Nebraskan
Thursday, Saptambar 0,1909
Sports
Red Raiders set for ‘cat’ fight, coach says
By Mitch Sherman
Staff Reporter
For the second consecutive week,
the Nebraska football team will play
host to a team from Texas.
But this week could be a completel y
different story than Nebraska’s 76-14
blowout of North Texas, Texas Tech
coach Spike Dykes said.
“I think our offense is going to be
Sreductive,” Dykes said. “Werre not
arefooted. We can move the ball. I
don’t know to what extent, though.”
Texas Tech returns nine starters
from an offense that averaged a school
record 423 total yards per game last
season.
And the Red Raiders picked up
where they left off last week, crushing
Pacific Saturday 55-7, while piling up
587 yards of total offense.
However, Dykes said, the Huskers
will be a much greater test for his team
than Pacific.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,”
Dykes said. “We had some nice things
happen last week (against Pacific). At
times we looked pretty doggone good.
“But playing Nebraska is a whole
different story. We’re talking about a
different breed of cat.”
And a cat with a good coach, he
said.
“They’re extremely well-coached
and never make a bad play,” Dykes
said. “Their line is so big, 1 don’t
know where they get the scale to
weigh them all.
“It’s a program that everyone
envies. We know we’re in for a long,
hard day.”
Following their trip to Lincoln,
Texas Tech is in for a long haul —
they must travel to Baylor and Georgia,
before returning home to play Texas
A&M and North Carolina State. All
four teams are currently ranked.
“It’s an extremely hard run,” Dykes
said. “But if we can stay healthy and
don't get lambasted Saturday at
Nebraska, we can be competitive.”
Dykes said he was not preparing to
put everything on the line against the
Huskers.
“We’re not going to put all our
eggs in one basket and say if we lose
_44
Everything is bigger and stronger and faster than
we saw last Saturday. And there’s a whole lot more
of them.
— Dykes
Texas Tech coach
this one it’s our season,” Dykes said.
“We feel like we can go in there and
gain a lot of experience. Who knows
in football today, if you have a break
or two, you have a chance to win the
game.”
The Red Raiders boast three
dangerous offensive weapons,
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said.
•r v
Senior Lloyd Hill, a preseason All
American, at split end, I-back Byron
“Bam” Morris, who gained more yards
as a sophomore last year than Calvin
Jones, and senior quarterback Robert
Hall, who completed 20 of 30 passes
for 327 yards against Pacific, lead the
See DYKES on 8
Strickland may
take on third
sport—football
By Jeff Griesch
Staff Reporter
Erick Strickland did it all in high school, and
now he wants to do it all in college, too.
After a two-year absence from the gridiron,
Strickland told the Daily Nebraskan on Wednes
day that he wants to play football for Nebraska.
Strickland said he misses his childhood love
— football — after two summers of playing
professional baseball and a year on the Nebras
ka basketball team.
. He quit playing football after his junior year
at' Bellevue West High School because of a
shoulder injury.
But now that his shoulder is healed, he wants
to give football a shot at Nebraska.
“Today my shoulder feels strong and I feel
like it is OK lor me to play again,” St*i£kland
said. “Once you play a sport for so long in your
life and then drop it, you tend to start to miss it
and want to play again."
However, Strickland said he would not give
14) basketball or baseball in order to pursue his
football career.
Strickland said he simply thinks he has a
better chance at making it into the National
Football League than he does in the NBA.
“For a guy like me at 6-foot-3 and 210
pounds, it is pretty tough to make it in profes
sional basketball because I would be small,”
Strickland said. “In football though, at that size,
I would be big as a wide receiver or in the
(defensive) secondary."
Last year, Strickland said he wanted to keep
his options open between baseball and basket
ball, but he did not rule out playing football as
a fifth-year senior.
But now, Strickland says that football is an
option for him this year.
“This year may be just a learning thing for
me where I watch what they’re doing and try to
pick things up, but I am interested in football
right now,” Strickland said.
Strickland would not say for sure when he
would start playing football, but he pointed
toward this spring.
Strickland has talked with Husker football
See STRICKLAND on 11
WWiam L«uar/DN
Nebraska comefback Kareem Moss eludes North Texas tacklers on his 52-yard punt return against North Texas.
‘Juco’ transfers boost Husker defense
By Tim Pearson
Senior Report*
Last year, coining in as junior college
transfers, Kareem Moss and Toby Wright
had to learn Nebraska’s 5-2 defensive system.
This year, they had to leam the 4-3 .which
Moss said catered to both players’ abilities.
Now both are key players in the new
“Husker” 4-3 defensive scheme.
They proved it in the first game of the
season against North Texas.
“I think I’ve improved tremendously from
last season,” Moss said. “I’m honored to be
a part of the Nebraska defense.”
Wright is also glad to be involved in the
Husker defense, he said. Being a successful
football player was almost expected from
him. Football runs in Toby Wright’s family.
