Nebra’skan
Tueedey, September 14,19SS
_________... _
Al Schaben/DN
Nebraska winoback Abdul Muhammad stretches to catch a pass during the second half of the
Comhuskers 50-27 victory over Texas Tech.
Hometown favorite
Receiver takes aim to make game special
By Mitch Sherman
Staff Raoortar_
For junior wingback Abdul
Muhammad, Nebraska’s matchup
Saturday with UCLA in the Rose
Bowl is morp than just a chance to
showcase his talents in front of a
national television audience.
' It’s a chance for Muhammad to
play in front of numerous friends
and family members.
Muhammad, who grew up in
gang- infested Compton, Cal if., near
Los Angeles, will be playing his
first football game in the Los
Angeles area since high school.
, And it will be the first time
Muhammad has returned to his
hometown since this summer —
when he was shot in the back during
a drive-by shooting in July.
Muhammad and a few friends
were hanging out when gang
members fired at them. Muhammad
said he bent over before being struck
by the bullet.
Had he been standing up, he
said, doctors told him the bullet
would have hit him in the chest.
Although the bullet remains lodged
in his buttock, itdoes not cause any
pain, Muhammad said, and has not
Hampered him on the gridiron.
But it has altered his perspective.
“It has changed me some,”
Muhammad said. “Being that I
could have died, it changed my life.
I'm thinking about positive things
now.
“Before I was thinking about
what if I get shot and this and that.
And now that I’ve been shot. I’m
just staying focused and thinking
about positive things."
The negative things were often
tough to escape in Compton,
Muhammad said.
“Sometimes in high school it
was hard to stay focused, because
of the things that went on around
you in the neighborhood,” he said.
“My school was 15 minutes outside
of where I stayed. I went to school
in the nice neighborhood. I’d be
focused on football and class and
getting the job done.
“When I came home, the
scenario changed,” he said. “You
get around the gangs. It was hard to
stay focused on things.”
See MUHAMMAD on 8
Alberts leads
defense, gets
league honor
By Jeff Griesch
Senior Reporter
Trev Alberts is not a guy who likes
to let plays come to him—he likes to
make things happen.
The 6-foot-4, 240-pound senior
outside linebacker from Cedar Falls,
Iowa, made things happen in
Nebraska’s 50-27 over Texas Teph on
Saturday.
Alberts led the Comhuskers with
11 tackles, including three sacks of
Red Raiders’ quarterback Robert Hall.
For his performance Saturday,
Alberts was named the Big Eight
Conference Defensive Player-of-the
Week Monday.
“I took it upon myself that 1 had to
make something happen,” Alberts
said.
With Nebraska clinging to a 23-21
lead in the third quarter, Alberts ’ third
sack of the day forced Hall to fumble
deep in Texas Tech territory. Nebraska
recovered and eventually scored the
deciding touchdown.
“No oneeven thought for a minute
that we were going to lose that game,”
Alberts said. “Everybody was really
working hard to get us the win.”
However, Alberts said, the
closeness of Saturday’s game may
benefit the Huskers when they face
teams like UCLA, Nebraska’s next
opponent.
“I think we’re a better team this
week than we were last week, and I
think we’ll keep getting better from
week to week,” Alberts said.
“We may Took back in three or four
weeks and say this was a really good
game for us because it was a tough
game.” '
After the game, the Butkus Award
candidate was more interested in
looking ahead to the Huskers’
upcoming game with UCLA than in
talking about his performance against
the Red Raiders.
“Next week’s game is going to be
tough because we are going to be on
the road against a team with great
tradition, and we know they have
great athletes,” Alberts said.
Alberts said that if the Huskers
were going to beat the Bruins, the
Nebraska defense needed to cut down
on mental errors.
“We m^de some mistakes
See ALBERTS on 8
Osborne expects tough
challenge from UCLA
By Mitch Sherman
Staff Raoorter
Nebraska football coach Tom
Osborne told the Extra Point Club
Monday to expect a difficult game
Saturday at the Rose Bowl against
UCLA.
The Bruins, who did not play last
week, lost to No. 21 ranked Cal ifomia,
27-25, in their opener, despite
dominating the second half.
“The second half was all UCLA,”
Osborne said. “UCLA was driving
and was down at the 20-25 yard line,
within field goal range, with about 20
seconds left. They decided to try one
more pass to get a little closer, but
they had it picked off.”
