Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 21

Journal Star 1 1 rni r- lidJ liCC Sunday, August 31, 1997 PaV lla mas? KorbeSk .,...,1 ,1.1 NU shows some flashes of old form This wasn't really a BY KEN HAMBLETON Lincoln Journal Star Si Nebraska did not lay claim to the national championship in the August heat and humidity Saturday in Memorial Stadium. The Huskers made mistakes not many. They had trouble stopping Akron's offense not that often. Nebraska even struggled on offense when the third and fourth teams finished of the mismatch. "I guess that's getting picky if the scout teams didn't play that well," Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne said.

"They (the scout teams) really haven't run our plays except for just the five days of practice they've been here." Nebraska pummeled Akron 59-14 before 75,124 sweaty fans for the start of Osborne's 25th year as head coach and a drive to return to the national championship game for the third time in four years. It's only natural that the Huskers are a bit picky. The sixth-ranked Huskers were 56-point favorites against the 109th-ranked team named for rubber boots. The complaints: "If I don't have their attention it's going to be a 9-2 season and we're going to the Slippery Bowl," said Nebraska defensive coordinator Charlie McBride. "It was pretty hot," quarterback Scott Frost said after posting 190 yards of total offense and running for touchdowns of 26 yards and 5 yards.

"I thought that playing was probably just as bad as sitting in the stands, though. I think people were hot up there." "If we go to Washington (Sept. 20) and play like this, we'll get our butts kicked," said defensive tackle Jason Peter, who helped hold Akron to 82 yards and three first downs in the first half. "These kind of games don't give me great joy," Osborne said. "But we have to play whoever's on our schedule.

We did everything we could to do better in terms of strengthening it." "No sacks and we were not physical, kind of soft, kind of vanilla," said McBride. Nebraska actually stalled and Kris Brown missed a field goal attempt on its first drive. A quick fix and a switch on the bewildering option play allowed Nebraska to score on its next nine possessions. By the end of the game, Nebraska rolled up 644 yards of total offense, including 472 yards rushing, with 123 yards by Frost on options and 79 by backup QB Frankie London on similar plays. Even freshman More on NU, Page 11C I i -fcidiF A I -XT I i v.X.

Av; '-a 1 i good test 'Nebraska 59, Akron 14. So what did you expect? Nebraska 59, Akron 0, maybe. The football game Saturday at Memorial Stadium lacked drama and had no surprises, unless you count Akron's third-quarter scoring drive or the Zip linebacker losing his lunch at the 15-yard line. "The game went somewhat like expected," Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne said. The Cornhuskers amassed 644 yards on offense.

Nine of 12 NU drives ended in points, and the only sweat punter Jesse Kosch broke was from watching the game from the sideline under the intense August sun. Quarterback Scott Frost ran the option to near perfection. Fullback Joel Makovicka broke five tackles to score a touchdown, and freshman receiver Matt Davison, from tiny Tecumseh, emerged as an offensive threat in his first outing. But nobody's sure if this was a good game or Fans expected a blowout, and blowout is what they got Akron, who finished 4-7 last year, served as no measuring stick for the NU program, and nor will Central Florida in two weeks. Wait until Washington Nobody will know just how good this year's Huskers can or will be until Sept.

21 the day after the game against No. 4 Washington at Seattle. Then people can start talking national title. So was the Akron game worth playing? On one hand, Osborne would say yes, but on the other he would say no. Nebraska needed a game, but maybe not this one.

"These kind of games don't give me any great joy or pleasure," Osborne said. "I think Akron did the very best they could. The Husker players, though, said a game with Akron was better than no game at all. They had no control over scheduling. They just played the hand dealt to them.

"We didn't look at it as a pushover game or anything like that," Nebraska linebacker Jay Foreman said. "You can get something out of every game." For the Husker offense, the game served as a chance to fine tune its operation, especially the option. "In practice, we've been having trouble going 10, 12, 15 plays without having any mistakes," Nebraska quarterback Scott Frost said. "(The first team) didn't have any turnovers and very few missed assignments." Despite the lopsided outcome, Frost said this game helped the Huskers prepare for Washington. "Obviously, we didn't have a tight game to play in where one play could make a difference in the ballgame, but you still have to execute," he said.

For the Husker defense, the game may have been a wakeup call. Giving up a 10-play, 82-yard drive for a touchdown may turn out to be a good thing. Osborne said he found the drive Remember ASU Akron's success was an attention-getter. That kind of thing was missing from Nebraska's season opener last year, when the Huskers steamrolled Michigan State 55-14. Just about everything went right offensively and defensively for NU that day.

The win set up the letdown. Arizona State stunned Nebraska 19-0 two weeks later. "I thought last year we took a step backward," Osborne said. "We got complacent. We got to thinking we were pretty good.

