Happy Halloween Husker fans, its finally here, Blackout weekend against the USC Trojans. A lot has happened since we beat Northwestern and this game is gut check time for Nebraska. First thing’s first, let’s take a moment and thank Troy Dannen and Julie Rhule for telling coach Rhule where they will be residing for the foreseeable future. In this era of college football, stability matters and the facts are that under Matt Rhule, we have seen this program trending in the right direction. Rome wasn’t built in a day and it’s better to get it right by re-building a program than just spending as much as we can for any 4 or 5 star we can get. Think of them as free agents that fill skill positions and focus on keeping Nebraska kids in Nebraska.
This game against the Trojans isn’t a measuring stick game, it’s probably the biggest test in the Matt Rhule era for Nebraska, who happen to have the youngest roster in the Big Ten. It’s huge because victory is very achievable but it will be extremely difficult. There’s a lot to overcome in this game mentally and from an execution standpoint so the Huskers will need to play lights out for 4 whole quarters plus overtime if needed. There’s no excuses in this one, either they can be the team we know they are capable of, or they hole up like we’ve seen in the past.
In the horse world, our number one rule is that if you get thrown from the horse, you get back up because it’s not a matter of if, but when it will happen. We’ve all been there, arm torn up and bleeding, bruised, groin pulled from hitting the saddle horn, sitting in the dirt and rocks with two choices; either sit there and bleed or reach up, grab the reins and saddle horn and place your foot into the stirrup, pulling back up into that saddle again. That’s when the work gets put in mentally, knowing your mistakes that lead to it and correcting them by squeezing the horse up and getting back to work. Getting thrown sucks and it’s in no way as cool as it looks in rodeo competitions, it’s embarrassing and very painful, but if you don’t put all that out of your head and get back to it, you’ll never do it again. Scars are cool and make a great story, but only if you had the guts to not quit. This Husker team needs to have good scars to show after this one. This game is a must win.
Last week was about finding our identity and we know that we are young, talented and make a lot of poor decisions and let ourselves get beat. But the positive is that if we flip the switch mentally, with our talent….think about that for a second. The all black uniforms do look cool and simple, which is who we have always been. We are not and should not be a flashy program that become the darlings of social media and espn, rather we should represent the state and its hard working farming culture of sun up to sun down. It’s honest and simple but tough to do day in and day out. This blog is short this week, but that’s because there isn’t much more to analyze other than the past mistakes, punches in the mouth, and mockery by the college football world need to end.
And wouldn’t it be something, if that’s exactly what happens Saturday. Go Big Red.
- Joel
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