Tales from the Heart of Huskerland

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...