Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 33

SEPTEMBER 13, 1987 St INDAY JOURNAL-STAR 37D HUSECEE1S if7 scoring, ability no surprise to UCLA 9s Green 8 By Ryly" Jane Hambleton show that we didnt give up," he said. "If this game hurts my chances of winning (the Heisman), that just Like Green, linebacker Darryl Henley said the players' effort was important, especially when comparing how be felt after this loss to how he felt last year when UCLA lost to Oklahoma 38-3. tfSei "Last year after that game, we felt bad because we didnt compete wen," he said. "This year, we competed and we came here expecting to do weU. score of the game with 1:21 left in the first quarter.

"I did get hit pretty good and felt a little woozy, but I came right back," he said. Green hasnt been swallowed by the attention surrounding his run for the Heisman. When asked if his final touchdowns, runs of and 2 yards in the final four minutes of the game, were important to him, he put them into perspective. "They were important to the team to were shutting down our running game." The 5-foot-10, 190-pound senior fin-' ished the game with 46 yards on 19 carries. Me scored three of the Bruins' touchdowns but his longest carry was for7yards.

"We just made a few mistakes on offense and also gave up some big plays defensively," he said. "Some of our plays worked well, but not often enough." Green fumbled in the first quarter on a pitch play, but returned on UCLA's next possession to carry six times, including a 4-yard run for the the first fense was a lot looser "But when we got close to the goal line, the defense changed and everybody, especially the defensive tackles, moved a lot quicker." Green said that while he was anxious to get the running game established, he wasnt frustrated by not carrying the ball more. "Early, we played to our ability, but they made the big plays, offensively and defensively. In the second half, when we got so far behind, we knew all we would be doing would be passing because they Gaston Green wasnl surprised that Nebraska scored 42 points against UCLA. "We knew they were capable of scoring points like that We just thought we'd score more," the Helsman Trophy candidate tailback said of the Bruins' 33 points.

"Nebraska is one of the best defenses I ever ran against," he said. "They had a whole lot of pursuit on our running game. When we were in our own territory or the middle of the field, their de 55 I- 5S A fJp txm iin notes UCLA's Donahue finds team's faults i 11 By Ryly Jane Hambleton The longer UCLA Coach Terry Donahue analyzed his Bruins' 42-33 loss to Nebraska, the more he found wrong. "Them winning the kicking game and doing so much better in the play-action mmx ww 11 -w jmumuain uiiijJiiiiiiiiiyijpiuliiii f'fM 'f I mMlll.ll,u Vl1 llirl11 4y --ATT 1 and quotes UCLA tight end Charles Artrack-fcyho caught six passes for 92 yards, alianded Wfflowridge High School in -fioliston, Texas, about IS miles from the Wgft school of NU defensive end Broder-ijThomas. Q'He can't say he whipped us," said Arbuckle, a 239-pound sophomore starting his second game.

Arbuckle said he played summer basketball and football against Thomas, but that his high school was in a different class. "Last time I saw him back home he said, 'IH see you in Arbuckle said the UCLA offense kept the Bruin defense on the field too long in the first half. In the second, the Bruins figured out the Husker rush, opening up the passing game. "In the first half they were holding me in. In the second, they sent me out," he said.

"They were kind of worried about our speed, so hey played deep. We just waited too late to get started." Quarterback Troy Aikman, a transfer from Oklahoma, said he thought he was down before he fumbled on the second play of the second half. Doug Welniak recovered for Nebraska on the UCLA 12-yard line. NU scored four plays later to lead 21-10. "But it's crying over spilled AKman said.

"Nebraska's every bit as good as people say." "Steve) Taylor threw the ball real well today, a lot better than people give hra credit for," he added, Aikman said UCLA flooded some passing zones and was more successful passing against Nebraska than it expelled to be, but the Huskers were solid ojrbpth sides of the line. SSftH be interesting to see how them aftd OU turn out," he said. Linebacker Ken Norton, who led UCCa with nine tackles, said the Bruins hgdjvorked all week on stopping the NU rushing attack. did well the whole game and it turns out that they come in and throw tie tomb and beat us on the pass," said Njston, the son of the former heavyweight boxing champion. past UCLA-NU games, the Huskers had both run and passed well, said Norton, so the strategy was to -stop the run.

wByeralL he said, UCLA played well. "They just got a few big plays. That broke us up." UCLA coaches had stressed weight training this year, to build stronger, bigger and faster players. "We were," said Norton, "but we didn't win." Norton said his father couldnt attend the game but was watching at home in lies Angeles. "He'd probably say the same thing, we were thinking about the run and they dropped back and passed aKjbeai us." pass department were two major factors," Donahue first said.

"We knew they'd run but the play action was more than we thought. "They have a lot of deception on offense and have the ability to put out a tremendous running game. Then to throw stuff at you in the play-action pass we thought they'd have to throw some but we didn't think they would be as open as they were." Nebraska's Steve Taylor completed 10 of IS passes for 217 yards, including a school-record and Big Eight-tying five touchdown passes. "People recognized Taylor's passing skills before this game. But I don't think he's had a day throwing like he did against us," Donahue said.

"This must be his best performance as a thrower. "I can't always see that weU on the field, but if I had to guess, it was a combination of good execution on Nebraska's part and poor execution on our part We probably busted a coverage or there was a mistake by someone to let them get open." Found more But Donahue found more. "I thought a couple of our fumbles gave away field position and points and one gave them points," he said. "In the third quarter, the momentum really shifted. We had the fumble early and then kept getting backed up, going against the wind and in poor field position.

