By Gbegg Madsen
StaffReporter
At the start ofthe Nebca^ca foot
ball team’s fell workouts four weeks
ago, Mike Fullman was walking on
Against
Michigan State
on Saturday, the
senior Nebraska
comerback was
back in action,
returning five
punts for 121
yards and blan
keting Spartan
receivers irom Fullman
his right
comerback position.
After suffering a groin injury
during spring practice, Comhusker
coaches doubted his availability for
this season. Coach Tom Osborne
said he feared Fullman’s career may
be over.
“From the time I was growing
up, I was always trying to do my
best,” Fullman said. “I’ll never
count myself out, I guess, until I’m
dead.”
After time in many hot whirl
pools, a cortisone shot and hours of
stretching, Fullman was ready to
prove himself correct. It didn’t take
long to see that all the rehabilita
tion efforts had paid off.
With 10 minutes and 42 seconds
left in the second quarter of the
Huskers’55-14 win over the Spar
tans, Fullman dropped back to re
ceive a Paul Edinger punt.
The 5-foot-7, 170-pound
Fullman caught the ball on
Nebraska’s 38-yard line. He eluded
two Spartan defenders, outran three
more to the Nebraska sideline and
then sprinted 62 yards into the end
zone, electrifying the Memorial Sta
dium crowd.
Defensive Coordinator Charlie
McBride said on the play NU had
just 10 players on the field and was
trying to block the punt, not set up
a return.
“That kid did that all on his
own,” McBride said.
The return was aided, however,
by a key block from free safety Eric
Warfield.
“That was really big,” said
Warfield, who blocked another
Edinger punt in the third quarter.
“Our special teams have been re
ally good. I think a lot of teams un
derestimate us. When we go in on
special teams, we expect to score.”
Fullman, who transferred to Ne
braska in 1994 after one season at
Rutgers, had never returned a punt
at the collegiate level until last sea
son.
In 1995, Fullman averaged a
conference-best 13.6 yards per punt
return, the 10th best average in the
nation.
The Huskers have used a triple
safety formation on punt returns the
last three seasons to eliminate; the
possibility of an opposing punter
kicking away from the returners.
But George Darlington, NU’s
defensive backs coach, said
Fullman is a lethal threat — even
without the three-man return sys
tem,
“I guess it’s kind of like Johnny
Rodgers in that every time the ball
was kicked to him, people probably
expected the ball to be in the end
zone,” Darlington said.
Coming out of Abraham Clark
High School in Roselle, N.J.,
Fullman didn’t desire to attend Ne
braska. Even though the Huskers
showed interest in him, Fullman
chose to stay close to home at
Rutgers.
But after gne season, he changed
his mind, asking Nebraska if he
could transfer.
Following the encouragement of
former Husker cornerback and
friend Barron Miles—who is also
from Roselle and went to high
school with Fullman—he decided
to leave Rutgers and enroll in class
at Southeast Community College in
Lincoln in the spring of l994. He
then sat out the 1994 season as a
transfer.
All that trouble, Fullman said,
was worth it.
“I’m glad I'm here,” he said “I
took my chances, I guess, but I made
it out here.”
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Huskers defense conquers
season’s first obstacle
DEFENSE from page 7
tans to 82 yards rushing and 163 yards
passing.
Senior rover Mike Minter had two
interceptions. The first came in the first
quarter, when Minter picked off a Todd
Schultz pass at the Michigan State 25
yard line.
Two plays later, Nebraska quarter
back Scott Frost scored NU’s first
touchdown of the season on an 11-yard
option run, giving the Huskers an early
7-0 lead.
With three minutes and six seconds
left in the second quarter, Minter
picked off a Gus Omstein pass at the
Nebraska 16-yard line and returned it
84 yards for a touchdown.
Minter, who was named the Big 12
defensive player of the week cm Mon
day, said the Husker defense has de
veloped a big-play mentality.
“We challenged ourselves,” he said.
‘ ‘We took it upon ourselves to come out
and prove we are the dominating de
fense everyone is talking about.”
