Nebraska Rolls Past Minnesota, 56-0 : Cornhuskers: Joseph runs for two touchdowns and passes for three more; Derek Brown runs for 120 yards and three scores.

Mickey Joseph ran for two touchdowns and passed for three more as eighth-ranked Nebraska routed Minnesota, 56-0, on Saturday.

Joseph, making his second start in place of injured Mike Grant, ran four yards for his first score in the first quarter. He ran one yard for another touchdown, and threw 27 yards to Jon Bostick and one yard to Chris Garrett for touchdowns in a 28-point second quarter.

Garrett has seven catches in his career, six for touchdowns.

The Cornhuskers (3-0) took a 42-0 halftime lead, piling up 379 of their 564 total yards.

Freshman I-back Derek Brown opened the scoring with a seven-yard run. Brown, a third-stringer from Anaheim’s Servite High making his first start because of injuries, had 103 yards in the first half and finished with 120 in 21 carries and three touchdowns.

George Achola, the fourth-string I-back, ran for 88 yards and a touchdown in the first half and ended with 123 yards in 16 carries.

The Cornhuskers completed the scoring in the third quarter when Joseph hit Brown on a 21-yard pass play, and Brown scored from the two with 3:28.

Joseph completed seven of 11 passes for 117 yards. He ran 10 times for 32 yards.

Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne praised Joseph’s ability to adjust.

“Mickey’s pretty smart,” Osborne said. “He audibled about 50% of the game and only made one mistake. He did a pretty good job today. Mickey’s game is option football.”

Minnesota (1-2), which lost to the Cornhuskers, 48-0, at Minneapolis a year ago, crossed midfield only twice. The Golden Gophers had only 66 yards in offense in the first half and ended with 106.