2 Average Guys

In his song, Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes, Jimmy Buffett talks about how he took off for a weekend just to try and recall the whole year.  Well call me crazy but this bye week has been just that for all of us living in Husker Nation seeing how it’s been a relatively quiet one in Lincoln for a change.  We’re sitting at 7 wins, a bowl game, and even though Dylan Raiola is out for the season to injury, there’s something calming and comfortable about where the Cornhuskers are at.  Last week against UCLA, they established an identity and stuck with it. It certainly wasn’t an overpowering identity, but for the first time in years, we could all relax and watch Nebraska not deviate from their game plan and see it pan out.  So how are we supposed to feel heading into the last two games of the season, which we will most likely be underdogs for?

Penn State has been rocked this year with the firing of Franklin and Iowa is Iowa, same script and same consistent team that finds a way come November.  TJ Lateef is our starter under center, assuming he stays healthy and that brings a lot of optimism to Husker Nation, knowing that he can use his feet and not spend forever in the pocket.  Let’s hope he continues to be an effective leader these past few games.  Coach Rhule really seems to have settled in during his pressers these past couple of weeks and speaks of just playing our game regardless of what happens.  Maybe we have turned the corner and finally established an identity on offense that works, not only for the Big Ten, but for Husker fans as well.

Emmett Johnson has started to get noticed by Heisman voters and has a realistic shot at being the Nation’s leading rusher when it’s all said and done. The offensive line has handled themselves well the past two games, and the defense overall is still decent despite their struggles stopping the run.  Could it be that things are starting to come together and break us out of this 20 year funk that we’ve been accustomed to?  Anything worth doing takes time and it seems like the patient approach of building for many years to come and not for the immediate future will be exactly what it takes to once again, hold our heads high, sleep more soundly, and cut down on the booze.  As a fan base, we are exhausted and having some sense of normalcy in the midst of this chaos is a welcome positive from the catastrophic disasters of the past decade of Husker football.  Hell, maybe we’re just crazy.

The joke is always Nebraska 1 Bye Week 0 and it really feels like there’s some truth to it this time.  Even in the late 90s and early 2000s we didn’t come out of bye weeks well so maybe this one will be different.  Things have been relatively quiet for a change, knowing where we stand in the grand scheme of things.  That’s who we are as a fan base, though, because of the culture in Nebraska; Slow and steady uphill farm work, winning games in the fourth quarter by wearing teams down, and the more quiet, workmanlike approach to things has always been what Nebraska and its greatest resource, its football team, stands for.  I’m not one for hype videos and constant social media presence by the team, because that doesn’t win games.  All that talk, even if it’s trying to be positive, becomes a distraction and bulletin board material for other teams, ultimately making us look like a joke when the scoreboard shows us losing another heartbreaker.  

Let’s stay on this tropical high for as long as we can, knowing that it will all work out in the end, because better days are a comin’ and we can bask in the warm sunshine soon to be replaced by the frigid prairie wind that blows so freely across the Nebraska landscape, because even that is bound to play in our favor again.  Like I said, maybe we’re just crazy, but according to Jimmy Buffett….

“If we weren’t all crazy we’d all go insane.”