The mastermind engineer behind soft-wall technology, an innovative product aimed at making race-car driving safer, works as a professor at Nebraska.

Perhaps Dr. Dean Sicking can spare some of his patented, energy-absorbing foam cartridges to pad the Nebraska football team’s developing crash-and-burn season.

Consider: The week before Nebraska visited Penn State in mid-September, Cornhusker linebacker Barrett Ruud spoke to the Lincoln Journal Star. In reference to Nebraska’s 62-36 implosion at Colorado late last season, Ruud said, ‘It creeps into my mind a lot. This is kind of a similar situation.’

The Penn State game, if you can call it one, amounted to a primetime embarrassment. Nebraska lost its third consecutive road game dating to last season, surrendering 139 points in that span.

After hearing Ruud’s remark, Nebraska coach Frank Solich said: ‘That’s a comment that you wouldn’t want to have on your football team entering any big game. That is a feeling we need to dispel. Around here for the years that I can recall, we’ve had a feeling of refusing to lose.’

This is Solich’s fifth season, and dating to last year, Nebraska (3-2) is an alarming 3-4 in its last seven games, starting with losses to Colorado and Miami, 37-14, in the Rose Bowl, to conclude last season. Wins over Arizona State, 48-10, Troy State, 31-16, and Utah State, 44-13, to begin this year. Then, losses to Penn State, 40-7, and Iowa State, 36-14.

How about this gem unearthed by the Tulsa (Okla.) World: In the 39-plus seasons from 1962 until the Colorado loss last year, Nebraska lost only 76 games. In that span, only three losses to teams other than Oklahoma were by 23 points or more. Three dating to last season have been by such counts.

What happened?

‘I think Nebraska, they’re just caught in between, and it happens to every program,’ Colorado coach Gary Barnett said. ‘No one is immune from it. They are caught in between from losing a four-year starter and starting a new guy.’

Out went Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch. The new starter, junior Jammal Lord (Bayonne, N.J.), may not be starting any longer.

‘It’s not worked real smooth at this point in terms of looking at where we’re at in game situations,’ Solich said Monday. ‘He has practiced very well, and he no question is our best running quarterback. … But really, he has not done a good job taking care of the ball.’

Solich yanked Lord during last Saturday’s loss in Ames, Iowa, which dropped the Huskers from the AP Top 25 for the first time since 1981. Solich lays blame elsewhere, too, leading him to announce a lineup shakeup for Saturday’s game with McNeese State, an undefeated Division I-AA power.

At least four defensive players — freshman cornerback Fabian Washington, redshirt freshman rover Daniel Bullocks, junior tackle Patrick Kabongo and junior right end Trevor Johnson — will make their first career starts. Realistically, the substitutes replacing a junior and three seniors cannot perform much worse. Penn State and Iowa State combined to drop 888 yards of offense on the Huskers.

‘We really didn’t show any signs of moving forward as a football team,’ Solich said of the Iowa State setback. ‘We have shown some signs defensively of putting it together somewhat, although we still allow too many big plays.

‘Offensively, we’re certainly not getting enough big plays.’

The centerpiece of the offense, running back Dahrran Diedrick, has yet to rush for 100 yards in a game and carried only eight times for 28 yards at ISU. Another senior running back, Thunder Collins, just received reinstatement following a four-game suspension.

An option team predicated on running, the Huskers are searching so hard that Solich decided to burn freshman David Horne’s planned redshirt season this weekend. At season’s start, Horne was seventh on the team’s depth chart, the Journal Star reported.

‘(Jammal) no question is our best running back,’ Solich said.

Lord has rushed for 373 yards on 74 carries, compared to Diedrick’s 334 on 73 touches. Question: Is Lord the best quarterback, though? His completion percentage is below 50, and his touchdown-to-interception ratio is 4:5.

Solich has decided on a starter for this week, though two quarterbacks will see time. Whether it is Lord, sophomore Mike Stuntz or true freshman Curt Dukes who starts remains unannounced.

