Wow! Talk about a nail biter! Glad that one is over with and we have another one chalked up in the "W" column. Looked (at least to those of us watching at Jack's) like Kansas took advantage of a complacent team that thought they had the game sewed up in the first half and nearly got the upset. Thoughts of beating the point spread quickly turned into a seesaw of emotions...hold 'em, score again, hold 'em, OT, score and hold 'em one more time (this time it worked).
So much for a cake walk Northern Division title! Now we get ready for another big test against Iowa State. This one is in Ames and on ABC regional TV. Since we're on the left coast and our game is on at the same time as a Pac 10 game, you won't be able to watch without an ESPN cable/satellite sports package. SO...we'll be gathering once again at our favorite watch sites. All four of our sites have the various college game packages, and will be able to tune it in for us. Game time is at 5:00 p.m. (PDT) this Saturday, so get there early for some good pub grub and cheer on the Huskers. Since we didn't have a big group at Jack's last Saturday, and we apparently didn't have any beef eaters in the crowd, they probably won't have a Prime Rib for us this Saturday. See you there!
Great article below from a Colorado Buffalo...reminds us all why we like being Husker fans! There is another great article in the "News from the Homeland" section on efforts to save the old McCook WWII Army Air Corps base and its memories...worth a read, especially for those who remember those times. And I'm passing along some Husker humor at the end of the email. Enjoy!
Go Big Red (White and Blue),
Carl
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BIG RED REVIEW: HUSKERS BEAT JAYHAWKS IN OT...
Zac Taylor threw for 395 yards and four touchdowns, including three of 75 or more yards, in Nebraska's victory over Kansas.
Big Red Review is your source for a complete postgame recap of Nebraska's 39-32 overtime win over Kansas on Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. Huskers.com provides a complete game story, stats, notes, quotes and photos.
- Nebraska vs. Kansas Recap
- Nebraska vs. Kansas Final Game Statistics (HTML)
- Nebraska Head Coach Bill Callahan Postgame Quotes
- Nebraska Player Quotes
- Nebraska Postgame Notes
- Kansas Postgame Notes
- Kansas Head Coach Mark Mangino Postgame Quotes
- Kansas Player Quotes
- Audio Highlights from the Husker Sports Network
- Audio Clips of Nebraska Quotes
- Nebraska Season Statistics
- 2006 Season Photo Gallery
Lincoln - The No. 21 Nebraska football team sprinted to a 17-0 lead at the end of the first quarter and held off visiting Kansas by scoring the only overtime touchdown in a 39-32 victory at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln on Saturday night.
Playing in front of 85,069 fans in the NCAA-record 279th consecutive sellout at Memorial Stadium and a Fox Sports Net national television audience, senior quarterback Zac Taylor threw for 395 yards and four touchdowns, including three scoring passes of 75 or more yards to lead the Huskers to victory.
The Norman, Okla., native hit former junior college teammate Frantz Hardy on a 78-yard scoring strike in the first half and a 75-yard touchdown pass midway through the fourth quarter to go along with a 75-yard touchdown pass to Terrence Nunn in the game's opening minute to fuel his big passing numbers.
Hardy ended the game with a career-high 159 yards, the fourth-highest total in school history just ahead of the 152 yards he had in his first career game in the 2004 season-opening win over Maine. Hardy became the first player in Nebraska history to post a pair of 150-yard receiving games in his career.
Despite the huge passing totals and long scoring receptions, it was a one-yard touchdown run by sophomore I-back Cody Glenn on the third play of overtime that proved to be the game winner for the Huskers, who improved to 4-1 overall and 1-0 in the Big 12 with the victory. KU slipped to 3-2 with the loss in its Big 12 opener.
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HUSKERS PRACTICE ON GRASS TURF...
Center Kurt Mann is trying to build back his strength after a long layoff from practice.
Lincoln – The Nebraska football team continued to prepare for Saturday’s Big 12 road opener at Iowa State Wednesday with a two and one-half hour workout in half pads on the Ed and Joyanne Gass practice fields.
