Huskers Get Geography Lesson From Southern Miss.

LINCOLN – Nebraska and the usual sellout crowd that crammed Memorial Stadium on Saturday got a lesson in geography.

The lesson was that it's a long, long way from Western Illinois to Southern Mississippi.

Southern Mississippi took advantage of five Nebraska turnovers to claim a 21-17 victory over the Huskers.

It was an upset, to be sure.

The nature of the upset, however, left the Husker Nation with reason to believe that better things are down the road. How far down the road is an unknown.

Perhaps the best news for NU fans came out of the post-game news conference.

Coach Bill Callahan and his protégés talked candidly and confidently about errors that were made, accepted responsibility for them, and generally expressed confidence that the problems that came up Saturday could be overcome.

The question in the minds of NU fans: Can they be overcome in time for the Huskers to mount a winning attack on the road this week against Pittsburgh?

It's hard to say. It borders on being hard to imagine.

Callahan said, several times, that "ball protection" would be greatly emphasized in the days ahead.

Sophomore quarterback Joe Dailey said the blame for the loss rested squarely on his shoulders, and his four turnovers. Neither his teammates nor Callahan would have any of it. Dailey needs to improve, Callahan acknowledged, but so does every phase of the game.

It always sounds ridiculous to say: "If we hadn't made those mistakes and given the other guy those easy points, we'd a won!"

Still, those who viewed the game know NU appeared capable of crushing Southern Miss. There was a sense that, on the next possession, Nebraska would get into gear and avoid stalling out. The Huskers kept starting off like a steamroller, then suddenly sputtering to a stop like a badly tuned tin lizzy. The better athletes were in scarlet and cream. The worthier combatants were wearing the other guys' colors.

Credit Callahan with a style that ought to convey a legitimate reality to the Nebraska faithful. His message is that building a winning team, with a new system, is a process. Every process takes time.

Callahan doesn't seem the type who would ever stammer during a news conference about his knowledge of what the fans expect and how much he wants them to be happy.

The first-year Husker head coach has consistently delivered messages that, taken together, seem to say: "Everyone wants to win. We're working with talent and a system that can eventually do that."

Nebraska opened the season against Division I-AA Western Illinois and rolled to a 56-17 win. The Western Illinois defense – that couldn't stop traffic if it were handing out money – nonetheless intercepted Joe Dailey four times. Western Illinois simply didn't have the firepower to compete with NU, regardless of any and all good breaks.

Those interceptions, however, were a harbinger of things to come.

In their loss to Southern Miss., the Huskers showed that they couldn't quite execute Callahan's West Coast offense well enough, consistently enough, to beat a more seasoned opponent. NU suffered five costly turnovers.

Dailey was intercepted three times. He also lost a fumble. Southern Mississippi turned every interception into a score. The Golden Eagles also scored in the fourth period after recovering a Tierre Green fumble.

That adds up to Southern Mississippi scoring four times on five turnovers.

Despite his problems, Dailey did a lot of things well on Saturday, just as he did the week before. He passed for 202 yards, completing 22 of 42 attempts. Those 42 attempts tied the school record set by David Humm in 1972. The NU running game rolled over Southern Miss for 274 yards. That's a balanced offense.

It was no shortage of physical skills that undid Dailey's best efforts. It was simply a lack of experience, and the subsequent errors which could be expected of most sophomore quarterbacks making their second start.

The rebuilding of the Husker offense also gives sociologists a tremendous opportunity.

They could check feedbacks on a variety of websites, and letters to Nebraska newspapers. If they compiled a list of all the people who quickly go into the rant n' rave mode, calling for the return of Frank Solich and the canning of Callahan, they would then have a real (although certainly incomplete) list of those who could be certified as "Genuine Husker Nuts!"

The Box Score

           Southern Miss vs Nebraska (Sept.11,2004 at Lincoln, Neb.)

