6 Nebraska

There is nothing anyone can say to make Nebraska feel better about last season. It's no use noting that the Cornhuskers succeeded in extending their NCAA-record streaks of nine-win and bowl-bid seasons to 30, and that they overcame inexperience and injury to finish sixth nationally in rushing at 253.8 yards per game. "Yeah, that's like being one of the worst offensive lines in Nebraska history," says senior 320-pound tackle Adam Julch sarcastically of the latter. "At Nebraska we should always be first in rushing."

The Huskers' tradition of dominance on the ground—and of contending for the national title—collapsed last season under first-year coach Frank Solich. Injuries were the main reason. Nine starters missed a total of 45 games with broken bones, torn ligaments, pulled muscles and nerve damage. Quarterback Bobby Newcombe and I-back DeAngelo Evans needed three surgeries between them. For Solich, who had spent 32 years preparing for his chance, it was like turning the ignition of a vintage Rolls-Royce to find the pistons thumping out of synch, the muffler backfiring and the radiator whistling like a teakettle while a warm black pool of oil forms on the pavement. After a 5-0 start, the Cornhuskers finished 9-4, ending with a 23-20 loss to Arizona in the Holiday Bowl. They lost more games than Tom Osborne's last five teams combined (60-3).

"I've never seen anything like it," Solich says of the wave of injuries that hit his team. "I really felt bad for the players—there was a lot of pressure on them with a new head coach. We are conditioned to win championships, and when that's not materializing, things can fall apart."

All of last year's injured underclassmen are expected to be ready for the Sept. 4 opener at Iowa, with the exception of junior rover Joe Walker, who should return in midseason after recovering from reconstructive knee surgery. The Huskers are intent on returning to the form that carried them to national titles in 1994, '95 and '97 "Coming off the last national championship season, it was easy to get a little lax," says junior split end Matt Davison, who two years ago made the miraculous catch off a teammate's foot against Missouri that helped secure an undefeated season. "It's not that everybody didn't work hard, but all of the intensity wasn't there." Now? "This team has worked the hardest of any team I've seen," he says. "Obviously, we know what defeat tastes like now."

A lot of players earned valuable experience last year by filling in for one another. Seven defensive positions could be manned by any of the 10 players who started four or more games in '98. The strength of the defense is in the secondary, which returns intact but will need help from a rebuilt line to reduce the 196.8 yards per game Nebraska permitted through the air last fall. "There is a tension, a bitterness, a frustration that has been building since the end of the bowl game," says senior outside linebacker Tony Ortiz. "We're always talking about the things we need to do differently from last year. The competition is so fierce against each other."

No one seems more intense than quarterback Newcombe, who made five of his six starts last season with a torn posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. "That injury has given me more confidence," says Newcombe, who completed 63% of his passes and rushed for 228 yards before undergoing surgery last December. "I've watched myself on film playing at 50 to 60 percent, and I'm still running by some people, still shaking some people. I wasn't practicing during the week, and I was still going out there and winning the game. I'd like to see how I look when I have both of my legs working."

Solich will have a quarterback controversy to sort out, as sophomore Eric Crouch filled in over the last half of the season, finishing as the team's second-leading rusher (459 yards and a 4.8 yard average) despite being slowed by a hamstring pull and a hip pointer. Newcombe sees no controversy. "I'm preparing myself to lead this team to win a national championship," he says in a commanding voice that belongs in the fourth quarter of a tight game in October. "It's a good thing the coaches aren't on the field in our summer workouts, because the guys have been finding out who is real and who is fake. You're either one or the other. It's tough for some players to be called to be leaders, because they want to be liked by certain individuals, but a leader can't worry about that."

Solich, who was Osborne's running backs coach for 15 years, has spent hours trying to determine the causes of last year's injuries. He has decided it was just a run of bad luck.

"We were doing the same things we've always done," he says. "I think we were fortunate throughout the 1990s in terms of injuries, and last year the odds just caught up with us."

Now his players are in the mood to turn those odds against the opposition.