RGJ Article Regarding Groth Regarding Ault

I'm going to say one thing first, and that thing is this: go McQueen!!! Not only is it the North school, and not only is it my H.S. Alma Mater, but the Daltons are really great people and from my personal experiences Ken Dalton is a great person and I wish him nothing but the best.

Okay, this should be fun; I have more windows open right now than I think I can control with my eerie mouse powers, but I'll give it a shot.

I'll admit that I use Nebraska a LOT in my posts, and with good cause: since my dear mother hails from Fremont and I still have more family back there than I can ever keep in Correspondence, I was what you may call an honorary member of the Husker nation. The Husker nation does not tolerate failure. In fact, even after two reasonably successful seasons, when my co-blogger and I traveled out for the Sept. 1 game (a whole BAG of anecdotes from that drive for a later blog...yes, we DROVE to NEBRASKA for the WEEKEND!!!), several of the very loyal and almost disturbingly courteous locals would shiver or even grimace at the mention of Callahan's name. One even said to me: "Oh, we don't talk about him." But for the sake of I-at-least-remember-this-much, let's revert back to a period I like to call...THE SOLICH YEARS...

(I will mention here that Nebraska fans can afford to be so courteous and amiable because they've been winners on a cosmic scale longer than most readers of this site have been alive, but they do pull it off to a bit of a fault.)

Well, old Frank had it pretty rough; after 2.5 national championships the Great and Vaulted Tom Osborne retired and left the team in the capable hands of our hero in this story, so to speak. His first year at the helm yielded a 9-4 overall record for a second place finish in the Big XII North (or Big 8 as my dear mother insists on referring to this very day, associated with interjections of: "Those darned Texas teams, forcing themselves in," and the like [and yes, she says "darned]), with losses as follows: @ Texas A&M, 28-21; @ Texas 20-16; @ Kansas St. 40-30; and vs. Arizona in the Holiday Bowl 23-20. They finished 19th in the AP poll and 20th in the ESPN/USA Today. It was a marginal step backward, but being out of the top 10 meant people were out for blood from the outset.

Here, http://www.huskers.com/pdf6/40266.pdf?ATCLID=2722&SPSID=8&SPID=22&DB_OEM_ID=100. This page will give you the specifics for reference for the scores of the wins.

He was given 6 years; in that time period he had one non-winning season, 7-7 in 2002, finished 4th in the North, yet still made a bowl game...losing 27-23 to Mississippi. That made a number in the Husker nation pretty mad (they dropped out of the Top 25 for the first time since the Third Kingdom in Egypt, I think). Next season: 9-3 and headed to a bowl matchup with Michigan St., but he was canned prior to that game (for the record: Bo Polini went on to lead them to a 17-3 win). Then again, they did lose bad to Texas, bad to Kansas St., and bad at Missouri for the first time since...well, a really long time).

He was damned from the start; sure, politics and a brand new AD didn't help his situation, but he was still compared to Osborne when he was definately NOT Osborne. He didn't even act like Osborne! It's a lot like Bush I getting elected at a time when people were expecting Reagan II, but G. H. W. was just not Reagan and 1992 proved that. Sure, people said the exact same thing when Osborne took over for Devaney and were likewise out for his blood, and that Osborne was cursed with that whole "He can't win the big one" hex until 1994, but that didn't matter now, they lost at Missouri, after all.

So the moral of this story is thus: the Husker Nation does not tolerate mediocrity. Salieri's corpse wouldn't even hit Iowa before the Husker Nation would fill the airwaves with rants. Nebraska has had a successful program. At what point do we stand up and say these same things?

From Dan Hinxman: the Pack is 27-21 since Ault returned in '04. 6 games over .500. Not exactly spectacular numbers here. I would like to think that we would expect better, demand better, and enforce better.

Ault has earned his due, make no mistake. I would like to see a change in the guard, as it were, to see us legitimately challenge the top of the WAC, and I would like to see a drastic reduction in the level of embarassment in our 1st games (next season does not count*).

*For the record, I lied a bit: I seemed to remember our playing Fla. St. in the first game, but it would appear that we open at home vs. Grambling, followed by a home game vs. Missouri.

GO PACK!!!
GO LANCERS!!!