Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 16

16E TUESDAV. JANUARY 3, 19S9 LINCOLN, NE. harts NU9 Taylor ieMe and om MOM1 ByMikeBabcock Joum8portWr1tor MIAMI Steve Taylor has taken some beatings during his career as a quarterback at But the one he took in Monday night's 23-3 loss to Miami in the 55th Orange Bowl Classic "was probably the worst I've taken," he said. Taylor, who had been sacked six times, was hurting as he spoke to reporters after the game. With less than a minute remaining in the first half Monday night, Taylor suffered a deep thigh bruise that bothered him for the remainder of the game.

But "I never give up," he said. "I always do the best I can so I can walk away and say I gave my alL I play so 11 have no regrets." Taylor had no regrets Monday night But he was disap pointed. "We just didn't get very much done offensively," he said. That's an understatement, actually. The Cornhuskers got nothing done.

Nebraska was last held to three points in the 1978 opener, a 20-3 loss to Alabama to Birmingham. The Cornhuskers couldnt establish a passing attack and they couldnt establish the run. "At times we've been stopped, but never for four quarters," said Taylor. "I thought we'd be able to run our options, but they (the Hurricanes) were quick. They filled the holes.

"I thought we could match up with them. They didnt do anything we didnt expect But they put it on us. This was the first time we've really been beaten physically." Miami's physical superiority Monday apparently was heightened by something Dave Wannstedt the Hurricanes' defensive coordinator, told his players in a meeting Sunday night "Coach Wannstedt told us what Steve Taylor had said," according to cornerback Bubba McDowell "Taylor said we were just ordinary. Imagine that Ordinary." Yes, imagine that Wannstedt apparently did because no one else remembered Taylor saying anything like that leading up to the game. In any case, Taylor's words, whether real or imagined, "made us mad," said McDowel And "we're not nice when we're mad." Nebraska played well defensively, according to Taylor.

"The defense kept us in the game," be said. "They did a great job of keeping us in tt But we knew we couldn't score seven points (or three points) and win the game. "We had a few good plays. Late in the game, I thought we were able to move the ball some." By then, however, the game had been decided. The only thing left was pride.

"It was a difficult night to play quarter back. But I said, They arent going to put me out of the balk "Taylor said. The Hurricanes made an effort, according to defensive ei4. Greg Mark. "Earlier in the week, Taylor said no one could" hurt him," said Mark.

"We tried to do that We did do that" That's open for debate. The senior from Fresno, Calif, probably could have come out of the game. A lesser individual might have, according to Jerry Weber, Nebraska's assistant trainer and physical thera pist "Steve's going to be sore tomorrow, really sore," said Weber. "I hope he's able to walk." Taylor admitted the Hurricanes got to him pretty good. However, "Fve taken harder hits," he sail Just not as many or as often.

One thing was certain. "That's the most I've ever beeUu sacked," Taylor said. 4 Beating There's strength in Miami numbers i ji jiumimmmmm iihwi i i wmmwwhw i tty 1 fy i icy im. than enough to set up the passing, Nebraska safety Reggie Cooper said. "We caught them pretty good on the runs, but as soon as we did they'd get that pass off to the tight end for the first down," he said.

"Twenty-three points is not a lot to give up, but we could have and should have held them without the two touchdowns. I if'fU Failure "That's where we failed on defense. Walsh read almost every blitz we tried, and he got enough of the big first downs to keep their drives alive. I could see the frustration on the faces of our guys, and it was tough to take." Fryar said it shouldnt be too hard to recover from the loss to Miami "We got to the bowl game and we tried our best and we didnt win. You take the good with the bad, and you look forward to the future," he said.

"This will be a good team next year. "We've got a good defensive scheme, and well get some points with some adjustments on offense." if After the game, Nebraska's Broderlck Thomas finds time to smile and shake the hand of Hurricane standout quarterback Steve Walsh. NBG Orange Bowl coverage interesting, concise; Plugged in on ji 0 Leroy Etienne had his hard-to-say name pronounced correctly all night Subjective reporting. Used in moderation, the opinions of the men in the broadcast booth can be of value. When Miami Coach Jimmy JohC son fumed on the sidelines late in th game, Criqui and Trumpy at first just" talked about the poor image Johnson" often projects.

