Fwd: [Husker] Some Pre-Game Thoughts

[pibel]

One point that no one has stated seems only slightly obvious
to my mind. Last
Saturday in the Wake Forest game we saw the Huskers looking
ahead to USC. Even
with the 2006 success of the Demon Deacons they were not the
foremost thought on
the minds of players and coaches when preparing for or
playing that game. Combine
that with the road game element plus a decent WF squad and
you get a 20-17 win by
a team that doesn't look much better than their opponent. 
Saturday night we see whether or not that fixation pays off
with a win. To all the
smarmy LA Times types who are writing this one off as a
Trojan walkover, I can
only say be careful what you wish for if you play according
to past efforts and
run into a hostile Husker crew which refuses to lie down
before the USC juggernaut.

GO BIG RED!

Kerry Hookstra

Erick, Oklahoma(Soon to be from Downs, Kansas-two weeks from
today) 


----- Message Forwarded on Fri, 14 Sep 2007 08:22:57 -0600
-----
From: Steve Stone <sstone at pvtnetworks.net>
To: "husker-tssi.com" <husker at tssi.com>
Subject: [Husker] Some Pre-Game Thoughts
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 08:07:14 -0600

If I know anything about coaches, Bill Callahan has been
preparing  specifically for Saturday's game for, say, eleven
months and about  three weeks. How well such planning will
pay off is yet to be seen.

I have no idea whether last year's game plan was terrific or
pathetic, but I do think it was the only possibvle one under
the  circumstances: no possibility of beating the Trojans on
their home  turf, a still-developing Husker offense, and a
shallow and hastily  reorganized  defensive backfield. The
best that could be done was to  prevent disaster. In that
respect it worked.

The Huskers wound up on the wrong end of a 28-10 score, but
I did see  one rather surprising and encouraging facet as
the game drew to a  close: the Trojan offense took
possession of the ball near the red  zone but made only a
pro forma attempt to advance the ball. In a  post-game LA
Times interview, Trojan linemen admitted they they had  had
all the football they wanted that evening. They were
exhausted.  To me, that meant the Huskers had been outscored
but not outmanned in  the trenches.

In my view, this year's Huskers are a clear step ahead of
last  year's, and playing the game in Memorial Stadium
should make it a  little harder for the Trojans and a lot
easier for the Huskers. But  the Trojans' biggest challenge
may come from having played only one  game and having had
two weeks to prepare for Nebraska without seeing  any Husker
film worth watching: Bill Callahan revealed practically 
nothing in the Nevada and Wake Forest scrimmages.

Having seen my first USC game at Stanford in 1946 and having
attended  Muir College in Pasadena and UCLA, followed later
by a teaching stint  at USC (when it was known as O.J. Tech)
I've seen a lot of Trojan  football over the decades. Then
and now, when the Trojans think they  have the opponent on
the ropes, they become supermen, but when the  opponent
unexpectedly stands his ground and gives no quarter, they 
become suddenly human - - as last year's UCLA game proved.

That could be Nebraska's edge. I'm hanging my hopes on the
premise  that Bill Callahan has been operating with this in
mind.

Steve Stone
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