Nebraska Unfazed By Bluffs In 30-3 Beating Of Colorado
By ED HOWARD
November 26, 2005
A big game gives a football team the chance to show everyone what it’s made of.
That’s what the Bluffs of Colorado did Friday en route to their 30-3 loss to Nebraska.
America now knows that CU has style, class and character befitting a pile of steaming buffalo chips. On a hot day. The same national recognition was earned by hundreds of delinquents the Bluffs call “fans.”
By way of welcoming their visitors from Nebraska, the Bluffs stood at the 50-yard-line and spewed X-rated, pre-game insults.
It was behavior that made a person feel good about not being related to them. It was behavior that made a person wonder if the Bluffs were born in the basement, and never got no fetchin’ up. It was behavior worthy of weaklings whose courage runs highest in a crowd.
This is not a rant on Boulder’s tradition of vulgarity. This is about what behavior can say about teams and their members. Such is, in fact, integral to any “game story.”
Did the Huskers have a good day? Yes. Did CU have a bad day? Yes. In each case the question is: Why?
The Bluffs did what self-aggrandizing louts often do when confronted with a fight they didn’t expect. Fold, lose and whine.
Coach Gary Barnett said he was “dumbfounded” by the way his overrated protégés got hit – and didn’t hit back.
Note to Barnett: Why’s that? Your boys showed up to show off. They were looking forward to a patsy. They foresaw an afternoon of mean-spirited epithets, finger-pointing, chest-thumping, taunting, and prancing around as if their jock straps were too tight. By the way, coach, based on their play, some of your boys probably didn’t need that particular bit of equipment.
Following the loss, Barnett got off one line truly worthy of a musical comedy.
"I tell you, right now I can't think about anything …. right now I've got a bunch of kids that are hurting emotionally. My mind's with them."
Emotional pain? On a team that exhibits the sensitivity of an outhouse rat?
The easily observed fact is that the world saw the sort of bilge – on the field and in the stands – that has become the hallmark of the Bluffs.
When Barnett’s boys got smacked a few times, chances are good that some of them hoped a barrage of bottles would unnerve the Huskers.
The Boulder boobs didn't even draw a much-deserved penalty from the refs as they continued to throw things onto the field. The officials apparently thought that civility in Colorado was as unattainable as civility in Colorado.
Kansas, a team that is not the joke it once was thought to be, beat Iowa State on Saturday.
That means Colorado will play Texas for the Big 12 title. If Texas loses to the Bluffs, they should give up the longhorn and forever be known as the prairie chickens.
The thing is, it doesn’t matter whether Colorado beats Texas. A win would make the Bluffs official champions of the Big 12. That situation would prove what is sometimes an unfortunate reality in sports. A champion doesn’t always deserve to be thought of as a winner.
Meanwhile, the NU victory was more than a “feel good” win for the Huskers, their coach and their fans.
For once, the Husker offense clicked consistently as it ran the west coast offense installed by second-year Coach Bill Callahan.
In the war to rebuild Nebraska football, Callahan has been a poor soul lost in No Man’s Land. He has been shelled from all sides, and none of it could be called friendly fire. If his Nebraska allies are a majority, they have been a mostly silent one.
Callahan was uncharacteristically emotional after the Husker win.
The tears in his eyes were as evident as the pride in his voice.
He addressed the situation with appropriate dignity. Praise for the players. Gratitude. A restatement of faith in the system and the players’ ability to make it work. Congratulations to a defense that, while in no way perfect, kicked a lot of butt when it counted this year.
There will be a bowl game for Nebraska. The win over CU raised the possibility of facing a tougher opponent in a better bowl game.
What if Nebraska loses the bowl game?
While any loss would be painful, the Husker Nation would head into winter with the warmth of a comforting reality. “Yeah, it’s too bad about that bowl game –but we still smacked Colorado!”
If Nebraska wins a bowl game?
Callahan will be in trouble.
Sometime, well before Spring practice, the question that was tossed to Devaney and Osborne and Solich early in their head-coaching days, will come looking for Callahan:
“So, how long do you think it will take to win a national championship?”
Finishing up:
It would be fun to have Christmas cards showing a photograph of Callahan and quarterback Zac Taylor, each with an arm around the other, wearing Santa Claus hats and waving. Copies could be sent to their harshest, most unreasonable critics. The inscription: “Merry Christmas & Kiss Our Passes!”
________
Q. Why do so many dumb people want to attend Colorado?
A. Because they have heard there is no class at CU.
________
You would have to hang around in a lot of rural coffee shops to find as many Husker-Colorado game stories as you will find at HuskerPedia.com You will also access every statistic imaginable, except for the official count of bottles that hit the turf in Boulder.
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