Omaha World-Herald from Omaha, Nebraska • 85

SUNDAY WORLD HERALD September 19 1999 JOOIBALL 7' NEBRASKA VS SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI JE BUNDYTHE WORLD HERALD IRST TWO: NU linebacker Julius Jackson returns a Jeff Kelly fumble for first touchdown as the Derrick Nix tries to hang on 1 I gWMjg Al W'sl twfcte' 4SXW(W 13 A S'X? i 1 iw 4 T' 1 HUSKERS Defense Bails Out Nebraska Continued from Page 1 ootball 293 yards 268 on the passing of quar terback Jeff Kelly But the Huskerssacked Kelly five times intercepted him four times and forced him to fum ble once Jackson scooped up that loose ball and returned it for Nebras ka's opening touchdown: 1 Jackson scored the game winning touchdown in the third i quarter picking off a Kelly pass that i had been batted into the air by Craver and scooting 28 yards for the score That touchdown erased the 13 12 lead 'that the 2 1 Golden Eagles had takenafter Nebraska I back Dan Alexander had fumbled on the first play of the third quarter I seemed like I had to wait forever for that ball to come Jackson said was just hoping that one of my teammates didn't get it before 1 As it turned out Jackson came up with the ball and the score But he had plenty of help from his teammates most notably: Craver who stopped Southern Mississippi drives in the fourth quarter with interceptions at the Nebraska 8 i and 1 yard lines He also broke up fourpasses made two tackles and chipped in a 14 yard punt return for good mea isure Rover back Mike Brown who re corded 12 tackles including eight solo stops and one pass breakup BRush end Kyle Vanden Bosch who broke out of an early season slump to get nine tackles he had been credited with just two in Nebras first two games Three of Vanden 1 Bosch's tackles produced losses and he set up Jackson's first touchdown with a Jarring sack of Kelly that forced the fumble I Rush end Aaron Wills who had 'eight tackles including five unassisted I stops I In addition to his two scores Jack i son had five tackles including a sack I had a great Husker cornerback Ralph BrOwn said he'll let us know about it tonight He'll I be bragging but he deserves to He's a great player and he showed that to i The defensive effort came 'against a Southern Mississippi team I that had scored 88 points in its first two wins The unranked Golden Eagles came to Lincoln as four touchdown underdogs and they left with little con solation in having pressed the Huskers I to the limit I came here to win a football Southern Mississippi Coach Jeff Bower said proud of our players and their effort but there's more to it than effort and we didn't get i that part done today has an impressive foot ball team Someone said knocked them out of the Top I say give us a little i I Nebraska does experience any rat ings slippage the offense will have to shoulder that blame The Huskers went three and out on 10 of their 14 posses sions with their longest consisting of a pair of eight play drives The offense ran only 51 plays and produced just eight first downs the fewest since Ne braska got just seven in a 47 0 loss to Oklahoma in 1968 It took the Huskers almost 40 min utes to produce 100 yards of offense 'Nebraska finished with just 119 yards rushing the second straight game in which its running game has faltered (the Huskers got 1 14 yards against Cal ifornia last week) or the first time since 1988 Nebraska is three games 1 into the season without having one of its backs rush for 100 yards in a game it was a very difficult Nebraska Coach rank Solich said was a day where we really couldn't get anything going in the run NlhSouthern Miss Scoring Story IRST QUARTER NU So Miss 6 0 NU touchdown: Julius Jackson 16 yard return of Jeff Kelly fumble caused by Kyle Vanden Bosch Conversion: kick failed Drive: 16 yards in 1 play Time left: 7:50 6 7 USM touchdown: Todd Pinkston 8 yard pass from Jeff Kelly Conver sion: Brant Hanna kick Drive: 45 yards in 6 plays Time elapsed: 2:19 Key play: Sherrod Gideon 25 yard pass from Kelly to NU 20 Time left: 0:52 SECOND QUARTER 12 7 NU touchdown: Willie Miller 8 yard run Conversion: run failed Drive: 46 yards in 8 plays Time elapsed: 3:07 Key play: Matt Davi son 14 yard pass from Eric Crouch on second and 12 to USM 8 Time left: 9:45 THIRD QUARTER 12 13 USM touchdown: Gideon 5 yard pass from Kelly Conversion: pass failed Drive: 1 9 yards in 5 plays Time elapsed: 1 :53 Key play: Gi deon 5 yard pass from Kelly on third and 2 to NU 6 Time left: 12:54 20 13 NU touchdown: Jackson 28 yard interception return of Kelly pass tipped by Keyuo Craver Conversion: Dan Alexander run Drive: 28 yards in 1 play Time left: 8:26 ning game with any kind of consis tency We also did very little in the passing game We did not do the neces sary things offensively to be in the game quite like we were the defense did a great job a win for our football team and take Crouch in his first