Sports
Alberts says there’s no place like home
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Reporter
When Trev Alberts left Nebraska after the
1993 football season, he said he didn’t know
how good life in college football really was.
After an up-and-down year in the National
Football League, the former Butkus Award
winning All-American outside linebacker
misses the college game.
“I would never blast my profession,” said
Alberts, who as in Lincoln this week for the
School is Cool Jam. “But I’ve got to be honest
with you and say there’s nothing like college
football. And there’s nothing like college foot
ball in Nebraska.
“I have always enjoyed playing football,
but I’ve never had that feeling like I had when
I ran out on Memorial Stadium. And I’ll never
have that feeling again.”
Alberts, who suffered a dislocated elbow
during the first quarter of his final regular
season college game, a 21-7 Comhusker win
over Oklahoma on Nov. 26,1993, returned to
play in the 1994 Orange Bowl, an 18-16 loss to
Florida State.
Despite playing with a brace on his right
arm, Alberts made six tackles, including three
sacks of Heisman Trophy-winning Florida State
quarterback Charlie Ward.
Alberts was drafted by the Indianapolis
Colts as the fifth pick of the first round of the
1994 NFL draft. He signed a six-year contract,
but re-injured the elbow in a preseason exhibi
tion game, forcing him to have surgery and
miss much of his rookie season.
He signed on with ESPN2 as a college
football analyst and also did some radio work
last fall. He returned to the Colts in November,
played in five games and totaled nine tackles,
including two sacks.
“I’d like to prove that I can play in this
league,” he said. “But I have to admit that I
look forward to getting out in the real world. I
look forward to using my brain a little bit.”
He said he hoped to return to Nebraska after
his playing days, possibly to pursue a career as
a lawyer. In the off-season, he said, he took the
Law School Admission Test at a college in
Indianapolis.
“If the elbow would go again,” he said, “I
would probably give it up. There’s not much
more that I can do with it. Don’t get me wrong,
I really want to prove that I can play, but I am
not going to be one of those guys who, in his
12th year, is limping on one leg.
“I could very well see myself back here. I
think I fit in here, and I could go to Husker
football games.”
Husker sees new season, different linemen
By Derek Samson
Senior Reporter
I-back Damon Benning feels
comfortable with Nebraska’s of
fense as he prepares for his junior
year.
He also feels at home in a
backfield that returns every I-back,
every quarterback and all but one
fullback from last year’s national
championship team.
But when Benning gets the ball
during the spring drills, he isn’t
used to what he sees.
“I’m still trying to get comfort
able with the offensive linemen,”
Benning said. “A lot of what goes
on up front has to do with continu
ity. We have to start developing
some of that.”
* Penning, along with starting I
back Lawrence Phillips, sat out of
spring practices until last Friday
because of a pulled hamstring.
The 5-foot-10, 205-pound jun
ior from Omaha Northwest said
most of what he knew about this
year’s offensive line had been
learned from the sidelines.
“Some lines are a little differ
ent from others,” he said. “I don’t
really know what to expect from
these guys because I haven’t
worked with them that much. From
what I see, they’re doing well.”
See BENNING on 8
Scott Bruhn/DN
l-back Damon Banning eludes rover Chris Herron during a drill Monday afternoon at practice.
JNUjays
rained out
From Staff Reports
Tuesday’s baseball game between
Nebraska and Creighton in Omaha
was postponed because of rain.
If the Huskers and the 25th-ranked
Bluejays play tonight’s scheduled
game in Lincoln at 7, the teams will
meet in Omaha Thursday at 3:30
p.m.
If today’s game is called off, Ne
braska will travel to the CU Sports
Complex to play at 1 p.m. Then the
teams would travel to Lincoln to play
the second game at Buck Beltzer
Stadium at 7 p.m.
NCAA grants
Husker tackle
Byers award
From Staff Reports
Rob Zatechka, a senior member of
Nebraska’s 1994 national-champion
ship football team, has been named
the male recipient of the NCAA’s
Walter Byers Scholarship.
The 6-foot-5, 315-pound offen
sive tackle from Lincoln has now
been awarded $50,000 in scholar
ships after receiving the $20,000
Byers Scholarship.
Women’s gymnastics a better team thanks to Kendig
A quick glance at the scores
posted by the Nebraska women’s
gymnastics team at last weekend’s
NCAA Midwest Regional shows
that the Comhuskers have im
proved a lot.
Those scores, however, do not
tell the whole story.
Since Dan Kendig arrived at
Nebraska 18 months ago, no team
on campus has moved forward as
much as the women gymnasts.
