The Big 12 offensive player
of the week was Texas A&M
senior quarterback Branndon
Stewart, who spearheaded a 28
25 comeback win over
Oklahoma State in overtime.
Stewart completed 18 of 33
passes for 226 yards and a
touchdown. He was 8 of 9 pass
ing in the fourth quarter alone.
The Big 12 defensive player
of the week was senior left rush
end Grant Wistrom of Nebraska.
Wistrom had 10 tackles, includ
ing four for a negative 23 yards,
two sacks and three caused fum
bles in the game.
Kansas junior defensive
back Jason Harris was the Big
12 special teams player of the
week. Harris blocked two punts
to set up two Jayhawk touch
downs and returned the second
one for a touchdown in KU’s 34
24 victory over Iowa State.
■
Baylor no longer has any
goalposts in Waco as the fans
tore them down after the 23-21
upset win over Texas. It was the
Bears’ first win over the
Longhorns in five years. First
year Coach Dave Roberts
picked up his first conference
win of his career.
“It was huge win for us,
- tbwa about^that,”
Roberts said. “It was a huge
morale boost for us and we real
ly needed something good to
happen to us.”
a
Missouri has received the
support of the Tiger fans as
1,500 supporters met the play
ers at the Columbia, Mo., air
port following MU’s 41-31 vic
tory over Colorado in Boulder
on Saturday.
Missouri Coach Larry Smith
was somewhat surprised at the
reception the team received.
“You’d have thought that it
was New Year’s Day,” he said.
“We were going down the high
way after the airport and people
were honking and waving flags.
It was incredible.”
m
The best game of the week in
the Big 12 was Texas A&M’s 28
25 overtime win over Oklahoma
State, putting A&M back into
the picture for the Big 12 South
Division title. Senior quarter
back Branndon Stewart com
pleted a touchdown with 43 sec
onds left to make the score 22
20, and then completed a pass to
Sirr Parker to tie the score.
After a OSU field goal in
overtime, the Aggies won the
game with a touchdown from
D’Andre Hardeman on an 8
yard run.
“I’m proud of how our team
hung in there and proud of how
the team played in the entire
game,” Texas A&M Coach R.C.
Slocum said. “Oklahoma State
has a good team, and we had to
play well to beat them.”
Big 12 Notebook compiled
by staff reporter Sam
McKewon.
Grange Bowl warms to NU
By Sam McKewon
Staff Reporter
Amid all the happy faces during
Nebraska’s 69-7 victory over
Oklahoma, the smile on the face of
Orange Bowl team selection com
mittee member Terry Rodriguez
was a little wider than the rest.
The Orange Bowl gets the first
choice of teams in the Bowl
Alliance and wants nothing more
than to see No. 1 Nebraska contin
ue on its current undefeated path.
More importantly, Rodriguez
said, is for NU to win convincingly
enough to keep a firm grasp on the
number-one ranking in the polls,
thereby ensuring the Orange Bowl
has a hand in deciding this year’s
national champion.
“We would love to have the
No.l- and No. 2- ranked team,”
said Rodriguez, who is also a
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
alumnus. “But if we only have the
No.l-ranked team, we’ll still have
a national championship game.”
The major threats to that possi
bility are two teams from the Big
10 - Penn State and Michigan. The
Nittany Lions are No. 2 while
Michigan is No. 4 in The
Associated Press Poll.
The two teams square off
Saturday at Penn State in a game
that in all likelihood will determine
the Big 10 Championship and
which team will compete in the
Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl, which
plays host to the Big 10 and
Pacific-10 champions, is not affili
ated this season with the Bowl
Alliance.
The Bowl Alliance includes the
Orange, Sugar and Fiesta Bowls
with each bowl, on a rotating basis,
getting to select the top two teams
to compete in its game. This year
the Orange Bowl gets to make the
first two selections.
Although it is possible that the
Penn State-Michigan winner could
leapfrog a still-unbeaten Nebraska,
Rodriguez is confident that the Big
10 will not have an undefeated
team going to Pasadena.
“The Big 10 is a tough confer
ence with a lot of good teams that
all play each other,” he said. “The
chances are reasonable that a Big
10 team will not get out of the sea
son undefeated.”
The focus for the Orange Bowl
committee concerns the team that
would play Nebraska Jan. 2 in Joe
Robbie Stadium.
Honda Mate and North
Carolina are the two top choices to
face Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.
The Seminoles are ranked third in
the AP Poll and second in the
ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll
and play at undefeated and fifth
ranked North Carolina Saturday.
The winner is the likely favorite
to play the Huskers for the national
championship.
If UNC wins, it’s likely they
would finish the season undefeat
ed. FSU would have one more big
test, a game at No. 13 Florida.
Rodriguez said the Orange
Bowl will be at the Florida State
North Carolina game this weekend.
“It doesn’t matter to us who
wins that game,” he said. “Both
teams are very good and whichever
one ends up with the best record
will be the team we want.”
The only catch to the Orange
Bowl’s perfect scenario is a
Nebraska loss in one of its three
remaining regular season games or
a loss in the Big 12 Championship.
Rodriguez said that is a problem he
hopes he doesn’t have to face.
