Big 12 Flashbax Series: Texas

Had Nunn not fumbled that ball, Nebraska wins and possibly becomes a top 10 team. They would have finished 10-4, and who knows, maybe the confidence from beating Texas turns into another win or two. Either way, the 2006 season would have looked a lot better and maybe fans would have been more patient in ’07 and Callahan would have kept his job for another year or two of mediocrity. Just maybe.

In my opinion that was really the beginning of the end for Billy C. They won a few more games that season, lost the Big 12 championship to Oklahoma and the bowl game to Auburn, and then 2007 happened, and now we have Pelini and the best defense in the country. So in retrospect, maybe Nunn fumbling that ball helped save the Husker football program. That’s just my theory.

How about:

In a sloppy, turnover filled game in which two Husker touchdowns are called back by phantom holding penalties, and Texas is given an extra second at the end of the 1st half to kick a field goal, Nebraska appears to have finally finished the Horns as an Alfonzo Dennard interception gives Nebraska the ball at their own 5 up 14-13 with just 20 seconds left and Texas out of timeouts. Unfortunately, the snap out of victory formation goes between Martinez’s legs and Helu fails to get it out of the endzone, and Texas wins again 15-14.

Later, Osborne is heard commenting that if we were playing Texas next year, he’d have had no choice but to fire Pelini and hire Les Miles, the only other coach in FBS sufficiently in bed with the devil to overpower Mack Brown.

Let me recount a tale for you, and you tell me if it sounds familiar:

A Nebraska team headed by a sensational young QB and one of the best defenses the school has ever produced rolls into the Texas game as a top 5 team. Texas is on a down year, but has enough talent here and there to be dangerous. After 5 fumbles, Texas somehow wins the game and hands NU its only loss that season.

This was the 1999 season, folks. It’s the one that hurts the most.

The game was literally fumbled away, and if I recall Dan Alexander was responsible for most of them. The team went on to win the rest of their games, but finished just outside the national title game, as Michael Vick and VaTech went on to be obviously overmatched by Florida State, while the Huskers went out to dismantle the defending national champs, Tennessee. I have no doubt if Nebraska had held onto the ball in that Texas game, we would all be counting another national title on our porch banners.

The 2006 loss to Texas still hurts and always will. In 2005, my boys were old enough to enjoy a Husker game so (living in mid-Misery) my wife and I took them to see the Huskers play the Tigers in Columbia. They ultimately lost the game 41-24.

My wife and I bought tickets for her first game at Memorial Stadium, in 2006. It was the Texas game. Paid a booster a boat-load of money for their tickets to sit on the 50, row C. The game was magic, it was a good game, and when Marlon Lucky threw the TD pass to Nate Swift- it felt like it was going to be a win. I had never, ever hear anything as loud as Memorial Stadium was at that moment… still gives me chills. The face of those Longhorns fans was priceless, like the Alamo had just been burned to the ground. At that point I don’t believe Texas had played outside their home state that season. The snow started, God had to be a Husker fan- the cows can’t handle the cold, swirling snow. There was talk of rushing the field after the game, there was complete confidence oozing from every pore of every person in the building. Then Terrance Nunn went from being a potential hero for the Big Red to the scapegoat. Fumble.. Loss.. My wife’s Husker fandom became etched in stone that day, she earned her cob hat, and is now one of the most devout Husker fans I know. We’re going to talk about that game for the rest of our lives but, it will always be tainted by Burnt Orange luck; and that hurts!

I remember the “Ricky Williams” game. He was unstoppable. You’d swear he was stopped for a three-yard gain, but it was five. Then you’d swear he got five and it was eight. He was just relentless, and just when they’d get him stopped, Major Applewhite would go over to the top to Garrity.

It’s 20-16, and I remember saying to the guy next to me “We’re not losing this game”, because we just never lost at home for so long, 47 game streak gone.

Those bastards.