Nebraska Football Tickets

Getting over the rated bump

There was once a time when Nebraska was consistently rated among the top teams in the country and had little trouble beating unranked opponents.

These days, the shoes are on the other foot and the Huskers are having a hard time walking in them -- Nebraska takes an 18-game losing streak against opponents ranked higher than 20th into Saturday's road matchup at Texas Tech and is looking to break what is becoming a very difficult losing streak.

The streak got an ugly start in 2001 when the Huskers, ranked No. 2 at the time, walked into Boulder and got waxed by then-No. 14 Colorado 62-36. At the time, it was the most points a team had scored on Nebraska in its long and storied history, but it started a streak that continued Saturday when No. 4 Missouri beat Nebraska 52-17.

In fact, Nebraska has just one win against a ranked team since that time, a 32-28 win over 20th ranked Michigan in the 2005 Alamo Bowl. Nebraska's struggles against ranked opponents since the Nov. 23, 2001 at Colorado is as follows (team rankings in parenthesis):

Nov. 23, 2001 -- (14) Colorado 62, (2) Nebraska 36
*-Jan. 3, 2002 -- (1) Miami 37, (4) Nebraska 14
Sept. 28, 2002 -- (19) Iowa State 36, (20) Nebraska 14
Nov. 2, 2002 -- (7) Texas 27, Nebraska 24
Nov. 16, 2002 -- (11) Kansas State 49, Nebraska 13
Nov. 29, 2002 -- (13) Colorado 28, Nebraska 13
Nov. 1, 2003 -- (16) Texas 31, (12) Nebraska 7
Nov. 13, 2004 -- (2) Oklahoma 30, Nebraska 3
Oct. 8, 2005 -- (15) Texas Tech 34, Nebraska 31
Sept. 16, 2006 -- (4) USC 28, (19) Nebraska 10
Oct. 21, 2006 -- (5) Texas 22, (17) Nebraska 20
**-Dec. 2, 2006 -- (8) Oklahoma 21, (19) Nebraska 7
#-Jan. 1, 2007 -- (10) Auburn 17, (22) Nebraska 14
Sept. 15, 2007 -- (1) USC 49, (14) Nebraska 31
Oct. 6, 2007 -- (17) Missouri 41, (25) Nebraska 6
Oct. 27, 2007 -- (17) Texas 28, Nebraska 25
Nov. 3, 2007 -- (8) Kansas 76, Nebraska 39
Oct. 4, 2008 -- (4) Missouri 52, Nebraska 17

*--2002 BCS championship at Rose Bowl
**--2006 Big 12 championship game at Kansas City
#--2007 Cotton Bowl at Dallas

Nebraska has at least three games remaining against teams that should be ranked in the top 20 when Nebraska faces them -- Saturday at No. 7 Texas Tech, Nov. 1 at top-ranked Oklahoma and the following week at home against 16th-ranked Kansas.

Nebraska to face Cyclones on Versus network

The Nebraska football team will be on TV each of the next two weeks as they continue play in the Big 12 Conference.

On Saturday, Nebraska takes to the road for the first time this season, as they head down to Lubbock, Texas, to take on the seventh-ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders. The game will be televised by Fox Sports Net beginning at 2 p.m.

The following week, the Huskers are on the road again, this time traveling east to Ames, Iowa to meet up with longtime foe Iowa State. That game is going to be televised by the Versus network, with kickoff set at 11:30 a.m.

Get your Nebraska football tickets now at Ticket Express -- where no Husker game is ever sold out.

Daniel will test Nebraska's defense

Nebraska's defense has been put through some difficult tests early on, but nothing like what they are about to encounter as they open Big 12 Conference play this weekend.

The undefeated and fourth-ranked Missouri Tigers come to town for Saturday's homecoming matchup at 8 p.m. on ESPN, and to say the Tigers have their best team in a long time would be an understatement. This is a very talented bunch that is on the short list of teams that, at this point, could be playing for the national championship come January.

The Tigers are led by Heisman Trophy candidate Chase McDaniel. The senior quarterback threw for over 4,000 yards last year and tore apart Nebraska's defense in a 41-6 demolishing last year in Columbia. To make matters worse, he compared Nebraska's defense -- in that game -- to a high school outfit.

Nebraska's defense has gotten a lot better since then, but this group still hasn't been tested the way the Tigers are going to this weekend. With Daniel and his seemingly limitless options -- led by sophomore sensation Jeremy Maclin -- the Huskers are going to see an offensive assault that is much more potent and multi-talented than any they saw in their first four games.

