Have You Peaked As A Husker Fan?
16 comments so far
July 8, 2008 by
In the current issue of ESPN The Magazine, columnist Bill Simmons—the loved and loathed “Boston SportsGuy”—asks the question of whether or not he’s peaked as a sports fan. In case you missed it, Boston has a won a lot of things of late and the city’s tortured sports past, nee identity, is gone. Seems like a good time to be asking just such a question if you’re a Boston sports fan. (And the answer is yes.)
But here at the dawning of the age of Boquarius—hey, it’s no worse than “Bofense”—it seems like a good time to ask ourselves the same question: Have you peaked as a Nebraska football fan?
It’s a question that’s starting to be asked quite a bit, in one form or another, as we build up towards the start of fall camp. Every time a national sportswriter appears on a local radio show he is almost always asked a question like this: “Can Nebraska return to what they once were?” The answer is generally, with a few qualifiers, no and that’s not because they don’t have the resources, talent or right man for the job. Rather, it’s a reflection of what many perceive to be the shifting landscape of college football.
Simply put, you can’t win now like the Huskers won then and that’s not a slight against the current regime, it’s a tribute to how dominant this program was for the latter-quarter of the 20th century. Everyone here knows these stats but, just to make the point, we'll trot them out again. Between 1975 and 1999 Nebraska won almost 84 percent of their games. No other school topped 80 percent. Between 1993-1997, Osborne’s championship runs, the team went 60-3. Look at any four-year period since then and no team has lost fewer than six games. It’s a different era and therefore, if you were alive and rooting through the mid-90’s, it stands to reason that yes, we probably have peaked as Nebraska fans. In the truest sense of the question--will the future be as good as or better than the past?—it doesn’t seem very likely that any team will be able to compete with what Osborne was able to accomplish during that era. So technically, unless you came of age at the same time the Internet did, you have peaked as a Cornhuskers fan.
But personally, and this is inherently a personal question, I disagree. I don’t feel like I’ve peaked as a Nebraska fan and the reason might be that Nebraska was simply too good when I was growing up. I took it for granted.
Three out of the four years I was in high school Nebraska won a national title. I’ve written this before but it still amazes me so I’ll do it again: I was out of high school before I’d ever seen the Huskers lose to Kansas State, I had a BA degree before I’d witnessed a loss at the hands of Missouri and a post-grad degree before watching a Nebraska team fall to Kansas. I’m ashamed to admit it now but winning college football games seemed like my birthright, a preseason top five rating was a good starting point and, with typical teenage indifference, I treated it as such.
Oh to have those years back. (At least as a Nebraska fan, you can keep the rest of it.) Since then we've seen...well...what we've seen. Nebraska's fall from the top, among others, is used as proof that college football is becoming a democracy. Fewer scholarships plus bigger conferences and more games equal a two-loss national champion and Appalachian State beating Michigan.
In reality it's not that simple but it does make everything easier to swallow and it's also the reason why I feel like there's more left to achieve as a Nebraska fan. Good needs evil to exist, highs are just the opposite of lows and when Osborne won his first Sears trophy it felt like more of a relief than pure jubilation to me, finally fulfilling expectations rather than truly triumphing.
That won't be the case with Nebraska's next one. Now we've been down. The past becomes less satisfying and further away every day but that's why I haven't peaked as a Cornhusker fan. I'd rather have something to prove than something to uphold and, now, after going so low in 2007, I think Nebraska football is in that mindset.
So, while I can admit that Nebraska will never be as good as they were for the first 25 years of my life, that doesn't bother me. In fact, it excites me but that's the type of guy I am.
What about you? Have you hit your peak?
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carlinthemarlin Jul 08 08
I was a lanky, bookish child with little athletic ambition, and while I enjoyed football, I never followed it that closely. I remember thinking, in 98 when everyone was complaining about how Solich couldn't win a title and was undeserving and blah, blah, blah, "what's the big deal? It's just a National Championship."
I didn't pay close enough attention to realize just how impressive that run was, and I had grown to think of National Championships as no big deal because, hey, it seems like we won em or at least played for em every year. I know better now.
