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CORBY JONES is one of many talented quarterbacks who will have to be replaced this season by respective foot
ball teams.
; f •.
Replacing solid starters
could prove to be difficult
By Sam McKewon
Senior editor
Four things shared by Dusty
Bonner, Drew Bennett and Austin
Moherman:
■ Few know who they are.
■ That’s because they played quar
terback behind Kentucky’s Tim Couch,
UCLA’s Cade McNown and Ohio
State’s Joe Germaine, respectively, last
year.
■ Which means they hardly ever
played.
■ But now they’re in quarterback
battles to fill some of the largest shoes
left open for college football in 1999.
Much ado has been made (we’ve yet
to see if it’s about something or nothing)
about the quarterback class currently
entering the NFL Draft. There could be
four quarterbacks taken in the first 10
picks. There could be seven taken in the
first round alone.
But what might be the NFL’s gain
was college football’s loss. The result:
plenty of teams, both strong and weak,
ranked and unranked, forced to replace
the imost visible, and sometimes most
important, position on the team with -
players who have little to zero experi
ence in games. Not exactly a walk in the
park.
“You hate to do it,” said Missouri
Coach Larry Smith, who has to replace
three-year starter Corby Jones. “I
remember having to do it at USC with
Rodney Peete. You have to go through it
several times. You just hope that every
one else has to do it at the same time.”
In fact, most of the Big 12 North
Division is doing it. Nebraska and
Colorado are the only two teams that
return extensive quarterbacking experi
ence. Kansas State has to replace
Michael Bishop. Iowa State reloads
without Todd Bandhauer. Kansas’ Zac
Wegner will sit out because of recurring
concussions.
And many of die top teams national
ly are replacing quarteihacks, too.
Oregon must replace Akili Smith.
Washington must replace Brock Huard.
Miami (die South Florida version) must
replace Scott fconvington. Tulane
replaces Shaun King.
Hardest hit will probably be
Syracuse and UCLA, which must
replaee first-round picks Donovan
McNabb and McNown, respectively.
Both ranked in the top 10 in NCAA
Please see QB on 11
NU’s Frisch on roll
for women’s tennis
By Jake Bleed
Staff writer
With only seven players on the Nebraska
women’s tennis teamh roster and one out for the
season after knee surgery, it was obvious the
remaining six would have to step up.
But how to step up wasn’t so obvious for
freshman Amy Frisch.
“I didn’t know what it was going to be like
competing at a collegiate level,” Frisch said.
“You just watch die older players and see how
they relate to situations.”
Frisch did step up. The Nebraska women’s
tennis team, No. 6 singles, is 16-5 with four
matches left in the season. Prior to losing at
Kansas on April 3, the freshman hadn’t lost in
, 11 matches.
“Once I started winning, I gained confi
dence,” Frisch said. “And the more I gained con
fidence, the easier it was to win.”
Frisch is probably one of the most outward
ly positive players on the team.
‘Tor me, I just have to stay positive. I need to
be jumping and moving around,” Frisch said.
Coach Scott Jacobson said he has watched
Frisch improve tremendously‘ since she arrived
atNU.
“She gets better and better after every
match,” Jacobson said.
Frisch said the influence of Nebraska’s
coaches has helped her improve throughout die
year.
m “I think I’ve improved a lot because of help
' from them,” Frisch said. “I like it when they
ii
Once I started winning,
I gained confidence
Amy Frisch
- NU tennis player
come over to my court They’re really upbeat
and positive.”
Frisch, of course, wasn’t a complete new
comer to the sport. The 19-year-old said she’s
been playing since she was 11. While at Notre
Dame Academy in Crescent Springs, Ky., Frisch
was part of two state championship teams, was
an all-state selection three times and named
player of the year as a senior.
Frisch said her father, Jeff, had a major
influence on her success in tennis. A player and
former coach, JefifFrisch has already visited and
watched four matches this year.
“He just knows so much about the game,
and he’s so into it,” Frisch said.
Nebraska may need more than parental sup
port this week. Playing host to three matches
this weekend, Nebraska will face major region
al and conference rivals in Iowa, Baylor and *
Colorado. Wins this weekend would help NU
win a postseason seed in the NCAA tourna
ment. And making the tourney is a goal of
Frisch Is - if not this year, then next
“We’re going to have everyone back next
year, and I think we’re going to get a couple
more,” Frisch said.
Taylor helps out Nebraska
■ Without a scholarship, the
junior factors heavily in the
Huskers’ offensive attack.
By Brandon Schulte
Staff writer
For someone who is on her third softball pro
gram in four years, wasn’t recruited by Nebraska
and isn’t on an athletic scholarship, Ginger Taylor
plays a crucial role for the NU softball team.
As a starter at the designated hitter position,
through 26 games she has compiled a .308 batting
average, third on the team, and is second on the team
with 13 runs. All while redefining the DH role.
She doesn’t exactly fit the traditional mold of
most players at her position or her predecessors, Ali
Viola and Christie McCoy, who were known for
their power. In fact, notone ofher 24 hits this season
has gone for extra bases. She also hits near the bot
tom of the lineup, though few DH’s can boast of a
team-high eight-game hitting streak.
“I see her role as always being ready to start a
rally or continue one,” Coach Rhonda Revelle said
ofher designated hitter. “By using her speed and her
ability to put the ball in play, once she^ on base she’s
going to be a threat”
While the 5-foot-3 Taylor doesn’t strike fear into
opposing pitchers, she may frustrate themwith her
ability to slap the ball to either field.
“When people think of designated hitters, they
think ofMark McGwire,” Taylor said. “I’m going to
move the runners and make the defense make mis
takes. I find a way to get on and making things hap
pen.”
Though the road to Nebraska may have been
long with stops at Texas-San Antonio and Alabama,
nothing can compare to her high school days in
Texas.
During her senior year every Sunday, she had to
drive seven hours both ways from her home in Iowa
Park, Texas to Houston for a three hour practice.
This led ho* dad to build her a softball field, her own
“field of dreams.”
Taylor came to NU after a phone call to Revelle,
who hadn’t even heard ofher but had a “gut feeling.”
“I don’t know what made me say yes,” Revelle
said. “We didn’t have any scholarship money or
know anything about her, and we didn’t need any
more outfielders. We got a quick, fiery, competitive
player.”
From day one Taylor won over her new team
mates with her leadership, good-natured attitude
and exuberance for the game.
Never were her leadership abilities more evident
than this past Sunday. With the possibility ofNU’s
postseason hopes fading, and in k tied game with
OSU in the bottom of the seventh, she stepped con
fidently up to the plate, and drove in the game-win
ning RBL
“The first time I saw her was a week before
school started, when we started fall practice,” friend
and roommate Jennyi/oss said. “She came running
out onto the field with energy and asked who want
ed to play catch before she introduced herself. I
knew then we would eventually be good friends.
’Undaunted by he lack of a scholarship, Taylor had
trouble getting through the year she had to sit out
because she was a transfer; the year NU went to the
College World Series. Through these tumultuous
times she bonded with Voss.
They became roommates and friends but got
even closer when they were involved in an accident
over Holiday Break in which their car flipped llA
times.
“It taught me that life is precious,” Taylor said.
“You never know what is going to happen next, to
treat life as a gift”
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