 "Photo: Courtesy")
The Nebraska football team may not have any problems being homesick this season.
In Bo Pelini's first year as head coach of the Cornhuskers, his team opened the season with five straight home games at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb. Consequently, three of its next four Big 12 Conference games are away.
Pelini said his offense will practice with crowd noise in preparation for its first road game against No. 7 Texas Tech at 2:10 p.m. Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium, but he admitted it presents an "added challenge for us."
"Obviously, once you get out there, it's about performing and executing - the first time you go on the road and dealing with how to handle the road trip and all that," Pelini said. "You gotta do it for the first time at some point. We gotta take the attitude: We don't care where we play, we just gotta execute our football."
Texas Tech defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill said he would not mind having a schedule like Nebraska's.
"I wish we had five straight home games," McNeill said. "I like them. I love playing at home."
In addition to experiencing its first road game of the season, the Cornhuskers are at the tail end of a tough three-game stretch. After starting the season 3-0, Nebraska dropped games to Virginia Tech, 35-30, and Missouri, 52-17.
Nebraska senior running back Marlon Lucky said playing five games at home was a treat, but he is not looking for sympathy in regards to recent losses.
"Don't feel sorry for us, we love that," said Lucky, who has 232 yards on 56 carries this season. "We prepared all through fall camp, it was a hard fall camp. We're ready for it. Coach told us about our schedule from the get go, we're gonna take it just like every other game. We're gonna take it one game at a time. They're hard hitting games."
The last time Nebraska played in Lubbock was former coach Bill Callahan's first year in 2004. The Red Raiders handed the Huskers their worst lost in the school's 114-year history, 70-10, forcing seven turnovers.
Tech safety Darcel McBath was a redshirt freshman watching the game from the stands, and he said another blowout of that proportion would be hard for anyone to replicate.
"It was pretty bad, I don't expect anything like that to happen to them very much, even again," he said. "That was an accomplishment by us, but I don't think they came to play that game. They'll definitely come this time to play some ball."
Nebraska is not as dominant as it once was, finishing the 2007 season 5-7, which culminated in the firing of Callahan and the hiring of Pelini.
But Tech coach Mike Leach said Nebraska's struggles cannot solely be placed on coaching changes.
The rise of other teams in the conference needs to be taken into account, Leach said.
"Way back in the day you didn't have to worry as much about Missouri in that side of that division, or Kansas," he said. "Then you combine the Big 12 with all that, then you got Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, everybody figuring into that deal. That's adding to it. The other thing that needs to be considered is when you have the additional teams having success recruiting very aggressively. So I think that it all adds up, just a constant battle to stay up top."
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