PAGE 58E AUGUST,1996
KUED·SPORTS
LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD
NU loaded again in '96
BY ANDREW HARTSOCK
JOURNAL-WORLD SPORTS WRITER
The Big Red Machine rolls on.
Nebraska, the two-time defending national college football champion, is so stocked again this year, the normally reserved Cornhuskers are actually — gasp openly talking about a threepeat.
"I think a three-peat is very attainable for this group," NU senior split end Brendan Hol-
bein said.
"The
opportunity
is there
for this group. The last two national championships are stepping stones."
The Huskers, 12-0 again last year, lost all-everything QB Tommie Frazier and six other offensive starters. But seven starters return to NU's stifling defense.
Defensively, we have a good chance, if we keep working hard," said NU end Jared Tomich, the Big 12 preseason defensive player of the year. "We have a chance to be the best ever at Nebraska. But we have to keep focused."
Much of the focus from outside the Huskers' camp is on quarterback, where Stanford transfer Scott Frost — a dropback passer — likely will replace Frazier, a Heisman Trophy also-ran who was born to run the Huskers' option offense.
"The big question is quarterback,"NU coach Tom Osborne said. "We lost two great players in Tomnie Frazier and Brook Berringer. But we're in good shape, considering that. Scott Frost has been in our program for a year and a half. He has excellent physical capabilities.
... We hope he'll be a very good player."
Three offensive line starters and I-back Ahman Green return to the offense that rolled up 399.8 yards per game last season.
"I think we'll definitely be good offensively," Osborne said. "The biggest question is
Sept. 7 - Michigan State
Schedule
Sept. 21 - at Arizona State
Sept. 28 — Colorado State
Oct. 5 — at Kansas State
Oct. 12 -Baylor
Oct. 19 — at Texas Tech
Oct. 26 - Kansas
Nov. 2—at Oklahoma
SEEKING BARGAINS?
Nov. 9 - Missouri
Nov. 16 — at Iowa State
Nov.29-Colorado
The Journal-World Classified works 832-2222
Aaron Taylor, who we moved from guard to center. If he fits that role, we'll have a solid offensive line but not a lot of depth. . . And Ahman's a little bigger this year, in the 215-218 range. And we hope to get some mileage out of true freshman DeAngelo Evans."
Osborne is confident he'll have the talent. Chemistry is unknown.
"Chemistry was a major strength of this team over the last few years," Osborne said. "If we continue to have that, we'll be a strong football team. If we don't have that, we'll be an average football team.
"It'd be nice to do that (three-peat). No team is going to aim low. Obviously, the odds are against it. There are 106 Division One teams. Ten or 15 are going to have enough athletes to do it. We take the attitude, somebody's got to win it. We've got as good a chance as anybody."
NU will play host to Kansas on Oct.26.The Huskers beat KU, 41-3, last fall in Lawrence.
The 1996 season will mark Glen Mason's ninth as head coach at Kansas, tying Jack Mitchell (1958-66) for longest stint as a Jayhawk head coach.
Mason's record of 43-47-1 includes a mark of 34-22 over the last five years.
This season marks Mason's 25th in coaching. With the Jayhawks' first game (Ball State) in 1996, Mason will have coached more games (92) than any other coach in school history.
GLEN MASON AT A GLANCE
Mason has 43 wins at KU, one short of tying Mitchell for second in KU career victories. A.R. Kennedy ranks first with 53.
Other significant facts about Mason:
- He has guided KU to 28 wins over the past four years, the most in any four-year period in the last 85 years.
- He was named Big Eight Coach of the Year in 1992 and '95.
- Six of the top 10 total offense marks in KU history came during the Mason years.
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