85 posts tagged “nebraska”
Geaux Big Red!
The photos I had taken at the Big 12 title game in Arlington, Texas. I posted them to Flickr.
I'm glad that I held off, Nebraska ended up winning their last 5 regular season games along with sole possession of the North crown (they split it with Missouri in 2008, with Mizzou holding the tie breaker). The stadium is down the street from my apartment, I've thought about taking a taxi to the game. I have a few friends going, I even thought about buying a parking pass so I could tailgate with the other Husker faithful. The only problem is that my ticket is on the South side where all the Texas fans will be seated. This diehard, who has lived behind enemy lines since leaving Nebraska in 1995, will be seated among the burnt orange Saturday night at 7. Ugh. I hope that I can find an open bar at Jerry World.
Earlier tonight while browsing online, I figured I'd check to see if tickets were still available and the asking price per. Wow! The area where I'm seated (or will be) is going for almost $300.00....WTF? Nice price gouge there. Of course, if I wanted to make a quick buck (or $300 for that matter), I could pawn this ticket on gameday... Nah. Hey, you never know... there could be some miracle that the Pelini brothers could have under their collective hats for the Big Red to knock of Mack Brown's undefeated squad and really shake up the BCS picture. I'm sure that teams like Cincy and TCU will be among the Husker faithful cheering for the upset. I'm holding off on my end of the year travel plans until Saturday has been decided. Also, when you try circulating for an after party, make sure you double check your "finished" product before you submit it.
I love college football.
Geaux Big Red!
| The Husker Nation got one last, fond look at Big Number 93 wreaking havoc on the floor of Memorial Stadium.
The Blackshirts were center stage one more time, led by Ndamukong Suh, the majestic 6-foot-4, 300-pounder who is a devastating mix of run-stuffer, pass rusher and pass defender rolled into one package. It was a sight that 85,998 partisan Nebraska fans never got tired of watching. So what if Zac Lee and the NU offense had another three-and-out? Just turn Suh and the Husker defensive line loose and everything will be fine. If Suh couldn’t get the Wildcats, Larry Asante could. The senior safety ended a pair of K-State drives in the red zone by intercepting a pass at the 16-yard line and forcing a back-breaking fumble with a timely hit at the Husker 1. Suh, who will get his degree in construction management next month, was in prime destruction mode as Nebraska shut down Kansas State 17-3 Saturday night to clinch a berth in the Big 12 championship game. Suh had nine tackles, including two for loss. He had 1.5 sacks, broke up two passes and was credited with a quarterback hurry. The Huskers, with their maddeningly inconsistent offense, probably wouldn’t be going to Arlington on Dec. 5 without the efforts of their soon-to-be All-America team leader. Big Suh has been a Big Pain to the Big 12 for two years now, and judging by the way he sprinted off the field at the end of the game, it looks like he’s planning on doing more damage for at least a couple of additional weeks. It was a solid Senior Night for the Blackshirts, who got excellent efforts from seniors Asante (10 tackles), Phillip Dillard (eight tackles including a sack), Matt O’Hanlon (five tackles) and Barry Turner (three tackles, including one for a loss). The Huskers have gone 10 consecutive quarters without allowing a touchdown at home, and they weren’t about to give up one on this night, not with a Big 12 North title riding on the game. “They’re playing with an attitude,” said Bo Pelini on his postgame radio show. “They’ve got some things they need to get cleaned up, but they’re doing what it takes to win games.” Four in a row, to be exact, which matches the season-ending run Nebraska put together last fall. Now Pelini, who is 18-7 overall in less than two seasons as head coach, will go for back-to-back nine-win seasons when the Huskers (8-3 overall, 5-2 Big 12) travel to Boulder to meet struggling Colorado on Nov. 27. | The Buffs no doubt will come out emotionally sky-high and fighting for one last big win for their embattled coach, Dan Hawkins. They probably will try to control the ball with a short passing game and break a few big runs in the same manner that Kansas State went after the Big Red. The Wildcats had some success, and even outyarded the Huskers 293-267, but couldn’t get the ball in the end zone against a defensive unit that backpedaled at times, but always stayed in control. This is a defense-dominated team, and the coaching staff seems content not to rock the boat as long as Lee and the offense are merely harmless. “Just don’t do anything stupid,” seems to be the slogan of the Husker attack, which continually puts pressure on the Blackshirts, who are up to the challenge. On this night, the offense managed to do just enough to win the game by putting together a couple of touchdown drives. A mediocre offensive performance like that should be good enough to beat a relatively slow Colorado team, but it likely won’t get the job done against Texas. The Huskers will need to somehow find a little more firepower to make the Longhorns sweat. The offensive line, after taking a step forward against Kansas, took a step backward. They lost right tackle Marcel Jones with an injury, and have been unable to establish much continuity this season. The lack of improvement in the o-line is the biggest concern with this team now. The kicking game was solid again for Nebraska, which was not burned by Brandon Banks, K-State’s game-breaking kick returner and wide receiver. Banks, who has returned five kicks for scores in his career, caught five passes for 48 yards and had a 22-yard punt return, but was generally kept in check. Adi Kunalic kept the ball away from Banks on kickoffs and Alex Henery had a fantastic game, twice pinning the Wildcats deep in their own territory and making Banks work for everything he got. Henery’s 61-yard bomb that rolled out of bounds at the 3-yard line early in the fourth quarter was a work of art. The junior from Omaha has become almost as good a punter as he is a placekicker. Defense and special teams are not spectacular, but they can take you a long way, especially when Big Number 93 plays defense for your team. The Huskers plan to ride Suh — who is as valuable a player as anyone in college football today — as far as he will take them. |
Nebraska's biggest football rival makes its once-every-four-year stop in Lincoln Saturday, and the Cornhuskers aren't about to waste a golden opportunity like this to show Oklahoma how much the Huskers respect their program, especially since the Sooners have played a big role in NU's own rise to national prominence.
