Can you believe it's been 10 years and we still aren't one step closer to competing for championships than we were during that horrible 2007 season? 10 years ago today, on October 20th 2007, Nebraska had just fired the Athletic Director Who Shall Not Be Named after suffering through one of the most humiliating home losses in recent memory, being thrashed by Oklahoma State 45-14, a game in which Nebraska's offense failed to pick up a first down until the 3rd quarter. I remember the crowd sarcastically releasing their balloons after that first down much like they did last week against Ohio State. Now Nebraska was limping into a home game against the Texas A&M Aggies carrying a 4-3 record and a new athletic director with them. Sounds familiar, right?
Well it's not exactly the same, but it's pretty darn close.
Nebraska would go on to lose to Texas A&M much in the same fashion they did to Okie State, this time by a final score of 36-14, but what's odd about this game is that I have absolutely no memory of it.
And that's because I was not there, I did not watch it on TV, nor did I listen to it on the radio. I just flat-out missed the game because I was at a Boy Scout camp out. No, I'm not sure which idiot decided to schedule a camping trip during a Nebraska football weekend, but I suppose that doesn't really matter anymore. My "angry Nebraska fan" pitchfork is already bloodied enough. No need to track down whoever scheduled that trip 10 years ago.
It's a bizarre thought to me today that I could have ever missed a game. How can there be a game in which I can't recall a single memory from? It's incomprehensible. I feel like my collection of football memories, the good and the bad ones, is incomplete. It's like someone went into the database that is my brain, selected the 2007 Texas A&M game and deleted all the files.
I started to take an interest in Nebraska football during the 2003 season. Before this I always liked football, but found it difficult to sit through an entire game. Before 2003, all my memories of Nebraska football are just a collage of images and 2-3 second memories of dozens of different games. Kind of like a "Greatest Hits" album of memories. And up until 2002, Nebraska made nothing but hits.
For whatever reason, in 2003 I could now sit down and watch an entire game and be enraptured by it the whole time.
Then in 2004 things kind of fell off a cliff and Nebraska went 5-6. I'll admit my newfound love of Nebraska football quickly died. At least for a season. But hey, I was 10 years old. Most 10 year-olds are bandwagon fans anyway.
Even at 10 years old I didn't like Callahan and I really liked Solich. I can take solace knowing that 14 years later I was right about the Solich firing and the Callahan hiring. My still developing brain couldn't understand how you could fire a coach who had a down year, yes, but made all the necessary staff changes and those changes appeared to be working. And then why would you follow that up by hiring a guy who just went 4-12 and got fired from the Raiders?
Now that I'm older and have a fully functional brain I understand that adults often make decisions on raw emotion rather than rationality. This emotion is so raw and powerful, in fact, that we can convince ourselves these decisions are based on rationality.
Or in the case of the Athletic Director Who Shall Not Be Named, adults tend to put their egos ahead of what is actually best for everyone. Politics is a wonderful example of this.
I think the fallout from that 2003 season was my first lesson in adulthood.
In 2005, however, my fandom quickly returned to me and has never left. That's the power of raw emotion. Callahan was beginning to have success so I thought he may not be such a bad hire after all, blinding me to all the obvious cracks in the system. Perhaps my favorite game from this period was watching Nebraska beat Michigan in the 2005 Alamo Bowl 32-28 from a watch party hosted by a few of my parent's friends. Or maybe it was crowding around a tiny TV from the 70s at my grandparent's house out in the country watching Maruice Purify leap up and snag the game-winning touchdown with less than 20 seconds to go against Texas A&M in 2006, sealing Nebraska's trip to the Big 12 Championship Game.
The point of all this is, that after 2005 I can easily think back and draw upon memories of every single Nebraska game since. I even missed a wedding in 2011 so I could watch Nebraska get blown out by Michigan.
Every game from the past 12 years is easily accessible from my mind, except for that 2007 Texas A&M game.
