That Guy's Wearing Red, Too!

AVAILABLE NOW on Amazon​

After following and reporting on the Huskers’ disappointing 2015 season in his book “That Guy’s Wearing Red, Too!” the author was intrigued to see first-hand what the second year of Head Coach Mike Riley’s regime would bring for the proud Cornhusker program and its fans. Would the players bounce back from the Huskers’ first losing season since 2007? How would Senior Quarterback Tommy Armstrong respond during his second year under the Riley scheme? Did Riley have what it takes to make Nebraska great again? There was only one way to find out. Just as he had in 2015, the author witnessed and reported on every 2016 game from Opening Day through to Bowl Day either in person or at watch parties with expatriate Nebraska fans in different cities and states. In between football games, he managed to travel to a number of towns in Nebraska where he talked with residents who reminisced about their favorite memories of living in Nebraska and following their Huskers. The result is a book that not only recounts the 2016 football season but also reveals that Nebraska fans are every bit as gracious in victory as they are in defeat.

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With today being Thanksgiving, the Aussie Husker fan was inspired to count his blessings and make a list of the things he’s grateful for. In no particular order:

• I’m thankful for the strong academic performance of student athletes that allowed the Huskers to go to the 2015 Fosters Farm Bowl.
• I’m thankful that the 2015 season is behind us.
• I’m thankful for Mike Riley, Tommy Armstrong and the players who bravely face the media at the post-game press conference each week, win or lose.
• I’m thankful for Tommy’s ability to run the ball as well as throw it.
• I’m thankful for Ryker’s patience.
• I’m thankful for the Three Huskerteers: Westerkamp, Carter and Ozigbo.
• I’m thankful for Mike and Jen, and Jim and Sharri for their generous tailgate hospitality.
• I’m thankful for red beer and Reuben sandwiches.
• I’m thankful for Bob the ticket man who always has a warm handshake for me to go along with a randomly-located seat somewhere in the stadium.
• I’m thankful for the man - who always seems to be seated behind me regardless of where I am in the stadium – who constantly offers advice out loud to the players, coaches and referees before and after each play.
• I’m thankful for the fans in front of me who sit for most of the game instead of standing.
• I’m thankful for the rented seat backs at Memorial Stadium. The best $5 I could ever spend.
• I’m thankful that Li’l Red can stand on his head as the Huskers run out before the game.
• I’m thankful that I got to watch a game from the student section earlier this season.
• I’m thankful that my hearing is almost back to normal.
• I’m thankful for the thousands of red balloons that appear out of nowhere when the Huskers score their first touchdown of the game.
• I’m thankful for Fairbury hot dogs, Runza sandwiches and the 9-year-old children who sell them in the stands.
• I’m thankful that Nebraska’s child labor laws apparently don’t apply inside Memorial Stadium.
• I’m thankful for the University of Nebraska Marching Band.
• I’m thankful that no baton twirlers were trampled by a herd of stampeding tubas during the halftime break.
• I’m thankful for the hot water in the hand basins in the men’s restrooms on a cold day.
• I’m thankful for the creative minds who design the countless different red t-shirts I see each week. Talk Herbie to me.
• I’m thankful for the Weiner Schlinger.
• I’m thankful that no-one has tried to deliver Valentino’s into the upper stands by slingshot.
• I’m thankful for Gorat’s, Cascio’s, Red Fox, Misty’s and their Nebraska steaks.
• I’m thankful for the Sleep Inn in Omaha being located so close to the airport for my early Sunday morning flight home.
• I’m thankful for the unfailingly warm welcome I received from the residents of Aurora, Beatrice, Columbus, Fremont, Grand Island, Hooper, Kearney, Lincoln, Nebraska City, Norfolk, Omaha, Osceola, Scribner and Scottsbluff when I met them during my visits the day before a Huskers home game.
• I’m thankful for the pair of Uber drivers in Lincoln who mailed back the reading glasses and iPhone that I left in their vehicles.
• I’m thankful for the joyful friendliness of the Nebraska fan clubs at watch sites in Dallas, Fort Worth, Orange, Laguna Hills, Oklahoma City, San Clemente and San Francisco.
• I’m thankful for anyone who sings “Dear Old Nebraska U” with me. Especially those who know at least a few of the words.
• I’m thankful that I have had the opportunity to explore Nebraska, its people and the NU football program for the past two seasons.

"I’m really proud of Ryker” said Head Coach Riley after the senior from Grand Island started a game for the first time this season. Even without a formal survey or opinion poll of the fans, I can confidently say that there were 89,704 people in Lincoln who shared Riley’s sentiment today. Ryker Fyfe had been told by the coaches last Sunday that he was very likely to be the starting quarterback against Maryland, and he should prepare himself accordingly. Somewhere in the back of his mind he must have been thinking that he had heard all this before; that starting quarterback Tommy Armstrong was injured and might not be able to play the next week. In almost every case, the warning turned out to be a false alarm as Armstrong recovered his fitness in time for the next game.

But in this case it would potentially be something special for Fyfe in that he would be starting in front of his home crowd on Senior Day. Nevertheless he must have been trying not to get too excited just in case the ever-resilient Armstrong was able to bounce back at the last minute to reclaim his starting place in the team. However despite the best efforts of Armstrong and his trainers, the hamstring injury that was holding Tommy back did not recover sufficiently and thus Fyfe was told definitively on Thursday that the start would be his.

No doubt Fyfe was nervous to some degree about starting the game against Maryland, and I know many Husker fans were also extremely nervous given that the statistics from Fyfe’s most recent outing against Ohio State were very unflattering in the midst of a 62-3 drubbing.

This was the backdrop to today’s game in which the Huskers would try to finish their series of home games unbeaten, and keep the door open for a 10-win regular season. The Three Huskerteers would all be present, although Ozigbo’s ankle injury was still not quite healed. At the Senior ceremonies before the game, lead Huskerteer Jordan Westerkamp was visibly emotional and I’m sure many Husker fans were silently hoping that Armstrong would be dressed to play when he was introduced to the crowd.

"Can I imagine him not playing? I don't want to." Those were the words from Head Coach Mike Riley in the middle of the week between the games against Minnesota and Maryland when he was asked to speculate on whether Quarterback Tommy Armstrong would be available to take on the Terrapins for the Huskers' final home game of the 2016 season.

For the second week in a row, Husker fans were in the dark about Armstrong’s prospects to take the field. Looking back at the previous week, not only had he been cleared on the morning of the Minnesota game to play that evening, but he also had turned in what was arguably his best performance of the year. His two passing and one rushing touchdown for the game drew him level with Eric Crouch for the most total touchdowns (90) in school history and also earned him the honor of Big Ten Player of the Week.

However the effort of completing 19 passes for 217 yards and rushing 9 times for another 61 took its toll on Armstrong’s body. Thankfully there was no repeat of the concussion he had suffered a week earlier, but in this case it was Tommy’s lower body that suffered the brunt of the punishment he received in return for his determination to lead the Big Red to victory. First an ankle and then a hamstring.

I had first witnessed Armstrong’s resilience last year when I saw him on several occasions at the post-game press conference with an ice pack strapped to his hamstring or a walking boot on his ankle, yet he almost always rebounded to play the next game. At last Saturday’s post-game press conference he literally guaranteed he would be back to take on Maryland in his final home game as a Husker, and based on his track record we in the assembled press corps had no reason to doubt him.

There is much to play for this week as defeating the Terrapins would give the Huskers an undefeated season at home for only the second time since 2001. It would also give the Huskers their 50^th 9-win season and of course greatly improve their bowl ranking. Probably even more significantly, a win on Senior Day would also put a fitting capstone on what has been an emotional season following the untimely loss of punter Sam Foltz during the summer.

Ryker Fyfe can of course step in at quarterback in case Tommy is not fit to play, and I certainly hope that the coaches find a way to give him some playing time on his Senior Day even if Tommy is able to start. Fyfe practiced all week with the first-team while Armstrong was restricted to light throwing on Wednesday and sat out practice entirely on Thursday.

It seems that his hamstring injury is more serious than he first thought after last week's game. According to Riley, intensive rehab efforts are continuing and the final decision about Armstrong’s availability could come as late as Saturday morning.

Given that the game is scheduled for an 11am start, I hope the team trainers and other decision-makers will be ready for an early start to their day. 28 Senior players and millions of Husker fans are counting on them!

An hour before the 6.36pm kickoff the mercury had dropped to 52 degrees, and was predicted to drop another 10 before the game was over. I wanted to blame the visiting Minnesota fans for bringing their weather with them but the first group I spoke to had driven up from Kansas City and refused to take responsibility for the chilly conditions. My next Gopher interaction was with a group of 3 men who had driven down from Minneapolis. During the course of our conversation they noted that this was their third visit to Lincoln, and I soon understood why they kept returning. On their first visit they were struck by the friendliness of the Husker fans to the extent that they kept count of the number of times a Nebraska fan thanked them for coming. The final tally was 26. Take a bow, Nebraska fans – you deserve it.

Just prior to the game, Coach Riley answered the question on everyone’s lips when he announced during a radio interview that unless something untoward happened during the pre-game warm-ups, Armstrong would play. I’m not sure how far or wide that news had spread prior to the game, but anyone at the stadium who may still have been in doubt was treated on the giant video screens to the sight of number 4 in the locker room all suited up and ready to go as the Huskers prepared for their tunnel walk.

However the anxious fans would have to wait a little while to see Tommy in action as the Golden Gophers had first use of the ball. And use it they did, marching 75 yards down the field in 14 plays to score a touchdown halfway through the first quarter. When it was finally Armstrong’s turn to take the ball in hand he looked sharp as he took the team 36 yards down the field in 9 plays, culminating in a Drew Brown field goal. I’m sure I was not the only person in the 90,456-strong crowd who cringed when Armstrong’s head was banged into the turf by a tackle during that opening drive, but he bounced back up and completed several passes and kept the ball moving. He later confessed at the post-game press conference that after the events of last week he had been a bit nervous about getting tackled heavily for the first time during this his next game, but when it happened he said he felt fine and his nervousness disappeared.

There were a good number of Minnesota fans in attendance and as the mercury fell I envied the two enterprising chaps who wore  furry head-to-toe golden gopher suits. Unfortunately I was unable to get a picture of the toasty-warm pair, but they were far from the only fans in the crowd who displayed their team allegiance in unmistakable style.

