The Lincoln Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 34

6DH Winsback Brinson tfielps both teams I fife m-1 llflJiifiHIl lllfliii5r.Millp By Mike Babcock 'On the towel, stuffed in the waist of Dana Brinson's football pants, were the words: "D-Rock is bad." message, of course, was: Brin-eon, ita. "D-Rock," is good. And be was Saturday afternoon, in Nebraska's Spring Game for the Whites as well as the victorious Reds. Brinson was one of several players who wore both jerseys during the intra-squad game. He spent the first half with the White team, comprised of third-team players, then switched to the Red team, comprised of first- and 'fourth-team players, at halftlme.

As a member of the Whites, Brinson carried twice for four yards, returned a punt 19 yards, and caught two passes for 31 yards on a rust-quarter drive that carried to the Red 18-yard line before Bjian Harchelroad's lost fumble. y.t Brinson set up two third-quarter -scores for the Reds with returns, a 33-yard punt return to the Whites' 36 on a Series capped by Terry Rodgers 5-yard touchdown run, and a 40-yard kickoff return that preceded Chris Drennan's 37-; -yard field goal think I finished (the spring) pretty' good today," said Brinson, who was held 1 of practice the first two weeks to get i some schoolwork in order. That's why he started the afternoon the reserves, a demotion he's ac-? cepted good-naturedly. year it always happens, starting out on the underdog team either because of discipline or something," Brinson said with a laugh. "So it was expected." Ironically, "the punishment benefits me," he said.

"If I start out third or fourth team, I have to work harder to get back up there. So, really, it makes me a better player because rve got to battle for what I want I know they're not going to give me anything. "And if they start me out on first team, all I have to do is maintain." Brinson, the fastest player on the team with a in the 40-yard dash, said he enjoyed being on the Whites Saturday because "the receivers, as a whole, were being used more and we were making things happen." Nebraska's offense win be more ex-' plosive in the fall than it showed Saturday, according to Brinson. A major reason for that will be the return of All-Big Eight quarterback Steve Taylor, who's been sidelined this spring because of a thigh pun. Taylor makes a dramatic difference.

"Not to downplay the other quarterbacks, but Steve has so much experience," Brinson said. Brinson figures to be a significant part of that offense. He's in good shape academically, he said. "I'm secure. Everything's fine.

I dont have to concentrate on so many other things now." It may have been a short spring for D-Rock, but it was a good one. RANDY HAMPTON SUNDAY JOURNAL-STAR Nebraska wingback Dana Brinson (33) tries to evade cornerback Tahaun Lewis (left). ve ueeu ireie luui jcoia, aim traj Spring 10 22 helped the outside linebacking position behind starters Broderick Thomas araj Jon Marco, too. "I think the offensive line, although many things didn't happen that should have on offense today, should be good with Doug Glazer and John Nelson and three returning starters," Osborne said "The kicking game looks solid and wing backs and receivers are going to be fine "The big problem is that we have a short summer, starting practice on Aug. he said.

going to have surgery on his shoulder this week. So (senior Todd) Millikin's situation is reaUy critical," he said. Minikin missed the spring practices with a groin injury. Osborne and McBride agreed that the improvement at linebacker, with Pat Tyrance, Hagge, Cahendo, Kenny Walker and Randan Jobman, along with returning starter LeRoy Etienne, has been a pleasant surprise. The ment of Jeff Mills and Mike Croel have McBride, who coached the Whites, said, "It looked like the first team defense wasn't emotionally in the game the first couple of series.

But they turned it up a notch and started to play well" Osborne agreed. "They (Reds) were kind of in slow motion in the first half," he "I thought it was a pretty good spring game. We're obviously still searching in some spots. Defensive line is still unsettled and tight end is going to be very critical now because Chris Garrett is Spring Game statistics Turner 3 8 Brinson 2 Preston 2 Coleman .................6 Beckler 1 Achola 5 Miller 1 1 Devall 1 28 2 27 4 10 17 23 6 3 13 2.80 2.0. 5.0 is; 5.0 4.6 6.0 3.0 pr -o passes of 14 and 17 yards to spark another drive that ended on a fumble.

