Nebraska

Nov. 22 (UPI) — Tyson Foods is closing its Lexington, Neb., beef-processing plant to better position the food company for long-term success.

Tyson announced the change on Friday and said the plan is to “right size” the food firm’s beef business.

The company also is downsizing its beef facility in Amarillo, Texas, to a single shift that will operate at full capacity, but production will rise at other Tyson facilities to meet customer demand for beef products.

“Tyson Foods recognizes the impact these decisions have on team members and the communities where we operate,” Tyson said in a news release.

“The company is committed to supporting our team members through this transition, including helping them apply for open positions at other facilities and providing relocation benefits.”

Tyson officials said the changes will ensure it continues to “deliver high-quality, affordable and nutritious protein for generations to come.”

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said in a statement that the Tyson Foods’ Lexington plant closure does not reflect poorly on the state and won’t end Tyson’s investment there.

“Nebraska’s cattle industry is resilient and the envy of the world, and our workforce can outwork anybody,” Pillen said.

“Our excellent cattlemen and cattle feeders have emerging opportunities and will still have the Tyson market to sell into as its planned reorganization will boost capacity and jobs at other Nebraska plants.”

He said Tyson officials have promised to provide new opportunities for Nebraskans.

“The state of Nebraska is ready to build for the future and do what it can do to support employees affected by this change,” Pillen added.

U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., wasn’t as optimistic about the change.

“As the single-largest employer in Lexington, Tyson’s announcement will have a devastating impact on a truly wonderful community, the region and our state,” Fischer said in a social media post, as reported by Nebraska Public Media.

Lexington has a population of nearly 11,000 and is located 165 miles west of Lincoln.

Last month, in the span of a single half, USC’s top two running backs were lost to serious injuries. For Eli Sanders, the knee injury he suffered against Michigan prematurely ended his season. For Waymond Jordan, ankle surgery meant missing most of the Trojans’ critical stretch run.

It made for a particularly cruel one-two punch. Through the first six games, the Trojans duo had been a top-10 rushing attack in the nation, trending toward the best rushing season USC had seen in two decades. Then, in less than an hour’s time, a promising start had been derailed by injury.

“That could almost be a death sentence,” coach Lincoln Riley said Wednesday.

But with just two games left in the season, the Trojans’ rushing attack still is very much alive. And USC still is clinging to College Football Playoff hopes because of it.

“It’s gone remarkably well,” Riley said of USC’s rushing attack since. “I don’t know that anyone could have predicted that to be completely honest.”

No one anticipated the arrival of redshirt freshman walk-on King Miller, who has been a season-saving revelation since being thrust into the role of the Trojans’ lead back. Miller is averaging 113 yards per game since Jordan and Sanders went down, which, extrapolated over the course of a full season, would tie Nebraska’s Emmett Johnson for best in the Big Ten. Miller also is one of just two Power Four running backs with more than 90 carries to average better than seven yards per rush.

His unexpected coronation, coming at the most critical point of USC’s season, is part of why the Trojans could be just two wins away from their first playoff bid. And if they have any hope of continuing that run, Miller will have to lead the rushing attack into its toughest battle yet Saturday at Autzen Stadium, where No. 7 Oregon has held opposing offenses to 90 yards rushing per game.

There was a brief glimmer of hope leading into this week that Jordan, who underwent tightrope surgery on his ankle five weeks ago, might be able to return for USC’s trip to Eugene. Jordan was listed as questionable on the injury report last Saturday and dressed for practice this week, both signs of progress. But Riley acknowledged Tuesday it was unlikely Jordan would be ready for the game, as he’s still getting comfortable cutting on his surgically repaired ankle.

“He’s getting closer,” Riley said. “But for a back, that’s not a great injury.”

There were a number of other injuries too that presumably should have led to USC’s undoing on the ground. In addition to their battered backfield, the Trojans have been without left tackle Elijah Paige for several games because of a knee injury and could be without him again Saturday. Center Kilian O’Connor missed three games because of his own knee issue, and guard Alani Noa was sidelined for most of the Nebraska win.

