LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Husker fans will flood into Memorial Stadium on Friday night, creating a sea of ​​red in the stands.

That means Lincoln police are bracing for a wave of headlights and honking horns after the football game against the Illinois Fighting Illini.

“It’s going to be tough to get cars through, so we’re asking people to have a little patience,” said Capt. Don Scheinost, LPD Southwest Team leader. “Understand the officers are doing the best they can.”

It will be business as usual for LPD. Scheinost said the series of shootings two weekends ago were isolated incidents and that downtown Lincoln is safer than ever.

“We’ve already played two games in the dark, so it doesn’t really change how we approach things,” Scheinost said.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will be holding all classes online on Fridays, a far cry from the usual experience for students cheering on their team.

“We have to be very aware of what the state’s priorities are,” said Nick Monk, of the UNL Center for Transformative Teaching. “If you have 80,000 extra people showing up in a fairly small area on City Campus, it probably makes a lot of sense to make sure we don’t overwhelm the services.”

And on Thursday night, the lights came on at Lincoln’s high school football stadiums.

“We’re no strangers to playing Thursday night football games,” said JJ Toczek, LPS director of athletics and activities. “We worked together and reached out to the schools that we were going to host that were already scheduled for the Sept. 20 date to see what we could do to potentially move those games.”

This is largely because LPS often shares event staff and security with UNL.

“From a community perspective, it ensures that everyone can enjoy the Husker game,” Toczek said

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