Nebraska Postgame Notes vs. Iowa State

Nebraska 35, Iowa State 17
Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)

• Nebraska improved to 4-1 with today’s victory and opened conference play with a victory for the 32nd time in the past 33 years. Nebraska has also won its past 30 conference home openers.
• The win was Nebraska’s 15th straight victory over Iowa State in Lincoln, dating back to a 24-21 loss in 1977. Nebraska improved to 48-6-1 all-time against Iowa State in Lincoln.
• Nebraska’s win was its eighth straight victory over Big 12 North opponents, dating back to a 2005 loss at Kansas. The eight-game win streak against the North is the longest by Nebraska since winning nine straight against North opponents from 1998 to 2000.
• Junior fullback Thomas Lawson caught the first two touchdown passes of his career today, a 6-yard grab in the second quarter and a 4-yard catch in the fourth quarter. Lawson’s two touchdown catches mark the first time in school history a fullback has recorded two touchdown receptions in the same game. He joined Cory Ross (Oct. 1, 2005 vs. Iowa State) and Ahman Green (Oct. 21, 1995 vs. Kansas State) as the only Nebraska running backs with two touchdown receptions in a single game.
• Senior linebacker Bo Ruud returned a third-quarter interception 93 yards for a touchdown to give Nebraska a 28-10 lead. The 93-yard return is the third-longest interception return in school history, bettered only by 95-yard returns by Bill Kosch against Texas A&M in 1971 and Willie Greenlaw against Colorado in 1955. It is the longest ever by a Nebraska linebacker, bettering an 88-yard interception return for a touchdown by Noel Martin against Missouri in 1962.
• The interception return for a touchdown was the third of Ruud’s career and his fifth overall interception as a Husker. Ruud also scored touchdowns on interceptions against Maine in 2005 and last week against Ball State. Ruud’s two interception returns for touchdowns in a season are a Nebraska linebacker record. Ruud has a total of 208 yards on five career interceptions, an average of 41.6 yards per return.
• Ruud’s two touchdowns this season marks the first time a Nebraska defensive player has had two touchdowns in a season since Julius Jackson scored a pair of touchdowns in 1999 both vs. Southern Miss. Ruud is the first linebacker in NU school history to return a defensive touchdown in consecutive games.
• Ruud made 14 tackles in today’s game, marking the third time in his career he has posted a double-figure tackle total and the first since a career-high 15 tackles at Colorado in 2005.
• Senior cornerback Cortney Grixby intercepted a second-quarter pass, marking the third interception of his Nebraska career. It also marked the second straight season Grixby has intercepted a pass against Iowa State. Grixby also had a pass breakup on Ruud’s interception return for a touchdown.
• Grixby’s 51-yard kickoff return in the second quarter was a career best , surpassing his 42-yard return in the season opener against Nevada. Grixby’s 51-yard return was the longest by a Husker since Marlon Lucky returned a kickoff 57 yards at Kansas in 2005.
• Senior linebacker Corey McKeon had a season-high nine tackles in today’s game and Nebraska’s three starting linebackers (Ruud, McKeon, Octavien) combined for a total of 34 tackles.
• Senior linebacker Steve Octavien has a career-high 11 tackles in today’s game, bettering his previous high of 10 against Texas last season. His seven solo stops also tied his career high, also set against the Longhorns.
• Junior I-back Marlon Lucky completed a 20-yard touchdown pass to tight end Sean Hill to put Nebraska on the scoreboard in the second quarter. The touchdown pass was the second of Lucky’s career, joining a 25-yard touchdown pass to Nate Swift against Texas in 2006. It was also the fourth touchdown pass by a non-quarterback in the past two seasons. Nebraska also had touchdown passes by holder Jake Wesch (Kansas State) and wide receiver Maurice Purify (Missouri) last season. In addition, reserve quarterback Joe Ganz completed a touchdown pass on a fake punt against Colorado last season.
• Lucky rushed 16 times for 107 yards and one touchdown in today’s game. This marked Lucky’s third 100-yard game this season. He ran for a career-high 233 yards against Nevada in the season opener and had 102 yards in last week’s win over Ball State. Lucky now has five career 100-yard rushing games. He raised his season rushing total to 565 yards and his career total to 1,422.
• Lucky’s 41-yard touchdown run in the third quarter marked his seventh career touchdown run of 20 yards or longer.
• Lucky caught four passes for 16 yards in today’s game, marking the sixth straight game he has caught at least three passes. Lucky has had four or more receptions each of the past three games.
• Senior wide receiver Terrence Nunn caught two passes for 18 yards in today’s game. Nunn has now caught a pass in 32 straight games, six games shy of Johnny Rodgers’ school record of 38 straight games with a catch. Nunn has 118 career receptions, 25 receptions shy of Rodgers’ NU career record of 143.
• Senior wide receiver Frantz Hardy hauled in a 60-yard reception on Nebraska’s second play from scrimmage, marking Hardy’s fourth career reception of 60 yards or longer. Hardy had a 73-yard catch against Maine in 2005, and receptions of 78 and 75 yards against Kansas last season.
• Junior wide receiver Nate Swift had four receptions for 59 yards in today’s game. In the process, Swift moved into the top five on the Nebraska career receiving yardage list with 1,221 career yards. In today’s game he passed Irving Fryar for fifth place on the list. Swift also moved into fourth place on the career receptions list with 83, passing Jeff Kinney who had 82 career receptions.
• Nebraska controlled the football for a total of 20:48 in today’s game, including just 10:46 before hafltime. Today marked the Huskers’ lowest time of possession of the season and its lowest since holding the ball for just 22:07 against Kansas State in 2004.
• Freshman safety Eric Hagg made his first appearance as a Husker today, serving on NU’s kickoff coverage unit.
• Junior wide receiver Nate Swift served as today’s game captain, alongside senior captains Bo Ruud, Brett Byford and Zack Bowman.