 Score by Quarters     1  2  3  4   Score

-----------------    -- -- -- --   -----

Southern Miss.......  6  3  6  6  - 21       Record: (1-0)

Nebraska............  0  3 14  0  - 17       Record: (1-1)

 Scoring Summary:

1st 05:21 USM - MCCALEB 39 yd field goal, 7-11 2:25, USM 3 - NU 0

   03:14 USM - MCCALEB 41 yd field goal, 4-3 1:16, USM 6 - NU 0

2nd 14:50 NU - DeAngelis,Sandr 35 yd field goal, 9-52 3:17, USM 6 - NU 3

   01:42 USM - MCCALEB 21 yd field goal, 13-64 4:17, USM 9 - NU 3

3rd 11:29 NU - Mulkey,Grant 9 yd pass from Dailey,Joe (DeAngelis,Sandr kick), 5-73 2:07, USM 9 - NU 10

   10:00 NU - Herian,Matt 13 yd pass from Dailey,Joe (DeAngelis,Sandr kick), 4-28 1:06, USM 9 - NU 17

   00:00 USM - STEWART 49 yd interception return (COURINGTON rush failed), , USM 15 - NU 17

4th 07:47 USM - YOUNG, M. 46 yd pass from ALMOND (ALMOND pass failed), 2-51 0:47, USM 21 - NU 17

                                   USM       NU

FIRST DOWNS...................       11       26

RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............    33-97   46-274

PASSING YDS (NET).............      142      202

Passes Att-Comp-Int...........  28-12-1  42-22-3

TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS.....   61-239   88-476

Fumble Returns-Yards..........      0-0      0-0

Punt Returns-Yards............      0-0     2-10

Kickoff Returns-Yards.........     1-23    6-148

Interception Returns-Yards....     3-92     1-16

Punts (Number-Avg)............   7-41.7   4-39.2

Fumbles-Lost..................      2-0      5-2

Penalties-Yards...............     8-59     5-25

Possession Time...............    24:35    35:18

Third-Down Conversions........  6 of 17  7 of 17

Fourth-Down Conversions.......   0 of 0   1 of 4

Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......      2-2      3-4

Sacks By: Number-Yards........      0-0      1-8

RUSHING:Southern Miss-HARRIS 19-72; HARDY 3-16; MOORE 3-11;

COURINGTON 1-6; TEAM 2-minus 4; ALMOND 5-minus 4. Nebraska-Ross,Cory 27-169; Green,Tierre 11-66; Dailey,Joe 7-38; Jackson,Brandon 1-1.

PASSING:Southern Miss-ALMOND 12-28-1-142. Nebraska-Dailey,Joe

22-42-3-202.

RECEIVING:Southern Miss-COURINGTON 3-63; YOUNG, M. 3-49; LAWRENCE

2-17; PERINE 2-5; CARTER 1-5; HARRIS 1-3. Nebraska-Herian,Matt 8-71;

Ross,Cory 5-27; Mulkey,Grant 4-43; Pilkington,Ross 3-40; Kriewald,Steve

1-16; Nunn,Terrence 1-5.

 INTERCEPTIONS: Southern Miss-STEWART 1-49; FORD 1-31; EUBANKS 1-12.

Nebraska-Bullocks,Daniel 1-16.

 FUMBLES: Southern Miss-FORD 1-0; ALMOND 1-0. Nebraska-Dailey,Joe 2-1;

Green,Tierre 2-1; Ross,Cory 1-0.

Stadium: Memorial Stadium      Attendance: 77887

Kickoff time: 11:12 am  End of Game: 2:29 pm   Total elapsed time: 3:17

Officials: Referee: Dan Blum; Umpire: Ruben Fowler; Linesman: Kavin McGrath;

Line judge: Ken Antee; Back judge: Tom Huston Jr.; Field judge: Al Delvento;

Side judge: Jim Quirk;

Temperature: 73        Wind: Calm      Weather: Partly Sunny 61% hum

 

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