Brian Rosenthal: Patient ride takes us to Hou..., er, San Antonio
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HOUSTON — This is where I thought Nebraska would finish its 2005 football season. Well, not exactly here. Not in this run-down airport restaurant with dust bunnies hanging from the ceiling fan and year-old pizza discounted at $4 a slice.
But, yeah, in Houston, in the Houston Bowl. Back in August, that’s where I said Nebraska would take a 7-4 record and play in a bowl game. (Hey, being half wrong isn’t so bad.)
Instead, the 7-4 Huskers are headed to San Antonio … and so am I, eventually. First, a pit stop in Houston as part of my four-city journey to the Riverwalk (if you can count Tecumseh as a city).
I wasn’t thinking too much about Nebraska football Monday until we flew over Owen Field in Norman, Okla. I thought it was cool, for lack of a better word, to be able to peer into Oklahoma’s football stadium with a bird’s-eye view.
It’s better, I thought, than the view Cory Ross had a year ago at Oklahoma. As I recall, they basically peeled Ross from the grass turf in the fourth quarter of Nebraska’s 30-3 loss.
As I was thinking of all that’s happened with Nebraska football since that forgettable defeat, I looked out the airplane window and discovered we were flying over Kyle Field in College Station, Texas.
Hmm. Nebraska plays here next year.
I went from pondering the past to eyeing the future in less time than it took to return my seat to its upright position.
Exactly how far has Nebraska come over the past year? And how excited and hopeful should folks be about 2006, and beyond?
Some answers could lie in Wednesday night’s Alamo Bowl.
An entire nation will be watching Nebraska play Michigan on ESPN. The last time the Huskers played on national television, they were finishing off Colorado with stunning ease.
Since then, we’ve all been asking the same question: Is that the same Nebraska football team that lost to Kansas?
The radio sports talk guys in Kansas City were asking the same thing about the Chiefs. How could the Chiefs’ defense not show up against Dallas and the New York Giants, and then shut down the high-powered Chargers? Why can’t they play fundamentally sound, and with consistency, this late in the season?
Well, if it’s that much of a problem for paid professionals, then imagine the roller-coaster ride a college team with more than 30 freshmen and sophomores on the two-deep roster can give its coach.
No need to imagine here. Bill Callahan, along with the rest of Nebraska, has seen it firsthand.
Have we been patient? Of course not. Callahan himself said it’s a “win-now” society. Not that anyone in Lincoln needed a reminder.
Have we been, at times, unrealistic in our expectations? Yes and no. Many people, including many who aren’t sports writers, predicted a 7-4 finish. They said in August they’d be satisfied, given the circumstances of the new system and more new players, with seven wins and a bowl game. That would be progress. And who would’ve predicted victories against Iowa State, Kansas State and Colorado? That hasn’t happened since 1999.
So why are so many people still uncertain, and, in some cases, upset?
Losses to Missouri and Kansas — especially Kansas — stick out. Those types of collapses aren’t acceptable, plain and simple. The utter domination by Kansas in every facet of the game had many people — including yours truly — concerned about the future.
I said the following week that if Nebraska players truly believed — in the system, in the coaches, in the future — that they’d show it by beating a bad Kansas State team, then avoiding a blowout in Boulder. (Too bad they couldn’t avoid the blowout, huh?)
The players proved, in a 30-3 battering of the Buffaloes, they’re committed, and they’re behind the coaches. They’re to be commended, as is Callahan for keeping this group together, unlike last year.
Now, where from here? For Nebraska, it’s a strong showing against Michigan, a game in which Zac Taylor looks focused and sharp, the running game does just enough, the Blackshirts harass Chad Henne and the Huskers keep the Wolverines in sight.
And for me, it’s off to Gate 3.
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.
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