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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 20, 1999)
Nebraska 20, USM13 NU keeps USM at bay in fourth By Darren Ivy Senior staff writer At the start of the fourth quarter Nebraska sophomore cornerback Keyuo Craver had to be helped off to field because of cramps. Craver had gone head-to-head with Southern Mississippi standout receivers Todd Pinkston and Sherrod Gideon all day long and appeared to be out of gas. However, somewhere on the NU sideline, Craver must have found his second wind because not only did he return, he was a Cornhusker hero Saturday, intercepting two late fourth-quarter passes from Golden Eagle quarterback Jeff Kelly to pre serve NU’s 20-13 win. The second interception came with 1 minute and 21 seconds remaining and Southern Miss on the NU 14-yard line. Nearly all of the 77,826 fans in Memorial Stadium were on the edges of their seats, hop ing the NU defense could stop the Golden Eagles one more time. Craver said he had a feeling that he would be picked on again. The 5 foot-10,190-pounder was right. Kelly dropped back and threw the ball one more time toward Pinkston, who had already made 11 receptions for 163 yards, but this time the ball sailed on Kelly and went right to Craver at the 1 -yard line. The interception all but sealed the game for the Huskers. “I remember the play happening,” said Craver, who also had four pass breakups. “The main thing going through my mind was to catch the ball. I was in a huge zone. I blocked out everything else.” Craver’s interception was just one of many times that the NU defense bailed out the Huskers on Saturday. Not even the defense could relax though, until the clock finally expired. After Craver made the final inter ception, Nebraska’s offense decided to make things interesting, again. On the first play, sophomore quarterback Eric Crouch - starting his first game of the season - fum bled the ball but recovered it on the NU 4-yard line. “We were running out onto the field and had five seconds left on the play clock,” said Crouch, who threw two interceptions. “Things were rushed.” Crouch replaced junior Bobby Newcombe, who moved to wingback after starting NU’s first two games under center. Newcombe, too, had his fair share of struggles, dropping a pass in the end zone and fumbling a punt return. The fumble was one of five of the day for the Huskers. NU lost three of them. The five turnovers led to all of Southern Mississippi’s points. Two of the Huskers’ three touch downs came on Eagle turnovers. Both were scored by linebacker Julius Jackson - one on a fumble in the first quarter and the second came on an interception in the fourth quar ter. NU’s offensive turnovers were enough to throw the Huskers out of sync, Crouch said. “We started to move the ball on several drives - and then the turnovers,” Crouch said. “We were really close to breaking open our offense - and then the turnovers. We just killed ourselves with the turnovers.” On the day, NU racked up 185 yards of total offense and eight first downs. Like the past two weeks, it took the Huskers a while to get the offense moving. NU didn’t record a first down until the second quarter. On that drive, which would be the only one the offense would score on the entire game, Nebraska drove 46 yards on eight plays. Willie Miller scored from eight yards out to give the Huskers a 12-7 lead with 9:45 remaining in the sec ond quarter. The two-point conver sion failed. The Huskers had put their initial six points on the board in the first quarter by way of a Jackson’s 16-yard fumble return. The fumble was caused by Kyle Vanden Bosch, who beat his man and laid out Kelly. “He just looked like a big ham burger out there,” said Vanden Bosch, who also recorded two sacks. “I just wanted to clobber him. He didn’t see me coming and I got a good hit on him, and the ball popped loose.” The defense was called upon to make big plays all day. The Eagles held a five-minute advantage in time of possession and ran 28 more plays than NU. While many defenses would have tired and become less effective, NU’s was still making big plays down the stretch. Vanden Bosch credited the effort to the heart of the Blackshirts. “As the game wore on, it seemed we were out there all the time,” said Vanden Bosch, who made nine tack les. “We really had to dig deep and Please see NU on 11 Football % Top 25 The Top 25 teams in The Associated Press college football poll. Rail Taan 20 WsKXMTsin 22 Texas Matt Haney/DN Scoring summary set-"".. .» T S. Mississippi 7 0 6 0 13 Team Qtr. Scoring play Plays-yards Score KU USM USM 1 T. Pinkston 8 yd pass from J.Kelly (B. Hanna kick) 6 - 45 6 7 USM 3 S. Gideon 5 yd pass from J. Kelly (J.Kelly pass failed) 5-19 12 13 USM’s loss due to own mistakes By Samuel McKewon Senior staff writer Standing at the entrance of the visitor’s locker room, Southern Mississippi Head Coach Jeff Bower patted the rear of every Golden Eagle player, most of whom were crying or starting to. “Is that everybody?” Bower drawled after 70 or so players had shuttled by. It was n’t. One straggler was left, still lingering on the field. Bower waited for him, too. Then he walked in right behind the player, briskly, with his head slightly hung. There wasn’t much consolation for USM, which came to Memorial Stadium expecting to win and then, largely through its own mistakes and turnovers, threw away what might have been its biggest upset ever in a 20-13 loss to Nebraska on Saturday. “It’s really very simple. We turned it over to them,” Bower said. “You can’t do that against good football teams. We had our opportunities. We didn’t capitalize on them. We had too many breakdowns and too many turnovers to win. That’s what we knew coming into the game we couldn’t do.” Southern Mississippi had six turnovers in all, each costly in its own way, except one interception at the end of the first half. Quarterback Jeff Kelly had a hand in Please see USM on 11 Matt Miller/DN ABOVE: NU’S BOBBY NEWCOMBE LIES on the turf in the back of the end zone after dropping a touchdown pass in the second quarter on Saturday. Newcombe also fumbled a punt that led to USM’s first touchdown. FAR RIGHE FULLBACK WILLIE MILLER FIGHTS for yards against the Golden Eagles’ defense. The Southern Miss defense held the Huskers to 119 rushing yards, 66 passing yards and one offensive touchdown. MikeWarren/DN RIGHT: WITH DEANGELO EVANS’ departure from the team this week, some one in Memorial Stadium had the Idea of putting up this sign asking “Where’s DeAngelo?”