Curt McKeever: CU-NU game lacks luster this year
Not that long ago, the anticipation for a Nebraska-Colorado football game would have been the most-likely source for a post-Thanksgiving Day indigestion flareup. Even for the rivalry-denying Cornheads.
The game was taken so seriously that in the days leading up to the contest, a Denver columnist could enrage an entire state merely by comparing the beauty of the Rocky Mountains to Carhenge (or noting how the smell of corn made him nauseous).
Now, no one but a lonely person looking for a few hateful e-mails to brighten their day would dare attempt to rile the ranks. Today's 63rd meeting between these schools has all the excitement and smell of three-day-old leftovers.
Sure, Colorado still has a chance to represent the North Division in next week's Big 12 championship game — with a 4-4 league record. I doubt they're preparing for riots in the streets of Boulder.
(Nor do I believe 0-for-its-last-5 Missouri will pull an about-face and act as if it cares whether it beats Iowa State on Saturday, which is exactly what the Buffaloes need to have happen.)
Closer to home, the high drama centers on the fact that Nebraska is trying to fend off its first losing season since 1961 and extend its NCAA-record streak of having played in a bowl game every year since 1969.
By winning today, the Huskers might get to go to a bowl formerly known as the Tangerine. With a loss, suddenly it's wrestling season. How about them options, huh?
Geez! Once upon a time, this game had an Orange Bowl-or-bust mentality. In fact, in the final seven years of the Big Eight, the winner did go on to Miami.
When the Buffs and Big Red settled the North in the first year of the Big 12 in 1996, they were ranked Nos. 4 and 5 in the nation. With the 2001 division title on the line, they also met as two of the country's best.
Today, for the first time since their 1981 meeting, neither team is ranked.
The game, at least to the folks at ABC-TV, amounts to little more than a warmup for the Texas-Texas A&M contest, one that fans of Colorado and Nebraska should truly appreciate. With the strong likelihood that their team will finish the regular season 10-1 and still get left out of a BCS bowl, followers of the Hook'ems must be battling the same kind of stress levels as today's 6 a.m. mall shoppers.
Meanwhile, we get 6-4 Colorado against 5-5 Nebraska.
Though hardly the bellybuster either team wanted, who's to say it can't still provide some meaty table scraps?
For starters, both teams feature running backs that embody a fight-to-the-end spirit.
Colorado's Bobby Purify has played through shoulder injuries most of the season, but with his team needing a big performance against Kansas State in its last game, came through with a 155-yard, two-touchdown effort. Nebraska's Cory Ross could have let a painful turf toe injury put him on the shelf weeks ago. But the 5-foot-6 junior has chugged his way to 1,000-plus yards. Both players have had big games in this series.
We've also got the sagas of Gary Barnett and Bill Callahan.
The Colorado coach, and his staff, deserve credit for keeping their team from being engulfed by a disgraceful conclusion by an independent investigative panel that some football players made sex, alcohol and drugs available to recruits.
It would be inexcusable if Barnett — who offended many by taking a supposed bunker mentality after returning from a suspension — or any CU administrator, looked the other way if they knew about the offseason issues. But those abhorred by the idea of college athletes being able to provide curious campus-bound kids with avenues for sex, booze and drugs would be just as guilty of looking the other way. That phenomenon wasn't invented at Colorado.
As if that situation wasn't tough enough, on Monday, Barnett's boss, embattled athletic director Dick Tharp, announced his resignation. Since then, an issue has cropped up about whether booster money provided to Barnett for a summer camp was used to recruit prospects. If so, that would be a major violation of NCAA rules.
With all that going on, it'll be interesting to see if Barnett can rally his troops again today.
As for Callahan, he seems equally unaffected by his difficult environment. Perhaps, it's because he knew what he was getting into (although my hunch is there's 1.5 million other reasons to better explain his attitude). Whatever the case, he can expect to receive more unattractive invitations than a lower-tier bowl bid if his club loses today.
Of course, the real drawing cards to the game are the players on these teams who claim they don't much care for the guys across the field. Not in a Ron Artest kind of way, but, yeah, they'll be trying to land haymakers for 60 minutes. And longer if we're lucky enough to see overtime.
That might be enough to get your stomach churning — right?