By the end of the first quarter the comprised of second- and third-team players, held a 128-29 edge in total offense and a touchdown lead. The Red team tied the game at 2:25 in the second quarter when reserve linebacker Scott Kurtz, a sophomore from Creighton Prep, intercepted a Mike Preston pass and scampered 76 yards to score. The Reds took the lead for good less than two minutes later when junior receiver Morgan Gregory returned a punt 59 yards to put his team ahead 14-7 with 48 seconds left in the half. Rodgers switched to the Red team in the second half. After Brinson, who also changed teams, returned a punt 33 yards to the Reds' 36-yard line, Rodgers carried four times in a five-play drive, including a 5-yard touchdown run.

Dunlap, the leading passer in the game with 10 completions for 122 yards, sparked a 53-yard touchdown drive when he hit freshman wingback Nate Turner on a 31-yard pass. Brian Harcelroad scored on a 1-yard dive to cut the score to 21-14. But Brinson returned the kickoff 40 yards and five plays later Chris Drennan kicked a 37-yard field goal The Reds added touchdowns by Jim Kerwin on a 2-yard run and Ed Outlaw on an 18-yard pass from McCant "The second team (White) defense played surprisingly wen. People like Kent WeUs, Ray VaUadao and Jim Wanek did a good job on the defensive line, as weU as those linebackers Mark Hagge and Kenny Walker," Osborne said. "I was disappointed with the way our first (Red) offense moved.

You could say it was the quarterbacks, but there were basic plays the quarterbacks had nothing to do with." NU defensive coordinator Charlie Reds 37, Whites 14 Whites 7 0 7 0-14 Reds 0 14 10 13-47 Whites Dunlap 15 run (Barrios kick) Reds Kurtz 74 interception return (Drennan kick) -Reds Gregory 59 punt return (Drennan kick) Reds Rodgers 5 run (Hoover kick) Whites Harchelroad 1 run (Barrios, kick)' Reds FG Drennan 37 Reds Kerwin 2 run (kick blocked) Reds Outlaw 18 pass from McCant (Dlllavov kick) Reds Whites First 19 18 Rushes-yards 51-203 53-148 Passing yards 106 156 Return yords. 221 24 slO-154 11-25-3 Punts Fumbles-lost 2-2 2-2 Penalties-yards 1-55 7-65 Third-down conversions. 6-14 4-14 Fourth-own conversions 0-12-3 f-mmt i Passing No. Co. Yds 19 10 122 6 1 34 Kerwin ...................4 13 3.3 McCant 4 18 4.5 12 59 4.9 Passing No.

Co. Yds PI 1 0 0 0 Haase. ..8 5 43 0 McCant 6 5 63 0 Receiving No. Yds. 1 18 30 Bell 1 11 1 2 Pleasant ........................3 34 "Baumert 1 11 Punting No.

Yds. Ave. Kroeker 4 138 34.5 Punt returns No. Yds. 2 75 1 10 Brinson 1 33 Kickoff returns No.

Yds. Clark 2 52 Brinson 1 35 Interception returns No. Yds. Kurtz 1 74 Keller 1 29 Novlcky 1 0 Whites Offense Rushing Reds Offense Rushing Receiving No. McCoy i Brinson 2 2 Avant ............................1 Achola ...........................2 Punting No.

Yds. 2 89 Miller 2 76 Janky ,35 Punt returns No. Brinson White Kickoff returns No. Rodgers 1 Achola Turner ...........................2 Yds. 7 .30.

45 34 1 21 Ave. 44.5 38.0' 35.Q. 19 Yds? 3 38' RANDY HAMPTONSUNDAY JOURNAL-STAR No. Yds. Ave.

Joseph 1-2 2.0 Carpenter 2 11 5.5 0 0.0 Bell 3 3 1.0 Haase 8 35 4.4 Worden 2 10 5.0 Outlaw 6 16 2.7 Achola 3 11 3.7 Schmidt ....5 25 5.0 NU linebacker Scott Kurtz (34) races down the sideline after intercepting a pass intended for tight end Keith Gawrlck (88). Kurtz went 74 yards for the Red team's first touchdown in the second Quarter. No. Yds. Ave.

