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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2001)
SportsWednesday Stella suspended indefinitely ■The linebacker is removed for violating team rules, whileThunder Collins is given a week suspension. BY BRIAN CHR1STOPHERSON Nebraska football Coach Frank Solich ho-hummed through about five minutes of the usual roster changes that annually accompany the spring football season at his press conference Tuesday afternoon before abruptly dropping a few bombshells. Solich announced that junior starting linebacker Randy Stella had been suspended from the team for at least the spring season, possibly longer. “Whether (Stella) will be with us in the fall remains to be seen. ” Frank Solich Nil' football coach "Whether (Stella) will be with us in the fall remains to he seen," Solich said. "There'll be a decision made prior to fall camp.” Solich wouldn’t specify the rea son as to why Stella was suspended, only that it dealt with team policy. But Solich did specify' wrhv soph omore I-back Thunder Collins wras not seen at the first spring practice on Monday. Collins will be held out of spring ball for at least the first week because of academic reasons. "He'll spend the time actually in study hall rather than on the football field," Solich said. When present. Collins figures to challenge for solid playing time at the running back position, as Nebraska looks to replace graduated seniors Dan Alexander and Correll Buckh alter. Solich said regardless of Collins’ status, junior I- back Dahrran Diedrick was currently locked in the No. 1 position. Meanwhile, Stella’s absence will throw' more pressure on junior wreak side linebacker Mark Vedral. Solich said Vedral and Stella w'ould proba bly have been splitting the time at the position had Stella been present. Stellas suspension has forced Solich to make some other manage rial moves, with sophomore T.J. Hollowed switching from middle to weak-side linebacker in hopes of providing more depth. Solich doesn't see the move as a hindrance. "T.J. is the kind of athlete that can probably line up at anv one of the three backer positions,” Solich said. \\ hile players like Yedral and Hollowed still giv e Solich great opti mism for this season, he admits it would be pleasant to have Steda and Collins working spring drills. "Both those guys certainly are missed going into spring and would of course be missed in the fad.” he said. "So we’d see how that ad plays out in both cases.” Diedrick gets shot at l-back BY MATTHEW HANSEN For the last three seasons, you only got glances of D a h r r a n Diedrick. full baok/L- back, j spring breakdown 1 here were his 192 rushing yards he tallied against Kansas State and Iowa State in his 1999 freshman year with Dan Alexander and Correll Buckhalter. battling both injuries and fumblitis. And that initial burst of speed, one that nei ther Alexander nor Buckhalter equaled, that Please see DEIDRICK on 9 Gymnastics Coach Francis Allen is the unquestioned king of Nebraska coach es and one of the most respected gym nastics minds in the world. | M% ■■ • a | | • p - # Scott McClurg/DN King Francis: Allen is undisputed gymnastics guru DV IAUII ^>(>1/1110 _____ w » wvi 11^ Visit Francis Allen - the University of Nebraska’s most successful, indispensable, color ful coach ever (yes, that includes Devaney and Osborne), a world famous Olympic coach and the best coach you’ve never heard of - in his men’s gy mnastics train ing facility at the Devaney Center, and you’ll get the same treatment he’s given everyone for the last 32 years. Treatment you won't find from hardly any coach in any other sport at any level, any where. Treatment that is a con trast to the modern-dav profes sionalism and paranoia of most collegiate and professional coaches. He’ll warmly welcome you. He’ll poke fun at you, poke fun at his gymnasts and poke fun at himself within seconds to light I’m hoping the numbers will turn around. I’m an optimist. I’ll never get tired of this.” Francis Alien NU gymnastics coach en the mood. He'll take you into his tiny, dusty, ramshackle office, where you won't see a single one of his dozens of trophies, plaques and coach of the year certificates. “I'm not hung up on that,” Allen said. “If I were, I’d have cases of crap lying around here. I'm more hung up on how these guys are going to do this year and being at a college and seeing what a college education and a college sport does for a person. I hose are my trophies. Yet he will talk to you for a virtual eternity about how he and NU won those trophies and became, in the 1970s and 80s, one of college sports' biggest dynasties ever. For the record, Allen has won eight national titles, coached 162 All Americans, 40 national champi ons and 11 Olympians. More so, heil talk about how he’s nuts about gymnastics and the people who perform them. Heil tell you funny stories, like in the late '70s when one of his gymnasts ran into classes stark naked with only a paper bag with a smilev-face drawn on it over his head just to get laughs. "Hey, streaking w;as prettv popular back then,’’ Allen said with a shrug and tongue-in cheek grin. Heil joke. Heil express his opinions on everything. Most of all, he’ll enlighten. This treatment and Allen's