Seeing Red

In advance of the Nebraska-Wake Forest football game Saturday in Winston-Salem, N.C., a few Nebraska football facts, courtesy The Greensboro News-Record:

Academics: Nebraska boasts more Academic All-Americans (248) than any school. Since 2001, Wake has graduated 93 percent of its football players.

Fans: Wake sold a record 17,000 season tickets, about 1,000 to Huskers fans. The 17,000 figure represents approximately one-third of Wake's living alumni base. Over the past six years, Nebraska has averaged 61,000 fans. For its spring game.

Governor: Political office to which legendary former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne aspired in 2006. A member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001-07, Osborne lost in the Republican primary.

Heisman: Three Huskers have won college football's most coveted individual honor: Johnny Rodgers (1972), Mike Rozier (1983) and Eric Crouch (2001).

Itinerant: The professional lifestyle of Cornhuskers assistant coach Phil Elmassian. In 34 years in the business, Elmassian has worked at 16 schools: William & Mary, Richmond, Ferrum, East Carolina, Minnesota, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Syracuse, Washington, Boston College, Wisconsin, LSU, West Virginia, Marshall, Purdue and now Nebraska, where he has settled down for four seasons. If he returns to the Huskers in 2008, he ties a career high for longevity at a single institution.

Media: Eight Nebraska TV stations routinely travel to Huskers road games. Among the newspapers expected to staff Saturday's contest is The Star Herald in Scottsbluff, a 416-mile drive from Lincoln. How far is 416 miles? It's like driving from Greensboro to Pittsburgh.

Nicknames: Throughout their histories, both programs have employed coaches with distinctive monikers. Among those who have guided the Huskers: Walter C. "Bummy" Booth; W.C. "King" Cole; Ewald O. "Jumbo" Stiehm; Lawrence McCeney "Biff" Jones; and George "Potsy" Clark. On the Wake side, we offer Dixie Clyde "Peahead" Walker.

Offense: Bill Callahan took the job in 2004 with the reputation as a West Coast, fling-it-all-over-the-field guy. But in the opening win over Nevada, the Huskers ran for 413 yards.

Population: On the six Saturdays when it's full each year, Memorial Stadium (pop. 85,044) is the third-largest city in Nebraska. At those times, it's home to one of every 20 residents of the state.

Quarterbacks: Nebraska's Sam Keller was an Arizona State backup when the Sun Devils won at North Carolina 33-31 on Oct. 18, 2003.

Red: The Huskers' hue, and a dominant one. A year ago, 30,000 Nebraska supporters ventured to the L.A. Coliseum to see their team play USC.

Sellouts: The Huskers have sold out 283 consecutive home games since failing to fill Memorial Stadium Oct. 20, 1962. And there was an excuse that day: a distraction called the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Tokyo: That's where Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman and 100 other Cornhuskers will watch the game. They'll be taking a break from a trade mission to head to Legends Sports Bar and Grill, which caters to American tourists. The entourage returns home Sept. 13, two days before the Huskers' game with USC.

Unprecedented: The Huskers have never played on an ACC team's home field. The Deacs lost in Lincoln, 31-3, on Sept. 10, 2005, and 36-12 on Sept. 12, 1970. (That 1970 season was pretty good for both teams; the Huskers won the national title and the Deacons claimed the ACC crown.)

Venue: Wake's stadium (official capacity 31,500) is the smallest facility to host a Nebraska game since the Huskers played Hawaii in 25,000-seat Honolulu Stadium, affectionately known as "The Termite Palace," on Dec. 4, 1971.

Winning: Nebraska's winning percentage in its football history is .704