The practice marked the second consecutive day the Huskers utilized the grass practice fields, while this week is the first time the squad has worked out on grass turf since playing at USC on Sept. 16th. Before his daily media briefing, Head Coach Bill Callahan singled out Dr. Roch Gaussoin, UNL professor for Agronomy and Horticulture, for his help and advisement on how to treat the Huskers’ renovated grass practice fields, one of which is only a few months old.
“The fellow working with us from the Agronomy and Horticulture Department, Dr. Roch Gaussoin, has been a great advisor on how to help these fields get along,” Callahan said. “The east field was very good today, and (the west) field, the root system is getting much deeper. It stills tears up every now and then, but that is expected since it is so new.”
Callahan said the Huskers’ recent experience on the grass turf at USC should help them entering Big 12 Conference play.
“I think so,” Callahan said. “We played on grass well (last year) at Colorado. I thought our kids adapted well to the grass in Los Angeles. I wanted to make sure we got back out on the grass and adapted before we go to Ames this weekend.”
With senior center Kurt Mann returning to practice this week following an extended layoff due to illness, Callahan said the Husker coaching staff is currently working on building back Mann’s strength.
“He’s been working hard now for two days,” Callahan said. “We monitor his reps, and we make sure that he gets what he needs without wearing him out. We want to prevent any relapse. But he’s been working hard and he’s right in the mix again. He’s a little bit weak right now. He gets a little tired by the end of practice, and he admits that, so we’re just trying to build up his strength through repetitions.”
Callahan did say that he was surprised at the speed with which Mann has returned.
“Any time you miss game time and preparation time, it takes away from your ability to step right back and have the timing and execution that you had prior to the injury or illness. It’s taken some toll on him and it’s going to take some time to get back, but he’s adapted well. I was surprised to see him come back as fast as he has and practice with the length that he has. I’m really happy for him, and it’s good for us, too.”
Nebraska continues its game-week preparations with another afternoon practice on Thursday.
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HUSKERS DIG PAST KANSAS STATE...
Jordan Larson totaled 20 kills and 10 digs against Kansas State.
Lincoln – Jordan Larson totaled a career-high 20 kills, while Nebraska’s floor defense keyed the top-ranked Huskers to a 30-17, 30-22, 30-17 sweep of Kansas State Wednesday night at the NU Coliseum.
Larson posted her sixth consecutive double-double with 20 kills on .400 hitting and 10 digs, as she eclipsed her previous career high of 19 kills set at Minnesota in 2005. The sophomore from Hooper, Neb., needed 17 kills to reach 500 in her career, and reached the plateau with a kill to finish NU’s 30-22 game two win.
While Larson placed a solid offensive attack with five players totaling at least eight kills, the Huskers’ floor defense was the spark for the Huskers’ 11th sweep in 14 matches, holding KSU to season-low .061 hitting.
NU (14-0, 6-0 Big 12) totaled 72 digs, setting a Big 12 best for a three-game match this season and also matching its best three-match total of the rally scoring era. The Huskers out-dug Kansas State, 72-48, with five players reaching double figures in digs.
Dani Busboom led the defensive effort with 19 digs, while Larson, Sarah Pavan (13 kills and 10 digs) and Rachel Holloway (46 assists and 11 digs) all recorded double-doubles. In addition, Rachel Schwartz matched her career high in digs for the fourth straight match with 14 digs.
Larson, whose 20 kills nearly matched Kansas State’s entire team total of 26, was one of two Huskers to establish career bests in kills, as freshman Kori Cooper totaled eight kills and five blocks in the win.
“We were pretty good tonight,” Nebraska Coach John Cook said. “We moved the ball around and we hit some shots, and I think we kept them off balance. I think when you’re at home and you get in that third game, it gets hard for the (visiting team), it feels like you’re running uphill. When Pavan is getting digs like she was tonight, that fires up our team, more than her getting a kill.”
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NEBRASKA SOCCER HOSTS BAYLOR, TEXAS TECH IN BIG 12 ACTION...
