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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 23, 1995)
By Mitch Sherman_ Senior Editor The Kansas State football team proved one thing Saturday. It can play with Nebraska’s second team. Unfortunately, however, for the Wildcats, the Comhuskers’first-team units proved that while Kansas State may have improved a great deal over the past hal f-decade, Nebraska remains well out of the Wildcats’ grasp. Playingbefore a season-high crowd oi /o,o/z ians at Memorial Stadium, No. 2 Nebraska pounced on Kansas State early and of ten, clawing its way to a 42-6 fourth I quarter lead and eventually winning 49-25. !_| lhe Huskersim FllHman proved to 7-0 over all and 3-0 in the Big Eight. Kansas State, which fell from No. 8 to No. 14 after the loss, dropped to 6-1 and 2-1 in conference play. “Anytime you win by three touch downs over Kansas State, you have to feel pretty good about the effort,” Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said. “But we probably backed off a little bit too early. We probably shouldn’t have substituted defensively quite as quickly as we did.” Leading by 36 points, Osborne in serted the Husker backups into the game early in the fourth quarter. Kan sas State exploited Nebraska’s lack of a pass rush and secondary coverage to score 19 points — six of which came on a blocked punt returned for a score — in a seven-minute span. “We had to put some guys back in at a point we didn’t want to put them back in,” Osborne said. Quarterback Tommie Frazier re placed Matt Turman, and I-back Ahinan Green returned for one Final drive. The first team picked up right where it left off, going 44 yards in 2:13, scoring on a 12-yard shovel pass from Frazier to Green, which iced the win. Despite Kansas State’s fourth-quar ter outburst, the Nebraska defense, aided by nine sacks and 14 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, held the Wildcats to minus-19 yards rushing, the fourth straight game in which a Husker opponent has been held to fewer than 75 yards on the ground. “When the Blackshirts were in there, we held them to six points,” MIKE linebacker Doug Colman said. “I think people will remember that when looking at this game.” Nebraska cornerback Mike Fullman delivered an early knockout punch to the Wildcats, returning James Garcia’s first punt of the day 79 yards for a touchdown with 10:29 to play in the first quarter. Kansas State answered on its next possession, looking to wide receiver Kevin Lockett, who scored on an 18 yard pass from Matt Miller with 7:23 left in the opening quarter. Martin Gramatica’s extra point sailed wide left. Nebraska responded by driving 73 yards in 7:13, three times converting on third-down-and-longplays. Green, who ran for 109 yards on 22 attempts and caught three passes for 41 yards and two touchdowns, contributed the two biggest plays of the drive. On third-down-and-14 from the Nebraska 30-yard line, he caught a screen pass from Frazier and ran 19 yards for a first down. Two plays later, the true freshman ran for 33 yards to the Kansas State 16-yard line before being relieved by Clinton Childs. On second-down-and-goal from the 2-yard line, Childs fumbled a pitch from Frazier into the end zone. But wingback Jon Vedral, who later caught a 3 2-yard touchdown pass, recovered the fumble for a touchdown to put Nebraska up 14-6 at the end of the first quarter. The Huskers scored again on their next possession, this time on an 11 yard strike from Frazier to tight end Sheldon Jackson. Frazier, who com pleted 10 of 16 passes for 148 yards and ran for 36 yards, threw a career high four touchdown passes. Nebraska scored again less than five minutes later on a 10-yard shovel pass from Frazier to Green that in creased the lead to 28-6. On the Wild cats’ first play after the ensuing kick off, true freshman outside linebacker Chad Kelsay batted a Miller shovel pass to senior Luther Hardin, who returned the interception for a touch down with 5:09 to play in the half. “I was kind of surprised at Luther,” said outside linebacker Jared Tomich. “He doesn’t have the best hands in the world in practice. But he did a good job. We’ll see if Grant (Wistromjcan tip one to me next week.” Tomich took over on Kansas State’s final possession of the hal f. The junior from St. John, Ind., twice sacked Miller, the second time on fourth down-and-11 to thwart the Wildcats’ best scoring chance ofthe second quar ter. “Kansas State was the No. 1 de fense in the nation,” said Wistrom, See KSU on 8 iraillttyiftlEl Nebraska 49 Scoring 1st 2nd 3rd 4th irancoe c* oc Kansas St. 6 0 0 19 IVdll5d5 Ol. « Nebraska 14 21 7 7 • ••••■■■■■■■••••■■■■•4aanaaaaaaaaaana>Ba>aaaa>aaaaa.>>..aa...._.......__...__... ... . _ Neb- Fullman 79yd punt return (Brown kick) Neb- Vedral 32yd pass from Frazier (Brown kick) KSU- Lockett 18yd pass from Miller (kick failed) KSU- Running 7yd pass from Kavanagh (pass Neb- Vedral fumble recovery (Brown kick) failed) Neb- S. Jackson 18yd pass from Frazier (Brown kick) KSU- Lockett lOvd pass Kavanagh (Gramatica kick) Neb- Green 10yd pass from Frazier (Brown kick) KSU-Johnson 6yd blocked punt return (pass failed) Neb- Hardin 3yd interception return (Brown kick) Neb- Green 12yd pass from Frazier (Brown kick) Nebraska Rushing.Att,.Yds,. Green 22 109 i Frazier 6 36 i Makovicka 6 21 j IntYdsJ. Frazier 10-16 6 148! Turman 0-1 0 0 i Receiving No. Yds. Green 3 41 \ Jackson 2 18 \ Vedral 1 32 I Breakdown Neb. ksu Kansas St I Rushing.Att.Yds,. Hickson 6 26 Lawrence 6 15 Miller 12-38 Passing Comp;- Attaint Yds, Miller.10-24.2 109 I Kavanagh 12-21 0 136 j Receiving No. Yds. | ••••••«••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••***"****************** * Running 10 110 Schwieger 4 58 Lockett 4 54 Neb. KSIJ I First Downs 19 17 Punts-avg. 4-23 6-44 Rushes-yards 46-190 26-(-19) Fumbles-Lost 1-Q 0-0 Passing yards 148 275 Penalties-Yards 7-64 14113 Return Yirds 148 129 Time of 30:53 29:07 Comp-Att-Int 10-17-0 24-47-2 Possession DN graphic Nebraska l-back Ahman Green breaks away from Kansas State linebacker DeShawn Fogle during game’s leading rusher. Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frtf 50) and free safety Chuck Marlowe Jeff Haller/DN Nebraska linebacker Jared Tomich throws Kansas State quarterback Matt Miller to the turf in the first quarter. Tomich helped anchor the Husker defense, which had nine sacks against the Wildcats. 9