“The absolute worst-case sce
nario for us is if Nebraska loses a
game the rest of the season,”
Rodriguez said. “They look like a
great team, so I don’t think that
will happen.”
Michael Warrfin/DN
BOBBY NEJjjfCOMBE entered fall practice as a quarterback recruit and hoped to fit into the lineup. Now, Newcombe
■ The freshman sensation
and converted QB is now
on the other end of passes.
By Jay Saunders
Assignment Reporter
In August, most people thought
freshman Bobby Newcombe would be
on the throwing end of Nebraska touch
down passes this season. But after
games against Kansas and Oklahoma,
the Comhuskers have found a danger
ous weapon.
When it was announced earlier this
fall that Newcombe would make the
switch from quarterback to wingback,
no one knew exactly what the Husker
coaching staff had in mind for the her
alded freshman from Albuquerque,
N.M. Ever since the switch, Newcombe
has returned punts, run the ball and
caught passes.
Not only is Newcombe doing all of
those things, but he’s scoring touch
downs as well. Against Kansas,
Newcombe had a punt return for a
touchdown called back because of a
penalty. Early in the third quarter
against Oklahoma, Newcombe scored
again, and this time it counted on a 40
yard pass from senior quarterback Scott
Frost.
“The crowd cheered and I got excited,”
Newcombe said “It counted this time.”
The pass reception could have been
the second touchdown Newcombe
scored against the Sooners. On
Oklahoma’s first possession of the sec
ond quarter, OU punter Brian
Shackelford boomed a 56-yard punt.
Newcombe took the ball and ran up the
right side of the field for 57 yards.
It looked like Newcombe would
score, but he was tripped up at the OU
27-yard line. Newcombe said he didn’t
know who got credit for stopping what
looked to be a sure touchdown.
“I came off die field thinking that I
tripped over my own two feet,”
Newcombe said. “Vershan (Jackson)
told me that Shevin (Wiggins) bumped
into my leg.”
Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne said he
was impressed with Newcombe’s perfor
mance against Oklahoma, and with every
week that goes by, Husker fans may see
more of the freshman wingback
“He is a big-play guy,” Osborne
said. “He is really coming around to the
point where he knows the offense. We
can put him in almost any situation and
know he can hold his own.”
Newcombe said he is gaming a lot
of confidence along with the increased
work he is getting on the field. But will
Newcombe return to quarterback any
time soon?
“I am just happy to be contributing
to the No. 1 team in the country,”
Newcombe said. “I feel a lot more com
fortable on die field. I’m having a lot of
fun.”
Mock dual
primes NU
for season
By Antone Oseka
Senior Reporter
A wrestler’s memory can fool
him, sometimes.
Like Saturday morning, when
the Nebraska wrestling team
squared off against each other for
the first intrasquad meet of the
1997 season. The mock dual was
designed to give new wrestlers a
feel for competition before they
see their first real competition of
the season.
The wrestling team travels to
Wyoming the weekend of
Novdfnber 14-15 for its first dual
and open meet of the season.
“It raises our intensity,”
senior 190-pounder Ryan Tobin
said. “It’s very different with ref
ereed matches and using mat
strategy.”
ror most or wrestling prac
tice, competitors don’t worry
about referee calls or boundaries
for the mat. They just wrestle
hard the whole time. But when
two men square off on the mat in
competition, their strategies
change to use the boundaries and
the ref.
Coach Tim Neumann said
those were a couple of areas his
team needed to work on in the
rie3EfcWieete*4 Xvi\$ \ j
“We te$4$&1olid,” Neuminn
said. “We didn’t make a lot of
glaring errors.”
The dual does give a chance
for coaches to see individual and
team mistakes as well as make
decisions on a starting lineup for
the first dual of the season, a 6
p.m. contest against Wyoming
Nov. 14.
There were a few surprises in
the individual matches of the
dual, but there wasn’t a lack of
action. It started with one of the
most closely contested matches
all day. Tobin, ranked No. 1 in the
country at 190, needed a last-sec
ond takedown to beat junior
heavyweight Abe Boomer 6-5.
That match could have changed a
few plans for Neumann and
Assistant Coach Mark Cody.
Tobin is still cutting weight to
get to 190, so he’ll wrestle in the
heavyweight class for the majori
ty of the fall semester. That is,
unless Boomer beats him out.
“I was excited Abe wrestled
Ryan that aggressively,”
Neumann said.
lhat wasn t the only match
that had varsity implications.
Dusty Morris beat Jose DeAnda,
but still has to wrestle Allen
Hankins this week to decide var
sity status at 142 pounds for the
Wyoming dual. The 150-pound
spot, too, is up in the air. Billy
Gabel will wrestle Ryan Bauer
for the starting job.
“We looked good,” Neumann
said of his team. “We looked big
and more physical than other
teams in the past at this point.”
For Cody, it showed him what
areas his upper weights need to
work on. However, Neumann said
the upper weights were the most
solid part of the team. As a team,
Neumann found 27 areas the
Huskers need to improve.
“We’re a long way from per
fect,” he said. “But, we’re a long
way from March.”