Man, woman and child---this winter is feeling a whole lot different--and better--than last winter. A year ago my favorite college football team was a wreck; we had a promise of better things to come but didn't know for sure; recruiting was full of question marks and catcalls; and to top it off, there wasn't another month's worth of practice and bowl-game anticipation to take some of the edge off cabin-fever season. How much suckier can it get??
Jump to this year. The boys won what--4 of their last 5; kicked a little booty along the way; showed some muscle in the run game; made some spectacular plays; got the shake back into Memorial Stadium. And now, to top it off---I'm reading bulletin board chatter with bitching about how one of our guys got screwed by the evil Big XII South in all-conference voting, and I'm getting e-mails about how the Gator Bowl gives us a chance for payback on Clemson after the Orange Bowl back in 1982--26 freaking years ago!!
And my reaction is---YEESSSSSS!!!! Things are getting back to normal!!!
A few comments here about the Colorado game--because in many respects, the events of that game captured Bo Pelini's 1st season as our Head Coach in one afternoon-early evening thrill ride.
The first point is---we as fans, and maybe the program---underestimated just how hard it is to get that winning vibe back. Before the CU game, I read and heard a lot of talk about how the "Vermin"--as my friend Colonel Mustard describes the Boulderites on Huskerpedia--were basically ripe for a beat-down because of injuries, bad offense, blah blah blah. Well, in many respects, that's kind of how we approached this 1st season with Bo and his staff also. I truly thought we'd have 9 wins in the bag right now.
Then, reality kicked in. And the bad guys scored on the 2nd play of the game.
The second point is---the program is truly welded together on all sides--players to coaches, coaches to players, team to the athletic department, athletic department to team. Time and time again this season, this team has pulled back from going into the ditch (especially after Mizzou and OU crashes)--and teams do not accomplish that if they have a problem.
Consider how that played out in the Colorado game. Time after time--2 easy scores for them, we forge ahead, then the fake field goal fiasco, then ill-time fumbles or penalties, the big sack on Joe Ganz late in the game, all followed by Alex Henery's explosive field goal and the Potter-Suh INT/TD capper--our guys faced circumstances where they could have cashed it in--blamed the coaches for bad play calls--blamed each other for some goof-up--blamed the refs for something--but they didn't. They held it together.
The third and final point is---while he's not perfect, Bo Pelini has done enough to show that he's got it going to the point that I'll bet almost every Husker fan is a "BO-liever" right now. And I offer the reaction of the stadium when Suh gave the Buff QB that great stiff-arm on his way to the end zone as proof. The roar of the crowd after Henery's field goal was loud, but it had a sigh-of-relief element to it as well. Kind of like "Oh, thank the Lord. We're ahead." But when Suh brought that INT into the north end zone, there was a good old spine-tingling rattle to that place!!--a sound of power and belief--or, again in ad-agency lingo, "BO-lief."
What a show. What an experience!
I'll have some more thoughts about the season later. But I'll tell you what--the gray skies, subzero wind chill and icy snow pellet-junk covering the back yard don't look all that troublesome. I'll wallow around in some very tasty memories--with more to come before this run is over with.
GO BIG RED!!!
The Old Husker Fan
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment