Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 24

4C Lincoln Journal Star Sunday. November 5. 1995 HUSKERS Page design: Chuck Green Nebraska I-back Phillips returns I to mixed responses from fans, team BY CURT McKEEVER Lincoln Journal Star jr-- A STr inn Clinton Childs. "When they cheeren as loud as they did and gave him aT standing ovation, being as close as we are, it seemed like a part of me was accepted back to the team, too-Si Phillips was averaging 179.5 yardjE rushing after two games, but Saturday he said he felt "a pretty longS way" away from regaining thatl form. In addition to having notl played in a game in two months.

Phillips also was limited some by an ankle he sprained Tuesday. 2 "1 felt tired after a few carries. definitely wasn't in the same shape-that I was before I was suspended! said Phillips, who returned to prac- tice on Oct. 24. "I wanted to see how my conditioning was and how I'd move on the field.

It's a big differ- ence from a game and practice. In practice, I felt pretty good, but it was a big difference when I got in a game. "I did a few things that were alh right, but quickness and speed. if I -get a lot of repetitions (in practice), it'll come back. But right now, it's not there." Phillips looked bigger than when he last played and said that was because he has spent a lot of time lifting weights.

"I think I got a little too big," he admitted. "I've got to lose a little weight." But many of his teammates and Nebraska running backs coach Frank Solich believe Phillips will work hard to refine his game. "Lawrence is a proven player," Solich said. "He will make a run at getting back to where he was and I think he'll make it." working on anger problems and going to counseling to get that situated. I'm sorry that incident had to take place and hopefully something like that will never have to happen again." Judging from the polite applause he received when he entered the game on Nebraska's second offensive series, Phillips has been forgiven by most Husker fans.

Outside the main east entrance to Memorial Stadium, a small group did protest his return, but no Nebraska player recalled hearing negatives voiced directed toward Phillips during the game. "I was hoping they wouldn't boo him," said Osborne. "I'm the guy who put him out there." Phillips said he didn't notice the crowd's response because he was trying to block out any reaction. But center Aaron Graham said Phillips smiled and looked appreciative after a pre-game speech by defensive tackle Christian Peter. "Christian made a comment when the captains were talking to the players before we went out on the field and he was like 'Hey, Lawrence, welcome back.

We're behind you 100 Graham said. "I think that was a way all of us felt." Phillips looked rusty after sitting out six weeks of practice. Still, he carried 12 times for 68 yards and scored his eighth touchdown of the season on a 13-yard run with 5:37 left in the third quarter. Many in the stands gave Phillips a standing ovation after the score. "It made me feel good, like I was the one who was gone," said I-back Lawrence Phillips dreams of leading the Nebraska football team to another national championship.

But Saturday, after playing his first game since he was suspended for assaulting a former girlfriend Sept 10, Phillips had something else on his mind. When asked what his goal was for the rest of the season, Phillips, a Heisman Trophy front-runner two months ago, paused and then said, "Stay out of trouble." There was some laughter from the group of reporters who surrounded Phillips in the South Stadium lounge following the top-ranked Cornhuskers' 73-14 win against Iowa State. But the remark was made in total seriousness. Phillips has had more than one run-in with the law since coming to Nebraska from West Covina, and his latest misdemeanor crime brought him national disgrace and nearly cost him the chance to realize many objectives. Maybe that's why Phillips felt he needed to make a statement before answering questions Saturday.

"I'd just like to start by saying I appreciate Coach Osborne giving me another chance to play, all my teammates supporting me and staying with me, the many people in the community that supported me and believed in me and believed that I should have a second chance, and the administration giving me a chance to stay in school and continue my education," Phillips said. "I'm ASSOCIATED PRESS Nebraska l-back Lawrence Phillips (1) is tackled by Iowa State safety Matt Straight (11) during the first quarter. Phillips was appearing in his first game since pleading no-contest to assaulting a woman last September. Individual Statistics Childs calls NU offense 'explosive' Nebraska Offense Rushing No. Yds.

0 Ahman Green 12 Clinton Ctmds 6 Lawrence Phillips 12 Tommie Frazier 8 Aaron PerHand 0 1 Joel Makovicka 0 1 Fumble returns No. Tyrone Williams 1 Special teams Kickoff returns No. Clinton Childs 2 Punt returns No. Octavious McFartin 1 MikeFuUman 1 Iowa State Offense Rushing Yds. 49 Yds.

2 11 Yds. 176 70 68 62 55 39 35 31 25 15 12 11 10 9 6 STEVE SIPPLE bncoln Journal Star Nebraska center Aaron Graham Brian Schuster 1 Jeff Makovicka 5 Damon Bennmg 5 Joel Makovicka 2 James Sims Clester Johnson 1 Billy Legate 2 Chad Eicher 3 Brook Berringer 3 Riley Washington 1 Josh Cobb 2 Passing No. Co. Tommie Frazier 15 10 No. Ave.

14.6 11.7 5.7 7.7 55.0 78 70 155 50 150 60 37 3.3 90 3.0 PI 0 0 Yds. 48 35 22 17 14 9 5 2 Troy Davis 28 Yds. 121 6 -6 Yds 118 34 (irasion Noms i Todd Bandhauer 3 Passing No. Co. Todd 24 11 and his teammates on the offensive line must have blocked well Saturday.

Numbers don't lie. 1 Graham, however, isn't the brag-King type. So let's allow backup I-3ack Clinton Childs to rave about Xhe big men up front. Aaron has done with the offensive line, and what they're $riing for the running backs and the Jootball team offensively I don't Yds 143 Ave. 43 60 -6 0 PI 2 Yds.

66 45 19 13 Brook 6 3 Receiving No. Reggie 4 JonVedral 2 Ahman Green 2 Damon Benning 1 Clester Johnson 1 Brendan Holbein 1 Lance Brown 1 Lawrence Phillips 1 Defense Tackles know exactly what kind of words to put it in but this offensive line is fealty explosive." TT 12 11 10 10 9 8 8 7 lit una iaoc, yai us iitigiifc uc miri appropriate than words. Saturday, top-ranked Nebraska Receiving NO. Mike Horacek 5 Ed Williams 4 Rodney Guggenheim 1 Troy Davis 1 Defense Tackles UT Jason Brown 3 Michael Cooper 2 Mike Lincavage 6 Matt Straight 2 Tim Sanders 3 Angeto Provenza 5 Jason Putz 3 Dawan Anderson 4 RudyRuffolo 0 Clint Thomas 2 Kevin Fleecs 1 Kipwana-Kip King 1 Kelvin Moore 1 Sheldon Napastuk 1 TomRadke 0 Troy Davis 1 GregSchoon 1 ChinAchebe 0 Rodney Guggenheim 0 Preston Rhamy 0 Jeff St. Clair 0 Special teams AT 9 9 4 8 6 3 5 3 5 2 3 3 3 3 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 ft I --i-' Js A I 11 lliflMKillMI AT 4 4 5 5 3 3 4 2 2 2 2 3 1 1 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 UT MikeMinter 2 Jamie Williams 2 Terrell Farley 0 Eric Stokes 0 Jay Foreman 1 Jason Peter 1 MikeRucker 0 Luther Hardin 1 JonHesse 1 Billy Legate 1 Grant Wistrom 1 Christian Peter 0 Leslie Dennis 1 MikeFuUman 1 Octawus McFartin 1 Tony Veland 1 EricWarfield 1 Doug Coiman 0 Dave Alderman 1 Michael Booker 1 ChadKelsay 1 Quint Hogrefe 1 Jason Jenkins 1 Adam Skoda 1 Travis Tokne 1 Jared Tomich i 1 Tyrone Williams 1 Phil Elks 0 Ryan TerwiHigsr 0 litM fuming UT AT TT Ave.

35.8 Yds. 56 6 24 47 No. Yds. Marc Harris 6 215 Kickoff returns No. Troy 3 Graston Morris 1 Kevin Wilson 2 Preston Rhamy 3 Scoring story ISU-NU How scored Time left 4 mf ft.

