The Lincoln Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 37

OCTOBER 2, 18B8 SUNDAY JOURNAL-STAR HUSEtERS 6riilnis icers change blpc 1" npwiwp 'H' "IP 1 'njwmw i iimiiwiiimw i hmhiiww ii niiiiiii in mrnrTmnrTTnijffmi 1 I 1 1 I s-" A Ml I I 'V 4 I I it r- cmm-w 1 titf I By Ken Hambletotr the flags were flying from thC opening kickoff, according to Nebraska I-back Ken Clark. "They came out, tried an onside kick; we recovered, and had the best field position we could have asked for on an opQjing Wckof their side of the 50," Clark said. And three plays, and we didn't score. We didnt score on the next possession either. Right there, I had a.feeling that wepveren't doing everything right We didnt capitalize." Part of the problem was the defense of Nevada-Las Vegas, i' pie Rebels' linebackers "hid" under their tackles and broke up play after Nebraska tackle Tom Punt said.

SWe couldn't find them because they wefte kind of small pys and they were hiding them well in their scheme," he said. Change dramatic Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne chSnged the blocking scheme to get a better chance at keeping the UNLV linebackers from crashing the party. The change was dramatic for the Nebraska of fense. On the Cornhuskers' third possession, Clark broke loose on a 25-yard run. After a holding call set Nebraska back 10 yafas, quarterback Steve Taylor picked up 20 yards on a draw play to the UNLV ran again for 6 yards, and Clark sprinted to the 2 on the following play.

Then, he scored Nebraska's first touchdown on a 2-yard dive into the end zone. "The change in their rush stopped our counter sweeps, our trap options and a couple of other plays," Punt said. "But when we switched the tight ends to picking up the linebackers instead of the tackles, we started moving. Although Nebraska didn't score on its next possession, fullback Tyreese Knox broke loose for 24 yards on three carries, and I-back Terry-Rodgers picked up 9 yards on two carries. Rodgers scored on a 20-yard sweep around the left end midway through the second quarter to help Nebraska to a 204 half time leal Clark finished with three touchdowns -and 79 of Nebraska's 444 yards rushing, while Rodgers gained 50 yards, Taylor 67, Knox 57 and fullback Bryan Carpen-ter59.

1,000 yards Knox became the 31st Nebraska back to break the 1,000 yard career rushing mark when he gained 17 yards on a run late in the third quarter. He finished the day with 1,008 yards. "I thought people were teasing me about the 1,000 yards," said Knox, a senior fullback. "I wish I had known about that for sure before the game. Maybe I would have played better." Knox, Clark, Rodgers and Osborne agreed that the Nebraska offense was lacking in many instances Saturday.

"We cant afford to be lackadaisical because it takes away from our consistency," Knox said. "And when somebody is not playing their best, then the rest of the guys on the offense cant do their best If the blocking is great and I don't run great, then I'm not doing my part. If the blocking isn't there, then we can't run that great, "And the problem was, these guys (UNLV) came at us with everything they had. Some people said UNLV was the worst team in Div. II and III, but they screwed us up with their line stunts, and we weren't as ready as we should have been." ROBERT BECKERSUNOY JOURNAL-8TAR l-back Ken Clark dives into the end zone for NU's first touchdown with 2:06 remaining in the first quarter.

Clark scored two more TDs in the third quarter. Rebels rebel at running game try to surprise NU with passes? Nunnely- said a pair of mistakes turned the game around. "I'm not saying they wouldn't have scored, but they might have scored two less touchdowns," he said. "We gave them the blocked-punt touchdown and the fumble-recovery touchdown. They scored 20 points in the first half and 28 in the second half, and two touchdowns were our fault" But the loss wasn't a lost cause for the Rebels.

The UNLV program picked up a $300,000 guarantee for playing in Lincoln, and Nunnely said there were some encouraging aspects of the game. "Our kids played extremely hard. They wore us down, but our kids battled from the first whistle to the last," he said. "We can build on that" Two of the high points came when kicker Jim Cook tied the school record with a 53-yard field goal in the fourth quarter and later eclipsed his own mark with a 54-yard kick. "Any time we cross the 50, we feel we have the opportunity to get three points.

