ESPN College Football

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Here's a statistic to consider after Texas quarterback Colt McCoy's slow start.

McCoy has been intercepted on two of his first six passes as the Longhorns have fallen behind 6-0.

In his previous five games, McCoy had thrown one interception in 178 attempts.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Nebraska has taken an early lead after after a favorable spot kept the drive alive with a fourth-down conversion.

Alex Henery's 45-yard field goal capped an eight-play, 13-yard scoring drive.

The drive was kept alive after Rex Burkhead was stopped close to the 31-yard line by Lamarr Houston. But after Bo Pelini asked for a second look at the replay, the Cornhuskers got the first down.

Eric Hagg's first career interception gave Nebraska possession to start the drive.

The Cornhuskers have received exactly the kind of start they wanted.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The South Division has dominated play in these recent Big 12 title games.

Most people expect more of the same tonight with Texas heavily favored to beat Nebraska.

Here are some of the things I'll be watching during the game tonight to see if the No. 3 Longhorns can continue that trend.

• Will Nebraska be able to exploit an advantage they feel is in place for inside running? Although Texas ranks as the nation's leading rushing team, Nebraska coaches believe they can run the ball "downhill" with Roy Helu Jr. and Rex Burkhead. Watch for this to happen early. If Nebraska can gain some momentum, it will be a good sign for their chances.
• Keep Zac Lee in favorable down-and-distance situations. Nebraska offensive coordinator Shawn Watson has done a good job of pulling in the reigns of his unit over the Cornhuskers' five-game winning streak. They haven't asked Lee to beat people, but have kept him in good situations. It will have to be that way tonight as well. If they can keep Lee in third-and-2 and third-and-4 and out of third-and-8 or third-and-10, it will make it much easier on him and the Cornhuskers.
• Can the secondary check the second and third Texas receivers? The Cornhuskers' have a couple of first-team All-Big 12 players in Prince Amukamara and Larry Asante. That group will have to do a good job to check the receivers other than Jordan Shipley who have emerged for Texas over the last several weeks.

And here are some items that Texas needs to watch tonight:

• Colt McCoy can't get frustrated. The Longhorns will be facing their toughest defensive challenge since Oklahoma. Heck, tonight's challenge might be tougher than the Sooners. McCoy could likely find yards difficult to come by. He doesn't have to play the perfect game to beat the Cornhuskers or put the finishing touches on his Heisman Trophy bid. But his statistics likely won't be anything like they were last week at Texas A&M. If he has some early struggles, he can't get down about his effort as he seemed to do at times during the Oklahoma game.
• Come back Sergio: Coming into the season, Texas defensive end Sergio Kindle was expected to be their top defensive player and a sack-producing machine. He's been tied up by double-team blocks by opposing teams, but his numbers haven't been anywhere near what was expected. Tonight in his final college game in his hometown area would be a big time night for a huge time game from Kindle.
• Make their special teams come through: Alex Henery and Adi Kunalic have been weapons all season for Nebraska in dictating field position. But Texas is pretty good in returns, averaging 28.3 yards on kickoffs and 13.4 yards on punts. The Longhorns also have blocked five kicks and Hunter Lawrence has converted 20 of 23 field goals. Whoever wins on special teams will have a big edge tonight.

A crowd of more than 80,000 is expected, making this crowd the largest in Big 12 history for a championship game. Almost all of the fans are in their seats and looks to be about 80 percent Texas supporters inside the stadium.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- They've announced the officiating crew for tonight's game.

Tom Walker will be the referee. He is known throughout the conference as the most solid official.

Other members of his crew will be an all-star crew among the officials ranked the highest this season.

The crew also will include:

Head Linesman: Al Green

Line Judge: Rusty Baynes

Field Judge: Bobby Ables

Side Judge: Gene Semko

Back Judge: Mike Defee

Alternates: Greg Burks, Eugene Hall

Replay Official: Jack McDonald

Clock Operator: Joe Thompson

25-second Clock Operator: Jim Ely

ARLINGTON, Texas -- When the Big 12 was created, the rivalry between Texas and Nebraska became the most heated in the conference.

