Alabama vs Texas for the National Title - For Whom Will Husker Fans Be Rooting?
by Jon Johnston on Jan 7, 2010 7:01 AM CST
in Nebraska Husker Football
Email
PrintThe last college football game of the 2009 season is upon us this evening - the BCS National Title game between the Texas Longhorns and Alabama Crimson Tide. While our beloved Huskers aren't directly involved in the game, we will be hearing (repeatedly, most likely, until we plot the deaths of every announcer and pundit involved or maybe you've already gotten there) about that one second that was brought back from the dead after the Big 12 title game had ended. ESPN will replay the last minute or so of the game and it will bring back all those feelings about how close we were to being champions.
Texas comes into the national title game as the underdog, a lot of that having to do with the hurt that the Blackshirts put on them in the Big 12 title game. The fact that the defense shut them down so badly has lead pundits to question Texas' offense rather than giving the Huskers credit for having an exceptional defense. No shock there, though, that's how the media works - tearing down anything on top and building up anything that's on the bottom - it's how they create stories that grab people's attention.
There's also a double standard at work here. For some reason, if a Big 12 game ends up as a low-scoring defensive affair, it's because the teams weren't very good, their offenses were flawed. If a SEC game ends up as a low-scoring affair (a redundant statement, mostly) it's because the teams are all great, the players are great and the conference is the greatest ever, yada yada yada.
I most likely will be rooting for Texas (I'm saying "most likely" because it just might happen that seeing that last second against Texas pisses me off so much that instead of rooting for them I wish the Longhorns would get destroyed). I tend to root for the other Big 12 teams in most their games for reasons of familiarity and the belief that if the rest of the conference is winning it ultimately makes Nebraska look better. The latter concept is especially true in tonight's game.
If Texas can score points against Alabama - another team with a great defensive line but unlike Nebraska and Oklahoma only an average pass rush - then maybe people who weren't paying attention to our Huskers might realize how special our defense was this season. The adverse will be true if Alabama holds Texas under 13 points, and it will be much worse if the Crimson Tide blow the Longhorns off the field. On top of that, we'll have to hear about SEC domination all over again.
There are a lot of Husker fans who wouldn't root for the Longhorns if they were the last team on earth and I don't blame them. Given the success they've had against us, and all the breaks they've had, it's hard not to feel that way.
As for Alabama, well, they have more national titles than Nebraska. We have five, they claim 12 (or 16, depending upon whom you want to believe). They have the man recognized as the greatest college football coach of all time, Paul Bear Bryant, while we have the actual greatest college football coach of all time in Tom Osborne. God only knows what kind of award they'll make for Nick Saban should Alabama win tonight, but I'm sure that it'll be huge, probably a life-size solid-gold statue of the merc hisself complete with 10-carat diamonds for dimples.
Then there's the bizarre level of conference allegiance amongst SEC fans, the ability for them to take collective credit for anything done by any team in their conference their own. Perhaps that's the result of having a conference that's as as old as carpetbagging, but I am not looking forward to hearing S-E-C chants from tomorrow night's crowd, should the game came to that.
Add all this up, even the hate you have for Texas, and I have to ask - if you're rooting for the Crimson Tide and you're a Husker fan, why?
(CN will be running an open thread this even if for no other reason than we can get together and take shots at both teams. Plus, it's a long offseason. )
13 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Nebraska is one of the few Big 12 teams I want to win these days
Pelini and his staff are good coaches and good people, and I think most realistic fans moved well past the post-game blowups by the Pelini brothers. Emotions are bound to be sky-high after such a near-win, so it should be a non-issue.
Nebraska fans and tradition are fantastic. Very importantly, Pelini is not a Stoops stooge. I think it’s great for UT and NU to have such respect for each other.
I’m sure there are Nebraska fans who dislike Texas for some reason or another, but I just thought I’d let it be known that I and many other Texas fans don’t feel that way about the Pelini-led Cornhuskers.
I guess my point is that I have lost the majority of my conference allegiance for the Big 12, but it’s mostly due to the spreading of the Stoops tree in the conference, and that most definitely does not apply to Pelini and Nebraska. Unlike Bob Stoops and his clones, I think Pelini and Husker fans are people we Texas fans would actually appreciate having root for the Longhorns to win.
With Texas' record against NU
I’ll bet most Longhorn fans like us.
If NU had beaten Texas, or starts to I wonder if those feelings will change. It’s very easy to be a classy fun fan base when your team is winning. Heck NU fan knows this all to well.
I hate Texas (in general fan hate terms) they made the B12 form to their requirements, they get all the breaks, and they whine when they don’t win. But I think a Texas win or as alacy9513 says below, a good Texas offense output would make NU look better, or add proof to our thoughts that NU has the best defense in the country. Plus I really hate the SEC bias.
Go Texas, but know this; Payback comes 10/16
You can't possibly be a scientist if you mind people thinking that you're a fool.
~Wanko the Sane
Big Red Kool-aid Drinker @ Corn Nation
Bring it!
Looking forward to the game.