Nebraska remains at home this weekend as it takes on Baylor and Texas Tech.
Nebraska looks to get back on the winning track this weekend as it hosts a pair of games against Baylor (5-6-1) and Texas Tech (5-7-0). The Huskers face the Bears at the Nebraska Soccer Field on Friday at 4 p.m., followed by a Noon kick off against the Red Raiders on Sunday.
NU welcomes the chance to place a few tallies back into the win column this weekend after going 0-1-1 with a 1-1 tie against Colorado and a 1-0 loss to Kansas last week. Nebraska certainly has every reason to be confident against both Baylor and Texas Tech as the Huskers own a 23-3-0 combined series record against the two programs. NU has fallen to Baylor just three times, while Texas Tech has yet to mount a win over the Huskers. Additionally, both Baylor and Texas Tech enter the game with losing records on the season. However, the Lady Bears are 2-2-0 in the Big 12 and enter the contest on a two-game winning streak.
Nebraska readies for this week's games following another hard-fought weekend of Big 12 competition. The Huskers played Colorado to NU's fifth overtime game of the season, which ended in a tie. Senior Brittany Timko put NU up 1-0 early in the second half with a goal off a rebounded Aysha Jamni shot, but the Buffs notched the equalizer not long after with a goal that bounced off the far post into the net. Neither team was able to tip the scale in its favor through two overtimes, ending in Nebraska's third tie of the year. With the extra 20 minutes of play, the Huskers have now put in almost 95 additional minutes outside of regulation this season.
Although Nebraska's game against Kansas on Sunday took 90 minutes to decide a winner, the outcome could have been determined in the first minute of play. The Jayhawks attacked the NU defense early, earning the first and only goal of the game at 1:01. Although the Huskers fought back, they weren't able to find the net, resulting in Nebraska's first shutout this season.
Nebraska's games against Baylor and Texas Tech this weekend mark two of four remaining home contests for the Huskers this season. Fans are encouraged to come out and experience Husker soccer action first hand and are reminded that entrance to the Nebraska Soccer Field is now strictly through the west gate beneath the skybridge of the Tom and Nancy Osborne Athletic Complex.
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COLORADO EDITORIAL...(thanks to several local fans for sending this along)...
Brent is the City Editor of the Steamboat Springs newspaper, "The Steamboat Pilot & Today".
The Steamboat Pilot September 10, 2006
Seeing redBy Brent Boyer
I emerged from the bowels of Memorial Stadium a lone Buffalo on the Great Plains.
In the weeks leading up to my trip, I had thought nothing of flaunting my Colorado Buffaloes gear in enemy territory, but my pre-game confidence quickly gave way to the realization that I was outnumbered — 85,181 to one. Me. Alone. And yes, even a little bit scared.
Of course, I would soon discover I had nothing to fear, and that upset me even more. It was as if the Big Red Nation wanted to prove it was better than me — us.
They did, and it wasn’t hard.
As I walked along the chain-link fence that separated the University of Nebraska players from the fans who idolize them, I felt a little like one of those poor Louisiana Tech players on the visitor’s sideline — outnumbered, undersized and pretty sure that at some point of the day I would be humiliated. (They were, by a score of 49-10. And so was I, but CU’s opening-game loss to Division I-AA Montana State wasn’t announced until most of the crowd had left the stadium.)
As a proud CU alum, there was nothing about the University of Nebraska that I could even pretend to like. The Cornhuskers are the Giants to my Dodgers, the Raiders to my Broncos.
But that was before my visit to Lincoln, Neb.
Don’t get me wrong — I never have been nor ever will be a Cornhuskers fan. But I just can’t conjure up the hate like I used to, and it’s because the University of Nebraska is what my beloved CU will never be: a college football paradise.
It was instantly apparent how much better of a college football atmosphere thrives in Lincoln than ever will in Boulder. It’s like comparing apples to oranges, or Champs Sport Bowls to Orange Bowls.
The student section was standing-room only 45 minutes before kick off; CU students often don’t file in to Folsom Field until the second quarter, if they bother to show up at all.
