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Well, it’s been almost two weeks since the
Rose Bowl so our wounds should be about healed now shouldn’t they? Of course you probably have some friends like
I do that don’t mind rubbing a little salt in those open wounds by saying
things like “the Big Twelve north went 0 for 4 in bowl games” or “OU wins again
by being ranked ahead of the Huskers in the final
coaches poll”. I haven’t even looked at
the Internet or email in the last 12 days which has to be about as big of a
record as the last time the Huskers had 100 points
put up on them in two consecutive games (before last week). But the sun did come up on Friday in
southern California and tried to make you forget the previous night.
At around 94,000 or so, this was estimated
as probably the largest crowd to watch a Nebraska football game
from the stands. By far, it was the
largest group of people to watch Nebraska standing there
with their mouths wide open through the first half of a college football game.
Next, let’s take a look at a few myths that
you may be holding onto. The first is
that the Rose Bowl is the “grand-daddy of them all”. Maybe in terms of the number of people in attendance but definitely
not in terms of “the bowl experience”.
We got in line for the gate about 3:30 PM and we were lucky to make it
into the stadium by 5:15 PM for the national anthem. I really don’t have a good reason as to why other than maybe they
were doing body cavity searches for the first two hours or so and then, when
they realized the stadium was going to be half empty for the kickoff, they
decided to open up ALL of the gates and just let people in if they had a
ticket.
Hearing the planes fly over after the
national anthem was awesome but I’m going to have to find a copy of this game
since I didn’t get to see the half-time show because I chose this time to go to
the bathroom and pick up a couple of hamburgers. When I finally returned to my seat I had missed 10 minutes of the
third quarter! Selling seats for $150 a
pop will make you some money but when you’re selling $5 hamburgers to 20,000
people out of three hamburger stands and you run out then you have a pretty big
marketing failure.
Another myth is that southern Californians
aren’t nice and probably don’t care about the game. I found them to be very nice people with several saying “welcome
to California”, helpful with directions and willing to talk about the upcoming
game. LA is a big area and it took me a
while to get used to the fact that my hotel, the Rose Bowl and my friend in LA
were in three different area codes! If
you go to the next Rose Bowl and you want to experience southern California
right you better bring plenty of cash though.
I set a personal record of $80 for lunch (4 people) the day after at a
little sidewalk café.
Back here in Oklahoma, I have been told that
the first OKC chapter watch party was a smashing success with about 60 in
attendance. Kudos to all the hard work
of Doug & Laurie Wilken, Cindy Kahland & Tom Schwieger to make the
event such a big success. Hopefully
all of these new folks keep the faith and come back next year to be a part of
an Oklahoma Cornhusker Club that is big and
getting bigger all the time.
OK, we can’t put it off any longer. I guess you can boil this game down into
three facts … lowest offensive production of the year, one of the worst
defensive productions, and three turnovers.
Any one of those three would have sunk the ship against a strong Miami team but the
sum total of the three made it look like the Huskers shouldn’t have
been there. After the game I think
there was an article which estimated that Miami would probably have 12 players
taken in the NFL draft and the Huskers might get
4. So Crouch fearlessly battled on but
he just didn’t have enough weapons at his disposal to match up with the Hurricanes that had a
boatload of fast and powerful players.
Since the game, there have been a few
additional tidbits of less than bright news.
Fonoti will be making pancakes next year in another city besides Lincoln (he’s entering
the NFL draft early) unless the Nebraska legislature can
make a surprise bid for one of the next NFL franchises. The amazing thing is that when the kid
attends fall training camp for an upcoming NFL team, he won’t even be old
enough to legally drink. I’d tell him
to stay but multi-millionaires just don’t listen. The Huskers were also
hoping to get the next Samoan pancake king by the name of Ngata but he has
decided to attend BYU or Oregon (or is it BYU now?) seeing that the ducks flew
a little bit higher in their bowl game against Colorado than the Huskers did. So, I thought we were unlucky but I saw a
listing of players leaving early for the NFL draft and there are 3 from Miami
and 4 from Florida. Man … seven college
players that are good enough to be pro players leaving early from one peninsula
… no wonder it’s so tough to compete with these guys!
All that is left to do is to give you the
real test of a true Husker fan and tell
you that the Spring Football game is in a mere 13 weeks. Does that elicit a sparkle in your eye and
hopes for the next fall? Well, if it
does then you have passed the test! I’m
going on record early to say that Nebraska is definitely
going to win this one. Of course, if
you really can’t wait for more college football there is the Hula Bowl on
February 2nd where you can watch Eric Crouch running the show again.
It may take a little while but you will
eventually be able to count your blessings in an 11 win season, a chance at the
National Championship and, of course, another Heisman trophy for the Huskers. It has been a good year so we can be
thankful for that and look ahead with interest as the Huskers restock like
they always do.
Lastly, I would like to thank you for being
a part of the Oklahoma Cornhusker Club and making it
fun to be a Husker fan in
Oklahoma. I hope to see you next season
although I will be undergoing a job change before the next football season
rolls around. Occidental Petroleum is
packing up it’s IT staff and taking them to Houston so it’s time for me to “get
a haircut and find a real job”. And
just in case we have any budding young entrepreneurs out there who like cash, I
will be offering up $2000 cash to anyone who can help me find a real job. Sound interesting … well, then just follow
this URL to find out how YOU could be the proud owner of a spending spree
courtesy of John Prevette.
http://www.infoman.net/referral.htm
THANK
YOU HUSKERS FANS … THERE ARE NONE BETTER!!!
Nebraska Spring Game
April 13th or
April 20th
Lincoln, NE
I’ll
see you at the next watch party wearing HUSKER RED!!!!!
For more information on this week's game
call our President, Rod Coulter, at the Husker Hotline at 918-481-9018.
GO-BIG-RED!