So yeah, I'm with you. I was too young and uninterested to enjoy the peak of the mid 90's as I should have, and so the next time we ascend to the pinnacle of college football, I'm going to enjoy it much more.
mjm Jul 08 08
I have to agree, iwas to young to fully enjoy the 90s. But I don't think ,we will ever have that much success again (3 Nat Championships in 4 years). Then again, nobody else will either.
Tom Jul 08 08
I believe that national dominance by one team can and will happen again. I hope it will be the Huskers, but only time will tell. I really think that with a little more focus USC could have done it recently.
FANatic: noun. "A person marked or motivated by an extreme, unreasoning enthusiasm, as for a cause." I don't think you can peak as a true fan. Unless you give up being a fan altogether. A fan should always look to the future, hope for more, desire the best.
Mike Jul 08 08
I was in the newspaper business during that magical period, and I wrote a column prior to the start of the 1997 season about how we, as Husker fans, had become SO jaded with our success that winning was not enough anymore. If we won by 30, we should have won by 40. If we scored 50, we should have had 70. I said, back then, that we needed some pre-Devaney years of futility to make us realize just how good we had it at that time.
As the slide was starting during the Solich years, I pointed to Oklahoma as a prime example of how good we had it. In 1997, I was in the pressbox watching Osborne win his 250th with a 69-7 whooping of the Sooners, and it amazed me just how far Oklahoma had fallen. Three years later, they were national champs and I'm sure if you talked to any Oklahoma fan at that time, they would tell you how appreciative they were of being someplace they had become complacent with being during their glory days.
We can have that again, and I think we will at some point with Bo Pelini. It's not going to happen this year or next, but if all goes right Nebraska can be a national champion again, which I would think would FINALLY get some to realize just how good we had it back then and maybe be a little slower to judgement in the future when we aren't in the title hunt.
Sports is all about cycles. We've been in a down cycle the last few years, and hopefully this is the start of us being back on the up side (although you can guarantee that the up isn't going to be another 40-year run like the last one was).
jason Jul 08 08
"The age of Boquarius..." Instant Classic!
FYI, the Big Red Board is also discussing this topic over here.
TommyG Jul 08 08
I went to my first Husker game in 1972, and for the next couple of years it felt like we peaked then, too. There are a lot of Saturdays in the 70s and 80s that Husker fans thought it may never happen again... But nearly three decades of 9 win seasons, 5 trophies and a few near misses probably created some unrealistic expectations. Will we again be the Scoring Explosion or the great rushing offenses led by Frazier or Crouch -- hell no. Will we win another MNC - yer damn right we will. Lets just be good fans and cheer for the boys on the field 'til it happens. Supporting our team and congratulating the visitors, regardless of the score, thats NU football. The trophies are admirable, but ultimately are a less important part of our great tradition.
DT Jul 08 08
Mike, I'd love to read that column...any chance of digging it up and submitting it to the guys here as some sort of guest entry? That would sure take me back. Right there you really pegged the attitude of most Husker fans, circa mid-90's. I just count myself as fortunate to have had reason to become so spoiled and jaded. Most fans of most teams cannot say the same.
Jason, thanks for the link to the discussion on the BRB. I've sort of been off that site for quite a while now and I've kind of knocked those guys in the past for the overall groupthink that permeates that site in particular...but it's interesting to see some of the perspectives shared there. I'm sure they have their reasons, but it's disheartening to see that some are so willing to throw in the towel on dear old NU. What comes around goes around, I guess. Spending 4 years coming down exclusively on one side of past events (events clearly beyond one's own control) and exerting an unforeseen amount of vitriolic energy in the process will do that to a person, I suppose. But all the same, it's good to see just as many BRB members willing to step up and speak to their passion for the Huskers as never being able to be extinguished.
