Game Day - During and After

Well of course, being the idiot that I am, I dawdled too long in my office and was almost late getting to my seat for the kickoff. I just barely made it. And, being the bigger idiot, I didn't bring sunscreen or a hat, and it was a very sunny day. So my face is a little sunburned right now. All in all I would say that the experience was actually rather unpleasant. The seats consisted of numbers on metal benches; my seat was on the aisle, and the lady sitting next to me was, shall we say, quite "ample" so that meant I only really got half a seat. For much of the first half my body substantially obstructed the aisle, which was jostled whenever anyone went up or down the aisle (say, after touchdowns). And the bright sun didn't help either. The prices at the concession stands were of course outrageous ($3 hotdog, $4 ice cream, $3 soda).

Fortunately the Huskers won, but it was close for a while. They actually trailed at halftime but the defense really stepped up in the second half and shut out Baylor completely from scoring. I actually got to see the Huskers score a safety - a relatively rare thing for all of football. But there were tons of Huskers penalties during this game, just like with the Missouri game. That was a bit strange because I thought they had turned that problem around. It seems that the Huskers this year are exhibiting a "conservation of improvement" - when the defense improves, the offense backslides, and fumbles on 3rd and goal; when special teams steps up, the defense then allows an 80-yard pass play. All the parts are there, they are just not in a rhythm. Next week we play Oklahoma, which is a very good team but not unbeatable. There is some optimism that we can actually beat them this year, although I wouldn't bet any money on it. But even if we don't beat Oklahoma, there is considerable enthusiasm that we will actually make it to a bowl game this year, finishing with at least 6 wins. Right now the Huskers have 5 wins. After Oklahoma the Huskers play Kansas, Kansas State, and Colorado. Kansas will be a close game; Kansas State should be a sure win; and who knows about Colorado. It's a rivalry game, and at home. Colorado hasn't looked too good this year but with rivalry games you never can tell. So we may even have 7 wins this year.

But by far the coolest part of the game for me came even before the kickoff. I was in a narrow hallway waiting to get to my seat, with a crowd of other people, when the National Anthem started playing. People stopped moving forward, took off their hats and sang along. That is actually unusual nowadays! What's more, there was a guy in the back who I guess didn't know what was going on and was shouting towards the front "hey let's go" and so forth, noting that progess in the line had stopped. He was immediately shushed by the other fans, out of reverence for the National Anthem. It's instances like these that make me proud to be associated with Nebraska.

In my next post I'll have some pictures.