Sports -■?
Page 8 Wednesday, September 1,1999
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Solich, NU players support Crouch
■ The junior from
Millard North will address
the media next week.
By Samuel McKewon
Senior staff writer
The mystery surrounding quarter
back Eric Crouch’s rumored disappear
ance from the team remained just that -
a mystery - Tuesday as the junioi
declined to comment for a second day.
Instead, Nebraska Coach Franl
Solich said Crouch will wait until nex
week to address the media. Solid
announced Monday that quarterbacl
Bobby Newcombe will start Saturday’:
11:00 a.m. game at Iowa.
“Eric is a guy that totally tries to
prepare himself for a game, and I think
his feeling is to say anything right now
IWUU1U 11UI Iicip U1
any manner pre
pare himself or
the team,” Solich
said at NU’s press
conference
Tuesday.
Solich also
reiterated that
Crouch Crouch did not
quit the
: Comhuskers for any period of time nor
: did he tell Solich he would transfer.
> And with that answer, Solich told the
: media: “With stating that, I’d like to
i move on if we can to issues concerning
the game.”
So on came the questions about
how much Crouch would play in the
game against Iowa.
Solich, once again, did say that
Crouch would play at least one series
against the Hawkeyes in the first half,
and at least one series in the second
half. There wasn’t any definite plan
concerning when Crouch might enter
the game, Solich said, only that
Newcombe would get most of the
snaps.
“Nothing is scripted,” Solich said.
Solich said die team is prepared to
go into Iowa City on Saturday, and the
recent developments at quarterback
have done nothing to hurt the team’s
morale.
Junior wide receiver Matt Davison,
one of Crouch’s friends on the team,
agreed.
“Eric’s still got on a Nebraska red
jersey and an ‘N’ on his helmet,”
Davison said. “That ought to tell the
fans something. Eric’s a guy that’s not
going to quit. He’s a fighter.”
Solich did not say whether the two
quarterbacks will continue to battle for
time once the season begins. He did say
that if one quarterback were to get tired,
the other would be available to fill in.
Newcombe said that while he does
n’t feel any pressure to compete against
Crouch, it’s obvious he has to play well,
for the team’s sake.
“I’m going to have to perform
every game to lead this team to a cham
pionship,” Newcombe said. “I have no
opportunities to slack it off- there’s no
room for error.”
Newcombe said he felthehadmoie
experience coming into the year’s first
game than he did in last season’s open
er - mainly in terms of dealing with
adversity.
“I got in a hole, and I had to dig
myself out of it,” Newcombe said.
Newcombe also took advantage of
the opportunity to throw some bulletin
board material up for the Hawkeyes
when he was asked if he had any wor
ries for the upcoming game.
“I guess my only concern is that this
team is so fired up for this game and so
confident to play this game, I’m wor
ried that we’re not going to get to play
the whole game - the first-team guys.”
Matt Mtt.t.f,r/dn
NEBRASKA SETTERS Jill McWilliams (left) and Lindsay Wlschmeisr will both sac action la the Maskers’ newly implemented f-2 offense.
McWilliams, a junior, played behind All-American setter Fiona Repo for two seasons, while Wlscbmeler Is a tree freshmaa.
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Huskers
implement
6-2 attack
... \ .
By John Gaskins
Staff writer
The fate of Nebraska’s 1999 volleyball
season just might have been determined by a
near-telepathic moment between Head Coach
Terry Pettit and Associate Head Coach John
Cook last week.
Pettit realized at 3 a.m. the morning after
the Huskers’Aug. 21„red-white preseason
scrimmage that he needed to change the
Comhuskers’ offensive game plan. Not just a
minor change - a revolutionary change.
“A couple days after that, John was
recruiting and he was out of state,” Pettit said.
“And it was about 11 in the morning, and I
called (Assistant Coach) Nikki Best at the
office and I said, ‘Nikki, I’ve had a Eureka
moment. I know where we need to go.’”
What Pettit decided to do was switch to an
offense he hadn’t used since 1984, and one he
hadn’t seen since Stanford used it to win the
1994 national championship - the 6-2
offense.
“Fifteen minutes later, John called long
distance to Nikki and said, ‘Tell Pettit I think
I’ve figured it out.’ It was the 6-2. Same sys
tem. Same things ”
The coaches decided to go for it, and the
players supported them and started working
the new system. Even though the Huskers
experienced growing pains starting the sea
son 0-2 for the first time in school history last
Please see SETTERS pn 9
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Defensive lineman will make or break Huskers
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Brandon Schulte
For the Nebraska football team to
make a run at the National Title, several
key players will have to step up.
Who ate they?
Bobby Newcombe, DeAngelo
Evans, Ralph Brown and Mike Brown?
Sure, each will play a big role for the
Comhuskers this season, but not one of
them is the correct answer.
Instead, for NU to stake its claim for
the national title it must start with four
players - Aaron Wills, Steve Warren,
Loren Kaiser and Kyle Vanden Bosch -
the starters on the defensive line.
The reason: If they can’t stop the
run, NU won’t compete for die national
tide. It’s as simple as that.
Last year, NU’s opponents rushed
for 116.8 yards per game. And in its four
losses, opponents’ rushing totals bal
looned to 190.3 yards per game. That’s
quite a jump from the ’97 national
championship teams’ total of 73.4 yards
per game - die lowest in the NU’s last
five seasons.
The extra yards weren’t gained
because the Husker defense lacks quali
ty run stoppers, but rather, it has to do
with the 4-3 defense NU uses - die same
defense all of the teams that have won a
national tide since 1993 have used.
Last year, injuries to Warren, Jason
Wiltz and Mike Rucker contributed to
the increased rushing yardage. Their
undersized back-ups were unable to step
the run against large offensive linemen,
which neutralized NU’s team speed.
In order for the 4-3 defensive format
to work, the first task is to shut down die
opposition’s running game. This is
where the linemen come into play. It’s
their job to clog holes at the line so die
speedy linebackers can make plays - in
essence, stopping the run.
Since NU switched to the defense,
prior to the ’92 Orange Bowl, one
National Championship team (Florida)
allowed more than 100 yards a game on
the ground during its title season. UF
allowed 108.6 rushing yards per game.
The Hpskers made the switch in an
effort to kete$Tup with the speedier offen
sive players Miami and Florida State
used to beat NU four times in five years.
The change didn’t help the next two
years against FSU, but against Miami,
NU used the defense to wrap up its
national title in ’94 by allowing only 29
rushing yards to the Hurricanes. The
next year, it was even more obvious as
Nebraska drilled Florida 62-24. In
doing so, the Huskers manhandled the
Gator ground attack to the tune of -28
yards for the game.
In each championship season (’94,
’95 and ’97), Nebraska didn’t lose a
game. And it’s no coincidence that all
three seasons die Huskers gave up fewer
than 80 yards per game on the ground
Wills, Warren, Kaiser and Vanden
Bosch need to be the household names
by die end of the season, like previous
Husker linemen Grant Wistrom and
Jason and Christian Peter woe. If not, it
doesn’t matter how good the rest of the
NU team is.
IfNebraska is going to carry itself to
the national title this January, it will do
so on the backs of these four men.
Brandon Schulte is a sophomore
news-editorial major and a Daily
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