The Huskers went on to score a touchdown before the end of the first quarter but remained behind 10-17 at the halftime break. It was during the third quarter that a collective groan resounded around the stadium after a pack of players cleared following a quarterback sneak play only to find Armstrong lying on the ground in distress. He had been at the bottom of a pile of bodies and I wondered if he had taken another blow to the head. Several trainers were quickly by his side and helped him off the field with an injured ankle as the crowd echoed the encouraging “Tommy! Tommy” chants of last week from the Ohio State crowd. Once again backup quarterback Ryker Fyfe stepped into the breach, but as we all know those Armstrong boots are hard to fill.

Armstrong remained off the field until 3 minutes into the final quarter with the score tied at 17. Despite a limp left over from his earlier ankle injury, here he was at his own 9-yard line ready to try to lead his team to victory. This would be a very challenging task for any quarterback, especially one with his mobility limited by a gimpy ankle. But Tommy was up to the task and led the team 78 yards through 12 plays to reach the Gophers 13-yard line. On the next play he kept the ball and unreeled one of his signature zig-zag runs as he outpaced and outfoxed the defenders to sprint into the end zone for what would be the game-winning touchdown. It was only after reaching the back of the end zone that he began to favor his left leg and the crowd realized he had strained his left hamstring in the course of his creative running excursion. It was a remarkable effort from Armstrong, especially when one stops to consider that at this same time 7 days ago he was strapped to a board on the way to hospital after being knocked unconscious. Once again he was carried off the field, but this time there was no board involved and it was two of his teammates who did the lifting.

I’ll leave the final word to Mike Riley, who had this to say after the game: “You all know Tommy….he is very, very competitive and doesn’t ever like to come out of the game, and he always thinks he’s gonna make the next play, which I really admire about him.”

Husker fans everywhere would surely agree that Tommy has earned every ounce of that admiration.

The question that has weighed heavily the minds of Nebraskans for the past 7 days is whether Tommy Armstrong will play in tonight’s game and face the slings and arrows of Minnesota after being concussed in the last game against the Buckeyes. Personally, I have no doubt that he should not play. In my view it should be mandatory to sit out the next game following a concussion incident. That was the rule that applied in my Australian Rules football days, and the standard treatment was to take the concussed player to hospital where he would be kept overnight for observation. No exceptions despite the objections. After leaving the hospital the player would not return to football practice for a few days, and body contact would be avoided until a week had passed. Full practice would resume the next week, and if all went well the player would be ruled available for the next game. In the case of the Huskers quarterback, the enforcement of this safety-first approach would mean that Tommy would not be available until the Maryland game next week.

And that is exactly why I believe number 4 will be taking the snaps today.

We’re talking about a guy who not only signed himself out of the ER as soon as he possibly could, but who then came running back through the stadium to get to the sideline during the third quarter – still wearing his hospital scrub pants, for heaven’s sake. The Huskers are 7-2 and the team badly needs him to help them get their season back on track by beating the Gophers today. The only way that he will not be playing is if a band of hefty medical orderlies somehow find a way to strap him back on the same board that carried him into the ambulance last week.

I know my track record on predictions has been pretty miserable for the last week or so – the Buckeyes game and the Presidential election come to mind – but I’m pretty sure that Armstrong will be third time lucky for me.

Speaking of luck, I had the good fortune this week to learn about a long-standing Husker tradition that was new to me. For the past three decades, Misty’s Steakhouse and Lounge in Lincoln has hosted a pep rally on Friday nights during the football season and last night I took the opportunity to experience it for myself. At 6.15 on a cool evening the parking lot on Havelock Avenue was full, and once inside I found that the bar and lounge areas were even fuller. Not only were all the tables and chairs at the bar occupied, but there must have been 40 or more people standing around the large room waiting for a seat to open up. And there was plenty to entertain them as they waited because almost every corner seemed to contain some item of Husker memorabilia – not only related to football but also other varsity sports including a large rowing shell suspended above the bar. 

The atmosphere was jovial and good-natured while the wait staff contorted themselves around chairs, tables and customers of all ages as they carried trays loaded with drinks and plates of Misty’s signature prime rib. After about 15 minutes I found a seat at the bar and sat back to absorb the scene.

Shortly after 7pm a group of some 20 musicians and cheerleaders descended into the room down a staircase, and added their trombones, saxophones, clarinets, flutes, tuba and drums to the already noisy and crowded mix. After somehow snaking their way through the crowd they assembled to one side of the room where they proceeded to play a mixture of familiar songs and melodies for the next 20 minutes while 

Herbie the Husker looked on and greeted his admirers. Throughout it all, the cheerleaders maintained their smiles and even led a few cheers of their own. I was happy to see a few people singing along when the band played “Dear Old Nebraska U”, although it seems that it was only the older generation who knew the words.

While this performance by the joyful ensemble was certainly entertaining, the intrepid musicians returned just after 8pm without cheerleaders and Herbie and then proceeded to line up standing on the bar right in front of me to play “Dear Old Nebraska U”. I don’t know whether anyone else in the room was singing along, but I must say I have never been able to hear the melody so clearly! 

It hasn’t been a good week for predictions from my point of view. First the Buckeyes blew out the Las Vegas odds during their game against Nebraska, not only beating the 15.5 point spread but also beating the over-under of 52 points with their own score. Then there was the little matter of the Presidential Election which saw Donald Trump confound the experts with his convincing win, contrary once again to my expectations. Given that most of the country was turned red by the Republican victory, I’m thinking that Huskers fans ought to be able to petition the president-elect to strike last week’s game from the record books for the sake of uniting the nation and healing our collective wounds. Bob the ticket man seems to be pretty well-connected, so I’ll ask him this week if he can put me in touch with someone who knows someone. I’ll keep you posted.

Although it was a difficult game to watch last week in terms of the action on the field, the atmosphere at Vitty’s bar remained exciting throughout most of the evening. Blair natives Bobby and Gayle Vittitoe worked together as a team to create a lively and captivating ambience, with Gayle using the PA system to encourage the crowd and Bobby adding to the mix via the juke box. I am very happy to say that many of the 70-80 people in the crowd sang along with me when Bobby played the fight song before the game, and then the whole crowd sang along to “Sweet Caroline” and other songs of the same era during the halftime break while Gayle drew the raffle prizes. Unfortunately we never got the chance to sing the fight song again because the Huskers did not manage to score a touchdown, but judging from the joyful singing faces in the crowd one would never have known that their team was down 3-31 at the half and the quarterback was in hospital. Full credit is due to the Vittitoes for creating a happy Nebraska family atmosphere in north Dallas that would be the envy of many of the watch sites that I have visited since the beginning of the 2015 season.

Looking back at the game, Ohio State was by far the better team and they deserved to win. It was similar in many ways to the previous game against Wisconsin, in which the Badgers looked like the better team. The difference was that while the Huskers were able to keep the Badgers off balance through a mixture of creative offense and solid defense, the Buckeyes stifled the Huskers offense while overrunning the defense. Although the Huskers were almost able to snatch a win in Madison, they were simply outclassed in Columbus as they recorded just 9 first downs in comparison to 34 by the home team. As much as I have lately become wary of making predictions, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that even if Armstrong had not been hurt, the Buckeyes would still have won by a large margin.

The good news for the Huskers is that Armstrong was not seriously hurt, and there are three more very winnable games left in the regular season. That whole situation is much better than that faced by some other losing competitors this week who will have to wait four more years before they can attempt to redeem themselves.

It looked like a beautiful night in Columbus on Saturday. The stadium was full with fans from both teams, and the memory of Sam Foltz was honored by Ohio State in a classy gesture that transcended college sports and reminded us all of our shared humanity. The stage was then set for a sporting event that would potentially have a great deal of impact on the fortunes of both the Buckeyes and the Huskers. In short, everything was in place for a very special evening.

And then a football game broke out and spoiled the night for the visitors.

With the return of Carter to the lineup, the Three Husketeers were back in action together for the first time in some weeks after recovering from their injuries. Right on cue, the first score of the night came on the third Huskers play from scrimmage.

After receiving the opening kickoff the Huskers ran a couple of plays, with Terrell Newby gaining a total of 7 yards, unfazed by the roaring home crowd of 108,750. Armstrong dropped back to pass on the next play, only to see the ball tipped by a defender and knocked into the air. As the ball traced its graceful arc over the anxiously outstretched fingers of players from both teams, the crowd at Vitty’s Bar and Grill in Lewisville, TX held its collective breath, as I’m sure did all of the faithful Husker fans gathered at watch sites all across the country and in overseas locations such as Afghanistan. For a few moments the frantic and frenetic flurry of the game seemed to become a slow motion frame-by-frame imitation of its former self as thousands of pairs of eyes focused on the floating pigskin. Suddenly the ball landed in the hands of a Buckeye player and the world began to turn again. Freeze-frame turned into super-speed, and before we knew what had happened the ball had been run back 36 yards and the Buckeyes had a 7-0 lead.

But looking on the bright side, the good news was that the Huskers would get the ball right back and could try again. And try they did, stringing together a 6-minute 16-play drive that stalled after 72 yards and resulted in a Drew Brown field goal. Even though the Buckeyes had stopped the Huskers on a first down from the two-yard line, the score was 3-7 and we had a game on our hands. Armstrong had completed 3 passes during the drive, while 6 other attempts fell incomplete due largely to excellent defensive plays by the Buckeyes. The Huskers had proved that they could move the ball downfield, and the crowd of North Texas Nebraskans at Vitty’s was excited for the game to resume after Brown’s kickoff following the field goal. If only the cable TV had gone out during the commercial break we could have all gone home happy, because as Norgay Tensing was famously reputed to have said to Edmund Hillary after they reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1953: “It’s all downhill from here."

And so it was to be. The Huskers had reached their 2016 peak at number 6 in the rankings, only to lose narrowly to Wisconsin and fall 3 places. Personally I felt this was simply a bump in the rod for the Huskers and they would leapfrog over the Buckeyes by beating them in Columbus. By the end of the first quarter the Huskers trailed 3-14, the Huskers had outgained the Buckeyes 103 yards to 90, and the mood remained upbeat among the 70-80 fans crowded into the bar.

