Mitch Sherman
Osborne, DN
need to just
bury hatchet
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When I was 11 years old, I bought
a copy of Tom Osborne’s book,
“More Than Winning.” I read it in
two days from cover to cover. Then
I read it again.
A few years before that, Turner
Gill — the Nebraska quarterback
from 1981-83 — who is now a
Comhusker assistant coach, came
to my hometown of Omaha to make
an appearance at a grocery store. I
still have an autographed picture of
No. 12 with his hand on my shoul
der, smiling.
Gill and Osborne don’t smile
when they see me anymore.
You’ve heard the story. A couple
weeks ago, the Daily Nebraskan
published two cartoons depicting
Nebraska football players in a nega
tive light.
Many people, Osborne and my
self included, felt they were drawn
in poor taste. Osborne told me I was
no longer allowed to do my job. I
couldn’t come to practice, he said.
A few days later, after consulting
with UNL administrators and learn
ing that his actions were against the
law, the coach lifted his ban.
End of story? Wrong.
Each day at the end of practice,
Osborne speaks individually to ev
ery reporter, except those repre
sentingthe DN. Wejust stand there
and watch.
Nothing has changed. Osborne
- is still upset. And I don’t blame him
one bit. I do, however, blame him
for taking his frustrations out on the
wrong people..
“The players come here to play
football,” Osborne said. “If people
want to rip me, that’s OK. That’s
what I get paid for. But I hate to sec
players take some of the stuff they
have to take.”
The members of the DN sports
staffdon’t want to rip Osborne. We
don’t want to rip his players. We
just want to cover his football team.
And until he treats us as he treats
every other reporter, that’s not go
ing to be possible. *
I’m not here to defend the ac^
tionsof my paper. That’s been done.
I work here, nothing more, and I
have to support any decision made
by the editors — whether I agree
with them or not. Tom Osborne
should understand that.
Those cartoons have received
way too much press. They have
hurled unnecessary and avoidable
criticism toward the DN and
Osborne.
It Should be a dead issue. It
shouldn’t matter anymore, And it
should be forgotten. Osborne made
his point loud and clear. Simply
put, Tom Osborne should bury the
hatchet — not at the end of the
season, not next spring—today.
“Notify is perfect,” Osborne
said Saturday, after his team won
by 51 points. “I make a lot of mis
tOO W
Well put, coach. I hope you re
ally believe that.
. . *1 r . +
-Jh I * • #
Sherman Is a Junior news-editorial
’major and the Dally Nebraskan assis
tant sports editor.
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Terrell Farley intercepts a pass during the fourth quarter while Arizona State lineman Mike Barnes stretches out to make t
• •
By Mitch Sherman_
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Maybe the Nebraska football team
shouldn’t speak to the press every
week before a game.
The tight-lipped Comhuskers, who
hadn’t talked publicly in a week, spoke
loudly Saturday afternoon before the
75,418 crowd at Memorial Stadium,
steamrolling Arizona State 77-14.
Nebraska’s statement included sev
eral school records, most notably the
63 points and 508 yards amassed by
the upstart Huskers in the first half
alone.
In burying the 1 -2 Sun Devils, sec
ond-ranked Nebraska, 3-0, scored on
seven straight possessions to open the
game and on nine of 10 drives in the
first half.
The Huskers tied a school record
with 35 points m the first quarter,
passed for 290 yards, the most since
1973, and recorded 681 total yards,
the tenth-best output in school his
tory.
Nebraska s / / points — the same
number scored Saturday by No. 1
Florida State in a win over North Caro
lina State — was the second highest
Nebraska total since 1917 and most
points scored by the Huskers since an
84-13 win over Minnesota in 1983.
“I thought we came out and played
very well in the First part of the game
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said.
“When things get out of hand, you
tend to lose your focus a little bit. It
. seems like we did. We didn’t play
with the same intensity throughout the
.game.”
It took the Huskers only 11 sec
onds to reach the end zone for the first
time. I-back Clinton Childs, filling in
' for suspended Lawrence Phillips, took
a sweep around the left end and raced
untouched for a 65-yard score.
Childs, a senior from Omaha, fin
ished his first career start with 143
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yards and two touchdowns on 12 at
tempts.
“I proved a lot of things to myself,”
Childs said. “I felt-I had a lot of things
to prove, and I did most of it today.
But I still have more things to prove.”
Childs, who began the season as a
fullback after playing I-back for the
past three seasons, said he had spoken
with Phillips every day this week.
Phil lips was inde finitely suspended
by Osborne early in the week after
being arrested on suspicion of assault
ing his ex-girlfriend.
“He’s in pretty good spirits,” Childs
said. “We inspire each other a lot.. I
didn’t have him out here this week, so
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I had to go off what he was talking
about all week long. He’s really lifted
me up a lot.”
After Childs’ quick strike, the
Husker defense held the Sun Devils,
and Nebraska marched 64 yards in
nine plays, taking a two-touchdown
lead on Ahman Green’s.3-yard score
with 9:53 to play in the opening quar
ter.
“Clinton knew that he had to take
- on some of the burden that Lawrence
left us,” said' quarterback Tommie
Frazier, who directed Nebraska to its
15th straight victory.
“He did what the coaches asked
him and came in and played hard.
Ahman came in and played hard. James
Sims came in and played hard. The
depth that we got from those three
guys, you just can’t ask for anything
else.”
Playing second at I-back in place
of injured Damon Benning, Green ran
for 111 yards and two touchdowns on
13 attempts. The true freshman from
Omaha-has gained 237 yards in three
games this season.
A little more than two minutes after
Green’s touchdown, Frazier ran 15
“yards —■ in the process flattening a
Sun Devil defensive backhand trot
ted into the end zone, giving the Husk
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ers a 21 -0 lead less than eight minutes
into the game.
“Everything we did was working,”
Frazier said. “We weren’t worrying
about them trying to put 11 guys up to
try to stop the run. We were going to
try to run like we always did and see if
they could stop us. In the first half,
they couldn’t do it.”
In just over two quarters of action-,
Frazier completed seven of 10 passes
for 191 yards and two touchdowns.
The senior from Bradenton, Fla., also
ran for two scores and 35 yards on five
attempts. -
- Following Frazier’s first score,
Arizona State again was forced to
punt, and after two 5-yard runs by
Childs, the I-back took a pitch from
Frazier and threw a 34-yard pass to
wingback Clester Johnson.
“He did good,” said Johnson, a
former quarterback, who caught four
passes for 129 yards and a touch
down? “At first, I didn’t know if he
was going to throw it to me, because I
didn’t know if he saw me behind the
guy.”
On the next play, Frazier hit
wingback Jon Vedral for a 27-yard
touchdown pass, increasing the Husk
ers’ lead to 28-0 with 5:38 to play in
the first quarter.
Sun - Devil quarterback Jake
Plummer hit wide receiver Keith Poole
for a 66v-yard gain to the Husker 2
yard line, and the duo connected again
three plays later for a touchdown,
Arizona State’s first score of the day.
Plummer and Poole continued to
connect, burning Nebraska
comerbacks Leslie Dennis twice and
Tyrone Williams once. Poole caught
six passes for 200 yards, including an
^80-yard bomb in the second quarter
that cut Nebraska’s lead to 35-14.
“We never want to give up big
plays,” Husker secondary coach
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See ASU on 8
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Nebraska l-back Ah man Grec
Vrzal. Green had 111 yards n