The Lincoln Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 36

3HUSKERS NOVEMBER gO. SUNDAY JOURNMi-STAR 8DE Nebraska offense has just enough KKTH 1 If A By Ken Hambleton NORMAN, Okla. Barry Switzer said he would have expected an Oklahoma victory if Nebraska managed just seven points. Nebraska I-back Ken Clark said he didn't think seven points would hold up i Very long, either. "But we went through the Colorado game when we all thought seven points wasn't enough and it was just enough," Clark said.

"This was a game for the defenses and I'm happy for our defense. But you can't overlook the job our offensive line idid." Nebraska rolled up 313 yards of total offense, including 285 yards rushing, against Oklahoma. Clark gained 167 yards to break a four-year drought of no Nebraska back gaining more than 100 yards against the Sooners. He had his sixth lOO-yard-plus game despite a sore arch in his foot that lias bothered him the last five weeks. "Kenny Clark was playing sore and the only way he kept playing was to keep asking to go back in," Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne said.

"Todd Milli-kan (tight end) was out with an injury and back in there in the second half. "Everybody wanted to finish this game," he sail Osborne added that the cold, rainy weather may have helped a determined Nebraska team. "I think this kind of weather favors' the team that's the most dedicated, and our players were the most dedicated today." Playing tough to the end was the key for the offense, even though Nebraska scored its only touchdown on its first possession of the game, Nebraska junior offensive tackle Doug Glaser said. "Coach Osborne told us if we kept pounding and kept pounding we'd be the winners," he said. "We kept pounding and coming up with nothing to show for it, but we did dominate the game and we did win this game in the fourth quarter." Nebraska tried to mix up its attack, Glaser said.

"There were some new options to the inside of the tackles and there were a lot of other things I can't describe that we had saved for this game and this game alone. "Some worked. Some didn't But you've got to remember we were playing Oklahoma and their defense wanted it just as bad as we did," he said. "The thing is, our defense may have wanted it all maybe just a little more than anybody else because this was their day." Outside linebacker Broderick Thomas knew that one touchdown would do. "We told the offense a touchdown or maybe even just a field goal would be enough.

Nebraska's ken Clark rambles for a 13-yard gain in the first quarter as Oklahoma's Kevin Thompson (22) closes in. Clark gamed 167 yards on 24 carries. Nebraska eager to take on Miami in Orange Bowl NU accepting requests for bowl tickets NORMAN, Okla. Ticket requests for Nebraska's game against Miami in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 2 are now being accepted by the Nebraska ticket office.

Preference will be given to requests postmarked on or before Nov. 30. Those who placed bowl ticket orders prior to Saturday need not reorder, according to Nebraska ticket manager Joe Selig. A separate sale for NU students will be conducted Dec. 1-2.

The price is $30 per ticket, plus $2 per order for postage and handling. Requests should be mailed to: Athletic Ticket Office, P.O. Box 82848, Lincoln, NE 68501. No telephone orders will be accepted. Checks should be made payable to the University of Nebraska.

and then we'd get this game to where it should be." Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne said he is pleased the Cornhuskers are the Big Eight champions and pleased to be going back to Miami "It should be a great, great game. We think we're playing maybe the best team in America, in Miami and on their home field," he said. Osborne said he talked with Oklahoma Coach Barry Switzer about the bowl before Saturday's game. "We both talked about the winner is going to have a heck of a job." Asked about the chances for a national championship in the Orange Bowl, Osborne said there should be a chance for both Miami and Nebraska. "I think if somebody goes undefeated you can go that way.

But if everybody loses, we should get that consideration. We played an extra game and right now we have a chance to win 12 games and we should have a chance to win the national title if we beat the best team on their home field." NORMAN, Okla. Tim Jackson was lucky. Someone handed him an orange as he headed for the Nebraska locker room after the Cornhuskers' 7-3 victory Saturday over Oklahoma at Owen Field. Most of the oranges, symbolic of the Orange Bowl berth that went with a victory Saturday, were thrown.

The first came sailing out of the stands and onto the field midway through the first quarter. 'Jackson was smiling. That the Cornhuskers must play third-ranked Miami on the Hurricanes' home field Jan. 2 didn't concern the senior free safety. "It doesn't matter to me," he said.

"You just go to perform and do your best I play better against good teams. They get me excited." 'Nebraska hasn't been to the Orange Bowl since 1983, also the last time the Cornhuskers defeated Oklahoma. They played Miami, too, and lost 31-30. With that loss went an undefeated season and the When asked about playing Miami in Miami, Thomas joked, "why don't they come play a bowl game against Nebraska in Nebraska. Well whip some weather on them." On a more serious note, Thomas said Miami probably should be rated No.

