U. Nebraska-Lincoln students and Husker fans will have their shot at fame Thursday.

Anyone who has ever wanted to be an actor or actress, wanted to show the world the spirit of Nebraska or wanted to be in a nationally broadcast commercial can come to Memorial Stadium at 7 p.m. The university is filming a 30-second public service announcement showcasing the power of red.

“The commercial is for the fall of 2011. Whenever a Nebraska game is televised, the university is allowed to broadcast 30-second public service announcement,” said Andy Schadwinkel, marketing director for the Office of University Communications. Schadwinkel said the commercial would be broadcast with game coverage.

The goal of the commercial shoot is to capture the spirit of Nebraska. The university is anticipating hundreds of people will participate in the event.

To get involved, simply fill out the short web form at http://go.unl.edu/tvsignup.

It is essential for participants to fill out the online form so when they check in on Thursday, they can fill out image release forms that permit the university to show extras’ faces on the commercial.

After filling out the form, participants should find their best Husker game day gear.

Obviously, red is encouraged.

Check-in for the shoot is from 7 p.m to 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 23 at Gate 3 (southwest corner of the stadium).  At 7:30, the cameras will start rolling and will film until approximately 9 p.m.

Participants are advised not to be alarmed by potentially low-flying helicopters filming from above, said Schadwinkel.

The commercial is an opportunity to get involved in the spirit of UNL and to show the world what Nebraska is all about.

Melanie French, a freshman dental hygiene major, plans to participate.

“I am excited to be a part of the spirit of Nebraska football,” she said.

When Brandon Kinnie and his Husker teammates took the field for the first time Saturday afternoon, they didn’t exactly receive a warm welcome from their Husky opponents.

Washington’s defenders set the tone early, Kinnie said, by talking more than a little smack.

“You know,” he said, “words I can’t say right now.”

A few hours later, Nebraska U. had rolled to 533 total yards and a stunningly easy 56-21 road victory, effectively shutting up the Huskies and anyone else who doubted the tenacity of this new-look Husker offense.

Taylor Martinez led the way with a team-high 137 rushing yards, highlighted by his 80-yard touchdown dash down the sideline to open the second half. He now leads the nation with eight scores on the ground, and his 10.5 yards per carry average is second-best nationally.

But he wasn’t the reason Nebraska took control of the game on Saturday. This time around, the I-backs and offense linemen that surrounded Martinez took center stage.

Roy Helu Jr. ran for 110 yards on just 10 carries, and Rex Burkhead added 104 to power a rushing attack that quickly wore down a weaker-than-expected Husky defense.

“Those guys were on tonight, and I was gonna ride ‘em,” running backs coach Tim Beck said. “I just felt like those guys were seeing it.”

That rushing attack didn’t begin to fully assert itself until Washington trimmed the deficit to 21-14 on a short drive following a Cody Green fumble. That’s when NU guard Keith Williams and his fellow linemen got fed up.

Let us take this game over, he told coaches. Let’s run it right at them.

And that’s exactly what Nebraska did. They pounded the middle with inside zone runs on eight straight plays.

“Same play, over and over,” Williams said. “That’s fun. Nothing better than getting up there, telling the defense, ‘Hey, we’re running right at you’ and smacking them in the mouth.”

Martinez’s 1-yard dive capped a 48-yard drive that Bo Pelini later called “the difference in the game.”

That ability to dominate the line of scrimmage, pound the rock out of the shotgun and move downfield with ease were certainly a far cry from offensive coordinator Shawn Watson’s offense for much of the 2009 season.

“They wouldn’t have done that a year ago,” he said. “Today, no big deal. Our job is to score, and they went right back out and scored.”

A year ago, injuries and inexperience forced Watson to abandon his visions of a multidimensional offense in favor of a run-and-pray-for-results philosophy.

It was a ground game that, from the Oklahoma game on, averaged 42 rushes for 133 yards a game last fall. On Saturday, NU took to the ground 54 times — at one point running the ball on 32 of 33 plays — and gained 383 yards.

Most of the credit for those numbers, Burkhead said, should go to the dominant performance from an offensive line that was ravaged by injuries last season.

“The offense line was the key to the whole game,” he said. “They were opening up some tremendous holes and making our job easy.”

It also didn’t hurt that Washington made limiting Martinez its highest priority on defense. Helu Jr. said UW assigned a defender to stick with the fleet freshman throughout the game, a move that didn’t surprise Watson.

After all, he did watch film of last year’s Washington-Oregon game “at least five times” in preparing his game plan. The Ducks made key in-game adjustments to their rushing attack and left town with a 43-19 victory.

Watson expected blitzes — Washington did so about 75 percent of the time — and he anticipated heavy front to stop the run. So he let his I-backs run wild.

“It just opened everything else up,” Watson said, “and then Taylor was able to hit them with some big runs … You’ve got to decide what you’re going to take away.”

After the game and immediately before talking to reporters, Watson beamed with glee as he reviewed a sheet of paper containing Nebraska’s offensive statistics.

What made him all the more cheerful, however, was the fact Nebraska hardly needed to break out its passing playbook against the Huskies.

Martinez hit on seven of his 11 passes for 125 yards and connected with Mike McNeill for his first career touchdown pass, but NU only went to the air three times — each on third downs — in the second half.

Watson said NU’s refusal to throw the ball had more to do with how easy it was to run it, and he insists Martinez is a more balanced quarterback than most have come to expect.

“This kid’s a really good passer, and we haven’t seen his best yet,” Watson said. “Somewhere along the way, we’re going to need to pass and you’ll see that.”

If Hannah Werth keeps hitting the way she has been, maybe her new style will catch on with Cornhusker fans.

Werth, who recently started wearing custom-fitted maroon glasses for an eye problem, hit lights out as the Huskers’ defense helped Nebraska U. stomp Colorado, 25-13, 25-7, 25-17, in the Huskers’ conference home opener.

The sophomore from Springfield, Ill., played just two sets in the win over Colorado U. but notched eight kills on 11 attacks without any errors  and the Huskers followed suit in the sweep.

“Emotionally, we spent a lot energy Saturday and Wednesday,” NU coach John Cook said.

“Tonight, we just started off a little off, but we did a really good job of working into the match.”

Despite the lopsided final score, the Buffaloes hung with the Huskers early after a run of six Nebraska errors in the first half of the first set.

“We kind of sputter, sputter, and then we go on these great runs where we just roll the other team off the court,” Cook said.

And then the Huskers just took command with some dominating hitting by a Coloradan in senior Lindsey Licht, who hit .421 and tied for the team lead with 11 kills. She had three kills as NU strung together nine consecutive points to take a 23-12 lead.

“Colorado was just putting it into play,” Cook said. “It was a much different tempo than we were used to. Higher sets, everything was slower, and I think we were just dug in.”

After Nebraska grabbed 11 of the final 13 points in the first set, the Huskers kept pouring it on in the second.

Werth recorded five kills as NU stormed to a 25-7 win in the second set. Nebraska finished the set hitting .457 with 17 kills and only one error.

“It shows us that we can terminate any ball out of system, in-system, make shots, tool the block,” Werth said. “I think we did a really good job of staying consistent and doing our jobs.”

The Huskers hadn’t even conceded enough points to equal one set by the end of the second game  and had claimed 36 of 45 points.

“We pretty much played almost flawless that second game,” Cook said. “I’d like to see us do that every point of every game, but that’s what I’ll keep asking from them.”

Senior Tara Mueller replaced Werth in the third set in a predetermined lineup switch, but the Huskers kept the pressure on.

While the torrid pace may have slowed from the unbelievable second set, the Huskers still set the school record for the fewest points allowed — 37 — in the three years of 25-point rally of scoring.

“I think everyone got in their rhythm and groove and just kind of found a sync with each other,” Werth said. “I think we did a good job and showed what I think we can do.”