start with former No 1 quarterback Bobby Newcombe now at wingback finished with 26 yards rushing on 16 carries and com pleted 6 of 10 passes for 66 yards Al exander taking over for the departed DeAngelo Evans had 54 yards on 16 carries But third quarter fum ble set up the 19 yard scoring drive that allowed the Golden Eagles to take a one point lead Alexander also lost the ball at midfield in the fourth quar ter killing a drive that had started at theNU3 feel I let my team down Alexander said fumbles stopped our momentum I had a bad week of practice I missed a day because of my ankle and I kind of babied it the rest of the week I was unprepared to day and I'm not going to let it happen again I know more is expected of me than what I showed The rest of the offense could second that thought made too many mental mistakes today" Crouch said threw two in terceptions We had a couple of fum bles We need to eliminate that kind of stuff if we want to be a team that is in the race for the national champion Nebraska's offense did produce one touchdown driving 46 yards in eight plays early in the second quarter ull back Willie Miller scored on an 8 yard run to put Nebraska ahead 12 7 The teams had traded scores in the first quarter with Jackson's touchdown giving Nebraska a 6 0 lead with 7:50 left Kicker Josh Brown missed the conversion and Southern Mississippi went ahead 7 6 with 52 seconds left in the period when Kelly tossed an 8 yard What Others Said scoring pass to Todd Pinkston and Brant Hanna added the point after That was the first touchdown de fense has allowed this season touchdown put Nebraska ahead until the third quarter when Sherrod Gideon scored on a 5 yard pass from Kelly The Golden Eagles failed to convert the two point attempt leaving them holding a 1 3 1 2 lead Nebraska went three and out and the Golden Eagles took over at their own 33 yard line following a 47 yard punt by Dan Hadenfeldt ive plays later Jackson struck again teaming tip with Craver to produce the game win ningpoints is a dream game running back two touchdowns like Jackson said really hasn't hit me yet but I 1 know tonight it Trailing for the third time the Golden Eagles refused to quit Three of Southern Mississippi's final six posses sions ended in Nebraska territory Hanna missed a 43 yard field goal after the Golden Eagles had moved to the Nebraska 26 yard line late in the third quarter Kelly who completed 23 of 45 passes had Southern Mississippi driv ing after second fumble had given the Golden Eagles the foot ball at the Nebraska 48 yafd line Craver turned back that threat when he picked off a pass at Nebraska's 8 yard line Nebraska pick up a first down the Huskers were 3 of 12 in third down conversions and punted Southern Mississippi took pver at its 41 yard line and Kelly completed passes of 9 yards to Gideon 30 yards to Pinkston and 6 yards to Gideon to move the Golden Eagles to the NU 14 On second down and four Kelly overthrew Pinkston and Craver came up with his second interception come to expect big plays from Keyuo" Mike Brown said he came up with some huge ones to Blair Kerkhoff The Kansas City Star By taking a defensive posture fourth ranked Nebraska avoided a huge upset The Cornhuskers held off Southern Mississippi 20 13 Saturday in a game that had nervous Nebraska fans pulling for a fast clock down the stretch No rear view mirror view of the op ponent this weekend for the Huskers (3 0) who had outscored Iowa and California by a combined 87 7 in their first two games This time the longest running and catching plays for the Cornhuskers were provided by linebacker Julius Jackson who returned a fumble 16 yards for Nebraska's first score and an interception 28 yards for the game win ner think they need to move me to of Jackson said Rick Cleveland Jackson Clarion Ledger As the final seconds ticked down Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch took a knee a red sea of Nebraska fans took a collective sigh of relief and Southern Mississippi's rugged but de feated football team took another dag ger to the heart just felt so helpless out All America defensive end Adaluis Thomas said "I ever the describe the feeling except it was like a knife in my heart and they were twisting it I'm a senior 1 won't have many more Coach Says NU Impressive But So Was His Team BY ELIZABETH MERRILL WORLD HERALD STA WRITER Lincoln If close call against Southern Mississippi starts a flurry of wrong with Ne questions across the state then consider Jeff Bower offended The Southern Miss coach also took an undefeated team with a mean de fense into Memorial Stadium into Sat urday The unranked and relatively un known Golden Eagles were the ones who came up on the short end of a 20 13 score told me you just knocked them out of the Top Bower said give us some credit Maybe we ought to be deserving of a ranking Nebraska is an impressive football team