SportsWednesday
McCarney
dooms
ISU's fate
The quarterback,1 Sage
Rosenfels, uses the word under
rated.
The fans use the word dan
gerous.
The
coach, Dan
McCarney,
uses the
word
improved.
Followed by
focused, „_
ready, deep Samuel
and several McKewon
other adjec
tives that
will supposedly accompany the
great Iowa State revival of2000.
For me, there is no adequate
word to describe the ISU football
program. I search and search in
vain.
Worthless, futile, laughable?
No, not those. Not that horribly
bad. Mediocre, average, ordi
nary? Not that either.
Conkdering it has been 11 years
since ISU had more wins than
losses in a season, the midpoint
seems a bit too high a bar for the
Cyclones to blow over.
Maybe the numbers
describe it better than I can: Tbke
die decade of the 1990s. That’s 10
years. Ifcke seven conferences -
the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big
Ten, Big 12, Mountain West, Pac
10 and Southeastern. That’s 70
trams
In 10 years, just two of those
70 teams never went to a bowl
game or had a winning record.
One of them is Vanderbilt
The other? That’d be Iowa
State. Like Sisyphus, the Clones
keep rolling the boulder up the
hill. Then one badly timed punt
to Kansas State’s David Allen,
and down it comes.
Baylor, Wake Forest Nevada
Las Vegas - even those perpetual
turkeys tasted reasonable suc
cess once in the 1990s. What do
the Cyclones have? One signifi
cant upset - proof there is a char
itable God - over Nebraska in
1992. College football is about
what you did last year, not 94
months ago.
It's been 264 months - 22
years - since ISU went to a bowl.
Now that there are 700 Internet
sponsored games to fit college
teams into, all Iowa State has to
do is win six, lose five and stake
its claim for the golden hutch
trophy
galleryfurnitui
Venerable Coach McCarney,
who’s on his last leg in 2000 after
crafting a 13-42 mark in five sea
sons, claims he’s finally got a
team to right the wrongs.
No, he doesn’t. Let me tell
you what he’s got - a loss vs.
Nebraska, at Oklahoma, vs.
Texas A&M, at Kansas State, at
Colorado and vs. Kansas. Six big
L’s for next year’s media guide.
New decade. Same old State.
Mark it down.
Just one thing will change in
next year’s media guide - the
glowing face on die front, that of
a new coach.
inis is a good tnmg, because
McCarney, fine man and good
recruiter that he is, lacks on-field
coaching sense. He needs to be
fired, or reassigned. With a new
athletic director in place who
has no reason to do the coach
any favors, he will be.
Let him go run a company.
He’d be good at that - infectious
spirit, positive attitude. He’s a
talented backslapper, well
versed in the point and greet
from across the room. He’s
recruited some talent. He’s
plugged some holes, caulked
some cracks. Good job, Dan.
Here’s the retirement watch.
When Jim Walden was
coach, ISU had half the depth
and talent. And he managed to
do the same. Hell, he did better
than McCarney, who has beaten
one team with a winning record,
and a Division I-AA team at that.
His teams have lost 12 games by
less than 10 points in five years.
That isn’t by coincidence. Or
sour luck.
How does a team out-yard
Iowa 444-230 and damn near
lose last year? Forget Allen's punt
return in the KSU game - how
does McCarney’s defense let a
lumbering yak like Adam Helm
run the option over and over in
the second half? And how did
Oklahoma, the worst rushing
team in the Big 12, rack up 301
ground yards, more than a quar
Pfease see MCKEWON on 13
Practice heats up for Husker volleyball
While Schrad
adjusts, middle
blockers battle
BY SEAN CALLAHAN_
The last time we saw NU Volleyball Coach John
Cook, he was predicting a top 10 finish for his
Comhuskers despite the decision to redshirt 1999All
American Nancy Meendering.
Since then, the Husker volleyball team has been
out of view, deep inside the Coliseum, working to
make Cook’s prediction come true
It’s just a matter of fine-tuning, according to their
coach.
“I don't think there have been any adjustments,”
Cook said. “We adjusted in the spring and in China.
It's been all business, and we’re going."
One direction Cook may be heading is trying to
get 6-foot-2 freshman Anna Schrad into die rotation.
