Unbelievable. There's really no other way to describe what we witnessed on Saturday. How does a team who just a week ago looked like a deer in the headlights come out and flip the script on the next team? How does it go from the wrong end of 76-39 to winning 73-31? On a glorious senior day, the Huskers left home in style, cruising to a blowout behind Joe Ganz's 510 yards and 7 passing touchdowns. While I'm thrilled with the result (and relieved, the losing streak was draining on the fans as well as the players), I can't help but think that this is such a good indicator of why Callahan finds himself on the way out at the end of the season: the most consistent part of his tenure has been inconsistency.
Set a new standard for defensive futility one week, and then follow it up with the most prolific passing day in school history. Beat a top 15 team one week, lose to an unranked the next. Over the past four years, we have seen patches of brilliance mixed with periods of complete ineptitude. It's not that we expect to put up 73 a game, but where has this been? Was this an aberration, a one-day fluke where a pissed off team decided to shut some people up? Or was this something that we could have been doing all season? It is maddening and hope-inspiring at the same time. Maddening because we've witnessed the worst defensive season in school history, hope-inspiring because it shows that perhaps among all those supposedly great recruiting classes, we do indeed have some playmakers.
And all of a sudden, a bowl berth seems like a legitimate possibility. Unfortunately, this could make the coaching situation even messier. What happens if we beat CU? We will go to a bowl, and Osborne, being a man of his word, will let Callahan remain till the season is truly over. This means that we will lose a month that we could have used to hire our new coach and hopefully retain some of our recruits. If we do indeed go to a bowl game, and Callahan is fired, that will leave the new staff just over a month to not only retain Callahan's recruits, but try and fill out a class with whatever prospects remain undecided at that point (which there won't be many undecideds left).
But for now at least, let's forget about the mess and bask in the glow of the victory over K-State. On a day when the Huskers could do no wrong, the seniors spent one last day saying thank you to the Husker faithful, at the same time giving us hope that we aren't as bad as everyone has been saying we are.
Some quick-hit thoughts on the game before I cut this short so I can actually work:
-Frantz Hardy: 3 catches, 3 touchdowns. For all his speed, he didn't do much over the past four years, but what a way to go out. And I'll always remember his long TD against KU last year that was crucial to our victory over the Jayhawks.
-You know you've had a good passing day when Marlon Lucky can rush for 103 yards on 16 carries and nobody even notices.
-Mo Purify.......what a wasted season.....why haven't we been making it a point to throw to this guy every chance we can? There comes a time to forget about the West Coast offense and it's 5 yard out routes and just throw it up to your playmakers. Mo should have been 1st team All Conference, instead we're going to have to be content to see him tear it up the last three or four games. He'll always be one of my favorites from a dark Husker era. He's the definition of a gamer.
-Another catch for Meno Holt.......glad to see him finally getting some playing time......wish we coulda seen all the youngsters (Brooks, Paul, etc.) get some catches, but at least we have the next couple years to see them develop.
-Great line for Octo: 9 tackles, 2.5 for loss and a sack. Wish we could have seen more of those games from him this season....wonder what he could have done with an effective defensive coordinator instead of a mannequin.
-Finally, some significant action for Anthony Blue......who knew that if you put good athletes on the field, they might just make a play? Oh wait, we're not supposed to play young guys, no matter what? Yea, good call on that one. Dumbasses.
-The kick return for Grixby was such a heart-warming event for so many reasons. Last year, he shouldered much of the blame for the struggles of the entire secondary. He has been one of our most consistent performers this year, and one of our special teams aces. To see him take one back on senior day was truly special, and yet another example of why college football is such a special sport. You don't see stuff like that in the NFL.
-Glad to see Ruud get on the field for senior day despite nursing an injury. We need to find someone with that last name for the next four years, there's gonna be a void without one.
Back tomorrow to talk about Joey Ganz. And while I think about it, if you know one, hug a vet today. It's disheartening for me to see my generation oversee the general decay of a once-great country, but let us not forget the men who so valiantly defended freedom from WWII to Operation Iraqi Freedom. I don't care about your stance on the war, these men deserve our respect and gratitude for their service and sacrifice to our country. May God bless them all.
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