ATHENS, Ga. -- After both of their defenses were shredded by opponents’ running games Saturday, Capital One Bowl coaches Mark Richt and Bo Pelini obviously realize their Jan. 1 opponent will enter the game thinking run defense is an area they can exploit.

Richt’s Georgia club allowed 350 rushing yards to Alabama’s punishing offensive line and tailbacks Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon in a 32-28 loss in the SEC championship game. But Pelini’s Nebraska defense endured an even more humiliating experience in the Big Ten championship game against Wisconsin, allowing the Badgers to rush for 539 yards -- the most ever allowed by a Cornhuskers defense -- and win 70-31.

“You give up big rushing yards and that’s a recipe for disaster,” Pelini said Sunday night on a conference call announcing that his No. 16 Cornhuskers (10-3) would meet Richt’s No. 6 Bulldogs (11-2) on New Year’s Day in Orlando. “I know it was for us last night, our number of missed fits and missed tackles. You can’t recover from that. I’m sure Georgia, I’m sure that played a big part even though their game was a lot closer than ours. That’s going to be an area that both teams are going to have to shore up and probably an area that both teams are going to try to exploit.”

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