Schrad, who attended Lincoln Pius X High
School, was a member of the USA Junior National
Team and was named first team All-American by
Vblleyball Magazine.
Cook said he was very impressed with her num
bers in last Saturday’s scrimmage.
“She could be a major, major contributor to our
team this year. As a freshman she’s probably the best
blocker I’ve coached coming into a college program
from a high school level
“She’d be definitely ready to come off the bench.
We’re going to need her this season.”
With the experience Schrad picked up with her
stint on the USA Junior National Team, she said
adjusting to the college level hasn't been that difficult
But Schrad said isn't totally ready yet
“There’s a big difference in the mental aspects of
the game,” Schrad said. “I really don't care what my
role is on the team. Right now I look at myself as a role
player on the practice side. I’m helping the starters get .
better and prepared for other teams.”
Another interesting development is the competi
tion between sophomore Amber Holmquist and jun
ior Jenny Kropp
Both are penciled in to be starter for die Huskers,
but only one will get to play the full rotation.
“They’re both playing in die back row from time
to time,” Cook said. “We need one of them to go all the
way around. I've been very pleased and I think they
give us one of the best middle blocking tandems in
the country.”
Kropp said she doesn't really view it as a competi
tion between the two.
“I don’t know when he’ll make his decision,”
Kropp said.
“It’s something you just have to keep working
hard for everyday in practice.”
mJdteModur
Amber
Hobnqubt digs
a ball in
Tuesday* prac
tice. She is am
pc ung wiui Hr
low middle
KropptopJayin
the ful rotation.
Walk-on gamble earns Nebraska's Krejci scholarship
■Krejci doesn't have many statistics
but now has the scholarship that makes
hard work and preparation worthwhile.
BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON
O.K., so Pam Krejci isn’t exactly Rudy.
In fact, she’s had her share of success
es in the athletic realm.
There was that gold medal in the shot
put along with a silver in the discus at the
Nebraska State Rack Meet in her high
school days. And she had enough talent
to be asked to walk on to the University of
Nebraska to play volleyball, which isn’t
exactly chopped liver.
But Krejci became the underdog
when she took that offer from the
Comhuskers. She redshirted a year, then
only played in one game the following
season.
The only stat listed next to her name
in this year's media guide is one lonely
attack.
Rudy would have
been proud of Krejci’s
patience and persist
ence.
Along the way, the
sophomore from
Crete was hitting the
weights and putting
in overtime to make a
name on the
v
“I had to do well in practice, and I
knew I had to earn it and prove myself
everyday," Krejci said.
She earned it.
Krejci scored one for the underdogs
when first-year NU Coach john Cook
rewarded such diligence with a scholar
ship as the team prepares for the upcom
ing season.
The walk-on could no longer be
ignored after the success she had this off
season.
Krejci finished second in the last
team-performance tests that were con
ducted and can shake the Nebraska
Coliseum with her giant swing.
“We call her ‘Thunder’ because she
can really pound that ball,” Cook said.
“She took a risk by walking on here and
switched positions for us last year. And
she just continued to mature and devel
op.”
Said Krejci: “It was a good accom
plishment to get to that point, but it was
part of the plan that I walk-on and work
hard and eventually get on scholarship.”
She believes that her experience last
year at practicing the outside-hitter posi
tion fine-tuned her game before heading
back to the familiarity of the middle
blocker spot.
“Middle is where I am meant to be,
but playing outside made me work on my
balance and made me work a lot harder to
be a better player,” she said.
And now with the scholarship in her
back pocket, the anticipation grows for
Krejci and her teammates about the 2000
season.
The combination of junior Jenny
Kropp and sophomore Amber Holmquist
will serve as good tutors for Krejci.
“Kropp and Amber are potential All
Americans. But I will be ready when the
time comes when I get called upon in a
tight match,” she said.
It’s a feel-good story for a player in
what Cook hopes will be a fed-good year.
“We want to reward players for hard
work and continue the tradition of in
state players at the University of
Nebraska,” Cook said.
The reward is there, and now Krejci
knows she must set her eyes on higher
goals.
“I can’t wait,” she said, searching the
empty Coliseum with her eyes as she
talks. “All the hard lifting and hard work
are all going to pay off and give me the
chance to show my skills to the state.”