Now since then I've certainly had to catch Nebraska games using unconventional methods. It's hard to imagine, but until 2011, not every Nebraska football game was on TV, much less your smartphone. I remember listening to a few games during 2008 and 2009 season on the radio, including the 2008 San Jose State game while my parents used their 2 season tickets to go. I made a frozen pizza and ran laps through my hallway as Ndamukong Suh intercepted a pass and took it 49 yards for a score.
I can hear the Baby Boomers yelling at me now. "Listening to Nebraska games on the radio isn't UNCONVENTIONAL! It's the best way to experience a game!"
Well in the 21st century, it's certainly unconventional. I quickly learned the play you visualize in your head after hearing it on the radio often looks nothing like what actually happened.
Then of course there was that 2010 Kansas State game which was played on a Thursday. As it happened, my high school team was also playing at the exact same time. My parents were out of town and I was staying at a teammate's house so we set the DVR for the game and prayed they wouldn't announce the score at our high school game. Fortunately they didn't and after the game I changed out of my uniform, ran up to the cafeteria to grab a slice of pizza and recoiled in horror because they had the Nebraska game on TV in the cafeteria. I literally covered my eyes, using a shirt as a shield, grabbed a slice and ran out to my car before I could see the score. Then I drove my friend and I to his house with the radio off and watched the game until 1 in the morning off his DVR as if it were live. I was jumping up and down screaming as Taylor Martinez burned the Wildcat defense 80 yards at a time while the rest of the neighborhood was already tucked in bed dreaming of Husker victory.
It's hard to imagine I've now made it 10 years without missing a single play of Nebraska football. In that time I haven't even missed a spring game and I've certainly never stopped watching a game early, no matter how ugly it got.
I've considered it a test of my fanhood. Since that horrible 2007 season, things haven't really gotten better. They did for a while under Bo Pelini, but in that time Nebraska never won anything significant. I've made it through perhaps the worst decade of Nebraska football since before Bob Devaney and I still haven't missed a play.
That's the power of raw emotion. Emotion kept my eyes glued on the Huskers even when every ounce of rationality in my brain was screaming at me to turn away, telling me this wasn't worth my time anymore.
Hopefully I've been tested enough. Hopefully my faith starts yielding rewards soon. No matter how bad it gets, though, I don't plan on missing another Nebraska game in my life if I can help it.
Well it's not exactly the same, but it's pretty darn close.
Nebraska would go on to lose to Texas A&M much in the same fashion they did to Okie State, this time by a final score of 36-14, but what's odd about this game is that I have absolutely no memory of it.
 |
| Yep, I have no memory of this play. |
And that's because I was not there, I did not watch it on TV, nor did I listen to it on the radio. I just flat-out missed the game because I was at a Boy Scout camp out. No, I'm not sure which idiot decided to schedule a camping trip during a Nebraska football weekend, but I suppose that doesn't really matter anymore. My "angry Nebraska fan" pitchfork is already bloodied enough. No need to track down whoever scheduled that trip 10 years ago.
It's a bizarre thought to me today that I could have ever missed a game. How can there be a game in which I can't recall a single memory from? It's incomprehensible. I feel like my collection of football memories, the good and the bad ones, is incomplete. It's like someone went into the database that is my brain, selected the 2007 Texas A&M game and deleted all the files.
I started to take an interest in Nebraska football during the 2003 season. Before this I always liked football, but found it difficult to sit through an entire game. Before 2003, all my memories of Nebraska football are just a collage of images and 2-3 second memories of dozens of different games. Kind of like a "Greatest Hits" album of memories. And up until 2002, Nebraska made nothing but hits.
For whatever reason, in 2003 I could now sit down and watch an entire game and be enraptured by it the whole time.
Then in 2004 things kind of fell off a cliff and Nebraska went 5-6. I'll admit my newfound love of Nebraska football quickly died. At least for a season. But hey, I was 10 years old. Most 10 year-olds are bandwagon fans anyway.
