By Derek Samson
Senior Reporter
Believe it or not, Nebraska's 70
21 win over Pacific Saturday wasn't
easy for Nebraska coach Tom
Osborne.
In the week before the game,
Osborne had to keep his team fo
cused. He didn’t want them to over
look the Tigers.
Then once Saturday arrived and
the game began, he had to worry
about injuries after the Huskers made
it obvious they could name their
score.
“As far as the game goes, it was a
difficult game in many ways,”
Osborne said. “Obviously, it was easy
on the scoreboard. I thought the play
ers handled the situation well. They
took the situation seriously and came
out and played hard and executed
well."
The first half was all Osborne
needed to look at to see if Nebraska
was prepared for Pacific.
Nebraska's first seven possessions
resulted in seven Husker touchdowns
and a 49-0 lead at intermission.
Nebraska took its first possession
61 yards on six plays, and Damon
Benning's I-yard run gave the Husk
ers the first of many points to come.
After a 74-yard touchdown run by
Lawrence Phillips and an 8-yard
touchdown by fullback Cory
Schlesinger, Nebraska had scored 21
points in 12 plays, racking up 163
yards and used only 3:48 in all three
drives combined.
By jumping out to the 21-0 lead
with 5:50 still remaining in the first
quarter, Nebraska erased any Pacific
hopes for an upset.
“I looked at the game as another
Iowa State.” rover Kareem Moss said,
referring to the Huskers’ 19-10 loss
at Iowa State in 1992. “We didn't
want to get upset. We played hard as
a team, everyone did, even the re
serves.”
“If we don't improve on
onr depth hack there in
the secondary’, we re in
big trouble. I'd have to
say right now,
defensively, I'm very
worried about our depth.
We're not even close to
being there. ”
CHARLIE MCBRIDE
Nebraska defensive coordinator
It was the reserves that did the rest
of the damage to the 2-2 Tigers.
Starting quarterback Tommie
Frazier played in only the first two
series, and the majority of the start
ers on both the defense and offense
played for only three series.
“We obviously substituted fairly
freely, even in the first quarter,”
Osborne said. “I think Frazier went
a couple series, and that’s about it.
So we got a lot of people playing time.
I don’t know how good it did our first
units because they played so little.”
After Schlesinger got his second
touchdown of the day on a 39-yard
scamper, Nebraska led 28-0 at the end
of the first quarter.
Backup quarterback Brook
Berringer came in to lead Nebraska
to 21 points in the second quarter,
including a 46-yard touchdown pass
to tight end Eric Alford.
Nebraska's 49 first-half points tied
a school record set in 1988 against
Oklahoma State, but the record for
most points in a half is 55 — coming
in the second half against Colorado
in 1983.
Much of Nebraska’s third- and
fourth-teams took over after intermis
sion as Pacific played Nebraska to a
21-21 tie In the second half.
“I think we got them all in today."
Osborne said. “It should have been
about 110 players. We’ll never have
more people play than we played to
day. It's fun to get them all in, but
it's not a very fun day.
“From the standpoint of getting a
lot of players in the game (it's good).
If there was anything we got accom
plished today, we really got a lot of
playing time to some guys that really
needed to play."
Nebraska defensive coordinator
Charlie McBride said he was con
cerned with the play of the lower de
fensive units, especially the second
ary. Pacific threw for 290 yards
against the Husker secondary.
“I told the second units at half that
I don't want to walk out of that sta
dium embarrassed because they put
up 21 points," he said. “If we don't
improve on our depth back there in
the secondary, we're in big trouble.
“I'd have to say right now, defen
sively, I'm very worried about our
depth. We're not even close to being
there.”
And with the status of starting
cornerback Barron Miles unknown
after he collided with teammate Eric
Stokes on a first-quarter pass play, the
secondary is now even more depleted.
“His knee is stable, but it’s pretty
tight,” Osborne said. “We have to
hope that Barron is okay. I don’t think
we lost anybody for a great length of
time. I hope everybody is back next
week."
On the offensive side of the ball,
Osborne was pleased.
Not only was the 70-21 score
mighty, but Nebraska tallied up some
big yardage totals.
The 4-0 Huskers finished with 699
total yards, 510 of those coming on
the ground.
See PACIFIC on 11
Travis Heying/DN
Wingback ion Vedral tries to elude Pacific’s Jeff Russell after a 7-yard recep
tion.
Nebraska I-back Lawrence Phillips speeds by Pacific defensive In
Nebraska’s Octavious McFarlin and Jamel Williams struggle to brin
Damon Bowers. McFarlin had seven tackles.