I
SportsWeekend
_ , _ Daily Nebraskan Friday, October 20,2000 Page 12 *
Huskers look for second straight romp
Redshirt fresh
man quarter
back Jammal
Lord has been a
solid backup for
junior Heisman
Trophy candi
date Eric Crouch
this season. Lord
rushed for 33
yards, induding
a 9-yard touch
down,in last
week's 56-3 rout
of Texas Tech.
ON Rie Photo
Lord emerges from shadows with increased confidence
BY JOSHUA CAMENZ1ND
From spring ball to fall camp, the question
could be heard from Omaha to Scottsbluff on a
routine basis.
If Eric Crouch goes down, who will lead the
Nebraska offense? Speculation centered on for
mer starting quarterback and now-wingback
Bobby Newcombe.
Husker fans now have their answer, and it
isn’t Newcombe. His name is Jammal Lord.
“I think that talk has gone away now,”
Crouch said.
Lord, a redshirt freshman, said he never let
the questions affect him, and if Crouch did go
down, his play would never sway from just hav
ing fun.
“People are going to say what they want to
say, regardless,” Lord said. “I just have to step up
and do what I have to do.
“I can't be Eric. I have to be Jammal.”
But the answer was not always so clear.
Lord has been the backup to Crouch but
had never taken a snap before this season
because of his redshirt status in 1999.
Fall camp started with a question mark for
Lord after he went down with a partial tear of
his left knee’s PCL in the third week of spring
practice. Lord would not have surgery, but
nobody was quite sure how fast his recovery
would be.
Quarterback Coach Ttimer Gill said he ms
worried about Lord off the field during that
time.
"I was concerned about him, emotionally,”
Gill said. "He hadn’t been through something
like that in his whole life.”
Gill couldn’t have asked for a better recov
ery for Lord, and while he mars a brace on his
knee, there have been no problems whatsoever
up to this point
Lord's first action came right away against
San Jose State in the season opener. It wasn’t a
perfect performance, but it showed a glimpse
of what’s to come as Lord was one for three
passing with an interception with four rushes
for 27 yards.
Lord would not see the field for the next
three games, but his next two appearances
were the epitome of execution and efficiency -
a direct result of a higher level of confidence,
Gill said.
“I always play with confidence,” Lord said.
“If you don’t have confidence, then why play?"
Against Iowa State, Lord threw no passes
but scored on a 6-yard touchdown run on his
only carry of the game. Last Saturday against
Texas Tech, Crouch’s backup played most of the
second half and scored on a 9-yard quarterback
keeper that time.
Gill said both of Lord’s touchdown runs, in
Please see LORD on 11
Blackshirts want to prove
to Baylor they're for real
BY DAVID DIEHL
Coming off its best perform
ance of the 2000 season, a 56-3
dismantling of Texas Tech,
Nebraska’s defense is looking to
pound a message down the
throat of the Big 12 - the
Blackshirts are a force to be
reckoned with.
“Our guys are hungry right
now,” Defensive Coordinator
Craig Bohl said.
The
Cornhusker
defense and the
“That’s a rest of the Big
tpnm Red wi*l have
f the opporttmi
that Im ty to show the
Scared conference just
~ how hungry it is
Of- when Baylor (2
They’ve 4,0-3) comes to
. Lincoln to bat
9°l tie No. 1
nothing Nebraska (6-0,
to lose, 3-0)c 0 a c h
and Frank Solich
whpn said his squad
, enters the 12:30
yOU have p.m. contest
nothing looking more
. deserving of
tO lose the top ranking
you have has enjoyed
pverv- for most of the
season. L
thing to “We’re com
nnin " in8 off a 8ame
yum. where we've
gathered some
confidence,”
Carlos Polk Solich said.
senior “But I don’t
co-captain believe they’re
- satisfied.”
u s
defense should have gotten its
fill last week with its pure domi
nation of Texas Tech’s pass
happy offense.
The Red Raiders were held to
just 19 yards rushing and 200
total yards to go along with its
worst loss in school history.
But still, Bohl said there was
room to get better this week
against Baylor.
“Their mark is against them
selves,” Bohl said. “They want to
continue to work hard and
improve this week.”
Going up against the Bears’
futile offense Saturday should
give Bohl and his defense some
positives to work with.
Saturday, true freshman
Kerry Dixon, who completed
just 11 of 27 passes with four
interceptions last week against
Texas A&M, will lead the BU
offense, which ranks last in the
Big 12.
Ranked 104th out of 116
Division I teams, Baylor's
offense averages just 271 yards a
game, 226 fewer than the con
ference-leading Huskers.
To adcf to their offensive
woes, Baylor hasn’t scored a
point in its last two games, a 28
0 loss to Tech and a 24-0 loss to
A&M.
Despite the lackluster num
bers posted by the Bears, Bohl
said his team still had to do
more than go through the
motions tor a victory baturaay.
