Narniaman

"Pete Carrol had dismal first couple years...." Not to nitpick, but. . . In his first year Carroll's team went something like 6-6, losing to Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl. Certainly not great, but not really "Dismal" either, in that it wasn't a losing season. In his second season, Carroll's team was the PAC-10 co-champ, stomped #3 Iowa in the Orange Bowl by about three touchdowns, and had a Heisman trophy winning quarterback in Carson Palmer. Certainly not "dismal".

Well, I guess I'm somewhat in awe of your discourse, California Husker. I had no idea that something espn did 10 years ago was the primary reason that Kansas put 76 points and Colorado put 65 points on the Cornhuskers this year. I think I should post your treatise on the Michigan board -- I'm sure they would be shocked and remorseful that something their athletes were involved in 10 years ago has such a lingering effect on Nebraska football.

Not the team, but the administration?? First, let me state that I'm not a Nebraska fan -- I have pulled for Nebraska off and on over the course of nearly four decades, going back to Nebraska thumping Alabama in 1972. The "off and on" support depends a bit on whether two schools that I attended -- ASU and USC are doing well or not. Having said all that, here's the question. It appears to me that your coach isn't doing all that great a job. Whether it's the recruiting, his system, his assistants, or just him, a losing season just isn't acceptable at Nebraska. So why doesn't Nebraska just fire him instead of continuing this charade? I would think the chances of him coaching the Big Red next year are about zero. Osborne himself could finish coaching the team for the season, and Nebraska would get the jump on everyone else in the coaching vacancy derby. Is the Nebraska adminstration hoping that he will somehow just resign and give up his big guaranteed contract? If that's the case, isn't it sort of wishful hoping that Callahan will just give up however many million dollars just to get out of town?

What in the world was this all about? Enquiring SC fans want to know!!

California Husker, I think I know what's going on. And I feel your pain. You live in Southern California, and you're not shy about your love, support, and devotion for Big Red football. You have friends and acquaintances who are quite aware of your passion, and have engaged you in perhaps a few spirited discussions about USC football vs. Nebraska football in the past. All in the spirit of good fun, of course, you were enticed into making perhaps a few wagers on the outcome of yesterday's USC/Nebraska game. USC fans, being good sports, probably gave you Nebraska and 15 points or so. And you still loss. So come tomorrow, you are going to have to distribute your honest and hard earned cash to a number of rather obnoxious Trojan fans, who all the time will be mentioning stuff like Nebraska never ever having won a game against USC (even when the Cornhuskers won the national championship), and USC scoring the most points anyone has scored against Nebraska in Lincoln in 50 years, and USC rushing for 313 yards, and USC's true freshman O'Dowd completely dominating Nebraska defensive tackles (touted as some of the best in the nation by Nebraska fans), and so on and so forth. Even worse, so of these obnoxious Trojans may have enticed you into some rather (in retrospect) foolish bets, and you may have to do stuff tomorrow like wear a USC sweatshirt and hum the Conquest fight song. Ah!! The pain!! At least if your were back in Lincoln instead of sunny Southern California you wouldn't be surrounded by cruel, uncaring, and obnoxious USC fans. And so, Big Man, you have my sympathies!! At least Nebraska won't be playing USC anytime again soon.

You seem to have some information that I am not familiar with. Since you do possess this information, you need to widely publicize it and make it known to the NCAA. You might realize that anonymous accusations aren't probably going to get a lot of traction, so you need to publicly identify yourself when you make the accusations. Certainly, if what you said is true then USC needs to be punished, and punished severely. Perhaps you could get other like minded Nebraska fans to finance a class action suit or something like that against USC. Of course, if what you are claiming is not true, then you are committing slander. And their are legal consequences to doing something like that, and could put you at considerable financial risk. I suspect that you don't have enough guts to come out a publicly make such an accusation. Instead, you will continue to hurl accusations and hide behind the "Offspring 2099" moniker. Am I right?

recognized as a football dynasty, like Nebraska is? I have previously been assured by members of this board that in spite of 11 national championships, umpteen Heisman trophy winners, including 3 of the last 5, a 61-6 record over the past five years or so, and more Superbowl players than any other school can boast, USC's football program doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Nebraska's program. Suggesting that USC perhaps has a football dynasty worthy of comparison to Nebraska, posters like "California Huster" protested Others suggested that USC doesn't deserve the "dynasty" label like Nebraska does because the USC home attendance in the past (5-15 years ago) has been somewhat less than Nebraska's home attendance. So here's my question for "California Husker" and others. . . . . . How many more beatdowns do the Trojans have to administer to Nebraska before Nebraska fans will acknowledge that USC has every bit as good a football program as the Cornhuskers do? Now please note -- I'm not trying to claim that USC has a superior football team/tradition than Nebraska -- I'm just trying to get Cornhusker fans to acknowledge that at least in a football sense, USC is at least equal to the storied Cornhusker program. And while I may be myopic as a USC fan, at least I do see well enough to recognize that USC football players seem to block and tackle a whole lot better than the Nebraska Cornhusker football team does.