Rodgers. 13 46 3.5 UMFL scouts leave no rock unturned in pursuing prospects NFL draft order 1. Atlanta 7. Kansas Cltv (from Detroit) 3. Detroit (from Konsas City) 4.

Tampa Bay 5. Cincinnati 4. L.A. Raiders 7. Green Bay 8.

N.Y.Jets 9. L.A. Raiders (from L.A. Rams through Houston) 10. N.Y.

Giants 11. Dallas 12. Phoenix 13. Philadelphia 14. L.A.

Rams (from Buffalo) 15. San Dieao 16. Miami 17. New England IB. Pittsburgh 19.

Minnesota 20. Seattle 21. L.A. Rams (from Indianapolis) 22. Houston 23.

Cleveland 24. Chicago 25. New Orleans 26. San Francisco 27. Denver 28.

Chicago (from Washington) other," said Ralph KohL head scout for the Minnesota Vikings. Insurance against mistakes. The Dallas Cowboys were sold for $80 million four years ago. Is the estimated $1.5 million they spend annually on scouting and drafting excessive? "It's like taking out an insurance policy," Kilroy said. "It's worth whatever they're spending to do anything they can to make sure they dont make mistakes." Sound theory, but mistakes can still run rampant The Cowboys, in this decade, have drafted 33 players in the top four rounds of drafts, and only six are starters today.

"The only thing left to do in scouting is cut open the kid. You'd like to see his heart" said Buffalo Bills director of college scouting John Butler. "I think we do everything else." Not surprising It figures that Cain would be in demand, based on his history. After starting at strong safety for Stanford in 1984, he left because of academic problems and gambled that the pros wouldn't forget him if he took a former coach's advice and transfer to Oregon Tech. The combines, impressed by his play at Stanford, tracked him to Klamath Falls.

"It was a gamble," Cain said, "but I think II win." Holt's ascension to a high-draft caliber player (the San Francisco 49ers flew him to San Francisco last week to meet Coach Bill Walsh, an uncommon privilege) is more unlikely. "I have to pinch myself sometimes," he sail Holt raised on a farm near Houston, played only one year of high school football, preferring to show cattle at Future worth of New Mexico Highlands in Las Vegas, N.M. It is about the death of the sleeper. "The way the scouting people came in here last season," Oregon Tech offensive coordinator Vince White said, "I figure they're getting into every nook and cranny of college football. If they can find the Joe Cains, they can find anybody." "Since last fall," said Holt, a defensive tackle projected to go in the first three rounds Sunday, "just about every day there's been a different scout Three, sometimes four.

It's unreal. I've never once wished I'd gone to a Division I school. I never felt like I was hidden." Angelo State is an NCAA Division II school "There's no such thing as a sleeper anymore," said Mike Brown, assistant general manager for the Cincinnati Bengals. Sleepers put to rest Sleepers. In 1953, the New York Giants drafted Morgan State tackle Roosevelt Brown, a future Han of Fame player, in the 27th round, after Giants scouts read about him in a magazine on draft day.

In the late rounds, finding players in a magazine or touted by college coaching buddies was a rule in the '50s, not the exception. With the formation of scouting combines and pooled reports around 1962, every major-college player was seen, at least on film. But the Dallas Cowboys put together their own staff of bird-dogs in the '60s and 70s to scour the small colleges. There's not a turning point or year that signaled the end of the sleeper. But most scouts agree that it has been hard to pluck an unknown player who will.

under every rock which translates to approximately $74,000 spent on research on every draft pick. Here's why The late draft The draft was held in late January or early February until 1976, when a free-agency lawsuit pushed it back to April In 1977, a new collective-bargaining agreement mandated a late-April draft to allow time for any free-agent movement to shake out before teams made their personnel plans for the coming season. "What happened," said Washington Redskins Assistant General Manager Charley Casserly, "is that teams like Cincinnati, with one scout now have time to use their entire coaching staff as scouts in the off-season. Obviously they're going to be much more thorough." Everyone is more thor-1 ough. In 1986, the Redskins worked out Michigan tight end Eric Kattus on four separate occasions before the draft, liked what they saw and then didnl pick him.

