BSSSH®
David Wilson
NU recruit
Demps plays
for Knights
Damian Demps was one
English class short of playing foot
ball at Nebraska.
A standout athlete at Carol City
High School in Miami, Demps was ,
recruited by the Cornhuskers and
was told last January that he would
likely receive a scholarship. But
one report card later, NU coaches
realized that Demps was an acade- |
mic risk.
Saturday, Demps will play
against the team he nearly played
for.
When it was realized that he
would qualify, Demps became a
recruited walk on at Nebraska and
was told he could possibly earn a
scholarship after paying his own
way for a year. Demps and his
mother, Gloria, filled out all of the
paperwork and Demps was ready to
attend UNL.
you nave a very pleasant atn
letic department,” Gloria said. “It
was really an inspiration talking to
them. The financial aid office sent
us a packet and I still have that
packet as a souvenir.”
Then Demps received his true
calling - from Central Florida
Coach Gene McDowell. The
Golden Knights offered him a full
scholarship.
Score one for the underdog.
At Nebraska, Demps would
have been lost in the crowd. A mul
tiple number on the scout team. Not
because he doesn’t have the talent,
but because everyone has the talent. |
Instead of redshirting at NU,
Demps is a second-string free safe
ty as a freshman at Central Florida
- and he loves it. His mom does too.
“I just feel good about Central
Florida all together,” Gloria said.
“Just his moral support as a fresh
man. The defensive backs are just a
group that hangs out together. I can
tell they are really his friends.
Hopefully, they study together too.”
Central Florida will travel to
Linclon and will likely leave with
their third loss, but they will prove
that they are a program on the rise.
“I think by the time he gradu
ates, they may be able to give you a
pretty good game,” Gloria said.
Demps will also travel to
Lincoln with something to prove:
He’s not just another name.
Though he never set foot on a
football field at Nebraska, the 5
foot-11,180-pounder is listed in the
Husker media guide and does still
receive standard freshman mailings
from UNL.
Did any Husker fans wonder
who this highly touted athlete was?
Probably not.
If Demps has his way, they’ll
find out Saturday.
Wilson is a junior news-edito
rial major and a Daily Nebraskan
senior reporter.
Matt Miller/DN
NU QUARTERBACK SCOTT FROST and the rest of the Husker squad will battle Central Florida and its highly touted quarterback Daunte Culpepper this
Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
Culpepper to test NU defense
■ The Huskers must be
offensively prepared to
dominate Saturday’s game.
By Antone Oseka
Senior Reporter
Containing a quarterback like
Central Florida's Daunte Culpepper can
be an intimidating task.
The 6-foot-4, 235-pound junior is
quick, runs a 4.6 40-yard dash and has a
knack for finding the end zone with four
consecutive three-touchdown games.
Culpepper brings his talents to
r_in
Lincoln when he and his University of
Central Florida (0-2) teammates face
Nebraska (1-0) Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
at Memorial Stadium.
The NU defense will need to
improve on its first game performance
if it hopes to keep Culpepper at bay. The
Huskers failed to record a sack in their
59-14 victory over Akron on Aug. 30.
“Akron did a lot of things to keep us
from being able to get sacks,” NU senior
rush end Grant Wfrtrom said. “UCF
likes to back to a little more drop-back
style, and to get a good pass rush, that
helps out a little bit.”
Wistrom said the defensive front
four have taken it upon themselves to
put pressure on Culpepper and keep him
from scrambling out of the pocket and
hurting Nebraska on the run.
“(Central Florida players) have a lot
of quickness, move around well,”
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said.
“They are well coached and very
aggressive.”
NU senior defensive tackle Jason
Peter said he expects the Husker defense
to throw nearly everything at Culpepper,
especially some blitzes, something they
didn’t do in the Akron game.
a taf^j
ented defense with a blitz package thaif
was fairly effective in the first two"
games of the season.
‘They seem to be blitzing more this
year than they did last year,” Osborne
said, “and they were very effective at
times. They have had quite a few sacks.”
The Golden Knights have had three
sacks this season for 25 yards loss but
they have given up 11 sacks for a loss of
53 yards.
Although winless, the Golden
Please see UCF on 10
Rivals NU, A&M
prepared to meet
By Jay Saunders
Assignment Reporter
Most big rivalry games aren’t
usually played in the third weekend of
the season. But a game against Big 12
Conference rival Texas A&M is
exactly what the No. 5 Nebraska soc
cer team faces this weekend.
The Huskers (4-0 overall and 1-0
in the Big 12 Conference) must travel
to College Station, Texas, for a con
ference showdown against the No. 9
Aggies (4-0,3-0) on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Before die A&M game, however, the
Huskers will play tonight against
Texas (1-2,1-1) at 5 in Austin, Texas.
Last season, Nebraska’s contests
against A&M were highlighted by
two one-goal differential games, both
won by the Huskers.
“A&M for my money is in the top
five teams in the country,” Nebraska
coach John Walker said. “There are
no weaknesses.”
The game will be a showdown of
the conference’s top talent.
Please see SOCCER on 10
Matt Miller/DN
THE HUSKERS RENEW their rivalry
with Texas A&M this weekend. Last
time the two teams met, NU striker
Lindsay Eddleman (above) scored
the game-winning goal In the sec
ond overtime.
Huskers hope to f
eliminate errors
By Shannon Heffelfinger
Assignment Reporter
If Nebraska volleyball coach
Terry Pettit had written a script in
August predicting the first four
weeks of his team’s season, the plot
would not have included three nar
row, five-game victories. But the
unexpected twist has not weakened
the story.
The Cornhuskers (5-1) soft
ened the sting of a five-game loss to
third-ranked Florida on Aug. 31
with two slim victories over eighth
ranked Pacific and No. 24 Arkansas
last weekend at the NU Coliseum.
In the process, Pettit said, NU
gained valuable experience in criti
cal situations.
“We’re a better team because of
it,” Pettit said. “I can see that the
players are carrying themselves a
little differently. They came
through the weekend with more
confidence.”
The Huskers enter the Arby’s
Classic, their third weekend tourna
ment in as many weeks, with their
heads held high. No. 17 Ohio State
(5-1), Oral Roberts (1-6) and
Tennessee (3-5) visit Lincoln for a
two-day stretch of competition that
begins Friday at 5 p.m. and con
cludes Saturday night at 7:30 when
NU battles the Buckeyes.
OSU, which suffered its only
loss in 1997 to No. 23 Maryland in
five games, returns four starters
from last year’s squad.
Offensively, the Buckeyes rely
on Vanessa Wouters, a first-team
All-American. Wouters has posted
131 kills in six matches this season.
“Wouters is very physical,”
Pettit said. “Even if you know
where the ball is going, she’ll still
hit a high percentage and get a lot of
kills doing it.”
The responsibility of defending
Wouters falls on a variety of
Huskers. Ten different players have
Please see ARBY’S on 10