Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 32

OCTOBER 85. 1 987 SUNDAY JOURNAL-STAR- 1HUSKEZRS hi K-State a prime example of dispanty in Big Eig, Kansas State lost its seventh straight football game of the Virgil Parker Columnist 2 Jt0i season Saturday. Throw in the final five games of last season, and the Wildcats are on a 12-game losing streak. What has happened to the Big Eight, which once claimed to be "the toughest conference in the country?" Is there an answer to the problem? Some folks at a recent K-State game in Manhattan suggested a possible solution. They posted a sign that read: "Wichita State did the honorable thing." The reference was to a school that admitted it didnt have the financial backing or fan support to afford football So, Wichita State gave up the sport.

This is not to suggest that Kansas State should follow suit But the disparity in the Big Eight has become so great as to be embarrassing. Kansas State has the worst record in major coDege football history. The Wildcats have been playing since 1896, yet are still looking for victory No. 300. Nebraska had more than 300 victories before Pearl Harbor.

Unrealistic dreams What can be the hope or expectations of the also-rans in the league? Do they dream of being like Oklahoma State, win five in a row, gain a spot in the nation's Top Twenty, only to get blanked by Nebraska 35-0? Kansas State is not alone. Cross-state rival Kansas has won just once this falL The Jayhawks had three victories last year but none in conference play. Can the Kansas fans remain satisfied to live on the memory of three wins over Oklahoma and two over Nebraska in the last 25 years? It's been nearly two decades (1968) since Nebraska lost to either Kansas or Kansas State. Colorado has beaten the Corn-huskers just once (last season) in the same length of time. Oklahoma State hasn't topped Nebraska since 1961.

Coaching expertise Last week, Nebraska's Tom Osborne bypassed Penn State's Joe Paterno as the second-winningest college football coach (behind only Oklahoma's Barry Switzer). Osborne observed, however, that the disparity isn't necessarily attributable only to coaching expertise. "There are some guys who are just as good or better coaches as Switzer, Paterno and me," Osborne said, "but who don't have the same situation. "You might win 60 percent of your games at some school," Osborne said, "and have done a great job. I have been afforded a lot of opportunity.

I have a fine coaching staff, great ath- letes, good facilities and great fan support. A coach doesn't win games by himself." Nobody is more aware of that than Kansas State Coach Stan Parrish, who has had the shoe on the other foot Parrish didn't have a losing season as a college head coach before moving to the Manhattan campus. "When I was at Wabash College," he recalled, "we won 25 in a row. We were 10-0 one season. And the first team never played a down in the second half of eight of the 10 games.

"But an things are relative," Parrish added. "When Kansas State compiles a 6-5 season, I will feel that I have reached, what I set out to do. I'll likely have another, more lofty after I get to that point For now, my goal is to get to the die of the conference. And even that is going to take time." Parrish insists he doesn't lose any sleep over trying to catc up with Nebraska and Oklahoma. "Anybody in this league who does will die of a broken heart," Parrish said.

Scholarship rules 23 Parrish has a plan to bring more parity into the Big Eight He thinks the NCAA should retain the upper limit of 95 schok arships for each squad, but forget the yearly restriction of more than 25 in any one year. "i "I've only got 73 kids on scholarship," he said. "Jim (Walden? at Iowa State) has just 41. Bob (Valesente at Kansas) has 80. But it's ludicrous for us not to have the same number as Nebraska and Oklahoma.

People have to face up to the fact that attrition is greater at losing schools. Kids get discouraged and; quit" Parrish points out that the NCAA allows a total of 15 basket-ball grants. But no yearly quota exists. "If you have 10 kids quit you can recruit 10 new ones thet next year," he said. "They should do the same in football an let us worry about just the one number (95).