The crowd was still noisily encouraging the Big Red halfway through the second quarter despite another touchdown and field goal from the Buckeyes, but the noise level in the room changed from a hockey game to a golf tournament when the plucky Armstrong was knocked unconscious on the sideline after a rushing play. Fortunately he was not seriously injured, but with him leaving the game with the score 3-24 the prospects for his team did not look good. The rest, as they say, is history.

But come on folks, let’s not allow something trivial like a 3-62 loss get us down! With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up, let’s think about all the things we’re grateful for. Okay, I’ll start.

• I’m thankful that I’m not a betting man.

• I’m thankful that the Huskers special teams got a lot of opportunities to practice their kickoff returns. (11 times to be exact)

• I’m thankful it wasn’t the worst Huskers loss ever. (It was only the second worst)

• I’m thankful that I live too far away for a vengeful horde of flaming-torch-and-pitchfork-bearing Nebraskans to storm the Aussie Husker Fan’s castle after I told them in my blog that the Huskers were a sure bet to beat the spread.

For the second week in a row the Huskers are facing a formidable opponent ranked within several rungs of them on the national ladder. After dropping only a couple of spots following their narrow loss in the 7-11 battle with Wisconsin, the Big Red lads face Ohio State in a 6-9 matchup.

Husker fans have been nervously eyeing this game and the last ever since the schedule was released. Playing the Badgers and the Buckeyes away from home was always going to be a challenge, and I must admit that your Aussie Husker Fan had mentally conceded both games in addition to the earlier matchup against Oregon. Looking back on the Oregon and Wisconsin games, I must say I have never been happier to be wrong. The Huskers beat the Ducks in a tight and thrilling game while I watched on TV from the other side of the state in Scottsbluff, and last week they had a golden opportunity to defeat the Badgers, only to see it slip out of their reach.

But what we fans saw last week against the Badgers is that the Huskers are a better team than they think they are. We have all seen cases in sport and in life where individuals or teams have an inflated opinion of themselves. While this over-confidence may give them a boost in courage as they face the challenges before them, the dangerously fragile foundation of that courage is quickly exposed when times get tough. I have witnessed verbal displays of such misplaced overconfidence on occasion when flying in to Las Vegas for a conference alongside visitors who are planning to make sufficient money on the gambling tables to fund their extravagant vacation plans. I’m glad to say I have not been on hand to witness the subsequent reality check for these individuals when the mathematical forces arrayed against them cause their self-built house of cards to come crashing down.

The Huskers on the other hand were, I believe, taken by surprise when the opportunity presented itself to win the game in overtime. But that opportunity did not come out of nowhere – for four quarters the lads from Lincoln had pressured, harassed and forced the Badgers into a corner from which there was only a narrow route for escape. Of course it would have been no simple task for any team to score a touchdown in overtime away from home with a howling crowd firing up the other team. But the Huskers had succeeded against those odds for the previous 60 minutes, and they had earned their chance to win the game. It may have been nerves and a small amount of self-doubt that caused their final drive to come up short, but I hope the players and coaches learned a couple of simple lessons from their trip to Camp Randall.

1. They are a good team that is capable of beating anyone outside the top four.

No, I haven’t lost my marbles and changed my blog to an advertisement for a chain of convenience stores. However, some might dispute my assessment of my own sanity when they learn why there were no posts on the blog for a few days a couple of weeks ago. If you must know, it was because I had a bad case of nervous anxiety after I heard that the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature was to be announced a few days hence, and rumor had it that the award would go to an unconventional writer outside of the general literary mainstream. The next few days were just a blur as I practiced my surprised look in the mirror, composed my acceptance speech and worked on the guest lists for the receptions in my honor at the Australian Embassy in Stockholm and the State Capitol in Lincoln. Well. as you know by now, the prize went to some obscure songwriter who was born in Minnesota of all places. It’s probably just as well I didn’t win this year because it would have caused all kinds of problems in Hollywood when Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman cancelled their movie shooting plans to fly to Stockholm to see me accept the award. Never fear, I’ve given them both advance notice to keep their schedules clear for this time next year. Oh, that reminds me, I must call Mel.

Coming back to the matter at hand, most Husker fans would have immediately translated the headline and known that I was referring to today’s game where the number 7 Huskers take on the number 11 Badgers. Questions have been asked in the media for the past few weeks, as the Huskers climbed in the national rankings, about whether the lads from Lincoln truly deserve their elevated place on the ladder. Some fans were outraged when the talking heads on ESPN snickered and raised the same question, seemingly regarding the Huskers as being overrated. Two weeks later, those same ESPN talking heads today were serious indeed and split their votes 50/50 on which team would win.

Talking with Husker fans before the Purdue game, there was a strong belief that the Huskers would beat Wisconsin but would struggle with Ohio Sate the following week. Now that the once-invincible Buckeyes have been shown by Penn State to have feet of clay, anything is possible. So far this season the Huskers have played only as well as they need to each week, spending long periods of the game in neutral before shifting gears to finish off their opponents in the last quarter. We saw signs of this last season when the Huskers lost to several unheralded teams but then played their best against the strong opposition of Michigan State and UCLA.

Today’s game will be a true test for the Huskers, and fortunately the leader of the Three Musketeers will be back in action with flowing mustache front and center. Westerkamp’s return will boost the confidence of his teammates, not the least that of Tommy Armstrong for whom he is a favorite target. Few of us will ever forget the key receptions that Westerkamp made during the game-winning last-minute drive against Michigan State. Just like today, that game was played at night. Will we see history repeat itself with Westerkamp as the swashbuckling hero?

Usually I’m happy to return to California the morning after each Huskers home game, but this past week I would have liked to have stayed one more day in Nebraska to honor the memory of a man who was raised in the state and brought happiness and laughter into millions of lives during his professional career. I am referring to the great Johnny Carson, whose 91^st birthday fell on the Sunday after the Purdue game. Although he was born in Iowa, from the age of eight Johnny was raised in the charming town of Norfolk, where he is immortalized in an enormous mural painted on the wall of one of the buildings in the main downtown street West Norfolk Avenue, not far from Johnny Carson Boulevard and the Johnny Carson Theater.

According to the Norfolk Daily News, a birthday party was planned for Carson on the Sunday afternoon and according to a radio ad for the event that I heard, the highlight would be two hours of video clips from throughout his career. Quite a compliment indeed to the man; a gathering to celebrate his life some years after his passing. While many would say that he remains revered because of his long career in entertainment which included 30 years as host of the Tonight Show, we Husker fans know that his main claim to fame is that he graduated from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

Along with the ubiquitous reminders of Norfolk’s favorite son, I was also captivated by the charm of the town’s tree-lined main street with its well-preserved historic buildings and pedestrian-friendly ambience. Beyond those obvious aesthetic charms, what really caught my eye was the impressively diverse range of businesses that operated on both sides of the street. 

Unlike many towns that I had visited during the past year which seemed to contain mostly bars, cafes and the occasional clothing store, during a short stroll along West Norfolk Avenue I found Main Street Bookstore, a bike shop, car tire dealer, children’s clothing store, several banks, a couple of dance studios, a bridal shop and a pet store. This of course was in addition to a range of restaurants, cafes and bars. Obviously I can’t speak for the merchants and 25,000 residents of Norfolk, but the broad range of businesses combined with the large number of cars parked along the well-maintained street seemed to suggest a prosperous and thriving business environment.

I don’t know how often the town’s favorite son made it back to Norfolk before he died, but I’m sure he would be pleased to see what it has become. 

Coach Riley began his press conference yesterday by apologizing for sounding like a broken record when he said that he was happy for the win, even though the team had not played as well as he would have liked. Speaking as someone who witnessed his press conferences through the dark days of the 2015 season where Riley frequently apologized for his team letting the game get away from them, I must say I much prefer the 2016 version of Riley’s broken record. A national top 10 ranking and a 7-0 record is music to my ears after the discordant mess that found the Huskers with a 3-4 record at this time last year.

The game certainly began good style – so I’m told – because I missed the first few minutes while making my way around to my seat in the East Stadium. An Armstrong touchdown 16 seconds into the game is not a bad way to kick things off, and I’m sure many of us thought that this would be the pattern of the day as the Huskers marched towards beating the 24-point spread against lowly Purdue. However the Boilermakers had other ideas and made the Big Red fight for every point on their way to a 27-14 win.

Thanks to Bob, my eveready ticket man, I sit in a different part of the stadium each game. This allows me to continually meet new people and enjoy the benefit of experiencing the game from their perspective. My seat yesterday was next to Mike, who was visiting from southern California with his wife and has coached for the past 11 years in a Pop Warner league. Mike’s daughter is a student at UNL, and he and his wife were not only visiting her but also giving their high school senior son the opportunity to look around the campus for himself. Unfortunately the timing of this family visit coincided with the final game of Mike’s team in California, which had been undefeated up until that point of the season. But thanks to the wonders of the wireless world, Mike was able to stay in touch with his fellow coaches on the other side of the country and receive regular updates to inform him that his team was up to the task and preserved their unbeaten season.

Even though he was 1,500 miles away from his own team, I was intrigued to hear Mike’s coaching instincts bubbling to the surface from time to time throughout the game as he offered advice to the Huskers from afar. While he and I both had the same vantage point to watch the game, his trained eye saw far more than mine. There were a number of times when he talked of holes that rushers had missed, or cornerbacks that played too far off their receivers, that made me wish I had a DVR at my fingertips so that I could replay each down in slow motion and let him talk me through the intricacies of the play. By happy coincidence Mike lives not far from me in Orange County, so we may get the chance to meet at the Californians for Nebraska watch site at the OC Tavern in a couple of weeks in which case I’ll be able to continue my education.

Although I did not grow up watching American football, I was pleased to learn that I was not the only Aussie in the crowd yesterday. I had the good fortune of meeting Chris and Kris at a tailgate before the game, hosted by Jim and Shari whom my wife and I had met in San Francisco last week. These two antipodeans with almost-interchangeable names had up until recently owned and operated a winery in the Sonoma area of California. Chris had played Aussie Rules football at the highest level in Melbourne, so I’m sure that like me he had at first wondered why these Yanks run around throwing the ball to one another instead of kicking it. Their lovely daughter Elise who was raised in the US may have been able to explain it to them, but we of a certain age need the patience of guys like Mike who are used to dealing with slow learners.

