Well, I think I can finally at least talk about the quick weekend in Texas. Sorry I didn't get to meet many listers down at the game, but it was a quick trip. Our seats were pretty cool, though -- first row right next to the band -- end zone, but got to see players face-to-face and yell at some refs and reporters. Overall, a fun time -- minus four hours Saturday night. First the good...

San Antonio is truly a great city for a bowl game. It reminded me a lot of Indianapolis -- they're both growing, sprawling cities that, despite their rapid growth, have managed to do their downtowns up right. Indy has Circle Centre, restaurants and bars/clubs all within in a clean downtown walk to the Dome. San Antonio has the River Centre, Riverwalk, restaurants, bars/clubs, the Alamo itself and more, all within a jaunt to the Dome. Both also have a market square within a longer walk from downtown. Hmm...

Bravo to the city planners on excellent decisions and to the people of San Antonio for putting on a great event. I wish I'd spent all week there. Highly recommended for all who did not make the trip!

Now to the game...

Three things seemed to be the turning points...

• FIELD POSITION: It began with a bad decision to run the opening kickoff out of our end zone and hence getting pinned deep in that sea of red. Then poor return coverage, punts, kickoffs, etc. by the Cats and great kicks, coverage and punts by UNL resulted in the Huskers always starting around midfield and NU always in a hole. You can't give a team as good as Nebraska half a field while you're trying to drive 90 yards.
• THE ANSWER: Nebraska always had one. We had a nice drive (and great fake punt call) to go up 10-7, BAM! A big return and nice Crouch run for a TD instantly swung ole 'mo back to UNL. Then we had a nice score before half to cut it to 31-17. Given all our problems in the first half (DA2 struggling, bad passes from Zak, bad field position), going in to the half down only 14 would have been a near miracle, but BANG! Nebraska answered with that quick pass to Newcombe (there looked to be a pretty blatant hold, but no call). Each time we got close, Nebraska always had the answer to make sure we were never a serious threat.
• THE TRENCHES: This became evident in the second and obvious in the third. The Huskers won the war of the trenches on both sides of the ball. Zak had a lot of pressure and the Husker offense really started clicking after our D had success in the first quarter.

Quite simply, the better team won. The more talented and more motivated team won. We got taught a lesson in how far we have to go and how we need to be prepared. Nebraska was finally healthy and looking like the team everyone picked #1 in the preseason, and NU never looked comfortable on offense. I did think our defense looked good at the start and did about as well as you could expect against that offense. In the second half, they were just on the field too often and once you get tired and lose
discipline, a great option offense becomes unstoppable.

Some other musings...

• If nothing else, hopefully this game showed Damien Anderson that he needs to stay in school one more year. He's a fine back, no doubt, but when Nebraska and Purdue's defenses really keyed in on him, DA couldn't come through. He had a few nice runs, but no consistency. NFL backs need consistency. One more year in college should make him a solid NFL player.
• The officiating seemed pretty lousy. No, it was nowhere CLOSE to deciding the game, but these refs seemed to be on another planet most of the game. How Northwestern got the only personal foul of the game when it was Nebraska taunting after nearly every play just amazes me. And no holding flags on the Huskers? These guys seemed to be intimidated by Big Red all night and never were in control of the game.
• Speaking of the taunting, while I had good encounters with UNL fans (they're a classy bunch who know their football and love their team), I lost a lot of respect for the Nebraska team. It started with #15's constant jawing and classless comments to the media. The taunting, antics after the whistle and Florida State-like showboating the whole game made me wonder if Solich had the control over his team that Osborne did. Most of the team seemed to be a bunch of cocky thugs, gesturing and taunting most of the game. I mean, sheesh, these guys are the preseason #1 team and the biggest favorites of any bowl team, if they have to strut and gesture over a tackle in the Alamo Bowl against Northwestern, they really need to get some perspective and grow up. While this game showed us how far we have to go to become a great football team, it also showed that sometimes, the great football teams are still lacking a certain something.
• Consider, if you will, how South Carolina's spurned running back (was it Bowers?) reacted January 1 against Ohio State. He had just as much scorn as UNL's #15 (probably more, because he was a standout Ohio back and wanted to attend OSU but was ignored, while #15 wasn't ignored by the state's main football school) but channeled his energy into playing a great game. OSU hit him with trash talk and cheap shots and he just got up, smiled and played his game, beating the Bucks on the field. He let his play speak for itself, without showboating or acting like a 5-year-old. Contrast the two players and I'll have more respect for one Bowers, even if he never scores
  another TD, than a thousand #15s of Nebraska. Bowers got his revenge with class.
• As for the trick play late by Solich, that just struck me as typical Nebraska. You can't decry it or ask them to just kneel for a quarter. You gotta play the full game, but it's just not something some coaches would avoid doing. It was more disappointing than anything else. The final TD was scored by bench players running the usual offense - no problem there. This one was on a trick play by starters, up by 5 scores in the last seconds of the third quarter. I think it said a lot that Walker put in the subs a few minutes before Solich. If Solich feels he has to run up the score in a non-January 1 bowl to impress some pollsters or make up for losing to Oklahoma and Kansas State, then you just gotta feel sorry for the guy. Every bully meets his match one day (ask Coop or Hayden Fry), and I won't really feel sorry for Solich when that day comes.
• Zak really looked jittery at the start and never fully recovered (by the time he might have calmed down, our O-line was starting to show cracks and UNL was getting big pressure). I guess he was hurt in the weeks before the game, but if that was the case, then the game plan should have been to establish the run more instead of come out passing three straight downs.

