Is there an intimidation factor for the NIU football team going into Saturday’s game with the No. 10 Nebraska Cornhuskers?

“I don’t think it’s an intimidation factor, it’s more of a distraction,” head coach Jerry Pettibone said. “Because of all the excitement around the game, the roar of the crowd and the size of the crowd, that’s a distraction to keep you from focusing in. Now that our players have been through that, I think they can get settled down quicker and play football.”

Offensive coordinator Mike Summers feels that there was no intimidation factor last year.

“I don’t think we’re intimidated and I don’t think we were last year, to be honest,” he said. “We’re more confident that we know the surroundings, we know the atmosphere and we know the team now. We’re confident in our ability to run our offense and we feel like we can go in there and execute against them.

What about the surroundings?

“I don’t think we’ll stand around in pregame and look up in the sea of red and wonder what’s going on,” Summers said. “We feel like we’re there for a job and we’ll get our job done. To go out and prove something to ourselves and to everyone else, that’s what our mission is.”

Nebraska head coach Tom Osborne said that his Cornhusker defense had “one of the finest opening-game performances I’ve seen in 28 years.”

What did the Huskies’ coaches think?

“They’ve got the most awesome defense I’ve ever seen,” Summers said.

“This is a really good football team we’re playing against,” quarterback coach Jay Schaake said. “They have tremendous ability along with size, speed and strength. It’s a great challenge for us to put our offense up against one of the best defenses in the country. They play with a lot of emotion, they play with reckless abandon and they run hard to the ball.”

“I think they’re a great football team,” Pettibone said. “I think they’re a better football team than they were last year. I think they’re one of the top defensive teams in the nation.”

Is the Huskie offense ready for the Nebraska defensive challenge?

“We know they’re a great team and we’re not going in there so confident that we think we’re goint to push them up and down the field,” Summers said. “Last year we went over there and were tied 17-17 at halftime and we didn’t play very well.”

Schaake said, “I think we’re confident with our own ability, we think we’ve got a good offensive football team that should be able to move the ball. We’re going to play a tremendous football team. If we can go in and execute against them and not make the mistakes we made (last) Saturday, that’s the way we’re going to be successful.”

The Huskie offense did commit several errors in last week’s win over Eastern Illinois.

“I think you’ll see some of that for the first couple games, it’s an execution thing that takes time to develop,” Summers said. “Most offenses this time of year spit and sputter a little bit, and it takes them a while to click regardless of how many players you have back. We’ve got a lot of guys who have to do a lot of different things and the timing has to be there for it all to work.”

What did Summers think of the Huskies’ performance during last year’s contest in Lincoln?

“We looked on our film from last year’s game and we didn’t play as well as we played before or after that game,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll eliminate the mistakes that we made over there.