SportsWeekend
Kansas is
perfect
antidote
Go on, get up. Rise and shine,
Husker fans.
Wipe away those tears. Open
me uunus.
Spike down a
few Nuprins.
Cook yourself
some pan
cakes. Take a
nice, cold
snower. it s a
brand new John
^ Gaskins
So, NU hbJSSShh
lost. So, they stunk it up ... big
time ... enough to make you
vomit profusely.
But get over it Get over your
Oklahoma hangover. It’s over.
Damage (and not significant
damage, mind you) done.
Welcome to your 2000 version of
the Husker football loss recovery
program.
Step one: die Kansas game.
Ah, Kansas. In this ever
weather-changing season that
brings sneezes and sniffles and
NU losses, the word is the perfect
medicine to soothe the soul
It seems to be a trend. TWo
years ago, it was Texas A&M that
put you in rehab. Last year, it was
those damn Homs.
But remember the weeks
after? The Huskers got to play
Kansas. They didn’t play well in
either of those games, bait man
aged to win both, 41-0 and 24-17
- the latter a heart-stopping
comeback in Lawrence that gave
an eventual
12-1 team the
In tf}e , shot in the
nations arm it need
longest ed*. .
57. And gave
continuous you a reason
rivalry, NU J° set <?ut of
has won 82 ^luTsas
of the 106 has been a
_____ wonderful
games wound healer
since 1906, over the
including
each of the the Huskers
last 31. ™\in 19f8
happened to
be the same year NU last lost a
homecoming game - a 12-0
klunker to lowly K-State.
Saturday's game will mark
the 10th time since -1969 that NU
faces Kansas after a loss.
The average score of those
games?
Nebraska 37, Kansas 8.
And believe me, there have
been a fair share of 70-0,54-2,
63-7,63-10 games.
Before the Texas teams
Oklahoma curse, there were two
heartbreakers to Colorado in
1989 and ’90. KU had the pleas
ure to get beaten severely, 51-14
and 41-9, the week after. After
Florida State shocked Lincoln in
1980, the Huskers put a 54-spot
shutout on the Jayhawks.
Of course, you all know it’s
soothing to be dominant in such
a rivalry, as well. In the nation's
longest continuous rivalry, NU
has won 82 of the 106 games
since 1906, including each of the
last31.
Nebraska has shut out KU 30
times along the way and have 12
homecoming victories over the
Jayhawks. Lest we forget some
other memorable poundings
from the '80s and '90s. I think my
favorite was the 1996,63-7 clas
sic.
An, Kansas. How soothing.
Of course, in the spotlight,
NU players and coaches do all
but tell you to take this history
baloney and shove it where the
post-loss sun doesn’t shine. They
could care less about last year’s
KU and NU game, or the year
before that and the year before
that, and, wait a second...
Actually, they do remember
last year’s KU game.
They remember it quite
vividly. They remember how
they hung their heads all week
from the Texas loss and almost
forgot about Kansas.
They remember going
nowhere for three quarters until
Bobby Newcombe’s 86-yard
punt-retum touchdown and 49
yard winning touchdown recep
tion pulled them out of the Black
Hole of Holiday Bowl Death.
The consensus among them
this week after OU: Their hang
over didn’t last so long this time.
The pieces are picked up... and
Kansas, though mediocre in all
Please see KU on 9
Odds stacked against Jayhawks
■ Kansas has not won a game
with the Huskers for more
than 30 years.
BY DAVID DIEHL
On paper, the Kansas
Jayhawks have some astronomi
cal odds against them in
Saturday’s game with Nebraska.
The Cornhuskers haven’t
lost back-to-back games in 10
years. They haven’t lost two
straight regular-season games
in 24. The Jayhawks haven’t
beaten Nebraska in 31 years.
“Hopefully,” cornerback
Keyuo Craver said, “we can keep
up a good tradition.”
Hopefully, Kansas players
don’t have record books either.
Their three-decade losing
drought to NU is the second
longest active losing streak to
one team. Only Navy’s 37
straight losses to Notre Dame
tops it
Entering Saturday’s region
ally televised game, Nebraska
leads the all-time series with
Kansas, the third-longest series
in NCAA football, 82-21-3.
Rush end KyleVanden Bosch
sees the series, and KU's recent
ineptness vs. the Huskers, from
the other side.
“We realize they're hungry,”
Vanden Bosch said.
That hunger in their stom
achs probably corresponds with
the bitter taste they have in their
mouths, too.
Nebraska escaped the
Please see FOCUS on 9
DN file Photo
Nebraska tight end Tracey Wfetrom and the Comhuskers will try to rebound Saturday from a loss to Oklahoma by beating the Kansas Jayhawks for the 32nd straight time.
Rifle team aims for championship
■The young team is off to a
strong start, winning a tourney
and a dual.
9
BY GABRIEL STOVALL
They're deep in talent,
focused on success and are aim
ing for a national championship
-literally.
NU's rifle squad is poised for
big things in just its third year of
NCAA competition.
Many may think national
championships are not realistic
endeavors for such young teams.
Ask Coach Karen Anthony, how
ever, and she’ll tell you otherwise.
