Huskers not worried about earning revenge

By Eric Olson - Associated Press Sports Writer     Sep 28, 2006

? Nebraska players say they aren’t using revenge as a motivating factor for Saturday night’s Big 12 opener against Kansas.

They say they consider last year’s 40-15 loss at Kansas – Nebraska’s first to the Jayhawks since 1968 – a lesson learned. Nothing more, nothing less.

“Whoever we were going to play that week, it just wasn’t one of our finer games,” quarterback Zac Taylor said. “Kansas happened to be the team that got the best of us. That really kind of springboarded us into the success we’ve had.”

The No. 21 Huskers are 6-1 since then, with an Alamo Bowl win over Michigan.

During preseason practice, secondary coach Phil Elmassian addressed the team for a half hour about the Kansas loss. His message: It made the Huskers who they are.

“Coach Elmassian believed that was our turnaround game,” linebacker Corey McKeon said. “We realized how we could play as a team when we played well, and how we played when we played poorly.

“He asked us, ‘Do you want to play like you did in the Kansas game or like you did in the Michigan game?’ Everyone, obviously, chose the Michigan game.”

The Huskers pulled to 17-15 in the third quarter before the Jayhawks scored 23 straight points.

The fans and media might have taken the loss harder than the players.

After all, the last time the Huskers had lost to the Jayhawks, Lyndon Johnson was president, the Beatles were all the rage and coach Bill Callahan was in seventh grade.

The loss last year was the Huskers’ third straight and dropped them to 5-4, prompting a reporter to ask Callahan the following week: “If you were athletic director, would you fire yourself?”

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