Actually, USC had that mentality more last year before going to Arkansas for their first road game. This year, the Trojans realize that they were lucky to escape with a win against the Cornhuskers last year and are quite concerned about playing in the blackshirts stadium. But I suspect that they'll show up and try their best to fight on.

What if Nebraska beat USC by 80-0 and Texas by 90-0 and Oklahoma by 100-0 and LSU by 110-0 in the national championship game??? And everyone else they beat by at least 120-0?? Do you think Nebraska would win the national championship, and all the good players will want to come to Lincoln, and maybe Nebraska would win 147 games in a row??? And nobody ever again would dare suggest that Nebraska wasn't the best football team in all of recorded history??? Something to think about!!!

This discussion has caused me to go look at Nebraska's records over the past 40 years or so. I've noticed an interesting trend. Back in the 60's and 70's most of the out of conference games were against BCS division schools (although, of course, the BCS wasn't around back then). Starting in the 80's, Nebraska started scheduling non-BCS schools -- exclusively at home. I'm talking about Utah, Wyoming, University of Alabama at Birmingham, San Jose State, Utah State, New Mexico State, Pacific, North Texas, Akron, Middle Tennesse State, Central Florida, Troy State, Maine, Northern Illinois, Louisiana Tech, Nichols State, Western Illinois, Rice, Louisiana Tech, McNeese State, Colorado State, and a few others. All at home -- there weren't any trips for the Cornhuskers to Logan, Utah, or Las Cruces, New Mexico, or Denton, Texas. All told, Nebraska brought in 42 lower Division 1 teams for games at home. Not terribly surprisingly, Nebraska won 42 games against this stiff competition. And so a vital part of Nebraska's dynasty was built on strategic game scheduling. Meanwhile, during the same time period USC's exclusive home games against Non BCS opponents consisted of . . . Texas Christian (one game), Utah State (2 games), Memphis State (1 game), San Jose State (3 games), Lousiana Tech (1 game), Fresno State (1 game), and Idaho (one game, two weeks ago). There were a total of 10 home games against non BCS opponents over the course of 35+ years that didn't result in away games. Instead of playing so many non-BCS teams like Nebraska did, USC played games against teams like Notre Dame -- 35 games in 35 years. Nebraska played Notre Dame twice. During this time period USC had home and home games with Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Tennessee, LSU, South Carolina, and Arkansas. The only non-bowl games Nebraska played against teams from the Southeast Conference were against Auburn and South Carolina. Some have commented that Nebraska faces tough conference opponents in Texas, for instance. During this time period Nebraska played regular season games against Texas a grand total of 5 times. On the other hand, they hosted Utah State 7 times. Nebraska has played Troy State at home more times in the past 35 years than they have played Texas!!! But I guess I am forced to concede that Nebraska, indeed, is a real football dynasty, because their won/loss records during this time were better than USC's. Maybe so. And maybe will Nebraska's ground defense will put the clamps on the Trojans after allowing 200+ rushing yards to Wake Forest, and maybe USC will have problems moving the ball on the blackshirts. But I think I will still believe that USC is ever bit as much of a "dynasty" as the Cornhuskers, and I also still believe that the Trojans will be able to stay on the field with Nebraska, even if the fans are noisy.