consistent demeanor may be surprising considering what his program has gone through late ly. Mainly because of injuries, the Huskers' last two seasons have been grim. They've had some of their lowest scores and national rankings ever. A pro gram that is used to being in the top five is ranked No. 14 going into this weekend's NCAA quali fying meet, and that doesn't sit well with anyone. The program has had its worst national title drought in 23 years - NU has not taken the NCAA team crown since 1994. On a larger scale, college gymnastics is fading into obliv ion, as six teams in the last three years have dropped their pro grams. .After this season, only 20 Division 1 men's teams will exist (there were about 200 when Allen started coaching), mainly because of gender equity laws and tightened athletic depart ment budgets. "It's a shame." Allen said. “We’re fighting for our lives." .Allen would like a new. sepa rate gymnastics facility and arena, but he knows he'll proba bly never get it. He lost what he thought were two program making recruits from Romania before they ever came to turn around the program this year. He lost two of his best gymnasts ever to a blown knee and bum lower back last year, when he was sure he had a national title team. Yet. .Allen does not gripe. He doesn’t mope. He doesn’t ride his gymnasts any harder. Allen and his long-time assistants. Jim Howard and Chuck Chmelka are sure they’ll win another title someday before their sport ceases, and their approach to coaching and love of the sport hasn’t changed a bit. “Never once in a meet, no matter how bad it is, you never see the coaches here get flus tered," said senior and 1999 NCAA All-Around Champion Jason Hardabura. "They always show confi dence, no matter what. I mean, we’ve been getting our asses kicked this year. But you don't see them pacing around, looking for answers. “They just realize that there are down times in a program sometimes, and what you do is learn from them." Perhaps there’s nobody bet ter to go through a down time with than,-Mien. Please see ALLEN on 9 Husker comeback falls one run short FROM STAFF REPORTS After digging itself a six-run hole, the Nebraska baseball team Tuesday staged a rally that has become semi-trademark this season, its intended victim already once bitten in 2001 - Wichita State. The No. 4 Cornhuskers waited seven innings, falling behind 6-0. Then in the eighth, they explod ed for five runs. They sat poised in the ninth with two runners on base. But the Shockers, which had lost a late-inning lead to Nebraska earlier this season in an 8-7 defeat, staved off NU’s charge in front of 4,269 at Eck Please see BASEBALL on 9 Manning, wrestlers look to uncertain future BY DAVID DIEHL As the season closed lor the Nebraska wrestling team, Coach Mark Manning refused to check the rearview mirror. Instead, the coach decided to stay focused on the road that lies in front of him, one that is lined with talented, inexperienced wrestlers. "1 don't live in the past much,” Manning said after the NCAA wrestling championships wrapped up Saturday. “The focus is on the guvs in our room and developing them.” After completing his first year at Nebraska, Manning said he wasn’t stopping to reflect on NU’s season. Rather, he was directing his attention to recruiting and next year’s wrestlers Manning's squad is coming off a respectable eighth-place finish at the NCAA championships in Iowa City, Iowa, where they crowned four All Americans. Three of those four won't be back in Lincoln next season, including three-time All-American and 2000 national champion Brad Vering and two-time All-American Todd Beckerman, who finished fourdi in 2001. NU also loses NCAA-qualifying seniors at 174 and 184 pounds in Ati Conner and Charles McTorry. That leaves Nebraska with a rather young squad that has sopho mores or younger projected at each weight except for 157, 165 and heavy weight. But Manning is already shap ing the youngsters to step right in. "That’s why they're here watching (the championships),” Manning said. “Hopefully, they’re learning a lot of valuable lessons, they’re watching how the other guys perform and see ing themselves be in that position.’’ XU has just one experienced leader next season in three-time Big 12 champion and All-American 157 pounder Bryan Snyder, who finished second this season and looks to be a serious contender for the 2002 national championship. Snyder had been paired with Yering as the team’s leadership pack age for the past two years. Snyder, who has avoided the media spotlight for the majority of the past two years, said he had thought about his future as the Huskers' leader. "It probably mean's I'll have to talk to you guys (reporters) more," Snyder cracked. The senior to-be will try to become the first Cornhusker to ever win four Rig 12 titles and the eighth to win an NCAA championship next year. Snyder came close this season, falling 3-2 in a tiebreaker to Iowa’s T.J. Williams, who was 98-1 at Iowa and a two-time national champ. Snyder said this year's runner-up finish needed to become a spring board for his next shot at the title. “I'm going to have to make it one,” Snyder said. "I can't let it get me down. I got one year left. I’ll have to shoot for that and try to win it next year."