Big Ten West Notebook: Huskers, Hurricanes renew rivalry

By foxsports
Published

A rivalry will be renewed on Saturday when Nebraska travels to Miami to take on the Hurricanes. 

Both programs are a far cry from the elite status that made this rivalry so great when they were facing off in the Orange Bowl but the fire is still there. This will be the 12th time the teams face off. Seven of the twelve times, one of the teams was ranked in the top five.

Last season, the Huskers took down the Canes in Lincoln, 41-31 but there was certainly no love lost between the programs as multiple skirmishes occurred.

There were eight personal fouls in the game and Mike Riley is well aware of the physicality of last year's contest:

The game should be a shootout. 

Badgers being cautious with lement

Wisconsin seems to be taking it slow with running back Corey Clement. The Badgers held him out against Miami(OH), which was the right move since they didn't need him for the victory. Going forward, this will be a big storyline and Paul Chryst was asked about it during his press conference this week. Could he be holding back for conference play? 

"They don't do everything in the offseason if they don't love playing the game," the coach said. "So I think when a guy is ready to go, we're going to play him. Has nothing to do with saving him for another moment. So we're we'll just kind of see how he's going.

"He got some good work done on Saturday. Talked to him before the game. Got another treatment afterwards, and yesterday had it -- we'll see. When he's ready to practice full, all-out, then we'll gauge him for the game. No one can just not practice and go play." 

Don't be surprised if we don't see Clement is out again this week against Troy.

Are the Illini the real deal?

For the third straight year Illinois has started 2-0. We know how things have finished for them the past few seasons but doesn't this year feel different? It's a new day in Champaign and the Bill Cubit era is off to a rousing start  with two big blowouts over inferior opponents.

This week they will get a test from a team in North Carolina who can at least match up with them athletically. 

Interim head coach Cubit is proud of his team's defense:

"We've given up three points in two weeks. I don't care who you're playing. We scored 96 points in two games and we've still got a lot of room for improvement"