The Nebraska Department of Road’s annual Traffic Crash Facts, prepared by the Highway Safety Section, provides statistics and graphs on various aspects of traffic accidents throughout the state. The 2009 report continues a trend of correlating college-age drivers with a disproportionately high number of crashes and percentages of crashes involving alcohol.

Aspect:  Age of Driver

In 2009, 49.7 percent of all drivers involved in crashes were younger than age 35, according to the report. In addition, 30.2 percent of all crashes involved drivers ages 15 to 24.

Comment from Nebraska Department of Roads:

“I believe that’s something that stays fairly consistent year to year,” said Bob Grant, NDOR Highway Safety Manager. “The (college demographic) absolutely could be a part of that.”

Aspect: Driver Age and Alcohol Involvement

Drivers aged 21 to 34 make up a disproportionate number of alcohol-related crashes compared to other demographics. They constitute 51.2 percent of all accidents involving alcohol. Drivers aged 21 to 24 in particular are only involved in 11.4 percent of total crashes, but make up 22.9 percent of all alcohol-related crashes. Drivers aged 15 to 20 were also involved in 14.6 percent of all alcohol-related crashes.

Comment from the Nebraska Department of Roads:

“(These figures are) also fairly consistent. You have a combination of inexperience both in driving and in drinking. And that’s a bad combination,” Grant said.

Jordan Jackson already had one goal, but that wasn’t going to cut it.

On a cold, wet Sunday afternoon at Nebraska Soccer Field, the Cornhuskers were locked in a 1-1 game with the Iowa Hawkeyes. After birthday-girl Jackson’s first goal and – scored as the P.A. announcer was declaring one minute left in the half and – Nebraska had the advantage, as Iowa could muster no offense in the first half due to the stifling and and physically imposing and Husker defense.

But Iowa scored early in the second half, leveling the game. Unfortunately for the Hawkeyes, they allowed a through ball that led to a corner kick not a minute later.

As the referee got set to blow the whistle and Blair Slapper ran up to put the ball in play, Jackson was ready. The ball went up by the post and the 5-foot-7 forward jumped up and blasted the ball with her head.

‘Oh, my gosh, we won on my birthday, ” Jackson laughed. ‘I got to score two goals. It’s 10 times better than a normal win.

The second goal was even worth the pain.

‘When you put it in, it doesn’t hurt at all,” Jackson said. ‘You only think about the goal, not the pain. But, really, it hurts a little bit.”

But most of the pain Sunday went to the Hawkeyes, whom Nebraska beat 3-1 off of Jackson’s two goals and a Morgan Marlborough penalty kick late in the game.

The result, along with NU’s 3-1 victory over Cal State Fullerton on Friday, brought the Huskers to 7-2 on the season, with Big 12 Conference play beginning Friday against Texas.

Against Fullerton, redshirt freshman Stacy Bartels had not just the first goal of her Husker career, but the first two, leading the Huskers to victory.

As this weekend was Omaha Hometown Husker Day, Bartels was able to do it in front of her parents, something she’d been hoping for.

‘My parents wanted to be here for my first goal, and rdquo; Bartels said. ‘I wish I’d been able to do it before now, but it’s nice to do it at home, in front of them.”

Bartels and Jackson’s goals were welcome to coach John Walker, who had been hoping to diversify the team’s scoring output besides just Marlborough and Molly Thomas.

‘We have some talented attacking players,” Walker said. ‘It’s good to see more people get involved. We need that moving forward.”

Moving forward means the start of Big 12 play for the Huskers. While they gained some impressive nonconference victories, most notably 3-1 wins over future Big Ten rivals Iowa and Indiana, they were unimpressive in their losses to New Mexico and Arizona State at a combined 8-0.

While “hard work” seems to be the team mantra heading into Friday’s tilt with Texas, Husker players have more specific goals in mind.

‘Coach Walker has been stressing defense in strikers recently,” Marlborough said. ‘I’d like us to stay aggressive and, if we do, we have a great chance of winning.”

But some of the Husker players were looking way forward, past Big 12 play, past even being members of the Big 12, with their smiles after the game.

