Eric The Red

Sporting News, The, Nov 22, 1999 by Sean Deveney

Eric Crouch leads Nebraska past Kansas State to put the Huskers back in contention for the national title

The rows blend upward to the sky, red disappearing into the Nebraska twilight. Below, along the sideline of Memorial Stadium, players in red are angling for a view of the field. Eric Crouch is among them, but he can't see, wedged behind a pair of behemoth linemen.

Crouch dodges, ducks and slides between the linemen in time to watch the Nebraska defense sack Kansas State relief quarterback Adam Helm for the third consecutive down, setting up a fourth-and-27 and, with 8:50 to play and Nebraska ahead, 34-9, sealing the win for the Cornhuskers.

The players bounce, and the rows of red sway and roll. Crouch, however, does not celebrate. He puts on his helmet, fastens his chin strap and prepares to take the field.

After the game, which Nebraska goes on to win, 41-15, Crouch explains his subdued reaction. "There are a lot of highs and lows in a game and in a season."

This is definitely a high. His team steamrolled unbeaten Kansas State, ranked a notch ahead of the Cornhuskers in each of the major polls and, more important, the BCS standings. Kansas State beat Nebraska last season for the first time since 1968, and a win in Lincoln would solidify the Wildcats' status as the epicenter of the Big 12. But Crouch had a big part in preventing that. He carried 27 times for 158 yards and two touchdowns against a defense that had limited opponents to 93.2 yards rushing per game.

"That's pretty doggone good for a quarterback," Kansas State coach Bill Snyder says.

It's also doggone good for the Huskers, who have vaulted back into the national title picture. Crouch and the team have absorbed some lows this season, including a 24-20 loss at Texas on October 23, but, behind the running of their levelheaded quarterback, could end the season on a high. With Tennessee's loss to Arkansas, Nebraska's checklist of things to do to secure a spot in the national championship Sugar Bowl is straightforward: win at Colorado the day after Thanksgiving, win a rematch over Texas in the December 4 Big 12 title game at the Alamodome and get a little help from Virginia Tech and Florida, which were third and fourth in last week's BCS standings. Surprised? So is Crouch.

"We have to have some things fall into place, but, man," he says, shaking his head, smiling, "we could do it."

Go back to the end of August and find Crouch not smiling. He is driving east on Interstate 80, through the yellow-stubbled cornfields surrounding the 50 miles from Lincoln to Omaha, his hometown. The gym at Millard North High is musty from the summer heat, and Crouch sits with his old coach, Fred Petito, talking intermittently. Petito has seen Crouch at his best on the Millard North field, from a 38-3 win over Westside in his first game at quarterback as a sophomore to his 1,960 yards rushing his junior season. But, here in the empty gym, Crouch is not a football player. He's a kid in need of advice, of explanations, of comfort. "He was just a little confused, a little low," Petito says. "He wanted to talk to people he knew."

Nebraska coach Frank Solich had just announced the starters for the opener at Iowa. Crouch was not among them, losing the spot to Bobby Newcombe for the second time in two seasons. Newcombe beat Crouch for the starting job in 1998, but Newcombe injured his knee in the opener and, although he started six more games, never returned to full speed. Crouch, then a redshirt freshman, missed some games at midseason with a hip pointer hut started the final four, including the Holiday Bowl. However, Newcombe, healthy again this summer, regained his starting status.

The same day, Solich drives to Omaha in search of Crouch and finds him with Petito. He talks to him. He tells him the team will need him, that in an option attack, two quarterbacks are vital. He will play.

"It was a low point," Crouch says. "I didn't know if I would be getting on the field that much. He cleared a lot of things up and said I'd be playing a lot of football."

"I think he understood," Petito says. "He cheered up after that. I think he has come a long way since then."

Crouch returned--he never really considered transferring, despite rumors--but it was just one of many problems for Solich. I-back Correll Buckhalter defected but returned. Another I-back, DeAngelo Evans, left the team and was not allowed back. At the same time, with fans starting to push for Crouch to start, Newcombe approached Solich and told him he wanted to play wingback (where he was a key contributor on Nebraska's 1997 co-national title team) and that Crouch should take over as quarterback. With fullback Willie Miller injured, the Nebraska backfield was in disarray.

Ten games into the season, there still is disarray in the backfield. If Nebraska is going to win its final two games and have a shot at the Sugar Bowl, it will have to do so without much input from its running backs. The Huskers average 3.9 fumbles a game and fumbled 10 times against Kansas State, losing three. On the opening play of the game, Wildcats end Darren Howard threw off an Adam Julch block and jarred the ball from I-back Dan Alexander, who entered the game as the team's leading rusher. Alexander was benched. Buckhalter, the backup, fumbled on his fourth carry. He did not get another carry until the fourth quarter, and when he did, he lost his second fumble.