Nebraskan VpODXQ
Tuesday, November 16, 1993 ^ £ X. M 1^/
Cyclone coach says Huskers should be No. 2
By Jeff Griesch
Senior Reporter____
Iowa State football coach Jim
Walden stuck up for Nebraska on
Monday, saying the Cornhuskcrs
deserve a shot at a national
championship if they beat Oklahoma.
Walden said the Huskcrs’ 49-17
win over Walden's Cyclones on
Saturday, combined with Florida
State’s 31-24 loss to new No. 1 Notre
Dame, should have been enough to
move the Huskcrs to the No. 2 spot in
the polls. Nebraska is No. 2 in the
coaches’ poll, but is third behind
Florida State in both the writers’ poll
and the coalition poll, which
determines bowl matchups and a
national title game.
“Nebraska didn’t just get off the
damn bus,” Walden said during the
Big Eight coaches’ weekly
teleconference. “They have been
pretty damn good for a long time.
Nebraska needs as much respect as
Notre Dame and Florida State.”
Part of the reason Nebraska is being
snubbed by Associated Press voters,
Walden said, is because the writers
have a feeling they should give
Seminole coach Bobby Bowden every
chance to win the national
championship.
“I’ll be so damn glad when that guy
finally wins one so we can get on with
doing things the way we have done
them for the past 25 years,” Walden
said. “1 think a lot of writers have
gotten into this ‘let’s do it for Bobby’
mentality.”
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne
sympathized with Bowden’s inability
to win a national championship.
Osborne said he thought the
Seminoles had been the best team at
the end of the season in three of the
past five years. And despite the loss
Saturday, he said, the Seminoles have
proven they are one of the best in the
country again.
But Walden showed no sympathy
for Bowden’s situation.
“He got his butt beat,” Walden
said. “In fact if it wasn’t for ade fleeted
pass in the end zone, it would have
been 31-17.”
Now that Florida State has
stumbled, Walden said, Nebraska
deserves a chance.
- «
Nebraska needs as
much respect as
Notre Dame and
Florida State.
- Walden
Iowa State coach
- 99 _
“Florida State had their shot, and
now Nebraska deserves to be in that
No. 2 spot.”
Huskers plan
to play season
without center
By Jeff Griesch
Senior Reporter
Without a true center, the Nebraska
basketball team is going to rely on a more wide
open and guard-oriented offensive attack this
season, coach Danny Nee said Monday.
The Cornhuskers — which open Tuesday
night with an exhibition against Spartak Club,
the Ukrainian National basketball team — will
not even list a center in the starting lineup.
Tipoff is at 7 p.m.
Nee said the Huskers would go with a three
guard and two-forward lineup and planned to
play without a center all season.
“We are going to play an open-post type
offense where you physically won't sec a guy
on the box,” Nee said. “It’s a shotgun type of
v^l.
Nee half-jokingly compared the offense to
more of a playground style of basketball and
said he thought the players were really going to
enjoy the new system.
“1 went back to Brooklyn where everyone
wants to handle the ball and everyone wants to
shoot it and no one wants to play defense,” Nee
said. “I think that’s how you can describe our
team.”
Nebraska senior point guard Jamar Johnson
said the Huskcrs would live and die by the
outside shot this season, both on offense and
defense.
“We plan on trying to shoot 25 “threes' a
game,” Johnson said. “And part of our plan on
defense is going to be to make teams beat us
from the outside.”
Along with Johnson and Piatkowski, Nee
said, sophomore Jaron Boone will start at guard
tonight. Senior Bruce Chubick and sophomore
Terrance Badgett will start at forwards.
NOTE:
— Before the men’s game tonight, the
women’s team will take on the St. Louis
Hoopstcrs in a 4:45 p.m. game. Admission is
free for students.
Husker coach Angela Beck said she wouldn’t
predict a win, but she hopes her young team can
learn from the game.
“I want (the Hoopstcrs) to come in and teach
us a few things,” she said. “I want to sec some
different player combinations.”
Beck said the Huskcrs would display a new
motion offense against the Hoopstcrs.
“It’s the motion offense of the ’90s,” she
said.
The Huskcrs return two starters — point
guard Mcggan Yedscna and forward Nafeesah
Brown—from last year’s 23-8 team. The other
three starters will be sophomore guards Kate
Galligan and Lis Brenden and sophomore
forward Dina Haselip.
Kiley Timperley/DN
Nebraska’s Tyrone Williams, right, battles with Iowa State’s Jason Putz for one of the two fumbles he recovered Saturday
during the opening kickoff of the Cornhuskers’ 49-17 win.