But Mike himself received an education of sorts yesterday. He attended USC and had been to many of their games over the years, but this was his first Nebraska game. As he said several times throughout the course of the game “I have never seen an atmosphere like this.”

Welcome to the club, Mike. Now you know why I was inspired to write a book and blog this season and last. Even though I was once again a lonely soul singing the words of the fight song yesterday, there is no place like Nebraska.

What a difference one letter makes.

And what a difference one year makes.

At this time in 2015 the Huskers were sitting at a rather melancholy 2-4 as they prepared for their seventh game of the season. Several weeks later the melancholy mood would turn to full-blown clinical depression when the Huskers lost to the perennial basement-dwellers Purdue, creating a 3-6 record by that point of the year as the team struggled to adjust to coaches who approached the game in a manner that was almost diametrically opposed to their predecessors in Lincoln.

But since those dark and dismal days of 2015. the ensuing 180-degree turnaround has been nothing short of remarkable as the Huskers bring a 6-0 record to their game against Purdue tomorrow in Lincoln. In fairness, both players and coaches would say that their adjustment to one another’s ideas and capabilities is not yet 100 percent complete, but any impartial observer would agree that the process has progressed well and has built upon the enormous strides that were made in the latter part of last year after the Huskers hit rock bottom away from home against the Boilermakers.

Readers may recall, and I personally will never forget, that in the very next game after that painful loss in West Lafayette, IN, the Huskers came out and beat the highly-fancied and highly-ranked Michigan State Spartans in a thrilling game in Lincoln. Given the respective performances of the Huskers and the Boilermakers so far this year, tomorrow’s game is likely to result in a resounding win for the Huskers. But more importantly I hope that history will repeat itself to the extent that the Purdue game will be a springboard that allows the Big Red to come out the next week against a highly-ranked opponent and show the national audience what they are really capable of doing.

Tomorrow is the day to exorcise the bad memories of last year, while at the same time setting up the opportunity for next week to exercise the fruits of many months of planning and training against the highly-ranked Badgers.

Go Big Red!

After an outstanding first quarter against Indiana in which they scored 17 unanswered points, the Huskers offense was far less effective during the second and third quarters of the game – much to the dismay of the attentive crowd watching the game at the Final Final Bar in San Francisco. With Ozigbo limited by injury to one carry on the day, and in the absence of the other two Musketeers Westerkamp and Carter, it was always going to be difficult to maintain an intense tempo on offense. But in line with the old saying that when one door closes, another one opens, the temporary downturn by the offense provided the opportunity for the Blackshirts to show what they could do. The defense was indeed up to the task as they held the quick-moving Hoosier offense to below average yardage in passing and rushing, while forcing 6 punts and recording 3 sacks.

However by the time the final quarter began, the Huskers offense had failed to build on its early advantage and the Big Red only led by two points as the score stood at 17-15. While Armstrong had shown flashes of brilliance at quarterback, he had also thrown two interceptions by this time and had completed less than 50 percent of his passes. The mood at the watch party was tense five minutes into the final quarter as Armstrong dropped back to pass and looked for Stanley Morgan who had separated himself downfield from several defenders. Suddenly the room erupted as Morgan caught Armstrong’s pass and nimbly sidestepped in almost the same motion, resulting in three Hoosier defenders colliding with one another like bumbling Keystone Kops and freeing Morgan to sprint untouched to the end zone for a 72-yard touchdown. The joyous singing of the fight song that followed the extra point was tinged with relief as the margin had now extended into much safer territory. But it wasn’t long before the tension returned to the room as the Hoosiers responded with a touchdown of their own to bring the score to 24-22 with 8:26 remaining to play.

On the ensuing possession the reawakened Husker offense slowly and methodically progressed down the field while they used up the clock. However the drive stalled at the Indiana 48-yard line where the Huskers faced 4^th and 1. After quickly talking it over, the decision was made by Head Coach Riley in a demonstration of his faith in his players to go for the first down. Armstrong kept the ball on the next play and was soon lost in the melee of bodies piled on the ground while Big Red fans all across the country held their collective breath. After the referees had succeeded in untangling the mass of arms and legs, a measurement showed that Armstrong had indeed made the first down and we all sighed in relief. Even Lily the mini husker hound must have been relieved as she watched the game at her boarding kennel in Los Angeles. Thanks to that critical play, the Huskers were able to continue their drive and eventually got within field goal range. With 45 seconds left in the game, Drew Brown came out to attempt the 39-yard kick but was halted in mid-stride when Nebraska called a time out. I wasn’t sure if they were trying to ice their own kicker, but Brown was unfazed and split the uprights to extend the lead and make the score 27-22. The game was sealed when Williams intercepted a pass on the second play of the Hoosiers’ desperate attempt to drive 75 yards in the final 45 seconds of the game.

After the final whistle I had the pleasure of meeting a pair of the college-age fans who had watched and cheered for the Huskers throughout the game. It turned out that Torie and Shelby are both from San Francisco and had graduated from the University of Nebraska earlier this year. The pair had been friends at high school, and when considering their choices for college they had agreed they wanted to attend a school with solid academic programs, a Greek system and the opportunity to participate in the football experience. It seems they were at least partly influenced in their final decision by Torie’s brother-in-law who had attended Nebraska and spoke highly of the experience. So now here they were back in San Francisco, enjoying the game while surrounded by expatriate Nebraskans, visiting Nebraskans, and converted Nebraskans like myself - in other words the adopted family of which they will always be welcome members.

And at 6-0, it’s a very happy  family right now!

“Quarterback draw!” That was the first thing I heard when my wife and I walked in to the Bay Area Huskers watch party halfway through the first quarter of the game against Indiana. The cozy space of the Final Final Bar was filled with 80 or so fans paying eager attention to the screens placed in all corners of the room, most of which were tuned to the Nebraska game. We had found our way to the prestigious Presidio Heights area of San Francisco where quaint two- or three-story homes priced north of $3 million dollars surrounded the old-style corner bar owned by a man whom we were variously told came from Lyons, NE or from western Nebraska. The grey-haired man in question was very busy behind the scenes throughout the day so I never got to ask him for myself, but nevertheless it felt like were in Lincoln where a couple of weeks ago I had heard another animated fan calling out the same play every few minutes or so. The only difference was that were a few fans sprinkled here and there who were trying to watch the Arizona State game, but these poor souls soon realized they were outnumbered and gradually drifted away to leave the Big Red faithful to themselves.

It’s been 5 years since the Huskers were last in the top 10 in the national rankings, and there is no reason they shouldn’t consolidate their spot over the next two weeks at least. Back in 2011 the Huskers spent a grand total of one week in the lofty company of the ten top teams in the country before going out the following week and losing to Northwestern.

Not that this coming game in Memorial Stadium will be easy, even though the Huskers will be playing in Memorial Stadium. This particular Memorial Stadium is located in Bloomington, Indiana and the Huskers will be facing the 3-2 Hoosiers who beat Michigan State and gave second-ranked Ohio State a run for their money last week in Columbus. Just to add a little more spice to the pre-game chili, the Huskers could well be without three of their most productive offensive weapons so far this season: Ozigbo, Carter and Westerkamp. These three musketeers (well OK, one plus two really. The other two need to get working on their moustaches so they can match the swashbuckling Westerkamp) have together accounted for 10 touchdowns so far this season, and Ozigbo has carried the ball a team-leading 76 times.

Meanwhile the Husker defense will have its work cut out for it as the Hoosiers lead the Big 10 in passing yardage at 293 yards per game, in comparison to the Huskers’ 238 yards per game. In the ground game the Huskers have averaged 4.9 yards per carry compared to 3.9 yards for the Hoosiers.

While this will be the Huskers’ first game against Indiana since joining the Big 10, my wife and I will also be making a first of our own this weekend as we put Lily the mini huskerhound into the boarding kennel and take the train up to San Francisco to watch the game in the company of the Bay Area Huskers. We’re hoping that the libations served by the Final Final Bar will provide sufficient lubrication to encourage the Husker faithful to sing “Dear Old Nebraska U’ with us after each touchdown. I would think that the local fans would be no strangers to adult beverages since they live so close to the Napa Valley where they make all those “Nebraska” (red and white) wines.

The Bloomington weather for the game is predicted to be sunny and 76 degrees, so it looks like we’re in for an exciting contest. While Nebraska has started each of its games slowly so far this season before finishing strong, it may not have that same luxury of coming back from behind against the Hoosiers with its pass-heavy, quick scoring offense.

Coach Riley was likely thinking the same thing when he said this week: “We have to remind [our guys] that it's not against the rules to score in the first and get something going."

Just in case you haven't had enough of numbers after the recent tale of the threes, some of the more outstanding figures from yesterday's game against Illinois provide us with some insight into how the game was won and lost.. 

72: The number of plays run by Nebraska during the game.

44: The number of plays run by Illinois.

38: The total minutes of possession during the game by the Husker offense.

11: The number of minutes consumed by the Huskers' 18-play drive that culminated in the go-ahead touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

21: The total number of points scored by Nebraska in the fourth quarter.

3: The number of possessions by Illinois during the fourth quarter, each of which resulted in a three-and-out.

114: The number of rushing yards gained by Nebraska during the fourth quarter.

113: The number of the above rushing yards gained by Terrell Newby.

Although these numbers are important on their own in the context of that particular game, they take on more significance when compared to the 2015 season.

5: The number of games the Huskers have won so far in the 2016 season. Also the total number of wins by the Huskers during the 2015 regular season.

2: The number of games the Huskers had won at this point of the 2015 season.

4: The number of games lost by Nebraska in 2015 during the final minute of the game.

6: The total number of points scored against Nebraska during the fourth quarter of the 5 games played so far in 2016.

115: The total number of points scored against Nebraska during the fourth quarter of the 13 games played in 2015.

78: The total number of points scored by Nebraska during the fourth quarter.of the 5 games played so far in 2016.

141: The total number of points scored by Nebraska during the fourth quarter.of the 13 games played in 2015.

3: The number of penalties against Nebraska during the Illinois game.

13: The number of penalties against Nebraska in each of two games during 2015..

So what do all these numbers mean (apart from the fact that I obviously have too much time on my hands)?  The win-loss record on their own show that the Huskers are headed for a much better season than the last one, but the other figures provide us with some insight into the reasons for the turnaround.

