Nebraskatook the kind of beating Saturday that befalls ordinary football teams.
The Jayhawks of Kansas, ordinary fellows themselves, defeated the Huskers, 40-15.
KU fans were dancing-in-the-street happy. It was their first win over NU since 1968.
They should record it as a great win, in terms of history. They get a tip o’ the hat and honest congratulations from this corner.
In terms of victories deserving of the “glorious” classification, forget it.
The Jayhawks did not defeat the boogeyman – the perennial power that NU represented for decades. The Jayhawks beat another run-of-the-mill bunch of guys.
That is what was proven in Lawrence on Saturday. That is what the Husker Nation needs to understand.
Nebraskais an ordinary football team. Nothing more.
Against KU, Nebraska was an ordinary football team having a bad day; the kind that mediocrity is prone to.
This ignoble status was obvious from hapless beginning to pathetic end.
It was obvious when Nebraska gave up its first score, on the Jayhawks’ first possession. (A first-possession score by the opposition has become a habit, if not a tradition.) It was still obvious when Nebraska gave up its final score, on a fourth-quarter pass interception.
Various dictionaries define “ordinary” as:
not exceptional in any way, especially in quality or ability or size or degree. lacking special distinction, rank, or status; commonly encountered.
The heartbreaking thing, for those who most romanticize Nebraska football, is that the Huskers had a bad day even by the modest standards of run-of-the-mill teams.
Blown assignments. Bad tackling. Not enough juice in the battery to scare a deer in the headlights. The defense was inadequate. The offense was a rumor - that turned out to be untrue.
Whether NU eventually rises from its proletarian rank will apparently depend upon the wunderkind receivers recruited by second-year Coach Bill Callahan.
The ultra-faithful must now cling to the hope that some day – but not this year – Callahan’s pass-oriented offense will give Nebraska’s red a chance to once again be big.
Much is being made of Saturday’s loss because it was the first KU win over NU since 1968.
That is a mistake.
Of greater concern is that Nebraska looked worse this year against Kansas than it did last year when it played Kansas.
“The Nebraska defense overcame the Nebraska offense Saturday and led the Huskers to a 14-8 victory over inept Kansas.”
KU screwed up plenty of times in the 2004 tilt, but had a chance to win – right up to the last-second pass that was knocked down in the endzone by a Nebraska defender.
The latter recollection brings us back to the current status – ordinary – of Nebraska football.
Callahan says KU loss was disappointing. (File photo)
When victories and defeats have come by narrow margins, Callahan has always gone with a variation of a ‘We did a lot of good things, we need to keep improving, we’re headed in the right direction’ type of thing.
After Saturday’s loss to KU, he said:
"We just didn’t play well. Our pass protection wasn’t very good and our run defense got beat up. We gave up too many big plays. We weren’t getting [them] off the field enough and we weren’t staying on the field long enough."
That NU had not played well in some other games, this year and last, was painfully clear to anyone who wasn’t wearing big-red colored glasses.
That Callahan put it in such plain language on this day, minus much of the usual sugar n’ spice, is important.
Like everything else about the Kansas game, it should make Nebraska fans accept that this is not 1969. Or the 1970s, or 80s or 90s.
Those days are gone.
Those teams are gone.
Both are gone forever.
Whether better days are head …. we’ll see.
Maintain the spirit of championship fans? Sure.
Maintain the pride of championship fans? Great.
Maintain the expectations of champions of the moment? No. Not for awhile, at least.
For the moment, Nebraska fans can look to K-State next week, and Colorado thereafter, and hope for at least one win.
NU has seen a long list of “continuing records” end during Callahan’s brief tenure. Without a victory in one of those last two games, the Huskers will have begun a new one. Two consecutive years without a bowl appareance.
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Nebraska is now 5-4 overall and 2-4 in the Big 12. Kansas has the same record.
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Footnote among the footnotes: Nebraska made just 2 of 12 conversions on third downs Saturday. In 2004, NU converted 3-of-12.
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For all manner of stories from all manner of writers, for television reports, official NU material, stats, box scores and numbers that explain what the numbers mean, go toHuskerPedia.com
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Will NU have the patience to stick with Callahan's plan? Will anyone else?