"We should be No. 2 mythical national championship; overall, an unpleasant experience for Nebraskans. But that was then, and this is now, said Broderick Thomas. "Those (1983) seniors don't have to play this game," he said. "It's going to be Very sweet" Cornhusker notes, quotes I Nebraska I-back Ken Clark gained 167 yards on 24 carries, boosted his season total to 1,497 yards on 232 carries.

His season total is the third best in school history, passing. Bobby Reynolds, who gained 1,342 yards in 1950, and ranking' behind Mike Rozier's 1983 season of 2,148 yards and his 1982 season of 1,689 yards. Clark said he had tried to remain low-key the week before the OU game. "This was my first against them and I was getting pretty tense. I didnt want to get filled up with an that garbage about the past, so I tried to ignore it It was about the hardest thing to do." Oklahoma had scored at least one touchdown in every -game with Nebraska since the Cornhuskers posted a 7-0 victory over the Sooners in 1942.

Nebraska is 12-20 in Oklahoma games played In Norman and 16-18-3 in OU games played in Lincoln. OU hadn't lost a conference game since a 1984 loss to Kansas. In the last 25 NU-OU games, the team that scored first is 13-12. lX Nebraska outside linebacker Jeff Mills said he had just three words to describe his feelings about beating Oklahoma Yes. Yes." lS Nebraska's only serious injuries were tight end Todd Millikan, who sprained his left knee in the first half and still finished the game, and Clark, who reinjured his arch but also finished the game.

Linebacker LeRoy Etlenne said the 4-3 defense experiment was a matter of the Cornhuskers working some magic of their own. "It was a variation of last year's defense and something we worked on a little each week this year. Practice makes perfect" The Cornhusker defenders were encouraging Nebraska fans to make noise in the final minutes of the game. Free safety Tim Jackson said he didnt care who was making the i 'r 'if 1 I i i 1. J'TyV'1 noise, whether they were supporting the Cornhuskers or cheering against them.

"I just wanted to hear the noise, our fans or theirs. The more noise, the more excited I get I just wanted it to get louder. It got me pumped up. That's, the way the whole defense felt" NU nose guard Lawrence Pete (96) causes OU's Rotnel Anderson to fumble in the third quarter. Oklahoma recovered downfield.

Nebraska offensive guard Andy Keeler reacts to Nebraska's touchdown. Taylor thought NU would do it 'rrIM W-v-5 By Mike Babcock NORMAN, Okla. Steve Taylor wouldn't say it, not before Saturday's football game against Oklahoma. But he was thinking it At least, the Cornhusker quarterback said be was thinking it when he was asked, in a Tuesday news conference, his feeling about the game. He felt "we would kick Oklahoma's butt," Taylor said after Nebraska's 7-3 victory at Owen Field.

And he admitted such things are better said after, rather than before, they happen. He learned his lesson in last season's 17-7 loss to the Sooners. He and outside linebacker Broderick Thomas "made comments that came from our heart," Taylor sail Sincerity, however, wasn't sufficient justification. The comments also came back to haunt them. "There comes a time when you have to stand your ground.

'And that's what happened last year," he said. Taylor has always considered the Nebraska teams on which he's played comparable in talent to Oklahoma. He and Thomas were members of a recruiting class rated the best in the nation by self-described expert Max Emfuiger. "We just never got the job done," said Taylor. "We had as good of athletes (as Oklahoma).

We just couldn't get it done. And that hurt" Saturday's victory, Nebraska's first over Oklahoma since. 1983, was a result of "overall experience and desire. A note from his girlfriend also had something to do with it, at least for him it did. Because of everything that's happened" during his Cornhusker career, the note said, "No one deserves it (success) more than you.

"I read that over and over again," said Taylor. "I thought about two-a-days, what the press would say if we lost" And last year's game. Then he went out and tried to be a leader, Taylor said. Nebraska scored on its first possession, a nine-play, 80-yard drive capped by Taylor's 1-yard run. "When we took that opening drive in for a touchdown, we knew for sure we could move the ball on them," said Taylor.

"We weren't concerned about our offense. We moved the ball pretty well but things happened to keep us from scoring." That didn't matter, he said, because "our defense was playing great WeVe got the No. 1 defense in the natioa Three or four times (this season) they've saved us." Despite going into Saturday's game ranked seventh in the nation, Taylor said he didnt think the Cornhuskers were out of the race to win the mythical national championship. If they can defeat Miami in the Orange Bowl, "with all due respect, we should be No. 1," said Taylor.

"If we gp 1M, that's, a great season." ill 1 NU's Steve Taylor is tripped up on this quarterback draw that netted four yards on the Huskers' first- Q'jarter scoring drive. Nebraska's Richard Bell (21) watches as Bryan Carpenter blocks Oklahoma's James Goode (39)..