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Lincoln - The Nebraska football team began preparations for Saturday’s Big 12 Conference game with Iowa State by working out for two hours on the grass practice fields adjacent to Memorial Stadium on Monday afternoon.
The Huskers, who enter Saturday’s 11:40 a.m. kickoff with Iowa State at 6-1 overall in a tie for first with Kansas in the Big 12 North Division standings with a 2-1 record, are focused on the Cyclones despite ISU’s 2-5 overall record and 0-3 start in league play.
"Our team knows what is ahead of them, which is a very good Iowa State football team that has had a lot of injuries. Their record is not reflective of what they are all about," Nebraska Coach Frank Solich said. "We know that as a coaching staff and as a football team, so we will prepare very hard to be on top of our game."
Nebraska is coming off one of its best performances of the season in a 48-12 win over Texas A&M on Saturday at Memorial Stadium. The Huskers tied a school record by forcing eight Aggie turnovers, and Solich said he would like to see Nebraska’s success on defense continue.
"We did an awful lot of good things. Anytime you take care of the ball, and anytime you force turnovers, you are generally going to have good things happen for you," Solich said. "It was probably our most complete ballgame, but we hope to be able to build on that, and we need to build on that if we are going to survive in the Big 12."
The first Bowl Championship Series rankings of the season were released earlier Monday, with Nebraska making an appearance at No. 11 in the standings. Solich said it was still too early in the season to give much weight to the BCS rankings.
"It probably doesn’t mean too much right now," Solich said. "You are talking about a lot of the season ahead of us, and I think it will play itself out as far as the BCS is concerned. Anybody that gets too excited about it or tangled up in it right now is probably asking for trouble. We’re not really looking at that at all right now. The best thing for us to do is just to look at Iowa State and get prepared for them."
The Huskers will continue their preparations for the Cyclones with regular practice on Tuesday afternoon at approximately 3:30 p.m.