Cyclones optimistic that breakout season looms in 2000
§Y $AMUEL MCKEWON_
It’s 12 days before the first
game of his sixth season, and
Iowa State Coach Dan McCamey
is in full pitch mode, lauding his
Cyclones’ work ethic, offering up
a “heck of a competition” here
and a “heck of a competition”
there in regards to ISU position
battles.
But he stiffens up when
asked about expectations.
“You’d have to ask the people
who have them,” said McCamey
of the ever-growing sentiment
that his 12-43 record in five sea
sons is, well, not any good. “I only
know what we expect."
For once, McCarney’s
preached expectations of a win
ning season and a bowl berth
might actually be held account
able by Cyclone faithful and,
more importantly, a new athletic
director.
The position vacated by well
liked Gene Smith, who now
holds the same job at Arizona
State, hasn’t been filled. But
McCarney is under the impres
sion that a new AD will be named
' *
before ISU’s money sport - bas
ketball-begins.
Which means the former
Wisconsin assistant might have
to produce immediate improve
ment instead of operating under
the forgiving Smith, who was
willing to see Iowa State grow bit
by bit.
If it has McCarney worried,
he won’t admit it. He expects that
if his team performs as he thinks
it will, he won’t have to.
“This is about as good a foot
ball team as I’ve seen around
here,” McCarney said one month
earlier at the Big 12 Media Days.
Said ISU senior quarterback
Sage Rosenfels: “We have the
kind of team - a team that knows
how to finish games - that won't
lose some of the games that
we’ve lost in the past.”
Rosenfels would be referring
to last season’s 4-7 campaign,
which started 3-1 before heading
south. Aside from a 49-14
pounding at the hands of
Nebraska, the Cyclones were in
every game, and lost several -like
a 44-41 setback to Texas and 16
12 loss to Colorado - by close
margins.
But it may have been ISU’s
first disappointment of the sea
son that trumped them all - a 35
28 loss to Kansas State that Iowa
State led 28-7.
The Rosenfels-led offense
went limp in the second half,
while KSU racked up yards on
the option. An ill-timed punt to
David Allen, who then returned
that punt for a touchdown,
spurred the comeback.
Looking back, Rosenfels
doesn’t take any credit away from
KSU, Texas or Colorado among
others. Rather, it was a hiccup in
late-game execution that burned
the Cyclones again and again.
“I don't know what it was, a
missed play here or just some
thing,” Rosenfels said. “But we
just didn’t get it done.”
If ISU reverses its trend in
2000, it’ll do it without a proven
running game, as Darren Davis,
the Cyclones leading rusher the
past two years, graduated.
Ennis Haywood, who played
sparingly in 1999, gets the nod as
the starter, although freshman
recruit Ja’maine Billups, an
Omaha Central High School
product who spumed a scholar
ship offer from NU, will see time.
Another position that needs
to be rebuilt is in its offensive
line, where two starters were lost
McCarney said he thinks he’s
done so, with a converted tight
end at one tackle and a 360
pound junior college transfer at
the other.
“That’s a position that some
might see as a weakness that
could turn into a real strength for
this football team,” McCarney
said.
Defensively, Iowa State
played well in some contests (the
loss to Colorado), poorly in oth
ers (Oklahoma and Texas) and
sometimes both in the same
game (KSU).
The key, McCarney said, is
finding consistency, and stuffing
the run better than last season.
It’s better than it used to be, j
defensive end Reggie Hayward '
said, but not good enough.
“The main focus is going to
be stopping the run,” Hayward 1
said. “That's how you win in the 1
Big 12.” I
*
Big XII Preview
M Iowa State Cydonas
Preseason Rank: 5th
” (North)
1999:4-7 (1-7 Big Xi,
^ t-5 in the North
4^ Offensive Starters
Returning: 7
Defensive Starters
Returning: 11
Prognosis: Only an
^ easy non-conference
schedule will keep
Cyclones record
respectable.
ManLonowdo/DN
Hayward’s comment seems
o echo the rest of the Iowa State
:ontingent. The Cyclones know
rxactly how to win. The question
or a hot-seated McCarney is:
Vlllthey?
"We think most things are in
jlace,” McCarney said. “This is as
seated as I’ve been about a foot
>all team."
.
