Wednesday, October 15, 1997
The University Daily Kansan
Section B - Page 5
Huskers move to No.2 prepare for Texas Tech
The Associated Press
LINCOLN, Neb. — If Texas Tech quarterback Zebbie Lethridge is well Saturday, coach Tom Osborne said he thought Lethridge would be as dangerous a quarterback as No. 2 Nebraska would want to play.
Lethridge, second in Big 12 total offense with an average of 218 yards per game, is recovering from an ankle sprain that kept him out of the fourth quarter in the Red Raider's 17-7 win last week against Kansas. He is expected to play Saturday at Lincoln, and the Cornhuskers are preparing for him.
"Lethridge's health will be a major factor in the ballgame," Osborne said. "If he's full speed, he's probably as dangerous a quarterback that we would choose to play."
Lethridge has completed 86 of 146 passes for 1,020 yards and six touchdowns this year.
Nebraska (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) is preparing for Lethridge in much
the same way it prepared for Kansas St ate's Michael Bishop, who also is very mobile. The Huskers will try and keep
Lethridge in the pocket because he makes big plays when he breaks out, rush end Grant Wistrom said.
"It's a really tough thing playing a quarterback like that," Wistrom said. "You can have a really tough pass rush and you can get in his face, but he's faster than you so all he has to do is spin out of the pocket."
Nebraska moved up a spot in the polls after Saturday's 49-21 win against Baylor and Florida's loss to Louisiana State. But Osborne said Texas Tech was probably four or five touchdowns better than Baylor.
Nebraska hopes to improve the play of its reserves. Nebraska gave
up two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to the Bears — including one on a Husker fumble in the last play of the game.
"We need to make sure we make wins more convincing than that," Wistrom said. "You can't expect to stay ranked very high for very long if you let teams that you should beat pretty badly score 21 points on you. That's something we're not very happy about."
The Husker defense on Saturday will keep an eye on Texas Tech's true freshman running back Ricky Williams, who had 33 carries for 179 yards and one touchdown against Kansas.
"He really impressed me," Husker linebacker Jay Foreman said. "He's got good balance and he's pretty strong."
Tech's defense held Kansas to just 11 yards rushing in a 17-7 win against the Jayhawks on Saturday. The Red Raiders also recorded five sacks and eight tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
Auburn awaits hungry Gators
Florida loss leaves Tigers wary of attack
The Associated Press
AUBURN, Ala. — This was supposed to be the week Auburn would find out whether Florida could be beaten. With that question answered, the Tigers catch a wounded Gator team that already has plenty of motivation.
Until Florida's loss to LSU last week, No. 6 Auburn had been the only Southeastern Conference team to beat the No. 7 Gators since they began their string of four straight conference titles in 1993.
That is the reason most Auburn players feel as if little has changed because of Florida's loss.
"It didn't matter what happened
last week, you knew the whole time Florida was going to come in here ready to play," said quarterback Dameyunne Craig. "I'm not saying they were overlooking LSU, but they could have been looking ahead a little. They know how big the Auburn-Florida rivalry has become."
If Auburn wins Saturday, Terry Bowden would join his father as only the second coach with three or more wins against Florida since Spurrier arrived there in 1990.
"We Bowdens have that bad habit of considering the Gators to be human," he said, "though they've seemed a little superhuman the last few years."
Especially last season, when Florida thumped Auburn 51-10, barely even a speed bump on the way to a national title.
Florida lost key players, but almost everyone at Auburn was convinced the Gators were rolling this year and the Tigers would once again have the chance to ruin their national title hopes.
Last week changed those plans. It also took away some of the Florida mystique for players who weren't at Auburn for the earlier upsets.
"There's definitely a chink in the armor there," Bowden said. "I think the problem with any championship team is that once you lose any part of that championship team you're still compared exactly to that team. I don't think their passing game is as good as it was, but they have a power running game that still scares me to death."
Despite the flaws, Florida comes into the game the same way it did in 1993 and 1994, as a heavy favorite — 121/2 points — even though both teams are ranked in the top 10.
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