When Johnson's antics continued and Miami drove for more points despite its comfortable lead Trumpy criticized the coach, sayings! "This is unhealthy. It's not right This ofC fends a good many people." Criqui and Trumpy also raised the question of whether Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne would shake Johnson's hand after the game (he did), at least, giving viewers some reason to sta tuned until the end. downs in our running game and our la of passing success left a lot of response bility in the hands of the offense," he said. As for the future of the Cornhuskers, Osborne said there is promise. "We finished 11-2 this year.

We beat Oklahoma and won the Big Eight championship and the cupboard isn't bare," he said. "We've got a good start at ing and we've rebounded from a loss before. "We've got to build the best team we can. A team that can beat the best team, in the nation because that's who we saw in the Orange Bowl," he said. his play-by-play.

When he didnt mention it the information was often displayed on the screen. Other games. The Sugar Bowl was the only other game in progress while the Orange Bowl was going oa Although NBC never mentioned the fact that viewers could sec that game on another network (no surprise), it provided frequent score updates. Prononnclatlons. It is inevitable that some time in the course of a game some announcer will say someone's name wrong.

The worst offenses were some confusion over whether NU linebacker Mike Creel's last name had one or two syllables and one reference to Husker cornerback Lorenzo Hicks as "Leonard Hicks." On the plus side, Nebraska linebacker loss to Stanford in the 1941 Rose Bowl 27 bowls ago for the Cornhuskers. The other impressive Miami defensive statistics included holding Nebraska to a season low first downs (10), rushing yards (80), and total offense (135). "We got beat by a better team. Our big problem was that we couldn't generate enough offense to keep the pressure off our defense," Osborne said. "Yes, I felt a lot of frustration on the sidelines.

We would find something that would work a little bit but we couldnt find anything that would work consistently. "Defensively, we probably played wen enough to win the game, but the break ByKenHambleton Journal Spoilt Writer MIAMI Miami's Steve Walsh wasn't the most talented quarterback Nebraska's Charles Fryar had seen. The Miami receivers weren't the best he's played against The Hurricane running backs weren't top drawer either, Fryar said. "But the whole package, the whole offense, was pretty darn good," said the senior corner-back, who was named the Cornhuskers' Most Valuable Player in the 55th Orange Bowl Classic Monday night "I didnt think CharteeFryar any of their receivers were as good as Hart Lee Dykes of Oklahoma State," he said. "But they got the tight end open, and they got the backs open and the wide guys open on the underneath He's a smart one "I thought we've seen a lot of better quarterbacks who were better physically.

But this was the smartest of any we've played against" The Nebraska pass coverage wasnt as bad as tt appeared, Fryar said. The Cornhuskers gave up 285 yards passing. ''We were out there a long time, and they were pressing the corners and the underneath coverage almost every play'hesaid. Fryar intercepted two passes and teammate Tahaun Lewis intercepted another, which set up Nebraska's only score, a 50-yard field goal by Gregg Barrios. "We should have had a couple more (interceptions)," Fryar said.

"I dropped one early in the game, and that got me pumped up to take an extra step to get to the ones I got to. "It would have helped our offense if we had gotten them some more chances." Nebraska defensive backs coach George Darlington echoed Fryafs statement "If we had two or three more big plays on defense, it could have helped a lot" he said. "They passed for a couple of touchdowns. One was a missed assignment and the other was a missed tackle. "But you cant allow those because no matter what anybody says, the strength of the Miami team is their defense, and we needed to help our offense more.

To beat Miami, we needed to be as good as they were, and we were just not quite as good." Nebraska's defense held its own against Miami's running game, allowing just 69 yards rushing. But that was more Orange Bowl gets sponsor MIAMI (AP) An agreement for Federal Express to become the Orange Bowl's title sponsor beginning next season was announced during Monday night's game between Miami and Nebraska. Under the contract the Memphis-based international courier will receive publicity rights to the bowl's name and will advertise in its annual nationally televised game. Details of the agreement werent immediately disclosed. The Miami Herald reported last month that Federal Express was considering a four-year, $10 minion contract with the Orange Bowl Committee to become the S-year-old game's first title sponsor.