While the Huskers collapsed during the fourth quarter of many of their 2015 games, causing them to lose in some close finishes, in 2016 the situation has so far been reversed. We have seen the defense strangling the opposition and allowing the offense to spend more time on he field to reap the benefits of the physical onslaught they have mounted for the first three quarters of the game. While I am in no position to know for certain, it seems to me that an improved conditioning program combined with an increased level of confidence in their coaches and team-mates is what has allowed the Huskers to run away from their opponents during the fourth quarter.

For example, when Terrell Newby was handed the ball during the closing minutes of yesterday's game with the lead at 24-16 no-one would have complained if he had simply run for a first down on his 16th carry of the quarter to set up further running plays to use up the clock. Instead, excellent blocking from his team-mates opened up a hole for Newby who had the physical reserves to outsprint four defenders on a 63-yard dash to the end zone. 

Another area of tangible improvement is evident in the decreased number of penalties assessed against the Huskers. During the 2015 season Coach Riley emphasized the need to improve this facet of the game, as it cost the team dearly on a number of occasions and made a material difference in tight games. The low number of Big Red penalties against Illinois yesterday allowed the score to remain close until the home team was able to take control during the fourth quarter.

While we all know that statistics can be manipulated to tell almost any kind of far-fetched story (and are reminded of that fact almost daily during the current election season), the figures above point toward a much happier year for Husker fans than the last. I'm thinking of 10-2 but I won't be too upset if that first number ends up higher!

With apologies to a certain television series of which I've heard but never actually seen, today the 90,374 fans who filled Memorial Stadium witnessed a Game of Threes. According to the Las Vegas bookmakers, the Huskers were favored to beat the Illini by three touchdowns. For the second week in a row, I did not believe the bookies and for the second week in a row I failed to put my money where my mouth was, 

Apparently the coaches and players from Illinois either did not read the papers this week or chose to ignore the parts they didn't like - and in the midst of this election season, who can blame them? Either way, after a slow first quarter the Illini started firing on all cylinders and held a three-point lead at the half. Nebraska had dominated the time of possession in the first half and had gained more yards than the visitors, but momentum had stalled following an interception and a long field goal attempt by Drew Brown that fell short.

During the first half, Nebraska's three Heisman winners were introduced to the crowd, accompanied by a video highlight from each player commentated by the legendary Lyle Bremser. "Man, woman and child!" rang out through the stadium as we watched Rogers, Rozier and Crouch on screen zig-zagging their way down the field to the end zone. The presence of those three famous players was most appropriate for this homecoming game, and at least one fan decided to mark the occasion by resurrecting a fashionable accessory from the Johnny Rogers era.

This was the third Nebraska homecoming game since 2013 that featured Illinois as the visiting team, and while some fans had looked backwards, there were others who envisaged a whole different reality, We in the West Stadium were privileged to witness the presence of an Amazon goddess wearing her traditional headdress while one of her subjects dressed in gray bowed his head toward her in homage.

“Make Nebraska Great Again”. That’s the slogan printed on a line of t-shirts and hats on display at Husker Hounds in Omaha, and it also seems to be the mantra of Tommy Armstrong and his troops as they extended their season’s unbeaten record to 4 games by beating Northwestern 24-13 on Saturday. Playing away from home at Ryan Field in Evanston, Illiinois, the Huskers must have almost felt like they were playing to an empty stadium with a mere 40,284 spectators in attendance in comparison to the 90,000+ enthusiastic fans who had watched their first three games of the season.

Tommy Armstrong’s performance was “yuge” as certain persons might say,  with a personal best rushing performance of 132 yards in addition to his 246 passing yards. Had it not been for two bizarre plays in which a Huskers player lost control of the ball just as he was about to cross the goal line for a touchdown, the margin between the teams would have been even greater at the end of the day.

The lively crowd at of the Californians for Nebraska who had assembled at Danny K’s Café and Billiards in Orange CA groaned in unison as Terrell Newby fumbled the ball while diving for the goal line early in the first quarter, only to groan again late in the 2^nd quarter when Devine Ozigbo lost the ball as he tried to force his way through the Wildcats defenders at the goal line. Without these two mishaps the score would have been 24-7 in favor of the Huskers at the half.

But there was plenty of action during the half-time break to keep the Danny K’s crowd entertained as a variety of Huskers goodies and memorabilia was raffled off to raise money for the club’s scholarship fund. Speaking as someone who grew up in a warm climate, I can’t help but feel for the handful of unsuspecting young Californians who are awarded funds each year to help them on their way to studying at the University Nebraska. Of course everything is fine when they leave sunny California and land in Lincoln in late August, but by the time the Nebraska winter sets in it’s too late for them to request tuition refunds and they have no choice but to bundle up and endure the frigid darkness that follows the football season. I must confess to having contributed in a small way to this bait-and-switch racket last Saturday when I bought some tickets in the raffle and donated a couple of my “That Guy’s Wearing Red, Too!” books as prizes. I had my eye on the fabulous fuzzy dice prize, but alas my number did not come up.

But for the 30ish couple that I met named Michael and Monica, their number had come up big earlier in the year. The Californians for Nebraska had run an off-season raffle in which the first prize was a trip for two to the opening game in Lincoln, and this lucky pair were the winners. However, this unforeseen stroke of good luck caused an immediate concern for the couple as they had already made arrangements to go the Oregon game in week 3 of the season and they did not fancy the thought of making two trips in 3 weeks. But after further review, as the saying goes, the dilemma was resolved when the pair decided to simply drive up for the first game and stay with friends outside Lincoln for a few weeks until after the Oregon game. Thus in one foul swoop these two dedicated Nebraska fans had solved their problem to the satisfaction of all concerned while getting to watch the first 3 games of the year in person. But there is one small footnote to add to the story.

Unlike most, if not all, of the people I have met since starting my first Huskers book in 2015, neither Michael nor Monica was born in Nebraska. Their only physical connection to the state is that Michael attended UNL for a couple of years in the late 90s, during which time he became a diehard Big Red fan. Meanwhile Monica described herself as having been “converted by marriage”. I can of course understand how Michael came to love the school and the state, and I can also relate to Monica’s situation after having undergone the same matrimonial conversion experience myself.

This serves to underline a point that I have tried to make in my writing and in my personal interactions: namely that there is something special about the culture that surrounds the State of Nebraska and its Big Red football program that is unique and appealing to people from places far beyond the state borders. I have encountered a number of Nebraskans in my travels who dismiss the impact of the football program by saying “You’ve got to understand that we don’t have anything else besides the Huskers”. Up until now, my counter has always been to say that although the internet makes Nebraskans freer than ever to follow any team in any sport anywhere around the world, I am always impressed that they choose to follow the Big Red. This argument does not seem to make much of an impact, so perhaps I would do better to point out that although Michael, Monica and I were raised in different environments and have had plenty of other choices, we all now choose to follow the Huskers. Or better still, perhaps I should adapt a bumper sticker that is common in Texas to make it read: “I wasn’t born in Nebraska, but I became a Huskers fan as soon as I could!”

As the game progressed, I had the privilege of meeting two of the senior alumni of the Californians for Nebraska club. Part way through the first quarter a distinguished elderly gentleman politely asked whether anyone was using the seat next to me. When I told him that the seat was free he sat down and seemed to enjoy the game and the friendly atmosphere in the bar, but after a while it became evident that he could not see the smaller details on the screen. He asked me the score from time to time, as well as the time on the clock, and during one of these exchanges I asked him about himself. Ralph was born in 1932 and studied architecture at UNL before moving to California in 1960. He is originally from the town of Malcolm, which is near Lincoln, and he had spent most of his career in California designing high schools. I asked him whether he had known my father-in-law Tom Hauser who would have been just a few years behind him in the School of Architecture, but although he did not recall that particular name he enjoyed a chuckle when I told him how Tom had paid a fellow student to take the Physics exam on his behalf so he could complete his degree.

My wife and I were also happy to meet Jodie, who is one of the founders of the club. Originally from Kearney, Jodie remains lovely and elegant at the age of 90 dressed in her Husker attire. Apart from being a loyal Husker fan, Jodie is also a good sport who agreed to join me in singing the school fight song over the PA system at the bar after the Husker’s first touchdown of the second half. Jodie’s favorite Husker football memory is from early in 1998 when she happened to be in Miami overnight while on her way to take a long-planned cruise vacation. The Orange Bowl was due to take place the night before her departure, and as luck would have it, the teams involved were Nebraska and Tennessee. Jodie was lucky indeed as this was to be an historic occasion, since it was Tom Osborne’s last game as Nebraska coach, and Peyton Manning’s last game as Tennessee quarterback. Jodie’s eyes twinkled as she chuckled while she recalled Tennessee fans leaving the game well before the finish, with Nebraska leading 35-9 early in the last quarter and going on to win 42-17. This win clinched the national championship for Nebraska, and one can only imagine the spring in Jodie’s step as she set off on her cruise the next day after having managed to be in the right place at the right time by sheer coincidence. No wonder it’s her favorite Husker memory!

May Jodie and Ralph have many more happy Husker memories to come.

Such was my feeling as I drove south from Scottsbluff early on Sunday morning after the Oregon game. As I started to descend from the plateau behind me, a vast and verdant valley opened up ahead of me with a fertile plain that extended as far as the eye could see. Where else could such a land of milk and honey be found except in Nebraska, and what better place than in the county that was named after me? The Almighty was obviously sending me a message that I should lead my wife and mini husker hound to settle in this promised land. I wonder if He would mind if we spent our winters in California?

After getting back home and reviewing the video tape of the post-game conference, I could see that Coach Riley was indeed smiling after the Huskers extended their perfect record to 3-0 with their hard-fought win over Oregon. No slow-motion replays were needed, nor views from different angles: he and his players were pleased with their performance, as they had every right to be.

During the last season and this, I have seen that Riley’s overall philosophy is reflected in his even-keeled and controlled reaction after each game. He was criticized last season by some fans – unfairly in my opinion – for his low-key reaction after several tough losses. He should have been more upset, was the view of these shortsighted individuals. And then following some winning games where these same fans expected him to be riding the same jubilant roller coaster as they were on, Riley would reflect on the parts of the game that did not go according to plan, and then turn the discussion to the next game. The essence of Riley’s response to the inevitable ups and downs of each season is quite sensibly based on his view of the entirety of his team’s schedule. To overreact to a single day in which the team goes 1-0 or 0-1 makes no sense when it is the overall win-loss tally at the end of the season that counts for conference and bowl rankings.

On the other hand, I have seen cases where this unemotional approach can be taken to an extreme. For example when my hometown Australian Rules Football team the Adelaide Crows made history by winning the national championship in the mid-90s, it was an event of great import for the entire state of South Australia. The state has the second-lowest population in the country and has been a perennial underdog in national sporting events for as long as anyone can remember. As a result, the reaction in the state capital of Adelaide to the Crows winning the national championship was exuberant to say the least, with ticker tape parades and keys to the city awarded to the entire team. The Crows repeated the feat the next year, and although the reaction in the streets of Adelaide was no less enthusiastic, the Head Coach took the wind out of the sails of the players immediately after the game when asked whether the Crows could possibly make it three-in-a-row the next season. To paraphrase his zen-like response, live on national TV during the trophy presentation, he said: “Well this was a good win today, and I’m happy for the players. But in the overall scheme of life it doesn’t matter, and it won’t matter whether or not we do it again next year.” When I heard these words I thought it must have been incredibly demotivating for the players, and many of them must have questioned why they had worked so hard for a coach who didn’t seem to care whether they won or lost. Not surprisingly, the Crows did not even make it to the playoffs the next year.

For reasons such as this, I was glad to see Coach Riley smiling and encouraging his players to enjoy their Oregon win for the next 24 hours before getting back to work to face Northwestern.

The lively crowd at the Union Bar in Scottsbluff was not shy to demonstrate their feelings after the Oregon game last Saturday, and this past week gave me the option to celebrate a Huskers win against Northwestern in a whole different dimension. Business took me to Las Vegas for a few days after the Oregon game, and it occurred to me that I ought to make use of the opportunity to place a bet on the coming game. The Huskers were listed as a 7-point favorite, and I would think that the sign outside the Philips 66 station in Lincoln that predicts the score each week probably has the Big Red winning by 10 points or more. If ever there was such a thing as a good bet in Las Vegas, it appeared to me that a wager on the Huskers would fit the bill. The only problem is that I got side-tracked when I bumped into a certain politician. We started to talk about what he would do as President, but when I asked him about his preferred Cabinet position he replied “Next to the dining room table”.

By the time I had finished pondering the impenetrable wisdom of his answer, I never got around to placing my bet on the football. And heaven knows there is no way I would ever want to bet on the outcome of the election!

That was the question that Nebraska fans were asking themselves before the game today, just as they were wondering what the Huskers could possibly do to stop the explosive and unpredictable offense that Oregon had developed over the past few years. Visions of long Oregon runs down the field and missile-like passes danced through the heads of the Husker faithful before the game. And it wasn’t long before those nightmare scenarios became a reality. By the time there were 3 minutes left in the first half, the Ducks had already unleashed a myriad of their signature blitzkrieg plays and the score was 20-7 in their favor, thanks to a 50 yard touchdown run that made the Husker defense look like a stationary and termite-riddled picket fence. The Ducks had easily succeeded in scoring a two-point conversion after their first touchdown, but their subsequent attempts fell short – otherwise the score would have been 24-7 at the half. Nevertheless they held a 13 point margin and looked like running away with the game.

The crowd at the Union Bar in Gering was following the game intently, and even though I found myself in the Scottsbluff area by accident after mixing up my dates, I was enjoying the game-day atmosphere that made me feel like I was in Lincoln as I had originally intended. Upon walking in I had been warmly welcomed by the regular patrons who filled one of the rooms and had been warming up with shots since 10am for the 1.30pm kickoff.

I had experienced a game day among Husker fans outside of Nebraska many times before, but this was to be the first time that I had experienced a game day 400 miles from Lincoln while still being in Nebraska. The owners of the Union Bar clearly took their responsibility seriously and made sure there were plenty of screens available to watch the game, while also offering a free buffet prior to the game. Even more fitting for the the occasion, the owner Scott passed around sliced smoked duck leg cutlets during the game. I must admit that I did not properly fulfill my obligations as a gracious guest in this regard because I only had limited room to accommodate the very flavorsome duck treats. My logistical problem in this sense had stemmed from an earlier conversation with a regular customer named Eric, when I had mentioned that I wanted to take a photo of the almost legendary Diet Burger that Brandi the hairdresser had told me about. With his hospitable nature Eric immediately insisted that he buy me a Diet Burger, and then dear reader I’m sure you can imagine that room for further snacks was severely restricted – even though I only ate about 60% of the imposing Column of Cholesterol. Chef Jeremy was justifiably proud of his caveman culinary creation which contains a total of one pound of hamburger meat, copious amounts of bacon and uses two grilled cheese sandwiches in the place of hamburger buns.

Meanwhile the game had not gone so well for the Huskers, but the regular patron Sal had piped up from time to time to try to ease the tension with his comic-relief proposal “Let’s switch to the NASCAR”. This was a recommendation that he made on several occasions during the dismal moments of the first half but he was quieted when Armstrong passed to Westerkamp just before the half to score a touchdown and make the score a more respectable 20-14 at the long break.

During the half-time break one of the regular patrons passed around the bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers that he had made using peppers that he had grown at home. As much as my stomach was already groaning, I felt I had to find some room for these local treats and I was not disappointed for my effort.

After the half it was a different game as Devine Ozigbo came into play and made a number of important rushes for his team. I was happy to recall his response to my question from a couple of weeks ago when he said that he would have several family members at the Oregon game. I’m sure that they were proud of their brother with his 21 carries for 95 yards, most of which took place in the second half of the game.

When Ozigbo ran in a touchdown halfway through the third quarter the score was 28-20 for the Huskers and the mood in the Union Bar was upbeat, to say the least. I was happy to sing along when the fight song was played after each touchdown, and even though no-one else joined in I did not feel self-conscious in the way that I had at the stadium in Lincoln.

With all the scoring that had taken place it had become evident before the half that the result of the game would come down to the team that had the ball last. Oregon had scored two touchdowns to take a 32-28 lead with 10 minutes left  in the game and would have been further ahead except for their four failed two-point conversion tries. Armstrong had played a good game and had carried the ball for significant yardage but had also suffered a number of blows from hard tackles. It was unclear whether he could continue and at one point he had been replaced by Fyfe. But with the game on the line he stepped up and completed a crucial 4^th and 9 pass to Westerkamp to keep the Huskers’ final drive alive. And then with 3 minutes left, Armstrong kept the ball on a designed run and scampered 34 yards into the end zone for what would be the game-winning touchdown. The final score was 35-32 in favor of the Huskers and the crowd at the Union Bar savored the victory with high fives and spirited cheers. Meanwhile the Oregonians must have pondered what might have happened if they had contented themselves with a single point after each of their 5 touchdowns instead of pursuing the false promise of a two-point conversion. They must also wonder about their 13 penalties for 126 yards that allowed the Huskers to maintain their momentum at critical points in the game. In comparison, Nebraska had just 7 penalties for 55 yards.

As much as I enjoyed being part of the enthusiastic crowd at the Union Bar, I wished  that I could be there to witness the post-game press conference in Lincoln. I will have to review the video to be sure, but I expect that a certain Head Coach may be smiling.

That’s what Nebraska fans are hoping for this weekend when Oregon comes to town. The score has already been forecast and posted on the board outside the popular filling station on 9^th Street that is filled with faithful tailgaters every game day. The fact that the Ducks are ranked no. 22 in the national polls is of no concern to the Huskers as they beat a much higher-ranked Michigan State team last year in Lincoln. I will not be at the game in person because I will be in Scottsbluff, but I almost got the chance to meet a Ducks fan last night in Los Angeles airport.

When I say “almost”, I mean that when I saw the mid-40ish man walking through the concourse on his way to board the 6.40pm Omaha flight. He was wearing an Oregon cap I tried my best to meet him but there was no response. I called out to him “Hello! Oregon fan?” but he kept walking with his head down, oblivious to my overtures. I wanted to wish him a good trip to Omaha and an enjoyable time at the game but he just kept walking. It reminded me somewhat of those Donald Duck cartoons where Donald would lose his temper over one thing or another and then stomp away muttering to himself under his breath. Maybe this particular guy was thinking “Sassafrass! I fly all the way to Nebraska for a dumb football game and those pesky Huskers beat us by a touchdown!” Time will tell of course, but it also reminds me of last year when I met an energetic retired couple just before the Michigan State game who had driven all the way from Michigan to watch their team take on the Huskers. After hearing about their drive through the various states I told them that I was sorry for them that their return trip would not be quite as pleasant after traveling all this way just to see their team lose. I was joking of course, but I hope we see the pattern repeated tomorrow afternoon!

I had always wanted to visit Scottsbluff, because it is where my wife’s great-aunt used to live. She had been born to homesteader parents in Hooper, NE and grew up in that area before marrying and moving to the west of the state. This is my first trip to the western side of Nebraska , and although the landscape is certainly different with its hills and bluffs in comparison to the areas to the east, so far I have encountered the same friendly spirit here as I did in Beatrice, Hooper and other parts of Nebraska. For example, today when I was having my hair cut by Brandi I mentioned I was planning to watch the game at the Union Bar in nearby Gering. She was very happy to tell me what to expect when I arrived to watch the game, and she also shared her favorite menu item as well as that of her husband. In addition she was kind enough to warn me in advance about the house specialty ironically known as the “Diet Burger” which I now can’t wait to see tomorrow.

Even more fun to see tomorrow after the game will be flocks of Ducks fans “sassafrassing” to themselves under their breath!

While in Beatrice last week prior to the Wyoming game, the Aussie Husker Fan was interviewed for the local daily paper. The published article follows.

Husker book to include Beatrice chapter

Annie Bohling Daily Sun staff writer

Updated Sep 9, 2016

A new book about Nebraska and its affair with college football written by an Australian native will have a chapter devoted to Beatrice.

Sitting in Sunrise Bakery on Friday and dressed in a button-up, short-sleeved red shirt printed with Nebraska Cornhuskers football symbols, author Steve Banner explained the project.

