Iowa vs. Nebraska
In addition to the past four years, Nebraska and Iowa
also closed the regular season against each other
nine times from 1892 to 1916.
- Nebraska has never defeated top-10 opponents in consecutive home games.
- Riley led Oregon State to 14 wins over ranked teams in his 14 seasons in Corvallis. (one per year)
- Nebraska owns a 19-6 record since 1990 in games on the day after Thanksgiving, including a 5-1 record against Okahoma, an 11-4 mark against Colorado and 3-1 against Iowa.
- Nebraska is 11-3 at Memorial Stadium in that stretch, including 1-1 vs. the Hawkeyes.
Defensive coordinator Mark Banker spoke to the media following practice addressing many of Iowa’s offensive weapons.
"We know they’re a quality team,” Banker said. “It starts with their offensive line. They’re extremely well coached in the offensive line…they perform at a very, very high level. Their foot patterns are very good. They’re very strong upfront. Then you go back to the running backs. They’ve got a stable of four different running backs. They use them in various ways… [C.J.] Beathard as a quarterback does a great job of knowing where to go with the ball. He’s got a good sense in the pocket of timing. The do a nice job with the tight-end, more so on third-down with number 80 (Henry Krieger Coble). They just absolutely feed him the ball. Then 89 (Matt VandeBerg) is their go-to guy. He’s got 50 catches. So it’s just a methodical approach to football. They know what they are doing. They’ve got a good system and they do a great job of it.”
Iowa is ranked third coming into Friday’s game and has yet to lose a game this season. Part of that is their efficiency on third-down plays. Banker acknowledged the importance putting Iowa in tough third-down positions.
“You’ve got to do a great job on first down to begin with,” Banker said. "Then, from there get to a third down situation that they don’t want to be in. This team, more than any other team we’ve seen this year — we break it down into third and medium and third and long and third and extra long — they have by far, more third and mediums than everybody we’ve seen all year. They get themselves on first or second down, not leaving anymore than somewhere in the range of…four or five yards that they find themselves on third down."
The game will be televised on ABC. Kick-off is set for 2:30 p.m. Check back to huskers.com for more information.