Junior rush end Grant Wistrom ac
counted for another defensive touch
down in the third quarter when he in
tercepted Omstein on the Michigan
State 9-yard line and waltzed into the
end zone .
“It felt great,” Wistrom said of his
first career scene. “The first thing I
thought was,'I better not drop it.’Then
I was praying I wouldn’t get caught
from behind.”
Besides the three interceptions,
Nebraska held the Spartans to a 1.7
yard rushing average and sacked
Michigan State quarterbacks seven
times.
Nebraska Defensive Coordinator
Charlie McBride said the Spartans ran
mostly “maximum protection” pass
plays, sending only two receivers out
and leaving eight men to protect the
quarterback.
“I didn’t expect this type of a
game,” McBride said. “I didn’t feel as
prepared, for some reason, as we were
a year ago.”
On special teams, comerback Mike
Fullman had 121 yards on six punt re
turns, including a 62-yard touchdown
in the second quarter.
The Spartans punting woes contin
ued when free safety Eric Warfield
blocked a Paul Edinger punt in the third
quarter.
A return had been called when
Warfield blocked the punt, McBride
said. And on Fullman’s touchdown re
turn, the Huskers’ main objective was
to block the punt.
“We did some things out there that
I just could not believe,” McBride said.
“I told the kids before the game that
we’re going to make some mistakes
and do some strange things, and we did
some strange things.”
Senior Sam linebacker Jamel Will
iams, who led the team with 11 tack
les, said the Blackshirts’ performance
Saturday was worth the wait.
“It was a great game for the de
fense,” Williams said. “We were glad
to see some new faces out there to go
against besides our own offense in
practice.”
Smith knows Missouri
needs time to build
MU from page 7 >
lu.-'-'i- u'-n . ... - *.c. c$h»i
extra pressure. - *<m '^nfm
“My overall view of preseason
polls is that they don't mean a damn
thing,” he said.
The Tigers, once a proud football
program, limp into the Big 12 this fall.
Missouri, which plays Nebraska in
Lincoln on Nov. 9, hasn't had a win
ning season since 1983, when it went
7-5 and lost in the Holiday Bowl to
Brigham Young. The Tigers haven’t
won five games in a year since 1987.
In Smith's two years, the Tigers are
6-17-1. Missouri is off to a 0-1 start
this fall after losing 40-10 to Texas on
Aug. 31.
The Tigers get a chance to earn their
first win Saturday against Memphis,
under new lights at Faurot Field.
But according to junior tailback
Brock Olivo, die losing days are a thing
of die past.
“We expect to have a winning sea
son, and Coach Smith expects that
from us,” Olivo said. “The rebuilding
process is over, and it’s time to start
producing.”
Smith, in his third year at MU,
agreed.
“This is a better football team than
we’ve had since I’ve been here;* he
said. “This is the.ldnd of team where
something will change the momentum
of a game and that could change the
momentum of our season.
“We need to beat a team we are not
supposed to beat"
That bag win won’t come against
Memphis, a team Missouri should beat.
It could, however, come against
Clemson on Sept. 21.
Clemson’s program has been in a
tailspin this year with numerous off
the-field problems. The on-field play
hasn’t been successful either. Clemson
was dismantled 45-0 by North Caro
lina in the season opener, and Satur
day, Clemson beat Division I-AA
Furman 19-3.
But Smith said MU cannot win that
game unless Corby Jones or Kent
Skomia emerges at quarterback.
Against Texas, Jones completed 7
of 16 passes for 65 yards and one in
terception. Skorina didn’t do much
better, completing only 5 of 12 passes
for 47 yards. But he did lead Missouri’s
only touchdown drive of the game.
“The quarterback position is the
One that needs to be cast in stone the
most,” Olivo said.
Smith, who has a record of 116-97
7 in 19 years as a head coach, said there
is a certain process through which
teams must go before cracking the
nation’s elite.
“We’ve got to climb out of whore
we are and get up to the middle, and
then from the middle to the top,” Smith
said.
“We’re probably not going to build
our program by trying to shoot up to
Nebraska’s level, because they have a
15-to-20-year head start You’ve got to
work your way up to the top.”
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