And, of course, I’m gonna poke fun at Akron after their last trip to Lincoln. It was supposed to be a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter opening of the Scott Frost Era, but instead the Huskers fans spent a night in the stadium and in front of teevees watching for an end to the lightning warnings which never came.
After the game was called off for the evening, Nebraska scrambled for a way to play it on Sunday morning, but Terry Bowden and his Zips instead scrambled to the airport as the weather then
cleared enough for them to fly home several hundred thousand bucks richer with no wear and tear to show for it.
This year, there is no apparent escape as the weather is more October-like with temps around 70 and cooling in the evening instead of the usual 85-99 degrees greeting the season opener and its cavalcade of heat strokes greeting dehydrated elderly fans who’ve been tailgating like crazed monkeys their college days.
It’s cozy, it’s sunny, it’s clear and there will be football tonight.
On with The Pre-Game Vibe:
- First off – Yo, let’s get an alert to Mike Ekeler – this Akron dude looks like he’s working on his dropkick drop and anyone who saw the original The Longest Yard knows that’s worth three points. Three points? Three points. For THAT?? BULLSHIT!!
- Speaking of weather, other parts of the country are having issues. Georgia and Austin Peay had an extra-long halftime as lightning struck very near the stadium a few times. And Minnesota’s game just ended up getting white flag treatment due to the weather in a blowout. (I don’t know who they were playing, but, much like coverage in a brutal assault, we’re gonna let the victim remain anonymous. )
- Hey – do you want to agonize along with fellow fans? Jump in on our Corn Nation Game Thread and dive into the comments. It’s a pretty safe place to opine, vent, etc. and you will have company. Click on the link in tweet below and Go Big Red. Or just CLICK HERE I guess.
- Hey – guess what I forgot last week – the injury, errrr, availability report. Because players don’t have awful, season-ending injuries which require surgery and painful rehab – they’re just UNAVAILABLE.
- Anyway, here you go – no surprises. And the good news is Jacory Barney Jr appears to be a full go after being questionable earlier in the week. Which you would have known was going to happen if you read my brunch-time article earlier today where Matt Rhule reiterated what a tough bastard Jacory Barney Jr. is – and then some:
- Well, we can hope. Maybe do some Ted Lasso artifact trash-can burning just to make sure. Billy Bob said there weren’t no curses in Friday Night Lights, but I still find myself doing strange things to help ours move on along.
- And here’s the live pre-game show if that floats your boat:
- Hey, just for the heck of it & because everyone loves a list? Here’s three things the Huskers must do to have a successful afternoon:
- 1) Get up big in the first half and win big. Dicking about with Akron will be deemed absolutely unacceptable and no amount of coach-speak afterward will excuse something like a 24-19 win over a 34-point dawg which got beat 10-0 by Wyoming.
- 2) Keep the foot on the gas in the second half should that 1st half big lead come to pass. Last season, the Huskers took big leads into the second half in the first three games. They then went to ground, shut the offense off and pounded vanilla plays into the line. Explosive plays will not happen if they’re not practiced as often as possible in games. Put the subs in, but run an offense. This is more important than being nice.
- 3) Make big plays on offense and shut down the run on defense. Neither of things happened against Cincinnati. Make them happen against today’s lesser opponent.
That’s all we got – Today, just eat, drink, cheer, hug your family and be happy. And get behind a Husker team bringing a different kind of storm to the Zips today.
Go Big Red.