The way it is, the; rich just keep getting richer." Maybe there is an answer to the problem, after all liwiSC Wllfi4h, illtel' III-: tlllf Kansas State Coach Stan Parrlsh argues with side judge Duane Osborne as the teams left the field at halftime. Parrish drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. 1 utmi-ut I- "'X i "s.jw iW ferns' m. MtVfr SS w. NU's Cartier Walker (27) dives and partially blocks a 37-yard field goal attempt by KSU's Mark Porter Nebraska tight end Tom Banderas (87) is all alone after catching a pass from quarterback Steve Tay-(1) in the second quarter.

lor in the second quarter. The play was good for 16 yards and NU's second touchdown. Huskers pagelD Scoring Play of the game Wildcat Timeieft notes, quotes NU-KSU How scored Defensive back Robert Easter-wood on Nebraska's 'Bummeroosky' fake punt play: "I saw the fullback (Micah Heibel) lean over to the running back (Ken Clark), but you couldn't really see what he was doing, then he (Heibel) takes off running like he has the ball They just ran the old Husker-doosker. That was a pretty good one." Wide receiver Lawrence Tolbert: "Oklahoma's defensive backs were more physical than Nebraska's. They wanted to come up and mix it up with you." FIRST QUARTER 7-0 Taylor 49 run 13:18 Drive: 66 yards In three plays.

Highlighted by K. Jones 15 run. Conversion: Orennan kick. 144 Banderas 15 pass from Taylor 8:23 Drive: 39 yards in 10 plays. Highlighted by Clark 27 run on fake punt, K.

Jones 9 and 6 runs. Conversion: Drennan kick. 21-0 Bell 4 run 0:25 Drive: 80 yards in 10 plays. Highlighted by Gregory 9 pass from Taylor, Millikan 8 pass from Taylor. Conversion: Drennan kick.

SECOND QUARTER 28-0 Blakeman 1 run 7:07 Drive: 56 yards In 10 plays. Highlighted by Bell 28 pass from Blakeman, Gregory 9 pass from Blakeman, three Heibel runs for 15 yards. Conversion: Drennan kick. 28-3 Porter 29 field goal 2:24 Drive: 1 yard in three plays. Set up by A.

Smith recovery of fumbleatNU15. 35-3 Hawkins 40 pass from Blakeman 0:00 Drive: 88 yards in seven plays. Highlighted by Millikan 17 and 21 passes from Blakeman. Conversion Drennan kick. THIRD QUARTER 42-3 Heibel 3 run 8:17 Drive: 47 yards in seven plays.

Highlighted by Heibel runs of 4, 1 and 27 yards. Conversion Drennan kick. 49-3 Gdowski 10 run 0:41 Drive: 83 yards In 10 plays. Highlighted by Bahe 24 pass from Blakeman, Gregory 15 pass from Blakeman, Brinson 10 run. Conversion: Drennan kick.

FOURTH QUARTER 56-3 Knox 50 run 10:53 Drive: 63 yards In three plays. Set up by 7-yard KSU punt. Conversion: Drennan kick. From pagetD OU-NU 00 4BHeibel0 -t "4rJlekerl during Nebraska's second possession. Osborne set up the play by taking a Ityard penalty for delay of game.

Why use such trickery against Kansas State? "We'd kind of tipped it already," Osborne said. "We were going to use it against South Carolina. We showed it 'Anybody who looked at it on film knew what we were going to do, so we figured We'd go ahead and let it fly." Clete Blakeman, who replaced Taylor at quarterback, let fly with a 40-yard touchdown pass to Hendley Hawkins on the final play of the first half. Kansas State apparently didnt expect tfiat, either, though "I thought everybody iii the stadium knew with four seconds left we had to go deep with the ball," said Osborne. "I was kind of surprised we could complete that pass." -He probably shouldn't have been.

"Blakeman completed all but one of the 10 passes he attempted, for 165 yards. Chip Bane, a reserve split end, was elated when Hawkins came down with the ball in the end zone. The sophomore from Fremont expressed the way all of Nebraska's reserves must have felt about the first touchdown of Hawkins' Cornhusker career. "I figured it pushed us up a notch to get in," he said. On his second play from scrimmage, late in the third quarter, Bahe caught a 24-yard pass thrown by Blakeman and, no doubt, sent those fans still paying attention thumbing through programs, trying to find out who wore jersey No.

