My major problem with most Husker fans is that they still think it is the mid to late 90s. They act like they are the best football team around, when in actuality the team hasn't been any more nationally relevant recently than most other teams. If you talk to a Michigan fan the past couple of years, they don't act like they are god's gift to football and that they are going to walk all over you and win the game simply because they are Michigan. They realize and understand where their team is right now and that they will have to actually play the game and it won't just be handed to them because of who they are.
Given recent history, there is no way that Nebraska fans should think that the game with Iowa will be anything other than a down in the trenches slug fest that won't be decided until the 4th quarter - but the attitude is, well we are Nebraska and you are Iowa so we are just better and you should just bow to our superiority and accept your place as our doormat. News flash - this isn't the 90s and it is that smug attitude that pisses us off.
I can sympathise with those Nebraska fans living in Iowa because I am sure that after all of the smugness and superiority coming from Nebraska during their amazing run in the 90s that things were a little rough - but to continue to think that just because you are Nebraska you are better than everyone else without proving it on the field doesn't help.
But..... Iowa Fan acts like THEY are the best team around, like they're going to kick Nebraska's butt just because (apparently) they're Iowa. Iowa Fan acts like they are God's Gift to Football - and they have nothing on which to base that. Nada.
What's worse is, they tend to come to Husker message boards and gripe when Husker Fans speak admiringly about the Huskers. Then they gripe when Iowa isn't bowed to. All the while (apparently) ignoring the kind of smack and nonsense that goes on at Iowa message boards about Nebraska.
It's a rough world, isn't it?
Agreed. I think that Caven is a good guy, but this is one of the major disconnects between Nebraska and Iowa. When Iowa fans boast, we don't care, but when we boast, Iowa fans consider us to be the cockiest, filthiest bunch of SOBs to walk on God's green earth.
Nebraska fans know that it is not the 90's anymore, but we look back fondly on that time. It was unreal, a great, great run. We deserved to be cocky and conceited back then, because, well, we were
IT. And this is where Iowa fan does not get it.....we want to be back there, we want to be that team, that program again, and we know what it feels like to be
THAT. To us, anything less is "substandard." Frankly, no other team has had the sort of run that Nebraska had during that time, so no other team can understand those expectations, whether they are warranted or not. Realistically we will never do that again, but like it or not, the bar is set much higher at Nebraska than it is most places.
But in the meantime, we wait. We wait through average but nice 9 and 10 win seasons. We wait and hope for something more. Will we see it, who knows, but we can hope and dream, right? Or is that only reserved for the Iowas and Missouris of the world?
Edit: I find it very hypocrital of Iowa fan that when Husker fans are optimistic about the next game or season, we are cocky, insufferable, and living in the 90's, but when any other team is optimistic, well, they are just optimistic. That is the epitome of an inferiority complex, Iowa fan.