* ' Travis Heying/DN
^-quarter touchdown against Pacific Saturday. Sims ruihed for 55 yards on the day.
H* .-3 • •• ' . i • \l • • i ii'
•• / . . . • •*/ • • t 1 • » * ’ •* r
W ✓ ** • * . 7
By Mike Kluck
Staff Reporter
Pacific coach Chuck Shelton had
an idea of what would happen when
his team faced No. 2 Nebraska Satur
day.
But Shelton wasn’t about to let his
players know.
“You get a little tired about reading
how you are lambs for the slaughter
and stuff like that,” Shelton said. “We
didn’t say anything about those types
of things to our kids, and they just
came and played as hard as they could
play.
“And we got beat by an awfully
good football team.”
Shelton’s squad may not have been
lambs for the slaughter, but the Tigers
gave up 731 yards in Nebraska’s 49-7
win. Those yards were the most ever
given up by a Pacific team.
But the Tigers were not disap
pointed in their encore performance at
Nebraska. Last year, the Huskers de
feated the Tigers 70-21.
Shelton said the defending national
champions were impressive.
The Huskers limited the Tigers to
197 yards of offense.
Tiger quarterback Nick Sellers said
he saw signs of another championship
team.
■ “They have an offense that comple
ments their defense, and they may be
better (than the defense),” Sellers said.
“You have the makings of a national
championship football team. I don’t
know of a team that can play with
Jeff Haller/DN
J.D. Ernst, member of the concession staff and Waveriy native, carries bleacher seats into the
deserted hallway of West Stadium Saturday after Nebraska’s victory over Pacific.
tnese guys rignt now.
Another Tiger limited by the Husker
defense was running back Joe
Abdullah. Abdullah entered
Saturday’s game averaging 123.7
yards a game, but was held to just 25
, fJ ^ #\ v* , * 4 j ’ V l* < . ’ •
yards against Nebraska.
Abdullah said Nebraska’s defense
limited him from getting outside. He
said Nebraska had a better defense
than Arizona, who beat the Tigers 35
9 on Sept. 2.
A professional offensive line and
a professional defensive line (could
beat them),” Abdullah said! “I don’t
know if there’s such a thing as a per
fect college football team, but they’re
about as close as you can come.”
Derek Samson
Benning ready
to experience
good fortune
Damon Benning already had a
career-high 173 yards Saturday in
his first game back after being side
lined with a pulled hamstring for
two weeks.
But in the third quarter — after
scoring three touchdowns in the
first half—— Benning left the game
with a twisted ankle and is ques
tionable for this Saturday.
It was just another scratch in a
season of scars which has turned
Benning’s life into a roller coaster
ride for the past three weeks.
Benning did not make the trip to
East Lansing, Mich., for the
Cornhuskers’ game against Michi
gan State Sept. 9. Early that morn
ing, Benning was arrested on suspi
cion of assaulting his former girl
friend.
The junior from Omaha North
west maintained his innocence, as
did Coach Tom Osborne.
Lancaster County Attorney Gary
Lacey announced Sept. 19 that there
was not enough evidence to file
charges against Benning.
But Benning, who saw his pic
ture and name thrown around by the
local and national media after his
arrest, did not hear much from the
same people after the charges were
not filed.
“The media wasn’t near as ag
gressive and didn’t have the fervor
they had when the charges hit,”
Benning said. “I’m not going to sit
here and say I was a victim, but the
media took advantage of the situa
tion. There were a lot of inaccura
cies out there.”
But after Benning’s story was
proven accurate, he wonders who
the real victim is.
wnen it comes down to it, I was
a victim of lies and a victim of the
media,” he said. “That’s OK. It
happens sometimes, and I’m not
going to cry about it. I just didn’t
think you write stories like that with
out knowing what’s going on.”
But in the media frenzy that sur
rounded the Nebraska football team
last week, it shouldn’t come as a
surprise that Benning’s account of
the incident would fall on deaf ears.
“I stated what had happened a
thousand times,” he said. “There
were people that told it the same
way I did. Obviously, it was the
truth that I told them. I don’t know
why we had to go through the pro
cess we did to get to that truth.”
After Lawrence Phillips was sus
pended, Benning should have been
the guy to take his place, but he was
injured.
After no charges were filed,
Benning should have received as
much publicity in the media as he
was given after the arrest.
But he didn’t.
And after he rushed for a career
high 173 yards as the starting I
back, he shouldn’t have to worry
about maintaining the No. 1 spot.
But now with an injured ankle,
he has to wonder.
So when will it all stop?
“I’ve had a lot of adversity so far
this year,” he said. ‘T would hope
everything would just be a walk in
the park after all this. Who knows?
See SAMSON on 8