He's hit a 50-yarder this year, a 53 last week and the 53- and 54-yarders today," Nunnely said. "We knew if nothing else that we could get three points from him." Cook said he was confident before the kicks, both of which just slipped over the crossbar. "It was close, but we hit long ones all-the time in practice," he said. "I had a-' little wind and a perfect hold from KeeJ nan (McCardell). On the second one, I just tried not to be overconfident "But we have a foolproof plan: for' kicking.

First you take your time. Then, you pick your spot and follow through to that spot" Cook, a senior from Las Vegas, said' he's hit from 70 yards out in practice with a bit of wind and from 65 yards 1h still air. "111 have some good memories from this game. Remember, we were real big underdogs coming into this game and we. played our hardest," he said.

"Our fle-fense played great against the ranked team in the nation. "The two kicks will be nice to add to that memory. I didnt think I had a great chance to get any today, but the offense moved me close enough." Nunnely said playing Nebraska was everything he expected. But was there anyone who caught his eye? i "Yeah, Nebraska. Taylor (quartet-back Steve) is dangerous and their running backs run hard," he said.

"But to single out any one of them at times, they all had their moments." By Ryly Jane Hambleton The University of Nevada-Las Vegas basketball team may be called the Run-run Rebels, but the football team made a run at a new nickname the Passin' Rebels. UNLV attempted 39 passes in its loss to Nebraska, completing 14 of them for 120 yards. Coach Wayne Nunnely said the variation on the theme was necessary to deal with the Huskers. "We patterned some of what we did after Utah State, but the four wide-outs is something in our normal package," Nunnely said. "We knew we couldn't hurt them with our running game." That was evidenced by the way UNLV utilized tailback Tommy Jackson.

He moved from his familiar spot to a slotback position, went in motion often and was the target for 11 of 25 first-half passes. Jackson caught two passes in the first half for 20 yards and added three more receptions in the second half for a total of 51 yards. He had jusUwo running plays in the first half (for five yards) and finished the game with 28 yards on five carries. "We haven't thrown this much to him, but we also knew we had to get the ball in the hands of Jackson, who is one of our better players," Nunnely said. "Unfortunately, he dropped a couple and couldn't get to some others." Jackson said the switch wasn't a dramatic change for him.

"We ran that formation last year some, so I'm familiar with it. We wanted to come out in that to shake Nebraska up a bit," he said. "I'm more comfortable out of the tailback spot but it doesn't really matter to me whether I run with the ball or catch it. "We knew we could play with them after the first play of the game. But we werent executing or holding onto the ball very welL" is 1 I i 1 1 I Rebel notes, quotes Playing in Memorial Stadium was a homecoming for fullback Howard Howell, who graduated from Omaha CentraL "It was exciting to get to play and have a chance to come home and go against a team like this," he said.

"And it was nice to play in front of my friends and family." Quarterback Charles Price was impressed with Nebraska and his team's effort "I don't think I ever will play a team as good as Nebraska. They scored a couple of free touchdowns, but they have a great team," he said. "They have a good defense I can see why they stop a lot of teams. Broderick Thomas is definitely the player they pitch him to be." TED KIRK SUNDAY JOURNAL-8TAR UNLV Coach Wayne Nunnely complains to officials after the Rebels were called for a personal foul in the'second quarter. Huskers 1D 21 Scoring How scored Time left NU-UNLV try Jf J.

I fiWf jfyf FIRST QUARTER 7-0 Clark 2 run 2:04 Drive: 44 yards In 5 plays. Highlighted bv Clark 25, 11 runs, Toy lor 20, 6 runs. Conversion Barrios kick. SECOND QUARTER 14-0 C.Walker 34 blocked punt return 10:54 Set up by Croel block of UNLV punt. Conversion: Barrios kick.

20-0 Rodgers 20 run 1:11 Drive: 33 yards In four plays. Set up by Bell's 29 punt return. Ighl Ighted by Taylor 9 run. Conversion kick fai led. THIRD QUARTER 28-0 Clark 5 run 12:4 Drive: 4 yards In 3 plays.

Set up by Griffin recovery of Price -fumble at UNLV 4. Conversion: Kratzensteln pass from Taylor. 35-0 Clark 1 run 9:05 Drive: 59 yards In 9 plays. Highlighted by Brinson 14 pass from Taylor, Gregory 12 pass from Taylor, Taylor 24 run. Conversion: Drennan kick.

FOURTH QUARTER 35-3 Cook S3 field goal 14:07 Drive: 44 yards In seven plays. Highlighted by Price 9, 14 passes to T. Jackson, T. Jackson 17, 3 runs. 42-3 Carpenter 27 run 9:51 Drive: 75 yards in 9 plays.

Highlighted by Carpenter 21 run, Devall 9 run and aided by offsides penalty on fourth-and-1. Conversion: Drennan kick. 424 Cook 54 field goal 7:44 Drive: Minus 9 yards on four plays. Set up by B. Jackson 58 klckoff return to NU 28.

484 Baldwin 2 run 2:37 Drive: 85 yards In 10 plays. Highlighted by Flowers 20, 18 runs, Joseph 22 run, Lewis 12. Conversion: run failed. hit a 53-yarder and followed with a 54-yarder in the fourth quarter. But the first field goal followed a 44-yard drive and the second one followed a drive that lost nine yards.

'W defense played reasonably well today, kept them out of the end zone," Osborne said. Griffin said Nebraska's defense was proud of its performance. "We finally got the complete game and didn't let them in the end zone," he said "It was hard to keep your head in this game because we were in a situation where the pressure was what we made of it We were supposed to dominate and we did But sometimes that's not enough." 'No-win situation' That's the problem with playing an overmatched overwhelmed outnumbered and obviously weaker opponent "I'm glad to get by that game because It's a no-win situation," Osborne said "No matter what you do, it's kind of expected And there's a lot of down-side risk. If you lose or have somebody come close it's like a disaster. "I'm trying to look hard and find some improvement" he said "Defensively, we did see some improvement" But what about the prospect of facing Kansas, a non-winner since 1986, next week in Lawrence.

"This is so hard when all week long all you hear is this team (next opponent) doesnt have a chance. I think we played a little like we were playing the scouting team and not a team that has some athletes. I think they found out those guys came to ay," Osborne said lethargy, Osborne said. Clark, who led Nebraska with 79 yards rushing, helped the Cornhuskers break the scoreless first quarter with the first of his three head-first dives into the end zone on a two-yard burst with just more than 13 minutes elapsed in the game. The Cornhuskers, 4-1, then got the first of two "cheap" touchdowns, as Osborne called them, when Nebraska out-sideJinebacker Mike Croel smothered a UNLV punt and teammate Cartier Walker scooped up the ball and raced 34 yards to put Nebraska ahead 144 Gates open I.

That opened the gates for the Cornhuskers as they scored on three of their next four possessions to eliminate worries of a major upset Terry Rodgers scored on a 20-yard rim, but the Rebels blocked the extra point kick by Gregg Barrios to close the scoring in the first half, Griffin recovered a UNLV fumble at te six after Thomas swatted the ball from Price to open the second half. Three plays later Clark scored on a five-yard run. The Cornhuskers defense stuffed the Rebels on their next possession, to set up the only sustained drive by Nebraska's No. 1 offense a nine-play, 59-yard drive that was ignited by quarterback Steve Taylor. Taylor connected on passes of yards to Dana Brinson and 12 yards to Morgan Gregory then scrambled for 26 yards to the UNLV 3 before Clark scored his final touchdown of the game.

IS 1 Nebraska's defense was superb in the second half, holding the Rebels to 51 yards of total offense, just two first downs, and only one play longer than three yards on 36 plays. Nevada-Las Vegas scored on a pair of school-record field goals when Jim Cook "It was 284 before that drive, but we knew that we hadnt driven the ball the way we're supposed to before that point" said NU offensive tackle Tom Punt "Coach Osborne told us we had to improve each offensive series and we put it together on that one." T0 KIRKSUNOAY JOURNAL-STAR NU linebacker Broderick Thomas asks the crowd for noise early in the third quarter. i.