent effort,” Epley
said. “It’s hard to compare it to years
in the past, but I can say the players arc
real focused on this season.”
Problems which complicated the
summer workouts were the weather
and work being done on Memorial
Stadium.
Players had to move from the west
stadium strength complex area for
three weeks because of stadium in
spections. They also had to use the
freshmen locker area in the north sta
dium because of a locker room re
modeling project lasting all summer.
Painting also kept them off Memorial
Stadium’s artificial turf.
“We’ve had an awfully strange
summer with all the rain and the con
struction,” Epley said. “It’s been just
one adjustment after another.”
Summer workouts are on an op
tional basis, Epley sai(J, but Coaches
encourage players to workout four
days a week.
“Since it’s voluntary, it is a differ
ent number all the lime,” he said.
“One night we m ight have 85 and then
the next only have 45 in there.”
Kevin Ram ackers, Calvin Jones
and Zach Wicgert were among play
ers Epley said showed excellent lead
ership during the summer.
In the weight room, Epley said
M ike Anderson and Gerald Armstrong
were standouts, but offensive guard
Brcndcn Slai highlighted the summer
lifting program.
“Brcnden Slai has done an out
standing job,” he said. “He is closing
in on breaking the school bench press
record of500 pounds (set by Lawrence
Pete) ”
-44
Basically, they cut me
and felt bad about
doing It so they tit
tered me a medical
scholarship. They felt
that would justify it
— Steer
former Nebraska Wingback
-tt -
arship. He said Slccr had nol recov
ered his speed after suffering ham
string pulls. Steer also suffered a bro
ken hand.
“Obviously, we have a numbers
problem here because we had 95 schol
r
arships two years ago and 88 this
year,” he said. “Any player who is not
100 percent is somewhat subject to
being placed on some other status.”
Osborne said the coaching staff
felt placing Steer on medical scholar
ship was the fairest decision.
“We felt the fairest thing for Tom
— he was probably fifth or sixth on
the depth chart at wingback—we felt
the fairest thing we could do was give
him a chance to finish his education
by pulling him on a medical scholar
ship,” he said. Osborne said the
NCAA-imposed limits would cause
more situations like Steer’s in the
future.
“You are going to see more of
this,” he said. “You arc going to have
more and more incidents where peo
ple (medically) can’t play and and we
can’t keep them on scholarship.”
The lough part now for Steer now
is the decision he has to make.
“I’m healthy and I have a lot of
potential, but now it’s just a matter of
what to do,” Steer said. “I always
wanted to play for the Big Red and
now the hardest part is explaining to
people exactly what happened.
“A lot of people think it is because
of grades, but my grade point average
is a 2.9, so that has nothing to do with
it.”
Steer said he was looking into play
ing at some Division II schools, in
cluding the University of Nebraska at
Omaha.
“The way I look at it is you’re only
young once and only able to play this
game for so long, so you might as well
lake advantage of being able to play.”
KHey Tlmpertey/DN
Going for Gold
Former University of Nebraska-Uncoln student Todd Reynolds figure skates his way to
a gold medal with his partner Karen Courtland during the U.S. Olympic Festival in San
Antonio. The games, which included several UNL athletes, concluded on Sunday.
NU quarterback brings new optimism to Big Red fever
uk, so mayoe it is tnc ume ot year
when Bi£ Red fever begins to rise and
expectations are at their pedes.
Maybe it is the same attitude of
optimism that the stale of Nebraska
f;ets every August that is turned into
rustration every January.
Maybe Nebraska will continue to
be cheated by pollsters and Nebraska
fans will keep griping about running
the ball too much, despite having a
Heisman Trophy candidate at run
ning back.
But this year should be different.
This year should be different be
cause Nebraska will return toward the
top of the college rankings, and finish
ranked as high as fourth or fifth na
tionally.
What makes this season any differ*
ent from last year or any other year?
One giant reason is Nebraska is
heading into the season with a talent
ed, experienced quarterback. Not since
Steve Taylor have Comhusker fans
known and felt good about their quar
terback before the season began.
Tommie Frazier proved to the na
tion he could handle the pressure of
big games when he led Nebraska to
consecutive routs over rated Big Eight
opponents Colorado and Kansas.
Another reason is the schedule,
which could be improved by adding a
high school Class C team.
In past years, Nebraska usually
had one Or two very strong non-con
ference opponents, like Washington.
This year, the only name that jumps
out is UCLA, and the Bruins are far
from a national power anymore.
The Big Eight is improving with
Derek
Samson
the rise of Kansas, but other than the
Colorado gampin Boulder, the Husk
ers should breeze through the sched
ule. The best Big Eight contest in
Lincoln will be with Iowa State, as
Husker fans may see Nebraska hit
triple digits in a effort at revenge.
But then its on to the Orange Bowl
to play a Florida team in the snake pit
they call a field.
Although the Huskers did lose their
sixth-straight bowl game 27-14 to
Florida State last year, it was not even
close to the embarrassment they en
dured in four out of the five previous
bowl games, with losses like 45-21
and 41-17.
The game could have easily had
been much closer. Nebraska was only
a couple bad bounces away from
making Florida Stale, who many ar
gue were the best team in the nation,
really start to sweat.
Nebraska has the personnel this
year to end that losing streak and
surprise 9 lot of people. It has one of
the two best running backs in the
country in Calvin Jones and probably
the best linebacker core in the nation.
Not to mention another mammoth
offensive line.
If the Huskers can gel through the
season without any major letdowns
and go into the bowl game with an
unblemished record, prepare yourself
lo see a classic championship game.
Nebraska can match-up much belter
this year than in the past.
Nobody would deserve it more
than coach Tom Osborne. As the Big
Red faithful criticize him throughout
the ofT-season for losing to Florida
State and only winning nine games,
he quietly prepares to produce anoth
er 20 team.
vever, this one should be the
best since his 1983 Huskers. Maybe it
is just a severe case of Big Red fever,
but it is time for Nebraska lo climb
back up to the ranks from where it has
slipped as one of the top powerhouses
in college football.
Samson is a sophomore news-editorial
major and a Summer Daily Nebraskan sports
reporter.
