NU defensive effort
pleases Darlington
DEFENSE from page 12
was impressive, Darlington said, con
sidering the talent ofTech true freshman
running back Ricky Williams.
“Every week we face backs who
can really run,” Darlington said. “Just
like we should be facing good receivers
every week, because there are a lot of
them around.”
Facing good competition didn’t stop
the defense from pitching a shutout
Saturday.
Darlington said Saturday’s shutout,
the first since a 49-0 victory over Baylor
last season, should have been the second
shutout of the season for the Huskers.
After reviewing some of the game film,
he said, Nebraska should have shut out
Washington earlier this season.
“I think it’s very important for us
because it’s World Series time,”
Darlington said, adding some baseball
humor to his football analysis. “You’re
supposed to have shutouts in the World
Series. We had our middle relievers
come in and do well, and our closers and
second-teamers at the end held up their
end of the bargain.
“We should have shut Washington
out, if we had played our techniques a
little better.”
Even though Darlington was
impressed with the entire game, he said
the defensive coaches are equally
impressed when NU’s first team
defense pitches a shutout and the oppo
sition gets a touchdown late in the game
aginst the backups.
Nebraska shut out the Red Raiders
while relying on some freshmen to pick
up the slack on the first-team units.
“The situation with Joe Walker
revolved around the personnel Tech
came out with,” Darlington said.
He said Walker is the top nickel
back in the defense. The people Tech
fielded were the ones needed for Walker
to start
Darlington said it is important,
however, to remember that Nebraska is
still less than halfway through the regu
lar season. In order to be successful, he
said, they still need to improve the rest
of the year.
Note:
The game time for the Nebraska
Kansas Saturday in Lawrence, Kan.,
was announced Sunday. The game will
begin at 6 p.m., televised by FoxSports
Net, Channel 58 in Lincoln.
Ryan Soderlin/DN
JASON WILTZ chases Texas Tech quarterback Zebbie Lethridge Saturday. Nebraska sacked Lethridge four
times in the 29-0 victory and held Tech to 17 yards on 26 rushing attempts. _
Huskers vault Perm State
FIRST from page 12
Coach Tom Osborne said
Sunday. “We’ve been there
before, and we responded
appropriately.”
Nebraska won 25 consecu
tive games and two national
championships in 1994 and
1995 and was ranked No. 1
prior to nine of those matchups.
The Huskers entered the 1996
season at the top of the polls,
but fell to eighth after the loss
to Arizona State.
This season, NU has defeat
ed two ranked teams. The
Huskers downed then second
ranked Washington 27-14 in
Seattle Sept. 20, and beat 17th
ranked Kansas State 56-26 at
home the following week.
Penn State, one of eight
Division I teams yet to lose this
season, defeated then seventh
ranked Ohio State 31-27 Oct.
11 in its only victory over a
.ranked opponent. The Nittany
Lions’ opponents have com
piled a 14-26 record this sea
son, while Nebraska’s oppo
nents are a combined 18-20.
Third-ranked Florida State
(6-0), No. 4 North Carolina (7
0), No. 5 Michigan (6-0), No.
10 Washington State (6-0), No.
12 Oklahoma State (6-0), and
No. 24 Toledo (6-0) are also
undefeated this year.
“There is a lot of season
left,” Osborne said, “and lots of
undefeated teams who feel they
are deserving of No. 1. I can
understand that.”
In the last year of a contract,
the Big Ten Conference and the
Pac-10 Conference will send
their top teams to the Rose
Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. Next
year, the Rose Bowl joins the
Orange Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl
and the Sugar Bowl in the
Super Alliance.
But this season, Big Ten
members Penn State and
Michigan, or the Pac-lO’s
Washington State could finish
undefeated and not have the
chance to play another unde
feated team. Michigan plays at
Penn State Nov. 8.
“If we were in a wide-open
deal, where we had the Big Ten
and the Pac-10 all in the same
pot, I’d just assume stay No. 2,”
Osborne said. “But you always
have to be concerned that if
Penn State runs the table,
where are you?
“You just think the powers
of college football would have
the ability, the wherewithal, the
knowledge to put everybody
together and not have that same
situation where somebody goes
undefeated and all of a sudden
they’re frozen out of a national
championship game.”
The Associated Press con
tributed to this report.
