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After surviving one week without Taylor Martinez, Nebraska looks set to get the star quarterback back as it tries to move closer to the Big 12 North title.
The ninth-ranked Cornhuskers should have Martinez in the lineup Saturday night when they welcome Turner Gill back to Lincoln and try to beat Kansas for the 21st straight time at home.
Nebraska (8-1, 4-1) remained on track to win the division in its final season in the Big 12 after a 31-30 overtime win at Iowa State last Saturday. Defensive back Eric Hagg intercepted a two-point conversion attempt after the Cyclones faked the extra point on the game's final play.
"You win a football game - I don't care how you do it - you enjoy it," coach Bo Pelini said. "I don't care if you win 101-100. In the end, you have to win. You find a way."
The Cornhuskers won without Martinez, who sprained his right ankle against Missouri on Oct. 30. He was available in an emergency situation and took the field for one play - as a decoy at receiver.
Martinez is the sixth-leading rusher in the Big 12 with 886 yards and tied for third with 12 touchdowns on the ground. He's thrown for nine touchdowns - six in his last two starts - and 1,161 yards.
"I expect him to be healthy," Pelini said. "You don't know what's going to happen in a week of practice."
Nebraska leads No. 20 Missouri by one game in the North. The Cornhuskers can clinch the title by winning two of their final three games.
They will be heavily favored to beat Kansas (3-6, 1-4), which has lost seven straight on the road and hasn't won in Lincoln since a 23-13 victory in 1968.
Kansas does have some momentum after ending a four-game skid in stunning fashion with last Saturday's 52-45 win over Colorado. The Jayhawks scored the last 35 points in the final 11:05 of the game.
"We're going to continue to move on a little bit and yell and scream and continue to celebrate," first-year coach Gill said. "This is a great win for our program."
This game will be a homecoming for Gill, who quarterbacked the Cornhuskers to a 28-2 record as a starter between 1980-83. He also served as an assistant at Nebraska between 1992-2004.
"I remember it was time for me to move on and try something new in a different environment," Gill said. "I had a great experience there and loved the place.
"I had a lot of years there so there's a lot of good things that happened there. I was definitely glad to have experienced it to be there as a player and to be there as a coach."
The comeback victory eased some of the pressure on Gill, who finally got a running game untracked behind freshman James Sims. Sims averaged 36.3 yards on the ground during the Jayhawks' 0-4 Big 12 start before he posted career highs of 123 yards and four touchdowns last week.
"It felt great," Sims said. "I would just like to thank my offensive line. They blocked for me, and they believed in me and I believed in them."
Nebraska won last year's meeting 31-17 after the game was tied 10-10 at halftime. Both teams have undergone numerous changes, including new quarterbacks for both.
Jordan Webb was the No. 1 starter at the beginning of the season for Kansas before Gill opted to start Quinn Mecham the last two games. Mecham completed 23 of 28 passes for 252 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions last Saturday.
This game will end the nation's longest uninterrupted streak of meetings between the teams at 105, with Nebraska moving to the Big Ten. The 116 overall meetings are the third-most in the country behind Kansas-Missouri (118) and Minnesota-Wisconsin (119).
