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Husker Fans Must Adjust To A New Variety of Excitement
By ED HOWARD
November 13, 2006
The ultimate truth in the universe is “This too shall pass.”
Ask anyone who married Britney Spears.
Things change and it usually takes awhile to be sure if a change is for good, or ill – or even if it is permanent.
In the aftermath of Nebraska’s 28-27 win Saturday over Texas A&M, and its capture of the Big 12 North title, it can be announced that a central component of NU football has changed under the tutelage of Coach Bill Callahan. Permanently.
Nebraska, the football-worshiping state, needs to get comfy with the fact that Nebraska, the football team, is fundamentally different in a way that goes beyond Xs and Os and a complex pass-oriented offensive scheme.
The nitty-gritty or the bottom line or whatever you wish to call it, simply has to do with excitement.
There are several kinds of excitement when it comes to college football programs.
Hard-line, die-hard, old-school fans want a return to the excitement of the era of Devaney, and of Osborne. Call it “the old excitement.”
The old excitement meant a virtually guaranteed nine-win season, a bowl game and being at least rumored in the early season as having a national title shot.
The old NU excitement was sort of like watching Ali thump a bum-of-the-month fighter. Ali’s skills were fabulous, and sometimes the other guy would land a big one, but you knew the odds favored the champ. Those days are gone and they aren’t coming back.
The new excitement for Nebraska is more like a fight where giving away a few rounds via foolishness can get the lights turned out.
Nebraska has an exciting football team now. It might be headed to a nine-win season. The Huskers are going to a bowl game. The win over A&M brought the Huskers back into the national rankings, No. 22 in the Coaches Poll and No. 24 with the AP. There have been no thoughts of a national title for a good many years, but a string of nine-game winning seasons would take care of that.
Even if all those things come to pass – annual bowls and nine wins and title hopes – the most fundamental change will remain: The change in the kind of excitement Nebraskans will be able to depend on; and the kind that won’t be there.
In the halcyon days of Devaney and Doctor Tom, NU fans usually went to eight games knowing the Huskers would slap down victims posing as opponents. The emotional ups and downs would center mostly on ups. Those kinds of ups, however, are only a cut above watching replays of Nebraska beating hell out of Miami for the first time. The collective EKG of the Husker Nation would only blow fuses, regularly, during an annual Oklahoma game. Bowl games provided the other guarantee for the roiling of innards
No doubt Nebraska’s truest fans were excited about every game back in the day. But It was, as previously noted, a different kind of excitement. The new brand of thrills puts a different inflection on a person’s thoughts.
In the time of the sure-thing seasons, most games would have fans thinking:
“We’re winning. This is great.”
In 2006, fans thinking:
“We’re winning! This is greaaaaaat!”
Those are big differences. The first reflects the mindset of one who has received their weekly allowance from daddy. The second reflects the mindset of one who has just won enough at keno to pay the rent, turn on the heat and buy groceries.
Consider NU’s win over the Aggies. It brought with it the Big 12 North title and a shot at the league championship.
It also left behind tens of thousands of fans whose throats swallowed enough lumps to fill a flophouse mattress, and whose stomachs had rolled over more often than a politician begging for special interest money.
Against the Aggies, hopes were raised, time and again, then dashed. Then raised. Confidence soared, only to see spirits crash and burn. And rise again.
In the end, the very end, the Huskers found what passes for a miracle in the world of sports – or it found them – and the faithful rejoiced in a style remindful of Grandma Joad as she bellowed joyously from the pages of The Grapes of Wrath, “Puh-raaaise gawd! Vittory is ours!”
That is the essence of the change in NU football. Nebraskans can look forward to nail-biters and mindbenders virtually every week. Those wedded to the “old excitement” are stuck.
There is no going back to the days when you could love the Huskers and know that your heart would be broken not more than twice a year. Three times, tops. That particular brand of excitement is out of stock, and they ain’t gonna’ brew no more of it.
Except for watching a few early season pansies getting plucked, Husker fans are going to see a lot more fights and a lot fewer muggings. The task before them is to learn to enjoy the new reality. Instead of nine limousine rides with only a couple of potholes in the road, the season’s journey is gonna’ be bumper cars – pert’ near every week. Whooopie!
Fans should revel in it. If they aren’t up to that task, they should at least get used to the change. Stop wondering, aloud at least, “When’re we gonna’ know that we’re gonna’ win at least nine, fer sure, every year?”
That ship sailed, and it sank, carrying the last of the pigs that could fly
Episodic heartburn, ulcers, hoarseness, myocardial infarction and migraine will remain at current levels indefinitely. Much will hinge on late-in-the-game interceptions, the later-in-the-game roughing-the-passer penalties, and late-in-the-final minute, moon-raking, sky-walking touchdown receptions.
It’s a matter of choosing to see a bright side.
Some will retort: “That ain’t exciting, that’s scary!”
So be it. Being scared can be exciting.
This too shall pass. Someday. Maybe.
It’s just that some things pass like water through a sieve, and others like stones through a kidney.
Nebraska (8-3 overall, 5-2 Big 12) will close the regular season at Memorial Stadium against Colorado on November 24. Even those who acknowledge the undeniable reality of the new excitement would have to admit – it would put a glow on the holiday season if the Huskers put an old-fashioned thumpin’ on the Buffs. Colorado (2-9 overall, 2-6 Big 12) defeated Iowa State on Saturday, 33-16.
