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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 28, 1997)
Tuesday, October 28,1997MM . • ___Page 7 r The Big 12 offensive player of the week was Missouri junior quar terback Corby Jones, who was 13 25 passing for 231 yards with two touchdowns. He also had 85 yards rushing and two touchdowns in the Tigers’51-50 upset over the No. 12 Oklahoma State in overtime. Jones scored the winning touchdown on a 15-yard run in the second over time. ! The Big 12 defensive player of the week was senior nose tackle Greg Schoon of Iowa State. Schoon had 13 tackles, including three sacks in the Cyclones’ 24-17 victo ry over Baylor. It was ISU’s first win of the year. The Big 12 special teams play er of the week was senior place kicker Tony Rogers of Texas Tech. Rogers hadn’t kicked a field goal all season until he made three against Texas A&M, including a 49-yarder that gave Tech a 16-13 victory. ■ The most controversial call of the week came at OSU as Cowboys Coach Bob Simmons decided to go for the two-point conversion and the win against Missouri in the sec ond overtime. Simmons did not have to go for two until the third overtime, out tried and railed in running the swinging gate play for win as freshman QB Tony Lindsay was stopped after a one yard gain. “We had the option we wanted open, ^iit' we 'di^S^r seW if,” Simmons said. “That’s a coaching mistake, not the glayers.’” With the 35-0 win over Kansas, Nebraska moved to 7-0 and secured its 36th straight winning season, the best current streak and third best all-time. ■ Kansas State has been nearly perfect inside the opponent’s 20 yard line, as it has scored on 31 of 33 attempts inside the red zone this season (23 touchdowns, eight field goals). KSU Coach Bill Snyder said offensive improvement is behind the success. “We’ve got a lot more confi dence in the running game,” Snyder said. “We’re not so one dimensional inside the 20.” ifl Iowa State sophomore running back Darren Davis signaled his return from an early-season injury With the sixth-best rushing day in 1FQTT Kicfnrv Hovio tVio \7Aiitinrar brother of former ISU running back and Heisman Candidate Troy Davis, finished the day with 247. yards rushing against Baylor. ISU Coach Dan McCamey said Davis has been a big addition to the Cyclones. “He’s still not 100 percent out there,” McCamey said, “and he still got almost 250 yards in the game. That shows you how good he is.” Colorado Coach jftijck* Neuheisel had praise fofNU. Coach Tom Osborne as he goes after his 250th win against Oklahoma this weekend. “Is that all he has?” Neuheisel said. “It seems like he has 550. I’m going far my 25th win this week end, so I have achieved exactly one-tenth what he has. To do what he and Nebraska has done is not only one of the great dynasties in college football, but in all of sports.” Big 12 Notebook compiled by staff reporter Sam McKewon. I Wistrom warms to cold weather By David Wilson Senior Reporter LAWRENCE, Kan. -r .Grant; Wistrom thrives on playing in bad' weather. Bad weather along with the worst offense in the Big 12 Conference was what Nebraska faced Saturday against Kansas. “I love games like this,” Wistrom said. “Unless it’s raining or it’s muddy out or something, it’s just not football to me. I’m really happy when we can come out and play in these bad weather games. I kind of get off on it a little bit.” Wistrom recorded a season-high two sacks as the top-ranked Comhuskers defeated the Jayhawks 35-0. The senior rush end recorded a total of four tackles, which moved him within one tackle of NU’s top olLfimA IupHa art A returning All-American and a 1997 Lombardi Award semifinalist, Wistrom had recorded only one sack prior to Saturday’s game. “It’s about time,” Wistrom said. “Those things are few and far between, especially this year. Hopefully we got a little something started and I’ll be able to carry it on.” With three sacks this season, Wistrom ranks fifth on Nebraska’s all-time sack chart - 8/4 behind teada^Trev Alberts.’ 29,5 (1990^,3). Though )Vistrom’s number^ftay not indicate his performance this season, NO: Rush Ends Coach Nelson Barnes said Wistrom’s pres ence has beeC^W^r each game. “I’ve been pleased with Grant every week,” Barnes said. “It’s more important how he plays rather, than 9 ;; Miller^ EVEN THOUGH GRANT WISTROM’S statistics may not be as high as they were last year, he is stilljlominating offe$ es by drawing double teams and pressuring the quarterbacks._~ just numbers that he puts up. Numbers are not the most important thing to our defense.” But the'NU defense did put up big numbers against Kansas. The Blackshirts held Kansas to 48 yards on 48 plays - the lowest amount of total offense allowed by NU this season. The output was also the lowest the Jayhawk offense has produced in a game all season. “They seemed out from the start,” Wistrom said. “They really didn’t try to get any type of rhythm started at all. I don’t think they got much started at all. They didn’t know if they