Combine workouts. For the past six years after the Super Bowl, approximately 325 of the top prospects almost 12 full rounds of players gather to be inspected by scouting and coaching staffs of all 28 teams. "They measured everything except how long my nose was," said Dallas' 1987 first-round pick, Danny Noonan. Teams are copycats. The National Football Scouting combine has 18 member teams and BLESTO seven, and one simple report by those combines on Cain, for instance win bring a torrent of scouts to judge the player's prowess for themselves.

"The year Howard Schnellenberger (then at Miami) won college coach of the year. I thought every coach in the country would grow a 'mustache and smoke a pipe. Scouts are the same way. They feed off each By Peter King '7' Nowaday Tag Wotherspoon heard the question ver and over again last fall, a dozen times at least "How do I get to Klamath National Football League scouts would ask Wotherspoon, the sports director at Oregon Institute of Technology. could drive 320 miles up from San francisco, he'd tell them, or take the American Eagle commuter that stops in Eureka, Calif.

Or you could drive the 290 miles down from Portland, or take the commuter flight from Portland to Med-forA and drive the last 75 miles east into Falls, a town of 18,000 in the 'shadow of the Cascade Mountains in south central Oregon. I you get into Klamath Falls," Wotherspoon directed the scouts, "there's a big 0' and a big on the hillside. We're right there. Cant miss it" Not many NFL teams did. That's be-cause Oregon Tech (enrollment an NAIA school that hasn't had a player jdrafted in its 40 years of football, had a player.

At least 19 of the 28 NFL teams found Klamath Falls and personally muted linebacker Joe Cain, who is a 'middle-round prospect in this year's draft Difficult, not impossible I "This is a hard place to get to," Cain 'said of Klamath Falls. "The fact that so Jmany people came here to look into me means to me they're willing to look any-where for players. It shows you there jean be good players everywhere, even at iedrockU." I This story could be about Joe Cain of toregon Tech or Pierce Holt of Angelo '(Texas) State or Rory Johnson of SL Joseph's (Ind.) College, or Brian Ains- Farmers of America exhibitions. He fell in love as a high-school senior, was married within a year and went to work, in order, on his father's farm, at a car dealership, on home construction, and as an inspector for a mortgage company. Football didn't re-enter his mind until 1984, when his brother, Ed, began to star at Austin (Texas) Collega "If he could do it," Holt said, "I knew I could do it I was taking night classes at the University of Houston, so I decided to go see Coach (Bill) Yeoman there to see if I could walk on.

But I found out the NCAA wouldnt let me play Division I football because I'd been out of school so long. I called the NCAA and they told me the highest level I could play would be Division So I asked them to give me the names of all the Division II schools in Texas." Age was disregarded Holt was and 240 and 22 years old at the time. When Coach Jerry Vandergriff of Angelo State, an isolated place in west-central Texas, saw him, he disregarded the age. He gave him a uniform. Now he's a small-college all-America, a defensive tackle with the brute strength to play defensive tackle or nose tackle in the pros.

The combines begaif to track him two years ago. The Bills have been to campus eight times during his career. The big knock? He's now 26. "Only one negative sticks out: 1-1-62," New York Jets player personnel direc- -tor Mike Hickey said, referring to Holt's birthday. Does he have a 22- to 24-year-old body? I dont know." The Jets may not know.

But, like so many other teams, they've spent a lot of time and money investigating it umo first-round pick In mppltnwntat draft for Brton Bos worth, linebacker. turn into a star for about 20 years and well-nigh impossible to do it since the NFL moved its draft from the winter to the spring 12 years ago. "The biggest problem when you go scouting today is finding a (empty) plug to plug your projector into," New England vice president and veteran scout Bucko Kilroy said. Tm serious. There's so many guys (scouts) out there, I always bring an extension cord with a two-way plug or sometimes I wont be able to watch films on a kid." "Football is such a business today," Denver Broncos director of college scouting Reed Johnson said, "that more and more teams are realizing yon can't afford not to turn the rock over." NFL teams now spend an estimated $25 million to 330 million annually to look 1.