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5
Nebraska
A new coach and 11 new starters can mean only one thing:
the start of another dynasty at Nebraska, where the names
change, but everything else remains the
same
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One of the Cornhuskers' favorite numbers to call this year
will be the 45 of rugged senior fullback
Makovicka. (John W.
McDonough) | Frank
Solich sounds bemused when asked what changes he has made in his
eight-plus months as Nebraska coach. "The way things
have been going would deem that you not make
changes," Solich says, the understatement speaking loud and clear. When a team has
gone 49-2 in
the last four seasons and won three national championships,
you don't want to wash socks, much less tweak the practice
schedule.
But Solich, a former Nebraska running back and 19-year
Cornhuskers assistant coach who succeeded the retired Tom
Osborne, may not be able to keep the Huskers' wagon on the
national championship track. True, this is Nebraska, so
it's not as if every
other coach in the country wouldn't want his lineup to include a
few of Solich's players. But it has been a long time since
a Nebraska offense began the season with so little proven
talent.
It's a good thing, then, that the defense, which is
accustomed to operating in the offense's shadow, promises
to be as unyielding as ever. Eight starters are back,
including a Browns secondary that the NFL expansion team in
Cleveland would like to have
next year—and not simply for reasons of nomenclature.
Junior corner Ralph Brown has started every game since he
arrived in Lincoln and already holds the school record for
passes broken up in a career (21). Junior rover Mike Brown
is a steamroller who
grew into the job last season after playing backup corner as a
freshman. (And let us not forget senior kicker Kris Brown,
who has made 22 of 26 field goal attempts since late in the
'96 season, and senior wingback Lance Brown, whose vertical
jump is a
team-best 38.5
inches.)
With two All-Americas, end Grant Wistrom and tackle Jason
Peter, gone from the defensive line, senior end Mike Rucker
needs to make big plays. He had
7 1/2 sacks last fall, second on the team to Wistrom.
The defense will need to force as many turnovers as
possible given the uncertainty on the other side of the
ball. Take the offensive line, on which senior center Josh
Heskew's 14 career starts are 14 ahead of the cumulative
total of the other four
starters. By comparison, the line that went into the Orange Bowl
last January had 121 starts, including 36 by '97
Outland Trophy winner Aaron Taylor. "You have to adjust to
younger
players," says Heskew, who has fully recovered from back surgery in
the
winter to repair a herniated disk. "They have seen what it
takes to get the job done, but they don't know how. They
are used to playing together [as backups in practice]. I'm
trying to do my best to fit in with
them."
In the backfield, senior fullback Joel Makovicka is as
dependable as a
telemarketer's phone call at suppertime. The Cornhuskers need
Makovicka's consistency, in part because third-year
sophomore
I-back DeAngelo Evans will be returning from a pelvic injury
that required two surgeries and more than a year to heal.
As a freshman in 1996, the
5' 9", 210-pound Evans stepped in for the injured Ahman
Green and Damon
Benning and rushed for 776 yards and 14 touchdowns. Evans is
getting healthy but will likely miss the Huskers' first two
or three games. Behind him are sophomore Correll Buckhalter
and a bunch of guys with fancy high school
résumés.
Sophomore quarterback Bobby Newcombe is so talented that
Osborne had him play wingback and return kicks last season.
Newcombe scored three touchdowns—on a 16-yard run, a
40-yard catch and a 53-yard punt return. The 6-foot,
195-pound Albuquerque native is the fastest player (4.46) on a
fast team. "Our linebackers are not
slow," Heskew says. "When Bobby can juke them and make them
drop their jocks, that makes me a believer." Solich,
not given to raving, says Newcombe's "speed
at the quarterback position is
unbelievable." The coach is even more impressed with Newcombe's work
ethic: the business management major is ahead of schedule
to graduate, and he showed up at the football office every
day this summer to watch
tape.
As impressive as Newcombe is, the emphasis, phonetically
and otherwise, is on the new. After all, he has completed
only one pass, for a mere 15 yards. His
predecessor, Scott Frost, developed into an outstanding quarterback,
but not before his inexperience contributed heavily to the
19-0 defeat at Arizona State in 1996. There's also the
issue of a new man sending in
plays from the sideline. Solich hasn't called a game since 1982,
the last of his four seasons running the freshman team.
"We'll do what Tom
did," says
Solich, adding that calling plays "will be a team
deal" among members of the offensive
staff.
With so much inexperience, Solich jumped at the chance to
play a 12th
regular-season game, the opener against Louisiana Tech. Osborne
liked the
extra games too, but in each of the
three Kickoff Classics he coached, the Huskers had a seasoned
quarterback.
