UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesdav. September 6. 1995
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Northwestern savors big victory
Alumni, fans consider defeat of Notre Dame greatest victory since '49
By Rick Gano The Associated Press
EVANSTON, Ill. -- While congratulations pour in from alumni and fans, the Northwestern Wildcats are savoring their biggest football victory in years. And they're not looking back.
"Our coaches and players have chosen to look at where we are and where we are going, rather than dwell so much on where we've been and what we haven't done here," coach Gary Barnett said Monday, two days after a stunning 17-15 victory at Notre Dame.
The after-shocks are still being felt. But not by Barnett.
"Right now, it just seems to be what we all came here to do," he said.
Some are calling it the school's greatest football victory, certainly the biggest since the Wildcats won the Rose Bowl in 1949. Tennis star Todd Martin, who attended the school, said the win inspired him to a third-round victory in the U.S.
Open.
And quarterback Steve Schnur,
who engineered the win with two
touchdown passes, was a guest on
"Good Morning America."
Northwestern's football past is not one that stirs conversation or generates national attention - at least not for winning. There hasn't been a winning season since 1971.
"There's been a reaction by people who said, 'It's the greatest day of my life,' " Barnett said.
"For the guys who have been here for four years, rather than being history, it's a culmination of all the work we've put in," senior kicker Sam Valenzii said.
"Just one indication is the number of people who have called, given us faxes and messages on how important this has been. I was happy but I don't know if it was the greatest day of my life. It was a good day."
Gary Barnett Northwestern football coach
A sense of what the victory means is difficult for some players.
"I guess in 20 years I'll have an idea," he said. "But it's only been three days." Northwestern has had good starts before and then faltered.
victories against Boston College and Wake Forest. They didn't win another game.
The Wildcats were 3-3-1 last season and then lost the final four games. Two years ago they were 2-1 with
Barnett is going to make sure that doesn't happen this time. And the schedule is in his favor. The Wildcats don't play this week and then start a string of three consecutive home games against Miami of Ohio. Air Force and Indiana.
"There has been so much publicity and so many distractions," Barnett said. "It's probably good for us to have a couple of days to get rid of them. This will allow them to get their feet back on the ground.
Northwestern also will be in an unfamiliar position, probably in all three games. The Wildcats will be favored.
"We were 2-1 and beat Wake and Boston College and got a lot of publicity, and I don't think the program handled it well. We went to Ohio State and our fannies kicked (51-3)."
"Now everybody is shooting for us, and that's not a position we've ever been in," Valenzisi said. "I think it's good to have a week off. I think we will be able to concentrate a little more. It's a new situation for all of us."
Most pleasing to the Wildcats and Barnett is that Northwestern didn't win on luck. The Wildcats beat Notre Dame because they played better against the most prestigious of football programs.
"I don't think anybody can say it was a fluke game," Barnett said. "Offense, defense, special teams — we won the game. That's the way you wanted it to happen. We earned it, we deserved it and we have it."
Quarterback's energy excites Colorado coach
The Associated Press
BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado football coach Rick Neuheisel may have his hands full trying to rein in quarterback Koy Detmer's enthusiasm.
Detmer completed 17 of 24 passes for 267 yards and three touchdowns Saturday as the Buffaloes defeated Wisconsin 43-7.
The 6-foot-1-inch, 185 pound quarterback kept the ball on two of three option plays and made he a long dives into his
teammates while celebrating.
Rick Neuhelsel
"I think what he did was pure excitement." Neuheisel said Monday. "The guy's like a jumping bean, wired to the hilt to play college football. And yet he goes out there and looks pretty calm in the pocket.
"So I'm getting what I want out of my quarterback. I just want him to protect himself a little more."
The Buffaloes are preparing this week for Saturday's game against rival Colorado State by focusing on goal-line offense and defending against the run, Neuheisel said.
OSU coach to stress basics
Tackling, other fundamentals absent in 64-21 loss to Nebraska
The Associated Press
STILLWATER, Okla. — The theme this week for the Oklahoma State football team is fundamentals. Unless the Cowboys start doing the little things better, they're in for a lot of trouble, Oklahoma State football coach Bob Simmons said.
Oklahoma State likely wouldn't have beaten No. 2 Nebraska with a great performance Thursday. But Simmons believes bad tackling, missed assignments, improper alignments and a general lack of fundamentals contrib.
lacked of information contributed to the 64-21 loss.
"The media looks at Nebraska as if it wasn't a winnie situation," Simmons said. "I didn't look at it that way."
Why? Because the Cowboys had a good number of returning starters, and Oklahoma State had been a handful for Nebraska in recent years.
"I thought that we would do that in this ball game," Simmons said, "That didn't happen. Execution went out the window on both sides of the ball."
Bob Simmons
Simmons, seemed most concerned about the tackling problems.
"We'd come up in the secondary, and it was like we weren't even there," he said. "That's alarming. That's the things that we teach every day in practice, and we did not execute it during the ball game.
"You've got to give credit to Nebraska, too. But if we can't be a good tackling team, then it's going to be a long year."
Simmons wasn't as critical of his offense. The Cowboys, who scored only 22 touchdowns last season, reached the end zone all three times they moved inside the 20-yard line. Two of those scores came against Nebraska reserves, but at this stage the Cowboys will take the small victories where they can find them.
A handful of penalties soured Simmons a bit, but he said the offense continued to play hard even after falling behind 50-7 early in the third quarter.
"The score may not indicate that, but I didn't really see anybody quitting," he said. "I was looking to see if we were going to lay down, and I didn't see that for the most part."
This week's opponent, Tulsa, also had a long opening night. The Golden Hurricane lost 37-5 to Baylor and saw quarterback Troy DeGar leave the game with a broken bone in his left hand. He had surgery Sunday and is questionable for this week.
Tulsa had trouble moving the ball against Baylor. The Golden Hurricane was held below 100 yards in the first half and finished the game with just 221.
"Although Tulsa did not play well against Baylor, Baylor on film looks like a big, explosive football team on both sides of the ball," Simmons said. "But I think when Tulsa plays Oklahoma State they turn it up another level because it's an in-state rivalry."
Playing Nebraska turned out to be very unpleasant, and Simmons doesn't expect things to get any easier Saturday night.
"We know that playing Tulsa is going to be probably just as hard as playing Nebraska only because it's an in-state rivalry," he said. "We're looking to establish some things for ourselves and we haven't done that yet. We can't take anybody lightly."
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