My fellow Huskers, be not afraid of the season upon us.  Be relieved, and be assured that our future is bright.  The last few years have been hard.  We have sacrificed and suffered much under the tyrannical rule of our past leader.  We have sacrificed many records and streaks that will take decades to rebuild.  We have suffered defeat at the hands of those whom we have defeated many, many times over.  We have suffered that defeat in a most embarrassing manner.  I need not tell you that we have suffered and sacrificed much over the last few years.  I need not tell you this because you know it to be true.         

We were told that we would have to endure some pains caused by our philosophical change in our attack.  We accepted that.  We were told that in order to successfully make the transition to our new “air attack” we would need to bleed.  We accepted that.  For four long years we were told that we were improving in all areas.  We accepted that.  We are acceptant of change.  We are tolerant of mistakes made.  We have already proven this.  I need not tell you this because you know it to be true.

I am, however, here to embrace our past in order to succeed in the future.   I am here to reassure you that the longstanding traditions of old will be remembered and honored.  I am here to tell you that we are on the right track.  We are on the track to prosperity and success.  We are on the track to regain our honor on the field.  We are on the track to becoming the feared and respected opponent we once were.  We are on the track and not in danger of getting hit by a train.  We are on a train to becoming a great power that we once were.  We are on the train to success.  This train will need to be fed with the fuel that is hard work and respect for the game and others.  Parts on this train will need to be replaced from time to time, and this will cause us to slow our progress.  Let me assure you that our progress will be constant and improving.  Let me assure you that our progress will be slow at times but will never stop or go backward.

Bravely, my fellow Huskers, into the future we will fearlessly know that the light that is Husker football is being held by a trusted and competent steward by the name of Bo Pelini.  Bo knows the importance of our beloved program.  Bo knows the reasons we, as Nebraska fans, love our team so dearly.  Bo knows how important our traditions are to us.  Bo knows how to win and succeed.  Bo knows that it will take time, but the end result is inevitable.  Bo knows.  Let me assure you of that fact.  Bo knows.

I need not remind the most knowledgeable and respectful fans in college football that our next few years will be filled with joys and disappointments.  In our future there will be highs and lows.  I will tell you that there will be times where it may seem that we are not improving.  Let me assure you that those times will be followed closely by times of great improvement.  To get better, we will need to bleed.  We have bled much already, but it is inevitable that we will need to bleed to get better.

What doesn’t kill us will make us stronger.  We have weathered a storm that has peaked.  We have survived an earthquake of catastrophic proportions and we will have some aftershocks to deal with, but the worst seems to be over.  We have survived the F-5 tornado that was Bill Callahan, and now we need to rebuild like our good neighbors are doing in Greensville, Kansas.  We have survived to fight another day.

Go forth, my fellow Huskers, with a guarded optimism regarding our future in the college football world.  Go forth and know we will be secure and safe.  Our past is well documented and will be remembered and honored, but our future has yet to be written.  Our future is what is important, and we are in good hands.

Good night and God bless.

WARNING: Some images may be disturbing.

As a fan of Nebraska, I have not experienced many seasons that were over before December. This is the second one that I am old enough to remember. Usually, I would be doing research on whomever Nebraska would be playing in whatever bowl. So, I am trying to find ways to kill the time until 12/20. I was having a hard time filling the hours of the day until I found these hobbies.

Full-contact clarineting – This is not your father’s clarineting. You can play by yourself or with others. The object is to play a few bars of an agreed upon song. When the clarinet squawks, then the player is drop-kicked in the head. The first one to go unconscious loses. The “by your self” rules are the same except when the squawk happens, you need to run headlong into the wall.

 Polo is a sport because it takes stamina to stay on your horse. It also takes a ton of skill to guide your horse through a crowd without killing anyone, or more importantly hurting your horse. This is just plain lazy and pointless. I just want to go out there an push these guys over.

Here is a sport that is an off-shoot of robot fighting. The object is how to best get beat up while walking through a dicey neighborhood. Stephen was last year’s winner. He lasted all of 8 minutes before getting pummeled. He was pumping Charlie Daniels through his speaker while walking in front of a couple of crack houses. It was the hat that did him in. It was cold that day when a crack-head slit his Achilles tendon and swiped his hat. Because he sustained permanent injury, he is a lifetime judge for future events.

This one is called “Look What I Can ####!” Here, Summer has shown us that she can #### a bong. Don’t worry. This time she was careful that it wasn’t recently used when she gulped it down. She is kind of twitchy. She has a tendency to ingest large cylindrical objects like bongs on occasion just for fun. Trevor was handing her the bong to take a toke from when she took it down water and all. The surgeon who was trying to remove it got a contact high when she was opened up. He needed some Funyuns, Stat! 

