Nebraska Football Tickets

Remember your first Nebraska game?

If you still remember your first set of Nebraska football tickets, you can win a unique package that includes tickets to a Nebraska football game this season.
First National Bank of Omaha is sponsoring a contest where fans can go online and write a 300-word essay recalling their first Husker gameday experience. The seven winners will be featured on HuskerVision in Memorial Stadium, and each one will have a chance to stand on the sideline with one of the players they saw during that first game and wave to the crowd of more than 80,000 during a Husker football game this season.
Nebraska football fans can remember their first game, whether it was an early-season contest against a non-conference opponent or a big showdown against some of the Huskers' traditional rivals like Oklahoma, Colorado or Missouri.
If you have a Nebraska football fan who has never been to Memorial Stadium to see the Huskers play, you can help them enjoy the experience of a Husker game with Nebraska football tickets from Ticket Express -- where no Nebraska football game is ever sold out.

Suh a finalist for Lombardi award

Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh is one of the 12 semifinalists selected for the 2009 Lombardi Award, which is presented to the nation's top lineman.

Suh has been a dominant force for the Nebraska football team, recording a team-best 32 tackles so far this season. Seven of his tackles have been for losses, and he also has three sacks and an interception. His pickoff of Blaine Gabbert helped ignite a 27-point fourth-quarter rally for the Huskers in their 27-12 win at Missouri last week.

Suh has alread earned some weekly honors this season, earning a Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week award and being named defensive player of the week by the Walter Camp Foundation.

The finalists for the Lombardi Award will be announced Tuesday, Nov. 10.

The Nebraska football team returns to action Saturday with a Big 12 home matchup against Texas Tech. Get your tickets to see the Huskers and the Red Raiders now at Ticket Express -- where no Husker football game is ever sold out.

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.

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.

Wanted: A rushing game

Remember the days of old when the Nebraska football team would pile up the yards on the rushing side of the ledger?

In the old days, the Huskers would roll up 300, 400 or even 500 yards in a game against a poor, helpless defense. To use a well-worn TV sportscasters' line, you couldn't stop the Nebraska ground attack, you could only hope to contain it.

So far this year, the Huskers not only are not averaging 300 yards a game -- they haven't totaled 300 yards ALL SEASON. After two games, the Nebraska rushing attack has accounted for a meager 237 yards in the Huskers' wins over Western Michigan and San Jose State.

Coach Bo Pelini is disappointed with the offensive output on the ground so far, and he's attributing a lot of that to the occasional blown assignment or blocking breakdown.

"It's more of us not executing. Not having 10 or 11 guys doing their job," he was quoted in the Lincoln Journal-Star.

Hopefully those days are going to come back around soon. Lydon Murtha will be back in the lineup after missing the first two games due to an infection. The Huskers are also looking forward to playing a New Mexico State team that not only has a bunch of question marks on defense, but is also playing just its first game of the season after its opener at Nicholls State was cancelled due to Hurricane Gustav.

The Huskers will get a chance to open things up with their ground game Saturday night when the New Mexico State Aggies come to town for a 6 p.m. battle at Memorial Stadium. You can get your tickets now at Ticket Express -- where no Husker home game is ever sold out.

Glenn makes a good first impression at linebacker

The move from offense to defense was not an easy one, but Cody Glenn sure made a great first impression in his first start at linebacker.

The former running back made the switch last spring and had a good first showing in Nebraska's 47-24 win over Western Michigan on Saturday at Memorial Stadium. The senior got in the Broncos' backfield and made a tackle for a loss on Western Michigan's first play, then later forced a fumble that caused further problems for the Western Michigan offense.

In all, Glenn finished the night with a team-high 12 tackles, three of them for losses, and also had three pass breakups. It was part of an effort that saw the Huskers limit Western Michigan to eight yards rushing, but Glenn told the media after the game that it was far from the defense's best effort, noting the 350 yards passing and 24 points given up.

Fortunately, the Nebraska offense more than made up for it as Joe Ganz threw for over 300 yards and four touchdowns and Alex Henery hit four field goals -- all from 44 yards out -- to help the Huskers continue a tradition of winning season openers that dates back to 1986.

The Huskers are back in action Saturday against San Jose State, and tickets for the game are available now at Ticket Express -- where no Husker home game is ever sold out.

Makovicka pipeline continues to produce

Husker fans remember the Mackovicka name with tremendous fondness.

During the 1990's the name helped symbolize the explosive toughness of the Nebraska football team and was part of a storied lineage of great Husker fullbacks that included names like Rathman and Schleisinger. Brothers Joel and Jeff Mackovicka represented East Butler High School quite well and helped lead the Huskers to national titles in 1995 and 1997, respectively.

Now comes the third brother in the family, sophomore Justin Mackovicka, who is listed as a backup to Thomas Lawson on the Nebraska depth chart heading into the 2008 season. Mackovicka is a 6-foot-1, 240-pounder who is expected to help contribute in a Husker offense that should be quite proficient this year.

The fullback position was not used much during the past four seasons, but should see its number called a little more often with Bo Pelini as head coach. Look for Mackovicka to see his name called and he will no doubt get a little extra cheer from fans who recognize the name.

And don't think for one minute that the name is going away anytime soon. Justin has a younger brother, Jordan, who is walking on as a freshman at Nebraska this season. Who knows? Maybe sometime in the next couple of years, we'll see a Mackovicka opening up a hole for another Mackovicka to burst through for big yards.

Kickers need attention, too

You'd think the guys who do the kicking would get a little more notice. It is, after all, football we're talking about.

Nebraska's kicking situation looks to be pretty set for the coming year, with Dan Titchener handling the punting and Adi Kunalic and Alex Henery taking care of the placekicking duties.

The Lincoln Journal-Star said that coach Bo Pelini likes the kickers he has on board, but knows they -- like everybody else on the team -- need to get better before the season opener Saturday, Aug. 30 against Western Michigan.

"It's good to have proven kickers, guys that have been there in that situation and have done it under the lights," he told the paper. "That obviously gives us an advantage."

But there's always room for improvement, he added.

"You can always get better," he said. "No one on this team is even close to reaching the potential that they have, including the punters and kickers. We want precision, we want them to be perfect, so we want them to keep working."