Good gosh often when something like this happens everybody says 'Well wrong with Don't take any thing away from these kids They played hard The Golden Eagles came into the day ranked ninth in the nation in rush ing defense but the knock was that they hadn't dominated against a qual ity opponent Until Saturday Southern Miss held the Husker of 4 1 I 1 JEREY CARNEYTHE WORLD HERALD fense the nation's eighth best to 185 yards eight first downs and one touchdown The Golden Eagles were in it until the final minutes of the game when Keyuo Craver intercepted Jeff pass near the goal line Had that final 1:17 gone differently the Eagles might have been celebrating their first win over a ranked opponent since 1990 But coming close wasn't good enough been saying from Day One that we can go out and compete with Kelly said we proved that But I don't think there's any such thing as a moral victory We played well but we expected to play portunities We just capitalize on wen come here wanting to play close We expected to come in here and win the game There just any joy or moral victory to Bower said the end result was simple the Eagles made too many mistakes to win the game They committed six turnovers on the day and two of them led to scores Julius Jackson put Ne HEADACHE: Southern Miss Coach Jeff Bower reacts to a fourth quarter call Sat urday Bower is 0 3 at USM against Big 1 2 teams braska on the board with 7:50 left in a Top 10 team He also had the the first quarter on a 16 yard fumble same respect for defense? ivvurvij QUVI avfkduu tail Lil U1C Will ning touchdown with his 28 yard inter ception with 8:28 to go in the third Nebraska turned the ball over five times three on fumbles our of the turnovers came on intercep tions can't turn the ball over like that and beat good football teams and Nebraska is a very good football Bower said had our op i them was proud of our players and their effort I was proud of our defense I think we contained them all day long and came up with some big plays But we had too many breakdowns We knew coming into the game that's the one thing we couldn't Bower said he left Saturday feeling the same about the Huskers that a Top 10 team He also had the which came up big for the third straight game The Huskers allowed their first two touchdowns of the sea son but limited Southern Miss to 293 total yards think really Bower said everything you guys thought they were coming into this game But you've got to give us some The next chance for the Eagles to prove they belong in the Top 25 comes next weekend when they travel to Texas Running back Derrick Nix said game should give them confidence against the Aggies lot of people came in expecting us to be another average Nebraska op ponent somebody who gets beat bv 40 Nix said came out there and we showed them something" GAME NOTES Did Wild Week Distract NU? It Might Have BY MITCH SHERMAN and STEVEN PIVOVAR WORLD HERALD STA WRITERS Lincoln Nebraska players could not reach a consensus Saturday when asked if the off field distractions of last week affected the play in its 20 1 3 win over Southern Mississippi much as 1 want to say it a distraction it might have been" NU center Dominic Raiola said hope it But either way I'm coming out to practice Monday knowing that it's a new week None of that matters" DeAngelo departure from the team early last week dominated talk surrounding the Huskers Evans the No 1 1 back quit last Sunday and Coach rank Solich announced decision Tuesday A large sign in the student section that read could be seen throughout Memorial Stadium Several Huskers interviewed Saturday said absence and the move of Bobby Newcombe from quarterback to wmgbacK did not atiect the teams play Newcombe at Wingback wished The junior who had started the first two games at quarter back fumbled a punt that Southern Mississippi converted into a touch down He had a potential touchdown catch bounce off his hands By his own admission his blocking as sharp as it needs to be was just my first game playing receiver in a long Newcombe said are some things I need to work on get Blitzes The Nebraska defensive staff made extensive use of blitzes in an attempt to harry Southern Mississippi quarterback JeffKelly George Darlington de fensive backs coach said the Huskers blitzed on about 20 to 25 percent of the Golden offensive plays pass into the air has great McBride said you ever seen them? like the bottom of The second thing that surprised McBride was the speed Jackson showed in getting to the end zone think the world sprint cham pion could have caught him after he took off with that McBride said Bits and Pieces Junior rover Joe Walker made his season debut Saturday after recovering from a December knee injury Walker said he felt 90 percent" healthy He returned four punts for 37 yards and had one quarterback hurry Matt Davison caught two passes for 19 yards extending