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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 1994)
Sports Nebraskan Wednesday, January 12,1994 NCAA rulings unfortunate, NU coach says By Mitch Sherman Staff Reporter Beginning Aug. 1 of this year, the Nebraska football program will be snort one assistant coacn. The position of recruiting coordinator waseliminated by a 74-36 vote of college athletic directors on Mon day at the NCAA Conven tion in San Antonio, Texas. Nebraska recruiting coor Gillespie ciinaior uave uinespie saia Tuesday he was unsure which Comhusker coach would be affected. It is possible that Gillespie will remain on the Nebraska staff as a full-time assistant, he said. If that happened, another coaching job would have to be eliminated. If he remains on the staff as an assistant, Gillespie said, he does not know if he would be allowed to perform the duties of a recruiting coordinator. “First of all,” he said, “we need to find out what exactly the legislation says. We need to find out what this position can or cannot do, and I think that’s still a little bit ambiguous right now. “In the next couple weeks, they’re going to need to define what the rule says and what it means to each program. So before we make any personnel moves, we need to find out exactly what it says.” In addition to eliminating Gillespie’s posi - tt It’s unfortunate that they feel they have to continually undercut the football program. It’s going to catch up with us at some point. — Gillespie Nebraska recruiting coordinator tion, voters at the convention also passed a proposal to restrict the size of college football teams to 105 before the start of fall classes. The number of prospective recruits allowed to visit a school was reduced from 70 to 56. Also, the football recruiting season was short ened from 101 to 73 days. “I think a lot of the rules are aimed at football and basketball to send a message that the powers to be are running college athletics,” Gillespie said, “not football and basketball. “It’s unfortunate that they feel they have to continually undercut the football program. It’s going to catch up with us at some point. That’s not good for anybody as far as college athletics go. Gillespie said the NCAA was trying to re duce the amount of money funneled into foot ball programs around the country. But at a See CUTS on 9 Florida State strong safetv Mack Knight tackles NU l-back Lawrence Phillips during the fourth quarter of the Orange Bowl. II-backs look forward to battle for starting i ob By Derek Samson Senior Reporter Lawrence Phillips and Damon Benning arc no longer in Cal vin Jones’ shadow. Both I-backs said they were look ing forward to battling for the spot light after Jones announced he would forgo his senior year at Nebraska and enter April’s NFL draft. “I’m looking forward to being able to play a lot more,” Phillips said. “I was in California when I heard that he was probably going to go pro and I thought, ‘I guess it’s going to be a battle for No. 1 now.’” Nebraska assistant head coach Frank Solich said Benning and Phillips each received valuable game experi ence while Jones was injured this season and, along with sophomore Clinton Childs, look to contend for the starting spot. “We have a good group of backs coming back next year,” Solich said. “We will have a lot of work to do, but I am confident we will get it done.” Both backs said a good deal of the competition for the top spot would take place in spring practice. “Spring ball is going to be impor tant for me, as well as for all the other I-backs,” Phillips said. “That’s when we’ll have to step up. It will be a good time to start battling for the position.” Benning, a redshirt freshman, said he was excited about the competition. “I’m looking forward to working hard this off-season and getting into spring ball,” he said. “This is what I came to Nebraska for. It should be pretty open. There is a lot of good competition for the position.” Because of Jones’ knee injury in the Huskers’ season opener against North Texas and his shoulder injury in the Orange Bowl, Phillips and Benning received plenty of playing time and j finished the season as the Huskers’ , third- and fourth-leading rushers, re- . spectively, in 1993. Jones’ decision didn’t surprise coaching staff From Staff Reports Calvin Jones is gone and the Nebraska football coaching staff is moving on. “We had been providing Calvin with the best informa tion we had on his status and what he could expect,” assistant head coach Frank Solich said by phone from Anaheim, Calif., where he is attending the NCAA coaches’ convention. “But it was a decision we wanted him to make for himself. “Only time will tell fbr him and his family whether he made the right choice, but I hope it turns