Nebraska vs. Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, Va. (Lane Stadium)
Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009
* Junior Alex Henery boomed a 76-yard punt in the first quarter, tying for the fourth-longest punt in Nebraska history. The punt is the longest by Nebraska since Sam Koch had an 84-yard punt vs. Pittsburgh on Sept. 17, 2005. <?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>
* Henery opened the scoring for Nebraska in the first quarter with a 40-yard field goal. He added field goals of 27, 19 and twice from 38 yards later in the contest for a career-high five field goals. Henery has now connected on 19 straight field goals from less than 50 yards and has made 15 of his last 16 field goals overall.
* Henery made five field goals in today’s game, marking his fourth career game with at least four field goals (also Western Michigan, Colorado and Clemson in 2008). The five field goals are second on the Nebraska single-game list, trailing only Dale Klein’s seven field goals at Missouri in 1985.
* Junior I-back Roy Helu Jr. rushed 28 times for a career-high 169 yards, including 11 times for 82 yards in the first half. On Nebraska’s 77-yard scoring drive to take a 9-7 lead in the second quarter, Helu accounted for 61 total yards, including a pair of 20-yard rushes. Helu’s 169-yard rushing effort marked his fifth career 100-yard rushing game, all coming in the past eight games.
* Helu had four rushes of more than 20 yards in today’s game. He now has 14 runs of 20 yards or longer in the past eight games.
* Junior Niles Paul had a career-long 55-yard punt return in the first quarter to set up Nebraska’s opening field goal. Paul’s return was the longest by Nebraska since Nate Swift returned a punt 88 yards for a touchdown in last year’s meeting with Virginia Tech. Paul finished the day with six punt returns for 86 yards and added one reception for 19 yards, 71 yards on kickoff returns and totaled 176 all-purpose yards. A week ago, Paul had 169 all-purpose yards vs. Arkansas State.
* Senior defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh recorded eight total tackles, including one tackles for loss and 0.5 sacks. Suh has posted at least one TFL in 13 of Nebraska’s past 14 games overall.
* Suh upped his career tackle for loss total to 38 moving him into eighth position on the Nebraska career TFL chart. He is just seven TFL from the No. 3 spots on the Nebraska career chart (45). Suh added 0.5 sacks to push his career total to 14, moving him within 1.5 sacks of Mike Rucker’s 15.5 career sacks which rank 10th on the NU career list.
* Suh added four pass breakups and one quarterback hurry in the game. His four pass breakups set a new record for defensive linemen, either an interior lineman or an end. The previous record for a defensive tackles was Jeremy Slechta’s three breakups against Missouri in 2000.
* Nebraska rushed for more than 160 yards for the eighth time in the last nine regular-season games.
* Today’s game ended a streak of 20 straight games in which Nebraska had produced at least 200 passing yards.
* Nebraska converted four of five trips into the red zone for scores, including four field goals. The Nebraska offense is now 12-of-13 in the red zone this season.
* Nebraska registered four sacks in today’s game after having four sacks last week. NU has had at least three sacks in six of the last seven games.
* Today’s Nebraska game captains were junior place-kicker Adi Kunalic, senior safety Larry Asante, junior quarterback Zac Lee and junior receiver Niles Paul.