Sports
Tuesday, November 28, 1995 Page 7
Derek Samson
Despite past,
Veland ends
‘picture perfect’
Two years ago, Tony Veland
had to try something different.
He needed a change of pace,
along with a change of fate — and
he got both.
Veland, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound
senior from Omaha Benson High
School, arrived in Lincoln in 1991
with dreams of being the
Cornhuskcr quarterback.
But something wouldn’t let him.
After redshirtingin 1991, Veland
became the No. 1 quarterback dur
ing spring football in 1992. But
Veland broke his collarbone in an
August scrimmage and would have
to wait until his sophomore year to
earn back the starting spot.
Meanwhile, he sat and watched
true freshman Tommie Frazier take
over the quarterback duties and lead
Nebraska to a Big Eight title.
In 1993, Frazier went down in
the opener with an ankle injury while
Veland had been sharing backup
duties with Brook Berringer.
But in the following game,
Veland ruptured his right patellar
tendon and his sophomore season
also came to an abrupt end.
After missing spring practice to
recover from the knee injury,
Veland converted to the secondary
and made an immediate impact.
Veland took over the starting duties
at safety when Mike Minter tore his
anterior cruciate ligament in
Nebraska’s second game last sea
son.
Veland has started ever since,
and played his last home game in
the 37-0 win over Oklahoma Fri
day.
it s been crazy, veland said.
“I never thought I would be playing
DB—I always thought I’d be play
ing quarterback. Some things hap
pened to me, and it turned out for
the best. We’ve got Tommie Frazier '
as a Heisman Trophy candidate,
and I’m a returning starter from a
defense that won the national cham
pionship.”
Veland’s final home game per
haps could be the most memorable
of any of the 21 seniors.
With the Nebraska offense strug
gling and clinging to a 13-0 lead,
Veland picked up an Oklahoma
fumble and sprinted 57 yards for a
touchdown.
“I worked real hard here, and
I’ve had a lot of misfortunes,” he
said. “I kept battling back from any
adversity that was in my past. I just
wanted to make sure people would
remember me after I leave. I wanted
to go out with a bang.
“I started out as a quarterback,
and I thought I’d be scoring all
these touchdowns. Then to switch
to defense, and finally end up scor
ing was just a great feeling.”
Veland called the ending ‘pic
ture-perfect,’ but admitted that per
fection really would end with a win
Jan. 2.
But for now, Veland is happy
with finally getting his touchdown
—and finally getting a little luck.
Samson is a senior news-editorial
major and a Dally Nebraskan senior
sports reporteR and columnist. v mv«:<
Heisman hype
I------ ' - ~ ----—-H
Travis Heying/DN
Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier is congratulated by Oklahoma tight end Stephen
Alexander after the Huskers’ 37-0 win over the Sooners.
Frazier prefers victories to awards
By Derek Samson
Senior Reporter
Last week, the Heisman Trophy
showdown was set.
Both Nebraska’s Tommie
Frazier and Ohio State’s Eddie
George each would have their own
personal moment in the national
spotlight when the Cornhuskers
played Oklahoma on Friday and the
Buckeyes faced Michigan Satur
day.
But neither player had especially
impressive games, and a third con
tender — Florida quarterback
Danny W uer f fel —j umped i nto t he
picture.
Wuerffel completed 25 of 40
passes for 443 yards to help Florida
remain undefeated by beating
Florida State 35-24.
Meanwhile, Frazier completed
12 of 25 for 128 yards with'one
touchdown and one interception.
He also rushed 10 times for 35
yards.
George rushed 21 times for 104
yards and one touchdown, but was
7 think without a doubt Tommie Frazier
deserves the vote for the Heisman Trophy. ”
AARON GRAHAM
Nebraska center
hurt by the Michigan win and the
313 yards rushing by Wolverine
back Tim Biakabutuka.
But don’t expect Nebraska coach
Tom Osborne to lobby for Frazier
in what should be the closest
Heisman Trophy balloting in years.
“They’re going to vote what
they’re going to vote,” Osborne
said. “I get kind of tired of coaches
always saying that their pdayer is
the greatest. Who really pays atten
tion to that anyway?”
Osborne, however, said he would
praise Frazier for what he had meant
to Nebraska in his four years as a
starter.
“I will say this, for four years he
has the productivity and results,”
Osborne said. “I don’t know what
else is out there. I’m not going to
talk about anyone else, but he sure
has meant a lot to this program.”
But Frazier didn’t have to look
too far for a spokesman, as the man
he lines up behind on every play
went to bat for him.
Senior center Aaron Graham said
he hoped Frazier’s performance
Friday wouldn’t hurt him in the
Heisman race.
“I hope nobody is looking at it
that way,” he said. “He’s the gen
eral of the offense, and when you go
undefeated that says something. I
think without a doubt Tommie
See FRAZIER on 8
Sam Houston coach Schaefer
preps young team for Huskers
By Mike Kluck
Staff Reporter
Vic Schaefer vividly remembers
his first game at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center.
