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Todd Neeley
sports@hastingstribune.com
LINCOLN — A common wish among Nebraska's 13 seniors against Kansas State in Lincoln Saturday was to go out a winner in their final game at Memorial Stadium, and no one player typified that more than senior safety Larry Asante.
In his final home game, Asante came up huge against the Wildcats in Nebraska's 17-3, North-division-clinching win.
The Arlington, Va., native had a season-high 10 tackles, pushing his career total to 209, tying him with Tyrone Byrd for third all time at Nebraska for defensive backs.
NU's starting safety is in great company, as only two other Husker defensive backs have more tackles — Mike Brown and Daniel Bullocks.
Asante also intercepted a pass in the second quarter inside the Nebraska red zone, and forced a fumble in the third quarter inside the 5-yard line to end what appeared to be a Kansas State scoring drive.
"It was a very emotional game," he said. "We had to go out the right way and that was to win the Big 12 North. I think we take it personal as a unit. Our goal is to hold the opponent to zero points. That's the culture Coach has installed. When I was walking out of the tunnel for the last time, I was in tears."
After consecutive home losses to Texas Tech and Iowa State, it appeared as if Nebraska's hopes of winning its half of the conference were virtually dead. Most notably in the loss to Iowa State Nebraska committed eight turnovers.
"We had to respect the game of football," Asante said about what had changed since that game. "On any given play, we can't take anything for granted."
Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini said Asante's play was indicative of how the Blackshirts played as a unit.
"Larry played well, but I thought across the board we all did some good things," Pelini said. "Once again, we had some execution mistakes and had some little things, some that hurt us and some that didn't hurt us. Overall I thought at times we played really well."
Nebraska won the turnover battle and sacked KSU quarterback Grant Gregory four times. In his final home game, Ndamukong Suh finished with nine tackles, including one-and-a-half sacks and two tackles for a loss.
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