Posted: Thursday, November 24, 2005 6:00 pm
Let’s see, Nebraska has its lower-tier bowl all wrapped up in a velvety Big Red bow, can’t hope for anything more than that, and so there’s not so much on the line at Colorado today.
Happy day after Thanksgiving, Huskers!
What a crock. If you believe that, then you must accept all those “clever” jabs Buffalo fans like to take as merely good, clean fun. Nothing personal, folks.
News flash: They really hate Nebraskans and pop off because they know odds are still good we’ll end up supporting their economic cause because of their state’s irrisistable natural beauty.
Let me also suggest that the real battle today, on Folsom Field, should carry just as much weight for the Huskers as it does for a CU team that needs a victory to clinch its fourth Big 12 Conference North Division crown in the past five years.
Four out of five years. That’s about the rate of success Nebraska was having in the Big Eight in 1982, when Bill McCartney became the Buffs’ coach and brilliantly declared NU Enemy No. 1.
McCartney never did have a ton of success beating the dreaded Huskers, but at least he had the wherewithall to recognize they were the benchmark for which to shoot.
It’s time Nebraska acknowledge the tables have flipped and go after the Buffaloes with the same kind of fervor. Hell, give THEM the gold-letter treatment.
And it may be that’s already happening.
Earlier this week, CU’s affable coach, Gary Barnett, was talking about how he feels more personal pressure to beat the Huskers. “All summer, everywhere you go people say, ‘You have to win two games — Colorado State and Nebraska.’” Barnett said. “It’s so big to so many people, so we feel a responsibility to our fan base in this game.”
Anyway, to heighten the buildup, the Buffs’ scout-team players are required to put white tape on the helmets and wear red “N” decals. Apparently, the decal supply had run low enough that CU officials had to call the company that produces them to place an order.
“They said ‘That’s funny, Nebraska just called to get some Buffalo decals,’” Barnett said. “Ted Gilmore (the NU receivers coach hired from Barnett’s 2004 staff) has shared that idea with them, I’m sure, so now we probably have little Buffaloes running around in Nebraska and practicing with black jerseys and helmets that are all taped up in gold.”
If that’s the case, good for Gilmore. Maybe his awareness will supply the extra spark the Huskers need today if they are to win a game of consequence that you don’t expect them to.
Think about that for a second. When do you remember Nebraska last pulling that trick?
You could say it was in 2002 at Texas A&M. But that’s a little squishy, because the Aggies were 5-2 at the time and had already lost twice at home.
So if it’s not that, then it definitely would be the 2001 triumph over Oklahoma. NU was ranked No. 3 at the time and had the Sooners in Lincoln, but Bob Stoops still had the defending national champions in the midst of a 20-game unbeaten streak.
Before that contest, though, one would have to go all the way back to 1997 to find a Husker shocker. That was when they went to Washington and dominated the No. 2 Huskies.
With all that’s happened in South Stadium the past couple of years, that result seems a lot closer to two decades removed than less than one.
Today offers Nebraska an opportunity to not only turn back the clock but also produce a bold statement about its future.
On Monday, Bill Callahan talked about how his infant program is closing the gap on some Big 12 heavyweights, “in a lot of areas.” He also promised the Huskers were “right on schedule.”
Prove it. Give the Buffaloes a four-quarter fight today and, win or lose, keep setting your sights on them, and it’ll take you to the next step of tracking down the likes of Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma.
Make the Wall Street Journal’s recent placing of the Colorado-Nebraska game as the nation’s sixth-best rivalry over the past decade hold up. If the Buffaloes stampede to a fourth win in five seasons, you may never run them down.
Make a guy like Denver product Cory Ross proud that all his hard work for the Huskers will have paved the way to a return to dominance (a term the Buffaloes once used).
Better yet, win today and leave those two-games-a-year Colorado fans with the cold hard fact that the 62-36 of 2001 (which still didn’t keep NU from playing for the national title) is still the Buffaloes’ only win over the Huskers in the last eight meetings in Boulder.
At the least, treat today’s game like it’s the biggest of the year — because it is.
“It’s not like we’re going to approach it like this doesn’t mean much,” quarterback Zac Taylor said. “They have a lot more to lose than we do. I think that’s the best way to put it.”
Actually, it would’ve sounded better if he’d said Nebraska has more to gain.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.