Nebraska, Texas A&M; Both Taking a Chance Tonight

Second-ranked Nebraska and No. 10 Texas A&M; go into tonight’s sixth Kickoff game with different philosophies, but both are gambling that it might lead to a No. 1 ranking by the end of the season.

Nebraska is looking to get off to a fast start. Texas A&M; is hopeful that playing a rugged early schedule--Nebraska, Louisiana State, Alabama and Oklahoma State--will result in a strong finish.

“We’re both rolling the dice,” Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne said Friday. “There’s a risk involved. There’s something to be gained, and there’s something to be lost. But I don’t think that a loss will end the season. I suppose you could still wind up No. 1, but it doesn’t help to lose it.

“I think a team can rebound from this game and still have a great year. But if you’re really shooting for pretty high national goals, that’s the big risk--to play a game like this and start out behind the 8-ball.”

Texas A&M; Coach Jackie Sherrill doesn’t want to go home with a loss, but neither does he want his team to peak too early.

“It’s not how you start, but how you finish,” he said. “If you start out and really explode and then do something wrong at the end of the year--that’s when a bad tastes comes in your mouth.

“You’ve got to plan to approach the season one game at a time and get where you want to. Our season is divided into three seasons instead of one game.

“This game and LSU are the first part. Then we have a week off and play Alabama and Oklahoma State. Then we start the Southwest Conference season.

“The important thing is to take it step by step. Everybody talks about the national championship, but Nebraska can’t win the national championship until they win the Big Eight, and we can’t win it until we win the SWC.

Nebraska, which routed Penn State, 44-6, in the inaugural Kickoff game five years ago, is the first team to make a second appearance. Under National Collegiate Athletic Assn. guidelines, a team may appear only once in a five-year period.