Klondike Cat

In college football, they rank the teams before a down is even played. I've always found that practice extremely bizarre. Then if you start off your season better than intended, your ranks go up better than they really should or if you start off with a wounded duck to what is otherwise a fine football program, you suffer in the rankings more than you should. I understand they've moved toward a playoff type system. I hope they end up with some type of “you are what you are” system where you know exactly what your team needs to do to make the playoffs, and, if it does so, you know exactly what it must do to win a championship. No more pollings or rankings at all. Just football. As for what I saw on my TV screen on Saturday … ugh. I had stayed home because of illness. It's just as well. Taylor Martinez looks like a smart kid who can play some quarterback, but not the type of player who can lead an NFL team to a Super Bowl victory. He looks like the type who if he plays in the pros is a career journeyman/backup or arena player. Granted, I would love for him to prove me wrong. I would love for him to turn out to be the next Joe Namath. I'm just not seeing it. There is pro football in Omaha. It's Arena Ball, the Omaha Beef. I've never seen them play, and I find myself living several states away anyway. And, The Beef? That's food. What a dumb name for a team. Are they going to play against the Hawaiian Pineapples? Well, I think you'll agree if it's football in Nebraska it just ain't the same if it ain't Big Red.

I've been feeling bummed about being transplanted away from Omaha, but there's a cool Husker club here in the Boise, ID area. Husker fans meet for games at the Hooters on Franklin Rd in Boise. Lots of team spirit. There are even team shirts printed up that say, "Idaho Huskers." I met some cool people. It will be all right until I can find my way back to Nebraska. I moved away because my job there sucked so bad, and in this economy you take what you can get. I was wishing the game against Idaho State were an away game so that I could go to it, but what can you do? All right, well that was the way to start a season or what!

Most of the country is getting Saturday's game on either ABC or ESPN2. In the west it's supposed to be on ABC, but no. It's local programming here. It's probably on the Big Ten Network which I don't have. I'll be watching it at Hooters on Franklin Road in Boise. Anyone else from the area checking out the game there? Man,I miss Omaha. I need some Husker stickers for my car. My Nebraska plates come off soon. It will be a sad day when plates go on that say "famous potatoes," which is positively the DUMBEST plate slogan in the country.

A playoff system is rough. In the NFL every team in the league except the Super Bowl champion ends their season either by failing to make the playoffs or by losing their last playoff game. That said, it more accurately determines the champion and makes for surprising upsets.

On another board I found these old games of John Dutton playing in the NFL. He played for the Baltimore Colts and later with the Dallas Cowboys. He came very close to getting a Super Bowl ring as a member of the '81 Cowboys. That team narrowly lost the NFC Championship to the 49ers. He did not play in that game due to injury. Such a close game may have turned out different if he had played. Here are the games. 1978 Colts vs Cowboys 1st Half (Dutton playing for the Colts) http://www.youtube.c...d&v=eS6MsQ0Kxng 1978 Colts vs Cowboys 2nd Half http://www.youtube.c...d&v=OVmvQRtX8g4 1982 Oilers vs Cowboys 1st Half (Dutton playing for the Cowboys) http://www.youtube.c...d&v=ybU22PPztqk 1982 Oilers vs Cowboys 2nd Half http://www.youtube.c...d&v=m1S6H7RXHhk

I'm living near Boise because I moved here from Omaha a couple months ago. I found out (here on this board) that Hooters in Boise (at 8000 W. Franklin Rd.) is where some Husker fans go to see the games with other fans. I'm curious if anyone on the board is a regular who goes there.

No, it's bigger than Lincoln, but smaller than Omaha. It has about 615,000 people. you should go to the boise state games in husker gear, and being surrounded by a bunch of mormons does suck, put a privacy warning on your door, *sorry if you are a mormon I will if they play the Huskers, but I don't think they do. I have been wearing my Husker gear around town and have gotten some surprised looks. It would be cool to meet other Nebraska fans to be able to watch the games with. In Omaha I always went to Hooters to enjoy the game with the crowd and to look at hot women.

No, it's bigger than Lincoln, but smaller than Omaha. It has about 615,000 people.

Okay, gonna talk to DirectTV about BTN. Thanks. And, btw, this is an all right part of the country. I don't mind living here. It's beautiful and people are friendly for the most part. People can't F'n drive here though. There's total reckless incompetence on the road. It's the wild west. Do they even have driver's ed here? 'Cause if I were a DE instructor, I would flunk half the people on the road. But this is a good move professionally, and it's temporary. I'll be back to Nebraska in a few years. The other weird thing. People here think Nebraska is a sucky place to live. More than one person has said, "I'd bet you're glad to be outa there." WTF?

So my choice was to stay in Omaha in a suck-ass job or move away and do way better financially. So I find myself in Boise, Idaho. It's not a bad place, but I miss Nebraska. I want to still be able to catch all the Husker games. I have DirectTV. I just signed up for the NFL Ticket, which will get me any NFL game I want, but it doesn't help me watch Husker football. Does anyone know if they have anything like the NCAA Ticket or the Big 10 Ticket? Or I guess I could just become a fan of the Boise State Broncos ... NOT!

I agree -- that and the inability to get into the endzone. If we do on any of those trips to the red zone, we win the game.

Interesting.

I'm new to the board and to Nebraska. I've lived in 4 states and two foreign countries before here. I've never paid much attention to college football, but have decided to check it out since I live here now where it's such a big deal. Although I haven't followed college football, I've been an avid NFL fan since 1971, my team being the Dallas Cowboys. I caught the last half of the VT game last night. In case you were wondering whether or not your perception of the officiating was colored by a pro-Husker bias, let me offer an objective opinion. That late hit call in the 4th quarter when the Huskers had them stopped was among one of the worst and most costly penalties that I've ever seen in football. I can't judge whether the subsequent unsportsmanlike conduct was a good call because I wasn't on the sidelines and couldn't hear what was being said or if the ref warned him. I do no that Coach Pelini had good cause to be upset. If all that happened was he got upset and let his feelings be known, there should have been no unsportsman penality. But as for that late hit call, I've never seen a worse call in my history of watching football. I've seen some that were equally bad, but none worse. In any event, maybe I'll check out Husker Football some more now that I live here.