But the Trojans have yet to take a step back. The offensive line has shuffled positions with surprising success, and Miller has exceeded all expectations, earning a place in USC’s future plans.

“Just trying to learn to be confident in whatever I’m doing,” Miller said this week. “You’ve got to be confident no matter what it is.”

Miller may, however, have met his match this week with Oregon. While USC has remained near the top of the Big Ten, even after losing its top two backs, the Ducks have boasted arguably the best rushing attack in the nation. Only Navy averages more yards per carry than Oregon (6.33) or has more 20-plus-yard carries (28).

Two of Oregon’s trio of backs, senior Noah Whittington and freshman Dierre Hill Jr., are averaging better than eight yards per carry. The other, Mater Dei product Jordon Davison, is averaging seven yards as a freshman and has 12 touchdown runs.

The numbers aren’t exactly encouraging for the Trojans, who have been distressingly vulnerable against the run for long stretches of this season. USC is giving up more than 200 yards on the ground on average over its last four games, none of which came against offenses that rank among the top 25 nationally in rushing.

The best backfield USC faced during that stretch, Notre Dame, rolled over the Trojans for 306 yards. And the Irish are averaging 41 fewer yards per game on the ground than Oregon.

But in each of its three games since that Notre Dame nadir, the Trojans have come out looking like a totally different defense in the second half. None of their last three opponents — Iowa, Northwestern or Nebraska — managed more than a field goal after halftime.

USC won’t have the luxury of waiting that long this week, up against one of the few offenses in college football scoring at a more efficient clip. For the Trojans to keep their playoff hopes alive, it starts with dictating how things go on the ground.

So far that’s gone better than expected.

“We’ve had some big challenges,” Riley said. “We’ve been able to respond. It’ll obviously be important in games like this. Being able to run the football, being able to stop the run is always key, no matter who you’re playing, where you’re playing, what year it is.

“We’ve been clutch there. We’ve been able to do it. Hopefully we can get it done this time.”

No. 1 Nebraska displayed every skill that’s made it a powerhouse program — the offense attacked every part of the court, defense never gave up on the ball and the fans showed up at the Galen Center.

In front of a sellout crowd of 9,072, USC’s nine-match win streak came to an end with a straight-set loss to Nebraska (26-0, 16-0 Big Ten).

“I just felt like the game was a little too fast for us today,” USC coach Brad Keller said. “I thought it was slow for them and fast for us.”

The No. 17 Trojans never led and were limited to a 20% point scoring percentage throughout the match. USC (20-6, 11-5) led in attacks, but its 16 errors were costly during the 25-13, 25-16, 25-20 loss to the Cornhuskers.

USC’s Adonia Faumuina taps the ball over the net against Nebraska at the Galen Center on Sunday.

(Kim Ly / USC Athletics)

“Nebraska is the real deal,” Keller said. “They are really, really good and they showed that today from point one to the very end. They’re hitting .400 and they held us down to .156, that kind of shows you a lot of where they were.

“Go Big Red Nation deserves credit and they deserve the fact that they travel and they support their team.”

USC outside hitters London Wijay, with 10 kills, and Adonia Faumuina, with nine kills, kept the Trojans in as much as possible throughout the three sets. After a break, the Trojans came out with some extra gusto to make things a little interesting for the Cornhuskers.

“We literally had nothing to lose,” Faumuina said.

During the match, Nebraska made 10 errors, with five spread across the first two sets. The Huskers moved the ball quickly around the court and if they made a mistake, the team quickly adjusted. In the third set, a ball bounced in the air close to the floor seats. Nebraska saved the ball and it later led to a kill by Virginia Adrian that put the Huskers three points from closing out the game.

Nebraska kept USC guessing, while exploiting the weaker USC back court and capitalizing on attacking errors. Throughout the match, they kept hitting the ball to the back, usually resulting in a point for them.

