Nebraska Completes 2005 Football Schedule

Nebraska Athletic Director Steve Pederson announced on Friday that the Huskers have filled two openings on their 2005 football schedule after finalizing contracts with the <?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>University of Maine and WakeForestUniversity.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

 

Nebraska will open its 2005 campaign at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 3, against the Maine Black Bears, and play WakeForest a week later on Sept. 10, also in Lincoln. The two games round out Nebraska’s non-conference schedule that also includes a Sept. 17 game against Pittsburgh at Memorial Stadium. The Huskers’ first five games of the 2005 season will be in Lincoln, and the Huskers will play a total of seven games at Memorial Stadium.

 

“We are excited to complete our 2005 football schedule,” Pederson said. “Maine and WakeForest both have fine football programs and those two games will be good tests for our football team. It is a plus to play as many games as in front of our Husker fans at Memorial Stadium, and we are pleased to have seven home games next fall.”

 

Maine is coming off a 5-6 record in 2004 that included a 9-7 victory at MississippiState in Maine’s only contest of the season against a Division I-A opponent. The Black Bears faced one of the most difficult schedules in Division I-AA in 2004. Maine lost to both of the participants in tonight’s Division I-AA championship game, losing 27-20 at Montana to open the season and falling 24-20 to James Madison at mid-season. The Black Bears also lost to Division I-AA quarterfinalists Delaware (43-38) and New Hampshire (50-36) during the past season.

 

Jack Cosgrove has been the Black Bears’ head coach the past 12 seasons, and guided Maine to back-to-back Atlantic 10 championships in 2001 and 2002. Maine advanced to the quarterfinals of the Division I-AA playoffs in each of those seasons. Cosgrove is a Maine graduate and before being named head coach, was an assistant with the Black Bears for six seasons, including the final three under current Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz.

 

The matchup with WakeForest is the first in a two-game series between Nebraska and the Demon Deacons. In addition to the game next fall at Memorial Stadium, the Huskers will play WakeForest at Groves Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Sept. 8, 2007. The 2007 meeting between the schools is the second scheduled non-conference game for Nebraska that season, joining a Sept. 15, 2007, game against USC in Lincoln. Nebraska and WakeForest have met once previously, with the Huskers opening the 1970 season with a 36-12 victory over the Demon Deacons in Lincoln.

 

The game against WakeForest will be the Huskers’ first against a current member of the Atlantic Coast Conference since the 2002 Rose Bowl game with Miami. The Hurricanes were a member of the Big East at the time of that game. Nebraska last played an active member of the ACC in the 1994 Orange Bowl matchup with FloridaState, and has not faced an ACC foe in the regular season since North CarolinaState traveled to Lincoln in 1973.

 

The Demon Deacons finished the 2004 season with a 4-7 record in 2004. Six of WakeForest’s seven losses came by a touchdown or less, including a pair of overtime losses on the road and close losses to eventual ACC champion Virginia Tech (17-10) and FloridaState (20-17). The Demon Deacons return 19 starters for the 2005 season according to their depth chart from their final game of the 2004 season.

 

Head Coach Jim Grobe just completed his fourth season as WakeForest’s head coach. He has compiled a 22-25 record with the Demon Deacons, and took WakeForest to the Seattle Bowl following the 2002 season.