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Tallahassee Democrat from Tallahassee, Florida • Page 59

Location:
Tallahassee, Florida
Issue Date:
Page:
59
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

Fi ananassee Sept. 8, 1985 LORIDA STATE 17, NEBRASKA 13 7F FSU played it safe and wasn't sorry The GAME By Gerald Ensley Democrat staff writer LINCOLN, Neb. The Notes and quotes Nebraska fullback Tom Rathman can thank a referee for the key block in his 60-yard touchdown run, which was the longest run of his career. Breaking into the FSU secondary, Rathman ran between diving safety Greg Newell and the umpire, who stood between Rathman and cornerback Martin Mayhew. "He screened me off.

I remember that much," May-hew said of the ref. "I think I would have tackled him otherwise." Mayhew, like quarterback Danny McManus, tailback Tony Smith and some other Seminoles, were figuratively out to lunch for part of the game because of mild concussions. "The heat didn't bother us but we had four or five guys who had their bell rung," said trainer Don Fauls. "There was some smoking going on out there." Tom Osborne is no Bobby Bowden when it comes to talking. Beyond dull, he can be confusing.

To wit: "We have mixed feelings. If always feels bad to lose. At times, we looked like a sloppy football team. Anytime you have inexperience at key Tom Rathman spots, you're going to make mistakes. It wasn't like we got kicked all over the field.

It's very disappointing to lose but the critical thing is how we bounce back." But obviously, Osborne's players have learned from him. To wit, the following wisdom of Nebraska quarterback Travis Turner: "They (FSU) may have been a little better than we expected. But that's not to say that we underestimated them." answers: Because Nebraska was tough, and Florida State was thin at wide receiver. And the question, of course, was why did FSU's offense do so little during the second half of its 17-13 victory over Nebraska on Saturday? Neither team, to be sure, was particularly impressive on offense in a scoreless second half. But while Nebraska was running up 188 yards of its 412-yard total offense in the second half, FSU was adding only 91 yards to its total of 290 yards.

"We were just so beat up at wide receiver. We had walk-ons out there," said FSU head coach Bobby Bowden. "We didn't feel good about our wideouts. So we were going to avoid throwing too much. We didn't want to do anything stupid." After passing 17 times in the first half, FSU passed only 14 times in the second half.

Unusually for FSU the Seminoles disdained the pass at several seemingly critical times, including its first series of the second half when it did not throw a pass and punted the ball back to Nebraska. But the problem was that with starting wide receiver Hassan Jones sitting out the game with a separated shoulder, and wide receivers Phillip Bryant and Herb Gainer wearing casts to protect injured hands, FSU lost a lot of its passing punch. Wide receiver Dar-rin Holloman the only receiver not to be injured this season did catch five passes, including a touchdown. But running backs Tony Smith (four catches), Chuck Wells (four) and Sammie Smith (one) did the bulk of the receiving. "What happened on the first couple of passes we did throw in the second half?" asked Bowden.

"Bryant dropped one. Gainer dropped another. You can't blame them because they're wearing casts. But you do have to realize when you're wasting time." Thin as they were at the position, the Seminoles really turned to only one newcomer, walk-on Hoffman Brown, who played several plays but did not have a pass thrown to him. "I was kind of nervous on the bus coming over," said Brown, from Nashville, Tenn.

"But once I got on the field I was OK. I was actually more worried about my blocking than about my catching. I wish they had thrown one to me." Beyond its own receiver worries, FSU had to contend with a big, active Nebraska defense that sacked quarterback. Danny McManus twice and presented plenty of difficulties. "They confused us by doing a lot of what we call where they shift at the last second," said offensive guard Jamie Dukes.

"That throws your blocking keys off. Plus lots of times, they'd leaving a man on the center. It's tough for the center to snap the ball and block a man head on him." "Plus they threw some coverages at us we hadn't seen," said Bowden. "We were having a hard time getting the picture on what they were doing in their secondary." Still, there was reason for satisfaction with the FSU offense in the second half. The most encouraging thing may have been the play of Scoring summary Florida St.

7 10 0 0-17 Nebraska 7 6 0 0-13 Nebraska Rathman 60 run (Klein kick) Florida State Holloman 15 pass from McManus (Schmidt kick) Florida State FG Schmidt 20 Nebraska DuBose 1 run (kick failed) Florida State Cletis Jones 2 run (Schmidt kick) Team statistics WW I CI Receiving Plaver No. Yds. Avg. TD i D. Holloman 5 63 12.6 1 T.Smith 4 41 10.3 0 Wells 4 25 6.3 0 I White 2 33 16.5 0 Carter 2 19 9.5 0 S.Smith 1 -5 0 i Kickoff returns I Plaver No.

Yds. Avg. TD Wells 1 16 16.0 0 Punt returns i Plaver No. Yds. Avg.

TD D.Sanders 2 6 3.0 0 Punting Plaver No. Yds. Avg. Long Berry 9 357 39.7 61 Interceptions i Plaver No. Yds.

Avg. TD McGowan 1 0 0.0 0 i Nebraska statistics Rushing Plaver No. Yds. Avg. TD DuBose 21 129 6.1 1 Rathman 12 113.

9.4 1 I Clayton 9 97 10.8 0 1 Sheppard 3 35 11.7 0 Turner 6 6 1.0 0 Jones 1 2 2.0 0 i Brinson 1 -2 0 Miles 1 -2 0 Team 1 -6 0 Passing 1 Plaver Art. Pet. Yds. TD Int. Turner 2-9 22.2 24 0 0 Clayton 1-5 20.0 16 0 1 Receiving Plaver No.