A simple look at the scorebook
does not do Kendig and his
coaching staff justice.
The Husker gymnasts have
stretched their talent to the limit.
They have improved when im
provement didn’t seem likely. And
most importantly, they have
qualified for the NCAA Champion
ship Meet next week in Athens,
Ga., for the first time in five years.
Kendig said he was not surprised
his team had come this far so fast.
But some other people are.
Francis Allen, director of
gymnastics and Nebraska men’s
coach, said before Kendig’s arrival
in Lincoln, the women’s program
was a far cry from what it is today.
Although both Allen and Kendig
don’t like to talk about the days
prior to the 1994 season, it is safe
to say that Rick Walton, the former
Husker coach, and Allen were not
on good terms.
“I can remember times,” Allen
said, “when the girls just wanted to
get it over with. At the end of the
year, they didn’t want to compete
anymore. You could see it. Now
they are excited. That goes back to
Dan.”
Kendig, who won two NCAA
Division-II titles while coaching at
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
in the late 1980s, has taken the
Nebraska program to new heights.
From 1987 to 1990, Nebraska
captured the Big Eight title each
year. But for the next three seasons,
Nebraska slid to the second tier of
the conference. Kendig recaptured
the conference championship in his
first year as the Husker coach in
1994.
Last month in Columbia, Mo.,
the same Nebraska team won the
Big Eight again, and in the process
broke the school-record team score.
At Regionals, the Huskers broke
the record again, securing a spot
among the nation’s top 12 schools
at NCAAs.
“I knew when Dan got the job
here, things would begin to turn
around,” said Greg Marsden, coach
of the Utah women. Utah won last
week’s Regional and three of the
last five national titles, including
Mitch Sherman
the 1994 championship.
“There’s no question in my
mind that this thing (the Nebraska
program) is really going to take off
and be in contention year in, year
out. I have no doubt of that
whatsoever.”
Mardsen’s team, Kendig said, is
on a different level; a higher
echelon. The Utes, who consis
tently score 196 plus (Nebraska’s
school record is 194.725), are a
revenue sport in Salt Lake City,
unheard of for women’s gymnastics
in the Big Eight.
Utah women’s gym averages as
many fans per meet as Nebraska
men’s basketball. They have drawn
more than 10,000 per meet for
three years in a row. Three times
this decade, Utah has packed more
than 15,000 fans into its arena to
watch a gymnastics meet.
That type of support is incom
prehensible in Lincoln. Those
numbers make Kendig’s head spin.
But Mardsen said Nebraska could
reach that level.
“He obviously understands what
it takes,” Mardsen said, “and what
I’m most impressed in is that he
doesn’t really have a lot of big
name athletes who were on the
national team. He has helped them
reach their potential.
“It obviously says a lot for the
athletes that they are motivated to
work that hard, and that says a lot
for the program.”
The Huskers lose four seniors
from this year’s team. Next season,
Kendig and company will bring in
five freshmen to fill gaping holes
left by Nicole Duval, Martha
Jenkins, Jennifer Hawkinson and
Kristi Camp.
Those four seniors are
Nebraska’s link to the past. Duval,
Jenkins and Hawkinson have been
to Nationals as individuals, but
never as a team. Perhaps that says a
lot about the Huskers. They are
finally a team.
After Big Eights, Jenkins said
this season had been different. For
the first time, she said, there was
no fighting amongst the gymnasts.
They were one unit poised to make
a run at the Super Six.
“It was really weird,” Kendig
said. “Last year, we went to
Regionals and we were like, 'This
could be our last meet.’ In the back
of my head, I thought about it. It
wasn’t even a thought this year. We
really felt confident.”
Confidence, he said, is what
separates the Utahs of the gymnas
tics world from the Nebraskas. If
the Huskers go into Nationals not
in awe of the meet thinking they
can win, they will do fine.
“You get on the same floor with
the best teams, and you still have to
hit,” Kendig said. “That’s the thing
I am going to relay to the team.
The bottom line is if we hit, we
feel like we have got a legitimate
shot to make the Super Six. But it
would take another career day.”
Of the 12 teams at nationals, six
move on to the second day to
compete for the national title.
TTie way Husker assistant coach
Rob Drass sees it, every team on
the mat starts out with the same
score. Nobody has an advantage. If
you hit your routines, you win.
“There’s eight or nine teams that
could be in the Super Six,” Drass
said. “Whoever puts together six
events and performs flawlessly will
Sherman is a sophomore news-editorial
major and a Dally Nebraskan senior reporter.