The Huskers' first big test came last weekend against Virginia Tech, and it was obvious there are still a lot of holes to fill. The secondary allowed far too many open receivers and the Hokies dominated the time of possession and were able to come away with a 35-30 victory. If the Huskers are unable to rebound, Saturday's result against the Tigers could be an ugly one.

Daniel has been dominant so far this season, passing for 1,412 yards and 12 touchdowns while completing 76 percent of his passes. He set a conference record earlier this year by completing 20 consecutive passes against Buffalo. If he gets on a roll Saturday, he could put up numbers similar to last year against a Husker defense that is still working at improving.

Thunder Collins arrested on murder charge

A former Nebraska running back was arrested Wednesday on charge in connection with a murder that took place Tuesday in Omaha.

An arrest warrant was issued for Thunder Collins on first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and one count of use of a weapon to commit a felony in connection to a shooting that occurred late Tuesday morning in Omaha. Timothy Thomas, 38, of Los Angeles was killed in a house in the 3900 block of N. 70th Circle.

Thomas was one of two people shot at the scene. A friend of Thomas, Marshall Turner, was shot and drove from the scene to a hotel at 72nd and Grover streets. He was taken from there to Nebraska Medical Center and was last listed in critical condition.

A second person was also arrested, Karnell Burton, 20, of Omaha.

Collins played at Nebraska from 1999 to 2002, quitting in the middle of his senior year. He is best known as the go-between in one of Nebraska's most exciting plays in this decade, as he took the handoff from Eric Crouch and flipped it to Mike Stuntz, who threw the ball to Crouch for a touchdown in Nebraska's win over Oklahoma.

Tough stretch ahead for Nebraska

Nebraska was able to get through its first three games in pretty good shape, posting a couple of impressive wins and coming back to win a third.

They take a 3-0 record into what will be a very difficult stretch of games over the next three weeks, and this could very well determine the path the Huskers will travel on the road back to being among the nation's elite.

First up is Saturday's matchup with Virginia Tech, a team that finished in the top 10 and is playing fairly well in spite of a variety of injury and discipline issues. Coach Frank Beamer brings a team in that can mix things up offensively, and this will give Nebraska a different test after facing three teams that feature variances of the spread offense.

Next is the Big 12 opener against Missouri, which will undoubtedly be Nebraska's toughest homecoming game in a long, long time. The Tigers feature 2007 Heisman finalist Chase Daniel and All-American speedster Jeremy Maclin, and the Tigers have been lighting up the scoreboard like a pinball machine early on. They also have a very solid defense, one that absolutely embarrassed Nebraska last year. The only negative working against Missouri is that they haven't won in Lincoln since 1978, and will be looking to end three decades of road frustration when they come to town Oct. 4.

The final game in the trifecta is Nebraska's first road game of the year, and it won't be easy as they'll have to head down to Lubbock, Texas to take on another high-powered offense in the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Coach Mike Leach has developed one of the most potent offensive schemes in all of college football, and Tech knows how to move the ball vertically early and often. Quarterback Graham Harrell has a lot of great targets to throw to, including All-American Michael Crabtree, and they have developed a defense that is doing better at stopping opposing offenses from finding the end zone.

The Huskers do have another tough stretch later in the season with Oklahoma and Kansas in back-to-back weeks, but this three-game run will go a long way to telling us how much this team has improved from last year's train wreck of a 5-7 season. If Nebraska can win one or two games in this stretch, it can position itself for a good finish and a quality bowl game at season's end.

Don't miss out on catching Nebraska football in action. You can get tickets for all Husker games, home and away, with Ticket Express -- where no Husker game is ever sold out.

Huskers a hit on pay-per-view

If you missed seeing the Huksers' first three home games in person, chances are you still got to see them on television.

Early reports from the University of Nebraska's athletic department indicate that Husker fans ordered pay-per-view telecasts of the Huskers' first three home games in record numbers. Fans who missed out on games against Western Michigan, San Jose State and New Mexico State took advantage of opportunities to see the games on television via pay-per-view broadcasts through Fox Sports Network.

Marc Boehm, executive associate athletic director at UNL, told the Lincoln Journal-Star that they have received about one-third of the sales from the opener against Western Michigan and noted that there were almost 50,000 buys of the pay-per-view telecast. Those are amazing numbers considering the Huskers averaged between 35,000 and 40,000 buys for previous pay-per-view broadcasts.

And that means big bucks for the athletic department, the Journal-Star noted. During traditional cable or free TV broadcasts, the host school will get about $275,000. A pay-per-view game with 40,000 buys will bring in about $300,000. Depending on the final numbers -- which won't be known until the end of the season -- the Western Michigan game alone may generate close to $750,000 for the school.

