Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 29

3D May 4, 1975, Lincoln, Sunday Journal and Star Wightman, Garcia Sparkle in Spring Came Redshirt Duo Responds to Pressure 1 I 1 I 1 IJ- fx 1 Uf iWC3 '111 "I'm not missing a day, was a freelance linebacker for construction in Lincoln," he vows. "I'm not going to miss a day." Garcia will be an assistant part director at Los Angeles Wilson High School, from which he graduated. Oklahoma. That's kind of what I am, too." Wightman admits he hasn't pursued weight training as aggressively as he should. "But I am this summer when I work working out this summer either," he promised.

"I've got my confidence back. It makes all the difference in the world. I'm coming back this September ready to compete." ,1 By Randy York When the odds stacked up against them, Randy Garcia and Jim Wightman had two choices buckle and fade out of the picture or respond and thrust themselves into it. Both Cornhusker redshirt sophomores decided to respond. And, although neither has achieved first team football status yet, they used the Spring Game Saturday, to burst prominently into the picture.

Garcia, listed as Nebraska's fifth team quarterback for two weeks this spring, made the biggest leap. Wightman never dipped that low. His uphill struggle at linebacker is based more on learning the position after spending almost two seasons as a defensive end and middle guard. Each emerged with the confidence of a first teamer in the locker room after helping lead the Whites to a 20-6 upset victory over the Reds. "I'm extremely satisfied," said Garcia, who completed 6 of 8 passes for 84 yards.

"A couple weeks ago, I would have been satisified to come out of this game third team. Now, I feel I can compete with the best of them." Garcia's confidence underwent a complete metamorphosis in one short week. "Everyone kept telling me my problem was all mental," he explained. "I didn't belive them until this past week." After analyzing his quarter- Osborne: staff photo by web ray backing problems throughout, the spring, Garcia is now con-' vinced his problem was indeed mental. "At least 80 per cent of it was mental anyway," he says.

"I was doing everything wrong," he admits. "In the second scrimmage of the spring, I started fumbling snaps from center, fumbling handoffs, running into people. I was really shaky. I got nervous just waiting for the snap. "The coaches and players kept insisting everything was mental.

They got behind me," says Garcia. "If I hadn't gotten their support, I don't know if I could have snapped out of it." Last year, a week before the Spring Game, Garcia was sharing No. 2 quarterback duties with Earl Everett until suffering torn ligaments and cartilage in his left knee. "I guess I thought I could pick up where I left off, even though I sat out a year," Garcia offered. "I learned it doesn't happen that way not at all that way." Wightman, one of the busiest tacklers on the White team, believes he shouldn't have tried defensive end and middle guard.

"When I came down here, my high school coach (Omaha North's Leonard Bond) told me to stick to linebacker," noted Wightman, who returned a Terry Luck interception 48 yards in the first quarter to get the White team rolling. "I was overenthusiastic to play and went ahead and changed positions. I should have known better," Wightman said. "I finally moved to where I should have been all the time last October." The 6-4, 216-pound Wightman realizes he's behind in programming his linebacking skills. "But I'm trying to make up for it by hitting and hustling.

That's something I have liaturally. They can't teach you to hit and hustle. They can mold your other skills and I just plan to keep learning." Wightman's always prided himself on vicious hitting. "I get disgusted when I make a mediocre tackle," he says. "I like to punish hit hard every time.

Sometimes, my overaggressiveness causes mistakes." "James is more than just an alley football player," Nebraska defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin says of Wightman. "He wants most to get to the ball and make tackles. "He's got to become a little more disciplined to fit into the pattern of our overall defense," adds Kiffin, "but he's made good progress and he's awfully close (to first team)." Wightman has set high goals for himself. "I've watched Ruud and Nelson," he says. "I want to be a superb linebacker when I leave here, too." The Omaha product considers himself more of a Rod Shoate-style linebacker though.

"I really dug him," says Wightman. "He Defensive tackle Scott Avery (65) gives chase to I-back Monte Anthony (49). Anthony picked up a 79 yards on 16 carries in the Red-White game. Individual Statistics 1v KTft TOisv-Ai f(i 1 Whites (Big Em Rushing No. Yds.

Ave. Yds. -2 1 Punt Returns No. Burrow 1 Thomas 2 Kickoff Returns 49 25 Gillespie Craig Yds. 22 O'Leary 12 50 4.3 Donnell 9 28 3.1 Ferragamo 1 9 9 Everett 2 2 1 Stewart 9 47 5.2 Zabrocki 1-9 9 Sorley 9 2 0.2 Justice 5 15 3.0 Garcia 2 8 4 Walton 1 11 11 STAFF PHOTO BY HARALD DREIMANIS Kickoff Returns No.

Jeff Lee 1 Reds Rushing Split end Ron Nitzel (85) jumps high for one of four passes he caught in the Red-White game. Nitzel, a junior-to-be from Grand Island, gained 52 yards on his pass receptions. No. Yds. Ave.

Davis 6 60 10 Luck 3 2 0.7 Anthony 16 79 4.9 Craig 3 11 3.7 Gillespie 10 82 8.2 Folsom 3 21 7 Burns 3 27 9 Ferragamo 1 1 1 McWhorter 1 9 9 Putning No. Yds. Ave. Coyle 3 99 33.0 Game Fun Continued From Page ID wouldn't expect the No. 1 defense (Red) to get scored on too much." Osborne says he enjoys the spring game much more than those in the fall.

