By Perak Samson
Senior Reporter
Nebraska faced extreme adversity for the
second straight week.
And for the second straight week, the
Comhuskers passed the test, improving to 6-0
with a 32-3 win over Oklahoma State on Sat
urday.
Brook Berringer, making his second
straight start for Nebraska in the absence of
Tommie Frazier, quarterbacked the Buskers to
a 9-3 halftime lead.
But Berringer, who went to the hospital af
ter suffering a partially collapsed lung in last
week's 42-32 win over Wyoming, suffered the
same injury during the first half and left the
game at intermission.
Walk-on sophomore Matt Turman took over
for Nebraska in the second half and led the
team to a conference-opening win in front of
75,453 fans at Memorial Stadium.
Busker coach Tom Osborne said he was
pleased with the way his team came out in the
second half, especially under the direction of
its third-string quarterback.
“I thought Matt Turman went in and did a
good job under the circumstances," Osborne
said. “I thought our offensive line did a nice
job and picked up the pace, and our running
backs ran well. I think Matt did well with the
things he does.”
Nebraska racked up 475 total yards, 372 on
the ground.
l-back Lawrence Phillips exceeded the
1,000-yard mark for the season with a 221
yard performance Saturday. Phillips also scored
three touchdowns in the game.
But the 32-3 score didn’t reflect Nebraska's
offensive performance in the first half.
For the second consecutive game, the Husk
ers were held scoreless in the first quarter as
Oklahoma State took a 3-0 lead — even though
Nebraska outgained the Cowboys 120-49 in
yardage.
Two turnovers kept Nebraska out of scor
ing position in the first quarter. The first hap
pened on the game’s first drive, when Berringer
made a bad pitch to Phillips after the Buskers
drove 47 yards to the Cowboy 33-yard line.
After the fumble recovery. Cowboy quar
terback Tone’ Jones hit Rafael Denson for a
34-yard completion to the Nebraska 13-yard
line
The Nebraska defense held and forced a 27
yard field goal by Cowboy kicker Lawson
Vaughn.
On Nebraska’s next possession, Reggie Baul
fumbled at the Nebraska 32-yard line after
catching a 3-yard pass from Berringer.
But Nebraska’s defense forced the Cowboys
to punt after setting them back 12 yards with
two sacks.
“I thought the defense played well,”
Osborne said. “I thought particularly defen
sively we stepped it up a notch today, and I
was pleased to see that happen.”
“Everybody on the team knows
Matt can get the job done.
When we heard he was going
in, we started to get more
pu mped up.''
m
ABDUL MUHAMMAD
NU wingback
Nebraska’s opening drive of the second
quarter resulted in a 2-yard Phillips touchdown
run, but Tom Sieler’s extra-point attempt sailed
wide left, and the Huskers led 6-3.
Despite gaining more than twice as many
second-quarter yards as the Cowboys did, Ne
braska managed only three more points in the
quarter. They came on the final drive of the
half to put Nebraska up 9-3.
The Huskers drove 51 yards on eight plays
in only 1:13 to set up Darin Erstad’s 48-yard
field goal with four seconds left in the half.
“Any time you turn the ball over like that,
it’s disappointing,” Berringer said. “We just
need to take care of the ball and keep the of
fense going. (The last drive) was important,
because any time you’re in that situation, you
just try to get the ball down the field, get into
field goal range and get points on the board.”
Behind the offensive line, Phillips led a
Nebraska running attack that began to domi
nate the Cowboys in the second half.
In its first possession, Nebraska drove down
to the Oklahoma State 22-yard line, but Sieler
missed a 39-yard field goal to end the drive.
The Huskers took their next possession 59
yards in 10 plays, and Phillips' 2-yard run gave
Nebraska a 15-3 lead.
Turman then connected with tight end Eric
Alford in the end zone for a successful two
point conversion and a 17-3 lead.
After Berringer went out, the Huskers ral
lied around Turman, and the sophomore from
Wahoo responded.
“Everybody on the team knows Matt can
get the job done,” wingback Abdul Muhammad
said of his teammate. “When we heard he was
going in, we started to get more pumped up.
He kept his head and made some good passes
and ran the option well.”
On the Huskers' third possession of the sec
ond half, Phillips again finished off the drive
with a 7-yard touchdown run to give Nebraska
a 23-3 lead.
On the extra-point attempt, holder Jon
Vedral took a low, mishandled snap and
scrambled around before a Cowboy defender
wrapped him up.
As he was headed toward the turf, Vedral
See WIN on 8
Scott Bruhn/DN
iw»S»B6ffJKB»AS5ri-r
Garik Parmala/DN
Left: Nebraska linebacker Clint Brown rounds up Cowboy running
back David Thompson as Leonard Alexander rushes up to help.
Above: Priscilla Frazier, the mother of Tommie Frazier, watches
the halftime show on Saturday. Tommie Frazier Is In the hospital
wK5i a blood clot and may be out for Oie season.