Regardless, it will require more than Lord to reverse Nebraska’s direction. The Cornhuskers still play at No. 23 Texas A&M, against No. 2 Texas, at No. 13 Kansas State and home versus rival Colorado.

‘We’ve come to a period here after two away games, both big games in a lot of ways, and there was a great deal of pressure on (Jammal) immediately entering this season,’ Solich said. ‘The bottom line is for him to have an impact, we have to play better.’

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This and that

Florida State canceled classes today and tomorrow because of traffic and safety concerns associated with tonight’s home football game, dubbed Bowden Bowl IV because FSU coach Bobby Bowden opposes his son, Clemson coach Tommy Bowden. Last year, the Associated Press ranked Florida State football No. 15 in the nation at season’s end. The Princeton Review, meanwhile, ranked Florida State third nationally in ‘Their Students (Almost) Never Study.’ … The BCS yesterday reversed an earlier ruling that Notre Dame’s win over Maryland in the Kickoff Classic would not count toward the nine victories the team needs to be eligible for a BCS game. However, the game with the Terrapins was played Aug. 31 rather than Aug. 24, and by that time, the exempt period of the season had concluded. The No. 9 Irish (4-0) meet coach Tyrone Willingham’s former team, Stanford, Saturday. … Penn State coach Joe Paterno grabbed an official following Saturday’s game, a 42-35 loss to Iowa in which two calls during overtime went against the Nittany Lions. Paterno reportedly got hold of referee Dick Honig’s shirt on his way to the locker room. ‘I grabbed him by the shirt and I said ‘Hey, Dick, you had two lousy calls,’ ‘ said Paterno, 75. ‘Not him, but two calls on the other sideline. I really don’t want something blown way out of proportion. I in no way tried to grab him, shove him. I just wanted to try to stop him and tell him there were a few lousy calls on the other side, and they weren’t his calls.’ … Texas Tech’s Kliff Kingsbury established another Big 12 record by passing for six touchdowns Friday. Kingsbury completed 41 of 59 passes for 407 yards. … But Washington State’s Jason Gesser put on the quarterbacking show of the weekend. A dislocated rib supposedly held Gesser out of much of last week’s practice. Saturday, Gesser somehow ripped apart California for 431 yards and four touchdowns to win coming from behind, 48-38. The man sounds possessed. Cal defensive end Tully Banta-Cain told ESPN.com’s Ted Miller that following one hit, Gesser ‘got up and laughed. I guess that guy is tough as nails.’

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Line of the week

A Norfolk, Neb., dentist whose Cornhusker cowboy hat was plucked off his head as he left Penn State’s Beaver Stadium on Sept. 14 has been reunited with his prized possession, the AP reported. The at-large purloiner apparently mailed the hat to Nebraska’s school newspaper with a short and rather unpolished note: ‘Next time, think twice about wearing that hat. You wear it again, and it ain’t coming back.’

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Heisman watch

Iowa State quarterback Seneca Wallace deserves consideration, especially after leading the Cyclones to their first victory over Nebraska in a decade. Wallace threw for 220 yards and a touchdown, though he was intercepted twice. Still, he won, and he came within one yard of tying Florida State and forcing overtime in the season opener. Against the Seminoles, he threw for 313 yards. Give him that one yard rushing, and No. 15 ISU might be 6-0. Instead, the Cyclones are 5-1, and the 5-foot-10, 193-pound Wallace is third nationally in passing yards with 1,653.

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V.I.P. M.I.A.

Cedric Houston, RB, Tennessee: The sophomore running back from Clarendon, Ark., needed surgery Monday on his left thumb to repair a torn ligament and will miss Saturday’s game vs. Arkansas. A deep, thigh bruise had limited his productivity the two previous weeks, as he rushed for 13 total yards on five carries. Houston will be evaluated week to week, the school reported.

Carlyle Holiday, QB, Notre Dame: Willingham remained unsure yesterday whether Holiday will play Saturday vs. Stanford. Holiday injured his non-throwing shoulder Sept. 21 against Michigan State and sat out last week’s practices. The Irish did not play last weekend.

Published on October 2, 2002 at 12:00 pm