Nebraska Postgame Notes

#9 Nebraska 31, Iowa State 30 OT
Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010
Jack Trice Stadium (Ames, Iowa)

• Nebraska improved to 8-1 for the first time since 2001 with today's victory. The 8-1 start is Nebraska's best since opening the 2001 season with an 11-0 record.
• Nebraska's victory was its eighth straight win in the month of November, dating back to a Nov. 1, 2008 loss at Oklahoma.
• Nebraska extended its road winning streak to eight games, its longest since winning 10 straight road games for 1996 to 1998. Today's victory was NU's eighth straight Big 12 road victory, its longest since 1996 and 1997. Nebraska is 9-2 on the road in Big 12 play under Head Coach Bo Pelini.
• Nebraska now owns a 6-1all-time record in overtime. The Huskers won their first five overtime games - including a 27-20 double-overtime victory over No. 23 Iowa State in Lincoln in 2005 - but lost their last overtime game before today, 37-31 at No. 7 Texas Tech in 2008.
• Nebraska trailed 10-7 at halftime of today's game, but rallied for a 31-30 overtime victory. The win improved the Huskers to 4-8 under Bo Pelini when trailing at halftime. Nebraska last overcame a halftime deficit for a win at Missouri last season (NU trailed 9-0 at half in a 27-12 victory).
• Sophomore I-back Rex Burkhead spent much of today's game taking direct snaps in Nebraska's "wildcat" formation. Burkhead finished the day with career-high 20 carries for 129 yards and two touchdowns. Burkhead had a season-long 29-yard rush out of the wildcat formation in the first quarter, and rushed six times for 52 yards out of the formation on NU's opening scoring drive spanning the first and second quarter.
• Burkhead's 129 rushing yards were a career high, bettering his 104 yards at Washington earlier this season. It was Burkhead's third overall 100-yard rushing game (100 at Colorado in 2009).
• Nebraska senior I-back Roy Helu Jr. rushed 22 times for 99 yards and a six-yard first-quarter touchdown. Helu became the sixth player in Nebraska history to surpass 3,000 career rushing yards. Helu now has 3,065 yards, good for fifth on the Nebraska career rushing list. He is just 88 yards from fourth place on the list (3,153 yards by Calvin Jones).
• Helu's 99 yards improved his season rushing total to 906 to move him within 94 yards of posting back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons. The last Husker to accomplish that was Calvin Jones in 1992 and 1993.
• Helu's touchdown run was his ninth of the 2010 season and the 26th of his Nebraska career.
• Junior safety Austin Cassidy had a 29-yard interception return for a touchdown in the third quarter to give Nebraska 17-10 lead. The pick was the first of Cassidy's career. It was Nebraska's fourth interception return for a TD this season, one off the school record. Nebraska had two INT returns for scores against Idaho (Gomes, Thenarse) and one at Washington (Dennard).
• Cassidyhad a career-high 12 tackles in today's game while making his second career start. Cassidy had eight tackles before halftime. His previous career high was six tackles last week against Missouri.
• Senior safety Eric Hagg intercepted an ISU pass in the third quarter of today's game for his team-leading fourth interception of the 2010 season.
• Nebraska converted three Iowa State turnovers into 21 points in today's game. Before today's game, Nebraska had not converted an opponent turnover into points since the Washington game.
• Nebraska increased its interception total to 15. By comparison, Nebraska quarterbacks have thrown just three interceptions through nine games.
• Sophomore quarterback Cody Green made his third career start in today's game. He started NU victories over Baylor and Oklahoma last season.
• Nebraska junior defensive tackle Jared Crick, one of 12 Lombardi semifinalists, finished today's game with four tackles, and caused a first-quarter fumble. Crick also had a tackle for loss and one quarterback hurry, pushing his season total to eight.
• Senior cornerback Prince Amukamara finished today's game with seven tackles, including a nine-yard sack, his first of the season and fourth of his career.
• Senior receiver Niles Paul caught one pass for five yards in today's game. He improved his career receptions total to 92 to move into sole possession of seventh place on the Nebraska career receptions list.
• Freshman cornerback Ciante Evans made his first career start in today's game in place of the injured Alfonzo Dennard. Evans had one tackle. Last week, Evans played the final three quarters against Missouri.
• Today's game marked just the third time in nine games Nebraska did not score on its opening possession (South Dakota State, Texas). It was also the third time Nebraska has not scored in the opening quarter.
• Senior Alex Henery kicked four extra points and one field goal to increase his career scoring total to 365 moving him within three points of Eric Crouch's second-place total of 368 points and 23 points of Kris Brown's school-record of 388 points. Henery extended his PAT made streak to 105 and improved to 61-of-68 on field goals in his career.
• Henery boomed a season-long 69-yard punt in the first quarter of today's game.
• Sophomore tight end Kyler Reed caught a career-high three passes for 52 yards. Reed has had multiple catches in each of the past three games.
• Today's game captains were sophomore TE Kyler Reed, sophomore TE Ben Cotton, junior LB Will Compton and junior DT Terrence Moore.