81. Hawkins' touchdown "helped a lot definitely," said third-string quarterback terry Gdowski, also from Fremont who had a 10-yard touchdown run, figured his chances of playing improved dramatically when Blakeman ent in. That's when he began preparing pientally. Taylor reached milestone Taylor left the game, he completed 4 of 7 passes for 38 yards and a touchdown to tight end Tom Banderas and carried seven times for 30 yards to become the second Cornhusker to rush and pass for 1,000 yards each during his career. Turner GUI was the first really? I'm nappy," Taylor said "I don't think we got banged up too bad," he said.

"That was the only good thing that happened today that and the fact that we're through playing them (OUandNU)." Parrish said games like Kansas State has experienced the last two weekends don't help his program atalL "It's very hard to lift the spirits of your players after games like that We thought we were going to be a considerably better football team than we are. Now we're 0-7. My hope is to keep our team alive, because I do think we can move the football," he said. "We throw the football reasonably well, but Nebraska's pass rush was overwhelming. And they played without a couple of their stallions up front Their depth is great They have everything.

That's why they have a zero at the end of their record." Parrish said K-State's offense suffered "because we couldn't run a lick. Nebraska closed down the run on us better than anybody has all year long. "We just have to try to keep our head above water, somehow, some way Parrish said, "because we're still going to win a couple of football games." In an attempt to inject some humor, Parrish asked if the game had been Nebraska's homecoming. Told it was, he said, "We've seen more queens than at the Miss America pageant this year. We're everybody's homecoming." with a smile when told of the milestone.

"Now some people will remember me when I'm gone." As far as Taylor was concerned, he was gone much too early from Saturday's game. But Osborne wouldn't relent For the remainder of the second quarter, "I was thinking of things I could say so he'd let me back in," said Taylor. "He told me at halftime, 'Steve, I know you want to play, and you could play, but we've got a pretty tough game next week. Well just sit you out so you don't get banged I knew right then I wasn't going to play any more." Actually, Taylor hadnt planned to play much more than he did. Friday night, Osborne told him he'd "play the first quarter and go from there.

"If it was a tough game, I'd continue to play," Taylor said. If not, he'd come out "Coach Osborne likes to do that with a fine back-up quarterback like Clete." Taylor took his shoulder pads off for the second half. Osborne "just told me I couldn't lay down," he said, referring to top-ranked Oklahoma's behavior earlier this season in a blowout of Iowa State. KSU gave good effort Kansas State tried hard, according to Osborne. The Wildcats gave a good effort.

Defensively, "they were gambling some, and I think that was probably a good move on their part," he said. "I think they probably felt that if they just sat in there and played basic defense, they'd die a slow death, that we'd 6- and 7-yard them to death." Instead, they died swiftly. Less than two minutes into the game, Taylor broke a second-and-8 option run for 49 yards and a touchdown. The rest was downhill. Let's face it Saturday's game could best be enjoyed by insomniacs.

Nebraska dusted off the "Bummeroosky" fake punt play midwgjr through the first quarter against Kansas State, fooling most ottbs fans in the stands and the Wildcat defense. Instead of centering the ball to punter John Kroeker, while facing fourth-and-14 at the K-State 43, the ball was snapped to fullback Mlcah Heibel. He toofc one step forward and from behind put the ball betweert'Jhft legs of l-back Ken Clark, who clamped the ball between his knVeS Clark, in a semi-crouch, continued to face forward as thomol) ready to block for a punt. Heibel spun around and faked a pitch tp l-back Jon Kelley, who was in motion coming around to the right. Heibel also continued to the right as though to block for Kelley.

Kroeker also went in that direction. Clark, after a momentary deiay, reached down and retrieved the ball from between his legs and went around the left side for a 27-yard gain to the K-State 16. Sik plays later NU quarterback Steve Taylor completed a pass to tigrfit end Tom Banderas for a touchdown and a 1 4-0 lead..