Sports
Tuesday, October 3, 1993 Page 7
Derek Samson
NU dazzles
skeptics with
running game
Scary things are happening in
the Nebraska backfield.
Ahman Green, a true freshman
who has never started a game for
the Comhuskers, is the team’s lead
ing rusher with 525 yards.
Four di fferent Nebraska I-backs
have rushed for more than 100 yards
in a game this season, with a fifth
coming 20 yards short while only
carrying the ball once.
' And all of this has happened
with what was supposed to be an
inexperienced offensive line.
Nebraska always has been a pow
erful running team. But in the last
couple of years, the Huskers have
risen above the rest of the nation,
carrying rushing football to a dif
ferent dimension.
me plays look tne same, tne
backs don’t look much different
physically and the line is only a bit
larger than roost teams’ offensive
lines.
Yet, opposing coaches can’t help
but be in awe of the Huskers’ run
ning game.
“I think they’ve taken their kind
of offensive football to a new level,”
Pacific coach Chuck Shelton said.
“They’ve improved it to a point
where it is very difficult to deal
with. Even if you match up with
themphysically,it’sdifficulttodeal
with/
Last year, Nebraska tore up de
fenses with its running game. The
offensive line was given credit for
Nebraska’s 11th NCAA rushingtitle
after Nebraska totaled 340 yards
per game on the ground.
But Nebraska lost four of its five
starters on that line. As an unex
pected result, the Huskers are post
ing even bigger numbers.
The Huskers averaged 507 rush
ing yards a game over their first
four games, but last Saturday prom
ised to be different.
Washington State had the fourth
best rushing defense in the country,
giving up only 69.7 yards a contest.
So how did the Huskers meet the
challenge?
By racking up 428 yards rush
ing, including 70 from quarterback
Tommie Frazier.
The most impressive fact about
the running game this year is that a
different back has dominated each
game—Lawrence Phillips, Clinton
Childs, Damon Benning and Ahman
Green.
as everyone sings uie praises ot
top-ranked Florida State’s passing
game, Nebraska sits in the No. 2
spot with a potent running attack.
And some people still question
whether it is enough to get by Colo
rado — not to mention the Semi
noles.
But Nebraska will prove itself
very soon and show the critics that
this rushing game is at least equal to
last year’s, especially after it opens
up the playbook.
And it will be a frightening ex
perience. for Colorado.
Samson is a senior news-editoflal
major and a Daily Nebraskan senior
sports reporter and columnist.
On the ball
Jay Calderon/DN
Cornhusker softball player Tobin Echo-Hawk is eyeing a trip to the College World Series
in her final year at Nebraska.
Echo-Hawk eyes postseason goals
By Antone Oseka
Staff Reporter
I- J. /; t t-'<»*<-: *rr, . '>■
After last year’s finish in the
regional tournament, Nebraska soft
ball player Tobin Echo-Hawk said
the College World Series would be
within the Comhuskers’ grasp this
season.
Last year, the Huskers lost to
regional champion Arizona and
were put out of the double-elimina
tion tournament by Florida State.
As a result, Nebraska is more ma
ture, more confident and more re
laxed as it concludes the fall sea
son.
“I think that we’ll probably do a
lot better just because we’re more
mature,” Echo-Hawk said. “We’ve
already learned what it takes.
“Regionals was a learning expe
rience to see how the top teams in
the nation play. It really opened our
eyes to a whole new world. It let us
know that we can be up there and
compete with the best in’the na
tion,” she said.
Personally, Echo-Hawk just
wants to improve on her perfor
mance from last year, and be more
of a leader for the team. That role,
*. ,ft “I think that well
probably do a lot better
just because we're more
mature."
TOBIN ECHO-HAWK
Nli softball player
however, doesn’t fall on her shoul
ders alone.
“I’m kind of the leader on this
year’s team, but everyone’s kind of
that way,” she said. “No one person
is the leader. If one person needs to
lead the way, then they will.”
As a team, Echo-Hawk said the
Huskers needed to maintain their
intensity during all of their games.
“We need to play our best;
everyone’s gunning for us,” she
said. “If they beat us, it makes their
season.”
Softball doesn’t end this year
for Echo-Hawk, who is a senior
education major. She said she ex
pected to coach for Nebraska while
she finished school. After graduat
ing, she will look for a position
elsewhere.
But Echo-Hawk’s playing days
may not be over after this season.
Another chance for her is a newly
formed a professional fast-pitch
softball league.
“I’ve had contact with them (the
pro league),” she said. “I’ll stick
around here and help out with the
team, and try to find a coachingjob
next year.”
If softball doesn’t work out,
Echo-Hawk can turn to basketball.