wanted to run it or pass it. All in all, they really didn’t try to establish anything consistent.” Kansas only recorded four first downs against the Huskers and never crossed their own 45-yard line. But the weather, Wistrom said, may have affected the Jayhawks’ game plan. Forty-nine-degree temperatures and light rain blown by 25 mph day for pass^^^^^^^^^^^^" “The offensive line and the defensive line came into play more than usual,” NU senior quarterback Scott Frost said. Nebraska passed just 10 times, while Kansas threw the ball 17 times. But the lack of offensive out put didn’t take away from a job well done by the Husker defense. “The weather wasn’t really help ful for an offensive game today, but all-in-all, I feel we played pretty epodrlefense” Wistrom said. ,.f j '• KU has not been noted for mov ing the ball real well,” Osborne said. “But they’re not terrible.” 3 teams race for South Division title By Sam McKewon Staff Reporter There may not be any top ten teams in the Big 12 South Division, but it does have a flair for the dramat ic. For the second straight year, the South Division is up for grabs between several teams. Three - No. 19 Oklahoma State (6-1 overall and 3-1 in the Big 12 Conference), unranked Texas Tech (5-3, 3-1) and Texas A&M (5-2,2-2) - are current ly leading the pack for the confer ence crown. “It looks like it’s going to be a pretty dam good race,” Aggies Coach R.C. Slocum said. “It will probably come right down to the end.” Barring two upsets in its last four games, Nebraska (7-0, 4-0) will be the Big 12’s North Division represen tative for the Big 12 Championship Game Dec. 6 in San Antonio. NU can lose one game and would still have the tie-breaker over Kansas State, because of the Huskers’ 56-26 win over the Wildcats. But in the South, little can be determined yet. OSU looked in total control of the conference until its 51 50 double overtime loss to Missouri on Saturday. The Red Raiders, who lost to the Huskers 29-0 on Oct. 18, jumped back into a tie for the confer ence lead with a 16-13 upset win over Texas A&M on Saturday. One team that has been all but eliminated from winning the South is preseason favorite Texas. The Longhorns fell to 1-3 in the Big 12 and 3-4 overall with a 47-30 loss to Colorado on Saturday. Texas Coach John Mackovic said he is disappointed his team could not do better in the conference race. “It was certainly one of our goals to get to be the champ again,” he said. “We could have really got ourselves back in it with a win over Colorado, but we didn’t get it.” That basically leaves three teams, each of which will have to accom plish different things to win the Big 12 South Division. Oklahoma State is still is control Please see SOUTH on 8 Osborne's first game was revenge Nebraska Coach Tom j Osborne goes for his 250th win thjit Saturday against Oklahoma. This week the Daily Nebraskan highlights Osborne's top five victories. ' k i £ *s • --■} ‘ i .5. *f> f • , *• ‘ % | _ Tom Osb.orne’s first gammas Nebraska’s coach was -a revenge game for the Cornhuskers. V' UCLA had halted Nebraska’s 32-game win streak with a 20-17 victory over top-ranked NU in the opening game of the 1972 season, which prevented Nebraska from competing for a third straight national champi onship. So the Huskers’ 40-13 victo ry in Osborne’s first game with 74,966 fans at Memorial Stadium and a national ABC television audience was revenge for NU and a preview of what fans would expect for Osborne’s next 25 years. Nebraska rushed for 305 yards and threw for 105 yards. But more important was the NU defense, which held UCLA’s wishbone attack to 239 yards rushing and 259 yards overall. UCLA would also provide Osborne with his 100th victory when NU defeated the Bruins 42-10 on Sept. 24, 1983. u^m OU, NU’s relationship tenuous After Saturday’s game against Oklahoma the NU/OU rivalry will take a two year hiatus. This week the Daily Nebraskan looks back at the top five games that have made this an intriguing contest Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne had to wait five years before he got his first victory against Oklahoma as a head coach, but when Nebraska finally beat OU 17-14 in 1978, it was the biggest win of Osborne’s tenure. Eventual Heisman Trophy winner Billy Sims and the top-ranked 9-0 Sooners strode into Lincoln expecting their sixth straight win over the Huskers, but were stopped by six film bles, including one at the end of the game that cost the Sooners the win. NU went ahead 17-14 on a 24-yard Billy Todd field goal early in the fourth quarter and then watched Oklahoma march down the field before Sims, who had rushed for 153 yards and two touchdowns, fumbled the ball at the NU 3-yard line as he was going into the end zone, preserving the Husker victory. With the win, the Huskers earned their first trip to the Orange Bowl since 1973. However, after the OU win, NU lost the very next week to Missouri, and was forced to play the Sooners again in the bowl game, where the Sooners won die rematoh 31 -24.