LINCOLN, Neb. -- Down by the end of the bar, Kellie Conway and Kara Scholz can't take it anymore.
After listening to the guys talk football for half an hour, they grab their drinks and rush over to a visitor, eager to divulge the real reason that tonight's game between USC and Nebraska is the biggest thing to hit this prairie city in years.
"Celebrities," Conway says.
Scholz adds: "They're coming here."
Will Ferrell and Keanu Reeves will watch the top-ranked Trojans play 14th-ranked Nebraska. Larry The Cable Guy will be there. And maybe an actress from that MTV show "The Hills."
"We're so excited," Scholz says.
At which point a couple of the guys at Brothers Bar & Grill shake their heads and/or roll their eyes. They have a more plausible explanation for the present clamor in Lincoln and much of the state.
Football weekends have always been special here, a tradition passed from generation to generation, imprinted on the collective genetic code of a populace that has no other major college or professional team to cheer. Tonight's USC-Nebraska game means even more because of a volatile combination.
Almost three decades have passed since the last top-ranked visitor -- the 1978 Oklahoma Sooners -- stepped foot inside Memorial Stadium. The timing couldn't be better, as far as Nebraska fans are concerned.
After a string of tough seasons, their team stands within spitting distance of a top-10 ranking. A victory over USC or perhaps a close loss could provide the needed boost. As Brandon Lyons, a 22-year-old Lincoln resident, put it: "We want to get back to the promised land."
So the local newspapers have run daily stories exploring manifold aspects of the game -- Which school has the better band? What about that guy who swapped tickets so his daughter could see a Hannah Montana concert? -- and shop owners have taped new "Go Big Red" posters next to the "Go Big Red" posters that already graced their storefronts.
In Omaha, an hour to the east, football conversations rippled across a suburban restaurant on a weeknight at dinner time. The staff was dressed all in black but that didn't stop Kris Kazebeer from pinning a bright red "Beat USC" button to his apron. The waiter put his hand over the button every time he walked past his boss but figured she probably wouldn't mind.
"It's been crazy," he said.