We didn't improve and went downhill. That can't happen." Nebraska rush end Grant Wistrom said he doubts that would happen again. "We've just got to focus on the basics," he said. JeffKorbelik is the Journal Star interim sports editor and can be reached at jkorbeliknebweb.com or 473-7439. 'V'.

i TED KIRKLmcom Journal Star Ole MlSS tips Central Nebraska's Joel Makovicka gets past Akron's Eric Anderson (48), but had a little tougher time scoring on this 20-yard run in the first quarter Florida in OT. 2C Saturday. Makovicka broke five tackles and carried an Akron player with him into the end zone. The junior fullback scored twice in NU's 59-1 4 victory against the Zips. Heat, Huskers do in Zips IP from Akron Lavel Bailey 69 pass James Washington (Stidham kick) A 75,124 NORTH DIVISION Conf AH games First downs 1-0 1-0 Rushes-yards 41-99 41-99 Nebraska Kansas Colorado Missouri Kansas State 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-1 passing yards Total vards 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-1 Akron 0 0 7 7-14 Nebraska 14 24 14 7 59 NU Scott Frost 26 run (Kris Brown kick) NU Joe) Makovicka 20 run (Brown kick) NU Ahman Green 7 run (Brown kick) NU FG Brown 34 NU Green 45 run (Brown kick) NU Frost 5 run (Brown kick) NU Makovicka 1 1 run (Brown kick) Akron Bo Hunter 11 run (Jamie Stid-hamkick) NU Correll Buckhalter 8 run (Ted Retzlaff kick) NU Buckhalter 3 run (Retzlaff kick) Passing 8-14-1 8-14-1 Iowa State Akron NU 11 30 56-472 144 172 243 644 12-19-0 0 168 0-0 1-0 4-1 5-35 5-60 31:03 28:57 2-14 7-13 0-0 2-4 SOUTH DIVISION Texas 0-0 tieiurn yaros Punts-average Fumbles-lost Penalties-yards Time of possession Third-down conv Fourth-down conv.

0-0 0- 0 1- 0 0-1 0-1 0-0 Oklahoma 0-0 Oklahoma State 1-0 Baylor 0-0 Texas Tech 0-0 Texas ASM 0-0 ed. 1 don't want this to sound like an excuse, but what hurt us as much as the great Nebraska team today was the heat and humidity. We haven't had any and we really couldn't acclimate to the conditions." Free safety Andre McCray and linebacker George Cameron agreed with Owens. "The defense did come out and played really well on the first possession. But we had a lot to deal with as far as the heat," said McCray.

"They are a great team, but we just had to try to get adjusted to a new environment. We didn't have 90-degree weather in camp." The heat played a significant role in Cameron's day. The sophomore linebacker threw up on the field midway through the second quarter. "It was hot in Akron, but never this humid. This is ridiculous," he said.

"I'd had an upset stomach and was taking Maalox earlier. I think someone fell on my stomach and that did me in." Owens said what did in the Zips was Nebraska's speed. "They're outstanding. Their speed you watch how fast they close on the ball and the quarterbacks they keep running in there," Owens said. "They've just got unbelievable quickness, size, depth, skill, More on AKRON, Page 1 1 BY RYLY JANE HAMBLETON Lincoln Journal Star When Nebraska came up empty on its first possession, Akron Coach Lee Owens knew the Zips were off to the right kind of start.

But the Cornhuskers, the heat and the humidity took the starch out of Akron's resolve and put Nebraska firmly in control early before NU posted a 59-14 victory Saturday in the season opener at Memorial Stadium. "We played on adrenalin early. We took advantage of the crowd and took advantage of the hype," said Owens. "Honestly, if we could have just gotten done on offense like we started to in the second half and just got a few first downs, that would have given the. defensive side of the ball a little hope.

I think we could have stayed pumped. But three-and-out, three-and-out had the defense starting to wear down. "We wanted to come out of the gate strong, come out toe-to-toe on defense, which is the strongest side of our football team, and give us a chance." The Zips slowed NU's first drive and Kris Brown's 38-yard field goal attempt was wide-right. Akron's defensive players pumped their fists in the air as they left the field. But the Akron offense couldn't Thursday's result Kansas 24, 0 Saturday's results Nebraska 59.

Akron 1 4 Tennessee 52, Texas Tech 17 Miami, Fla. 45, Baylor 14 Oklahoma State 21 Iowa State 14 Next week's games Colorado State at Colorado TCU at Kansas Syracuse at Oklahoma Iowa State at Wyoming Sam Houston State at Texas SW Louisiana at Oklahoma State Rutgers at Texas Eastern Michigan at Missouri Kansas State at Northern Illinois Baylor at Fresno State Nebraska Idle get untracked and had to punt. Nebraska scored four plays later. After the Zips picked up their initial first down, quarterback Greg Gromek's pass to Willie Spencer was intercepted by Ralph Brown and Nebraska added another score two plays later. "The interception really hurt.

We had some goals and no turnovers was one of them," Owens said. "You watch how Nebraska makes a living off other teams' turnovers. This is not where we want to be, but we do have to keep it in perspective. I don't know how many teams on our schedule are as good as Nebraska I hope not too many." Owens doesn't have to worry about what many thought might happen in the Zips' opener with Nebraska. "Everyone was all worried about us getting banged up and needing doctors and IVs and all kinds of stretchers to get home," he said.

"I didn't notice any extra doctors, no stretchers, no IVs going on. I think we had one sprained ankle (linebacker Bill Burke). "The physical aspect of this game, the getting hurt part, never concerned us because our guys worked hard and lifted and prepar- I I.