SportsThursday
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Huskers play themselves in video games
BY DAVID DIEHL
There you are, slouched on the sofa in a posture
that would make your grandmother cringe.
You're watching the television screen intently,
sporadically shouting out instructions and some
harsh expletives at the tube.
“Quit dropping the damn ball!... Where the hell
did you learn how to pass block?... You suck, break
that tackle!”
Hie football game before your eyes is not real. It
could be one of the many out there such as
Playstation games NCAA Football 2000 or
GameBreaker. Millions of computations send
images of simulated, computerized football players
onto the screen. It’s all just a simple game, but you
still get enraged as if it actually was you and actually
was real.
What would that be like? To be on a video game -
inside it? To be projected on televisions all across
America?
“It's kind of weird,” said Nebraska fullback Judd
Davies. "I think it's kind of funny being in a game.”
How can it be funny or weird? Little kids are glued
to their television sets watching and controlling you.
They are trying to juke the free safety out of his shorts
and prance down the field untouched for the score.
You say that would be weird?
If you could only be on the video game, it would
n’t be weird. It’d be something to brag about. You
could walk down the street, hold your chin a little
higher and puff your chest out a bit more.
“I meet people, and they tell me about my stats
and how well I played," said NU running back Dan
Alexander. “It’s interesting and it’s fun for me to hear
about it. But it doesn’t really affect me.”
But it could affect you. All your friends would be
using your body to sack the digital quarterback or for
a computer-generated diving grab. You’d be proud.
"I told all my friends back home that I was on a
game,” said linebacker Randy Stella. “They all went
out and bought it and began playing with me.”
7 had to check myself out I think
they slipped up on a few things.
They didn’t show my breakaway
speed."
Randy Stella
NU linebacker
Yep, it’d be your friends that would give you the
most love. Theyd let you know about it, too.
“When I first went back home,” said Correll
Buckhalter, a Collins, Miss., native, “everyone was
like ‘I was playing with you.’ It feels good to know
people all across the country got a video game with
you and run it with you.”
Please see GAMERS on 9
Jennifer Lund/DN
A man works on the new baseball stadium north of the
Haymarket. Nebraska will not play in the new stadium for
most of the season, as construction isn't expected to be done
until late May.
Baseball plays
waiting game
for new facility
BY DANE ST1CKNEY
It looks like the Nebraska baseball team will be
spending another season at the Buck.
Well, most of the season anyway.
Construction on the new baseball complex,
which is just north of the Haymarket, is progressing,
but it probably won't be finished until the beginning
of the summer, said Charles Meyer, president of the
Lincoln Salt Dogs, the minor league team that also
will play at the complex.
“We’re shooting for a May-to-June time frame,”
Meyer said. Tm pleased with the progress. I think it’s
coming along nicely.”
Nebraska baseball Coach Dave Van Horn said he
is hoping the stadium will be finished sooner, so the
Comhuskers can make their much anticipated move
from the dilapidated Buck Beltzer Stadium.
But because the college baseball season starts in
mid-February, the Huskers will be stuck in Buck for
most of the season instead of a brand-new ballpark.
"We’re just trying not to think about ftj” Van Horn
said. “We know that it’s going to be a state-of-the-art
complex, and all of us really want to get over there,
but we just have to wait”
Last season, Nebraska came within one win of
going to the College World Series, but the team had to
go on the road for the entire postseason because
Buck Beltzer was deemed unfit to play host to a
regional or super-regional tournament, Van Horn
said.
"It was real frustrating not being able to host a
regional,” Van Horn said. “We put up a good enough
season to make a bid at the regional, but (the NCAA)
told us we didn’t have a park capable of hosting one
of those tournaments."
The new stadium will be a prime target for a
regional, Van Horn said, and he and the rest of the
team hope the stadium will be completed by mid
May so Nebraska could play host to one this season.
A formal bid for a regional tournament must be
in by April, Van Horn said, so the stadium must be
well on its way to being finished by then.
“We’re planning on it being ready by then,” Van
Horn said. “But we can’t worry about it. We just need
to focus on winning enough games to get into a
regional, then we can worry about where we’ll play.”
Even though the Huskers may not set foot on the
field this season, the team is still reaping benefits
from the new stadium by using it as a recruiting tool,
Van Horn said.
“Even though we’ve had success at the Buck,
there’s no fence, and the outfield is ripped up
because the football team practices out there,” he
said. “When we show recruits (Buck Beltzer) and
then we go over to the new stadium, their facial
expression completely changes.”
The construction will not delay the start of the
Salt Dogs’ schedule, but Meyer said he is still eager to
see the finished product
"It’s going to be one of the best college and uni
versity parks in the country,” Meyer said. "It will be
great for us, the university and the city, and we’re all
anxious to see a completed version.”
But until then, Van Horn and the Huskers have to
continue to play the waiting game.
“I’ve just told the players to not even ask me
about it anymore,” he said. “We’re all real excited to
play over there, but all we can do is hope for nice
weather so the construction can get done as quickly
as possible.”
Husker linebacker backs up his words on the football field
BY JOSHUA CAMENZIND
Nebraska's Carlos Polk has never
been a big fan of the silent treatment.
In fact, not many people have ever
seen the middle linebacker with his
mouth shut.
“I always know that when he is
talking, he is feeling pretty good,” said
Craig Bohl, the first-year defensive
coordinator and linebackers coach.
Polk is hard to miss on the field,
whether it is in a practice or game situ
ation, because his motor is always
running. The middle linebacker refus
es to shush.
“That is the way I play my game,
and I like to mess with my opponents
mentally and psyche them out,” Polk
said. “That is the way I have been play
ing for I don’t know how long.”
What has been a comfortable tac
tic for Polk has not always gone over
well with his peers. Before he estab
lished himself, his elder teammates
were not so receptive to his jabbering
style.
> -<t r
7 used to have to run the stairs every now and then for
getting in a fight with one of the linemen. They don’t like
a freshman coming in and running his mouth like I did."
Carlos Polk
NU middle linebacker
Polk recalled his freshman season
when he played scout teams - a time
when his talking was perceived by
many as showboating.
“I used to have to run the stairs
every now and then for getting in a
fight with one of the linemen," Polk
said. “They don’t like a freshman com
ing in and running his mouth like I
did."
But Polk admitted he was put in his
place several times as a rookie.
“I was going against Jon Vedral,
and I was in the middle of the field,
and he came back and cracked back
on me,” Polk said. “At the time I was
talking, ‘I see the screen; here it
comes,’ and he gave me a real ear-hole
shot, and I kind of bit my tongue.
“That is something that I will never
forget because he showed me that this
is not high school. This is college foot
ball.”
The loud freshman is now an All
American candidate and senior cap
tain, and players and coaches have
adjusted accordingly. His NU team
mates recognize the talking as part of
Polk’s game.
Please see POLK on 9
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un me rnoio
Senior middle linebacker Carlos Polk is known for both tackling opponents and trash-talking them.The All
American candidate leads the Huskers in tackles this season.