Osborne said UCLA provides a
contrast to Texas Tech. The Huskers
beat Texas Tech 50-27 Saturday.
“Tech had most of their experience
returning on offense,” he said. “UCLA
has most of their experience returning
on defense. They felt their defense
would be a very, very strone part of
their football team. After that first
game, they’ll look at this as kind of a
make or break situation."
Injuries continue to scramble
Nebraska’s quarterback situation,
Osborne said.
“Frazier was very fortunate last
week to be able to do what he did,”
Osborne said. “I think he ended up
playing well — very well under the
circumstances. We had thought he
would play 30-35 snaps. He ended up
playing 85.”
Osborne said Brook Berrineer
continues to be bothered by a chronic
elbow problem, which began when he
was a high school baseball pitcher.
Tony Veland suffered tendon
damage in his knee Saturday and will
be out foreight to 10 months, Osborne
said. He underwent surgery Sunday.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Ben
Rutz, who is recovering from surgery
to repair a tom ligament in his knee,
will probably make the trip to UCLA,
Osborne said.
Rutz will only be used in case of an
emergency.
Osborne touched briefly on two
other topics.
“As far as I’m concerned, you can
take those (Top 25) rankings and put
them somewhere where it doesn’t
make much difference. It’s amazing
how much public perception focuses
on whether you are ranked or not and
where you arc ranked. I think by the
end of the season, when you play
eight, nine, 10 games, those rankings
start to reflect something.”
He further addressed the NCAA’s
See EXTRA POINT on 8
Texas A&M, SWC don t measure up to images, Big 8
This weekend proved one thing to
football fans in the Lone Star state.
Sorry, but your beloved teams in
the Southwest Conference stink.
The Southwest Conference may
want to begin scheduling its non
conference opponents from a
conference other than the Big Eight.
Perhaps the Big Sky Conference or
even an intramural flag football league.
After the first weekend of college
football, when Oklahoma ripped Texas
Christian 35-3 and Colorado
embarrassed Texas 36-14 on national
television, Saturday’s games were a
major blow to the Southwest
conference, the country’s worst.
The Big Eight, known for being a
mediocre conference, destroyed the
Southwest Conference and its so
called powerhouses.
Let’s start with Texas A&M, the
most overrated team in the history of
college football. The only team more
overrated than the 1993 Aggies was
the 1992 Aggies.
A&M was ranked fifth in the nation
until they met up with Oklahoma, the
Big Eight’s fourth-place team in 1992.
Oklahoma’s 44-14 rout Saturday
finally gave the Southwest Conference
fansasign that has been visible for the
rest of the country: There isn’t a team
in the conference worthy of being a
Top 20 team.
Next comes Baylor, another top
notch Southwest school, which took
on Colorado.
A reporter in the Nebraska press
box Saturday covering Texas Tech
commented that he ‘"guaranteed a
Baylor win over Colorado.”
Derek
Samson
Well, he was almost right. Only
another 25 points—Colorado rolled
to a 45-21 win — and the Southwest
Conference reporter/fan could have
boasted “I told you so.”
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said
Texas Tech had a legitimate chance to
win the Southwest Conference and
had a shot at landing a spot in the Top
20 if things fell into place.
The Top 20 doesn’t look possible
considering Nebraska, which was
rated ninth in the AP poll, played a
below-average game and still won by
23.
Texas Tech does look to have a
shot at winning the conference, after
finishing tied for second last year
despite having a losing record overall.
AH the Red Raiders need to do is
knock off Texas A&M, which Doane
College in Crete could probably do. If
Texas Tech does beat A&M, then
both teams could represent the
Southwest Conference in the “others
receiving votes” section of the Top
25, right along such powers as Akron
and Memphis State.
Oklahoma State coach Pat Jones
said he would like to see the Big Eight
and Southwest conferences combine
to form the Big Southwest.
Unless Jones wants to make the
Big Eight look dominant over an
overrated conference, the Big Eight
should look elsewhere.
Why not join with a more
competitive conference — like the
Western Athletic Conference — and
form the Big WAC?
It will be interesting to see if the
Southwest can come out with a win
over the Big Eight this season.
As of now, it stands Big Eight S,
Southwest Conference 0. And in total
points the Big Eight edged the
Southwest 210 to 79.
Not bad, Southwest Conference,
considering the teams that lost were at
the top of your conference.
Samoa U a sophomore aews editortai
major aad a Daily Nebraska* sports reporter
aad columaist.