So it was a frustrating end to a fabulous season. We still have the Big Ten championship trophy, those wild wins in Madison, Minneapolis and against Michigan and sweet revenge with Sweet Sioux. Yes, we shouldn't have been at the Alamo Bowl and neither should have Nebraska. But only one team played like it. The Huskers did pretty much what I expected them to do, but we did not. We did not look like a team motivated to win or prepared to execute the offense. The outmanned D held out as long as they could in the first, but the offense never kicked in. Credit Nebraska's defense, but I think a lot of it was our fault -- we didn't bring our A-game or look close to what we looked like in the regular season. We flinched early, never recovered and were blown out.

We can either take this as a lesson on what we have to do to improve (execute better, better special teams, defensive speed and QB pressure, etc.) or we can let it demoralize us and underachieve next year.

This team has the talent to win every game on its schedule next year. They have more returning than any team in the Big Ten and a favorable schedule to win the league, but just like in 1996, there will be doubters who said it was just one fluke year and NU can't do it again. Hopefully we will stew over this defeat all off season and come back with a vengeance in 2001, just like the Cats of '96, on a mission to prove that it wasn't a one-year-wonder. Next year's T-shirt should say "Remember the Alamo" and with Walker at the helm, I expect us to carry that chip on our shoulder all year as we march -- one game at a time -- to the Big Ten championship (no CO- next year!).

GO CATS!!! BEAT UNLV!!!

Around the horn...

• Well, after two years as the nation's top league, it was a crash-and-burn down year for the Big Ten in bowls. Michigan and Wisconsin had to struggle to win games they should have dominated, OSU and Minnesota choked again in bowls and Purdue looked a lot like the Cats did in the '96 Rose Bowl, jittery at the start and having a late rally fall short. I agree with Mike, that the Big Ten's bowls are set up in a way that makes a winning season difficult (on top of playing a lot of teams in their home states/climates, we're usually underseeded, #5 Big Ten vs. #3 Pac 10, etc.), but this was about as down a year as the league's had in awhile. Michigan's probably the one top 10 team, but their lack of defense really killed 'em.
• Nice to see ONE bowl go the way I expected, as the Irish proved they didn't belong in the BCS and Oregon State proved they really were legit in a blowout. With the two wins yesterday, the Pac 10 probably jumped ahead of the Big XII (too many Texas team losses) for second-best bowl season behind the Big East.
• The Texas-Oregon and ATM-Mississippi State games lived up to their billing -- what great games! LOVED all that snow in Shreveport as well, we need more snow bowls!
• Surprised OSU fired Coop (I thought they'd either do it before the bowl or give him one more year), but I guess their uninspired play in Tampa was the final straw. If they don't get Mason, hopefully the Bucks won't try and lure Walker away (Bayless has been lobbying for that for months). I don't think Randy would leave, but who needs the hassle again. We've got the guy we want in Evanston and hopefully we'll keep him here for a long time!

GOCATS!

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