Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 29

1- Sports Xinroln Journal Wednesdov, Jan. 1. 1980 29 Pass 17-14 with 12 seconds left lifts Houston bites NU again if i NU Hou First downs 13 ig Rushes-yards 41 136 61-204 Passing vards 91 119 Total ottense 527 325 Return yards 58 20 Passes 11-22-1 9-19-0 Punts 10-41 7-42 Fumbleslost l-l 7-3 Penalties-yards 7-90 2-22 Third down conversions 6-17 7-17 Fourth down conversions 0-1 2 3 Time ol possession 27:29 32:31 By Virgil Parker Sports Editor DALLAS The Houston Cougars did it again For the seventh time while registering 11 victories during the current football season, Houston came from behind in the fourth quarter to win. The Cougars of Coach Bill Yeoman saved their greatest heroics for the 44th annual Cotton Bowl classic here Tuesday afternoon. The Nebraska Cornhuskers were the victims.

17-14. 17-147 That was the same score by which Oklahoma spoiled Nebraska's perfect 1(10 record in Hie lluskers' regular-season finale. The Cotton Bowl cliffhanger wasn't decided until the final 12 seconds of play when, lor the second time in four minutes, a second-string receiver caught a six-yard touchdown pass. Nebraska fans, 14,000 strong in the crowd of 64,017, loved the first one. With the clock down to the 3:56 mark, llusker quarterback Jeff Quinn found Jeff Finn all alone in the end zone for a touchdown which vaulted Nebraska from a 10-7 deficit to a 1410 lead and apparent victory.

Rut, just as Houston had done six times before this season and with the same cast of characters, "relief pitching" second-string quarterback Terry KLston, second-team split end Kric Herring and kicker Ken Hatfield the Cougars took the ensuing kickoff and moved 66 yards in 1H plays to tally the winning TI) on a fourth-down Klston-to-llerring toss that was "perfectly" delensed by Nebraska. "II it hadn't been fourth down and time running out, I wouldn't have forced the pass," Klston admitted. "I guess there was a little luck, plus Kric had good concentration and came up with the ball." Nebraska was expecting Herring to be the target. He had made sensational catches late in the fourth quarter against Texas (that game was finally won on an Klston run with just 15 seconds left Arkansas and Florida. Herring caught five passes against Nebraska, four of them in the final drive to victory.

The lluskers double-teamed Herring when he cut over the middle of the end zone. Cornerback Ric Lindquist and monster Mark LeRoy had him well covered. Undquist tipped the ball. Herring bob-bled it. But it was caught, not dropped, and that was the game.

"Somebody upstairs was taking care of me on that pass," Herring admitted later. Most Nebraska partisans thought somebody else was taking care of the Cougars Tuesday the six officials from the Southeastern Conference. Flags were thrown against the lluskers seven times for 90 yards in penalties. Most of them came at crucial times. In addition, twice there were off-setting penalties that don't show up in the statistics.

One of those situations called back a Nebraska touchdown. On the other side of the coin, Houston was penalized once for seven yards until they were assessed 15 yards on the final kickoff wiih 12 seconds left in the game and the outcome decided for holding a premature victory celebration on the field after scoring the winning TI). "The one that really hurt was a holding call against (John) llavekost on (Anthony) Steels' run," Cornhusker Coach Tom Osborne said. Nebraska was trailing 10-7 early in the fourth quarter. Steels gained 27 yards to the Houston 15.

At least a lying field goal seemed likely. But the penalty pushed Nebraska clear back into Us own territory. llavekost was infuriated by the call. "I didn't hold," he insisted, "but I couldn't argue with the official about it and risk another 15 yards." "I didn't feel we played as well as we could have," Osborne said. "But the penalties really hurt, especially since they seemed to all come at such crucial limes.

"You have to give Houston credit, though," Osborne added. "They had the best defensive team we've faced all year. And they moved the ball those final 66 yards when they had to. "I don't think Alabama, USC, Ohio State or Oklahoma would be real anxious to play Houston. Actually, there isn't much difference between the top teams except for a field goal, a crucial penalty or a break or two," Osborne said.

Nebraska, which entered the game with the nation's fifth-best total offensive average 465 yards per game managed less than half that amount (227 yards) against Houston's stingy defense. It was the lowest total for Nebraska in 23 panics, since losing to Alabama while owning the 1078 season. "We didn't execute as well as I thought we should have," Osborne admitted. "I was especially disturbed by our inability to convert when we faced third-and-one or thud -and-two. We should have good enough athletes to get a yard or two when we need it." Nebraska had a golden opportunity at the outset of the game but was unable to capitalize.

Houston's John Newhouse fumbled on the first play of the game and IX Cole recovered lor Nebraska at the Houston 25. But two bad things quickly happened. The drive stalled and usually reliable kicker Dean Sukup missed a 23 yard chip-shot field goal attempt. Big break for Houston. No points for Nebraska.

At their next possession, the lluskers made up for that by driving H5 yards to take a 7-0 lead. Quarterback Quinn hit his In st lour passes in the drive, including a 14 aider to tight end Junior Miller and an 11-yard gainer to Kenny Brown. Houston sputtered throughout the first quarter behind starting quarterback Del-rick Brown. At the outset of the second stanza, Klston came off the bench. Six plays and a penalty against Nebraska netted 71 yards and the tying score.

Klston tallied it himself on a run from eight yards out. II was si ill 7-7 at half time. The defenses look over even more completely in the third quarter. Nebraska didn't manage a single first down during the entire 15 minutes, Houston had just one. The fourth-quarter fireworks started with a 41-vard field goal bv Houston's HUSKERScortt.

