Huskers with golden chance to wear the B1G badge
You must say, it was good to hear Jake Cotton acknowledge the robot in the room earlier this week.
Emotions aren t going to win the game. Execution will. Fundamentals will, the senior left guard said, before pausing a beat, amuspatagonia better sweater nickeled. I sound like a Bo Pelini robot, but that s exactly what it is.
As everyone around them wondered what a win at Michigan Stpatagonia guide jacket columbia1ate could mean to the Husker program A top 10 ranking? Big Ten favorites? Ameer Abdullah finally getting equal time nationally as Todd Gurley? the NU players were skillfully mechanical in contributingpatagonia drifter shoes for sale next to nothing to the hype machine.
Yeah, yeah, it s a big game because it s the next game. A lot of that. There s an empty bulletin board in a hallway outside the Michigan State locker room right now.
At this point, every game s a stpatagonia better sweater tyrian purpleatement game, said Husker junior defensive end Randy Gregory. It s a big game for us, no doubt about that. But like Coach Bo says: Every game is important. The farther you go into the season, the stakes are going to get higher.
The interview ended. Gregory flashed a grin. Call them Bo bots this week.
Hey, they train me well, he said.
Of course, there s truth to it that every time a Nebraska football team steps on the field there s something considerable at stake. If you think that s nonsense, think about how important the McNeese State game suddenly appears if Abdullah doesn t put on his cape and the Huskers face plant that day.
They all matter. But only so many provide the opportupatagonia simple guide pants mediumnity to change perceptions in the way that Saturday night s does for the Huskers.
What s at stake?
For starters, Nebraska is trying to get to 6 0 for the first time since 2001.
Secondly, the Huskers are trying to win their first true road game against a top 10 team since they beat second ranked Washington in 1997. Nebraska is 0 8 since then in such games, including three losses in the Pelini era the last being a 48 17 drubbing at the hands of Russell Wilson and Wisconsin in 2011.
Probably most impatagonia land for saleportant of all, however, is the opportunity this game provides for the Huskers to position themselves back in the conversation as the nation s elite in the inaugural College Football Playoff season.
Win on the same day seven games feature matchups bpatagonia guide jacket columbia0etween coaches poll top 25 teams, and Nebraska is sniffing the top 10 for the first time since it lost to Northwestern in November of 2011.
Closer to home, the game is also about Nebraska flexing its muscles to its Big Ten brethren, becoming the team that wears the badge as the conference s great hope in 2014 as a potential representative in the four team playoff.
The Husker fan base, accustomed to sitting at the table ofpatagonia outlet store 711 the elite for decadepatagonia guide jacket columbia2s, has done its share of fidgeting since NU joined a league that for so many years was about Ohio State anpatagonia clothing store locatord Michigan and whatever other program was that year s flavor of the year good, bad or indifferent.
It s not as if the Huskers haven t more than held their own since joining the conference, with series leads against Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa, and breaking even with Ohio State. (Wisconsin holds a 2 1 series lead over NU as Big Ten mates.) Nebraskapatagonia discount code red has also won a division title and 17 of 26 of its Big Ten games.
But the Huskers have yet to put themselves at the head of the table in their new league. And that is the first step NU must take to once again be in the top tier of teams to once again become the bully in the neighborhood.
As Lansing (Michigan) State Journal columnist Graham Couch wrote this week: If there is a new bully in the Big Ten, it s Michigan State. The Spartans have stolen a title that never should have been given, going 26 8 in conference games since the beginning of 2010, with two championships, and two division titles. Only Ohio State has a better win percentage during that span (by one defeat), and there s nothing new about the Buckeyes as a Big Ten power.
The Big Ten s reputation could use Nebraska to regain its pre turn of patagonia guide jacket columbiathe millennium mojo (as it could with Michigan). The Huskers history is fuzzy in these parts because it isn t local, but it s beyond the consistency of the Buckeyes or Wolverines.
So sets up Saturday npatagonia guide jacket columbia3ight s opportunity a face to face meeting with the reigning Big Ten champion. The current bully, if you will.
Nebraska s season still remains full of possibilities even with a loss, with destiny still in its hands to run the table and win the West Division and potentially get a rematch in Indy with these same Spartans.
But it s also understood this is the type of stage where the Huskers need to show they can take the step from good to great.
It s a great opponent we ve got, one of the better teampatagonia houdini jacket new yorks in the country. It s an opportunity to go out there and make a statement, said senior safety Corey Cooper. I m not going to lie about it. We understand what s at stake.