Sure, there's Oklahoma-Texas, Missouri-Kansas and all of the other traditional rivalries.

But the matchup between the two superpowers when the Big 12 started immediately became intense.

It was fanned by some events that took place off the field. Nebraska wanted to have the Big 12 with continued arrival of partial qualifiers. Texas didn't.

Texas wanted the league offices in Dallas. Nebraska wanted it to remain in the old Big Eight home of Kansas City.

Texas wanted Steve Hatchell as the league's first conference. Nebraska favored Bob Frederick.

After Texas won out on all those early skirmishes it raised the ante in the rivalry.

And it became even bigger after Texas stunned the Cornhuskers with a 37-27 upset in the first conference championship game in a game where James Brown called his shot with an upset.

Since then, the Longhorns have dominated the rivalry with six victories in the seven games since Mack Brown arrived. Nebraska's only triumph was a 22-6 win in the 1999 Big 12 title game that was their most recent conference championship.

Some of the vituperation that marked the Big 12's formative stages with Texas-Nebraska have settled over the years.

One of the biggest reasons was the arrival of Mack Brown, who has been very open about his respect for the Nebraska program and its history.

Brown learned early about the Nebraska fans when Ricky Williams orchestrated a victory over the Cornhuskers in 1998. That game was pivotal in Williams' Heisman hopes.

"The standing ovation they gave Ricky, when they yelled, ‘Heisman! Heisman!’ was as good of a moment as I had ever seen in my life,” Brown said. “We’re not seeing that anymore. And I hate that. It was 11 years ago. That took me to tears, just for Ricky. And that just doesn’t happen. (Nebraska) is one of the few places that could happen.”

Brown called Nebraska's fans "the classiest in college football." He still has a picture of the post-game excitement of that first Nebraska win hanging on his wall.

"It was such a special moment,” he said. “I had told Ricky to keep his head down and his helmet on because they were going to throw things at him. I thought he was going to be in trouble. … But, unbelievable. They all stayed, and they all cheered.”

Brown came into the Big 12 for the chance to play traditional rivals like Nebraska.

"When I got here, Nebraska was one of the places I would have liked to coach," Brown said. "Their stadium was neat. I had so much respect for Coach Osborne. The fans were classy. It was a really cool place."

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Bo Pelini likes to say that he expected Nebraska to be back playing in the Big 12 championship last season -- in his first year as the Cornhuskers' head coach.

The Cornhuskers are back to an accustomed perch at the North Division earlier in the Big 12's history. Nebraska played in three of the first four Big 12 title games. Since then the Cornhuskers have made only trip back to the title game.

Pelini appears to have the Cornhuskers in the right direction. They are playing defense with a purpose -- just like they used to do when Charlie McBride was calling defenses in the final stages of Tom Osborne's final days of coaching.

Other than the 2006 title game, this is the biggest game the Cornhuskers have played in a long time.

The program is pushing forward with Pelini in charge. The Huskers' rebuilding program is moving forward faster than expected with back-to-back nine-win seasons.

If they can win tonight, it will be the Cornhuskers' first BCS berth since the 2002 national championship game at the Rose Bowl. There's a trip to the Fiesta Bowl and all the recruiting advantages that would be provided.

But to get there, there's that little task of beating No. 3 Texas tonight.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- For all of the excitement about playing inside tonight in the Big 12 Championship Game, the weather couldn't be much nicer for early December outside the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

Fans arrived early and had pitched tents and trotted out their satellite dishes to watch earlier games from across the country.

With Texas playing, the Longhorns have an obvious edge in fans. But a surprising large turnout of Nebraska fans turned out for the Cornhuskers' first Big 12 championship game appearance since 2006.

Once the game begins, there likely won't be much complaining from playing in the climate-controlled facility.

But if they were playing outside this afternoon, they couldn't have asked for much better playing conditions than we have now.