Nebraskan
Thursday, February 3,1994
Sports
Nebraska's football commitments
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Exhausted Osborne gets
19 recruits’ signatures
By Mitch Sherman
Staff Reporter
After reviewing the list of newly
signed Husker football players with
the media Wednesday afternoon, Ne
braska football coach Tom Osborne
had one thing left to say:
“I just want to take a shower.”
It was obvious that Osborne was
worn out after weeks on the road, late
nights on the phone and countless
trips to high school athletes’ homes.
“This was one of the most difficult
recruiting years we have ever had,”
Osborne said. “I can’t remember a
year that took more work and travel.
We were with a lot of good players,
and so many came right down to the
end.”
Of the 20 players expected to sign
with the Cornhuskers on Wednesday,
19 came through. The Huskers signed
16 high school seniors, one college
sophomore and two junior transfer
students.
Only Amp Campbell, a USA TO
DAY All-American defensive back
from Sarasota (Fla.) Riverview High
School, did not sign a letter of intent.
John Sprague, Campbell’s high
school coach, said late Wednesday
afternoon that Campbell had not signed
with another school.
“He’s awaiting his test results,”
Sprague said. “He is going to take the
ACT and the SAT again.
“After he gets his resul ts, then he ’ 11
decide between Nebraska and Colo
rado.”
Sprague said Campbell would at
tend one of the two schools, even if he
didn’t get the required 17 on his ACT
or 700 on his SAT.
Osborne said this year’s class,
which includes only three players from
Nebraska, was a sol id all-around class.
The only disappointing factor about
the class, Osborne said, is that the
Huskers signed only one quarteback,
Jon Elder from Sioux City (Iowa)
West High School.
“We wanted to get two quarter
backs,” Osborne said. “Elder is a good
quarterback. He has good speed and
he has a strong arm, but he is not a
sprinter. Hopefully, we can redshirt
him next year, but if one of our top
three quarterbacks goes down, we’re
going to have to use him.”
The Huskers, who have only two
quarterbacks on scholarship, lost three
top high school quarterbacks to other
schools. Hines Ward, a highly touted
quarterback from Georgia, chose Geor
gia over Nebraska. Donovan McNabb
of Chicago chose Syracuse over the
See SIGNINGS on 8
Nee hopes change in lineup will end NU losing streak
By Derek Samson
Senior Reporter_
Nebraska coach Danny Nee is looking for a
cure to the three-game losing streak that is
plaguing Nebraska after a 12-2 start.
During his weekly press conference Wednes
day, Nee said the Huskers
poor shooting was an obvious
reason for their slump, but
regaining their shooting
touch might not be easy.
“It will come back, but
‘when’ is what we’re con
cerned with,” he said. “Our
offense is shooting and at
tacking the basket. When that
i,_ uuwn, ii auciu» us.
Nee The three-game losing
streak includes home losses of79-76 to Oklaho
ma and 89-73 to Missouri. Nebraska lost 86-81
at Colorado to start the skid.
Nebraska shot a season-low 33 percent in
Saturday’s loss to Oklahoma, worse than the
previous low of 40 percent against Missouri.
Nebraska made only two of 26 three-point
attempts against Missouri.
“The shooting is something that happened
the last couple of games,” Nee said. “We’re just
off. We’re not hitting threes or twos. We’re off
in every category.
“We try to teach to have a little more patience
and to keep the confidence.”
Nee said the coaches were concerned with
the players’ confidence.
“When you lose, things change,” Nee said. “I
think you can get very fragile. I think we’re very
fragile right now because of our shooting. The
guys lose their conf dence very quickly, but they
can gain it back very quickly also.”
Nee will make one change to his lineup to try
to get his team untracked. Senior forward Bruce
Chubick, at 6 feet 7 inches and 232 pounds, will
move to center in order to fill Nebraska’s gap in
the low post.
Nee said he moved Chubick because defens
es were catching up with Nebraska’s spread-out
style of play.
See CURE on 8
William Lauer/DN
coachSDanny nS?Sldb,Ck ^on,,oor^wl11 moveto the *°w P08t against Kansas Sunday, Comhusker men’s basketball
Guns and violence are entering forbidden territory
You shouldn’t have to read this.
Not on the sports page, at least.
And I shouldn’t have to write about
it in this
section. The violence and morbidity
of today’s world belong on the front
page and in obituaries.
Not on the pages in-between.
Unfortunately, the violence we used
to relegate to big-city ghettos is pene
trating our neighborhoods, universi
ties and athletic programs.
As well as our bedrooms.
That’s where Ed McPherren, an
assistant basketball coach at Lincoln
East High School, was sleeping on
Jan. 22, when a bullet ripped through
his front window, another wall and
lodged in his headboard, reportedly
six inches above his head.
At last report, police were examin
ing whether the shooting stemmed
from a scuffle at a basketball game the
night before.
And of course, no one knows what
might have driven Nebraska
comerback Tyrone Williams — who
was charged Wednesday with unlaw
ful discharge of a firearm and use of a
weapon to commit a felony—to alleg
edly shoot two bullets into the right
panel of a woman’s car Sunday.
But Police Chief Tom Casady —
and anyone else with a capable mind
— knows it wasn’t an “accident” as
the players and Coach Tom Osborne
originally claimed.
A clip on a kickoff return is an
accident. Firing a gun twice at a car
isn’t.
The shootings make one thing
abundantly clear: Athletics inNebras
Todd
Cooper
ka no longer make up the fantasy
world they once did.
And Lincoln is never-never land
no more. The violent crimes of 1992
93 made that abundantly clear.
But save for a few skirmishes, vio
lence in athletics tended to leave itself
on the field.
As Osborne said, the alleged shoot
ing involving one of his players is the
first he can remember in his 20 years
as head coach.
People don’t expect these things to
happen at the University of Nebraska.
Shootings happen at Miami or Colo
rado.
Or Oklahoma.
In 1989, Jerry Parks, a sophomore
defensive back at OU, shot his friend
and teammate over a cassette tape and
a haircut.
Of course, the situations aren’t
entirely comparable. Oklahoma’s
problems—wnich extended to charg
es of rape and drug dealing against
players — were the product of a pro
gram that was out of control.
Osborne appears to have as much
control over his program as he can.
But he has no control over the
world that his recruits come from.
Many of them are natives of cities
where a 9mm is as much a part of
everyday apparel as a wristwatch.
With firearms expected to overtake
motor vehicles as the No. 1 cause of
death by injury in the United States,
guns and the destruction they cause
are casually accepted.
They’re coming dangerously close
to destroying homes and hearts in the
heartland.
And they’re entering football pro
grams and neighborhoods.
Osborne said he doesn’t want them
in his.
“If there is anybody who doesn’t
identify what they have and it comes
out later that they had a gun, we would
take that as pretty serious grounds for
dismissal,’’ he said.
Unfortunately, the world can’t al
ways dismiss misfits who fire guns for
See COOPER on 8