Schaefer, Sam Houston State’s
women’s basketball coach, made his
college head coaching debut at the
Devaney Center in 1990 when his
team played Nebraska in the first round
of the CableVision Classic.
Tonight Schaefer and the LadyKats
return to the Devaney Center for a
7:05 game against the 2-0
Comhuskers.
Schaefer’s first squad lost to Ne
braska 90-51, but rebounded the next
afternoon to defeat Boise State and
finish third in the Classic after a two
hour practice at 7 a.m.
“They pretty much dominated us in
that first game,” Schaefer said. “We
only had three players returning that
season and were pretty young. But I
got their attention the next morning
after losing to Nebraska.”
Although Schaefer is starting his
sixth season at Huntsville, Texas, he
is in a similar predicament tonight,
returning only two starters from a 13
14 team last season. Sam Houston
finished fourth in the Southland Con
ference last season with a 10-8 confer
ence record.
The LadyKats, Schaefer said, will
start two seniors against the Huskers
but the rest of their lineup will consist
of mainly sophomores and freshmen.
“The average age of our squad is
18.5,so weareayoungsquad,” Schaefer
said. “(Playing Nebraska) is going to be
a tremendous challenge for us.”
Schaefer said the challenge for his
squad would be handling Nebraska’s
pressure defense.
In the Huskers’ first two games, they
forced their opponents into 57 turnovers
and an average of 51.5. points a game,
while Nebraska averaged 82.5 points.
But Nebraska coach Angela Beck
said after the Huskers won the
CableVision Classic on Saturday that
they stillhave to improve their defense.
“I’d like to see us take more charges
and have less fouling,” Beck said.
“We need to go eight deep, and I’m
not certain we’re eight deep in our
defense. I need my next two players to
play better in our team situation to be
really good. I think our defense is
ahead of our offense, and that’s what
you want at this point.”
Schaefer, however, said he also
had trouble finding flaws with the
Huskers’ offense. Nebraska does a
good job of getting the ball to senior
Pyra Aarden, who complements the
four perimeter players, he said.
Aarden is the Huskers’ second
leading scorer, averaging 17.5 points
a game behind sophomore guard Anna
DeForge’s 21.5 points a game.
“Over the last five years, I have felt
Nebraska is one of the top 40 pro
grams in the country,” Schaefer said.
“They play hard and are well-coached.
No matter what happens in this game,
this will improve us for our confer
ence race, which will help us and is
our goal”
Osborne
to follow
same plan
By Todd Walkenhorst
Staff Reporter
Nebraska will play for the national
title for the third straight year.
And Cornhusker coach Tom
Osborne isn’t going to change much
from last year’s bowl game routine.
With the Huskers’ 37-0 win against
Oklahoma on Friday, they should be
in line to play in the Fiesta Bowl Jan.
2 at Tempe, Ariz. Most likely they will
play Florida if the Gators defeat Ar
kansas in the Southeastern Confer
ence title game this Saturday.
Nebraska will prepare for this
year’s national championship game
just as it did last year.
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format,” Osborne said. “We’ll go down
the 23rd or 24th, and try to get as much
practice as we can in Lincoln.”
This year’s game could be bigger
than last year’s Orange Bowl. This
year’s Fiesta Bowl could pair the No.
1 against the No. 2 team thanks to
Ohio State’s loss to Michigan. Last
year’s Orange Bowl paired No. 1 Ne
braska against No. 3 Miami.
“There will be plenty of distrac
tions,” Osborne said. “It goes with a
game of this type.”
Osborne said that he had not seen
enough of Florida to know how the
Huskers would match up with the
Gators. Nebraska’s defense has been
the Huskers’ anchor in the latter part
of the season and will need to be at its
best to stop the Gators.
“Our defense is playing pretty
well,” he said, “and over the last four
or five games, they have stepped it up.
Presently we’re in the top 10 in sev
eral defensive categories, and our scor
ing defense has been pretty good,
which is the bottom line.”
In the next couple of weeks, the
Huskers will work on conditioning
and keeping their timing. Osborne said
the Huskers would scrimmage a couple
of times between now and the Fiesta
Bowl. Whoever plays best in those
scrimmages will start in Tempe.
“We’ll probably go with whoever
is best ready to play,” Osborne said.
“Nobody has anything locked up. You
always go with your best 11 offen
sively and 11 best defensive players
See FIESTA on 8
Huskers open
season with
Hawaii sweep
From Staff Reports
Tyronn Lue left Lincoln 10
days ago having never played a
college basketball game. Late
Monday night he returned as the
all-time Nebraska freshman
record-holder for points scored
in a game.
The 6-foot, 165-pound point
guard from Mexico, Mo., di
rected the Comhuskers to a sea
son-opening tournament cham
pionship in the Big Island Invi
tational in Hilo, Hawaii, this
weekend.
Nebraska, playing without
backup point guard Tom Wald
and forward Chester Surles, de
feated Minnesota 96-85 in the
championship game Sunday
night. Tournament most valu
able player Jaron Boone scored
17 points against the Gophers.
Lue and junior center Mikki
See HILO on 8