Tales from the Heart of Huskerland

Before the Fresno State game I wrote about how season openers are the most wonderful time of year because nothing has been ruined yet. As Nebraska marched toward 7-0, I think most of us proceeded with cautious optimism. Sure we were happy Nebraska was undefeated, but we all knew Illinois and Purdue weren't exactly going anywhere soon. Heck, even Oregon sucked. Now Nebraska is looking a lot more like the Nebraska teams we're used to. Nebraska has every excuse to lose this game. They have injuries galore, and as we saw in the Iowa game, they seem to have as much motivation as a dog going to wherever it is they go to get neutered. Probably the vet, I don't know. If Mike Riley can somehow pull this off it will be one heck of a coaching job. But even if they win, well then whatever. We go 10-3. I guess that's cool.  I say the same thing whenever I get some self-help book I'm never going to read as a gift.  I guess that's cool.  Today we watc

When I was younger, a road Black Friday game meant watching in our basement around a pot of homemade chili to watch the Huskers play Colorado. It's the game in where I learned my first swear word. In 2001, during perhaps the most infamous Black Friday game ever played, my dad kept yelling a word over and over again. My mom told me he was saying a bad word and to me it sounded a lot like "ship." So for quite some time whenever someone would say ship in school, I would gleefully sit up and wait for the teacher's wrath to come down like a hammer. The Black Friday game has changed quite a bit since then. We went from playing the Colorado Buffaloes to the Iowa Hawkeyes. Annnnnnd that's about it. I made the trip to Iowa on Black Friday two years ago. And yes, my eyes are closed but it was cold and I didn't want to take another picture.  This year I'm doing Black Friday a little bit differently. This is my first Thanksgiving and Black Friday game as a m

Today is Senior Day for the 2016 seniors. It’s also kind of a senior day for me as well as it will be my last Nebraska home game as a student. So today I’ve decided to look back over some of the best and worst games in the student section. Fun fact: Nebraska has gone 0-3 on Senior Day during my time as a student. 8/31/2013: Nebraska 37 Wyoming 34 This was my first game in the student section. It was a rough introduction to the student section as I watched in horror as Nebraska nearly squandered a 21-point lead. After the game, I told my roommate Tommy that I didn’t drink, but that I might start if I had to watch any more games like that. 9/14/2013: Nebraska 21 UCLA 41 This was the first time Memorial Stadium ever attempted a blackout. For one day the Sea of Red was meant to be the Black Sea. Well as it turned out only about 30% of the stadium wore black and it ended up looking like the stadium had contracted some sort of venereal disease. Because of that, and the fact

This last week I spent more time thinking about politics than I did football. It was horrible.  Minnesota has been a tough game to get excited for. Nebraska's chances to win the West plummeted last week, and frankly, they don't deserve to win the West. Not after last week. I guess that's why trophy games exist. It's something dumb and quirky to play for once championships are out the window. Today Nebraska and Minnesota are playing for one of the best new rivalry trophies in college football, the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy.  The $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy is one of the last legacies left behind by Faux Pelini. I love this trophy because it's so obnoxious. Unlike the corporate sponsored Heroes Trophy and Freedom Trophy, you know this trophy has a story behind it. That way in 20 years when your kids or grandkids are wondering why Nebraska's playing for a broken golden chair, you can tell them "Well, there was once this thing called Tw

Today I'm all in for NU. Northwestern University that is. I'm on my Man Throne with my Northwestern shirt on, I've got snacks lined up for the kickoff this morning, I've got my own Wildcat (Shayla the Cat) sitting next to me and all morning long I've been listening to "Ev'rybody Wants to be a Cat" from the Aristocats, which I presume doubles as the Northwestern fight song. There are some questions you may be asking me right now, such as"Jason, why are you all of the sudden a huge Northwestern Wildcats fan? And where did that shrine of Pat Fitzgerald made out of his own toenail and hair trimmings come from" Go CATS! These are all valid questions. If you remember my blog last week, I talked about how winning the Big Ten West may not be pretty. Well it turns out that Nebraska did indeed lose to Wisconsin. Now in order to win the West, Nebraska needs A) to win the rest of their games or B) to have Wisconsin lose at least one more game

I'm getting sick to my stomach waiting for this game tonight. My guts are tied in a knot and I gotta tell ya. It feels great. It feels like it's been a long time since I've felt this way about a game. The last time was probably 2 years ago when Nebraska was 8-1, ranked 16th in the College Football Playoff Poll and was heading into a Big Ten West showdown with Wisconsin in Camp Randall. That's the last time Nebraska truly played in a big game and we all remember how that turned out. Sure, we beat #7 Michigan State last year, but it was a pretty meaningless game. There wasn't anything on the line. Tonight there is everything on the line. The Big Ten West and an outside shot at the College Football Playoff are still a possibility. And the winner of this game will take control of the Big Ten West. Going into this season I knew Wisconsin would be our biggest threat to the West, because I knew Iowa would pull an Iowa. (Don't worry Iowa fans. Only 30 more yea

In the words of Taylor Martinez: "I like playing at road games." I like them so much I try to go to one every year. It's a continuation of a family tradition. We always tried to go to a road game annually. We went to the 1998 Orange Bowl, laughing and cackling as the Blackshirts abused Peyton Manning so bad that he still has trouble bringing it up in therapy. Of course, I was also 3 years old and asleep by the 3rd quarter. I was probably just laughing at the Orange Bowl mascot. It's gotta be annoying forever looking out of the side of your eyes like that.  Then there was the time we went to the 2002 BCS National Championship Game. We got whooped that time 37-14 by Miami. I don't really remember much about that game. I just remember getting nachos at halftime and the Miami fan who threw a flaming marshmallow at our car. Classic Miami. But Jason? Why are you bringing this up today? We have a home game against Purdue in a couple of hours!

