LINCOLN, Nebraska (Ticker) -- Jammal Lord has not made the Nebraska faithful forget Eric Crouch, but he is getting the job done.

Lord passed for two touchdowns and ran for two more as the eighth-ranked Cornhuskers coasted to a 44-13 victory over Utah State before the 250th straight sellout at Memorial Stadium.

With Crouch, the Heisman Trophy winner, preparing to make his NFL debut on Sunday, the new quarterback is Lord, a junior who quietly waited his turn. Lord was efficient in wins over Arizona State and Troy State and was even better Saturday night.

Lord completed 6-of-12 passes, including a 23-yard TD to Wilson Thomas in the first quarter and a 33-yarder to Matt Herian in the second. Lord also carried nine times for 59 yards and had touchdown runs of one and 28 yards in the second quarter to help the Cornhuskers build a 37-7 halftime lead.

"The offensive line did great today," Lord said. "The O-line pushed people around. It gave everyone holes to run through and gave us time to throw. It showed in the score."

Nebraska cornerback DeJuan Groce had two interceptions for the second straight week, raising his career total to eight.

"Yeah, it's amazing, but we still have a long way to go," Groce said. "It's just two picks to get the offense the ball. That's all I try to do - to get the ball back for them."

Dahrran Diedrick carried 16 times for 93 yards and the Cornhuskers gained 288 yards on the ground without Thunder Collins, who was suspended earlier in the week.

Nebraska improved to 3-0 for the sixth straight season and is 7-0 all-time against Utah State. The Cornhuskers will face their first notable test next week when they visit No. 25 Penn State.

"We've got three games under our belt and I think we have improved in some areas," Nebraska coach Frank Solich said. "We certainly feel much better about making our trip to Penn State than we did two weeks ago."

The game attracted a crowd of 78,176, the biggest home crowd in Nebraska history.

Josh Brown scored on a one-yard run in the first quarter and Cory Ross had a 13-yard touchdown run in the third period that increased the lead to 44-7.

Utah State's Jose Fuentes had a long evening, completing just 16-of-38 passes for 214 yards and three interceptions. His lone touchdown pass was a 26-yarder to Kevin Curtis in the opening period.

"We just beat ourselves tonight," Fuentes said. "I guess we came into the game a little too excited, which led to some of our penalties. Any team that puts itself in first-and-15 and second-and-20 is going to have problems."

Curtis caught six passes for 102 yards.

Dane Kidman kicked late field goals of 29 and 43 yards for the Aggies (0-2), who were flagged 10 times for 71 yards.