‘We’ve been establishing a pattern for the Big Ten,” Jackson said. ‘We beat (Iowa), and we beat Indiana. We’re already (setting) a mark for the Big Ten next year.”

officially: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

location: Ann Arbor

population: 115,299

undergrad enrollment: 26,208 (fall 2009)

annual tuition: $12,400 in-state, $36,163 out-of-state

u.s. news ranking: 29th nationally, 4th among public universities

notable alumni: Bill Ayers, Selma Blair, Tom Brady, Gerald Ford, Sanjay Gupta, James Earl Jones, Ted Kaczynski, Jack Kevorkian, Michael Phelps, Mike Wallace

distance from unl: 677 miles

best way to drive: The shortest route takes about 12 hours, and it’s a simple one: Take I-80 East and continue on it when it turns into I-94 East in Indiana.

best way to fly: Flying from Omaha to Detroit is your best option. Detroit Metropolitan is about 25 minutes from Ann Arbor, and Delta offers several round-trip flights to Detroit starting at $375. There are a couple ways to get from Detroit to Ann Arbor. Several companies offer round-trip shuttle services for around $60 if you aren’t interested in getting a rental car.

sports mascot: Wolverines

football: 42 Big Ten titles, 11 national titles, NCAA-record 879 wins

all-time series: Michigan holds the 3-2-1 lead in games against Nebraska. The most recent meeting, of course, was the 2005 Alamo Bowl in which Zac Taylor and Cory Ross led NU, a 10-point underdog, to a 32-28 win. The Huskers and Wolverines also met in the 1986 Fiesta Bowl, a 27-23 Michigan victory.

After consecutive losing seasons under coach Rich Rodriguez, Michigan is 2-0 and one of the most talked-about teams in the nation. Their new starting quarterback, Denard Robinson, needs no introduction. He leads the nation in rushing at 455 yards, and he’s quickly climbed to the top of many pundits’ Heisman watch lists. Michigan is 3-13 in Big Ten play under Rodriguez, and a big season from Robinson could save his job and turn around the program. Nebraska and Michigan will compete in the same division next season, and the Huskers head to the Big House for a tough test in mid-November next season — just one week after playing at Penn State. But Martinez vs. Robinson sounds pretty great, huh?

men’s basketball: 13 Big Ten titles, 6 Final Fours, 1 national title

Don’t know much more about Michigan basketball than the legendary Fab Five in the 1990s? There’s a reason for that: The Wolverines only made one NCAA tournament appearance in the last decade. The team is in search of a new go-to guy this year following the departure of Manny Harris (18.1 ppg) and DeShawn Sims (16.8 ppg), but the Wolverines do have a potential future star in freshman Tim Hardaway Jr., a 6-foot-5 guard whose father was a five-time NBA All-Star.

volleyball: 10 NCAA tournament appearances

The Wolverines reached the Elite Eight last season for the first time in school history by stunning No. 4 Stanford in Palo Alto, earning the team a No. 9 ranking in the final top 25 poll. Led by preseason All-Big Ten hitter Alex Hunt and setter Lexi Zimmerman, the Wolverines are 8-1 this season and currently ranked 21st in the nation.

best other sports: It’s all about ice hockey at Michigan. The Wolverines have made 20 straight NCAA tournaments, reached the “Frozen Four” a record 23 times and boast nine national titles in the sport. Michigan’s men’s gymnastics team won its fourth NCAA team championship in 2010, and its softball team won the first-ever NCAA title by a team east of the Mississippi River when it upset perennial power UCLA in 2005.

— Compiled by Max Olson

Two days after his first loss at U. Notre Dame, Irish coach Brian Kelly said his players still “believe they’re going to win games.”

“We’re building that,” Kelly said at his press conference Tuesday. “Now we have to work on some of the technical aspects of getting there.”

After the game, Kelly said he thought his defense looked tired, but he backed away from that comment Monday. Instead, he said, the defense needs to come up with a stop in that type of situation, and that responsibility falls both on the players and the coaches.

