Lydon Murtha didn’t know for sure he would make his first career start until Saturday.

Zack Bowman, though, learned early last week of his first starting assignment as a Husker.

“Coach (Phil) Elmassian told me I’m going to need to be focused in practice and in tune with the game plan,” Bowman said of his conversation last week with the Husker cornerbacks coach.

Bowman finished with four tackles and a pass breakup in Nebraska’s 31-24 loss to Oklahoma at Memorial Stadium. A junior college transfer, Bowman started in place of Tierre Green opposite of sophomore corner Cortney Grixby.

Meanwhile, Murtha, a redshirt freshman left tackle, started in place of senior Cornealius Fuamatu-Thomas, who has struggled with false-start penalties and overall blocking.

The 6-foot-7, 315-pound Murtha played the game’s first two series before yielding to Fuamatu-Thomas for the rest of the first half. Murtha played the entire second half.

“Murtha’s been playing well,” Nebraska offensive coordinator Jay Norvell said. “We’re just trying to find a mix of guys who will give us good, consistent play.”

Not all was rosy for Murtha and Bowman.

On the game’s first play, defensive end Calvin Thibodeaux used a spin move toward the inside to burn Murtha and sack quarterback Zac Taylor for a 7-yard loss. The Sooners would record eight more sacks on the day.

“I made a few ‘young’ mistakes,” Murtha said. “You can’t dwell on it, though, or you’ll play bad the whole game.”

During Oklahoma’s crucial fourth-quarter drive that resulted in a 31-17 lead, Sooner wideout Travis Wilson beat Bowman for a 21-yard gain on a third-and-10 play over the middle.

“I’ve made a lot of progress, but I still have a long ways to go,” said Bowman, the top junior college player in the nation last year, according to Rivals.com.

Grixby busy

Oklahoma wideout Malcolm Kelly, a 6-4, 205-pound freshman, finished with eight catches for 86 yards, almost all of them against the 5-8, 165-pound Grixby. Kelly entered the game with eight catches this season.

Grixby said he has become accustomed to teams throwing his way regularly.

“That’s what I came here for — to make plays,” he said. “Kelly’s a very good receiver — a big, physical receiver. We just didn’t make plays.”

Christmas treat?

Although Fiesta Bowl officials were on hand to help honor Nebraska’s 1995 national championship team, officials from the Holiday, Alamo and Champs Sports bowls were there to scout the teams, which both need one more win to become bowl-eligible.

Jack Oppenheimer of the Champs Sports Bowl, which is seventh in the Big 12 bowl pecking order, said Nebraska is “high” on his search committee’s list.

“We’d love to have Nebraska,” he said. “Christmas in Orlando, after not going to a bowl last year, would be huge for the Husker fans.”

Trick and treat

You figured Nebraska had some trick play ready for Oklahoma. It came at an opportune time and worked perfectly.

Running back Cory Ross, taking a pitch from Taylor and running on a sweep to the right, pulled up and hit a wide-open Nate Swift for an 18-yard touchdown pass, pulling the Huskers within a touchdown with just less than 6 minutes remaining in the game.

Nebraska had twice run the ball out of the formation earlier in the game. Oklahoma’s defensive backs bit big-time on the trick play.

“It just set it up perfect,” Swift said. “Those guys bought it right away.”

As for the pass from Ross?

“He was throwing a perfect spiral all week,” Swift said. “He was throwing some real good balls.”

It marked the first pass attempt this season by someone other than Taylor. It was the first touchdown pass thrown by a non-quarterback at Nebraska since Mike Stuntz’s pass to Eric Crouch against Oklahoma in 2001.

Saturday’s TD came a play after Swift had taken a vicious hit over the middle on a 23-yard reception.

“I didn’t know what was going there for a second,” Swift said.

He found his bearings just in time.

Road hurdle

Quarterback Rhett Bomar and coach Bob Stoops said the win was particularly pleasing.

“We knew it was going to be loud, probably one of the loudest places we’d play all year,” Bomar said. “It was louder than the Texas game.  We know about the tradition between these two schools and we wanted to win. It’s a tough place to play and we played well. It’s a big road win for us.”

Stoops was also complimentary about the atmosphere.

“Coming up here to play is really special. The fans and the people here are so respectful,” he said. “I wish it was like this everywhere in the country, because the people here are just appreciative of the work that their young college guys are doing and their coaches.

“I know it doesn’t happen everywhere and maybe I shouldn’t be saying it, but I appreciate it. It is fun to compete in environments like this.”

Brian Rosenthal and Ryly Jane Hambleton contributed to this report.