Thursday, September 16, 1999 - The Michigan Daily - 21A Nebraska's Buckhalter to back up 4-back LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Correll Buckhalter's timing in ending his brief hiatus from Nebraska's football team turned out to be better than he or his teammates expected. Buckhalter, back from a one-game suspension for skipping practices, is now the No. 2 running back in the Cornhuskers' "i-back" formation after *e departure of starter DeAngelo Evans, who abruptly quit the team just two games into the season. This was not how Buckhalter, who led Nebraska in rushing a year ago, pictured moving back up the depth chart. "I don't feel good about DeAngelo leaving the team (and) making my role on this team better," Buckhalter said. "I hope DeAngelo comes back and doesn't 0oo out like the way it's going right now." b But Nebraska coach Frank Solich said it's un1ikey Evans will return to the team, leaving the fourth-ranked Cornhuskers with new starter Dan Alexander and Buckhalter as the only experienced I-backs. "It's something that can very easily happen," said Solich, who had to do the -back shuffle last year when Evans and Alexander went down with injuries. Buckhalter ended up playing 12 games spite an injured hamstring, a hip inter and torn bursa sacs in both elbows and finished with 799 rushing yards. "What always looks like a deep posi- tion all of a sudden can turn into one that's not too deep" Solich said. Solich suspended Buckhalter from last week's 45-0 shutout of California. Buckhalter, who said he was frustrated after getting just three carries as the fornhuskers blew out Iowa 42-7 in the season opener, didn't come to practice until the following Thursday and Solich said he thought Buckhalter might have quit the team. "I wasn't thinking about leaving. I was just under a lot of frustration. I thought I should have played a lot more in the Iowa game than I did," Buckhalter said. "I just took some wrong steps by not showing 'tp and not communicating with any- dy. Which was bad on my part because caused a lot of confusion. Solich and Buckhalter sorted out their issues and Buckhalter, a junior from Collins, Miss., will be back in the lineup on Saturday when Southern Mississippi visits Memorial Stadium. Buckhalter says Southern Miss was his second choice as a recruit. "The night before we signed the letter of intent I wrote down some positive jngs about Nebraska and some posi- e things about USM - and some negative things also," he said. "I just prayed, whenever I woke up the next morning, the team that I felt I should play with and that was the decision that I made." Southern Mississippi is the school where Buckhalter's brother, Chris, was a running back earlier this decade. Chris Buckhalter led the Golden Eagles in rushing in 1994 and 1995 and finished 0th 1,533 career rushing yards. _In August he was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to a charge of manslaughter in a 1997 slay- ing. Correll Buckhalter wants to concen- trate on football and not his brother's troubles. He says he's looking forward to playing against Southern Miss, the Conference USA champions in 1996 and 1997. "They have a lot of great players dwn there. I think it's just the confer- ence that they're in that doesn't let them get the recognition like other schools in the Big 12 or Big 10 or SEC," he said. Notre Dame searces for answers to early slde SOUTH BEND (AP) - Just II more yards. That's what Notre Dame keeps telling itself. Just II more yards and the Irish would be 3-0. Just I11 mre yards and they'd still be in the hunt fdr a nation- al championship. Just I I more yards and they wouldn't seem to be in a mental state somewhere between denial and indecision. "We could be sitting here as a foot- ball team that is probably in the top five in the country," coach Bob Davie said. But they're not. The Irish are 1-2 after communication breakdowns and horrible time management derailed two last-minute comebacks, and they're already out of the hunt for a national title - once again - just' three weeks into the season. What's worse, the Irish have com-' mitted a rash of mental mistakes that seem to have cost them more than anything their opponents have put up so far. "Right now, I can understand where people would look at us and say, 'Boy, those guys, I mean, what are they doing?' That is all part of it," Davie said. "But I also realize how close we are to some really good things hap- pening." Notre Dame's "1l1 more yards" mantra comes from last-second drives that came up 10 yards short against Michigan and 1 yard short aajinst Purdue the last two weeks. Both times, mental mistakes killed the Irish. Perhaps nothing embodic Notre Dame's disorientation more than the end of the first half against Purdue. Davie had instructed quarterback Jarious Jackson to down the ball and kill the clock if the Irish didn't get a first down to give the field goal unit time to get on the field. After back-to- back penalties, Davie decided to rush the field.goal kicker on for a quick attempt. Jackson didn't know about the change and lined up - behind the wrong lineman, no less - to take the snap and kill the clock with the field goal kicker and holder standing behind him trying to line up for a last- second try. "We kind of outcoached ourselves right there and made it a little bit hard- er than it had to be," Davie said. "Without question, I take responsibil- ity for that. There was nobody else involved with that but me." All week, Davie has defended Notre Dame's time management skills and taken the blame for each gaffe. Some of the blame has to be laid on Jackson as well. The fifth-year senior was supposed to be a bedrock of con- sistency for an offense that features seven new starters. Instead, he's thrown five interceptions, one fewer than he threw ali of last season. Every time he pitches the ball on the option it's been an adventure, and he's taken sacks during the final drives in both of Notre Dame's losses that ate up valu- able seconds. "l don't think this team is pointing any one finger at anybody," Jackson said. "I think this whole team takes the blame, from the coaching staff on down to the players." Jackson said he spent Sunday won- dering "what if" before he put the loss behind him. Not everyone seems to have gotten over the disappointment of two crucial losses so early in the season. Senior free safety Deke Cooper still insists the Irish can win the national champi- onship. "We put those behind us. We're just focusing on Michigan State," Cooper said of the first two losses. "It's a long season. We're still hoping for a nation- al championship. We don't know how the rest of the season is going to go for everybody else" DANA LINNANE/Daily Thanks to poor clock management, Notre Dame has seen two victories - and one national title hope -slip away in the final minutes.