Cornhusker Coach Becoming a Crouch Potato

Nebraska Coach Frank Solich is getting used to The Eric Crouch Show.

He especially likes the endings.

The junior quarterback only scored one touchdown Saturday, but led the No. 2 Cornhuskers on three other scoring drives in the second half as they rallied for a 49-27 victory over Iowa State.

“We’re almost conditioned and used to him having these types of games,” Solich said.

“I don’t think there’s any question that he’s the leader of this football team. He did a great job in the second half bringing this team down the field and putting points on the board. I think the whole offense played really well when it had to.”

Crouch ran for 138 yards and passed for 164 to help keep Nebraska unbeaten--5-0 overall and 2-0 in the Big 12--after the Cornhuskers trailed for the first time at halftime this season.

“Part of football is overcoming adversity and that’s one of the things we talked about at halftime,” said Crouch, whose one-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter gave him eight rushing touchdowns this season.

“We’re a powerful football team and offense is something we take pride in,” Crouch said. “We knew what they were going to line up in. It was a matter of picking out the plays that we wanted to run and executing every single one of them.”

Nebraska did allow more than 250 passing yards for the third consecutive game, but is expected to return to No. 1 in the Associated Press poll after dropping a spot last week. Top-ranked Florida State lost, 27-24, to No. 7 Miami Saturday.

“No doubt about it. If we’re not No. 1 I don’t know who is,” said Corell Buckhalter, who had two short touchdown runs for the Cornhuskers.

Iowa State (4-1, 1-1)--off to its best start in 20 years--led, 14-13, at halftime but could not stop Nebraska in the second half as the Cornhuskers scored five touchdowns.

Sage Rosenfels completed 22 of 42 passes for 346 yards and two touchdowns to lead Iowa State. But the Cyclones, who averaged 227.5 rushing yards, couldn’t run the ball and finished with only 37 rushing yards.

“We got beat up front. We didn’t run the ball,” said Iowa State Coach Dan McCarney, who is 0-6 against Nebraska. “They were more physical than we were. We didn’t sustain blocks.”

Winning Ways

Nebraska now has the longest active Division I win streak. The top five:

Nebraska: 11

Texas Christian: 10

Kansas State: 8

Oklahoma: 7

Clemson: 6