Green runs for 178 yards
in Huskers’ first shutout
HUSKERS from page 11
“When we came in at halftime, as
a defensive unit, Coach (Charlie)
McBride said, ‘Let’s buckle down
and come after them even more,”’
Peter said. “And we did.”
After allowing 68 yards of
offense in the first half, the
Blackshirts held the Red Raiders to
59 yards in the second half.
Texas Tech senior quarterback
Zebbie Lethridge was sacked twice
and netted minus-23 yards on the
ground. Typically a threat to run,
Lethridge was a little more pre
dictable Saturday hampered by a
sprained ankle, Wistrom said.
Lethridge completed 10 of 20 passes
for 110 yards.
“We were in his face,” Wistrom
said. “We were able to put pressure
on him very well today. A large part
of that was due to his lack of mobili
ty.”
Brown added his third field goal
of the game, a 35-yarder, to give NU
a 16-0 lead with 11:33 remaining in
the third quarter. The Huskers struck
again when senior guard Jon
Zatechka recovered Green’s fumble
in the end zone with 4:59 remaining
in the quarter, the first NU touch
down scored by an offensive lineman
since the 1984 Orange Bowl, when
Dean Steinhkuhler successfully con
verted a 19-yard fumble-rooski.
Green scored his only touchdown
of the game on a seven-yard run in
the fourth quarter to give NU a 29-0
lead with 4:42 remaining.
Though the Huskers have no
ranked teams left on their schedule,
Wistrom said, they are not on a cake
walk to the national championship
game in the Orange Bowl.
“People can laugh when we say
this, but we’ve still got a lot of big
games ahead of us,” Wistrom said.
Texas Tech can’t explain woes
TECH from page 10
leg just kicking,” Dykes said, “unless
you kick it really hard.”
Lethridge said, “If a guy breaks
his leg, I’m sure a flag should have
been thrown somewhere.”
Flags were called plenty of other
times throughout the game against
the Red Raiders. Tech was penalized
nine times for 68 yards, most of
which were false start penalties on
the offensive line.
“I was very surprised,” Lethridge
said of the offensive inability to
score. “Looking at the game film, I
thought we were going to be able to
move the ball more successfully than
we actually did.
“I give Nebraska a lot of credit.
They came out and wpn the game.”
Rainy conditions postpone NU-Duke soccer
Staff Reports
The No. 10 Nebraska soccer
gpme against No. 4 Duke was post
poned Sunday due to rain in the
Durham, N.C., area and a flooded
playing field.
The game has been rescheduled
for today at noon and if possible will
be played on the practice field.
Duke’s home field was underwater on
Sunday.
NU golfers look for win in Texas
By Darren Ivy
Staff Reporter
Everybody wants to win.
The Nebraska men’s golfers are
no different.
They have finished in second
place twice this fall and in the top five
several other times, but they haven’t
tasted victory.
Nebraska finishes its fall sched
ule today and Tuesday when the
Huskers compete in the 17-team Red
Raider Intercollegiate in Lubbock,
Texas. The tournament is part of the
1997-98 Rolex Collegiate Tour.
NU hopes to satisfy its hunger
with a first-place finish.
“If we play like we are capable of,
we should win,” said Larry Romjue,
NU men’s golf coach. “We just need
to prove it.”
Romjue said the Hillcrest
Country Club in Lubbock, Texas, is a
medium, difficult course, but he
expects the golfers*to shoot good
scores if the weather is good.
He said the tournament is impor
tant because Iowa State and Oral
Roberts, two district teams, will be
competing.
The play of the fourth and fifth
golfers will be a key if NU expects to
win, Romjue said.
“We need to have a solid perfor
mance from all five,” Romjue said.
Ryan Nietfeldt, Scott
Gutschewski and Peter Smith have all
battled for the fourth and fifth spots
all fall. Romjue said Nietfeldt didn’t
have a good tournament last week at
the Kroger Intercollegiate, where he
shot a two-round 159 and finished in
a tie for 64th overall.
Nietfeldt and Smith both made
the trip to Texas and Romjue said he
was going to have them have a playoff
during yesterday’s practice round.
The one, who shot better would com
pete as the fifth golfer on the team
today. While the other will compete
individually.
After a second-place finish at the
Kroger Intercollegiate Romjue said
he believes the Huskers are ready for
the Red Raider Intercollegiate.
“Hopefully, we are peaking at the
right time,” Romjue said.