“That’s where we want to come up with a stop, clearly. I think as I watch the film, the coaches watch the film, we’re in a place where we need to make some plays,” he said. “We also have to help our kids to be in position to make some plays as well.”

The Irish spent Monday’s practice “correcting the errors in the game on Saturday,” Kelly said, before turning their full attention to an unbeaten Michigan State team that will host the Irish Saturday night.

“We don’t carry wins or losses with us, other than we have a 24-hour rule, then move on,” Kelly said. “We make our adjustments on Monday relative to the game plan that was just concluded, and we over the film, get back to work [Tuesday].”

Elston update

Irish defensive line and special teams coach Mike Elston, who missed Saturday’s game with an undisclosed illness, is still not with the team, Kelly said.

In his absence, tight ends coach Mike Denbrock has shifted over to coach the defensive line, while several coaches have helped lead the special teams. Strength and conditioning coach Lorenzo Guess will coach the tight ends until Elston returns.

“We should have a pretty seamless transition,” Kelly said, noting that Guess coached Cincinnati’s tight ends last season. “Again, that is just for a short time. We’re expecting that coach Elston will be back with us pretty soon.”

Second signal-caller

Both freshman Tommy Rees and junior Nate Montana made cameos during the first half Saturday, when starting quarterback Dayne Crist was sidelined after the first Irish drive. Rees, who was listed as the backup last week, threw an interception on his first collegiate pass and was pulled for Montana shortly thereafter. Montana led the offense for the rest of the half, going 8-for-17 with an interception.

While Kelly did not commit to one as his backup on Tuesday, he said both will see significant practice reps this week.

“I think we’re going to settle on a package that suits both of them,” Kelly said. “We focused a lot on that in our preparation and in our meetings. I’m certain we’ll be in a much better place this weekend if we have to go to them.”

Road trip

Saturday’s contest at Michigan State will be not only Kelly’s first road game with Notre Dame, but also his first night game, with kickoff set for 8 p.m.

The late start will force Kelly to alter his pregame routine, he said.

“I’ve had some opportunities where we’ve taken the team to the stadium the day of the game and moved them around a little bit, just so they don’t become sluggish in the hotel,” he said. “I don’t know that we’re going to do that, but those are the little things you get when there’s a time change, going from 3:30 to 8. Then certainly being on the road, seeing the stadium – other than that, the preparation will be the same.”

Dr. John O’Callaghan, associate professor of philosophy at U. Notre Dame, discussed the life and literature of author Walker Percy in a lecture Tuesday.

The talk was part of the Catholic Culture Literature Series: Strangers in a Strange Land, run by the Center for Ethics and Culture. The four-part series centers around four Catholic-American authors and the contributions they have made to Catholic literature.

A recurrent theme in Percy’s works was his feeling that many people knew “how to be in the world and not of it,” O’Callaghan said.

Percy’s own childhood was quite traumatic, and it is surprising he was able to step outside this viewpoint, he said.

Born in southern Alabama, Percy did not convert to Catholicism until his adult years. At the age of 12, his father committed suicide and not long after, he lost his mother in a car accident, O’Callaghan said.

He said these events had a profound affect on Percy and influenced many of his writings. He is well known for works such as “The Moviegoer” and “The Thanatos Syndrome.”

O’Callaghan discussed the fact that this Catholic author touches on many subjects, including racism and class.

Percy’s moral sense is visible in his outrage “at the cross burning of a Roman Catholic Archbishop of New Orleans who said that segregation was a sin,” Callaghan said.

Percy goes farther as to criticize the stoicism of many of his friends and relatives who allowed this to occur, he said.

O’Callaghan said this portrayal of ethical strength caused him to reflect on his own education in a Catholic school, questioning why he never read Percy as a part of his curriculum.

He said one friend told him Catholic schooling was “all about works and little about faith,” which caused him to ask, “are we any better now?”

It is clear after this lecture that whatever Percy was discussing, it was always done with comedy, O’Callaghan said.

