LINCOLN, Neb. — The evening sky to the north and east above Memorial Stadium looked peaceful. Sunshine squeezed between the high clouds, offering no hint of brewing storms on fast approach from the opposite direction.



In the humid air, unprecedented excitement lingered, built over nine months since the hire of favorite son Scott Frost as football coach at Nebraska.



“This was like Moses coming out of the tunnel with his staff, about to bring Nebraska back to the land of college football milk and honey,” said John Walsh, meteorologist for KOLN-TV in Lincoln.



Mere seconds before the 7:13 p.m. kickoff sailed Sept. 1, 2018, lightning flashed to the south of Lincoln within an eight-mile radius of campus, cause for an NCAA-mandated 30-minute delay. From his quarters under the south end zone, Butch Hug, longtime Nebraska associate athletic director for events, bolted for the field.



Hug, trailed by a uniformed police officer, reached the...