As countdown to Ireland nears 50-day mark, Huskers ready to lock in on important task | Football

There will be museum tours, team dinners, historical visits and pep rallies when the Nebraska football team travels to Dublin, Ireland, at the end of next month.

There will also be the matter of winning a critically important football game.

On Thursday, just 51 days out from the Huskers’ Week Zero season opener against Northwestern in the Aer Lingus Classic, a pair of players spoke of balancing the rarest of road trips with the importance of winning a football game in a massively important year for their head coach.

“There’s definitely pressure, there’s no doubt about it,” sophomore linebacker Nick Henrich said. “It’s a new season from last year, but we’ve still got to remember what those feelings felt like; how much it hurt coming up that short. We’ve been using that as fuel through these (summer) workouts.

“We’ve just got to finish summer strong, then have a great camp, then go out there and handle business.”

Fall camp starts in less than three weeks, July 27, or exactly one month from kickoff. Thursday’s Zoom call, which also included game organizers in Dublin, began at 11:30 a.m. in Nebraska and 5:30 p.m. in Ireland — the same time the game is set to kick off at Aviva Stadium.

As of Thursday, Nebraska fans had bought up just shy of 9,000 tickets for the game, with Northwestern at about 3,000. Organizers Thursday said they were confident that 10,000 Husker fans would make the overseas trip, and that the 47,500-seat stadium would be 75% full for the game. 

About 30,000 total tickets had been sold as of Wednesday. Nebraska fans have until Monday to purchase tickets through the Nebraska ticket office. After that, tickets will be available through Ireland’s Ticketmaster website.

The matchup will operate much like a bowl game, with both squads taking in Irish culture. For Nebraska, that means a trip to EPIC, the Irish Immigration Museum and a tour of Kilmainham Gaol, a prison that played an important role during Ireland’s fight for independence in the early 1900s.

“This will be a good experience. I’ve never been out of the country, so I’m looking forward to seeing the Irish culture,” said NU running back Rahmir Johnson. “The only thing I know about Irish culture is (mixed martial artist) Conor McGregor, so hopefully I see him out there.”

Those outside experiences will be fun, both players said. But the game is first and foremost a “business trip” — a phrase both Henrich and Johnson used multiple times Thursday.

“A lot of guys are just locking in with fall camp around the corner,” Johnson said. “We just want to lock in and tune in, and get ready for this game. Because it’s a Big Ten West game, it’s very important for us, and we need to get this W.”

Like last season’s opener at Illinois — a game that was supposed to be played in Ireland before the pandemic changed those plans — a strong Nebraska start will be critical as the program breaks in new pieces at quarterback, running back, special teams and a host of other positions while also trotting out a new offensive coordinator and three other new assistants.

While Nebraska beat Northwestern 56-7 in Memorial Stadium last year for its only Big Ten win, rare has been the game between the programs where one team has run away and hid from the other.

“It’s a really exciting time right now because we’re only a couple weeks out of camp so you can really feel the excitement building. And everyone’s itching to get the pads on and getting ready to go,” said Henrich, who sat inside Memorial Stadium after finishing a workout just prior to the call.

“We know how important this game is to start our season the right way, so I think everyone collectively is viewing this as a business trip. And we’re ready to roll.”