“There were some plays they made that I haven’t seen in a while and that was normal for them,” Keller said.

As the Trojans look ahead to their next match against Oregon on Wednesday, Keller doesn’t have a silver lining take-away from the loss.

“I love my team, I don’t care what their age is,” Keller said. “There needs to be a standard and we need to execute and if we don’t execute, we go back to the drawing board, we work on those things, we get better and we execute.”

Wijay said the loss exposed how much harder the Trojans must work to achieve their goals.

“I don’t want to brush off this loss,” Wijay said. “I think it’s good to use as fuel for the next game. It was a good test to see how far we are to get to that level. And I feel like the silver lining is to make sure that we’re all gonna be in the gym working even harder to make sure that we pursue the balls.”

“I think it made me more hungry to want to win,” Wijay added.

All those hits finally caught up with Nico Iamaleava.

After absorbing one punishing blow after another, the UCLA quarterback will miss Saturday’s game against top-ranked Ohio State at Ohio Stadium because of concussion symptoms related to hits he sustained last weekend against Nebraska, a person with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly said.

Iamaleava was participating in the early portion of practice Tuesday, the last session observed by reporters this week.

His absence against the Buckeyes presumably means that top backup Luke Duncan, a redshirt sophomore who has never thrown a pass at the college level, will make his first career start.

Iamaleava’s ability to take hits and keep on playing had been a major topic of discussion early this week between reporters and UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper. The quarterback was easily his team’s leading rusher, his average of 52.7 yards per game nearly doubling the output of running back Jaivian Thomas (30.8), the team’s second-leading rusher.

Skipper had praised Iamaleava’s fearlessness, saying the 6-foot-6, 215-pound redshirt sophomore didn’t want to slide or run out of bounds.

“Nico’s the first like tall, skinny dude that I know that will lower the pads on you and is not afraid, he’s going to always be going forward and getting yards and things like that,” Skipper said Monday. “He’s got little legs and skinny arms but has no fear at all.”

Skipper also acknowledged the need to preserve Iamaleava’s availability by preventing him from taking more hits than necessary.

“Obviously, he’s your starting quarterback,” Skipper said. “You don’t want him taking big hits and things like that, but if they’re going to give him running lanes, you might as well take them. I kid with him all the time, ‘Hey every now and then, you might want to slide a little bit.’ But you know, when you have a natural runner like he is, you kind of just let them go do their thing.”

Immediately after UCLA’s 28-21 loss to Nebraska, Iamaleava did not indicate that all the hits he had taken impacted his performance. He completed 17 of 25 passes for 191 yards and two touchdowns without an interception while also running 15 times for 86 yards.

“Yeah man, shoot, I’ve played football a long time and I’ve gotten hit a lot of times in many games,” Iamaleava said. “So, I don’t think it affected me in that way. Overall, we just gotta play better as a whole and finish games.”

Well, it was fun while it lasted … wait, it’s not over?

There’s somehow at least four games left in a UCLA football season that feels like it’s already exhausted its story arc and run out of acts.

Act I: The fall of a proud Bruin.

Act II: The rise of a proud (Fresno State) Bulldog-turned-Bruin.

Act III: A 50-point implosion that sucked the air out of the season and didn’t please any Bruin.

What’s left after an 0-4 start that included the firing of a coach followed by a three-game winning streak and a 56-6 loss to one of the nation’s top teams? Somehow, there’s still at least a third of a season to go.

A victory over Nebraska on Saturday evening at the Rose Bowl could essentially put the Bruins right back where they were a few weeks ago, giving interim coach Tim Skipper another chance to reclaim the hearts of the college football world with an upset of top-ranked Ohio State the following weekend.

But first they have to get past a Cornhusker team missing its biggest kernel. Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola is out for the season with a broken leg, forcing the team to turn to a true freshman who was throwing passes for Orange Lutheran High this time last year.