“One thing we have found,"
said Bohl, in his first year as
NU’s defensive coordinator, “is
in college football you'd better
be prepared. That may sound
like an old coach’s cliche, but if
you come out flat you’re going to
be in a dog fight.”
Linebacker Carlos Polk said
NU needed to be wary of Baylor.
“That's a team that I’m
scared of,” the senior co-captain
said. “They've got nothing to
lose, and when you have noth
ing to lose you have everything
to gain.”
Polk will be spearheading a
defense that jumped 17 spots in
total defense to rank 38th in the
nation after its performance
against Tech. Many players said
the break-out game against
Tech should carry over against
Baylor.
They said the performance
against Tech came down to atti
tude, and since that game the
team’s spirit had changed.
Solich said he had seen a
change in his team's demeanor.
“They’ve never had a lack
adaisical attitude,” Solich said.
“They’ve never thought they’ve
had anything in hand.”
With that approach, many
players say they expect to domi
nate Baylor, and each team
after, as they did Texas Tech.
“The challenge now is to do
that every week,” center
Dominic Raiola said.
“If we do it every week
there's no way anyone's going to
beat us.”
Steele, Frazier back
in Lincoln to face NU
■ The former NU linebackers coach and
the All-American quarterback will coach
Baylor in its upset effort.
BY JAMIE SUHR
Baylor Coach Kevin Steele and Baylor
Running Backs Coach Tommie Frazier
will find themselves in familiar, yet unfa
miliar territory - at Memorial Stadium
but on the visitors' sideline.
But for Steele, NU’s linebackers coach
from 1989-1994, and Frazier, former
Husker and first team All-American quar
terback, it won't be a walk down memory
lane.
“I think of it as a business trip,” Frazier
said. “I work for Baylor University, and
we’re coming to play Nebraska, so I have
to approach it that way.”
The rebuilding process at Baylor has
been a little rough for Steele, who has a
career record of 3-14. So forgive the coach
if he doesn't get a little misty-eyed when
stepping on Tom Osborne Field.
“It would probably make a wonderful
story of how emotionally tied to the game
or how very strange it is, but we’re
focused on the rebuilding process,”
Steele said.
But Steele's rebuilding nearly didn’t
include Frazier, who dabbled in different
-opportunities.
4. J *
The former Nebraska star worked
with Gov. Ben Nelson, was a broadcaster
for Nebraska football games, played for
the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian
Football League and was director of mar
ket development and public relations for
Nebraska Technologies and
Telecommunications in Omaha.
"When I left Canada playing the game
of football, I didn’t want to have anything
to do with football,” Frazier said. “I want
ed to enjoy the other parts of my life.”
When Steele left for the NFL’s Carolina
Panthers as a linebackers coach, he told
Frazier if he became a coach somewhere,
he’d want Frazier on his staff.
When Baylor approached him about
its job opening, Steele, then-linebackers
coach for the Carolina Panthers of the
NFL, knew exactly who he’d ask to join his
staff.
"It was an automatic (to hire Frazier),"
Steele said. “He brings a credibility in
terms of the game of football. His charac
ter and the fact that excellence is an
everyday word in everything Tommie
Frazier does.”
But talking Frazier back into football
was no easy task. Frazier said he was at
ease living without football and was
happy with his job at NT&T.
Frazier said NU assistant coaches Ron
Please see STEELE on 11
3
Huskers ready
to rebound
afterfirst loss
BY TOBY BURGER
The NU soccer team looks to do something it
hasn’t needed to do all season - rebound from a
loss.
Even after out-shooting Oklahoma 37-5, NU
suffered its first loss Sunday versus Oklahoma in a
2-1 game. But the Huskers are looking to regain
their winning ways with two games this weekend.
The Huskers play host to Colorado tonight at
the Abbott Sports Complex in a 7 o’clock contest.
NU then journeys to face Texas Tech on Sunday for
a 1 p.m. game in Lubbock, Texas.
Coach John Walker said the offense and
defense bore responsibility for Sunday’s loss.
“Offensively we need to finish off chances that
we create,” Walker said. “We need to be a little
cleaner. When you give up two goals on five shots,
that is not really a good ratio.”
Walker said though improvement was needed
his team had executed well throughout the sea
son.
"The track record is there for having things
done right. You just don’t win 15 games in a row
without having things right. At the same time we
accept responsibility for how things went, and we
need to change it,” Walker said.
Walker and his team will look to improve
against two of the Big 12's worst teams. The
Please see REBOUND on 11
MikeWarren/DN
Kori Saunders, left, battles for position against Texas A&M midfielder Juli Coin in a 2
1 victory earlier this year at the Abbott Sports Complex. Nebraska has been out
shooting its opponents by a wide margin this season but lately has had difficulty
scoring goals. Nebraska out-shot Oklahoma 37-5 in a 2-1 loss Monday.
/ rf >1