As is the case with most of us who go online to share info and insight on the Huskers here in the middle of July, I don't really think that "peaked" is the right term here. Speaking for myself, "plateaued" is probably a better word choice there. It was continually on the rise from my earliest days after moving to Nebraska as a toddler and it spiked a bit more about the time I enrolled at UNL as a student. I attended UNL from the fall of '91 to the spring of '95...so I was one of the fortunate few to be in Lincoln as a student during the salad days of which we speak. I personally witnessed NU lose twice during my time as a UNL student...to eventual national champ Washington in the fall of my freshman year and (inexplicably) on a road trip to Ames in the fall of my sophomore year. I don't even know how many times I was in the stands to watch an (usually ugly) Husker win...30-40 times would be my guess...but it was a lot, that much is certain. After I graduated, I had a decent job in Lincoln and since the prospects for the fall of 1995 pretty much called for more unprecedented NU success, I decided to put off my childhood dream of moving to the east coast and trying to find my lot in the tv biz for one more year...a decision I've never regretted. The following summer I made the move and was lucky enough to get an entry-level position at the worldwide leader (although I cringe making this known on any blog!) By the fall of '97, I had landed on the college football unit for the remote production department. I cut the highlight for the game that Mike mentioned (as well as every other Husker highlight that aired on ESPN that year)...TO's 250's win in a shellacking of OU.
But I told you that long story to tell you this one:
I worked two more seasons on college football before leaving the WWL in the summer of 2000. When I left, people would ask why...I'd tell them how in 5 years time, I'd be able to edit whatever I wanted on my own computer and post it for all the world to see on the internet. I would no longer be beholden to ESPN and their parameters to produce sports video...which, at that point, greatly appealed to me. Well, I was mostly right--as about 6 years to the day of leaving ESPN, I posted the first three installments of my "Project Husker" series to youtube (check the link on my post name if you're unfamiliar). I cherished having this newfound outlet to express my Husker "fandom" and several thousands of Husker fans seem to have gotten a kick out of my expressions. Fast forward two more years to the present. I've been trying to muster the motivation necessary to embark on a continuation of this series (with little success). I've imported all of the video I have on hand to my computer...and I have some pretty good stuff. But I just can seem to find the "passion" necessary to sit down and undergo the grueling process of sorting through it all and editing 10-15 minutes worth of it together. This is mainly due to the fact that I almost can't stomach the thought of looking at the atrocity that was last year's NU football season! Don't get me wrong, I've got some creative ideas...but I'd rather just forget about it. So I continue to find yet more reasons to procrastinate what I'd ordinarily have completed weeks/months ago. "Gotta weed the garden"..."It's a beautiful night for a bike ride"..."Company's coming this weekend, better do what I can to help get ready"...the list goes on and on.
So what does all that mean in the greater scope of whether or not my days as an NU fan have seen their peak? I don't know, but it has me momentarily concerned. Come fall, I'm sure there will be no negligible difference...I'll be back in Lincoln when I can (about once a year nowadays) and in the meantime I'll be in front of the TV, undeterred by any possible distraction. When necessary, I'll shell out 30 more bucks if the game's on PPV. I'll toast the Huskers and do a shot of Jag with my wife as "Hail Varsity" plays on the hi-fi in the adjoining room prior to each kickoff and after the final gun (as personal tradition now dictates). I'll wear a "lucky" outfit until the luck runs out and then I'll try another combination. I'll leap out of my chair and pump my fist in the air when the Huskers do something good and I'll shake my fist at the sky and cuss when the opposite happens. So I don't know that anything will be unchanged. Tom, Frank, Bo, Bill, Bo...whoever's manning the headset is just a detail at this point. A pretty significant one, actually...but just a detail in the sense that it's really the group of kids who choose to take the field wearing red every Saturday that is the real reason that I love to tune in to watch and root my heart out for dear old Nebraska U.
But right now I have the Huskers themselves to thank for sapping my passion for "the project"...I guess in some recesses of my mind, that leaves me feeling as though my fandom has waned somewhat. "We'll all stick together through all kinds of weather..." and blah, blah, blah, you know the rest...but it makes me feel like I should take that to heart and pour myself back into the project with the same gusto I have in years past. But does an annual highlight reel even exist if there are no highlights to put on it? I don't know...it's one of those metaphysical "if a tree falls in the woods" type of questions, I suppose. But thanks for getting me wondering, Brandon...you always manage to do a good job of that.