Even at 10 years old I didn't like Callahan and I really liked Solich. I can take solace knowing that 14 years later I was right about the Solich firing and the Callahan hiring. My still developing brain couldn't understand how you could fire a coach who had a down year, yes, but made all the necessary staff changes and those changes appeared to be working. And then why would you follow that up by hiring a guy who just went 4-12 and got fired from the Raiders?
Now that I'm older and have a fully functional brain I understand that adults often make decisions on raw emotion rather than rationality. This emotion is so raw and powerful, in fact, that we can convince ourselves these decisions are based on rationality.
Or in the case of the Athletic Director Who Shall Not Be Named, adults tend to put their egos ahead of what is actually best for everyone. Politics is a wonderful example of this.
I think the fallout from that 2003 season was my first lesson in adulthood.
In 2005, however, my fandom quickly returned to me and has never left. That's the power of raw emotion. Callahan was beginning to have success so I thought he may not be such a bad hire after all, blinding me to all the obvious cracks in the system. Perhaps my favorite game from this period was watching Nebraska beat Michigan in the 2005 Alamo Bowl 32-28 from a watch party hosted by a few of my parent's friends. Or maybe it was crowding around a tiny TV from the 70s at my grandparent's house out in the country watching Maruice Purify leap up and snag the game-winning touchdown with less than 20 seconds to go against Texas A&M in 2006, sealing Nebraska's trip to the Big 12 Championship Game.
The point of all this is, that after 2005 I can easily think back and draw upon memories of every single Nebraska game since. I even missed a wedding in 2011 so I could watch Nebraska get blown out by Michigan.
Every game from the past 12 years is easily accessible from my mind, except for that 2007 Texas A&M game.
Now since then I've certainly had to catch Nebraska games using unconventional methods. It's hard to imagine, but until 2011, not every Nebraska football game was on TV, much less your smartphone. I remember listening to a few games during 2008 and 2009 season on the radio, including the 2008 San Jose State game while my parents used their 2 season tickets to go. I made a frozen pizza and ran laps through my hallway as Ndamukong Suh intercepted a pass and took it 49 yards for a score.
I can hear the Baby Boomers yelling at me now. "Listening to Nebraska games on the radio isn't UNCONVENTIONAL! It's the best way to experience a game!"
Well in the 21st century, it's certainly unconventional. I quickly learned the play you visualize in your head after hearing it on the radio often looks nothing like what actually happened.
Then of course there was that 2010 Kansas State game which was played on a Thursday. As it happened, my high school team was also playing at the exact same time. My parents were out of town and I was staying at a teammate's house so we set the DVR for the game and prayed they wouldn't announce the score at our high school game. Fortunately they didn't and after the game I changed out of my uniform, ran up to the cafeteria to grab a slice of pizza and recoiled in horror because they had the Nebraska game on TV in the cafeteria. I literally covered my eyes, using a shirt as a shield, grabbed a slice and ran out to my car before I could see the score. Then I drove my friend and I to his house with the radio off and watched the game until 1 in the morning off his DVR as if it were live. I was jumping up and down screaming as Taylor Martinez burned the Wildcat defense 80 yards at a time while the rest of the neighborhood was already tucked in bed dreaming of Husker victory.
It's hard to imagine I've now made it 10 years without missing a single play of Nebraska football. In that time I haven't even missed a spring game and I've certainly never stopped watching a game early, no matter how ugly it got.
I've considered it a test of my fanhood. Since that horrible 2007 season, things haven't really gotten better. They did for a while under Bo Pelini, but in that time Nebraska never won anything significant. I've made it through perhaps the worst decade of Nebraska football since before Bob Devaney and I still haven't missed a play.
That's the power of raw emotion. Emotion kept my eyes glued on the Huskers even when every ounce of rationality in my brain was screaming at me to turn away, telling me this wasn't worth my time anymore.
Hopefully I've been tested enough. Hopefully my faith starts yielding rewards soon. No matter how bad it gets, though, I don't plan on missing another Nebraska game in my life if I can help it.
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