"You can stand back and see how things are going. It's more of a chance to evaluate player against player than a team game. "There's no surprise element in the spring game," Osborne adds. "The offense and defense knows the others formations too well. The biggest fear we have is that somebody will get hurt.

But it looks like we escaped that. "We still have a long way to go," the NU! coach concluded. "But we have 29 practice sessions next fall before our first game that's nine more than we had this spring. We hope to be ready by that time." Big Red fans are ready now. They're already marking off the days on the calendar.

There are 133 of them until LSU comes calling at Memorial Stadium, Sept. 13. lC ELECT Punting No. Yds. Ave.

Vanous 7 272 38.9 Pass Interceptions No. Yds. Wightman 1 48 Williquette 1 4 Passing Com. No. Yds.

PI Ferragamo 0 4 0 0 Garcia 6 8 84 0 Sorley 2 5 15 0 Pass Receiving No. Yds. Stewart 1 22 Donnell 1 7 Kraft 2 20 Everett 1 12 O'Leary 1 32 Nitzel 1 14 Jeff Lee 1 6 Punt Returns No. Yds. Thomas 1 14 Passing Com.

No. Yds 7 56 1 16 81 1 4 8 0 Luck 4 Burns 6 Ferragamo 1 Track Missouri 78, Nebraska 66 Shot pu 1. Ben Plucknett, 53-lVa; 2. Steve Moore, 52-9'A; 3. Steve Jensen, Javelin 1, Scott Sorthlk, 211-4; 2.

Les Frank, 190-2; 3. Joe Kessell, 127-1 Pole vault 1. Jim Borcherding, 15-0; 2. Mike Mueller, 14-0; 3. Steve Martin, 14-0.

Triple jump 1. David Green, 48-10V2; 2, Peppe Whitaker, 48-3; 3. Kessell, 35-4Vj, Long jump 1, Larry Gray, 23-1 IVj; 2. Whitaker, 23-5'i; 3. Green, 22-134.

Discus 1 Jepsen, 179-1, 2. Plucknett, 172-9, 3. Frank, 140-2. (stadium record, old record, 178-4, Jcpscn, 1974 and stadium record, old record 173-7, Plucknett, Missouri, 1973) High jump 1 Dean Herzog, 6-8, 2. Brent Huftt, 6-4; 3.

Fred Kolkhorst, 6-0. 440 relay 1. Missouri (Goodwin Obasogie, Jim Crawford, Dave Wolfkeil, Kolkhorst), 2. Nebraska (Chris Grieb, Tom Dovel, Chuck, Malito, Mike Thompson), :42.1. Mile 1.

Harold Stelzer, 2. Stan Vannier, 3. Clark Hamilton, 4:13.5. 120 high hurdles 1. Obasogie, 14 2.

Steve Peterson, 3. Ken Johnson, 15.0. 440 1 Wolfkeil, :49 2. Dovel, :49 1, 3. Crawlord, :49.2.

100 1. Thompson, :09 2. Malifo, 09.8; 3. Kolkhorst, 0. 880 1.

Don Grow, 2. Paul Rice, 1:52 3. Paul McClain, 1:52 8. 440 intermediate hurdles 1. Malito, :53 2 Randy Hicks, :54.9; 3.

Johnson, :56.4. 220 1. Thompson, :21.4; 2. Kolkhorst, 3. Malito, :22.3.

3 mile 1. Brad Keese, 2. Mark Kimball, 3. Brad Hawthorne, 14:39.0. Mile relay 1.

Nebraska (Grieb, Grow, McClain, Dovel), 2. Missouri (Kolkhorst, Frank Lemons, Wolfkeil, Crawford), 3:14.3. Pass Receiving No. Nitzel 3 Magsamen 1 Craig 1 McWhorter 3 Thomas 1 Folsom 2 Yds. 38 12 8 27 18 42 Paid for by the Jeambey For Council Committee, John Kuchta, 5401 Denbury Treasurer 11 "i up.iiipif mn mm aiarjjMiiti Scoring Story White Red How Scored Time Left FIRST QUARTER 7-0 O'Leary 1 run 12:20 Drive: 24 yards in 6 plays after Eveland recovered Gillespie's fumble of the opening kickoff.

O'Leary carried five of the six plays, but Donnell's 12-yard run was the biggest gainer. Conversion: Eveland kick. SECOND QUARTER 14-0 Kraft 8 pass from Garcia 1:54 Drive: 36 yards in 7 plays. Big Plays: 9-yard pass from Garcia to Kraft and 9-yard run by Justice. Conversion: Eveland kick.

THIRD QUARTER 20-0 O'Leary 3 run 3:35 Drive: 91 yards in 15 plays. Big Plays: Three passes of 12, 14 and 32-yards by Garcia to Everett, Nitzel and O'Leary, and an 11-yard O'Leary run. Conversion: Eveland kick failed. FOURTH QUARTER 20-6 Gillespie 4 run 3:00 Drive: 76 yards in 11 plays. Big Plays: Runs of 12 and 11 by Gillespie and an 18-yard pass from Luck to Thomas.

Conversion: Coyle kick failed. fjHUL Sunday Tennis WCT 1975 doubles championships, noon, Q5; Smith-King v. Borg-Wade, 3:30 p.m., 04, 4 p.m., Mixed doubles, 2:30 p.m., Q(Q. Basketball NBA playoffs, noon, OffD. Baseball Chicago v.

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