“Thread Your Face With Small Snakes,” is surprisingly easy to play if you have veteran snakes on hand. This is a common game that has evolved through the ages. Originally, it was played with ferrets. Allergies, claws, and teeth became a problem. The problem was dealt with easily enough. After shaving, detoothing, and declawing the ferrets, the participants were much happier. The transition to snakes was made due to the fact that the ferrets organized and formed the Union for Face Threading Ferrets. It is now much more cost-effective to use snakes, because nobody cares about reptiles.

Here is a game called “Fast Driving, Sudden Stops.” Clairese has been disqualified due to her cosmetic surgery enhancement. 

“Don’t Tip the Loaves,” is a very popular game in third world countries. The object is to use all of the village’s food in a game of human jump-rope. Typically, the participants are stoned to death (bad stoned, not good stoned) when all of the food is dropped to the ground. Fred, Harry, and Larry are shown here wearing bras. It is not necessary to wear bras, but they were recently outed as transvestites. They were going to get stoned anyway, so they thought “What the heck! GAME ON!!”

Why do the people in the media sensationalize tragedies so much?  Why is it so hard to just report the news and be done with it?  Why does it have to drag out for weeks?

Omaha, my hometown, was thrust into the national news by a 19 year old kid.  This kid’s only reason for shooting and killing people was because he wanted to go out famous.

Five or ten years ago, this kid would have just killed himself and it would have been over.  In this day and age, being depressed is boring.  Everyone is depressed.  In this day and age, psychotic is the only way to be cool.

The media is not to blame for this kid’s problems, but they are to blame for his solution.  I believe that if our country’s “dirty laundry” was not aired, hashed over, and rehashed over and over, then this particular tragedy would have only cost one life instead of nine.

The media is a prostitute, and this kid is its latest pimp.

Well, well, well. Isn’t that interesting?  Ohio State and LSU playing for the national championship has to be a dream match-up for the fat-cats in the smoke-filled rooms.  It couldn’t have worked out better, right?  My hat is off to the fat-cats.  You really have to admire their resolve and unflappability in stressful situations.The people in the smoke-filled rooms must have been feeling somewhat nervous with the potential match-up between Missouri and West Virginia.  I don’t believe it would have been anything close to a ratings bonanza.  I would venture to guess it would have been a little tougher to get the millions of dollars, the fat-cats are used to, for the advertising spots because of the smaller followings of these two teams. 

I am a firm believer that what frightens these puppet-masters is the threat of losing money.  Therefore, they will support and guide events towards the most lucrative outcomes.  Ohio State and LSU will certainly have many, many people watching.  It will be a great game.  I will be watching.  But what does it prove?  It proves nothing.  It does not provide us, the fans, with a true champion.  It is because this will be a great game that there will be no change in the current bowl system. 

My problem with the way things are run in Division-1 football is why these guys, fat-cats, are so frightened of trying anything new.  Wouldn’t a playoff strengthen the ratings for some of the smaller market teams?  

If West Virginia had made it through a 3 rounds of playoffs, wouldn’t they create a bigger following?  Wouldn’t the ratings shoot through the roof?  If Hawaii was able to knock off a team like Oklahoma in the first week of a playoff, then wouldn’t it be safe to assume that the next week there would be even more people watching Hawaii’s game?  I am not looking forward to the Hawaii/Georgia match-up, but if Hawaii would have had to get through a few playoff games, then I would probably be very excited for the game. 

Through all the time-outs, through all the replays, the students of Arizona University showed a level of restraint that is uncommon amongst students at a football game.  It was as if there was an invisible barrier, a "force-field" if you will, around the field.  This "force-field" exhibited a calming effect on the otherwise rowdy student body. 

The students were a bit premature in the rushing of the field, but they made up for the mistake by waiting patiently right off the sidelines.  As many students as there were packed in the tiny space between the side-lines and the wall, I was shocked that no one encroached the field of play.  The students did a better job of avoiding a side-line penalty than most coaching staffs.

I would like to introduce a new award category in the college football repertoire.  The new category is "Best Performance By A Student Body." 

What happens to other colleges in the state when the premier school looks out of state for talent?  Just look at Nebraska for the answer. 

Over the last few years, the state of Nebraska has blossomed in the sport of football.  The Division 1 team, the Cornhuskers, may not have fared very well, but the rest of the state is doing just fine. 

Here is a list of the records of some of the other schools in the state.

