Curt McKeever: Can the Huskers see the handwriting on the wall?
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One of the guys on the Indianola (Iowa) High School freshman football team wanted to step outside Hardee's and fight Jeff Morris, whose skinny frame hid the fact he was someone you shouldn't mess with.
Pound-for-pound, Morris was probably the toughest kid I ever knew and, fortunately for the hormone-raging out-of-towner who called him out, he also possessed a wit that was as cutting as his fists. And so he shrugged off the challenge by uttering some cute line.
That's what I remember most about that night in the fall of 1975, when our Knoxville team kept its record unblemished with a convincing victory against the previously unbeaten Indians.
Coming in a close second, though, was a unique pregame chat delivered by Coach Wallace.
Now, I'm sure the guy knew his football way better than any 15-year-old punk jock, but let's just say he wasn't banging his fists on the lockers and screaming "We'll take what we want, when we want" before the Panthers took the field.
As I recall, it was something closer to, "Listen up fellas — now when we get behind. ..."
Maybe it was all just a part of a clever reverse psychology ploy (although I'm not sure anyone in the locker room would have recognized such a tactic). Whatever its purpose, that memory is what leads me to Nebraska's game at second-ranked Oklahoma tonight.
I hear the Huskers have been spending extra time in practice this week working on kickoff returns — as close a cousin as you get to "Listen up fellas — now when we get behind. ..."
Perhaps I make too much of that. Maybe they're expecting to be in some wild offensive shootout.
But the writing on the wall nine games into a season gone awry tells me all the positive vibes Bill Callahan might attempt to will onto his club before tonight's opening kickoff won't much matter once the 9-0 and Orange Bowl-bound Sooners come strutting on to their home turf.
Oklahoma has won 23 straight regular-season games — one for each member of its senior class. Perhaps win No. 24 will be for Dusty Dvoracek, who would have been the 24th senior had he not been kicked off the team earlier in the season after allegedly putting a friend in intensive care (I don't think that incident was outside a Hardee's).
The Sooners — 35-1 at home under Coach Bob Stoops — definitely have the kind of prowess to put a major hurt on NU. They've won their last 18 games at home and eight straight against Big 12 Conference North Division teams since losing to the Huskers 20-10 in 2001.
Their averages during the home streak are 46 points for and 11.8 against.
They've beaten everyone in that span by a double-digit margin.
"They're the most complete team I've witnessed on film," Callahan said.
Seeing them live will just reinforce his Memorex views.
With sixth-year senior quarterback Jason White and true freshman tailback Adrian Peterson running neck-and-neck in the Heisman Trophy race, Oklahoma has pretty much had its way with some of the Big 12's most stout defenses.
Nebraska's unit isn't one of those. Cornerback Fabian Washington admitted as much earlier this week when he said the Huskers simply haven't played well while compiling a 5-4 record.
But what about Oklahoma's defense? Haven't the Sooners been exposed on deep routes while getting torched for nearly 600 passing yards the past two weeks? Didn't they bring a freshman cornerback out of a planned redshirt season just last week?
Won't matter. In case you haven't noticed, the long-bomb part of Nebraska's sputtering offense has been a dud.
I'm not saying the Huskers shouldn't go for broke and heave it downfield more than a few times — but today's game is still likely to blow up in their faces.
There's a notion that Oklahoma's Bob Stoops will be kind, because somewhere in the back of his mind a little voice is telling him, "Coach, you might have to play these guys again in the Big 12 championship. Do you want you kids to completely disrespect this team?"
I'm not sure I buy that. You kick a team when it's down, with no concern that some day the tables might be turned.
You realize that in beauty pageants such as the Bowl Championship Series setup, a lack of style points might leave you as Ms. Congeniality while someone else strolls down the walkway wearing the tiara.
The good news for Nebraska regarding tonight's game is it will be left with an unmistakable gauge of how much improvement is needed before it can dream of being more than just the best mediocre team in the North Division.
For the sake of that group, Kansas State needs to win at Colorado today and then take care of Iowa State next week. The Wildcats, who played OU to a 10-point game last month, are the best-coached, best-suited team to try and beat the Sooners in the Dec. 4 league championship.
That is, of course, barring Callahan and his bunch pulling a giant rabbit out of the hat tonight.
"If we play the game we're capable of playing," he said, "anything can happen."
Coach Wallace would have loved that one.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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