If ASSOCIATED PRESS Nebraska's Reggie Baul pulls down a second-quarter touchdown over Iowa State's Darwin Anderson Saturday at Memorial Stadium. The play covered 36 yards and gave the Huskers a 35-7 lead after the point-after kick. I NUHuskers put on a show vs. Iowa State 0-7 0-14 0-20 7-20 7-28 7-35 7-38 up 776 total yards, including JS 24 on the ground, in its 73-14 victory against Iowa State at Memorial Sta-iSium. L.The Cornhuskers, who lead the nation in rushing offense, did not fiave to punt against the Cyclones.

U', You might have been able to see this coming. After all, Iowa State entered the game last in the Big Eight Conference and 99th nationally against the run. "We played pretty well today," said Graham, the offensive line's only returning starter. "Any time you put up those type of numbers, you have to be pleased with the effort. I think most of the starters were done halfway through the third quarter and were able to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines.

I think we did our work when we were in there." Graham said Nebraska, which improved to 9-0 overall and 5-0 in the league, was able to stay focused despite coming off emotional wins against a pair of nationally-ranked teams, Kansas State (49-25) and Colorado (44-21). "I think, historically, teams maybe do have letdowns after playing back-to-back big games like that." Graham said. "I know back in 1992 when we lost to Iowa State we had just got done playing Kansas and Colorado, and I'll be the first to admit we did have a letdown. But I think we learned from our mistakes, and that game still hasn't faded from our minds." Nebraska almost seemed to run at will against the outmanned Cyclones. But as one might expect, Graham refused to let the offensive line take all the credit for the buskers' success on the ground.

know if the linemen can get their blocks taken care of inside, we can be successful running the ball because of the blocking by our wide receivers," Graham said. "They did a great job today. When you can get eight or nine guys on every play blocking who they're supposed to be blocking, you're going to be able to run the ball." Childs who carried six times for 70 yards said the Husker offensive linemen are surprisingly quick. "They're getting everything done the way things should be done, and everywhere you look, they're always together." For instance, when there is a break in the action, Childs said the linemen get together and trade notes. "We can't do anything but tip our hats to those guys every game," Childs said.

FIRST QUARTER Tommie Frazier 4 run 11:48 Drive: 69 yards in eight plays. Highlighted by Frazier 14-yard keeper and five runs by Ahman Green for 42 yards. Conversion: Kris Brown kick. Green 6 pass from Frazier 6:10 Drive: 41 yards in 1 1 plays. Set up by Eric Stokes' recovery of short kickoff.

Highlighted by fourth-down runs by Frazier and Lawrence Phillips and 12 run by Jeff Makovicka. Conversion: Brown kick. Green 17 run :28 Drive: 80 yards in seven plays. Highlighted by 27 run by Makovicka, 12 run by Green and 11 bootleg by Frazier. Conversion: kick failed.

SECOND QUARTER Ed Williams 15 past from Todd Bandhauer 11:35 Drive: 75 yards in eight plays. Highlighted by 19 pass from Bandhauer to Rodney Guggenheim, Bandhauer 13 pass to Williams. Conversion: Jamie Kohl kick. Green 26 run 7:46 Drive: 82 yards in nine plays. Highlighted by 23 pass from Frazier to Jon Vedral, Frazier 1 1 run.

Conversion: Frazier run. Reggie Baul 36 past from Frazier 3:04 Drive: 70 yards in four plays. Highlighted by 18 run by Clinton Childs. Conversion: Brown kick. Brown 38 field goal :27 Drive: 42 yards in eight plays.

Set up by Mike Minter's interception. Highlighted by 14 pass from Frazier to Clester Johnson, 13, 14 runs by Childs. THIRD QUARTER Frazier 1 run 12:30 Drive: 23 yards in six plays. Set up by Tyrone Williams' fumble recovery of second-half kickoff. Highlighted by 16 shovel pass from Frazier to Green.