Chadron State - Chadron, NE

2007 – 11-0 

2006 – 12-1

2005 – 4-6

2004 – 7-3

  University of Nebraska - Omaha, NE

2007 -- 10-0

2006 -- 8-3

2005 -- 8-3

2004 -- 8-3

 Nebraska Wesleyan – Lincoln, NE 

 2007 – 7-3

2006 – 7-3

2005 – 6-4

2004 – 5-5

Contrary to popular belief, there are football players in Nebraska.  California, Texas, and Florida have enough to justify the talent export of their states, but there are players in Nebraska if you look.  

http://www.cornnation.com/story/2006/12/13/22
3034/52

My case in point is a young kid by the name of Danny Woodhead.  This fantastic young man wanted nothing more than to play football at the college level.  Coming from North Platte, NE, of course he wanted to play for the Cornhuskers.  He ends up at Chadron State.  He also ends up with more than 7,555 yards rushing for his career.  Yes, that is a record.  That is the record for all divisions in the NCAA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Woodheada> 

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1200&u_
sid=10184578 

Over the bye-week that Nebraska is currently in, the Coaching staff is going to focus efforts in-state.  I wonder if this is Bill “as good as canned” Callahan’s idea or Tom Osborne’s?

Question:  What do you say about your quarterback after he throws for 510 yards and 7 touchdowns? 

A.  This kid is great and he played his heart out on Saturday.

B.  He has emerged as a team leader and proved it on Saturday.

C.  We couldn’t be happier with his outstanding performance.

D.  All of the above.

E.  The reason our quarterback did so well was because of the system I have set in place.  Anyone would have done as well because my system is the best.                                           
                

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1200&u_sid
=10183463  

 lhttp://www.theindependent.com/stories/11
132007/hus_huskcallahan13.shtm  

 http://journalstar.com/articles/2007/11/12/h
uskerextra/football/doc4738af2512ed3297191768.txt

 I have refrained from piling on the soon to be ex-head coach of Nebraska, but I guess I’m in a fightin’ mood.  After reading the articles above, I don’t think anyone would blame me.

I was one of his staunchest supporters for most of the year.  The 41-6 loss to Mizzou was enough for me to start to criticize, but I was not calling for his head.  I was calling for him to get the ship back on the right course.

Deplorable is the best word I can come up with to describe the behavior of this egomaniac that is the worst excuse of a coach I have ever seen.

 Let us put aside the “X’s” and O’s” for a minute.  I want to talk about Bill Callahan as a role model, as a father figure, as a nurturing head coach.  Maybe I am too touchy-feely, but part of the job of the head coach is to protect his kids.  A good head coach will take the bullets being fired from the media.  A good head coach will praise his players for outstanding performances.

Bill Callahan has a lot of growing up to do.  I pity the team he goes to after he gets $h!t-canned by a living legend.  Sorry about the language, but I am fired up and I want to make sure this comes across as true to my emotions as it can.  

The most anticipated game for the Big 12 North will be played 11/24 in Arrowhead Stadium against the Missouri Tigers and the Kansas Jayhawks.  If both teams can refrain from losing a game until then, then the ramifications of that game could be enormous. 

    Let us travel for a bit to the land of what ifs.  What if a 11-0 KU team beats a 10-1 Mizzou.  Does KU finally jump in front of the rest of the one-loss teams?  I say no.  What if KU pulls out a victory against Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game?  Will that be enough to catapult KU past any one-loss teams in front of the Jayhawks?  I would certainly hope so.  KU would have 2 top ten victories in as many weeks.  Do I think this will happen?  No.  I have my doubts that KU will make it past Oklahoma State much less Missouri and Oklahoma.   

What if Mizzou beats the Jayhawks and Oklahoma?  With one loss, will that be enough to propel the Tigers to the front of the one-loss line?  If the rankings stay as they are now, I would certainly hope that 2 wins against 2 top ten teams would count for something.  I would give more credit to this "what if" prediction because Missouri is playing well on both sides of the ball.  We know they have one of the best QBs in Chase Daniel, but they are now playing good defense to boot.

I think Oklahoma needs help in order to get to the National Championship Game.  They would only have one win over a top 10 team.  That would put them in the same boat as LSU, Oregon, Boston College, Arizona St, and West Virginia.  That is big pack of one-loss teams.  OU would stand out a bit because of the extra game for the Big 12 Championship.  LSU would not be playing a team as highly ranked as KU or Mizzou in the SEC Championship.  LSU should be rooting for Georgia right about now, but that is another blog for another person to write.

Who is the biggest fan of KU right now?  I would say Mizzou is pulling for the Jayhawks to win this week against Oklahoma State and Iowa State next week.  If Mizzou beats an undefeated KU and comes through on another shot at Oklahoma, then they have to be a lock for the National Championship Game.  Right?

Friends Forever (or at least until 11/24) 

 I have given my opinion on the current state of affairs in the Big 12 North.  For the record, I would like to say that the North has surpassed any expectations I had before the start of the season, but it does not seem to be deserving of two top ten teams.