BY DON WILLIAMS
AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

To hear Texas Tech safety Darcel McBath tell it, the Red Raiders took nothing for granted this week. Just to be safe, instead of preparing for the current, struggling Nebraska team, they got ready for the Tom Osborne-era, Tommie Frazier-led, Herbie-is-your-worst-nightmare Cornhuskers.

That sounded like the plan anyway.

“This could be the week they put it all together. We’re preparing for that,” McBath said this week. “We know they’re a great team. They’re trying to find their self. This could be the week that they put it together, so we’re (preparing) like they’re 5-0.”

First-year Nebraska coach Bo Pelini hopes that’s the group he’s bringing to town for Saturday’s 2 p.m. kickoff at Jones AT&T Stadium. A 52-17 home loss last week to Missouri left Nebraska at 3-2 and trying to avoid its first 0-2 start in conference play in 40 years.

Pelini, whose impressive resume includes coaching defense in the NFL as well as at Oklahoma and LSU, has another potential negative in play this week: It’s his first road game with his new team.

But that’s hardly his first concern.

“We need to be more detailed,” Pelini said. “We need to give ourselves a great chance to win game plan-wise and be figuring out what the strength of our football team is and leaning on it — and executing. A good idea is only a good idea if it can be executed, and that’s where our issue’s been.”

Nebraska quarterback Joe Ganz is a national top-20 passer at 258 yards per game, but a hot topic around Lincoln has been what’s up with the Cornhuskers’ rushing offense. Marlon Lucky, second-team all-Big 12 Conference a year ago when he ran for 1,019 yards and caught a school-record 75 passes for 705, has cracked 50 yards rushing only once in the first five games this season. If not for 330 yards rushing against New Mexico State, Nebraska would be averaging 93 yards on the ground.

Nebraska got off to wins over Western Michigan, San Jose State and New Mexico State, averaging 40 points on the way to 3-0. Then the ’Huskers dropped a 35-30 decision at home to Virginia Tech, giving up some big passes to one of the nation’s worst passing offenses, and were carved up by Missouri last week.

“They’re big, strong, physical. They’re an aggressive team,” Tech coach Mike Leach said of the ’Huskers. “They’re certainly a better team than some people think as a result of the Missouri game. That was a very close game for a half, and then they gave up some big plays and got frustrated.”

Even if the ’Huskers are less talented than Leach portrays, McBath figures players’ pride counts for something Saturday.

“They’re angry. They want to win,” McBath said. “Nobody likes to lose. They’re definitely going to push themselves in practice a little harder this week. They don’t have anybody patting them on the back. They’ll have people talking down on them. They’re going to be hungrier than some teams that are 4-1, 5-0 right now.”

Tech has faced comparatively little adversity this season. Maybe the Red Raiders weren’t as crisp as expected from week one. That seems less a concern, though, with a 56-14 rout of Massachusetts and a 58-28 massacre of Kansas State in the last two games.

“There’s no doubt we had a different mentality,” Tech quarterback Graham Harrell said of the performance at KSU.

“I think that was the first game that really showed our true colors,” offensive guard Brandon Carter said. “The fact that we did get on the same page, even when it was the fifth game, I think that’s really good for us. All we’re going to do is look forward to building on that.”

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