Conversion: Brown kick. Green 64 run 10:00 Drive: 64 yards In one play. Followed ISU punt. Conversion: Brown kick. Phillips 13 run 5:37 Drive: 65 yards In seven plays.

Set up by Mike Pullman's 11 yard punt return. Fullman returned it 66 yards for apparent score but penalty nullified the return. Highlighted by 15 reverse by Johnson, Phillips 12 run, Vedral 12 pass from Brook Berringer. Conversion: Ted Retzlaff kick. CMkft13nm 3:41 Drive: 68 yards In two plays.

Highlighted by Brian Schuster 55 run, Conversion: Retzlaff kick. Graston Nome 6 run 14:47 Drive: 74 yards 10 plays. Highlighted by 13, 24 passes from Bandhauer to Troy Davfs and Mike Horacek, respectively, 12 run by Davis. Conversion: Kohl kick. Joel Makovtefca 18 run 7:23 Drive: 24 yards in two plays.

Set up by Mike FuDman's 1 1 1nter- ceptJon return. Conversion: Retzlaff kick. Frazier spoke for the offense: "It was pretty much business as usual for us. We had to go out there and win, because we knew if we go out there and stumble we wouldn't be playing for the championship. Coach Osborne just asks us to go out there and be consistent." The consistency showed, as Nebraska totaled more than 450 yards of total offense in eight of nine games, and hovers close to an average of 600 yards a game.

It showed in another four quarters without a turnover, stretching the string to 16 quarters in a row. It also showed in the fact Nebraska did not punt once. "We didn't play a perfect game," Minter said. "We had some mental breakdowns and they got a couple of touchdowns on us. For the most part, we played all right.

But nobody on this team is going to listen to anything but talk about the next game and talk about playing better. "Why should we listen to people compliment us and relax? The same reason we don't listen to the negative stuff," he said. "We feel we have the best program, the best team and we want to prove that. We'll know all about if we're right after the next two games and then in January. Anything before that, like getting too high about this game, is just not the way we do things around here." Continued from Page 1C The score got away in swift fashion.

Frazier ran to his left behind fullback Jeff Makovicka and tight end Mark Gilman for a 4-yard touchdown run to end the opening eight-play, 69-yard drive. Nebraska kicker Kris Brown accidentally chipped the ensuing kick-off, but teammate Eric Stokes recovered the ball and the Huskers scored again in 11 plays, when Frazier shoveled a short pass to Green for a 6-yard touchdown. Iowa State finally got the ball, with the game almost nine minutes old, but had to punt after six plays, and Nebraska scored again, this time on a 17-yard run by Green to boost the score to 20-0 before the end of the first quarter. Nebraska would score on every one of its next seven possessions 10 in a row before taking a break and then scoring one final time with 7: 23 left in the game. Iowa State, 3-6, had a nice drive of 75 yards to score in the second quarter, and tallied again in the fourth quarter, but Nebraska didn't give the Cyclones a glimmer of hope as Green scored on a 26-yard run, and Frazier hit Reggie Baul on a 36-yard touchdown pass and Brown added a 38-yard field goal before the end of the first half.

Frazier hopped into the end zone to cap a short scoring drive that started when Iowa State fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half. Green then tacked on a 64-yard touchdown run, Phillips added a 13-yard scoring run and Clinton Childs scored on a 13-yard run, after fullback Brian Schuster posted a 55-yard run, to increase the margin to 66-7 with 3:41 left in the third quarter. "They're playing well right now and I've been very pleased with them," Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne said. "They seem to hang together well. I was a bit apprehensive because when you play Rotate and Colorado back-to-back, sometimes there's a little tendency to have an emotional letdown and I didn't think we did that, "I think we played with consistency and good effort.

I don't think it was inspired, but it was a solid football game." Solid in the sense that Iowa State couldn't even get a chip at Nebraska's win streaks of 34 regular-season games, 22 in all games, and 29 games at home. "We love to play the game and I think we showed it today," Nebraska safety MikeMinter said 7-45 7-52 7-59 7-88 14-68 14-73 '4.