his streak of games with at least one reception to 20 Newcombe return to wingback go as smoothly as he would have Touchdowns Husker Defensive Coordinator Char lie McBride said two things amazed him about Julius 28 yard in terception return that gave Nebraska its third touchdown The first was that Jackson managed to catch the ball after Keyuo Craver had deflected Kelly's In three games no Nebraska run ner has reached the 100 yard mark The Huskers last opened the season without a 100 yard rusher for three games in 1988 In that season a trio of NU backs reached 100 yards in the fourth game: Ken Clark had 122 Steve Taylor had 116 and Terry Rodgers had 113 against Arizona State a 47 16 Ne braska victory SHATEL Charlie Revenge: 1999 Blackshirts Continued from Page 1 ootball plosion" and the Team In the History of College But what Sports Illustrated meant to say was that it was the greatest offense of all time The Blackshirts of 1983 allowed a school record 368 yards per game They were mere hitchhikers on the road to greatness Everyone knew it Including the defensive coordinator Especially the defensive coordinator And pride silly pride just won't let Charlie let go The man even wear his national championship rings even though his defenses mauled oppo nents in 1994 1995 and 1997 still bothers McBride said bothers me more than anything I've ever done in coaching bothers me so much I don't even wear my national championship rings I might wear them during recruiting tfips But I don't think I deserve to wear them Maybe someday after I pull the plug I might put them on just feel disappointed Tom (Os borne) could have had one or two more championships if we'd had a better de fense When got great offensive teams like had over the years no telling what you could have won had the defense done its part But the defense didn't do it And you know what people are Well consider this season Charlie's Revenge He's got a defensive unit with speed and savvy character and characters and more true grit than Rooster Cog bum He's got a defense that has peo ple thinking again Only this time they're thinking be in a heap of trouble without those Black How do we say this tactfully? The Huskers stunk on offense against Southern Miss They finished with eight first downs 119 yards rushing 185 total yards lost three fumbles and threw two interceptions Nebraska punter Dan Hadenfeldt the most valu able player on the team punted so many times (eight) he had to go ice his foot after the game You could say it was nerves for guys like quarterback Eric Crouch (16 car ries 26 yards one interception) or wingback Bobby Newcombe (dropped touchdown pass) or 1 back Dan Alex ander (two fumbles) But Head Coach rank Solich wasn't buying it You could say it was Southern Miss' kalei doscope defense every time you look at it it looks like something different But that wasn't it either The truth is the Huskers don't have the line or the big play 1 backs of old They're struggling to run the ball And they met a good defense for the first time this season a Southern Miss de fense with speed and talent to beat them to the corner Doesn't mean it will be this sloppy week But the Huskers won't get well against the salt ier defenses of Missouri and Oklahoma State the next two weeks Thank God for the men in black offense may be a work in pro gress which might take longer than the construction on 1 80 but all detours go through the Blackshirts could line up with those guys in anything and win" McBride said The Blackshirts lined tip and pillaged Southern Miss for six turnovers and five sacks including one sack that led to a fumble which led to Nebraska first touchdown thanks to linebacker Julius able hands and nimble feet Jackson scored again in the third quarter when corner Keyou Craver batted a pass and Jackson ran under it like Ken Griffey Jr and sprinted for the end zone like well an I back I back? Hmmm Maybe ari idea Maybe linebacker Randy Stella who had an 8'4 yard kickoff return for a touchdown called back could lend a hand at I back McBride has so much depth and speed and size and downright play making talent it's scary They've been hiding in the shadows of a quar terback controversy and truant backs They've been there the whole time playing well but how well' nobody was' sure against the inexperienced and irf ept units of Iowa and California On Saturday when the spotlight fn nally hit them and 77000 fans needed them most they responded As an old coach would say they held up their end of the deal and they looked like they could do it all season They might not have a choice don't know how good we are yet" McBride said it's a defense with tremendous amount of character! al team players I talk to them all the time about how you can't win a championship without a defense: They've got a mission" Which would be toive their favorite coach a ring he would feel proud to wear.