The level of competition, of course, will determine if ABC made a good decision to put this game in prime time under the bright lights of its television cameras. But one thing is certain. It's a unique chance to showcase what a good rivalry stands for and how much one program respects the other program.
Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne decided last spring to invite Oklahoma's major individual award winners to Lincoln for a Friday night banquet at the Champions Club. Then, at halftime, OU's marquee players and coaches will be honored at the same time we introduce our own legends to another record sellout crowd.
It would be nice to say that only in Nebraska can something like this happen. But the truth is, Osborne's decision is merely a reciprocating gesture to a class move made last year by OU Athletic Director Joe Castiglione to honor the 1971 Game of the Century participants in Norman.
So get ready Husker fans. Start warming up now to show your appreciation for OU's four living Heisman Trophy winners - Steve Owens, Billy Sims, Jason White and Sam Bradford. They will be introduced Saturday along with Nebraska Heisman winners Johnny Rodgers, Mike Rozier and Eric Crouch.
Other Husker major award winners who will attend this weekend's festivities are Trev Alberts, Tommie Frazier, Larry Jacobson, Dave Rimington, Will Shields, Dean Steinkuhler, Aaron Taylor and Zach Wiegert. Other Sooner major award winners who will be in Lincoln are Brian Bosworth, Tom Brahaney, Tony Casillas, Rickey Dixon, Josh Heupel, Greg Pruitt, J.D. Roberts, Derrick Strait and Joe Washington.
Osborne, Switzer Equally Popular in Rival States
This is just a guess, but look for Barry Switzer to get the same kind of ovation that Turner Gill, Barry Alvarez and Frank Solich got when they popped up on the big screen in Nebraska's NCAA record 300th consecutive sellout celebration.
Memorial Stadium will be rocking, and Switzer will be smiling, waving and ingratiating himself to Husker fans who had a hard time liking him when he kept breaking their hearts. But they respect him now because the emotional wounds have healed, and they realize that he set a benchmark that forced Nebraska to get better and better and better.
Saturday night, tradition will frame a pair of 5-3 teams that have always set higher standards for themselves and will never lose sight of those who have won so much before them. Bob Devaney and Chuck Fairbanks may have been the icons for their respective programs in the early 1960s, but Osborne and Barry Switzer certainly continued the unparalleled standards of excellence set by their predecessors.
And believe this - both states have a healthy respect for each other. "When Barry comes to Nebraska, he's still one of the most popular attractions for banquets and other events," Osborne said last week, adding that he gets a similar reception whenever he speaks in Oklahoma.
Osborne thinks he knows why Nebraska and Oklahoma play every game against each other with respect instead of rancor. "For almost 30 years in a row, the winner of the Nebraska-Oklahoma game determined the Big 12 champion and an Orange Bowl berth," he said. "Most of the time, we were both in the Top 10, and sometimes, we were both in the Top 5.
"OU went through a dip in the '90s, and we went through ours more recently," Osborne said. "Most of the time, the games were highly competitive. They were never nasty. There was never any trash talk. Games were always played very hard with proper respect shown on both sides. The fans of both schools picked up on that healthy respect for each other, so this has been a great rivalry, but never a bitter rivalry."
And that fact alone puts the NU-OU football rivalry in a league of its own.
A month ago, a Huskers.com poll asked fans to name Nebraska's biggest rival in football. A total of 12,310 of you cast a vote, and 7,159 - or 58 percent said Oklahoma is our biggest rival. Colorado and Missouri each received 19 percent of the total vote with CU edging Mizzou by 80 votes - 2,376 to 2,296. Kansas (228 votes) finished fourth with 2 percent of the vote, and K-State (131) and Iowa State (120) each garnered 1 percent.
