Waltz Across ‘Tehas’ a Nebraska Story
Ah, yes. The Alamo Bowl.
Remember?
No, not “Remember the Alamo,” although that has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
Remember the Alamo Bowl.
We have history there. Two chapters in the ongoing drama and occasionally sob story known as Husker football have taken place in San Antonio.
In the 1999 Alamo Bowl, we opened up a serious can on Northwestern, beating the Wildcats 66-17 and setting the stage for a gallop through the 2000 schedule … until the debacle in Boulder.
Since then, we have won only a few more than we have lost.
But remember the Alamo. Remember how we waxed Northwestern like cheap linoleum and how it launched us into a No. 2 ranking before the world blew up in Colorado.
In the middle of that plummet, our boys beat Michigan State in the 2003 Alamo Bowl. That was a month after the sacking of Frank Solich, who lately has been looking for a dependable designated driver but then was clearing out his desk.
Assistant Bo Pelini, everybody’s favorite head coach who never was, steered the Huskers to a 17-3 victory. Pelini punctuated his audition with a Category 4 tantrum after begging to differ with the officials over a disputed fumble call.
Poor guy never got a call back from Steve Pederson. The rest is part Husker Nation apoplexy, part petty plotting to launch Pederson back to Pitt and part digging in our heels as push came to a long downhill slide.
I’m counting on the recent funfest in Boulder to move us to the next chapter, something with “rebirth” in the title and a forward by Bill Callahan.
Either way, we’re writing Husker history again in San Antonio, in the spectral shadows of Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett, neither of whom knew a cover two from zone blocking.
But that’s OK. All we need to do is remember.