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Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Cornhuskers practicing selective amnesia

By Dugan Arnett

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In attempting to regroup from last week's 62-28 trouncing at the hands of then-No. 4 Oklahoma, the Nebraska University football team is taking an interesting approach to the recovery process.

In short, the Huskers are acting like the OU game never happened.

Following one of the team's worst losses in recent memory, coach Bo Pelini instructed his players and assistant coaches not to talk about the game in an effort to move on as quickly as possible.

"I think that they know that we're a better football team than the result," said Pelini, whose team will play host to Kansas University at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. "But I told them right after the game, it's time we just need to move on and worry about Kansas. We'll get our mistakes fixed, but there's no sense in beating ourselves over the head with this."

The beating NU took on the field, after all, was quite enough. Within the first six minutes against the Sooners, Nebraska trailed 28-0 after turning the ball over three times and was behind 35-0 at the conclusion of the first quarter. The game marked the first time in the series' history that the Cornhuskers had given up more than 55 points to Oklahoma and represented the team's worst defensive showing of the season.

"I've been on both sides of that, and it's difficult," Pelini said. "But you got to make a play, and we weren't able to get that done. You got to do something to try to get the momentum back, and we weren't able to do that until it was too late."

Saturday's game against Kansas, the 115th all-time meeting between the two teams, represents Nebraska's first opportunity to put last week's game behind.

The Jayhawks rebounded from a similar lopsided loss to Texas Tech two weeks ago in convincing fashion, beating rival Kansas State by 31 points on Saturday, and Nebraska, surely, will be shooting for a similar outcome this weekend when it faces Kansas for the first time since falling 76-39 to the Jayhawks last season.

Pelini was quick to point out that, at 5-4 (2-3 in the Big 12), the Cornhuskers are just one victory away from becoming bowl-eligible this season. And although Nebraska has had little success defensively this season, Kansas coach Mark Mangino said Monday that he didn't put too much stock into the Cornhuskers' most recent performance.

"Hey, listen, we played Oklahoma," Mangino said. "You do a couple of things wrong and they can come roaring out of the blocks. They're a very, very good football team. What happened to Nebraska can happen to anybody against Oklahoma if you have a couple mistakes. So I'm not going to read a whole lot into that."

¢ Harrell continues to impress: For the second consecutive weekend, Mangino watched Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell pick apart a defense.

This time around, though, he did so with the luxury of distance.

A week after Harrell and the Red Raiders torched his team for 556 yards and 63 points, Mangino, who spoke highly of Harrell after going against him two weeks ago, had a chance to watch highlights of Texas Tech's thrilling comeback victory over then-top-ranked Texas last weekend. And what he saw did nothing to alter his perception of the Heisman hopeful.

"I said it before, (and) I'll say it again," Mangino said, "I think the guy is just a terrific player. ... The thing that really jumps out to me about Graham, just from studying him for our game and playing against him, is I think that he is supremely confident in what he is doing. He is in control of what he's doing. He knows the system very well, and he understands where people are going to be."

¢ Game times announced: Kansas' game against rival Missouri, scheduled for Nov. 29 at Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium, will kick off at 11:30 a.m. and be televised by FSN, the university announced Monday.

The Jayhawks' home finale against Texas on Nov. 15 is set for an 11:30 a.m. kickoff as well and also will be televised on FSN.

Comments

ttoulouse (anonymous) says...

"Following one of the team's worst losses in recent memory"

Obviously Doogie wasn't in Lawrence last year. Statements like that imply that what we did to NU last year didn't mean anything. Doogie has no idea what that victory meant to the alumni of KU and he never will. Then again, I don't expect anything less from this guy.

November 4, 2008 at 6:16 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

eastcoasthawk (anonymous) says...

Yeah, I thought the title of the article was about last year's game. Oh well. Had he changed the words "recent memory" to "this year" it would have worked. I won't bust Doogie Howser on that but he ought to become one hell of a writer after all the beatings we give him. Sadly, I will have to take some football coverage today even if it is not about my team.

As for the upcoming game in Huskerland, it will be a tough one. I believe we will see the Huskers that played at Tech as opposed to the team that played in Norman. Our guys better have their game faces on. As I said in another comment section, it is like a playoff every week.

November 4, 2008 at 7:47 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Code_2008 (anonymous) says...

Recent memory, eh? So... they tried to forget our whipping to them too?

November 4, 2008 at 8:18 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

FlaHawk (anonymous) says...

IF you were NU would youi not want to forget the 4 Callahan years not just the KU beat down?

Do we so quickly forget the NU obnoxious pride in the Big Red.

November 4, 2008 at 8:51 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

JayViking (anonymous) says...

wtf morning games wtf wtf wtf wtf

November 4, 2008 at 9:11 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

rolo2383 (anonymous) says...

"One of the teams worst losses" means more than one. Which means that the KU loss from last year is "one of" their recent bad losses. They got blown out by MU which was also "one of" their worst losses.

I'm nervous about this game but I think we win comfortably.

November 4, 2008 at 9:38 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

hawk_bred20 (anonymous) says...

So we will not play a game after noon against a good team? Unbelievable.

November 4, 2008 at 10:04 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

actorman (anonymous) says...

Careful rolo, don't inject logic into a chance for someone to bash Dugan. Don't rain on anyone's parade.

November 4, 2008 at 10:18 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

justanotherfan (anonymous) says...

If no one knew Dugan was a MU alum, nobody would bash him I bet. Just saying...

November 4, 2008 at 10:45 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

plasticJHawk (anonymous) says...

In 2004 they lost 70-10 to Texas Tech. But that may not count as recent memory since only the 5th year players were on that team... and they were redshirts.

November 4, 2008 at 11:27 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

woodhawk (anonymous) says...

What the HELL is with all these damn morning games?! Jesus Lord! This is annoying as hell.

November 4, 2008 at 12:28 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

txrockchalk (anonymous) says...

"You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

November 4, 2008 at 12:54 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Code_2008 (anonymous) says...

woodhawk,

You know what... suck it up and get over it.

B*tching about the time of the games won't change it. Be glad this is one is in the afternoon...

November 4, 2008 at 1:45 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

kvskubball (anonymous) says...

eastcoast...

Yeah! message to Duggan... "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger!!!"(From the movie Fifth Element)

justanother...

You're right of course...but he does come from MOOYOU... it's like making the rookies carry everything, or like frat hazing, new guy crew cuts, etc...

I'll take it under advisement to slack off on him~next year!!!

But does the guy wear any KU Blue??? Probably asking too much....

Keep having fun everyone (Except missuuuu's)!!! RCJH's

November 4, 2008 at 4:56 p.m. ( | suggest removal )