Dwayne Jul 08 08
So I watch Project Husker 1 Part 1 and the more I think about it, the better I feel about Pelini leading this team right now. TO always had a great offense but it wasn't until he switched his defense around and added speed that NU started winning the big games. I may have peaked as an NU fan because the 80's for me was the trip toward the top, the 90's was the top, and the 00's, well who knows? Rozier was still the best ever at RB for NU in my mind, and don't even start with LP. I would've loved to see Rozier's career after four years in red. Balance, vision, change of direction, and he used his shoulder pads extremely well. It makes me wonder if my son will go through what I've endured as an NU fan. Bo has a few years to turn it around.
Brandon Jul 08 08
To spin off of DT's ESPN employment quickly: Almost three years ago now a friend and I headed down the street to attend ESPN College Gameday when Florida State visited Boston College. Of course I decided to take my Blackshirts flag--full details of the morning here--
and we scouted out a spot behind Herbstreit's head.
The show began, we started waving the Jolly McBride and the phonecalls from back home started coming in. My knowledge of tv jobs is sketchy at best but I noticed that one of the shows producers--he was the guy right behind the camera counting Lee and the boys in and out of breaks--was wearing a Nebraska hat.
He noticed the flag and sent some lackey down to talk to us. When he found out that we weren't BC students they weren't that interested in talking to us anymore but it still made me happy that there was a Nebraska guy embedded with the Gameday crew.
No idea if he's still with the show or not, or what this has to do with anything, but I like to think that he is and that every time Herbstreit decides to goad Husker fans on the show that we have someone behind the scenes who's in his ear making things difficult.
DT Jul 09 08
That's an awesome story, Brandon...I wish I could help you out, but the last guy I knew in the position you described was a Notre Dame guy. I was last on the set of Gameday at the 2001 ND game in Lincoln and gave him hell the whole game...but it's been a while and I'm sure that he's moved onward and upward by now. In my entire 4 years there, I was the ONLY Nebraska alum (Trev was still at CNN when I was there)...surrounded by about 500 Uconn and Syracuse alums...then the last day I worked there, someone introduced me to this gal who was starting that day--a Husker alum. So I was relieved to find that I had a fellow Husker to pass the torch to. I've no idea who that AD might be, but it's likewise good to know that we've still got the WWL infiltrated (at least as of 3 years ago).
Dwayne, I'm with you there...partly. In my book, the change from the 5-2 to 4-3 in '93 really instigated the championship run more than anything else...Tommie Frazier didn't hurt, either...and that sort of sums up the whole middle section of Part 1 (after the '84 Orange Bowl clips).
But I will go there with regard to LP...keeping the conversation strictly to football (which I know is hard for some to do) but if you are able, there's no denying the numbers and accolades will forever be in Rozier's favor...but on the biggest stage under the brightest lights, I'd still take LP any day over Rozier (to wit: compare performances of each in bowl games). How would a one-handed Rozier have fared against 9 wildcats on every play on a blustery day in Manhattan? I don't know, but I know how LP held up...I might have been too young to remember (and if so, anyone is welcome to clear it up for me) but I don't recall a single instance where Rozier single-handedly willed his team to a victory, but I can name some instances where LP did the same. (That KSU game in '94 & UCLA in '93 to start with).
James Moore Jul 09 08
"Simply put, you can’t win now like the Huskers won then and that’s not a slight against the current regime, it’s a tribute to how dominant this program was for the latter-quarter of the 20th century."
I disagree with this assessment. Not wholesale mind you, but I would put it to you that USC is the closest thing to being where we were as a program. Literally a margin in the neighborhood of 35 points over the past 5 seasons and suddendly USC has 3 national championships, 7 straight Pac-10 titles, 3 Heisman Trophy winners, and a cumulative record over this stretch comes closest to anyone of being letigimally compared with 60-3. Include 10+ wins for 7 years going, a constant supply of players moving into the NFL ranks, and a name brand that can reasonably call itself "America's Team" due to it's ability to recruit everywhere, just as effectively as it does in it's own backyard. Very reminiscient of Florida State from 1986-2000. . .