“My job here each year is to
win a national championship,”
said Anthony, who has been die
rifle team coach in each of its
three years. “That’s always going
to be a goal on my list”
After the first two meets of the
season, so far so good, said
Anthony.
The Huskers opened their
season in Annapolis, Md., by
claiming the overall match tide at
the Great Eight Rifle Match held
by the U.S. Naval Academy.
NU then won its second
match the very next day when it
defeated the Virginia Military
Institute.
Rifling competition is divided
into two categories: air rifle and
smallbore shooting.
In air rifle, competitors stand
and shoot lead pellets from .177
caliber rifles at targets 10 meters
away.
Competitors have 80 minutes
for 40 shots. A perfect match
score for air rifle is 400.
Terim Richards, NU’s air rifle
specialist, tallied a score of394 in
her first outing at Annapolis.
Richards said she helps her
team’s overall performance by
JoshWolfe/DN
Husker rifle team member Nicole Allaire takes aim during a Husker practice. Nebraska has enjoyed success this season, winning a
tournament and a dual. Below, her bag.
“My job here each
year is to win a
national
championship. That’s
always going to be a
goal on my list ”
Karen Anthony
rifle team coach
trying to focus on achieving the
best personal score possible.
“Personally, that's kind of
how I am,” said the junior from
Louisville, Neb. “Last year I aver
aged in the low 380s. This year
I’ve made a pretty big jump in
setting my goal to 392.”
Anthony, who fielded a
respectable team with four walk
ons her first season, said finding
top athletes is key in rifling, just
as in any sport.
“Recruiting in any sport is
extremely important,” she said.
“Our situation was different
starting out when I had the four
walk-ons. Now we're looking for
the best"
Such lofty goal-setting by
Anthony is a sign that the team
has come a long way, talent-wise
and in confidence, since its first
Please see RIFLE on 9
Soccer
match
delayed
■The Nebraska-Baylor game
was postponed until Friday
afternoon.
BY JAMIE SUHR
The Nebraska soccer team
was all dressed up with no place
to go Thursday night.
Rain and lightning cut short
the scoreless Texas A&M vs.
Oklahoma Big 12 Conference
Tournament semifinal match.
The game will resume at noon
Friday with five minutes remain
ing in the first half .
After conference officials met
with each team, the decision was
to postpone the Cornhuskers'
game against Baylor to 2:30 p.m.
Friday at the Blossom Soccer
Stadium in San Antonio.
NU goalkeeper Karina
LeBlanc said the layover won’t
affect the team.
“This team is full of profes
sionals," LeBlanc said. “We're
going to attack the game with the
same enthusiasm.”
But LeBlanc may have some
added incentive in today’s con
test. Baylor goalie Dawn
Greathouse was named Big 12
first-team all-conference, while
LeBlanc was named to the second
team.
“I’m just focused on the
game," LeBlanc said. “That’s just
people’s opinions. The only opin
ion I care about is my team's.”
With a victory, the Huskers
will advance to the championship
game still scheduled for Saturday
at 7:30 p.m.
Lack of tradition makes Homecoming game bland
Homecoming is a time to
reflect on the past and a time to
honor tradition.
The Nebraska football team
has a storied past filled with a
rich winning tradition.
People across the
Comhusker state love their foot
ball, and they especially love the
Big Red.
ESPN analyst Lee Corso even
named Husker fans the best fans
in college football because of
their class and in-depth knowl
edge of college football.
Not so fast, my friends.
There are many other stadi
ums across the nation that are
rowdier and louder, and, more
importantly, there are many
uiner iootoau
fans who wal
low in the tra
dition of their
teams.
Sure, every
Husker fan
wears red and
white but so Jason
does every fan ^RfleiTlh©W
that cheers on ^"
a team with the same colors.
The fans are spoiled with a
good football team year in and
year out. If they had a sub-.500
year or two, would the sell-out
streak remain intact? I doubt it.
Being a native Nebraskan,
bleeding Husker red since I was
born, I was blinded to the fact
that we lack true tradition.
Homecoming Week at NU is
nothing special. It is business as
usual around Lincoln: no
parade, no bonfires and no
magic.
If it weren’t for the greek sys
tem's floats in the fronts of their
houses, this week would blend in
with the rest of the season.
The Athletic Department
tried to start a tradition last year
with the infamous “Tailgate on
the Turf."
It was a great idea. It unified
the student body inside the sta
dium.
A true collegiate atmosphere
was felt around Memorial
Stadium before any speakers
spoke. There was free food, free
stuff and free entertainment.
Unfortunately it was horribly
planned and executed.
Tom Green humping Rick
Schweiger's leg, while wearing
the Lil’ Red suit, showed what
homecoming week really is, a
joke.
We should have a real pep
rally, complete with entertain
ment.
There should be a tradition
night at the stadium before the
season.
Here the fans would be
taught the words to the Nebraska
fight song and chants unique to
NU.
Tradition night would allow
coaches and players to meet and
talk to a unified student body.
It's still up to the fans to
decide if they would want to
keep a tradition.
Unfortunately, tomorrow’s
game and every other future
Homecoming game will be busi
ness as usual unless we change
our boring ways.