Husker Fans Must Adjust To A New Variety of Excitement
By ED HOWARD
November 13, 2006
The ultimate truth in the universe is “This too shall pass.”
Ask anyone who married Britney Spears.
Things change and it usually takes awhile to be sure if a change is for good, or ill – or even if it is permanent.
In the aftermath of Nebraska’s 28-27 win Saturday over Texas A&M, and its capture of the Big 12 North title, it can be announced that a central component of NU football has changed under the tutelage of Coach Bill Callahan. Permanently.
Nebraska, the football-worshiping state, needs to get comfy with the fact that Nebraska, the football team, is fundamentally different in a way that goes beyond Xs and Os and a complex pass-oriented offensive scheme.
The nitty-gritty or the bottom line or whatever you wish to call it, simply has to do with excitement.
There are several kinds of excitement when it comes to college football programs.
Hard-line, die-hard, old-school fans want a return to the excitement of the era of Devaney, and of Osborne. Call it “the old excitement.”
The old excitement meant a virtually guaranteed nine-win season, a bowl game and being at least rumored in the early season as having a national title shot.
The old NU excitement was sort of like watching Ali thump a bum-of-the-month fighter. Ali’s skills were fabulous, and sometimes the other guy would land a big one, but you knew the odds favored the champ. Those days are gone and they aren’t coming back.
The new excitement for Nebraska is more like a fight where giving away a few rounds via foolishness can get the lights turned out.
Nebraska has an exciting football team now. It might be headed to a nine-win season. The Huskers are going to a bowl game. The win over A&M brought the Huskers back into the national rankings, No. 22 in the Coaches Poll and No. 24 with the AP. There have been no thoughts of a national title for a good many years, but a string of nine-game winning seasons would take care of that.
Even if all those things come to pass – annual bowls and nine wins and title hopes – the most fundamental change will remain: The change in the kind of excitement Nebraskans will be able to depend on; and the kind that won’t be there.
In the halcyon days of Devaney and Doctor Tom, NU fans usually went to eight games knowing the Huskers would slap down victims posing as opponents. The emotional ups and downs would center mostly on ups. Those kinds of ups, however, are only a cut above watching replays of Nebraska beating hell out of Miami for the first time. The collective EKG of the Husker Nation would only blow fuses, regularly, during an annual Oklahoma game. Bowl games provided the other guarantee for the roiling of innards
No doubt Nebraska’s truest fans were excited about every game back in the day. But It was, as previously noted, a different kind of excitement. The new brand of thrills puts a different inflection on a person’s thoughts.
In the time of the sure-thing seasons, most games would have fans thinking:
“We’re winning. This is great.”
In 2006, fans thinking:
“We’re winning! This is greaaaaaat!”
Those are big differences. The first reflects the mindset of one who has received their weekly allowance from daddy. The second reflects the mindset of one who has just won enough at keno to pay the rent, turn on the heat and buy groceries.
Consider NU’s win over the Aggies. It brought with it the Big 12 North title and a shot at the league championship.
It also left behind tens of thousands of fans whose throats swallowed enough lumps to fill a flophouse mattress, and whose stomachs had rolled over more often than a politician begging for special interest money.
Against the Aggies, hopes were raised, time and again, then dashed. Then raised. Confidence soared, only to see spirits crash and burn. And rise again.
In the end, the very end, the Huskers found what passes for a miracle in the world of sports – or it found them – and the faithful rejoiced in a style remindful of Grandma Joad as she bellowed joyously from the pages of The Grapes of Wrath, “Puh-raaaise gawd! Vittory is ours!”
That is the essence of the change in NU football. Nebraskans can look forward to nail-biters and mindbenders virtually every week. Those wedded to the “old excitement” are stuck.
There is no going back to the days when you could love the Huskers and know that your heart would be broken not more than twice a year. Three times, tops. That particular brand of excitement is out of stock, and they ain’t gonna’ brew no more of it.
Except for watching a few early season pansies getting plucked, Husker fans are going to see a lot more fights and a lot fewer muggings. The task before them is to learn to enjoy the new reality. Instead of nine limousine rides with only a couple of potholes in the road, the season’s journey is gonna’ be bumper cars – pert’ near every week. Whooopie!
Fans should revel in it. If they aren’t up to that task, they should at least get used to the change. Stop wondering, aloud at least, “When’re we gonna’ know that we’re gonna’ win at least nine, fer sure, every year?”
That ship sailed, and it sank, carrying the last of the pigs that could fly
Episodic heartburn, ulcers, hoarseness, myocardial infarction and migraine will remain at current levels indefinitely. Much will hinge on late-in-the-game interceptions, the later-in-the-game roughing-the-passer penalties, and late-in-the-final minute, moon-raking, sky-walking touchdown receptions.
It’s a matter of choosing to see a bright side.
Some will retort: “That ain’t exciting, that’s scary!”
So be it. Being scared can be exciting.
This too shall pass. Someday. Maybe.
It’s just that some things pass like water through a sieve, and others like stones through a kidney.
Nebraska (8-3 overall, 5-2 Big 12) will close the regular season at Memorial Stadium against Colorado on November 24. Even those who acknowledge the undeniable reality of the new excitement would have to admit – it would put a glow on the holiday season if the Huskers put an old-fashioned thumpin’ on the Buffs. Colorado (2-9 overall, 2-6 Big 12) defeated Iowa State on Saturday, 33-16.