"The pass we dropped near mid-field would have been a first down and that was crucial That and the bobbled snap on the field goal attempt that was extremely crucial" The dropped pass came when UCLA, faced third-down-and-18 from the its 12-yard line. Quarterback Troy Aikman threw over the middle to David Keating. The pass bounced off Keating's shoulder pads. UCLA was forced to punt, and on the next play, Nebraska -scored a touchdown for a 28-10 lead. Nebraska didn't score after recovering the fumbled snap, but the field goal attempt was from 28 yards weU within kicker Alfred Velasco's range.

Donahue said he thought the third-ranked Bruins would be able to run against the Cornhuskers better than they did. UCLA rushed for 94 yards on 53 attempts. "We ran weU early, but they did a nice job adjusting to the run. We didn't want to use Gaston (Green) as a decoy," he said of UCLA's Heisman Trophy candi- UCLA Coach Terry Donahue's expression says it all. date.

"At h'alftime, he had 29 yards and' had carried 10 times. Maybe he should1 have carried more." Hard to run Donahue said the UCLA coaches knew running against Nebraska's de-, fense, which was ranked second in the, country last year, would be difficult. "It's hard to move against them. We' weren't able to generate enough running offense to play the way we like to," he said. "Down and distance hurt us.

At the half, I thought we had a chance to hang in the game, but the third quarter got, away from us. We got into the position' where we had to throw." Neither team's running game was up, to normal standards. UCLA's defense held Nebraska to 117 yards rushing. Bruin linebacker Ken Norton said that's just what he expected. "It was important for us to stop theirf running game.

We played very intently and watched our keys well," he said. "Mostly, we knew we had to stop their outside'running game and not let Taylor get out and get going. "We're fast and we knew they couldn't beat us outside. We just had to let them know it." "Everybody was coming up so hard against the run, we were playing the run so tight, that they beat us deep." Nebraska's Rod Smith (88) hauls in pass despite defender Darryl Henley's leaping effort. The third-quarter play was good for a 48-yard touchdown strike.

Husker notes, quotes iiwimiii mil linn in irnr; Play of the game 6i qgjij5Fv MSniWi I 9Tytor I S3 Brinson iS Reserve offensive guard John Roschal had the most serious of the injuries suffered by Nebraska players in Saturday's game with UCLA. NU team physician Dr. Pat Clare said he win perform arthroscopic surgery on the knee of Nebraska guard Roschal Sunday "to see how much damage he suffered." Field judge Richard SchnelL a Pac-10 Conference official from Kent, was the most seriously injured participant in Saturday's game. SchnelL who played his collegiate football at the University of Wyoming when Nebraska Athletic Director Bob Devaney was the coach of the Cowboys, was admitted to the St. Elizabeth's Community Health Center.

Nebraska team physician Dr. Pat Clare said SchneU had a "fracture into the knee, which is not good, but we plan to repair it Sunday." Other NU Injuries included: quartertack Steve Taylor, bruised left shoulder; tight end Todd MUlikan, sore hamstring; defensive end Jon Marco, bruised knee; I- back Ken Clark, bruised knee, and linebacker Steve Forch, bruised shoulder. NU quarterback Steve Taylor set a Nebraska passing record with five touchdown passes in the game. His passing yardage of 217 yards was the most by a Nebraska quarterback since Turner GUI threw for 241 against Iowa State in 1983. UCLA's 33 points was the most scored by a team losing to Nebraska since the Cornhuskers beat Miami, 38-34 in the Gotham Bowl in 1962.

The Bruins', total was the most scored on any Nebraska team since NU lost to Missouri 35- in 1978. Special teams player Cartier Walker, who blocked a UCLA punt in the second quarter to set up a touchdown pass from Taylor to Dana Brinson, said was just doing his job. "I line up on the outside and I went in full blast with a pretty good angle, so I wouldn't hit the punter if I missed the balL "It just stung a little. It's only leather. Seriously, we studied their special teams and we saw that Arizona blocked two of their punts last year, so we thought we had a shot." Walker also recovered the fumbled snap on the UCLA failed field goal attempt on the next Bruin drive.

"That was one that just came to me for being in the right place at the right time." Charlie McBrlde, NU defensive coordinator: "The thing that bothered me most was the big plays we gave up. that and the fact we're 6-to-l in turnover ratio and we're just not getting the turnovers. You've got to get more and you've got to at least get even in turnovers." Offensive right guard Keven Lightner on the passing game: "We've got the get the running game back. We just couldn't get outside on the options or the pitches, so we You cant stop it an. People have to respect our running game, now they have to think about our passing game." Mark Blazek, on the problem with crowd noise: "For three and a half quarters you couldn't hear a thing when we were on defense.

We missed a couple of coverage calls, but the noise gets you pumped up, too." Nebraska's defense in two games has 14 quarterback sacks for 106 yards in losses. A year ago, Nebraska had 40 sacks for the season. This way, no, that way For the second week in a row, Dana Brinson is the ball carrier in Nebraska's Play of the Game a wlrigback reverse. The play de-pends on misdirection, which causes the defense to start heading the wrong way. It is designed just as if it were going to be an option to the left a possible dive off the left side by the fullback, a pitch back to the l-back, who is also going left, or a keeper to the left by quarterback Steve Taylor.

Instead, Taylor laterals the ball back to Brinson going right. The key blocks are thrown by left guard Andy Keeler and split end Rod Smith. Keeler is the only offensive lineman to pull out and go in the direction of the play. He comes around to seal off the cornerback. Smith blocks the safety downfield.

The play gained 19 yards to the" UCLA 10 and led to the touchdown that put Nebraska ahead a lead NU never relinquished. It was the Cornhuskers' longest ground-gainer of the day. Brinson had a punt return for a touchdown on Ipt week's play of the game against Utah State. NU's CarHer Walker (27) blocKs punt by UCLA's Harald Barkat in the second quarter. i.