"We'll get their best shot, there is no question about it," Barnett said. "And they will get ours. ... That is the way you want this game."
Minus the gravy.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
The game was taken so seriously that in the days leading up to the contest, a Denver columnist could enrage an entire state merely by comparing the beauty of the Rocky Mountains to Carhenge (or noting how the smell of corn made him nauseous).
Now, no one but a lonely person looking for a few hateful e-mails to brighten their day would dare attempt to rile the ranks. Today's 63rd meeting between these schools has all the excitement and smell of three-day-old leftovers.
Sure, Colorado still has a chance to represent the North Division in next week's Big 12 championship game — with a 4-4 league record. I doubt they're preparing for riots in the streets of Boulder.
(Nor do I believe 0-for-its-last-5 Missouri will pull an about-face and act as if it cares whether it beats Iowa State on Saturday, which is exactly what the Buffaloes need to have happen.)
Closer to home, the high drama centers on the fact that Nebraska is trying to fend off its first losing season since 1961 and extend its NCAA-record streak of having played in a bowl game every year since 1969.
By winning today, the Huskers might get to go to a bowl formerly known as the Tangerine. With a loss, suddenly it's wrestling season. How about them options, huh?
Geez! Once upon a time, this game had an Orange Bowl-or-bust mentality. In fact, in the final seven years of the Big Eight, the winner did go on to Miami.
When the Buffs and Big Red settled the North in the first year of the Big 12 in 1996, they were ranked Nos. 4 and 5 in the nation. With the 2001 division title on the line, they also met as two of the country's best.
Today, for the first time since their 1981 meeting, neither team is ranked.
The game, at least to the folks at ABC-TV, amounts to little more than a warmup for the Texas-Texas A&M contest, one that fans of Colorado and Nebraska should truly appreciate. With the strong likelihood that their team will finish the regular season 10-1 and still get left out of a BCS bowl, followers of the Hook'ems must be battling the same kind of stress levels as today's 6 a.m. mall shoppers.
Meanwhile, we get 6-4 Colorado against 5-5 Nebraska.
Though hardly the bellybuster either team wanted, who's to say it can't still provide some meaty table scraps?
For starters, both teams feature running backs that embody a fight-to-the-end spirit.
Colorado's Bobby Purify has played through shoulder injuries most of the season, but with his team needing a big performance against Kansas State in its last game, came through with a 155-yard, two-touchdown effort. Nebraska's Cory Ross could have let a painful turf toe injury put him on the shelf weeks ago. But the 5-foot-6 junior has chugged his way to 1,000-plus yards. Both players have had big games in this series.
We've also got the sagas of Gary Barnett and Bill Callahan.
The Colorado coach, and his staff, deserve credit for keeping their team from being engulfed by a disgraceful conclusion by an independent investigative panel that some football players made sex, alcohol and drugs available to recruits.
It would be inexcusable if Barnett — who offended many by taking a supposed bunker mentality after returning from a suspension — or any CU administrator, looked the other way if they knew about the offseason issues. But those abhorred by the idea of college athletes being able to provide curious campus-bound kids with avenues for sex, booze and drugs would be just as guilty of looking the other way. That phenomenon wasn't invented at Colorado.
As if that situation wasn't tough enough, on Monday, Barnett's boss, embattled athletic director Dick Tharp, announced his resignation. Since then, an issue has cropped up about whether booster money provided to Barnett for a summer camp was used to recruit prospects. If so, that would be a major violation of NCAA rules.
With all that going on, it'll be interesting to see if Barnett can rally his troops again today.
As for Callahan, he seems equally unaffected by his difficult environment. Perhaps, it's because he knew what he was getting into (although my hunch is there's 1.5 million other reasons to better explain his attitude). Whatever the case, he can expect to receive more unattractive invitations than a lower-tier bowl bid if his club loses today.
Of course, the real drawing cards to the game are the players on these teams who claim they don't much care for the guys across the field. Not in a Ron Artest kind of way, but, yeah, they'll be trying to land haymakers for 60 minutes. And longer if we're lucky enough to see overtime.
That might be enough to get your stomach churning — right?
"We'll get their best shot, there is no question about it," Barnett said. "And they will get ours. ... That is the way you want this game."
Minus the gravy.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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