Well Well Well

Well Good Morning Husker fans!!!!

First of all, congratulations on a big big win last night. I know Husker magic was more of a Tom Osborne/Bob Devaney thing, but it seems that there is just something special about Memorial Stadium under the lights. I don't know what sort of paranormal force that permeates around that old building that allows the Huskers to buckle in..reach deep down, and pull out a hard fought victory over a big time opponent. True, the Huskers were up 17-0, and looked like they were going to cruise to another easy victory (something they're VERY used to), but they fought off the attackers valiantly, only to ride off into the sunset with yet another W in the standings.

Or you can look at it another way, and realize that KU's SECOND STRING quarterback just torched the munchkin-esque secondary of NU for over 400 yards. For those of you math wizards at home, let's add it up. In the past two years against Kansas, the mighty Huskers...a team who some of you (sorry..had to stop typing to chuckle) thought would play in a BCS bowl this year...has now put up 1002 yards. That's 1002 yards to a team that finished TENTH in the big 12 in passing in 2005. That's a team who in 2006 has thrown up a whopping 220 or so yards per game passing..and that's including last night debacle in Lincoln.

That's OK...maybe you're a basketball team now. (Or is that Creighton? Sometimes I confuse the two.)

So what did you learn Dorothy?

Well for starters, it's funny to see the Husker media in full scale spin mode. A look through various outlets this morning, and you'll see that despite the obvious...ahem...flaws the team may have now, it seemed all anybody wanted to talk about was a) how mentally tough the Huskers were for pulling through in the end and b) how good Kansas is. Well, let me be the first to inform you this morning that not only could KU have won that game pretty easily (how many dropped passes and fumbles inside the 10 did they have), but you also lost to a team that lost to Toledo. Apples and oranges you say? Well sure, Toledo had to take on KU's starting QB and not his backup.

Secondly, despite being quite possibly the fattest guy I've ever seen not strapped to a couch on a Maury Povich special...Mangino can flat out coach. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out a very glaring pattern going on in that game. Nebraska had better athletes, but Mangino outcoached the living shit out of Callahan. I'm not sure if it was a scheme change, I'm not sure if it was Mangino challenging his team at halftime while the Huskers headed off to the frat houses to start the party early...but whatever it was, Callahan, Cosgrove and the entire Husker coaching staff looked like the buffoons they are.

So why did Nebraska pound teams like La Tech (who lost by 51 yesterday), Troy (who lost by 18 to UAB) and Nicholls State (I think they disbanded)? Pretty simple really: Those teams were intimidated by the sight of 84,000 AARP members dressed in red sweatshirts. It's really not more complicated than that. Throw out the intimidation factor of the Nebraska myth, and you've got a very very average football team. Kansas beat the living piss out of that team last year, and Barman nearly beat them in Lincoln the year before. The intimidation factor...as patheticly overrated as it is...was completely gone.

So the real question is this: If a traditional bottom dwelling basketball school's second string QB can make NU's defense look that stupid...what the hell is a real offense going to do? Would ya'all care to rethink your positions on how OSU, Missouri, Texas..hell even Iowa State is going to be a cakewalk? Anybody else care to mimic the idiotic ramblings for KOZN's Kevin Kuglar, and talk about how there is no way in hell this teams doesn't win 10 games? Anybody want to take a shot at that now? Anybody seen Colt McCoy? Anybody seen Bobby Reid? Anybody noticed that Missouri's best two receivers are both 6'7?

I would almost feel bad for Husker fan right now if it hadn't been for this summer. ALL summer long, all we heard about was how improved you were. "Everybody is healthy", "Sam Keller is going to lead the greatest scout team of all time". All we heard about was how you manhandled Michigan and Colorado. All we heard about was how great Zac Taylor was. (Who is still pretty good, but obviously handles pressure about as well as a Wal-Mart cashier at the day after training is over) All we heard about was how the North was yours for the taking, and all that was left was trying to figure out whether to stay in Kansas City on the Plaza or over in Johnson County. Herford House for dinner that night? Or Oklahoma Joe's Bar B Que?

I mean this when I say it: NOBODY deserves to be exposed as frauds more than you people. Nobody deserves to have reality come crashing down on top of them more than you. Remember all those ridiculous claims you made way back to, oh I don't know...this past Friday? Remember how great your teams looked against teams that would probably struggle with Creighton Prep? You want to be great again so bad, it's embarrassing.

Please do me a favor. Next time you get all fired up about how great you are, please do a little research on your team. Please take into consideration how bad teams like La Tech, Troy and the others are. Please realize that the only reason USC didn't smear you against the windshield (more than they did) was because your coach is a chickenshit and USC isn't quite what they used to be. So go ahead and convince yourself that you have the toughness to win these games. Keep telling yourself that Kansas is actually really really good. (Here's my favorite) Keep telling yourself this was your "97 Missouri game"...nothing more than a fluke. Well, KU threw up twice as many yards as Corby Jones did that day in Columbia, and this time it was in Lincoln.

If you really want to figure out how this MIGHT derail your family's vacation plans to KC the first week of December, look no further than the guy with the ridiculous reading glasses on your sidelines. He was completely outcoached by the 5th best team in the north on his own turf.

Order restored indeed.


(Photo thanks to Wichita Eagle and Lincoln Journal-Star)