He said he had a “characteristic humor sly beyond belief,” which gave him a “more universal appeal than just another southern writer.”

Callaghan said faith is not something that can be made up, but must be experienced.

“We do not produce religious experience,” O’Callaghan said. “[The] sacred comes to us as a kind of message.”

An Evanston resident found a 21-year-old man’s decapitated body and an undetonated explosive Tuesday a mile from campus at Fitzsimmons Park, next to Nichols Middle School, police said.

A neighbor of the school, located at 800 Greenleaf St., called police at 5:48 a.m. and said he had found the body and explosive on the ground while walking his dog, said Evanston police Cmdr. Tom Guenther. Police roped off the park and surrounding blocks and called the Cook County bomb squad, which detonated the explosive. The neighbor was Dale Wyatt, 31, according to Chicago Breaking News.

Police identified the dead man as Colin Dalebroux, of the 1000 block of Main Street.

The cause of the man’s death appeared to be another explosive, Guenther said. Another neighbor called police at 3:57 a.m. and reported a large explosion, but police searched the area at that time and found nothing.

Guenther said that “the condition of the deceased has yet to be determined.”

Police evacuated residents in the immediate area of the explosion and told other nearby residents to stay in their homes, Guenther said.

Neighbor Jim Parks heard the initial explosion but thought it was lightning, he said. When he stepped out of his home at 922 Elmwood St. a few hours later, he was greeted by police.

“They said, ‘Get back in your house!’” he said.

Evanston resident Steve Kasper said he heard about the incident on the news at 8 a.m. and drove to visit the scene. He saw police interviewing the man who found the body and said the man seemed remarkably composed.

“I don’t know if any person could even come close to handling that,” Kasper said.

Police also surrounded 1012 Main St., an apartment building a few blocks southwest of Fitzsimmons Park. An officer guarding the building said police were investigating it in relation to the incident at the park.

Using a strong defensive effort, the Nebraskaflagfootball.com team took the preseason tournament championship and officially kicked off this year’s flag-football season.

The annual tournament began on Thursday with one game for each team, with the final game on Sunday. After playing four games earlier in the day, Nebraskaflagfootball.com used overwhelming defense to take down the Centaurs 20-18 for the title.

Graduate student Matt Domangue played a key part in the champion’s defense by inspiring his team with aggressive secondary play. For Domangue, the tournament was not only fun because of the win, but also because it was a chance to get on the field with his teammates.

“It was a long day, but we played hard in all our games,” Domangue said. “It was a great team effort from all of us and we ended up on top, and we had fun doing it.”

Domangue started the action with an interception on the first series when he stepped in front of a pass from Centaurs quarterback Joe McWilliams. On the very next play, Domangue put his team in the lead when he caught a touchdown pass while falling out of bounds for the game’s first points.

But even then, Domangue was not done.

With his team clinging to a narrow 13-12 lead late in the first half, Domangue intercepted another pass, and this time took it back for a touchdown. The play was called back due to penalties, but the damage had already been done.

By getting his hands on another pass, Domangue helped inspire the defense to make another big play.

After Nebraskaflagfootball.com had extended their lead to 20-12 with a touchdown pass, the Centaurs answered back to pull the game within two. Instead of going for an extra point, the Centaurs went for the two-point conversion to try and tie the game.

Unfortunately for them, Domangue and the rest of the Nebraskaflagfootball.com defense again proved up to the task and stopped the conversion to cement the win.

With the win, the team took an early edge over their rivals, the Centaurs, as the two teams came into the tournament ranked first and second respectively. But that doesn’t appear to have affected the resolve of the Centaur team.

“We played as hard as we could, they just bested us,” said Centaur sophomore Lee Freudenburg. “We’re not worried about the loss, we’ll be back and get them in the regular season.”

Freudenburg had an interception return for a touchdown in the game, and said he is looking forward to the season, rather than just preparing for a tournament.

Even in losing, however, he said the tournament wasn’t a total loss: at least they got to see what they are up against.