Page 32 Houston's John Marshall (76) and Lonell Phea (15) celebrate after last-second touchdown which gave the Cougars Cotton Bowl win over Nebraska Tuesday. Stories differ, but result is the same STAFF PHOTO BY HUMBERTO RAMIREZ Houston's Eddie Wright (33) pulls away from Nebraska's L.C. Cole (81) and Brent Williams during Cotton Bowl action Tuesday. Houston upset the lluskers, 17-14. IH I6LEPMOIO It was only his second touchdown catch of the season, the other coming in game two on a one-yard toss against Florida.

Lindquist said he knew the pass was designed for Herring when he broke the huddle and flanked out at wingback because "they'd hud some success against me all day. "That was the first time they ran that particular pattern; they narrowed their splits. It was a good pass and a good route, a short throw that just beat me." he said. Nebraska was in its goal line defense with man-to-man pass coverage when the clock started with 19 seconds left. The lluskers were clinging lo a 14-10 lead.

At the instant of reception, Herring, Lindquist and NU safety Russell Gary seemed to melt together the end zone. LINDQUIST cont. Page 32 Husker basketballers will play at Idaho MOSCOW, Idaho The Nebraska Cornhuskers, 7-4 on the year, play Idaho here Wednesday night. Tip-off time is 9:35, Lincoln time. Special halftime ceremonies will honor Nebraska Coach Joe Cipnano, who coached here before coming to Lincoln.

Idaho is 7-3 for the year. The Cornhuskers are expected to be without starting forward Tim West, who sprained his ankle in the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii over the weekend. It was heckuva way to By Mike Babcock Staff Sports Writer DALLAS Depending on your source of information, Kric Herring either bob-bled the pass and caught it or Ric Lindquist tipped it first and Herring maintained enough concentration to make the catch. Photographs and television instant replays were inconclusive. Herring thought it was "opposite flex, 333, hook" though quarterback Terry Klslon's first explanation in a jubilant Houston locker room was a little different.

Nebraska defensive end and co-cap-lain IX. Cole called it a "fantastic catch. 11 was nothing you could control. It was just a super-professional catch, the kind a Tony 1 1 ill, a Drew Pearson, or a Lynn Swann would make," he said. Whatever happened, whatever the play was supposed to have been, Houston was awarded six points for it, and those six points were enough for a Cotton Bowl victory over Nebraska Tuesday afternoon.

"He (Herring) came right at me, made an inside pivot and then slanted," said Lindquist, the immediate victim of the six-yard pass play which concluded with 12 seconds remaining in the game. "I knew he'd run something to the inside like that, and when he made his pivot, I knew what the route was. I think it hit either my hand or my shoulder pad. "It happened so fast I felt the ball hit me. and I thought I had knocked it down.

I couldn't believe it when I saw he had made the catch," Lindquist said. Herring made four catches in Houston's final scoring drive. He had five for Ihe game. Van Zand I By Randy York Staff Sports Writer DALLAS Lance Van Zandt was sitting on the ledge outside Nebraska's Cotton Bowl locker room here Tuesday shortly after his blood pressure went up and his favorite team went down. The lluskers' defensive coordinator had to be feeling the hurt that went with a 17-14 loss to Houston on a six-yard pass in the last 12 seconds.

He was hurting, all right, but not half as much as Nebraska's sophomore cornerback who lipped the ball on the final pass. That's why Van Zandt ignored his surroundings and yelled to the guy coming out of the corner of the locker room. "Ric Lindquist Ric Lindquist, come here," Van Zandt instructed. Kven Lindquist's big cowboy hat, pulled down a little extra over his eyes, couldn't hide the moistness that was still there. "Ric," Van Zandt said as he put his 39-year-old arms around some 20-year-old shoulders, "some sports writer told me that you think you're the one who lost the game.

"Hey, you didn't lose this football game any more than anyone else did," Van Zandt said. "Anybody can catch a six-yard pass. You had the play covered, you tipped the ball, it took a lucky bounce and the guy made a great catch. You did not lose this game, Ric, and I just wanted you to know that." Lindquist left biting his lip and straining his eyes. The emotional pain was still there, but Van Zandt's thought, his con- 'T, 7 Sports JL Scene Wednesday Basketball Auburn vs.

Kentucky, 8 p.m., C8J Kings vs. Jazz, 8:30 p.m., cern, and his logic should keep the experience from leaving a scar. Van Zandt wasn't covering up. He wasn't rationalizing either. lie was just planting the seeds lor a good sophomore cornerback to become a better one in the next two years.

"That was a helluva way to lose a football game," Van Zandt allowed. But it was also within an inch of going the other way. "If the ball falls to the ground," Van Zandt said, "we're the ones who would be whooping and hollering and they'd be the folks who are sad and mad." Van Zandt watched his Black Shirts battle gallantly. They held the Southwest Conference's best offensive team without a louchdow for 42 minutes. But he died a thousand deaths watching the Cougars move 66 yards in 13 plays for the game-winning touchdown.

"We tried to mix up the defense as much as possible on that last drive," he lose game said. "We didn't want to lock ourselves into one coverage. We were trying to keep them guessing." f'nfortunately, Houston guessed right, just as the Cougars have done the fourth quarter all season. Seven times they've trailed in the fourth quarter. Seven times they've wound up winning.

"We thought they might go to Kric Herring," Van Zandt said. "That's why we went man-to-man on the outside receivers and double covered him over the middle." Nebraska was bracing for a repeat performance of the drama it staged in Columbia, in November. Again, it had come down to a final, door-die play in a tense goal line situation. Fourth down from the six. Nineteen seconds remaining.

No timeouts. No tomorrows. VAN ZANDT cont. Page 32 1 iuc ate? IT sm A USC 17, OSU 16 'Hogs 9 OU 24, FSU 7 vj i Stories, Page 30.