Huskers rout K-State, 42-13 By BRETT MARSHALL Sporte Writer LINCOLN, Neb. – Kansas State head football coach Jim Dickey has been around long enough to recognize an outstanding offensive team. So when he passed out accolades of “the best offensive team they’ve ever had” and “their offensive line is something else” you knew he spoke with a great deal of respect for the Nebraska Cornhusker offensive machine. And why shouldn’t he? After all, the Huskers had just dismantled his Wildcats, 42-13, Saturday afternoon before a capacity crowd of 76,268. “I’ve been up here with many a different team when I was at other places, but this is without a doubt the best offensive team Nebraska has had,” a downcast Dickey said in the post-game interview. “Every way you can look at it, they are good. They can run, they can throw, they can do anything they want.” The loss drops the Wildcats to 0-1-1 in the Big Eight and 3-2-1 overall. Nebraska is 2-0 and 5-1. Dickey, although impressed with the performance of Husker I-back Mike Rozier, who rushed for 204 yards on 21 carries, and a multitude of other backs, he was most impressed with the NU offensive line. “Their offensive line is something else,” said Dickey. “I could run through some of the holes they made and I’m 95 years old. Just about any back could run behind that line. Every time I looked out there it seemed like we didn’t have anybody within a six- yard radius of where the ballcarrier was.” Nebraska’s margin of victory left little doubt as to which team had the better of it. The 6th-ranked Huskers rolled up 496 yards in offense, nearly 80 yards shy of their season average. Kansas State did make a mild run at the Cornhuskers in the third quarter after trailing 21-3 at intermission. A two-yard touchdown pass from Turner Gill to Jamie Williams early in the third quarter gave the Huskers a commanding 28-3 advantage, but the Wildcats persisted in delaying the inevitable as long as possible. First downs Rushes-yards Passing yards Passes Punts Fumbles-lost Penalties NU 27 58-384 112 12-13-0 0-0 6-4 5-26 KSU 15 45-124 131 11-27-0 4-38.8 0-0 7-67 Individual Statlitlei RUSHING • K-STATE: Dickey 5-5. Plerson 4-11. Foralmo 13-53, Crawford 6-16, Fulhoge 1-3, Allen l-(-6), Rlcketls 9-U. Adami 3-12. Bogus 2-6, Smith 1-8. NEBRASKA: Sundberg 1-2, Brungardt 313, Gill 9-57, Roller 21-204, Craig 7-20, Swanson 1-5, Wllkenlng 6-25, Smith 5-51, Mothlion 2-15. Verglth l-(-lO), Schellen 1-0. Morovec 1-2. PASSING • K-STATE: Dickey 7-17-0-98, Bogus 34-0-20, Campbell 1-6-0-13. NEBRASKA: Gill 11-120-101, Mothlion 1-1-0-11. RECEIVING • K-STATE: Wallace 4-40. Manning 15, Bailey 2-47, Rlcketls 1-6, Allen 1-16, Crawford 1-4. T. Brown 1-13. NEBRASKA: Krenk 2-27, Wll- llamt 3-24, Slmmoni 2-36, Swanion 2-12, Craig 1(-6), Brown 2-19. Darrell Dickey’s one-yard plunge midway through the third period and a career-best 45-yard field goal by Steve Willis in the late stages brought the Wildcats to within 15 points at 28-13. Nebraska, however, came on strong in the fourth quarter for the second straight week, scoring two TD’s to win going away. Reserve I-back Jeff Smith, a sophomore from Wichita, rambled 19 yards and backup quarterback Bruce Mathison slipped around left end from five yards out to finish off the scoring. Nebraska place-kicker Kevin Seibel was perfect on all six of his extra points, thus extending his consecutive streak to 47. Husker coach Tom Osborne gave his team a mixed review afterward. “We did a lot of good things today but we’re still vulnerable in some areas,” he said. “We could have had 14 more points in the first half, one of them (one of four lost fumbles) led to a score for them.” Osborne said he wanted to work on his passing attack against the Cats, but the Husker receivers kept coughing it (See K-STATE, Page 35) Score by Quarter* Kansas State 0 3 10 0-13 Nebraska 7 14 7 14-42 NU — Rozier 27 yd. run (Seibel kick) KSU — Willis 44 yd. field goal Neb — Wllkenlng 3 yd. run (Seibel kick) NU — Roller 46 yd. run (Seibel kick) NU — Williams 2 yd. pass from Gill (Seibel kick) KSU — Willis 45 yd. field goal NU — Smith 19 yd. run (Seibel kick) NU — Mathlson 5 yd. run (Seibel kick) A — 76,268.
UPI Photo WILDCAT SANDWICH – Kansas State’s Charles Crawford (39) is stopped by a host of Nebraska tacklers in Saturday’s Big Eight contest at Lin- coln. The Host Cornhusker squad went on to defeat the Wildcats, 42-13. K-STATE (Continued from Page 33) up with fumbles. In spite of the limited aerial attack, the Huskers were effective as Gill hit on ll-of-12 passes, establishing school and Big Eight records for completion percentage in the process. The previous best was a 23-of-27 effort by Nebraska’s David Humm in 1974 in a 56-0 victory over Kansas. “I think their offense is better than it’s ever been because of Gill,” said his counterpart, Darrell Dickey. “He hits his receivers well and he is so quick when he runs with the ball.” Although the Wildcats were able to Just get 13 points on the board (one touchdown and two Willis field goals), the offense was much improved from the past two weeks in a loss to Arizona State (30-7) and last week’s 7-7 tie with Missouri. “We still didn’t play good enough but the main thing is we did have a little more success,” said Dickey, the quarterback. “We had some good protection and we picked up the blitz a lot Big Eight Standings Conference Nebraska Oklahoma Missouri Oklahoma State Iowa State Kansas State Kansas Colorado W 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 W 5 4 3 1 3 3 1 1 All Gomel Saturday’s Results Nebraska 42. Kansas State 13: Oklahoma 38, Kansas 14; Colorado 25, Oklahoma State 25; Missouri 17, Iowa State 17. better than in the past.” Dickey, who completed just 7-of-17 passes, had several of them dropped by his receiving corps. “I threw some bad ones, too,” he said in defense of his receivers. “I’m not about to blame anybody. We’re all in this together.” Nebraska, as it has done all season, opened with a bang, marching 68 yards on its first possession of the game to take an early 7-0 lead. Rozier, who would later add another TD, got this one on a 27-yard scamper, breaking over right tackle and then outpacing the KSU defenders to the end zone. Willis made it 7-3 midway through the second quarter when he booted a 44-yard field goal. The score was set up when defensive tackle Bob Daniels recovered a Williams fumble after Gill had completed the pass to the big tight end. Nebraska made it 14-3 with 4:27 left before halftime when fullback Doug Wilkening bulled over from the three. Kansas State failed to move the ball on its next series and punted to the Huskers, who set up shop on their own 49 with just over two and a half minutes remaining. It didn’t take them long as Rozier took a pitch from Gill, turned the left corner and raced untouched for a 46- yard TD romp. Kansas State will now try to regroup for next week’s annual grudge match with cross-state rival Kansas in a game which is scheduled to be played Saturday night.