Borrowed from the WeAreSC board; Here is the link http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-plasch...eadlines-sports Bill Plaschke: An extraordinary extra point is a reminder of who's missing Trojans honor the memory of kicker Mario Danelo with an in-game tribute, and those who knew him best continue living the dream for him. September 12 2007 In his two-year USC career, Mario Danelo was probably on the field for less than two hours. The Trojans were about touchdowns, Danelo was the squiggly frosting on the edges of those touchdowns. Trojans grandly kicked opponents between the teeth, then Danelo quietly kicked a football between the uprights. He was just a kicker, right? Who misses a kicker? Sitting in the Coliseum stands a couple of weeks ago, watching other parents' children play football, Joe and Emily Danelo learned. We all learned. The Trojans scored the game's first touchdown in their season opener against Idaho, lined up for the extra point, and, wait a minute. . . "There's no kicker out there," said Joe, nudging Emily. "What?" she said. "Look, they're lining up with no kicker on the field," Joe said. Turns out, the Trojans missed their late kicker so much, they came out for their first extra-point play of this season without one. They lined up with 10 men, then waited in silence until the play clock expired and they were given a five-yard penalty. In the stands, realizing what was happening, Joe and Emily both began crying. Eight months after their son's death, they were once again reminded of how he lived. He was only a kicker, flashing across the Trojans' landscape for the briefest of moments. But oh how he lived. "My son was just a regular kid, one of the guys," Joe said. "But, man, I guess his spirit was really something special." On the front ledge of a quaint San Pedro home that squats on a hill above the Pacific Ocean, a faded, weathered USC banner bakes in the salty air. It is a banner signifying that Mario Danelo lived there. It is a banner that will remain even though he is gone. "We don't care how bad it looks, it's not coming down," Joe said. "It's his banner, it's his house." In their first interview since their son's death, the Danelos invite a visitor inside a house where corners are still filled with their son's light. In Mario's bedroom, his USC jersey and helmet are spread across his bed. His USC shoulder pads are on his head board. There are photos covering the walls, trophies everywhere, even his cellphone and sunglasses sit on top of a dresser, as if any moment he could grab them and run out into his beloved seaside community. "Sometimes I really do think he's just going to walk back in here," Emily said. "Then I realize that's not possible. But still. . ." Still, the family waits for closure that may never come. In the early morning hours of Jan. 6, after partying with friends, Mario left his home, telling his father he was going for a walk. Nobody saw him again until the next day, when he was found at the bottom of a cliff below Point Fermin Park, several blocks from his house. Cause of death was listed as multiple traumatic injuries. But manner of death was undetermined. The coroner could not decide whether he had jumped, was pushed, or was perhaps even assaulted and carried to the bottom of the cliff. Eight months later, few believe it was suicide, as Mario was an eternally happy kid who was so focused on his future that he had worked at the San Pedro docks that day so he could retain his union card for future work. Many instead believe that Mario, whose blood-alcohol level was past the legal limit to drive, had climbed a four-foot wall along the cliff so he could urinate in the privacy of a bush. He then lost his balance on a slippery ice plant and fell 150 feet to his death. His parents believe neither theory. His parents suspect foul play. They say his body, clothed in gray USC sweats when they viewed him after his death, seemed pristine, untouched, quite unlike someone who had just fallen into the rocks. Said Joe: "I don't know what happened, but I know he did not fall. He could not have fallen that far and still looked that good." Said Emily: "We don't know now, but someday we'll know. Someday somebody will come forward. We just know it." At the time, Danelo had just finished his second season as USC's kicker after turning down scholarships elsewhere to join the program as a walk-on. In his career, he missed only two of 28 field-goal attempts, seven of 134 extra-point tries, and set an NCAA record with 83 extra points in 2005. "I missed more kicks in a day than Mario missed in his life," said Joe, a former NFL kicker. He was good. But he was not Matt Leinart or Reggie Bush in a program where the main color is still glitter, and so nobody was prepared for what happened when he disappeared. "We all saw he was about more than just a leg," Trojans long-snapper Will Collins said. His funeral crowd was overflowing. The boxes of letters received by his parents were overwhelming. USC suspended use of his jersey, stuck his name and number on the back of their helmets, painted his No. 19 under the goal posts at the practice fields, left his meeting-room seat vacant, and hung up a banner with his trademark saying. "I'm living the dream," he told people. Turns out, he not only lived the dream, but he shared it. In the wake of his death, stories have emerged that will last much longer than the memories of any kick. "You always think your kid is special, but, man. . ." Joe said. Special? It turns out, Mario Danelo's time here was brief but indelible. Emily met a woman in San Pedro who thanked her for the cleats. "What cleats?" Emily said. "The cleats that Mario gave my son, his first pair, because we couldn't afford to buy them," the woman said. Joe heard from another San Pedro family whose son had suffered from leukemia. Mario not only called him with best wishes, but gave him his cellphone number and maintained an ongoing dialogue. Then there was the San Pedro teacher whose son was in Iraq. Mario arranged for autographed USC posters to be sent to him. "There were things he did, we had no idea," Emily said. And in places that they couldn't imagine. Emily received a letter from a woman in Catalina who said that, during summer visits there, Mario would stop by the home of a couple of aging Trojans and listen to them talk about their glory days. "They would want to ask about him, but he wanted only to hear their stories," Emily said. "That was our son." While most folks offered their thanks to the Danelos in letters and phone calls, one family literally gave them the shirt off their back. Robbie Franco, a highly regarded middle linebacker on the San Pedro High football team, dreamed of wearing his father Bob's No. 25. But when Mario died, Robbie decided to spend his last two seasons wearing Mario's San Pedro No. 32. "He always wanted to grow up like Mario," Bob said. "It's a testament to the kid and to the town." Living the dream, sharing the dream and, finally, playing the dream. That's what happened in the season opener, during which 90,000 fans gave the Danelo family a standing ovation, followed by 10 players honoring him with the phantom extra-point play. Dave Buehler, the kicker, thought of the play. Collins, the snapper, sold it to Coach Pete Carroll. "I was like, 'Wow,' " Carroll said. "What better way to remember someone who impacted us so much?" During the phantom play, staring back between his legs at the empty space that was once filled by his close friend, Collins began crying. When Buehler finally ran on to the field for the actual kick, Collins was still crying and, now, praying. "I'm like, 'I'm in no position to snap the ball here. 'C'mon Mo, help me out,' " Collins said. The snap was perfect. The extra point was converted. Fans are still talking about it. Perhaps the most compelling sequence of plays in the Carroll era. The night before that game, Collins called the Danelos. On Friday night, before the Nebraska game, he will call them again. On the eve of every game this season, he will call them, because Mario Danelo used to called them like this, and his torch of touch must be continued. "Like he said, Mario lived the dream," Collins said. "Now we're all living it for him." Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke. Fight On Trojans and BEAT the Cornhuskers!

