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Provo • When BYU opted for college football independence five years ago, athletic director Tom Holmoe said there were only a handful of nationally prominent programs in which the Cougars would agree to play without the promise of a return visit to Provo.
Nebraska is one of those programs.
So the Cougars will travel to Big Red country on Saturday (1:30 p.m. MDT, Ch. 4), pick up a $1 million paycheck at sold-out Memorial Stadium and try to snap the Cornhuskers' 29-game winning streak in season openers.
Holmoe used his connections with then-Nebraska coach Bo Pelini, who has since been fired, to set up the game in 2012. They coached the defensive backs together for the San Francisco 49ers in the 1990s.
Nebraska's program has slipped in recent years, which is why former Oregon State coach Mike Riley — with whom BYU coaches are quite familiar, having faced the Beavers three times since 2009 — was hired last December to return the program to its glory years.
"I am not going to put any parameters on it, nor make any prediction about it," Riley said of his new project. "We obviously understand we want to win the championship and all that, but there's a long road to go down and a lot of things to do before we can make that relevant."
But Nebraska is Nebraska in the Cougars' minds, and they have spoken of their opening-day opponent in almost reverent tones this week, all while insisting that they won't be awestruck by all that winning tradition in front of 87,000 fans, the stadium's 342nd consecutive sellout.
Linebackers coach Paul Tidwell and offensive coordinator Robert Anae have coached in games in Lincoln, Neb., Tidwell when he was at Louisiana Tech and Anae when he was at Texas Tech. Tidwell also took his Snow College teams to Nebraska to face the Cornhuskers' junior varsity teams in the late 1980s and says legendary former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne treated them like they were Ohio State.
"They were great fans, and they treated us well," Tidwell said. "It was a great experience."
Anae said Nebraska is as steeped in tradition as any program in the country.
"Great fan base, outstanding college football environment," he said. "That's what college football should be."
No program in the country has more wins, 389, the past 40 years than Nebraska. BYU ranks No. 5 in that span, with 354. The Huskers have won five national titles and 43 conference championships, but none yet in the Big Ten, the league they joined in 2011.
"These young men grow up, a lot of them, dreaming of playing Division I football, and to see them go into a big venue like Nebraska, and to be on that playing field and on that huge stage with national TV, it is exciting," Tidwell said. "It is going to be fun to see them have that experience."
BYU quarterback Taysom Hill said this will be the "typical" Nebraska team.
"When I think of Nebraska, watching them play [while I was] growing up, I think of big guys up front, big, physical linebackers and an athletic secondary. That's who we expect, and we don't anticipate anything changing."
Hill also said the Cougars won't be fazed by the surroundings.
"We've been on the road to big stadiums, we've played big teams, and we've won on the road. So, we have been there, done that. I am not going to make it bigger than it is," he said, alluding to BYU's 41-7 win over Texas in front of more than 100,000 fans in Austin last year.
Nebraska's strengths are its special teams, quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr. and a defensive line that includes several projected NFL draft picks. The latter has BYU offensive lineman Ryker Mathews' attention.
"I think a lot of people look at us, and we are the big, white, Mormon kids. People like to put us in the dirt," Mathews said. "But I think we are a lot better than a lot of teams think and a lot of analysts think. It is going to be our chance to showcase that."
Twitter: @drewjay Nebraska's football excellence
• Cornhuskers have won their season opener for 29 consecutive years, dating back to 1986, the longest streak in the nation
• Big Red ranks fourth all time with 873 victories
• BYU's visit to Memorial Stadium on Saturday will mark Nebraska's 342nd consecutive sellout
• Nebraska ranks No. 1 in total wins (389), and BYU ranks No. 5 (354) in the past 40 seasons —
BYU at Nebraska
P Saturday, 1:30 p.m. MDT
TV • Ch. 4