HUSKER FOOTBALL Facing an eager media, the coach combed over the wreckage of a loss that threw into turmoil all his team's big goals. Were assistants on the same page? Did the coach consider pulling one of his best players, a cornerback, after he got burned multiple times? Why did his team go away from the run in the second half? How, given the frustration of the fan base, did players block out the noise? "Your players are reading it, your players' parents are reading it, recruits are reading it, so you've got to be aware of what's going on out there," the coach said. "At the end of the day, you have to focus on what's right, what you know your team's about, and that's really what it comes down to.
"I think it's important for our guys to understand that. But when you come to Ohio State, that comes to the territory." Ryan Day's Buckeyes lost at No.
1 Oregon, by a single point, in part because the Ducks deliberately put 12 men on the field late in the game. And the feeling in Columbus is eerily similar to that in Lincoln. That setback to Oregon brought Day and his players all kinds of heck from Buckeye Nation.
"We want to flush that game, but we're not going to forget about it," OSU quarterback Will Howard said at his press conference. "We're going to use it. I'm almost glad it happened now.
" Yes, it's entirely possible No. 4 Ohio State intends to unleash its own version of heck on the 251⁄2-point underdog who visits this weekend. Of all the horseshoe-shaped stadiums Nebraska.