out to be the best decision for everyone.” During the brief conversa tion he had with Jones Friday, Solich said they did not discuss Jones’ reasons for entering the draft. Solich also said the Comhusker coaches were pre pared for Jones’ decision. “One thing that I have learned about this profession is to really take it one day at a time because you just don’t know what will happen,” Solich said. “I guess you always understand that there is a possibility of someone with Calvin’s ability leaving early, so I knew it could happen.” Phillips rushed 92 times for 508 yards and five touchdowns during the regular season and added 64 yards and one touchdown on 13 carries in the See REPLACEMENTS on 9 New fan-voting system benefits Cowboys, not Pro Bowl Enough about the Orange Bowl. Everyone, including people on the East Coast, knows Nebraska was shaft ed, but that wasn’t the only injustice that went on in sports during the hol idays. The National Football League’s Pro Bowl was announced Dec. 29 and the NFL made a horrible decision. It gave the fans a vote. The Dallas Cowboys proved once again that they were America’s team. Their groupies — the bandwagon jumpers — made sure that if Dallas didn’t make it to the Super Bowl they could watch their team play again in the Pro Bowl. The fans placed 11 Cowboys on the NFC squad, one player shy of an NFL record. Seven Cowboys will be offensive starters and Dallas’ Daryl Johnston was voted the No. 1 full back. Yes, that’s right. Seven of the 11 starters on offense and the fullback are Dallas players. As a result, some deserving players from other NFC teams were overlooked. Any arguments can be settled by the Associated Press’s All-Pro team, which came out Jan. 4. Fans voted Troy Aikman the start ing quarterback in the Pro Bowl, even though he finished 38 votes behind Steve Young on the Associated Press’s NFC All-Pro team. Then again, Aikman does com mercials talking about the Phoenix Cardinals and Philadelphia Eagles. Aikman calls these two Dallas divi sional rivals “tough birds” in the com mercial, but these big birds played more like canaries and sparrows this season. I guess Young doesn’t deserve to start in the Pro Bowl because he’s without a commercial or sponsor. Jay Novacek was namea the starter to the Dallas Pro Bowl, but the AP All-Pro Team gave Novacek only one vote — far behind San Francisco’s Brent Jones and even trailing Green " *s Jackie Harris. arris wasn’t even voted into the Derek Samsor Pro Bowl as an alternate. The fans decided Daryl Johnston was the best fullback in the NFC, probably because all the bandwagon jumpers like yelling “Moose” every time he loses two yards. Three of the five Pro Bowl offen sive linemen are from Dallas, includ ing Nate Newton, who was listed as the fifth best offensive tackle in the NFC by the Associated Press. Onto the running backs, where Emmitt Smith deserved his spot in the Pro Bowl more than any other Cow boy. Smith may be cocky, but he has reason to be. The other running back named was Detroit’s Barry Sanders, even though Sanders was hurt for much of the second half of the season. After seeing the selection of Sand ers, I was shocked they didn’t choose Tony Dorsett to join Smith in the backfield. And now for the biggest joke of this entire comedy event called the Pro Bowl — the wide receivers. Jerry Rice earned and deserved the fans’ top spot. He also received the most votes in the AP with 79. The other position was handed to Michael “if I played on any other team I would be average” Irvin. Fans shunned Green Bay’s Ster ling Sharpe. Irvin had more touchdowns than Sharpe, but the only other number he possessed higher than Sharpe’s was the 88 on his jersey. Sharpe broke his own NFL record with 112 catches in a season. He became the second fastest player to reach 500 catches in NFL history. Sharpe produced those numbers without having a receiver like Irvin’s teammate, Alvin Harper, to keep him away from double-teams every play. Sharpe placed second behind Rice in AP All-Pro votes with 65, but Sharpe won’t start in the Pro Bowl. Irvin will, despite finishing 10 votes behind Andre Rison in the AP All-Pro voting. Irvin — who’s cocky, although nobody knows why—earned a whop ping three votes from the writers. If you’re counting, that’s Sharpe 65, Irvin 3, but Irvin is your Pro Bowl starter. The story goes on and on through out the list of names that are on and off Pro Bowl rosters, which just proves the voting needs to return to knowl edgeable people—the coaches, play ers and maybe even the writers. America’s Team is back and Cow boy fans nationwide — who coinci dentally couldn’t be found three years ago — are nroud. Thanks for ruining the Pro Bowl. Sanson Is s sophomore news-editorial major and a Dally Nebraskan senior report er.