By ERIC OLSON
AP Sports Writer

LINCOLN, Neb.(AP) -- Cody Green was a man with a plan.

Knowing Nebraska starting quarterback Joe Ganz would leave after
last season, Green chose to graduate from high school last
December so he could start college in January and be able to
participate in spring practice.

A week after supplanting Zac Lee as the starter, Green is
preparing to face 20th-ranked Oklahoma (5-3, 3-1) Saturday in a
game that could go a long way in determining the fate of the
Cornhuskers (5-3, 2-2) in the Big 12 North.

Green's career, obviously, is progressing just as he had hoped.

"I knew I could have a chance to come here and compete," Green
said Tuesday. "With Joe leaving, there was an open spot. It was
anyone's for the taking, so I did it."

Lee and Patrick Witt were supposed to be the front-runners to
succeed the record-setting Ganz. But Witt transferred before
spring practice, allowing Green to get a longer look from the
coaching staff.

Lee won the job in preseason practice, but he lost it after the
offense went stagnant in back-to-back losses to Texas Tech and
Iowa State.

Looking for a spark, coach Bo Pelini started Green against
Baylor last week. Green completed 12 of 21 passes for 128 yards
and ran eight times for 43 yards in a 20-10 victory.

There was plenty of good and bad in Green's play. He led a
scoring drive on his first series, and later he hit Niles Paul
on a 45-yard pass play to set up Nebraska's only touchdown. But
he also lost a fumble and was intercepted.

Pelini said he liked the way his young quarterback managed the
offense and showed poise.

"He's a perfectionist," Pelini said. "There is a lot to learn
any time you walk on the field. Obviously, it's more magnified
being his first start. You hope he gets better because of all
the things he learned and from that experience."

Had Green taken the traditional college route and waited until
the summer to move to Lincoln, he probably wouldn't have been
prepared to be the starter this soon.

"Just trying to learn this offense as a quarterback really takes
a while," Green said. "And it really took me all the way until
halfway through fall camp until things started clicking for me.
That's with me being here from January on, to learn the ins and
outs of things. If I would have come here in the summer, I think
I would be redshirting."

Instead, he's getting ready to play one of Nebraska's biggest
games of the season against one of the nation's best defenses.
If the Huskers are going to have a chance to win, they are going
to have to be able to run the ball.

And running is an area where the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Green holds
a big advantage over Lee.

Green ran with great success at Dayton (Texas) High, and
Oklahoma expects to see plenty of running plays designed for
him.

"He's a great athlete, a big guy," Sooners cornerback Dominique
Franks said. "If we see him, we know that he's going to try to
get out of the pocket a lot. He uses his feet and just tries to
make plays on the perimeter with him running or scrambling out
and trying to find the open receiver."

Green said he expects the Sooners will try to take advantage of
his inexperience.

"That's really what any defensive coordinator would do, try to
bring the house on me, change things up and show me things I
haven't seen on tape before," Green said.

With 85,000 Husker fans eagerly anticipating Green's first start
at home, he might feel more pressure this week than he did
against Baylor.

For a road game, it was one of the friendliest environments a
visiting player could want. There were only 31,702 fans on hand,
many of them wearing Nebraska colors. Green said he had 100
family and friends to cheer him, including three of his high
school football coaches who made the three-hour drive from
Dayton.

Green said he was hard on himself as he watched film Sunday.

Those old coaches, however, were even harder on him. His old
offensive coordinator admonished him to hold onto the ball and
reminded him that his fumble was his first in two or three
years.

His old head coach called him Saturday night and told him he
"choked" in the second half, when Nebraska was held scoreless,
but that he did a pretty good job overall.

"He called me back the next day and said he reviewed the film,"
Green said, breaking into a smile. "He said, 'It wasn't that
bad. You can do better.' Then he hung up on me."'

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AP Sports Writer Jeff Latzke in Norman, Okla., contributed to
this story.