I
Scott McGurg/DN
TOP: Nft Joe Walker is wrapped up by Derek McCoy during a kickoff on Friday.
ABOVE: Nebraska receiver Matt Davison fights for the ball against Colorado defensive
back PM Jackson during the last Nebraska drive of the game. Davison broke up Jackson's
attempt at an interception, preserving the Husker's drive, which ended with a game win
ning field goal.
David Clasen/DN
CENTER: Nebraska kicker Josh Brown celebrates with fellow
Huskers after kicking a last-second field goal to defeat the
Colorado Buffaloes on Friday afternoon at Memorial Stadium.
TOP RIGHT: Husker linebacker Carlos Polk spikes the ball to cel
ebrate his first career touchdown from an interception on the
Buffaloes'first drive of the game.
ABOVE: Eric Crouch is tackled by two Colorado players on Friday
in the 34-32 Nebraska win over Colorado. Crouch rushed fer 125
yards and two touchdowns during the game.
LEFT: Colorado's Cortlen Johnson stretches for the end zone
while NU's Joe Walker pulls him to the ground on Friday.The run
set up a Colorado touchdown on the next play.
Scott McOag/DN
Buffs go home
with even more
disappointment
■ Despite many solid performances,the Colorado
Buffaloes haven't been able to defeat Nebraska.
BY DAVID DIEHL
Ralphie the Buffalo has about five reasons for a Prozac
prescription.
They are as follows: 1996 Nebraska 17, Colorado 12.1997
Nebraska 27, Colorado 24.1998 Nebraska 16, Colorado 14.
1999 Nebraska 33, Colorado 30. And finally in 2000, Nebraska
34, Colorado 32.
Five losses to its arch rival by a combined 15 points has
CU fans and players alike frustrated.
“This is getting old,” said Craig Ochs, CU’s true freshman
quarterback who was, at first, swallowed by Memorial
Stadium’s red sea, but eventually calmed down to throw for
254yards. “I thought we had this game.”
Ochs, a Boulder native who grew up a Colorado fan, had
watched his Buffs lose eight in a row to the Comhuskers. The
freshman quarterback had his shot to stop the bleeding
while living out alifelong dream.
And the 19-year-old fared well where former CU signal
callers could not. In the past, Kordell Stewart Koy Detmer
and Mike Moschetti had all seen bleak performances against
Nebraska at one time or another.
It looked that way once again as Ochs misfired on his first
five passes, but the 6-2,215-pounder, who became the
starter in CU’s fourth game, rallied to complete 25 of 41 pass
es, none longer than 26 yards.
Ochs craftily hit receivers on short crossing patterns and
bounced back from his shaky start which was caused from
him being “too wired.”
Ochs found success where past QB’s couldn’t but the
more things change, die more they stay the same The more
the Buffaloes match up with Nebraska, the more frustrating
the losses become.
The senior class, all six of them on CU’s active roster, have
never beat NU, despite being 16 points away from never los
ing to them.
One of those six, receiver Javon Green, who contributed
five catches to the Buffs’ cause, said the five straight losses to
Nebraska are frustrating. Even more so with this one because
it was his reception on Colorado’s two-point conversion that
gave the Buffaloes a 32-31 lead and an apparent victory with
just 47 seconds remaining.
Please see COLORADO on 9
