Colorado @ Nebraska preview

Last Meeting ( Nov 26, 2010 ) Colorado 17, Nebraska 45

For a 15-year stretch from 1996 to 2010, Nebraska ended its regular season on Black Friday with a rivalry game against Colorado sparked by the schools' dominance of their conference. This season, the Cornhuskers will get a second chance to begin the Scott Frost era on the right foot when they host the Buffaloes on Saturday in a battle pitting two former rivals hoping to return to their former glory, albeit in different conferences.

Nebraska and Colorado combined to win the final eight Big Eight championships before the conference expanded and became the Big 12 in 1996, and the schools met regularly on Thanksgiving weekend every year thereafter until the Cornhuskers left for the Big Ten and Colorado fled to the Pac 12 in 2011. The Cornhuskers are coming off their worst season since 1961 and have suffered two losing campaigns in three years after finishing 49 of the previous 53 seasons with at least nine wins, while the Buffaloes have enjoyed only one winning campaign since 2005. Mother Nature delayed Frost's reclamation project one week, as a lightning strike and a severe thunderstorm shortly after kickoff in Nebraska's season opener against Akron led to a long delay and ultimately a cancellation. Meanwhile, the Buffaloes began their season in dominant fashion last weekend, piling up 596 total yards in a 45-13 rout of Colorado State.

TV: 3:30 p.m. ET, ABC. LINE: Nebraska -4.5.

ABOUT COLORADO (1-0): Junior Steven Montez, who completed 22-of-25 passes for 338 yards and four TDs against the Rams and tied a program record by completing his first 12 passes and set another with his 246.4 passer rating (for 20-plus and 25-plus attempts in a game), is the ninth quarterback in school history to exceed 4,000 passing yards in his career. Laviska Shenault Jr. posted the fourth-highest, single-game receiving yardage total in school history (211), while Virginia Tech graduate transfer Travon McMillian became only the eighth Colorado player to run for at least 100 yards in his debut (103). Sophomore linebacker Nate Landman finished with 16 tackles and an interception against the Rams, setting a school mark for the most tackles by a Buffalo in his first career start.

ABOUT NEBRASKA (2017: 4-8): Adrian Martinez will become the first true freshman quarterback to open the season as the starter in school history, and he should have no shortage of weapons at his disposal as senior Stanley Morgan Jr. (986) and sophomore JD Spielman (830) ranked second and fifth, respectively, in the Big Ten in receiving yards last year. Greg Bell is expected to get the first shot at being the next in a long line of great running backs for the Cornhuskers after rushing for at least 1,187 yards in each of his two seasons at Arizona Western. Nebraska struggled mightily on defense in 2017, surrendering nearly twice as many rushing yards as the offense gained (2,577-1,290) and recording a Big-Ten low 14 sacks.

EXTRA POINTS

1. The Cornhuskers own a 49-18-2 advantage in the all-time series, including a 26-8 mark in Lincoln.

2. Nebraska gave up at least 54 points in each of its final three games last season.

3. The Buffaloes last weekend featured a 300-yard passer (Montez, 338), a 200-yard receiver (Shenault) and a 100-yard rusher (McMillian) in the same game for the first time in school history.

PREDICTION: Nebraska 41, Colorado 31