Don’t expect TJ Lateef or any of his teammates to walk into the Rose Bowl waving a white flag.

“It would just be so average to go out there and be like, well, we’ve got a freshman quarterback and it is what it is,” Nebraska coach Matt Rhule told reporters this week. “Like, no, we’re not doing that. We’ve got TJ Lateef and we’re going to rally around him.”

Here are five things to watch when the Bruins (3-5 overall, 3-2 Big Ten) face the Cornhuskers (6-3, 3-3) in a game that starts at 6 p.m. PST and will be televised by Fox:

Quarterback quandary

Nebraska quarterback TJ Lateef hands off the ball to running back Emmett Johnson during the second half against USC.

(Bonnie Ryan / Associated Press)

Lateef is about to become just the fourth true freshman quarterback to start a game for Nebraska since 1950.

Will it be a performance for the ages?

Lateef didn’t wow in relief of Raiola last weekend against USC. He completed five of seven passes as the Trojans rallied for a 21-17 victory, those completions going for a grand total of seven yards — 1.4 yards per completion. Lateef might be more dangerous as a runner than a passer, having averaged 4.5 yards and scored two touchdowns in his 11 carries.

Skipper said the Bruins would watch Lateef’s high school game footage to get a fuller understanding of his potential.

“We know we’re going to get some unscouted looks, unscouted plays,” Skipper said. “I’m sure there’s things that he does well that they’re gonna want to do that they haven’t really shown. He kind of had to do the game plan and scheming that they had up for Dylan and his reps [against USC], so we’ll have to adjust as the game goes.”

On the other hand . . .

Nebraska’s uncertainty at quarterback likely means more opportunity for its running game.

And the Cornhuskers have a good one.

Emmett Johnson has already topped 100 yards rushing in five games this season, totaling 1,002 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. Against USC, he ran for 165 yards and a touchdown while averaging 5.7 yards per carry.

“We’re going to need to know where he is at all times,” Skipper said. “He does a great job of just making people miss, I’m really impressed by how he plays. You know, I come from a family of running back coaches, and I’ve watched a lot of backs, and he’s one of the top guys I’ve ever seen.”

Another mantra

Skipper could keep a custom T-shirt shop busy with all his slogans.

He’s told his players to strain. He’s asked them whether they were one-hit wonders. He’s implored them to uphold the standard they had established.

Over the two weeks that followed his team’s 56-6 loss to Indiana, he’s delivered a new message.

“We’re just getting back to the basics,” Skipper said. “It’s about fundamentals and little details. That’s kind of been what we’ve been really preaching.”

Linebacker Jalen Woods said plenty of time has been spent on tackling after the team experienced significant slippage in that area against the Hoosiers. Offensive tackle Garrett DiGiorgio said players ran between drills to quicken the tempo of everything they were doing.

With an extra week to prepare for the Cornhuskers after a bye, the Bruins have tried not to let the disappointment they experienced in their last game linger.

“Don’t let it carry over into the next game,” Woods said of the team’s collective mindset.

A line redrawn

Eugene Brooks celebrates a UCLA touchdown against Penn State.

(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)

UCLA guard Eugene Brooks was back at practice this week, a significant development for an offensive line that had struggled in his absence.

The Bruins ran for just 88 yards — 60 by running backs — and allowed three sacks with Brooks sidelined against Indiana.

It appears they’ll be back at full strength against a Nebraska defense that’s allowing only 289.9 yards per game, ranking No. 13 nationally.

Skipper said the Cornhuskers create confusion using multiple defensive fronts with hybrid players who either rush the quarterback or drop into coverage.

“They’re going to create a lot of havoc that way with the people that they use,” Skipper said. “They create a lot of turnovers. They’re very good on third down. They don’t give up big plays in the passing game. They’re really good at keeping people in front of them.”

Another boost

Running back Anthony Woods also returned to practice after missing the Indiana game.

His ability to run the ball and catch passes out of the backfield could help an offense that did not score a touchdown for the first time this season when it faced the Hoosiers.