Osborne: Rivalries Cannot Be Declared
Rivalries, Osborne said, cannot be declared like Colorado tried to do with Nebraska when he was still the head coach. They must be earned through tradition, a consistently high level of play and an acknowledgement from both schools that they are indeed rivals.
Unlike Michigan-Ohio State and USC-UCLA, the NU-OU rivalry thrives and prospers because the Huskers and Sooners have decidedly different recruiting bases. OU recruits Texas primarily, and NU recruits the entire country to complement the Huskers' base that includes important forays into Texas.
"While we have recruited many of the same players, we've never been embroiled in recruiting battles like Oklahoma-Texas or some of the other big rivalries," Osborne said. "We recruit a lot of the players they don't and vice versa."
Last year, when OU hosted Nebraska the night before the game in Norman, Switzer said: "We could never do something like this with Texas."
Recruiting was one big reason why, but former Husker All-America defensive tackle John Dutton was struck by something else Switzer said that evening - that OU coaches, players and fans have never quite grasped how Nebraska has been able to beat the Sooners so often with players they never would have considered recruiting themselves.
Dutton's answer to that is a simple one. "We were always in better physical condition than the teams we played against," he said, "and everyone pushed everyone in practice every single day. It was a relentless mindset. From the scout team to the first team, no one would even think about losing."
The NU-OU rivalry proves that respect can be an integral part of an intense rivalry, and Osborne said Nebraska lobbied to keep the annual game intact when the Big 12 was organizing into two divisions. "It's my understanding that because Oklahoma's prime recruiting ground was Texas, they preferred to be in the South," he said.
"So I guess they were leaning more toward their rivalry with Texas than ours," Osborne said. "We tried to find a way to keep our game going on an annual basis, but it would throw the conference structure out of kilter, so we are where we are now. We still have the same respect for each other, but the rivalry just isn't the same when you don't get to play each other every year."
The weekend is pretty much over, but it was a great weekend. Nebraska won with a few "green" players in the starting lineup on offense. Cody Green was the first QB to start as a true freshman since Tommie Frazier did it back in 1992. He's still getting to know the offense, but still they responded well to having him under center. With the 20-10 win over Baylor, the Huskers are sitting at 5-3 (2-2 Big 12) and are one game closer to being eligible for post season play. Below is a list of possible bowl games (including BCS bowls), not saying the Huskers will run the table and go to the national title game (not yet anyway). I'm hoping the Huskers make it to the Cotton Bowl since the new Cowboys stadium is down the street from my apartment.
Another great bowl game is the Alamo Bowl. I've gone down there twice (2003, 2005), great overall experience down in San Antonio. The Holiday Bowl is another possible game that the Huskers could land. I'd fly out for that one. I think Tane said the drive is not far for her to come along. She had a great time down in Waco and even had her picture taken with Herbie. This weekend the Huskers take on Oklahoma who is also sitting at 5-3. Every game in college football is important as the teams jockey for position in the polls, but this one is very important since it's a possible turning point for the program. A win vs. OU and the Huskers are 6-3 with Kansas, Kansas State and Colorado left on the list. They'd also have the Big 12 North crown to add to their trophy case and a ticket down to Arlington with a December 5th date with Texas (from the looks of things right now).
Can Nebraska win the rest of their conference games? I think so, if their offensive line holds up, their receivers hold on to the ball, the running backs learn how to run straight through the hole vs. dancing around, and the defense plays solid. Is that asking a bit much? Maybe, we'll see. I think there's plenty of magic left at Memorial Stadium for this historic rivalry meeting again.
|
AdvoCare V100 Independence |
Shreveport, La. |
Dec. 28 |
ESPN2 |
|
Pacific Life Holiday |
San Diego |
Dec. 30 |
ESPN |
|
Brut Sun |
El Paso,
Texas |
Dec. 31 |
CBS |
|
Texas |
Houston |
Dec. 31 |
ESPN |
|
Insight |
Tempe,
Ariz. |
Dec. 31 |
NFL Network |
|
Rose Bowl Game presented by Citi |
Pasadena,
Calif. |
Jan. 1 |
ABC |
|
Allstate Sugar |
New Orleans |
Jan. 1 |
FOX |
|
AT&T Cotton |
Arlington,
Texas |
Jan. 2 |
FOX |
|
Valero Alamo |
San Antonio |
Jan. 2 |
ESPN |
|
Tostitos Fiesta |
Glendale, Ariz. |
Jan. 4 |
FOX |
|
FedEx Orange |
Miami |
Jan. 5 |
FOX |
|
Citi BCS National Championship Game |
Pasadena,
Calif. |
Jan. 7 |
ABC |
ADDENDUM
BCS Fiesta Bowl
Nebraska must: Win the Big 12 Championship.