As a freshman, she was a walk-on
player for the Husker women’s bas
ketball team. But after that season,
Echo-Hawk concentrated solely oh
softball.
“I wasn’t very good,” she said,
“and I’d rather be great at one sport
than average at both.”
Great is also how Echo-Hawk
describes Nebraska softball coach
Rhonda Revelle.
“She knows how to work her
players mentally and physically to
get the best out of them,” Echo
Hawk said. “She challenges us ev
ery day. If it wasn’t for her, I prob
ably wouldn’t be here.”
Coaches
discuss
tide site
By Todd Walkenhorst
Staff Reporter
Although a host for the Big 12 title .
game has not been selected, reports
say that the Houston Astrodome has
offered the most money.
Big Eight coaches said Monday
that they’d rather have a title game at
a different site each year.
Kansas State coach Bill Snyder
said he was concerned about the qual
ity of the Astrodome’s playing field.
“Last I heard, they canceled a ball .
game there because they couldn’t play
on that surface,” Snyder said. “I’m
sure anywhere they play the game will
be. fine.”
The idea of one location playing
host to the game every year does not
rest well with Missouri coach Larry
Smith.
“It’s not my decision,” Smith said,
“but I’d kind of hate to see them tie
themselves intoone area. There’s a lot
of interest up north tot), and I’d like to
see a rotating basis.”
Kansas coach Glen Mason said a
city’s climate should not be an issue.
“I’d like to see it spread around,”
Mason said. “I have no problem going
to Texas, but I’m not one who thinks it
has to be played in a warm-weather
site or in a dome.
“I think of those NFL games played
in Buffato in January in zero-degree
weather, and I think that would just
add to the mystique of it, not distract.”
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said
he didn’t support a title game.
“If we don’t have the game, you
would probably have two conference
schools in the alliance making $8 mil
lion a piece,” Osborne said.
The Astrodome offer would give
each school a projected $684,000. But
Osborne wasn’t concerned about the
sight of the title game.
“If you take $16 million and di
vide it between 12 schools, I think that
would be more,” Osborne said.
Osborne said having the game in
Houston wouldn’t bother him.
“We’ve been involved in so many
bowl games, usually in southern envi
ronments where we were not usually
the home team,” Osborne said. “Maybe
the. game should be rotated between
San Antonio and Kansas City or what
ever.
• “I’d say it doesn’t make that much
difference. If we don’t have the cham
pionship game, you’d have two teams
in the alliance and make more money,
but I don’t think we can change
anybody’s mind.”
Coach: Players need lessons in game of life
By Mike Kluck
Staff Reporter
Nebraska football-players may
know what it takes to win on the play
ing field, but Nebraska assistant coach
Ron Brown said he didn’t think the
majority of the Comhuskers were be
ing taught how to win in life.
Brown, Nebraska’s receivers
I "1 coach, told the Ex
I tra-Point Club
I Monday that be
| cause of a chang
j itig society, many
| Nebraska recruits
I are not being pre
I pared to succeed in
I life.
Because -oi
NCAA rules,
Husker coaches
ndonly four hours
eacn (lay witn tneir players, but Brown
questions whether parents spend that
amount of time with their own chil
dren in a week.
“How many parents today have
taken their children and coached them
for one day a week and then put them
in the game of life and expect them to
perform admirably?” Brown said. “It
doesn’t work that way. We’re getting
products of one day a week or less of
coaching in the game of life.”
Over the past 10 years, Brown said
he had noticed a change in how in
volved parents are in their children’s
lives.
When Brown goes recruiting, he
very seldom goes to a house where
both patents are living with their son,
he said. In the 1990s Brown said it had
become more common to find poten
tial recruits living without their par
ents and in alternative situations.
“It’s not Ward and June Cleaver
with brother Wally at home anymore,”
“It’s not Ward and June Cleaver with brother Wally
at home anymore. We would all like to have that
ideal situation, but it isn’t for a lot of these kids. ”
RON BROWN
Nebraska receivers coach
Brown said. “We would all like to
have that ideal situation, but it isn’t for
a lot of these kids. This is what we’re
getting.”
Brown said changes in today’s so
ciety have altered the role of a football
coach.
“We treat these young men like
they’re our children,” Brown said.
“They are our family.”
Because of Brown’s feelings to
ward his players, he said he found it
difficult to understand why people
thought athletes should be dismissed
from the football team if they get in
trouble.
The Nebraska football team has
been questioned about junior
wingback Riley Washington, who has.
been charged with attempted second
degree murder, and Lawrence Phillips,
who pleaded no contest to third-de
gree assault.
Washington has played the last two
See &ROWN on 8