Running back Jalen Berger said the success UCLA had on the ground during its three-game winning streak, when it averaged 236.7 yards rushing per game, was largely a result of an increased emphasis on its ballcarriers.

“I’d say it’s more of a commitment,” Berger said of an approach the Bruins had to abandon after falling behind big against Indiana. “Just being run-first, you know?”

Kaylon Miller was on the six yard line in the fourth quarter, blocking on a USC run play when he saw King Miller, his running back and twin brother, blow right past him.

“Run, run, go, go!” he remembers shouting as King bumped it outside and crossed the Nebraska goal line for the go-ahead touchdown that would ultimately be the game winner in the Trojans’ 21-17 Big Ten win last Saturday in Lincoln.

When King turned around in the end zone, it was his brother who was the first to greet him; the two brothers shared a moment as their facemasks clashed into each other. Both walk ons. Both finding opportunities to get on the field as redshirt freshmen — and both making the most of those opportunities.

“You owe me a burger,” King remembers Kaylon telling him.

Kaylon has been happy to see his brother succeed — King Miller was pressed into duty last month due to injuries, and he responded with big games against Michigan and Notre Dame — but he continued to wait for his moment. Then in the first quarter against the Cornhuskers, right guard Alani Noa went down with an injury. Kaylon was standing next to USC offensive line coach Zach Hanson, who turned to him.

“This is your opportunity,” Hanson told him. “Let’s go.”

It was Kaylon’s turn.

“Honestly, just a remarkable story that I’ll be able to tell when I’m older,” he said. “Obviously, everybody wants their opportunity to go and play and you just have to be ready when your number’s called on. It just so happened that mine had to be that night.

“I just knew that when I got that opportunity I was gonna make the most of it.”

And make the most of it he did. Despite taking all of his practice reps that week at center, Miller stepped in at guard and didn’t just hold it together — he elevated the o-line in a low-scoring slugfest against a tough Nebraska defense.

Allowing zero pressures on the night, Miller recorded a pass block grade of 88.2, the third-best in the Big Ten last week and the sixth-best among Power Four guards.

“Played awesome. He really did,” Trojans coach Lincoln Riley said. “He was physical, he pass pro’ed well. He was really physical in his pull game, was really sharp assignment-wise, which — I know I’ve mentioned several times — was all the more impressive because he really hadn’t been able to take a lot of practice reps at guard. Thoroughly impressed.”

While Miller still says he feels more confident snapping the ball due to the more compact nature that comes with playing center, he attributes his success at right guard to being able to rely on his teammates. The o-line, especially at guard, is a symbiotic relationship. So much of it is depending on the tackles and center for help (and vice versa), and Miller was 100% confident in his teammates next to him.

Things could’ve gone south with Miller playing for the first time in an intense road environment at Memorial Stadium. The Huskers, and the 86,529 fans in attendance, were dressed in all black. Black balloons were released by a raucous crowd each time Nebraska scored. But in between series, left tackle Elijah Paige — who made his return from a knee injury he suffered in Week 4 against Michigan State — kept Miller’s mind right.

“Just treat it like practice,” Paige said. “Obviously, that’s a pretty hostile environment. It’s one of the best environments out there. So obviously that can get to you, the noise can get to you, everything can get to you. But I kind of just tell him to focus in and act like this is a Tuesday or Wednesday practice.”

As the Trojans prepare to host Northwestern on a short week, Miller’s trying to think too much about what happened the week before; he knows opportunities can be taken away just as quickly as they’re earned. He likes to lean on a saying he tells his twin brother all the time:

“Never look back upon any situation that you’ve ever been in, just look forward because nothing that you did in the past can be taken back. You can only have your eyes in tunnel vision, forward.”

As for the burger that King still owes him?

“I ain’t get him it yet, but I got to,” King said with a laugh. “I don’t know when it is, he gonna keep asking me about it for sure, but I got him one day.”