Finally! A 'Husker Win

Nebraska was able to pull out an exciting 27-25 win over Kansas State at home to raise their record to 6-4 and become bowl-eligible; in the process, they avoided the ignominity of a second consecutive losing season (after going without a losing season for 43 years prior to last year).

The game wasn't very pretty, though -- NU gave up two (!) safeties in the 3rd quarter, and would have ended up losing if KSU had just made their extra points (they missed all three attempts).

While this will probably save Nebraska Athletic Director Satan's job for the year, I'm glad to see some influential Nebraskans calling for him to be held accountable. ("Influential" means "former football players" in Nebraskaland.) Scott Frost was the QB for NU in '96-'97; you might remember his throwing the "Immaculate Deflection" (film clip here) that allowed NU to beat Missouri in 1997. (I have a little bit of a local connection with him; Scott's dad, Larry Frost, was the best athlete ever to come out of my hometown of Malcolm, Nebraska.) Anyway, Scott has this to say about Satan and the direction he's taken the program:

"Steve Pedersen brought that on himself when he was so cavalier in making these tough decisions. Right or wrong, hero or villain, he took a big risk and painted himself into a tight corner. Time will tell how everyone is viewed in the history of our program.
"I know I am not the only one who feels this way about all of these issues. Most of the guys that I played with are more vocal than I am about many of these things. It isn’t just former players either... I love Nebraska football. I love the state of Nebraska. I long for the days when the characteristics of the team we put on the field on Saturdays exemplified the characteristics of the hard working people of our state. We used to have the Taj Mahal of college football programs. Now it feels like someone took 40 tons of dynamite to our proud and noble masterpiece and built a three bedroom ranch in its place. I’m not saying all of these things to be malicious or overly critical of anyone, but when it comes to a state institution, people have the right to be judgmental. I just want to share my opinions with all of the Husker fans out there who care as much about the program as I do. "

Go Big Red. I can only hope it will get better, but I don't think it will until we fire the AD and hire former coach Frank Solich in his place. Maybe Nebraska's new governor (after he wins next year's election in a 60 point rout, matching the usual results of the football games he coached) will be able to convince the Chancellor to do just that.

Post-script: In the excerpt from Scott's blog post, notice how he spelled Satan's "human" name wrong. I'm pretty sure this was intentional -- it's said that if you spell his name correctly, he might be able to steal your soul.

Update 1821 12 Nov: Satan speaks.

Update 2305 12 Nov: And for those who think NU football isn't really more important to the locals than any other school's fans... please note the 1000+ comments on the "open thread" for today's game in the local newpaper's football blog (actually one of three football blogs there).