8. Nebraska

The Exorcism of the 1996 season finally took place this May, on one of those sweltering days that almost melt the carpet at Lincoln's Memorial Stadium. Senior All-America defensive end Grant Wistrom had watched the intensity of many of his teammates wilt during the first couple of days of "voluntary" spring workouts, just as it had the previous spring. Instead of singling out the offenders, he had the entire team charge up the stadium steps, over and over again, until players began to vomit, leaving the pent-up bile from '96—upset losses to Arizona State and Texas—in puddles on the ground.

It was the healthiest sickness that Wistrom, who nearly threw up himself, has ever felt. "That got the message across real quick that we weren't going to put up with a lot of the b.s. from last year, the lackadaisical attitudes and everything," he says. "After that, we had one of the best summers any of us can remember."

Whether that preparation will lead to a third national championship in four years remains to be seen. Much will depend on the poise of senior quarterback Scott Frost, who finished last season with respectable numbers—nine rushing touchdowns, 13 passing touchdowns and only three interceptions—but had trouble making fans forget his predecessor, Tommie Frazier, especially after Frost's bumbling performance in the Huskers' 19-0 loss to the Sun Devils. "Last year was my first playing in this offense, and you could tell," says Frost, who transferred from Stanford two years ago. "I was too tight, thinking too much. Arizona State was only my second game at quarterback. This year I feel a lot more comfortable."

That feeling is shared by the rest of the offense, which was fourth in the country in rushing last year (291.9 yards per game). Among the six returning offensive starters is junior tailback Ahman Green, who is pain-free after being hindered by turf toe and a stress fracture in his left foot last season and rushing for just 917 yards, down from 1,086 the year before. He will get plenty of carries this fall, as will sophomore I-back DeAngelo Evans (776 yards) after he returns from a pelvis injury that will sideline him for one to two games. Senior All-America center Aaron Taylor moves back to his old spot at left guard and heads an experienced line.

As coach Tom Osborne enters his 25th season at Nebraska, his main concern is a defense that lost eight starters (six were chosen in the NFL draft). Had Wistrom left, he would likely have been a first-round pick, but the Huskers' 37-27 loss to Texas In the Big 12 championship game—a bitter defeat that quashed Nebraska's three-peat hopes—helped persuade him to stay. "If you had told me Texas would hang 37 points on us, I would have laughed at you," says Wistrom. "Every time I go into the weight room I think about that loss."

This year the prospect of defeat doesn't appear often on a schedule littered with fatted calves such as Akron and Central Florida. Indeed, all that stands between Nebraska and another run at the national championship are road games at Washington and Colorado, two teams the Huskers find themselves trailing, for a change, in most preseason polls. Frost hardly minds that. "Any time you're ranked from Number 3 to Number 9, there's definitely less pressure than when you're Number 1," he says. "We're going to be fighting our way up from the bottom to the top this year, and that's how we won two national championships."

It's hard to count out any team that has the exorcist on its side, a guy who not only turns heads on the field but also looks at wins and losses in mystical terms. "It's like an out-of-body experience when you lose at Nebraska," says' Wistrom, who has tasted defeat only twice in his 38-game college career. "When I leave here, I don't want to be remembered as a loser."

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