Saturday, his extra study paid off when Wistrom caught four passes for a career-high 116 yards and a touchdown in the Huskers 38-14 win over Oklahoma State.

"He's one of the hardest working guys you'll ever see," assistant coach Ron Brown said. "He just wants to get better. He's always asking questions before and during games. He's a coach's dream."

That dedication to improvement, Wistrom said, is a family tradition. It started with his father Ron and was carried on by his older brothers Chance and Grant, a two-time All-American rush end at Nebraska.

"You definitely learn it from your brothers when you're the youngest," the sophomore from Webb City, Mo. said. "I had the best two older brothers for that. They don't take mediocre. If you fail at something or don't do as well as you know you can, you go in and correct it. And you never, ever stop working."

Wistrom's first big play against the Cowboys came on a 47-yard bomb from quarterback Eric Crouch that he carried to the 2 yard line. Correll Buckhalter punched it in on the next snap to put the Huskers up 14-0. But Wistrom wished he'd made the end zone on that catch.

"Unfortunately, I wasn't able to drag that safety one more yard," Wistrom said. "One more squat in the weight room and maybe I would have been able to do it. I was disappointed I didn't get in."

Wistrom got his second touchdown of the season on his next catch, hauling in a 16-yard pass from Crouch late in the second quarter to put Nebraska up 31-0.

"It was wide open," Wistrom said. "Anybody could have caught that ball. It was me, fortunately."

Both of Wistrom's big plays came on play action passes on which the Oklahoma State safeties broke toward the line of scrimmage to support the run. The tight end is a key receiver in those situations, Brown said.

"When you've got a tight end that can squirt down the field, you've got it going on," Brown said. "He's really got it going on. When you talk about two 100-yard games from a tight end in a season, it's really something."

The 6-5, 220-pound Wistrom had 102 yards on two receptions against California and is now Nebraska's leading receiver with 250 yards on eight catches in five games.

"I couldn't ask for a better situation now," Wistrom said. "Obviously, I wouldn't mind weighing 245-250, but that's out of my control a little bit. But I couldn't be happier."

Wistrom headed home after the game to call his brother Grant, now with the NFL's St. Louis Rams and talk over the game.

"He'll be real happy," Wistrom said. "I guess we've got a family tradition going here. Unfortunately, I'm the last one unless my parents have something they haven't told me about. So I'm going to make the most of it."