I guess some fans whine, and Texas gets some breaks, but Texas gets the short ends sometimes as well. The latter is just less apparent with Texas, because UT does enjoy a lot of parity-killing advantages that offset the bad breaks. I can definitely see how that could cause a little animosity.
by burntorangehorn on Jan 7, 2010 11:16 AM CST up reply actions
I want Alabama in a shootout
Bama because I can’t stand to see Texas win the title. A shootout because if Texas’ offense looks good, it makes Nebraska’s defense look even better.
Husker in Alabama
I’m currently a Husker transplant in Montgomery, Alabama. Tonight, I will be traveling to my favorite wing spot with lots of large TVs to root for…. The Texas Longhorns. I want them to win for no other reason than for Nebraska to look better. How great would it look for us to hold the Natty Champs to 202 yards and 10 points(I don’t recognize anything after the end of regulation), then shutting out a top 20 team in the bowl game? Amazing! It would make me feel like that extra second wasn’t all for naught.
by HuskerINtheArmy on Jan 7, 2010 10:47 AM CST via mobile reply actions
Go Horns..
Just based on conferences alone. I hate the attitude that most SEC teams and fans have about the Big 12 and maily teams from the midwest.
Once again I heard over and over about how Georgia Tech’s vaunted triple option was going to run all over the slow white boys from Iowa City. Arizona was supposed to show us corn-bred hicks in the “weak” Big 12 north how to play Pac-10 football.
And just like last year, Iowa and Nebraska put these fools in their place in the bowl game by shutting them down entirely and dominating the game from start to finish. The media and “sheep” that follow them will never learn.
I know that Texas isn’t a midwestern team, but they still represent our conference…so I will be pulling for them tonight.
And yes…payback will be delivered Pelinin style next season!
"Not the victory but the action; Not the goal but the game;
In the deed the glory"
GO BIG RED!
One of my best friends is an Alabama fan...
And if I have to hear her run her mouth about the SEC and Alabama winning its 13th national championship (Even though that number is very sketchy, I think its officially at 6) I might have to de-friend her in real life. Hearing some Alabama fans Shout “Roll tide, Roll” is like nails on a chalk board. So please by all means, Texas, I’ll over look all of this Big 12 bias talk If you can shut the Crimson tide up.
Hook-Em Horns!!! (I feel so wrong)
Root for your conference people!
I am surprised to see such waffling when it comes to rooting for a team from the Big 12 playing for the title… especially when the media thinks we are such a weak conference. Hard to root for Texas? With someone as respectable as Mack Brown?. What many Husker fans DON’T know is that after the 2006 game in Lincoln, Mack Brown waited in Memorial Stadium for Taylor to come out of the locker room. Not to rub in the win, but to personally let him know what a great game he played. He did the same for Suh in Dallas. I understand that for Husker Fans no team has caused more heart wrenching losses this decade than Texas, (the last three losses by a combined 6 points)… It’s tough, but then again, Texas is easier to root for than Colorado or Mizery…
(on a side note, if you show the horns to my 5 yr old daughter, you will see horns down as a response… I couldn’t help that!!)
GO BIG RED
GO BIG 12!!!
I whole heartedly agree
It’s just that of all the teams that we have owned, Texas has never belonged to that group. And like you said with all those close losses, it cuts to the quick. Also finally to parrot off your final point I just want to say to any Colorado fan, your team sucks and has no redeeming qualities, they disappoint me and every other Husker and always will. Cut your hair and get a job, you hippie.
I'm torn
This happens to me once in a while, where the rational, logical side of me is at war with the emotional side of me.
The rational side of me wants Texas to win tonight. It makes the Big 12 look better, the SEC look worse, and obviously puts an exclamation point on the “Nebraska’s back” narrative. Looking at it logically, there is absolutely no reason to hope Texas loses this game as a Husker fan.
But there’s also the emotional side of me. The emotional side of me hates to see pretenders in the National Championship. The emotional side of me caused me to go for Miami over Ohio State in the 2003 National Title game. The emotional side of me says Texas does not deserve to be in this game. The emotional side of me remembers the ridiculous luck that has delivered Texas to an 8-1 record over us, which should in reality probably be more like 4-5. The emotional side of me wants to see Texas exposed in a horrible blowout, complete with 5-6 McCoy interceptions. The emotional side of me wants to see Alabama do to Texas what we would have with a decent offense.
I’m not sure who I’m going for. I’m not sure I’ll know until kickoff.
"My hardest job is to convince the people of Nebraska that 10-1 is not a losing season." - Tom Osborne
Relax,, have a beer
and support the Big12. That’s what is getting me by!!
Matthew 11:28-30
GBR!
It's not "wasting time" if you enjoy it!
Dean Wormer: "Fat,drunk,and stupid is no way to go through life!"
The lesser of two
evils. I don’t know. Texas is in conference but then again it’s Texas. I don’t care for Nick Saban and am tired of the SEC hype on ESPN. I guess Texas because they beat us and it will make us look better. But if they lose I won’t be heart broken.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recent FanPosts
SHOP THE CORN NATION STORE
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
