Written by Garin Turner
Due to last week’s severe weather conditions, the Nebraska Cornhuskers season officially starts tomorrow as they welcome the Colorado Buffaloes (1-0) to Lincoln at 2:30 PM CST on ABC. Colorado defeated Colorado State on Aug 31, 45-13.
“Colorado looked good on all three phases last week. They really won that game decisively against an in-state rival,” Nebraska head coach Scott Frost said.
The Cornhuskers and Buffaloes were conference rivals for more than 60 years ending before the 2011 season, when Nebraska left the Big 12 for the Big Ten. This meeting is the first of four matchups between 2018 to 2024. Saturday’s game will be the 70th meeting between the two teams. Nebraska holds a commanding 49-18-2 which includes a 26-8 record in Lincoln.
True freshman Adrian Martinez will be the starting quarterback for the Cornhuskers. He is the second freshman QB in the program’s history to start a season opener. “I think they’re a little bit more similar to our defense and it’ll be a good challenge for us. They bring a couple of different things to the table,” Nebraska quarterback Adrian Martinez said.
Head coach Scott Frost returns home to make his debut as well. This is Frost’s third season overall as a head coach, having previously coached at UCF, who went undefeated last year. UCF went 19-7 in the last two seasons. Frost was the consensus 2017 National Coach of the Year. When he arrived at UCF, they went 0-12 the previous year.
Frost looks to make a similar timely turn around for his alma-mater. Nebraska went 4-8 last year and gave up 50 plus points in its last three games. Frost will institute his famed fast paced offense to improve the offense, and expects Martinez to be able to handle it quite well. “To summarize, I told him (Martinez) to take care of the football, play like you’re the best player on the field and play fast,” Frost said.
Buffaloes head coach Mike MacIntyre brings and offense to Lincoln that was impressive in their opener. Quarterback Steven Montez went 22 for 25 for 338 yards and four touchdowns for the Buffs against CSU. Travon McMillian lead the rushing attack with 10 carries for 103 yards and a score. Colorado ran 40 times for 258 yards and two scores.
Even though Colorado has a game under its belt, Nebraska could very well have the advantage since there’s no game film for Colorado to look at. Nebraska has had time to study the Buffaloes game. Huskers faithful will take any advantage over their former rivals to kickoff the Frost-era in Lincoln.
