The Big Ten unveiled their division alignment next season when the Huskers join the conference. Nebraska will be with Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota and Northwestern. In the other division it’s Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Purdue. Now even though they are in separate division, Nebraska will play Penn State ever year in a crossover rivalry.
The Huskers first Big Ten game will be played at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin when they face the Badgers on October 1st. The Huskers first home game…the following week, October 8th against Ohio State.
Alright onto this week’s opponent, the Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky. They are under the guidance of first year head coach Willie Taggert who returns to his alma mater. Taggert was the running backs coach at Stanford for three seasons where he helped mold Toby Gerhart who finished second in the Heisman voting.
As far as Western Kentucky’s defense, they have a new defensive coordinator who the Huskers are very familiar with. Former Kansas defensive coordinator Clint Bowen who is moving the Hilltoppers from a 3-4 to a 4-3 scheme. NU offensive coordinator Shawn Watson doesn’t expect any surprises.
With a new coaching staff in place, its tough for the NU coaches to watch game film on Western Kentucky when it comes to game planning, so Watson says they focus more on personnel. Players that stuck out to Watson were junior safety Mark Santoro who had 91 tackles last year and senior middle linebacker Chris Bullard who made 46 stops.
Watson says NU will hold nothing back and he is just looking forward to opening up the playbook. Below are the NU 2011 and 2012 schedules for the Big Ten.
2011 schedule
Sept. 10, Fresno State
Sept. 17, Washington
Sept. 24, at Wyoming
Oct. 1, at Wisconsin
Oct. 8, Ohio State
Oct. 22, at Minnesota
Oct. 29, Michigan State
Nov. 5, Northwestern
Nov. 12, at Penn State
Nov. 19, at Michigan
Nov. 26, Iowa
NOTE: One game still to be determined
2012 schedule
Sept. 1, Southern Miss.
Sept. 8, at UCLA
Sept. 29, Wisconsin
Oct. 6, at Ohio State
Oct. 20, at Northwestern
Oct. 27, Michigan
Nov. 3, at Michigan State
Nov. 10, Penn State
Nov. 17, Minnesota
Nov. 24, at Iowa