Yds. Avg. TD Schnitzler 2 24 12.0 0 DuBose 1 16 16.0 0 'J Kickoff returns Plaver No. Yds. Avg.

TD DuBose 1 32 32.0 0 Sheppard 1 31 31.0 0 1 Jones 1 18 18.0 0 Punt returns Plaver No. Yds. Avg. TD Sheppard 2 17 8.5 0 Punting Plaver No. Yds.

Avg. Long Wingard 5 190 38.0 54 Mark Wallheiser Democrat Defensive tackle Jim Skow tackles Florida State quarterback Danny McManus Florida St. Neb. First downs 17 15 Rushing 5 13 Passing 2 Penalty 10 Rushing attempts 43 55 Yds gained rushing 143 400 Yds lost rushing 29 28 Net yds rushing 114 372 Net yds passing 176 40 Total offense 290 412 Passes attempted .31 14 Passes completed 18 3 Intercepted 0 1 Return yds 6 17 Fumbles-lost 1-0 2-2 Penalties-yds Lost 5-40 7-46 Interceptions-yds 1-0 0-0 Punts-yds 9-357 5-190 Yds per punt 39.7 38.0 Punt returns-vds 2-6 2-17 Kickoff returns-vds 1-16 3-81 Possession 30:58 29:02 3rd-down conv. 5-17 5-15 Sacks 2 3 FSU statistics Rushing Player No.

Yds. Avg. TD S.Smith 12 73 6.1 0 T.Smith 11 25 2.3 0 Wells 6 16 2.7 0 CJones 8 15 1.9 1 O. Holloman 1 6 6.0 0 Coker 3 -7 0 McManus 2 -14 0 Passing Plaver Aft. Pet.

Yds. TD Int. McMnus 15-27 55.6 172 1 0 Coker 3-4 75.0 4 0 0 "But the fact was, we were just out of people at wide receiver, and were not effective throwing the ball. When we get some receivers healthy, we'll be better." senior quarterback Kirk Coker, who took over when McManus suffered a mild concussion less than a minute into the fourth quarter. Completing three of four passes, Coker passed for only 4 yards.

But he kept his poise. "He's my fireman," said Bowden. "I don't even have to work him in practice because I know he'll be ready to step in." Coker, the hero of last season's comeback victory over Arizona State, said he welcomed Saturday's opportunity. "I felt confident. I wasn't ner vous.

I went in with every intention of moving the football, not sitting on it," said the senior from Perry. "I do wish we could have scored. That would have helped my self-confidence later in the season." On the whole though, FSU's offense figures to improve with time time off. "We need it," Bowden said of next Saturday's open date. "We've got to get some people healthy, like Hassan.

He would have helped us a lot today. There were a lot of things we planned to do had he been healthy. Setting it straight Florida State quarterback Danny McManus attended South Broward High School. The Democrat reported otherwise in Saturday's Football Weekend. Snapper's gloves caused bad snap Associated Press I 4 1 1 jyv r-' 4- Heat helped Seminoles, Bowden says By Gerald Ensley Democrat staff writer LINCOLN, Neb.

No question it was hot Saturday in the capital of the Cornhusker State. The temperature was 93 degrees at the beginning of the Florida State-Nebraska football game, went up to 96 and was measured as high as 137 degrees on the artificial turf of Memorial Stadium. And the humidity was 40 to 50 percent. But when you're from Florida, what's a little heat? "The heat was terrible. But I thought all along that the heat would be an advantage for us," said FSU head coach Bobby Bowden.

"I didn't think Nebraska could out-heat us." And despite published statements by Nebraska coaches that Hurricane Elena which forced the Seminoles indoors for the week before ils opener against Tulane would diminish FSU's edge in the heat, the Cornhuskers did not "out-heat" the Seminoles. "We didn't do a thing different today because of the heat," said FSU trainer Don Fauls. "Heck, we didn't even have to use our ammonia stuff (cooling products). And in heat like this, ammonia is better than sex." All the Seminoles agreed that LINCOLN, Neb. One of the key plays in Florida State's 17-13 victory over Nebraska Saturday was a bad snap by a substitute wearing gloves on a 96-degree day because he couldn't get them off.

"It was just an unfortunate set of circumstances," Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said. The snap, which Brian Blan-kenship rolled to punter Dale Wingard, occurred on fourth down deep in Nebraska territory. The Seminoles tackled Wingard at the 7-yard line and scored two plays later on Cletis Jones' 2-yard run. That touchdown, which came late in the second quarter, proved to be the winning margin as the lOth-ranked Cornhuskers were shut out in the second half. Blankenship, a senior guard, was snapping in place of center Mark Cooper, who was injured earlier in the game.

Osborne said Blankenship's gloves were dripping with sweat. "I asked him why he didn't take the gloves off," Osborne said. "He said he had taped his hands and the tape had stuck to his gloves, so he couldn't cut the tape off. "We had four turnovers you have to count the bad snap and they had none," Osborne said. "No turnovers is quite a credit to them.

To do that, you've got to be good and you've got to be fortunate." 7 FSU trainer Don Fauls the heat was severe. But by drinking plenty of water and juice and applying wet towels to their necks and heads, they were able to combat its effects. And besides, it was not as bad as Tallahassee heat. "We had good practice days last Tuesday and Wednesday, when the temperature was 98 degrees and the humidity was 90 percent," said quarterback Danny McManus. "It was hot put there today.

The temperature was about 120 on the turf. But without the humidity like back in Tallahassee, it wasn't that hot." i Mark Wallheiser Democrat Seminole tailback Sammie Smith tries to find running room against the Nebraska defense.

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