It’s always fascinating how complete strangers can become best friends in mere minutes when surrounded by a common interest as strong as Nebraska football.  Growing up, my parents always had two season tickets.   Sitting in those same seats year after year helps you get to know these people. You don’t always know their name, but you always look forward to hanging out with them every fall. One such person was the Lady from Fairbury. She was always tickled by the fact that those red Fairbury hot dogs were the official hot dog of Nebraska football. Around 2008, our family season tickets moved to Section16c, Row 88 and we were placed next to the Lady from Fairbury and her husband. I can’t remember her name but she was around 55 years old with silver hair and had the strength of an ox. I know this because immediately after Alex Henery made his go-ahead 57-yard field goal against Colorado in 2008, she scooped up my 8 th grade and 165-pound body and hoisted me high in the air. *

This has been a pretty strange week for Nebraska football hasn't it? Well I'm not going to talk about national anthems, because I'm sick of it. I'm ready to get back to football. By now I've just learned to get behind Mike Riley. He's a pretty level-headed, smart and mature dude.Whatever he decides is probably right. I trusted him to make the right call when Keith Williams was arrested for pulling a Keith Williams. I also trusted him to make the right call about these national anthem protests. And he did. In off the field issues Mike Riley is undefeated. And isn't that what really matters? No, of course not! On Saturday we're set for a "revenge" game against Illinois. ILLINOIS. Losing to Illinois (And Purdue) is like losing to Glass Joe in Mike Tyson's Punch Out. That's not even supposed to be possible! If you don't get that reference kids, ask your Google. All things considered we're pretty lucky the universe didn&#

Before Nebraska plays Northwestern tonight let's rewind to November 2nd, 2013. Nebraska had just beaten the Wildcats on a Hail Mary. I was a freshman student then and all my friends wanted to go back to campus, but I just had to go meet up with my dad. I met up with him at the Railyard, drank a Coke and we talked about the miracle we had just witnessed and how it was going to set that 2013 team back on the right track to win the division and earn a trip to Indy. This probably seems peculiar. After a witnessing the first game-winning Hail Mary in Cornhuskers history, most students would probably want to go party, but I wanted to go talk about it with my dad. Growing up, it was the single most-discussed topic around the dinner table. For all of us. My dad, mom, brother and sister. My parents held 2 seasons tickets that we would split up each year, every road game we lined our basement bar with snacks out the wazoo and we attempted to attend a road game every year. That nigh

There's a thread a lot of people are running through this game. A program with a rich history of success and virtually no recent success vs. a team with a bunch of recent success and virtually no history. Old School vs. New School. On one side we have the Oregon Nike Models, a team that changes its uniforms so much that I'd be shocked if they came out in the same uniforms for the second half. On the other side we have the Nebraska Cornhuskers, a team that changed it's uniform once in 2002 and it resulted in the end of 4 decades of dominance. Those 2002 uniforms will not be pictured here as they are too obscene for children's eyes. Now we just stick to the classics. Except for that one game every year where we try to look "cool" with alternate uniforms and impress recruits, but just end up looking like rejected Marvel superheros. The only thing missing is a cape. I've actually got a lot of respect for Oregon. You've got to have respect for

I hate to do this. I really do, but I'm going to have to throw the flag. "Personal Foul on Nebraska. 15 yards for targeting our hearts." In my last blog I wrote about the magic of season openers and what we witnessed against Fresno State was truly special. In a night dedicated to the life of Sam Foltz, we all experienced something I've come to truly love about Nebraska football. Call it a sense of community, family or a sense of togetherness. It was on full display last week and it's definitely not the first time Husker Nation has come together like this. I bring it up today, a week later, because on the morning of September 11th I'm reminded of a Nebraska game against Rice played on September 20th, 2001. On that day, firefighters and service men marched with flags ahead of the Huskers through the Tunnel Walk. The stadium roared. I'm also reminded of a day in the April of 2013 in which a 7 year-old cancer patient rumbled 69-yards into the end-zo

Every year, the season opener is one of my favorite games of the season, no matter the opponent. Not so much the actual game, but the anticipation leading up to it. It's that beautiful time where nothing has been ruined yet. No Tanner Magnum Hail Marys have fallen out of the sky to crush all your dreams. Not yet anyway. Sure, we all like to be realistic. "Ah, they're going to win 7 games." The last 15 years have taught us to temper expectations, but deep down we all like to think that this may be the year where Nebraska finally breaks through, stuns the Ohio State Buckeyes or the Michigan Harbaughs in the B1G title and sneaks into the playoffs. It's at that moment that Mike Riley will reach behind his neck, pull a zipper down over his head, step out of his costume and reveal himself to be the second coming of Tom Osborne. (TO isn't dead yet, but you get the point.) He then looks down and sees his shadow, meaning 40 more years of Husker football prosper