I might make a couple of observations here. . . . First, USC takes second place to no one in the out of conference games they play in the regular season. I will admit that Notre Dame probably plays more D-1 powers across the nation than USC, but Notre Dame doesn't have any conference commitments either. Since I have been following USC football, USC has played, either on a home and home basis or at a neutral site, the following out of conference teams: Arkansas, Auburn, Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida, Florida State, Ohio State, Penn State, Syracuse, Minnesota, Michigan State, Illinois, Purdue, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Kansas State, Colorado, Colorado State, Texas, Texas Tech, Missouri, BYU, Hawaii, and Virginia Tech -- and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Oh yeah. . . .there is a school from the midwest that USC plays on a home and home basis, and has done every year for the past 70 or so. And, I might add, USC has never played any non-Division 1 schools (at least since there has been Division 1 schools -- there were a few high school opponents about 100 years ago). Michigan now wishes that they had never played a non-Division 1 school too!! (Applachian State was the first for them). Second -- Nebraska hasn't been playing Oklahoma and Texas every year. NU didn't play Texas regularly until the 90's, and even now NU doesn't necessarily play either Oklahoma or Texas every year. Third -- the PAC 10 is a tough conference. In the last 10 years every one of the ten teams has been ranked in the top ten. When was the last time that Kansas, Oklahoma State, Baylor or Iowa State were in the top ten? Fourth, I might point out that while USC didn't win any national championships in the 80's and 90's, they did win national championships in the 60's (1963 and 1967) and the 70's (74 and 78). And they were in the running for national championships several times in the 80's and 90's, winding up in the top five nationally. And in overall national championships, USC arguably leads the pack with 11. Fifth, USC has had a few players earn post season laurels -- such as Mike Garrett, OJ Simpson, CHarles White, Marcus Allen, Carson Palmer, Matt Leinert, and Reggie Bush all won the Heisman trophy. Sixth, USC has had some success in sending players to the next level -- in fact, more players from USC have played in the Superbowl then any other school. And so my question remains; if USC isn't a football dynasty, who is?

Okay, here's a USC fan (who lives in Oregon) who's been wondering around the Husker board. I just read the treatise under the USC radio topic on why USC is by no means a dynasty -- having gone 22 years without a national championship. Which caused me to wonder. . . . . If USC isn't a football dynasty, Is Nebraska? How about Oklahoma? Texas? Notre Dame? Michigan? And before I leave, my favorite Nebraska radio story. . . . . When I was going to USC in the late 70's, a group of Nebraska boosters had the Nebraska football games broadcast in Los Angeles. I had always liked Nebraska football, going back to the days of Joe Orduna, who I got to know when in Southern California. So I would listen to the games if the Trojans weren't playing. I remember one Saturday in particular -- Nebraska was playing someone like Kansas and was literally beating the soxs off them -- with a score something like 49-0 at halftime. Come halftime, the Nebraska boosters had a pre-recorded message greeting the Kansas fans -- something along the lines of "We Cornhuskers always like to get together with our midwest distant relatives. We are happy that Kansas fans have been able to join us today, and we truly hope you are enjoying the game! Best of luck Saturday, and may everyone stay healthy!!!