COLLEGE FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE NATION : Nebraska’s Phillips Pleads Not Guilty

Lawrence Phillips pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a charge that he struck his former girlfriend, and Coach Tom Osborne said he thought the Nebraska star initially was so distraught he might harm himself. “Frankly, on Sunday, I thought I might never see him again,” Osborne said at his weekly news conference. “I was afraid of what he might do to himself because I knew he thought he’d blown it.” . . . Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz was in stable condition after surgery to remove pressure on his spinal cord. The 4 1/2-hour operation at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., was completed without complications. Holtz, 58, was expected to spend the night in the intensive care unit and be transferred to a regular room today.