r
If Colorado can pull off a victory
over Missouri this weekend, the
Buffaloes will become the 16th
school in NCAA history to win 600
games.
■
Although Iowa State has strug
gled this year, the offensive line has
held strong for quarterback Todd
Bandhauer. Bandhauer suffered his
first sack of the season after 256
attempts in the second quarter of
ISU’s 17-14 loss to Oklahoma.
■
The Cyclones’ loss to the
Sooners extended its streak of con
ference losses on the road. ISU’s last
conference road victory was a 23-22
victory over Missouri in Columbia
in 1991.
Texas running back Ricky
Williams needs 294 yards in his
final three games to break Tony
Dorsett’s NCAA career rushing
record of 6,082 yards.
■
For the second time in as many
weeks, Kansas quarterback Zac
Wegner had to leave the game with a
concussion.
m
Kansas State kicker Martin
Gramatica connected for field goals
on 30, 45, 36 and 26 yards to set a
school single-game mark.
■
This is the first year since 1980
that Missouri has been 6-2 to start
the season.
■
After Oklahoma State's 17-6
loss to No. 8 Texas A&M, OSU has
now lost 23 consecutive games to
top-25 teams. The last Cowboy vic
tory was a 21-14 win over No. 7
South Carolina in the 1984 Gator
Bowl.
' ■
With a 12-tackle performance,
Texas A&M linebacker Dat Nguyen
now reigns as the Aggies’ all-time
tackle leader with 460. Nguyen
broke Johnny Holland’s team record
of 455, set from 1983 to 1986.
■
Kansas State quarterback
Michael Bishop was named this
week's Big 12 offensive player of
the week. Oklahoma cornerback
Corey Ivy was named defensive
player of the week, and Texas A&M
kick returner Chris Taylor is special
ty player of the week.
■
With eight matches left in the
Big 12 volleyball season, the con
ference title race has turned into a
three-team battle. Nebraska still
leads the conference with a perfect
12-0 record, but Texas and Colorado
are close behind with an 11-1 mark.
The Big 12 Notebook compiled
by staff writer James Nicas
Newcombe back home for medical tests
By David Wilson
Senior staff writer
Nebraska quarterback Bobby
Newcombe has returned home to
Albuquerque, N.M., for a weeklong
visit with family and doctors concern
ing his lingering knee injury, his father,
Robert, said Monday.
The sophomore, who tore the poste
rior cruciate ligament in his left knee in
the Comhuskers’ season opener, flew
home Sunday and will miss NU’s game
at Iowa State this Saturday, Robert
Newcombe said.
“The break is as important for his
physical well-being as well as his men
tal well-being,” Robert Newcombe said.
“Bobby hasn’t been home for six
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Riiiuuuio. ut o pui
all his blood, sweat
and tears into aca
m demies and athlet
ics at the
* University of
Nebraska.”
tL “Where the
I coaches may have
I specific concerns
® about this season.
Newcombe they - as well as I -
have concerns with his career.”
Bobby Newcombe saw two doctors
Monday, his father said, and is sched
uled to visit another on Saturday before
returning to Lincoln.
It is still unsure whether or not
surgery will be necessary, Robert
Newcombe said, or if the 6-foot, 195
pounder will be able to return to action
this season.
“We’ll have to hear from all the doc
tors before we decide what the best
course of action is,” Robert Newcombe
said.
After visiting with Nebraska team
doctors, Robert Newcombe said he
wanted a second opinion from doctors
in Albuquerque.
“The coaches don’t have any prob
lem with me doing it,” Robert
Newcombe said. “They’re not going to
tell me no. I just think its a good idea. As
a parent, it makes me feel more com
fortable.”
After practice Monday, NU Coach
Frank Solich said Bobby Newcombe
was seeing a doctor out of town, but he
would not comment on the location of
that doctor or the duration of the visit.
Husker Quarterbacks Coach Turner
Gill said Newcombe had returned home
for a short stay but also refused further
comment.
“It’s between him, his dad and the
Please see NEWCOMBE on 8
Husker attack
seeks an end
to early jitters
By Sam McKewon
Senior editor
The Nebraska players thought they had the first -
quarter bugs worked out Saturday in preparation for
Texas.
It made sense, seeing that they had four weeks to
work on it. In the previous four games, the
Comhuskers had scored 10 points in the combmed 60
minutes for four first quarters. One of those slow
starts led to a loss at Texas A&M.
Couple that with a team-described “great” week
of practice before the game against UT, and NU
thought it would be ready?
The results betrayed that optimism: no points and
15 total yards m the first quarter.
