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
