Nebraska at Home in Kansas

If this was Terry Allen’s last game as Kansas coach, he’ll remember a sellout crowd that seemed to cheer almost every play.

Problem was, most of the crowd was wearing Nebraska red.

Amid speculation that Allen is about to be fired, Dahrran Diedrick rushed for 136 yards and two touchdowns as No. 2 Nebraska romped, 51-7, Saturday night at Lawrence, Kan., for its 33rd consecutive victory over the Jayhawks.

A published report had said a decision could come as early as today on the embattled Allen, who is 20-33 in five years and increasingly unpopular.

“I am still the head football coach at the University of Kansas. I am going to work my tail end off to continue to do that as long as the people of this institution want me to,” said Allen.

The Cornhuskers, 10-0 overall and 6-0 in the Big 12, failed to score in the first quarter but led, 20-0, at halftime before Kansas’ first sellout crowd since 1991. The Jayhawks are 2-6 and 1-5.

To the embarrassment of Kansas officials who had urged their fans not to let Nebraskans outnumber them, the crowd of 50,750 was clearly dominated by red-clad Cornhusker followers. Midway through the third quarter, the chant of “Let’s go Huskers!” seemed to rock the stadium.

Diedrick scored on runs of 10 and 38 yards, pushing his season rushing total to 1,097. Ben Cornelsen scored on a 71-yard touchdown run and Josh Brown kicked three field goals as the Cornhuskers went to 10-0 for the fifth time since 1990.

No. 5 Texas 49, Baylor 10--Chris Simms passed for 271 yards and two touchdowns for the Longhorns in Waco, Texas.

Cedric Benson had 108 yards rushing and touchdown runs of three and six yards as Texas (8-1, 5-1) extended Baylor’s conference losing streak to 27 games. The Bears (2-6, 0-6) haven’t won a conference game since beating Kansas in October 1998.

Simms connected on scoring passes of 36 and 31 yards to Roy Williams and Sloan Thomas. He also scored on a one-yard sneak in the first quarter, giving him six touchdowns this season, one behind Benson for the team lead.

Since throwing four interceptions in a 14-3 loss to Oklahoma a month ago, Simms has accounted for 17 of Texas’ last 23 touchdowns with just two interceptions.

Simms is one touchdown pass shy of Major Applewhite’s school record of 21 set in 1999 when Applewhite was the Big 12 offensive player of the year.

Texas Tech 12, No. 24 Texas A&M; 0--Kliff Kingsbury passed for 303 yards and Ricky Williams scored the game’s only touchdown for Texas Tech at Lubbock, Texas.

Texas Tech (5-3, 3-3) shut out the Aggies (7-2, 4-2) for the first time since winning, 3-0, in 1983. The Aggies were shut out for the first time since a 24-0 loss to Penn State in the 1999 Alamo Bowl.

Kingsbury was 38 for 46, but was sacked seven times.

No. 25 Colorado 38, Missouri 24--Backup quarterback Bobby Pesavento threw two touchdown passes and Roman Hollowell returned a punt 69 yards for a touchdown for the Buffaloes (7-2, 5-1) at Boulder, Colo.

Colorado kept its conference title hopes alive by rallying from a 14-point deficit with 17 points in the final 1:55 of the first half.

Kirk Farmer passed for one touchdown and ran for another for Missouri (3-5, 2-4).

Kansas State 42, Iowa State 3--Josh Scobey and Ell Roberson each rushed for more than 100 yards and accounted for five touchdowns for the Wildcats at Ames, Iowa.

Kansas State (4-4, 2-4) dominated a game expected to be close by rushing for 343 yards.

Iowa State (5-3, 3-3), averaging 414.6 yards, had only 86 through three quarters and finished with 174.