The new book is a sequel to his prior work, titled, "That Guy's Wearing Red, Too!" The title is something Banner said in 2001 when first  exposed to the "Husker Nation."

From that point on, Banner's fascination with Nebraskans' pride in their state and their football team grew, prompting him to write a book, which he described as an exploration of Nebraska and "its unique football tradition."

The sequel is an extension of that exploration.

Banner is continuing his journey by attending all Husker home football games this season from different sections of the stadium, watching away games in Husker fan bars in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix and Dallas, and interacting with neighboring Husker fans in those settings.

He's also visiting small towns to visit with Nebraskans about their memories and affection for the Cornhuskers. That's where Beatrice comes in.

Banner married an Omaha native, Christine, in 2003. Her mother is a Beatrice native. A chapter dedicated to Beatrice will include anecdotes from natives about their recollections of Nebraska life and favorite memories of Husker football he gathered in his visit to town.

One memory that stands out in Beatrice for Banner is a long talk with former Beatrice High School football coach Bob Sexton, who explained his philosophy of using football as a means to help develop character. Banner, a fan of that philosophy, noted that it's echoed by Nebraska head coach Mike Riley.

Other chapters will follow the same model with the setting in towns such as Scottsbluff, Osceola, Sidney, Norfolk and McCook.

"One thing I want to explore is people's recollections of Nebraska football game days as kids, and traditions on those days," Banner said.

For this book, he also hopes to interview two famous Husker fans -- Warren Buffett and Larry the Cable Guy, whose real name is Daniel Whitney.

Highlights of the season and answers from Husker football players and coaches at press releases attended by Banner will also be worked into the book.

"A message to take away from this book is that you Nebraskans have something very special here and you might not appreciate how quite special it is," Banner said. "The more I visit, the more I understand just how special it is."

Banner described himself as a keen sports fan who has attended iconic sports events across the world.

"But none are like this -- none are like going to a Husker game," he said. "The atmosphere of it, the feel of it. The balloons, the bands. People are so friendly and warm. You can see the good sportsmanship of the players. It's unique. The state and the football team are such huge parts of everyone's identity, it feels like to me."

Banner said Nebraskans must be generous, hard working and considerate of their neighbors due to their ancestral roots as immigrants and homesteaders.

"The generosity of spirit and good-natured pride of Nebraska fans are what brought me here in the first place, and that’s why I’ve come back again," Banner said in a press release. "I have met so many wonderful and genuine people in my travels across the State so far, and I can’t wait to meet more of them as I travel further west to places like Scottsbluff and listen to their tales."

For more information about Banner's current and future books, visit his blog, NebraskaCollegeFootball.com.

“And then they charged us extra just to sit together. Can you believe it?” This was the lament by the couple I had just met in the Los Angeles airport as we walked together to catch our flight to Omaha on Thursday night before the Wyoming game. As so often happens – and I never get tired of the warm feeling it brings me – the Nebraska-born pair had noted the hatband which immediately identified me as a Huskers fan and therefore a new friend with whom they could share what was on their mind. They had only decided a week earlier to attend their friend’s wedding in Omaha, but they soon found that their flights were much more expensive than they had anticipated. By now they had committed to go to the wedding and thus they had no choice but to pay the asking price. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that when I had checked on line earlier in the day I had found that there were a lot of empty seats on the flight. I just hope they enjoyed the wedding and did not let the mysterious and unpredictable workings of the airline reservation system spoil their fun.

Meeting Nebraska fans at the airport reminded me of one day last year when I met three young adults who were on their way from Dallas to watch their brother Devine Ozigbo play I-back for the Huskers. The enthusiasm of his two sisters and brothers was infectious as they happily chattered about Devine and his prospects for the coming game. As it turned out, Devine’s game time that day was limited to only a handful of snaps and I felt sorry for his siblings who had traveled so far to see so little.

But what a difference a year makes, because in the first game of the 2016 season Devine not only played most of the game but was the team’s leading rusher with 103 yards and two touchdowns. I was happy for him and asked him at the press conference after the game whether any members of his family had been present at the game. To his credit he responded freely to what must have seemed like an odd question and said that although none of them were there for the Fresno State game, his brother and one of his sisters would be at the Oregon game. I did not see Devine at any of the 2015 press conferences, and so as far as I know this was his first such appearance. He spoke articulately as he replied to questions from the press corps, and seemed to be very poised with no sign of nervousness as he faced close to a dozen cameras aimed at him. In contrast, last season I had seen a number of players who were quite understandably uncomfortable to be behind a podium in front of the cameras and couldn’t wait to escape the spotlight. I can only imagine the pressure they feel as they are asked to explain their actions, knowing that their words will be reported to 1.8 million Nebraskans that night via television and to countless more fans the next day via newspapers and the internet.

Thanks to the magic of modern technology, the words spoken at these press events are meticulously recorded. This of course is a convenience for reporters as using a recording device allows them to concentrate more fully on the speaker rather than trying to keep up with the hopeless task of scribbling down notes as the subject of their questioning responds. I only wish I had been present at a press event that took place prior to the first game when Coach Riley was reported to have uttered the following line that will live long in my memory: “We don’t not redshirt players and then not play them.” Regardless of the context in which he made that statement, Riley achieved the remarkable feat of crafting a triple-negative sentence in the space of ten words. My school teacher mother and newspaper editor grandfather would have been horrified to hear such a pronouncement but I was delighted to have read it. Riley might have expressed his thought more correctly as “It’s not our policy to decline to give redshirts to players and then keep them from playing.” But the fact that he spoke in the way that he did makes me glad to think that he feels at ease to share his thoughts with the fans just as he would with friends. Just like new friends he might meet at the airport who share the common Big Red bond.

It's amazing how different things look when you approach them from a new angle. At today's game I was seated in the Student Section. My ears are still ringing and my knees are still aching, but it was easily the most entertaining experience in the Husker crowd that I have ever had, I had bought my single ticket at random from a man on the street and didn't realize until I had almost arrived at the Stadium that this seat was in the midst of the Student Section in the south-east corner near the band.

The first thing I realized as I was making my way to my seat was that it would be easy to get to my assigned spot because everyone was standing - but they were not just standing, they were standing on the seats which made it easy to walk between them to get to my spot. The hard part was when I tried to step up into my assigned place and was encountered by an irritated young lady who was thinking that I must be having a senior moment and had accidentally wandered off into the wrong part of the stadium.

"This is the student section" she informed me in an impatient tone that betrayed no sense of pity for the poor old geezer who had lost his way.

"Yes, I know" I feebly replied as I stepped up on to what now seemed to be a very narrow plank that serves as seating space for everyone in the stadium except this particular demographic group. "I bought my ticket on the street".

With an annoyed sigh she moved further to her left to be more distant from me and closer to her friends, and then turned back to her phone. I tried to look out the corner of my eye to see if she was sending a text to the closest Senior Care Center to ask them to do a quick headcount to make sure all of their patients were accounted for. But she soon forgot about me when a wasp inconveniently flew into our midst and created scenes of ducking and weaving pandemonium that would have made the boxer Bud Crawford proud.

I soon learned that the students followed a number of different traditions and rituals during their game-watching experience. The first of these that I was to witness was the kick-off routine which unfolded after the Huskers scored their first touchdown, As the players lined up on the field for the ensuing kick-off, the hundreds of students around me took off their right shoe and held it in the air until the ball was kicked. I did however spot one dissenter in the crowd who wore boots instead of shoes, and then as if to underline his non-conformist stance he held up his left boot instead of his right. We can only hope that this kind of wayward thinking was duly noted by the young lady next to me, soon to result in a stern lecture from her to be delivered to the radical troublemaker hiding in the midst of the student body.

Just as I had encountered in other parts of the stadium and at last year's bowl game, I am sad to say that there was no singing of the fight song after each touchdown even though the Huskers created 7 such singing opportunities during the course of the game. I would have tried to lead the way by singing the song loudly to try to encourage participation, but after my arrival experience I didn't dare to risk being hauled off in a large butterfly net as I sang forlornly to myself in the midst of stunned silence all around me.

But I was also distracted after that first touchdown as I waited for everyone to sit down. But no-one did. We continued to stand of the seats that wobbled a bit sometimes as people moved or danced in place to the PA music that seemed to elicit much more reaction in this part of the stadium than I had seen in other parts. But even if we do want to stand throughout the game, why not stand on the concrete floor instead of the seats? The view would still be the same and the footing would be much more stable. I know I sound like my father, and everyone else's father - which of course answers my own question. When the second quarter came to a close, the entire section of fans immediately sat down in unison. We all retained the same view we had enjoyed only moments earlier but those of us with aging knees were suddenly much more comfortable. I wondered why we wouldn't now sit from this point on, but then that's what our fathers would have advised us to do. After a well-executed Hawaiian-themed half-time performance by the band we all jumped back up on to our seats. Looking back I realize that I was lucky not to have found a vendor before the game from whom to rent a seat cushion and back for $5. I don't know what I would have done with said item (perhaps I could have stood on it and eased the pressure on my feet and knees, but then I would have felt guilty as if I were standing on someone's sofa).

During the third quarter I was privy to the inner workings of a sporting phenomenon that has long intrigued me: namely, The Wave. Where does it come from and who starts it? Those had always been my questions as I watched thousands of people rise and fall in unison around a stadium as if they were the fabric on a carpet that was being shaken out by a housekeeper with a short attention span. Up until today, the only thing I knew about The Wave was that if you start one at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia you will be ejected and invited not to return. That kind of bureaucratic joy killing reminds me of when I lived in Florida at the time that the Florida Panthers hockey team was launched. Early in the team's first season, several fans threw their hats out on to the ice right after one of the visiting players had scored his third goal of the game. In a remarkably quick response, security guards immediately found the rabble rousers responsible and threw them out of the stadium.

But today in Lincoln I was privileged to be right in the midst of the instigators of the wave that swept Memorial Stadium during the third quarter. The early ripples began in the student section, and after several false starts the wave took off in earnest around the stadium as we all forgot about the action on the field. After several brisk revolutions, the order was given to make the next wave slow, And as if the instructions had been sent by mental telepathy, the next circumnavigation proceeded at a slow motion snail's pace. By the time the wave returned to its student originators the word had gone out to switch to Warp speed, and 89,895 people responded accordingly as they quickly stood, waved their arms like characters in a silent movie and then sat down again. Even the yellow-clad Wyoming fans who had been herded into their own visitors' ghetto in the corner of the stadium took part.