Likely opponent: Boise State or TCU
Odds: Very Poor. NU can't beat Texas in its current state.
Cotton Bowl
Nebraska must: Win out but lose to Texas in the Big 12 title game
Likely opponent: Some SEC West leftover or Fightin Kiffins
Odds: Zero. One trip to Cowboys Stadium would be enough.
Holiday Bowl
Nebraska must: Beat OU, win North, lose to UT
Likely opponent: USC
Odds: Fair. But only if Nebraska beats Oklahoma.
Alamo Bowl
Nebraska Must: Win eight games, preferably the North title.
Likely Opponent: Minnesota or Northwestern
Odds: Good. We like NU to win North, but lose to OU.
Sun Bowl
Nebraska Must: Finish at least 7-5
Likely Opponent: California, Stanford or Arizona
Odds: Fair. If NU wins 7 but loses North, here's the spot.
Insight Bowl
Nebraska Must: Finish at least 6-6
Likely Opponent: Michigan State, Michigan, Northwestern.
Odds: Poor. NU would rather play in Shreveport, wethinks.
Independence Bowl
Nebraska Must: Finish 6-6
Likely Opponent: Arkansas, Ole Miss or Georgia
Odds: Poor. We think Nebraska wins at least two more.
Texas Bowl
Nebraska Must: Finish 6-6
Opponent: Navy
Odds: Very poor. This spot seems made for Iowa State or Texas A&M.
It's 0442, I'm still up doing laundry and cleaning my apartment, getting everything ready for Tane's weekend visit. I can't believe that this weekend is finally here. We've talked about this trip the past couple of months and BAM! Now it's here. I just printed her itinerary, I'll place it by my keys so I don't leave it on my printer. I'm really looking forward to the visit. We're going to head down to Waco, Tx for the Nebraska (GEAUX BIG RED!) and Baylor game Saturday. Kickoff is set at 1130 which is a bit early, but it may actually work in our favor since tomorrow is Halloween. Wow, I'm glad that I printed it just now otherwise I would've driven out to the wrong airport. Whoa!
We really haven't been able to talk as much this week since she was trying to get everything in order for her trip, but we'll have a 3 day period to hang out. This is her first taste of Nebraska (or college for that matter) football, she's more into the NFL. We briefly talked about what we'd like to do after the game. I think the game will end around 1530-1600, we talked about driving down to Austin to party down on 6th street later in the evening. I know a few great places for drinks and good food. Plus my cousin lives there and we could meet up with him (and his gf) to party the night away. The only downside of this is her flight leaves at 1130 Sunday morning! GASP! Time is a factor here.
Another option we discussed was just renting movies or going out to the movies back in the metroplex. I still have to find a shirt that will fit her, not to mention I have to swing by the Halloween costume store to pick up some makeup. I'm probably going to paint my face for the game (think back to the game vs. Auburn). Yeah, that's right.... skull. My Lattimer tribute once again, but this time I'll take my time with the application. It's 0451, I should be in bed, but I still have to check on the laundry. Hmm, even after Tane lands tomorrow, Chuck was talking about heading out to Wish Lounge. Apparently, he placed us on the list to get in. I've never been there, just heard it was a decent place to party.
I'm not sure if that will be a good idea since we have to get up and hit the road by 0800 for Waco. We may just pass. Damn the luck. Speaking of luck, one great turn in my favor had to do with my days off. I only requested Friday-Saturday for Tane's trip and the game, but amended it to include Sunday and Monday. My GM was okay with this request so now I have a 96 hour liberty! Sweet! So far it's shaping up nicely. I plan on shopping for a new couch and some shelves from IKEA to move to my apartment. I love that store! Right now, it's looking like IKEA will be right along side Chipotle in having all my money. HA!
I'll be sure to post the photos and video from the weekend as I can (some will be from my iphone, the rest from my camera). I plan on taking Tane to a few places in my area to eat. Of course I have to take her out for crawfish! Mmmmmm. She's not looking forward to it, but is open to the idea. Should be fun. I need to log off, check on my laundry, finish cleaning my apartment, and go through some scales work on my guitar. Speaking of guitar, I need to return my GM's acoustic to him. He dropped it off at work for me to check out, it's a Fender. Not bad, but not made in the U.S.A. (Korean made), still, a free guitar is a great guitar (to an extent). I checked the strings (they're still good), tuned it and then strummed a few chords, it's holding a tune and has a nice sound to it. He was just going to give it to me when I told him that I played, but then I didn't stop talking about guitar and then he was excited to pick it up again. I should learn to keep my mouth shut at times.
That is all...
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