The committee began the search for a sponsor 11 months ago after rival bowls began attracting top teams with increased payouts funded by corporate backers. Apart from the Rose Bowl, which remains independent by virtue of vastly greater television rights fees, the Orange Bowl is the last major bowl to acquire a title sponsor. NBC, which has televised the Orange Bowl for two decades, complained last year that it could not continue to pay spiraling rights fees to keep the Orange Bowl competitive. This year's fee was nearly minion. NBC announced the agreement with Federal Express during Monday night's telecast that included Nebraska quarterback Steve Taylor slamming the ball down after a sack and Husker cornerback Charles Fryar celebrating after an interception.

Replays. It is perhaps a given that a televised football game is much more likely to suffer from an excess of replays than from a deficit Monday's game was no exception, but the replays (two or more on numerous plays) almost always offered fresh angles as opposed to reruns of the same footage. ability on defense." Osborne said there win be evaluation of the Nebraska offense that produced 17 points in its final three games of the season, "We've led the nation in offense over the last 15 years and we're going to panic and throw the baby out with the bathwater. "But we're willing to pursue what we need to do to win and we're willing to make some changes," he said. As for Miami, in finishing what Coach Jimmy Johnson said was a year of transition, Osborne doesnt expect many changes.

By Michael Larsen Journal Sport Writer Unfortunately for Nebraska football fans, NBC's coverage of the Orange Bowl remained interesting longer than the game did. With Miami jumping to a 20-0 half time lead Monday en route to a 23-3 victory over the Cornhuskers, the excitement found in a close game was lost Instead, viewers who tuned in to cheer the Husk-ers had to be content with solid announcing by Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy along with some excellent camerawork. Some of the specifics: Camerawork. The NBC crews stuck to the standard angles on live action, saving unusual Views for replays. The cameras also stayed with the ball at the conclusion of most plays, allowing for some nice shots INU- the Cornhuskers were held to minus-one yards of total offense until the final seven minutes of the game.

"We needed a couple of big plays to get us back in the game and we never got them," Osborne said. "I take responsibility for that because my job as offensive coordinator is to get the ball into theendzone. "But our blocking wasnt there, we didnt find people when we needed to and we didnt pick up Miami's blitzes," he said. "If I had it to do over again, we might have run more fullback plays quick hitters to offset Miami's quickness and it 1 I 1 Sideline Interviews. Another area where excess is often a flaw.

In this case, Jim Gray's interviews were infrequent enough and short enough that they did not distract And, with rare exceptions (did anyone really want Olympic diver Wendy Williams' thoughts on the the interviews were interesting, from ex-Hurricane Mike Irvin to ex-Husker Neil Smith to Miami quarterback Steve Walsh's father to the replay official from Saturday's fog-shrouded NFL playoff game in Chicago. Time and situation references. One of the fundamentals of football broadcasting should be, but too often is not frequent mention of how much time remains, what down it is and how many yards are needed for a first down. Criqui consistently wove that information into "I dont know how the polls win come out but they were the best team we've played this year and they had the best defense we've seen in a couple of years," Osborne said. "They started well and finished well and they did what they do best We didnt play up to that level" Miami's defense made the argument convincing, holding the Cornhuskers to 2.3 yards per play and without a touchdown for the first time since a 20-3 loss to Alabama in the season opener of the 1978 season.

Nebraska was held to the lowest total rushing yardage in a bowl game, since a (91) applies pressure. Lincoln Journal photos by: Ian Doremus, Randy Hampton, Ted Kirk I 8 1 I A 1 3 if -I Nebraska's Charles Fryar (10) intercepts a Steve Walsh pass that was intended for Miami's Rob Chudzlnskl. NU's Tim Jackson (4) moves in behind Chudzinski. Miami's Steve Walsh gets away pass as Nebraska's Kent Wells.