ISU the real Big Red???

[HuskerBob]

you can call me a commy for this, but i cant say i dont feel a little good for ole barney.

 

Keeler: Cotton: ISU 'is the real Big Red'

 

By SEAN KEELER

REGISTER STAFF WRITER

November 7, 2004

 

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Ames, Ia . - Oh, they knew. Sure, Barney Cotton tried to play it cool, keep it all businesslike, shrug it off as just another week, just another game. Just Nebraska.

 

Except Iowa State's players weren't buying it. Not to a man. Just Nebraska? Uh-huh. Right. Just your last job. Just the alma mater. Just the school that hired you as offensive coordinator, then ran you out on a rail. The man was a two-way lineman for the Cornhuskers some 26 years ago. He grew up in Omaha. Drives a red pickup truck.

Just Nebraska? You betcha. And Winston Churchill was just a dinner speaker. Ava Gardner was just a looker.

 

When Cotton, Iowa State's offensive coordinator stepped to the front of the Iowa State locker room Saturday night, after the Cyclones had lit up Nebraska for 466 total yards and a 34-27 win, a hundred ears perked up.

 

" This ," he bellowed, pointing proudly at his charges, "this . . . is the real Big Red!"

 

And Big Barney smiled.

 

"The roof almost went off the locker room," assistant coach Terry Allen recalled. "Awesome line. It was special."

 

So was the afternoon. This wasn't just a win. It was a moment. A happening. A convergence as freaky as it was cool. November game. September weather. December implications.

 

The Huskers passing to try to catch up to the Cyclones. Iowa State running to chew up the clock and grind Nebraska into submission. And at the end of the day, the Cyclones tied for first in the Big 12 North, Division I-A's unlikeliest division leader, still angling for a bowl berth.

 

Welcome to College Football 2004, the year Nostradamus took his crystal ball back to Best Buy and demanded a refund.

 

"We've been looking at the schedule all week and the Big 12 North is bunched up," Iowa State running back Stevie Hicks said of the division that has been kind enough to let the Cyclones roost atop it at 5-4, 3-3 in conference play. "We knew if we got this win, we'd be right there in the middle of it."

 

Bowl games are like babies: They're all beautiful.

 

Granted, some are prettier than others, as any Iowa State fan who's journeyed to seedy Shreveport and blustery Boise will attest.

 

But if you're the Cyclones, with freshmen or sophomores taking up 60 of your 85 scholarships, you don't turn up your nose when the Houston Bowl extends a handshake.

 

When the Champs Sports Bowl - not making this one up, they play it at Orlando on Dec. 21 - slips you her number, you don't rip up the napkin once you get home.

 

Not when you're coming off 2-10. When you went into the season already written off for dead by just about every wiseapple with a laptop and an expense account.

 

"People said we were underdogs, people said we had no business even being considered (for the postseason)," said Iowa State coach Dan McCarney, who beat the Huskers for just the second time in 10 tries. "We heard all that stuff and we read it. But the kids didn't flinch."

 

Next year, we said.

 

Next year is here. Next year is now, thanks to the combination of Bret Meyer-to-Todd Blythe, the dynamic duo that hooked up for 188 yards and a touchdown. Thanks to an offensive line that doesn't quit. And a defense that creates game-changing turnovers - Tim Dobbins' interception with 2:45 left in the fourth quarter killed a Nebraska rally - week after week.

 

Thanks to Stevie Hicks, who gets the ugly, necessary yards while still hanging on to the ball, and Jon Davis, who seems to only make the catch when he hears footsteps approaching.

 

Thanks to Bret "Shaggy" Culbertson, the kid who's earned his Scooby Snacks after two more successful field goals from 28 and 37 yards out.

 

Thanks to Cotton, whose offense had rolled up 439 yards and 34 points through three quarters against a Nebraska defense that came into Saturday second in the Big 12 in rush defense (93.25 yards allowed) and fourth in pass-efficiency defense (105.77 points). He was the most vindicated soul on the first floor of the Jacobson Building Saturday night.

 

Last November, when Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson staged a coup of Frank Solich's Big Red regime, Cotton was a casualty of the revolution. Fellow assistants Tim Albin and Jeff Jamrog were with Barney at his home when Solich called them with the news.

 

"It's over," he said.

 

That night couldn't have been far from Cotton's mind Saturday, as he bounced among a dozen well-wishers, family members and fellow coaches.

 

"I'm sure he could have taken shots at Nebraska here or there," quarterbacks coach Todd Fitch said. "But he was classy about it. He didn't say 'boo' all week. "

 

Nor did he Saturday. When asked by sports information director Tom Kroeschell to appear in the postgame interview room, at the request of several reporters, he politely declined.

 

As Kroeschell left the locker room and headed upstairs to the news conference, Cotton shouted a last request.

 

"Tell 'em," he said, "that I'm a Cyclone."

 

Just a Cyclone. Just a winner

 

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll...364/1003/SPORTS

[SeaOfRed]

Sorry, I just threw up in my mouth...

[DJR313]

Huskerbob, you're a commy.

[DaveH]

Sorry, I just threw up in my mouth...

LOL

 

That's funny poopy right there.

[Eric the Red]

Hey at the very least we could feel good for a fellow Husker. Even after he got canned last year he was very appreciative of the opportunity to have "one more year at home." He could have slammed NU, but didn't. He's a Husker and always will be. He is one of the lucky few to play and coach at this glorious University.

 

Very good article on Air Cotton

 

Last November, when Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson staged a coup of Frank Solich's Big Red regime, Cotton was a casualty of the revolution. Fellow assistants Tim Albin and Jeff Jamrog were with Barney at his home when Solich called them with the news.

 

"It's over," he said.

 

That night couldn't have been far from Cotton's mind Saturday, as he bounced among a dozen well-wishers, family members and fellow coaches.

 

"I'm sure he could have taken shots at Nebraska here or there," quarterbacks coach Todd Fitch said. "But he was classy about it. He didn't say 'boo' all week. "

 

Nor did he Saturday. When asked by sports information director Tom Kroeschell to appear in the postgame interview room, at the request of several reporters, he politely declined.

 

As Kroeschell left the locker room and headed upstairs to the news conference, Cotton shouted a last request.

 

"Tell 'em," he said, "that I'm a Cyclone."

 

Just a Cyclone. Just a winner.

[DJR313]

Barney Cotton is a class act and a good coach that really had no shot at Nebraska, but annointing ISU the real "Big Red" is a bit much. If they beat the Huskers in Lincoln, how about 4 of the next 5 times, then ISU can talk.

[Eric the Red]

Barney Cotton is a class act and a good coach that really had no shot at Nebraska, but annointing ISU the real "Big Red" is a bit much. If they beat the Huskers in Lincoln, how about 4 of the next 5 times, then ISU can talk.

Well written, agree