As of this publication, we are just about 27.5 hours away from the Dublin Debut (27 hours, 20 minutes to be exact).
Nebraska kicks off against Northwestern at 5:30 p.m. local time (11:30 a.m. CT) on Saturday to open its 2022 campaign.
The game will be played at Aviva Stadium in front of what is expected to be more than 40,000 fans in attendance. That includes thousands of folks from Ireland, many of whom will be on hand to check out their first in-person American football game at the college level.
American football – at least collegiately – is not a sport that the majority of Ireland citizens are familiar with, but this is an opportunity for the game and its brand to grow overseas.
And speaking of brand growth overseas, Friday brought a very unique opportunity for Inside Nebraska and the Rivals network.
Inside Nebraska publisher Zack Carpenter was asked to be a featured guest on Friday's episode of Off The Ball, which is a wildly popular show in Dublin that is widely considered the No. 1 sports talk show in Ireland. The show has 143,000 subscribers on YouTube and has a vast social media following of 145,000 followers on Twitter, more than 117,000 followers on Facebook and more than 63,000 followers on Instagram.
Zack took a trip to the OTB studios for a live show to discuss the sport of college football and give a breakdown of the Nebraska vs. Northwestern matchup. That includes the No. 1 player that casual fans in Ireland should be keeping their eyes on Saturday, who they should be rooting for if they like underdog stories and plenty more.
Check out Zack's full segment in the video above or on the Inside Nebraska YouTube channel, and watch a clip from the segment below.