Huskers going back to the basics against Texas Tech

Struggling to digest Nebraska's current place in college football? Chew on these numbers.

Since November 2001, 63 of the 65 BCS conference football programs have beaten at least one team ranked higher than 20th in the AP poll.

63 of 65.

Guess which group Nebraska belongs to.

A week after facing the second-best offense in the country in terms of scoring average, Nebraska's defense gets to try its hand at stopping the nation's No. 1 passing offense this Saturday against Texas Tech.

Oh, and by the way, the Red Raiders also rank No. 2 nationally in total offense (583.4 yards per game) and fifth in scoring offense (48.2 points per game). Such is life these days in the high-scoring Big 12 Conference.

On a Nebraska basketball team that could play much of the time with five guards, big men are in the news.

Alex Chapman, the tallest eligible player on the team, has undergone a knee scope and will be out three weeks. The 6-foot-9 sophomore from Canby, Ore., now has had knee surgery three straight years.

As for the tallest ineligible player on the roster, 6-11 Christopher Niemann from Germany, the early reports are positive.

Coming off a pair of NCAA Tournament trips and back-to-back 20-win seasons, the Nebraska women's basketball team was picked to finish eighth in a vote by league coaches in the Big 12 preseason poll announced by the conference office on Wednesday.

White to play Gray in Hastings instrasquad baseball tournament

Give the ESPNU camera man an inadvertent assist in Nebraska's 25-16, 25-19, 25-14 victory over Oklahoma Wednesday night at the NU Coliseum.

Even before the season, Oct. 11 was circled on the calendars of many college football fans. Now that six weeks of football have been played, Saturday's schedule looks even better.

Three games matching six ranked teams, including four of the top five, will surely rock the national championship race, starting in Dallas at the Texas State Fair.

Nebraska players are heaping praise on wide receiver Menelik Holt.

The more experience, the more plays he makes and the more he gets those types of things under his belt, you're just going to see him grow,'' fellow receiver Todd Peterson said. "We all have confidence in him to make those plays.''

Huskers work with artificial crowd noise in preparation for first road game

Expected to be a strength for Nebraska this season, the Cornhusker offense finds itself still searching to find its identity as the regular season nears the midway point.

While Nebraska (3-2, 0-1 Big 12) ranks No. 20 nationally in passing offense (270.4 yards per game) and No. 30 in scoring offense (33.4 points per game), the Huskers haven't moved the ball consistently enough to help take the pressure off a rebuilding defense. As a result, NU takes a two-game losing streak into Saturday's 2 p.m. (FSN) game at No. 7-ranked Texas Tech (5-0, 1-0).

As if Nebraska’s national image hasn’t suffered enough in recent years with its decline, the Cornhuskers have been taking additional PR hits this season in regard to the program’s overall image.

On several occasions since last Saturday night’s 52-17 setback against No. 3-ranked Missouri, Nebraska’s Bo Pelini has taken the blame for the blowout loss. Tuesday during his weekly press conference, Pelini explained why.

In August, Nebraska coach John Cook said he didn’t know much about his new setter Sydney Anderson. Two months later, he knows a lot.

The Huskers tied a program record last Saturday night by drawing 14 yellow flags for 101 yards in their 52-17 home loss to No. 3-ranked Missouri. Two of the infractions called on Nebraska were personal fouls as defensive end Zach Potter was penalized for hitting Tigers' quarterback Chase Daniel in the helmet in the first quarter and guard Matt Slauson was slapped with a personal foul midway through the fourth quarter.

Eager to get back to work after struggling Saturday, the Nebraska football team worked out inside the Hawks Championship Center on a rainy Monday afternoon in Lincoln.  The Huskers worked out for nearly two hours in shorts, shoulder pads and helmets.

The Big 12 Conference announced Monday that Nebraska’s Oct. 18 game at Iowa State will be televised by Versus with kickoff set for 11:30 a.m. at Ames, Iowa. 

Second-ranked Nebraska put on a defensive show, holding Creighton to a season-low .091 hitting in posting a 25-19, 25-18, 25-19 victory Sunday afternoon.

Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said he planned to arrange a Sunday phone conversation with Missouri coach Gary Pinkel to discuss the post-game allegations of his Huskers’ dirty play.

he Big Red's rebuilding project has never looked so big.

No. 4-ranked Missouri's 52-17 win over Nebraska Saturday night was not only the Tigers' first victory at Memorial Stadium since 1978, but it also served notice that the gap between the Cornhuskers and the Big 12 Conference's upper crust is even wider than some had suspected. And trust us on this, it could've been even worse if Missouri coach Gary Pinkel hadn't called off the dogs.

Yes, it's still early. But it's starting to look like 2008 could be another long haul for Nebraska.