Wright has been trying to show his brothers
for years that he could play football.
He showed them last Saturday in
Nebraska’s 76-14 victory over North Texas,
as he recorded a 33-yard interception return
for a touchdown.
Wright, a senior rover in the “Husker”
defense, has two brothers who have played
professional football — Terry, who now
plays in the Canadian Football League, and
Torrey, who was a running back for the New
York Giants in the National Football League.
“I can’t wait to get home to call them up,”
Toby Wright said after Saturday’s victory.
“I always let them know that I could play
before anyone, and now they know that I can
do it.
“North Texas threw the ball up a lot, and
1 felt like I’d get an interception,” he said.
Moss contributed to the Husker victory
on both offense and defense.
A junior comerback from Spartanburg,
S.C., Moss had a 52-yard punt return in the
first quarter, which set Op the Huskers’
second touchdown of the game. Moss also
had one tackle as the backup to starting
comerback John Reece.
“I’m playing a bigger part this season,”
Moss said. “And I don’t like guys catching
passes on me, so I’d like to pay them back
with a 100-yard punt return.”
Wright had three tackles against the Eagles
along with his first interception at Nebraska.
On the interception return, Wright said
he just used his instincts and his moves to get
into the end zone.
“On the interception, I drifted into the
throwing lane, John Reece tipped the ball,
and it just popped up,” Wright said. “I
See DBs on 11
Tigers Big 10 lobbying will place program in Misery
One suggestion for the Misery
(Missouri) athletic program: Before
realigning your school with the Big
Ten, realign your thinking.
“MU — A National Asset," a
Misery booster group, embarked on a
campaign earlier this summer( to
promote Misery academics. In a clear
move to draw the Big Ten’s attention,
it concluded that Misery’s academics
had skyrocketed past the Big Eight to
the level of the Big Ten.
Anyone smell Tiger doo doo?
Misery’s move would have nothing
to do with academics and everything
to do with athletics.
In the Big Ten, the Tigers would
have a better chance at television
revenue in both basketball and
football. Exposure on the tube, of
course, means more recruits in the
Misery pipeline.
But tnere’s one big Tiger hairball
in this pipe. 1
Put simply, Misery has no stripes
to back up their claims as a top
academic program in the Big Eight.
Just look at the list of Academic
All-Big Eight football players since
1980.
Nebraska tops the list with 94
players. Oklahoma is second with 51.
Kansas State is third with 41 and
Kansas is fourth with 31.
Where’s Misery? Fifth, with 29
rs on the all-academic teams.
t’s see: That’s Nebraska 94,
Misery 29. Sounds like a football
score.
Go ahead, Misery, try taking those
numbers to the Big Ten. They love
athletic programs committed to
student-athletes.
And it’s known that they also have
a passion for student groups like the
Antlers, those incredibly classy Misery
fans. The Antlers are the fans that
prompted Iowa State’s Jeff Grayer,
Todd
Cooper
who’s normally calmer than lake
water, to climb into the stands after
the Antlers shouted insults about his
mom during a game three years ago.
The Big Ten clearly wants more
academians like Jevon Crudup.
The Misery basketball player was
arrested Monday night tor driving
drunk, driving fast, driving on the
wrong side of the road and driving on
the shoulder of the wrong side of the
road.
Or maybe, just maybe, the Big ten
wants another hothead basketball
coach.
Norm Stewart — who once
threatened a reporter that the writer’s
baby could be endangered if he printed
a story revealing violations in Misery’s
basketball program — might fit in
nicely witn rampaging Big Ten
coaches like Purdue’s Gene Keady,
Michigan State’s Jud Heathcote and
Knight.
Stewart’s program would fit in
nicely with its Big Ten twin, Illinois.
The Tigers and III ini are neck-and
neck at putting their necks on the line
with NCAA violations. Both programs
were put on probation for blatant and
excessive recruiting violations.
And now more than ever, the Tigers
will need the company of teams Tike
Illinois in the Big Ten.
As Iowa State football coach Jim
Walden said:
“I don’t like reading where a
member of my family says he likes
another family better than he does
mine. I take it a little personally.’’
Other Big Eight coaches have
joined Walden andhave called for the
conference to penalize teams who
decide to leave the Big Eight.
The Tigers already will be
Cenalized when they’re slaughtered
y Big Eight teams out to dethrone the
so-called academic kings.
In the spirit of realignment, the rest
of the conference should also impose
the ultimate penal tyonMisery: Leave
the Tigers floundering in the Misery
Valley and have the other six teams
east of Colorado join the Big Ten.
Colorado could join the Pacific 10
Conference.
And as for the Tigers, they’d be left
in Misery — on their high academic
perches above everyone else.
That way, Misery will have no
company to complain about.
Cower li ■ Motor ocws-edttortai Major
a ad the Dally Nebraakaa sports editor.