Jayhawks Hit the Road to Face Nebraska

Sept. 30, 2004

LAWRENCE, Kan. — The University of Kansas (2-2, 0-1 Big 12) football team looks to return to the win column on Saturday when the team travels to Lincoln, Neb., for a 6:10 p.m. kickoff against the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The game against Nebraska will mark the 99th straight year that the two teams have faced each other — the longest continuous series in Division IA and an NCAA record (ahead of the 95 games by Kansas-Oklahoma, who met every year from 1903-1997).

NU’s Bill Callahan spent the past two seasons has the head coach of the Oakland Raiders and was just the fourth rookie head coach in the history of the NFL to lead his team to the Super Bowl — a feat he accomplished in 2002.

“They have a new coach and their kids are learning,” said KU head coach Mark Mangino at his weekly press conference. “You can see from week to week that they are getting better and better. You can see on offense how their kids are starting to understand the system.”

The Jayhawks will look to sophomore quarterback Adam Barmann and senior wide receiver Brandon Rideau to get the offense rolling. Rideau has hauled in four touchdown catches in the last three games including a pair of scores against Northwestern on Sept. 18.

“Their defense is stout, tough and hard-nosed,” said Mangino. “They play hard and give you a lot of looks. It is going to be a good challenge for us and we are looking forward to playing another conference game and getting back on track.”

Kansas and Nebraska rank seventh and eighth in the Big 12 in scoring offense with an average of 32.8 and 32.2 points per game, respectively.

Series Notes: The KU-NU series is tied for the third longest in NCAA Division I-A history at 110 games, trailing only Minnesota-Wisconsin (113) and Kansas-Missouri (112) … The two teams have squared off 98 consecutive years making it the longest current uninterrupted series in NCAA I-A history … KU’s 100th all-time football win was an 8-6 victory over NU in 1906 … Three of the last five meetings in the series against the Cornhuskers have been played at night … Oct. 11 marks the earliest ever meeting between the two school in the series — the traditional rivals have met in November each of the past four seasons and 15 of the last 21 years … Nebraska I-Back Cory Ross is the younger brother of former KU wide receiver Roger Ross who starred at Kansas from 2000-01.