Why Nebraska game is most important
The voice was tender but dismissive, batting away my premise the way a kitten bats a ball of string. A decade away from the Big 12, I’d asked Tom Osborne, are there days you miss Nebraska’s old rivalries with Oklahoma and Colorado?
A pause.
“The Colorado thing,” the Cornhuskers icon replied, “was a little bit more … artificial.”
Artificial.
Context: This was a few years back, when fate and a promotional tour landed me an audience with the legendary former Big Red football coach and athletic director. Even into his 80s, Dr. Tom still channeled the spirit of Gary Cooper, ever the tall, quiet statesman of grace.
As a child of the Big
Eight and its politically complicated successor, the Big 12 North, I remembered fondly CU’S ascent to the national stage more than a generation ago, how legendary Buffs coach Bill Mccartney had drawn a line in the sand and a red line under the Nebraska game. During a lighter moment, I asked Osborne about the salad days, about old sparring partners, the ones lost to the tectonic plates of realignment after the Huskers had hitched their wagons to the east and the Buffs to the west.
Oklahoma? A wistful smile.
“Well, I think losing the Oklahoma game on a yearly basis was difficult from the standpoint of tradition,” Osborne said. Colorado? A blank stare. “And you know, they got good,” Osborne said. “And certainly, at that point, there was some rivalry, too. But it wasn’t like Oklahoma, which really had stood the test of time.” We moved on.
Buffs fans haven’t. The Rocky Mountain Showdown is great, but it’s provincially great. Air Force hasn’t been to Boulder since October 1973, but the Falcons don’t move the national needle.
Nebraska does. Scott Frost does. Sept. 7 does.
A solitary game won’t make or break a season — but it can define it, shape it, as a declaration of intent. Week 2, in coach Mel Tucker’s Folsom Field debut, the Cornhuskers’ first visit to Boulder since 2009, is one of those declarations, a showcase that could shape an autumn, for better or for worse. In the big picture, the Nebraska game looks bigger than any of the rest on the dance card to come, largely because:
1. The world (and recruits) will be watching
The Huskers just missed the top 25 in the preseason coaches poll (No. 26, tops among the “Others Receiving Votes” club), and chances are they’ll be ranked after (presumably) a comfortable victory over South Alabama in their Aug. 31 opener. The Big Red remains a big-time TV draw, and the Buffs’ win over the Cornhuskers in Week 2 last fall was reportedly seen by 3.39 million viewers, making it the most-watched CU game last fall. If Tucker wants to move the needle in Year 1, regionally and nationally, if he wants recruits east of Omaha to pay attention, the march starts here.
2. The Pac-12 slate is brutal
With five Pac-12 away games on the docket — the Buffs have only won nine times at true road sites, period, over the last 10 seasons, and three of those victories came in 2016 — every home date is precious. Especially when the crossover games aren’t kind. Oregon State and Cal have been replaced by Oregon, the presumptive North favorite, and Stanford, the Wisconsin of the West. Since the Pac-12 moved to nine conference games in 2006, only four teams three or fewer league victories in a season reached a bowl (all four posted 3-6, 6-6 overall marks), while none have bowled with two or fewer. 3. Actually, the whole slate is brutal
Phil Steele’s 2019 national preview magazine ranked the Buffs’ fight card as the fifth-toughest in the FBS. And the stat wonks concur: Metrics guru Kenneth Massey pegs CU as either favored or a 50-50 bet in only three matchups all season — vs. CSU, vs. Air Force, vs. Arizona, all played before October 7 — while SB Nation’s Bill Connelly projects them as sure winners only against the Rams and Falcons and losers by six points or fewer in four other tests.
4. The Big Red Invasion
Despite the best efforts of the CU athletic department, the Red Wave is coming. And as long as there’s a secondary ticket market and a fan base willing to pay any price for a seat — the cheapest single-ticket price on Vividseats.com as of Friday afternoon checked in at $287 — there’s not much the Buffs can do about it. Heck, a Folsom crowd that looks less than 40 percent crimson will probably feel like a moral victory. A victory on the field, given the history involved, would feel even sweeter.