2 Average Guys

Black Friday is upon us and that means it’s the traditional Iowa game for the Cornhuskers.  This game hasn’t been friendly in any way to us seeing as the Hawkeyes have a 10-4 record since we joined the Big Ten conference and they hold a 9-1 record in the last ten meetings.  Most of those games have been rock fights that ended in one score losses and walk off field goals.  We’ve been taunted, trash talked, and embarrassed by Iowa and can’t seem to get out of our own way in that regard.  It reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns asks Grandpa Simpson if he can go five seconds without embarrassing himself.  One second later, Grandpa’s pants fall to the ground and he asks, “How long was that?”  That’s our reality as of late and if we judge this week based off of last week’s performance against Penn State, well, it doesn’t look too promising for Nebraska.  

It’s not for lack of talent because we are the more talented team in many ways and have been for years, yet we keep snatching defeat from the jaws of victory every stinking time.  Something has to give, right?  Not unless this team is so sick of the joke they have become in this game that they go to a place in their soul they’ve not shown us they can, a place so dark and disgusted from the mockery and year after year of coming up short, that they can’t take it any longer….and start throwing punches.  A place from where pre game hype and speeches no longer matter, in fact no words should be spoken.  It has to be growling from the pit of their souls and it comes out in their play on the field.  They have to do what we have yet to see them do, which is play a focused, disciplined game from start to finish where all their assignments have to be met with no more post game excuses.  They are more than capable of doing this.

Iowa is Iowa.  Their quarterback isn’t anything outstanding, but he is mobile and that tends to cause issues for Nebraska’s defense.  Special teams are talented on both sides between Jacory Barney for the Huskers and Iowa’s Kaden Wetjen who has been outstanding throughout his career.  Nebraska has an edge at running back, quarterback, receivers, and secondary, but Iowa has the strength and discipline where it matters the most….in the trenches.  That’s a tough one to overcome for this Husker team that is undersized on the defensive line and young on both sides of the ball.  Still, though, if Nebraska wins this game it shouldn’t surprise anyone, except maybe Iowa, who will do what they always do, wait for us to make the mistakes.

Losing this game will be hard to overcome and might set the program back a little bit heading into the bowl game and next season, but overcoming this obstacle that has ended so many seasons for us would be huge in terms of confidence and growth.  The Huskers just need to stick to the script that the coaches have in place and they will win, it’s as simple as that.  The team went off script mentally last week vs Penn State and could never recover and that can’t happen this Friday, in fact it can’t happen ever again if they want to get over this mental cancer that has plagued the team.  Jimmy Connors once said that tennis was 10% physical and 90% mental and that’s pretty accurate across all sports, you can have all the physical ability and toughness in the world but if you can’t be mentally tough, you’ll always lose.  Let this be the game where we step over that obstacle and never look back.  Take that god-awful trophy and never give it back.  In fact, come up with something better, like the golden ear of corn trophy that can be disconnected from the stalk so players can pretend to eat it or something along those lines.  Now that would be something worth fighting for and more meaningful and representative of both fan bases and programs.  Go Big Red!