During the game - especially the last quarter - the crowd had plenty of reasons to cheer their Huskers. There was a total of five interceptions by Nebraska, each of which drew what was to me an almost deafening roar. The reaction of the crowd was certainly not lost on the players, who often turned and gestured to the Student Section during the game to get them to cheer. Watching the game from among the students was quite invigorating and gave me a whole different perspective that I had not previously had since I did not attend the University of Nebraska. It also provided me with some insight into what my wife's experience might have been like as a student in the 1980s.

I wonder if she was a right-shoer or a lefty? Either way, it could explain a lot of things.

I’ve become convinced that there is no such thing as a secret handshake in Nebraska. No matter where they are in the world, Nebraska fans recognize one another at a distance by the color of their shirt or at closer quarters by the red letter “N” that has been placed surreptitiously on their clothing or even on their luggage. I know of that of which I speak, because a couple of months ago I was spotted across a crowded square at a French Festival in downtown Sydney by two visiting Americans and then again at Los Angeles airport last week before catching a flight for the opening game.

In all cases such as this, the conversation about the Huskers suddenly springs out of nowhere like a flash flood down what had been a dry creek bed of silence only moments earlier. All parties concerned are swept along at a frenetic pace as the discussion turns from last week’s game to the coming game and then eventually slows down as introductions are made and home towns are identified. In such encounters the normal sequence of social protocol is turned on its head as the participants have recognized one another’s bona fides to take part in a Nebraska conversation long before they are in close enough proximity to begin to speak. An animated conversation thus takes place at the outset, followed later by the usual niceties of introductions and small talk.

I am sometimes tempted to throw a spanner into the works by denying any connection to Nebraska and explaining to anyone who approaches me that what appears to be a series of “N”s on my hatband is actually a series of “Z”s placed sideways in recognition of my alma mater Zane State College. It would be interesting to see the reaction from the person who approached me but I wouldn’t have the heart to make up such a story because the enthusiasm with which I have been greeted in such settings is simply infectious and it would be churlish of me to prevent the flood gates from opening.

And then there’s the matter of one’s sense of humor. My father-in-law Tom enjoyed a good laugh as much as anyone, but he was deadly serious when it came to his beloved Huskers. At one of the first games I attended, I recall asking him why there was a big red letter “Z” in the middle of the field. He didn’t realize I was joking and curtly informed me that I was a letter “N” for Nebraska. I can only wonder what he thought to himself about this dopey Aussie who wasn’t smart enough to read the alphabet properly.

 I soon learned he didn’t have much of a sense of humor about his hometown of Omaha, either. We were driving down one of the interstate highways that bisect the city and I noted that the city fathers were missing out on a fabulous revenue-raising opportunity. “Instead of calling that road F Street” I began, “why don’t they sell the naming rights to a sponsor? For example F Street could now become McDonald’s Boulevard”. Tom paused for a moment and then, with the kind of calm patience one normally reserves for small children and intellectually-challenged foreigners, gently explained that my idea would not work.

“Why not?” I asked in mock surprise.

“Because then nobody would be able to find F Street ”, he replied.

I had no answer to that, but I knew how Vincent van Gogh must have felt as a great artist who was unappreciated during his own lifetime. My imaginative word pictures were going unsold just as his paintings did, but at least my ears were intact.

“I have a lot of real mixed emotions about the game.” These were among the first words spoken by Head Coach Mike Riley at the post-game press conference following his team’s 43-10 win over the Fresno State Bulldogs. Although in this case Riley was referring to the uneven performance of his team on the field and their sometimes “sloppy” play, it had indeed been an emotional day for his players, coaches and the 90,013 spectators who had come to watch the opening game of the 2016 season.

On everyone’s mind was the loss of Sam Foltz. While the team playbooks and coaching manuals are filled with detailed descriptions of how to respond to the myriad of different situations that may arise during a football game, there is surely no section of any of these manuals that deals with how to handle the loss of a key player during the off-season. Instead, Foltz’s family, friends and teammates would have to improvise their own course of action to honor his memory. And with a little help from “upstairs” – and I don’t mean the coaches’ box in the West Stadium – they combined to create a very fitting and moving tribute to the memory of number 27.

Prior to the game, Drew Brown and Spencer Lindsay had carried Foltz’s number 27 jersey out on to the field and raised it before the student section of the crowd, who cheered loudly. They then returned it to the sideline and draped it over the bench where it remained for the duration of the game. A little while later as Foltz’s parents and family members watched from the sidelines, Sam’s two little nephews Lane and Max walked through the tunnel with the players (who lifted them up to touch the horseshoe) and then led the players as they ran out on to the field together.

However there was more to come on the fourth play of the game. Nebraska had the ball first but its opening drive stalled after 3 plays, and so the punt unit ran out on to the field. But in a surreal scene that few will ever forget, only 10 players lined up. Everyone was set in their assigned location except for the punter. The Huskers had created a “missing man” formation in the same way that Air Force pilots pay tribute to their fallen comrades by flying in a formation with a space left empty for their lost brother-in-arms. As the play clock ran down with the motionless players fixed in their positions, the enormous crowd rose to its feet and cheered for the memory of the missing man Sam Foltz. Tears flowed freely on the field, on the sidelines and in the stands.

When the clock finally ticked to zero, the officials threw a penalty flag for a delay-of-game. But in a classy move that will be appreciated by football fans everywhere, Fresno State declined the penalty. When talking about this moment after the game, the Bulldogs’ Head Coach Tim DeRuyter choked back tears as he empathized with Nebraska and the way that he would feel if he lost his 23-year-old son, who is serving in the Air Force. Indeed the entire Fresno State team had worn “SF” decals on their helmets throughout the game to honor the memory of their fellow collegiate athlete.

Unbeknownst to many of the players on the field and certainly to my wife and me who were seated in the north-east corner of the stadium, there was a final word to be added to the Sam Foltz tribute. It had been raining prior to the game almost up until the kick-off, but finally the storm clouds moved away. Apparently the missing man punt play had been sent upstairs for further review but, signaled by a rainbow that appeared to the north-west right after that play, the call on the field was upheld – or one might say it had received a blessing from above.

RIP Sam.

Who knows what to expect for 2016? At this same time last year my wife and I traveled to Omaha in preparation for the first game of the new season under a new Head Coach. Even though we are at the end of the summer one year later, and about to transition to Fall, it feels more like Spring as we look forward to seeing the emergence of the shoots that emanate from the seeds that were panted in the Nebraska football program some months ago.

The head farmer who took over control of the growing enterprise a year ago can now be said to be in control. The effects of his efforts to train and guide the crop will become even more evident this year. Last year he did his best to work with the fields as he found them, but now they unmistakably bear his mark. Given the four-year cycle of this particular product it would be unfair to say that absolutely 100 percent of the kernels in the harvest that spring from the fields this year are the result of the skilled husbandry of Farmer Riley and his team, but more than a million statewide emotional and financial investors in the Big Red enterprise are hoping to reap a strong crop this year with the promise of even more to come each following year.

The off-season has indeed been difficult with the tragic loss of punter Sam Foltz. It was a joy to watch him on the field because unlike so many other punters, he could safely be relied upon to get his kick away not only safely but also with substantial distance. As a former Australian Rules Football player, I can testify that these are essential skills that players start to develop at a young age and it takes years of practice to reach a consistent level of performance. When I first started to watch American Foorball in the 1990s I found it extremely painful to watch the punters step mechanically forward like slow-motion robots after catching the snapped ball, seemingly unable to hurry their pace or adapt to the rush of defenders crowding in on them from all sides to block the kick. Even though they played at the NFL level, very few punters seemed to have mastered the skills required for their position. But Sam Foltz was an entirely different proposition as he received the snap and nimbly stepped forward while aiming and completing his kick, always finishing safely long before any contact from a defender. His untimely demise is a loss not only to the Huskers but also to the NFL where he would have surely found a place.

Looking forward to the season ahead, I think I speak for all Husker fans when I say I hope it is not as “interesting” as last year when a number of games were lost in the final seconds. The ups and downs of the year provided me as a writer with ample opportunity to observe the character of Nebraska fans as they dealt with the unaccustomed adversity of an ongoing losing record throughout the year. I am pleased to say that the fans responded with a level of grace and maturity that would have been difficult to find in many other places, Dallas comes to mind for an example. But this year I hope to be able to observe the other side of the equation: Nebraska fans as gracious winners. May it be so.

The book is now published and available on Amazon. You can also order copies from this site, autographed by the Aussie Husker Fan. It's also available at Husker Hounds and Best of Big Red. It can also be found at Susan's Gifts and Books in Aurora.

LATEST NEWS: After a successful book tour of eastern Nebraska the Aussie Husker Fan is now back at home, busily planning his coming book about the 2016 season. He plans to visit towns as far west as Scottsbluff in addition to revisiting some of the towns highlighted in the book about the 2015 season.

For those who missed the Aussie Husker Fan's radio interview in Nebraska City on KNCY after the Red-White Scrimmage game, please click on the link to the right.

The book tells the story of the 2015 Huskers season while also exploring the State of Nebraska and its unique football tradition.

The title comes from my second-ever visit to Nebraska which took place during the Labor Day weekend in 2002. My wife and I had arrived in Omaha late on Friday evening to spend 3 nights with her parents at their home. First thing Saturday morning before I took our dog out for a walk, I noticed that my father-in-law Tom was wearing a red Nebraska shirt. When I asked him about it he informed that it was his personal tradition to wear a red shirt on a game day. I complimented him on his team spirit and set off with the dog for a 15-minute stroll around the neighborhood. Being early in the day, there was very little traffic on the road but I did notice one particular car that drove past in which the driver was wearing red. I couldn't wait to get back to tell Tom that I had seen someone else who seemed to share his same tradition of wearing red on a game day. "That guy was wearing red, too!" I informed him breathlessly, thinking that I had found probably the only other person in Nebraska besides Tom who was wearing a red shirt that day.

I was soon to learn that the tradition of wearing red on a game day in Nebraska extends vastly beyond Tom and his Omaha neighbor! My initiation to the world of Nebraska and the Big Red had begun....