Officials in Lincoln prepare the way for the game interruptions on Friday evening

LINCOLN, Nebraska (KOLN) – Huskers fans will flock to Memorial Stadium on Friday night and form a sea of ​​red in the stands.

That means Lincoln police are preparing for a barrage of spotlights and honking following the football game against the Illinois Fighting Illini.

“It's going to be difficult to get the cars through, so we're asking people to have a little patience,” said Captain Don Scheinost, LPD Southwest Team Leader. “Understand that the officers are doing the best they can.”

For the LPD, it's business as usual. Scheinost said the shootings two weekends ago were isolated incidents and downtown Lincoln is as safe as ever.

“We've already played two games in the dark, so this doesn't really change our approach,” Scheinost said.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is moving all of its classes online on Friday, which is not a typical experience for students cheering on their team.

“We have to be very conscious of the state's priorities,” said Nick Monk of the UNL Center for Transformative Teaching. “If we have an additional 80,000 people on a relatively small City Campus site, it probably makes a lot of sense to make sure we don't overwhelm services.”

And it was Thursday night when lights were on in the Lincoln High School football stadiums.

“We're used to playing football games on Thursday nights,” said JJ Toczek, LPS director of athletics and activities. “We worked together and contacted the schools we were planning to host that already had Sept. 20 scheduled to see what we could do to potentially reschedule those games.”

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

“From a community perspective, it allows everyone to just enjoy the Husker game,” Toczek said

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