So, for the second straight week, the Comhuskers
are left wondering just when they will break out of
their first quarter funk and what exactly is going
wrong.
“It’s so hard to read,” senior center Josh Heskew
said. “You think that we're going to come out fired
up, and then you don't come out and play that way.
“It's hard to really pinpomt one thing that could
actually be the determining factor for it.”
For the Huskers, there could be a variety of prob
lems, but one possibility is that opposing defenses are
showing NU some looks that can be found in scout
ing tapes.
Both Heskew and newly named starting quarter
back Eric Crouch said teams have given the Huskers
some different looks this season, especially
Oklahoma State, which ran a totally different
defense, and Texas, which blitzed on every down.But
Crouch said that’s to be expected when teams play
NU.
“Thype’s always some things that you're going to
have to adjust to at the beginning of the game,” said
Crouch, who is starting in place of Bobby
Newcombe. Newcombe is spending the week in
Albuquerque, N.M.
Matt Miller/DN
OFFENSIVE LINEMAN JASON SCHWAB looks for someone to block against Washington earlier this year.
The offense has been slow out of the blocks this season, scoring only 10 points in the last four
games. _
The best way to go about it, Crouch said, is not to For Heskew, the solution is the same but more
turn to passing or change schemes but to line up and simple.
pack more punch at the line of scrimmage. “Hey, we’ve just got to do it,” Heskew said.
“We’ve just got to go out there and be more phys- “There’s no two ways around it. We’ve got to quit
ical,” Crouch said. “That’s just what we have to do.” messing around and come out and get it done.”
NU golfers make mark on national scene
By Shannon Heffeeflnger
Senior staff writer
As he stood near the 18th green at the Stanford
Golf Course on Sunday and listened to Cardinal Golf
Coach Wally Goodwin present the Comhuskers with a
Isecona-piace tropny at i ne
Nelson, Steve Friesen realized
for the first time just how far
Nebraska men’s golf has come
over the past eight months.
“As (Goodwin) introduced
us, he told the crowd that Coach
Romjue had brought us from
basically nothing to a team every
§1 one sees as a noted contender at
anv tournament we 20 to.”
Homiue Friesen, an NU golfer, said.
“He didn’t say anything like that to anyone else,
even the team that won the tournament. It was kind of
neat, and it was really mce to hear.”
NU earned the runner-up title at The Nelson, fin
ishing with a 54-hole total of 864. Friesen finished
fourth individually after shooting 68 in the final round
Sunday, bringing his tournament total to 211 on the
par-214 course. Nebraska’s Jamie Rogers took 10th
place, shooting 1-over-par.
“It was not an easy course, but it wasn’t extremely
tough, either,” Friesen said. “The greens were so pure.
It was a really nice course to finish on.”
But, more importantly, NU’s final fall tournament
capped a successful eight-month period in which the
team made an impact on the national golf scene.
Nebraska didn’t finish lower than fourth place in
five tournaments this fall, using the season to build on
the momentum gained from a top 20 showing at the
NCAA National Tournament last spring.
“I think we crept up on people last year when we
finished 20th at nationals,” Romjue said. “I think we’ll
have some respect that we haven’t enjoyed in the past.
“When we show up, people are going to say, ‘Oh
yeah, they’re good, they’re here, and they’re capable of
beating us.’ There’s about a half-dozen or so elite
teams, and we aren’t there. But teams will know that
they have to bnng their A-game, or we’ll beat them. I
expect we’ll be ranked in the top 20 this spring.”
Romjue listed NU’s showings at the Colorado
State Ram Collegiate and the Duke Golf Classic as fall
highlights. Nebraska tied for third at Duke on Oct. 19,
matching fifth-ranked Georgia Tech stroke-for-stroke.
Three weeks earlier, the Huskers won the
Colorado State Tournament, relying on a school
record round of 65 from senior Jamie Rogers.
Rogers, Friesen, Scott Gutschewski and Josh
Madden finished as Nebraska’s top four golfers in
every tournament this fall. Romj ue experimented with j
three different golfers at the last sppt but never found a
strong fifth player. He hopes that either senior Ryan
Nietfeldt, junior Judd Brewer or freshman Seth Porter
will emerge as a consistent fifth player in the spring.
Whether or not that happens, NU still has a confi
dent, strong nucleus entering the spring.
“Steve, Jamie, Scott and Josh Madden have been
the team this fall,” Romjue said. “I’m looking forward
to the day whdn they all play well at the same time.
They’ve made mistakes but have still competed well. I
think the day they don’t make mistakes, people are
going to be astounded at how good this team can be.”