[personal] [Husker] Texas A&M

[Steve Stone]

Skylar wrote:

>Here's the strangest thing and kinda sums up this season.
>Nevada is #10 in the country in total offense, yet we held them 185 total
>yards.  Wake Forest beat Fla St... WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED!
>Since Nebraska, Nevada has averaged 567.5 yards per game and just 
>under 38 points, yet we held them to 10.
>Something happened (IMO right after USC) where this team lost their way.


I watched the hair-raising Nevada-BoiseState game last night on ESPN 
and was astonished by the positive changes in the Nevada team which 
hardly resembled the one that played in Lincoln.

Then it occurred to me that a corresponding change, although for the 
worse, had happened to the Husker team. As a matter of fact, I'm not 
at all sure today's Husker team could beat today's Nevada team.

As I see it, the Huskers played Nevada and Wake Forest as scrimmages 
for the USC game in which they fully expected to achieve an upset 
victory. Those Huskers were confident in contending for the Big XII 
title and possibly going to a BSC bowl.

Then the Trojans knocked them silly - - didn't just beat them but 
made them a laughingstock in such a way as to knock their confidence 
and cocksureness right out of them. The Ball State game shows how 
badly they were shaken, but it also reinforced their doubts about 
themselves. Then the Missouri debacle took place in Columbia, hurting 
them even worse and leading them to catastrophe against Oklahoma 
State.

Sometime after getting drubbed, a team will bounce back with ferocity 
as Nevada did after playing Nebraska. Why? Because Nevada  e x p e c 
t e d   to lose, so they simply learned from the loss. Other teams 
suffer a degree of disintegration after a terrific defeat. Why? 
Because they  e x p e c t e d  to win and didn't. One example: in 
2001 the Huskers beat Oklahoma and appeared to be an unstoppable 
juggernaut. Then they went to Boulde expecting to stampede the Buffs 
over the cliff but were themselves stomped into oblivion. Though NU 
went on to play in the Big XII championship game and the national 
championship game, it was no longer the same team that had bashed #1 
Oklahoma only a few weeks previously. It had lost something 
important, namely, that supreme self-confidence that a championship 
team must have.

They say that an opponent should not beat you twice. But I believe 
USC beat the Huskers not only in Memorial Stadium but in all 
subsequent games, including Ball State and Iowa State. What ignominy 
these kids must be feeling right now can only be imagined by those of 
us on the outside, but it must be intense.

My position is this: until they put my cold dead body into a coffin, 
I'm a Husker fan. And maybe even after that.

Steve Stone