ABC has already picked up Nebraska's matchup with Virginia Tech next week and Colorado at the end of the season, and it's a pretty good bet one of the networks will take games with Missouri, Texas Tech and Oklahoma because those teams are all ranked in or near the top 10. If games with Iowa State, Baylor, Kansas and Kansas State aren't taken by one of the networks, you can probably bet that the university will want to put those games on pay-per-view.

Of course, you can enjoy Nebraska football, both home and away, with tickets from Ticket Express -- where no Husker game is ever sold out.

Huskers to play Virginia Tech on ABC

ABC has announced that it will be carrying the Nebraska-Virginia Tech game as part of a regional package of college football games on Saturday night, Sept. 27.

The Huskers will head into the game with a 3-0 record, while the defending ACC champion Hokies are 2-1 heading into this weekend's game with North Carolina. It should be a good matchup and will be the first between the two schools since Nebraska beat Virginia Tech in the 1996 Orange Bowl.

Tickets for the Nebraska-Virginia Tech game are available at Ticket Express -- where no Husker home game is ever sold out.

How about the Black . . . er . . . defense?

The Nebraska football team is starting to show signs it knows how to play defense again, but don't look for defensive coordinator Carl Pelini to be handing out the old Blackshirts just yet.

Nebraska had by far its best defensive performance of the year Saturday, keeping New Mexico State out of the end zone until the game was well in hand during the Huskers' 38-7 win at Memorial Stadium. The win put Nebraska at 3-0 going into its off week before a Sept. 27 showdown with Virginia Tech.

The Huskers kept New Mexico State's unique offense in check for much of the night. The Aggies did have some early success and drove deep into Nebraska territory on its first drive, but the Huskers held and were able to keep New Mexico State off the scoreboard when Zach Potter blocked a field goal.

Later in the first half, the defense came up big when Armando Murillo picked off a pass and returned it 57 yards to the Aggies' 20-yard line. On the very next play, Nebraska used a trick play that saw Marlon Lucky roll right with a pitch from quarterback Joe Ganz, stop and throw back to the left to wide open Ganz, who went 20 yards for the touchdown and a 14-0 Nebraska lead.

The Huskers made another impressive defensive stop in the third quarter in spite of two pass interference calls deep in Husker territory. The first gave New Mexico State the ball at the 2-yard line, but two sacks pushed the ball back to the 20-yard line. Nebraska was hit with a second interference call, but Matt O'Hanlon picked off a pass and kept the Aggies out of the end zone.

Nebraska limited the Aggies to 339 yards in total offense and looked much better than it did during their first two games. It wasn't the kind of effort that will make you think the classic dominating defense is back, but the effort showed that there is improvement being made and should give Husker fans hope that they'll be able to step up big for next week's game with the Hokies.

Nebraska, Miami to play two-game series

Nebraska fans have had a lot of bowl-game nightmares regarding the University of Miami's football program. Now the Huskers will be playing a home-and-home with the Hurricanes.

Jeff Jamrog, NU's assistant athletic director for football, announced Thursday the Huskers will be signing a deal that will bring the Hurricanes to Nebraska for a Sept. 20, 2014 matchup. The Huskers will return the favor the following year, playing at Miami on Sept. 12, 2015.

This is the second of what is expected to be three announcements concerning future Husker football schedules. Earlier this week, Nebraska announced it would host Fresno State in 2011 and 2016 and will play on the road at Fresno in 2014.

This will be the first meeting between the Huskers and Hurricanes since the 2001 championship game, when the Hurricanes beat Nebraska 37-14 in the Rose Bowl to win the national title. The two teams have played 10 times and each has won five. Three of Nebraska' s wins came during regular-season matchups, with the other wins coming in the 1962 Gotham Bowl and the 1995 Orange Bowl. Miami has not visited Nebraska since 1976.

Fresno State signs on for three games with NU

The Omaha World-Herald reported Thursday that the Nebraska football team has signed a three-game deal to play Fresno State during a five-year period.

The Bulldogs, who have never played the Huskers, will come to Lincoln for games on Sept. 10, 2011 and a to-be-determined date in 2016. Nebraska will travel to California to play the Bulldogs in Fresno on Sept. 13, 2014.

Nebraska's non-conference schedules for 2009 and 2010 are pretty much set at this point. Next year, the Huskers will host Florida Atlantic, Arkansas State and Louisiana-Lafayette while traveling to Virginia Tech. In 2010, Nebraska hosts Western Kentucky, Idaho and South Dakota State and will play at Washington.

As for this season, the next game on the agenda is Saturday night's matchup with New Mexico State. The two teams will hook up for a 6 p.m. game, and you can get your tickets at Ticket Express -- where no Husker home game is ever sold out.