Season in stands motivates cornerback
By Mitch Sherman
Stall Reporter_
One year ago, Tyrone W ill iams sat in the
stands and watched as the Nebraska
Cornhuskcrs romped through the Big Eight
on their way to the Orange Bowl.
How times have changed.
The Huskers will once again be playing
in the Orange Bowl come New Year’s Day.
But this time Williams will be playing a big
role as Nebraska’s starting right corncrback.
The 6-foot, 180-pound sophomore was a
casualty of the NCAA’s Proposition 48 last
year and was forced to sit out the football
season.
“It was very hard,” Williams said. “1 had
never sat out a year of football before. There
were even a couple of times that I thought
about going home—not quitting football—
but transferring somewhere else.”
Williams said he was glad he stayed.
The sophomore from Palmetto, Fla., has
made the most of his opportunities this
season. After beginning the year uni istcd on
the depth chart, he has moved into a starting
role.
And he has played a key role in the
Huskers’ success this season, especial ly when
it comes to making big plays. He intercepted
a halfback pass to thwart a Kansas State
drive inside the 10-yard line with less than
one minute remaining in the first half of
Nebraska’s 45-28 win.
On Saturday, Williams recovered an Iowa
State fumble on the opening kickoff to set up
a Fluskcr score. He also recovered a fumble
on Iowa State’s first play from scrimmage,
which led to another Nebraska touchdown.
“The game goes by, and things happen
fast,” Williams said.
Things almost happened too fast for
Williams last year.
While Williams considered leaving, he
had to watch his roommate and high school
teammate Tommie Frazier make a quick
impact at Nebraska.
Frazier’s success “kind of added to” his
frustration, he said.
“I had to watch while he’s out there
starting out at quarterback,” he said. “It only
added to the rough times.”
But in retrospect, Williams said, sitting
out made him a better player and a better
person.
“It definitely helped me,” Williams said.
“It made me look at the positive things, not
the negative things. I think it helped me
grow up. That was something I did a lot last
year.”
Simply playing has made this season
special, Williams said.
“Any time you get to play after sitting out
is a huge thing,” he said. “Making the big
plays just adds on.” _
Video game can answer national
championship question
Enough talk about the coalition
and the biased writers’ poll.
Think video games and national
championships.
They go hand-in-hand. Whatever
happens in video games happens in
real life. Right?
So with the national title up for
grabs, it’s time to turn to the almighty
Sega Genesis oracle. Add Sega to the
1 ist of the great prophets of way back.
Most people think the title race is
between Florida State and Notre
Dame. The Comhuskers feel they
deserve to be invited into the national
championship race. And the Fighting
Irish could be their date to the big
dance.
And according to Saint Sega and
Bill Walsh’s College Football, the
Huskers and the Irish would be a
match made in heaven.
Saint Sega says the Huskers could
put up a better fight against the Irish
than Barney did against Big Bird.
Although the teams on Bill Walsh
are from last season, let’s pretend last
year’s Husker and Irish teams are
similar to this year’s.
The Orange Bowl is held in Lincoln
for once—at least it was on my screen
the other night.
It would be Lou Holtz vs. Tom
Osborne. No. 1 against No. 2. Osborne
Tim
Pearson
finally gets another chance to quench
his thirst for a national championship.
Notre Dame marched down the
screen — 1 mean, the field — on its
first drive and quickly put up a field
goal to take the lead. After Tommie
Frazier threw an interception, the Irish
again connected on a 34-yarder to
make it 6-0.
The inevitable — Nebraska I
choking in a bowl game — was I
happening. It’s just like always. I
But it didn’t happen. The Nebraska ^
players had said all season they’d find
a way to win. Frazier had guaranteed \
that if the national title was on the 1 ine 1
and the game was close, the Huskers <
would pull it out. i
Frazier calmly led the Huskers on
twodrives which resulted in 10 points. !
The Huskers were up 10-6 at half. 1
The Irish came back with a
touchdown in the third but the extra
point attempt was blocked — by
Barron Miles. i
Frazier again stepped up in the i
ourth quarter, moving the ball to the
Jotrc Dame 4. With four seconds left,
Jyron Bennett entered and drilled a
:4-yardcr to start the celebration.
The Huskcrs proved their doubters
vrong, at least on the screen. It could
lappen. They have the will to win
,nd, if given the chance, they can take
t all. Wouldn’t it be sweet revenge?
It would. And remember, Saint
*cga and his video-game angels never
ic.
IVarson Is a sophomore news-editorial
najor and a Daily Nebraskan senior reporter
ind columnist.