Ohio State finds itself in a situation not to different to Nebraska in the early 1990's: a traditional national powerhouse conference rival in a state of change, a conference they own for the moment, no in-conference rival with confidence to beat it (excluding Michigan and they haven't recently), with one big non-conference game to win. Do all these things and they (like us in the Big 8 years between 1992-1995) have a good shot at a berth in a national championship game. I also find it ironic that skeptics call the Buckeyes slow, and their troubles against SEC teams reminding me of the criticism we got for not beating Miami & Florida State during the 1988-1993 stretch. The comparison to Ohio State and Nebraska (1988-1993) might be the closest at the moment. They could break out here over these next 2-3 years and go on a nice run. 60-3? Probably not, but pay attention to Ohio State. . .
BUT in defense of my Huskers and your viewpoint: 60-3 with the DOMINANCE that the dynasty period showcased WON'T be duplicated. The helpless opposing defense's lining up to only be clubbed over the head at will, or burned outside by a Frazier, Frost, Phillips, Green, Benning, Evans, or anyone else we plugged in. A bullying, physically punishing, psychologically imposing, tremendous technique tackling, group of Blackshirts who stifled Miami, left Florida with a "deer in the headlights" look well before halftime of a national championship game, and forced one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, Peyton Manning to have to dink and check down for the entire Orange Bowl in his last college game. A genius coach at the peak of his profession and career, who like Dean Smith, had been universally praised for routinely churning out brilliant records but criticized for not winning the "big one". A stop on 4th & 1 against Texas in the innagural Big 12 Championship Game, and we play for another national championship, stretch that record to 62-2 with 4 national championships in 5 years. Only comparable to Bud Wilkinson's Sooner jugernauts of the 1950's. . .
I think that it is REASONABLE to expect that Nebraska in a healthy state should win 9/10 games, play for a conference championship, and a serious contender for a BCS bowl every year. When we lost our 30-something year streak of 9+ wins it was the one thing that hurt the most, along with losing our bowl streak. I don't care what anyone says, that "N" or "OU" on the helmets scares any opposing conference opponent when these respective programs are running as they should. Nobody is going to tear down a goalpost for beating Missouri, Colorado, Kansas, etc. It is possible that we go on a 50-55 win tear over 5 years, and sooner than many of us think. . .
Peaked as a Husker fan? Is that even possible? You don't peak, or just stop being a Husker fan. It's a passion that's as relevant to us all as the sun coming up and going down, it'll always be there. . .
Brandon Jul 09 08
Just to clarify in general (which I should've done in the post), I think the question here is not whether or not you have peaked as a Husker fan in personal fervor. Rather, the question is can it get better for you the fan than it already was in the mid-90's?
That said, I agree with a lot of what James says. USC is probably the best example and Ohio State is a good one as well considering the relative strength of the Big 10 over the past few years. If not for Oklahoma's recent bowl struggles they'd probably get included in the conversation too.
However, I think the main difference now between 12-15 years ago is that you simply can't check off wins in the preseason like you used to. It's no longer inconceivable that a W. Michigan, Troy or Akron can go on the road to a BCS school and win in the first four weeks of the season. Assuming a win against a conference foe is even more dangerous (minus Baylor).
What was once laughable has become feasible and I think we're just in the beginning stages of that transition. But I will admit that having the financial football clout in the Big 12 North does make the prospect of annual 9-10 win seasons quite feasible.
Woody Jul 09 08
Hey, I'm 61 years old. I've peaked in just about every aspect of my life. Whaddya want from me punks? Go Big Red.
James Moore Jul 09 08
Brandon,
Not being critical or talking down on you, so forgive me if it came across that way. As I told one of the "Big Fellas" at BigRedNetwork, I love this site and come to it as much as my personal e-mail. Tremendous work, and to all who run the site thank you so much for always giving us intelligent, sensible, and well articulated food for thought on a daily basis. . .
To answer does it get better or worse? Naw, bro. Always was and will be an extremely passionate Nebraska Football fan above ANYTHING else. The and Sun rises and sets with the Big Red Machine, whether 60-3, 5-7, Coach Callahan, Coach Solich, losses in Orange Bowl to Miami or Florida State (1988-1993), Alamo Bowl, vs Ball State or Oklahoma. I love my team, and always will. . .
Brandon Jul 09 08
Nah, James, I knew you were simply disagreeing.
That's allowed.
Jason Jul 10 08
FYI, Jon at Husker Faithful added his take as well.