See, Solich is making changes
after all. —Ivan Maisel
Fast Facts
1997 record: 13-0 (8-0, 1st in Big 12 North)
Final ranking: No. 2 AP, No. 1 coaches' poll
| 1997 Averages | Offense | Defense |
| Scoring | 47.1 | 16.4 |
| Rushing Yards | 392.6 | 73.4 |
| Passing Yards | 121.1 | 183.9 |
| Total Yards | 513.7 | 257.3 |
|
Lineup
Coach: Frank Solich
First year as a Division I-A head coach
| OFFENSE |
| WR | Kenny Cheatham | Sr. | Hampered in '97 by pulled quad |
| LT | Adam Julch | Jr. | 6'5", 315, has played in 16 games |
| LG | James Sherman | Jr. | Replaces an Outland winner |
| C | Josh Heskew | Sr. | Only returning regular on OL |
| RG | Ben Gessford | Sr. | Got scholarship in January '98 |
| RT | Jason Schwab | Jr. | Coaches love his athleticism |
| TE | Sheldon Jackson | Sr. | 4 rec. in Orange Bowl |
| WB | Lance Brown | Sr. | Career: 19 rec., 371 yds., 2 |
| QB | Bobby Newcombe | So. | Fastest player on the team |
| RB | DeAngelo Evans | So. | 776 rushing yds. in '96 |
| FB | Joel Makovicka | Sr. | No negative yds. in 105 carries |
| K | Kris Brown | Sr. | 13 pts. shy of team scoring mark |
| DEFENSE |
| LE | Chad Kelsay | Sr. | 1997 Academic All-Big 12 |
| NT | Steve Warren | Jr. | 20 career games, 25 tackles |
| DT | Jason Wiltz | Sr. | Started 10 games at NT |
| RE | Mike Rucker | Sr. | 71/2 sacks as a reserve |
| OLB | Tony Ortiz | Jr. | 31/2 sacks and 5 QB hurries |
| MLB | Jay Foreman | Sr. | Son of NFL's Chuck Foreman |
| OLB | Eric Johnson | Sr. | 49 tackles, 3 sacks |
| CB | Erwin Swiney | So. | Started last nine games |
| SS | Mike Brown | Jr. | Led team with 77 tackles |
| FS | Clint Finley | So. | 14 tackles in nine games |
| CB | Ralph Brown | Jr. | Contender for Thorpe Award |
| P | Bill Lafleur | Sr. | 4 career punts, 41.3 avg. |
|
Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are from 1997 season.
Pivotal Players
At
5' 9",
DeAngelo Evans
is the Huskers' smallest starting I-back since 1972, but
not as diminutive as their leading rusher in 1964,
5' 7" Frank Solich. "We always mess with him about
how little he is," Evans says of his coach. Evans
prefers comparisons to a
5' 8" back from his hometown of Wichita, Kans., Barry
Sanders....
Joel
Makovicka, Nebraska's leading returning rusher, needs 750 yards to
become the alltime Husker fullback rushing
leader.... Last season wingback
Lance Brown
had 12 receptions and 38 knockdown blocks and excelled on
special teams. Like his stepfather, Jackie Brandt, a
light-hitting outfielder in the major leagues from 1956 to
'67, Brown has made a career out of doing the little things
well....
Junior linebacker
Brian Shaw
nearly has it all—a 4.0 GPA, a 36-inch vertical leap
and a school record in an agility test. What he doesn't
have is a full-time starting job. Shaw shares the
strongside position with
Tony
Ortiz.
Key Games
Schedule strength: 12th of
112
Sept. 26 vs. Washington
In a 27-14 win in '97 the Huskers exposed highly ranked
Washington as a fraud. This less-experienced Huskies team
can expect a long flight back to
Seattle.
Oct. 24 vs. Missouri
Mizzou's controversial 45-38 OT loss to the Huskers in '97
proved that coach Larry Smith's rebuilding is on track. No
team rushed for more yards
(153) against Nebraska last
year.
Nov. 14 at Kansas State
The Wildcats may have replaced Colorado as the Huskers' top
Big 12 rival, but they have come within
seven points of defeating Nebraska only once in the last 29
seasons.
X Factor
The 1989 Miami team with Craig Erickson was the last to win
a national title with a quarterback who had never been a
full-time starter. Is Bobby Newcombe talented enough to
break this nine-year
trend?
Bottom Line
A talented defense with eight returning starters will carry
the team until the offense finds itself. With Newcombe
under center, that shouldn't take
long.
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