Nebraska’s marching band actually takes the time to learn each opponent’s fight song — and plays it before the game as a sign of respect. At Folsom Field, visiting players (and their fans) are greeted with hurled oranges, marshmallows and language that would make Andrew Dice Clay blush.
Pouring rain had zero — ZERO — effect on attendance at Memorial Stadium last weekend. In Boulder, a light drizzle provides many “fans” with an excuse to not go to the game.
Cornhuskers fans know every team cheer, chant and song. The best-known cheer at CU is an eight-word diddy that includes two f-bombs.
I had always joked that Nebraskans so love their football team because their geographic misfortune leaves them little else to do. And that still may be the case, but I have a new respect for the greatest fans in college football. And in case they should forget, there are signs over every stadium entrance (“Through these gates pass the Greatest Fans in college football) reminding them of their place in our football-crazed country.
I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. And if I’m lucky, I’ll get to see it again.
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TICKET EXCHANGE...
Nothing posted this week.
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NEWS FROM THE HOMELAND...
* Elk Avoids Capture Near Lincoln - Mountain Lion Killed In Scottsbluff
Wildlife 1, Bipeds 1. So far. The elk could still be shot down if he annoys too many people. http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews/display.v/ART
/2006/10/02/452174671aa6b
* Nebraska Beats KU In Big 12 Opener And - Raises A Lot Of Questions
Actually, you weren't looking at a different NU team Saturday. It was just different than all the rah-rahing and breathless analysis from fans and sports pundits - including this one. http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews/display.v/ART
/2006/10/02/45217daab8d8c
* Workers At Lincoln Plant Join National Strike Against Goodyear
Jobs. Benefits. Profits. The international economy. The future of the company and of its workers. Tough stuff. Hundreds are now without paychecks in Lincoln. http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews/display.v/ART
/2006/10/05/452566f941d93
* Remembering The Army Air Corps Of WWII In McCook
Technically, the name had been changed to the Army Air Forces, or something. To most who remember WWII, it was and always will be the Army Air Corps. http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews/display.v/ART
/2006/10/03/4522a6e91665a
* Drought, Irrigation Cited In Groundwater Declines Of Up To 50 Feet
An expert says such stuff could be viewed as "alarming." Well, let's hope so. http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews/display.v/ART
/2006/10/03/4522abe3164f8
* Cell Phones Outnumber Others - Raise Questions About Workplace Manners
Everyone whose cell phone rings in public with a stupid moog versions of "There is no place like Nuh-brass-kuh" should be tied to a chair and forced to watch reruns of Oklahoma's last-second Simms-to-Peacock catch-and-pitch victory over NU. Forever. http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews/display.v/ART
/2006/10/03/45229c77f20ce
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HUSKER HUMOR...
This one has made the rounds in different forms for many conferences, but recently showed up in my in- basket as a slam on the Big XII...take it with a grain of salt and enjoy the humor (but realize the orange uniform line is more truth than you think ;o)
(1) What does the average Texas A&M Aggie player get on his SATs?
Drool.
(2) What do you get when you put 32 Baylor cheerleaders in one room?
A full set of teeth.
(3) How do you get a Iowa State cheerleader into your dorm room?
Grease her hips and push.
(4) How do you get a University of Oklahoma graduate off your porch?
Pay him for the pizza.
(5) How do you know if a Nebraska football player has a girlfriend?
There is tobacco spit on both sides of his pickup.
(6) Why is the Colorado football team like a possum?
Because they play dead at home and get killed on the road.
(7) What are the longest three years of a University of Kansas football player's life?
His freshman year.
(8) How many Missouri freshmen does it take to change a light bulb?
None. That's a sophomore course.
(9) Where was O. J. headed in the white Bronco?
Manhattan, Kansas . He knew that the police would never look at KSU for a Heisman Trophy winner.
AND FINALLY
10) Why did Texas and Oklahoma State choose orange as their team color?
You can wear it to the game on Saturday, hunting on Sunday, and picking up trash along the highways the rest of the week.
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