LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska has a new coach, and the same lofty expectations.

The players say they’re going into the first season under Mike Riley intent on winning a Big Ten championship. The program has won’t a conference title since 1999, when it was in the Big 12.

Offensive lineman Alex Lewis said Wednesday that the only satisfactory outcome to this season would be for him to have “diamonds on my finger.”

The Cornhuskers will begin preseason practice Thursday under the 62-year-old Riley, who came from Oregon State and has never coached in the Big Ten. Nebraska is coming off a 9-4 season in which back-to-back November losses to Wisconsin and Minnesota knocked it out of the running for a spot in the Big Ten title game.