Colorado Suffers from Mediocre-Program Syndrome

“I’d rather be dead than red.”

That was said this past week by Bill McCartney who is a former football coach of the Colorado Buffaloes. He is mostly known for the “30 for 30” on ESPN titled “The Gospel According to Mac.”

His tenure at Colorado was the most successful in school history as it went 95-55-5 over his 13 seasons in Boulder. It is somewhat interesting that he had fives ties in his tenure while Tom Osborne had one. That one tie actually came in a game between Colorado and Nebraska.

There was a six season stretch in which Colorado was rather dominant across the landscape of college football. So why the hate from Colorado? Is it because Bill McCartney, the best coach in program history, went 3-9-1 against Nebraska in his career?

Probably because no matter what Colorado does they will be always be a mediocre program. You cannot go to Colorado and play big time college football. Don’t take it from me. This is straight from JoJo Domann, a native of Colorado, who currently plays on the Nebraska football team as quoted by Chris Basnett of the Lincoln Journal-Star.

“I got a little backlash coming to Nebraska, coming to Lincoln from Colorado. But that stuff doesn’t really get to me. I came here to play football and play big-time football and win championships, and that’s why I came here,” Domann said Tuesday. “Coach Mac sold everything he possibly could to me, which, any coach is going to do to get a recruit to his school. But like I said, I wanted to play big-time football at a big-time university and see if I could prove myself on the big stage, so that’s why I’m here in Lincoln.”

So what do fans of mediocre programs do when other fans come into their “house?” If Colorado is any indication they must turn from likely decent human beings into hate filled fans who will do anything from throwing drinks at you to slashing your car tires.

They obviously lack confidence. You know who else lacks confidence? Bullies. And ever since Bill McCartney was hired (and maybe before then), Colorado and their numerous fans decided they wanted to be bullies to one of the biggest programs in the conference.

They even won a couple times including 2001 which we all know about. But they still act like a combination of bullies and petulant children. The following has happened since their biggest win in their program’s history in 2001. These two examples both involve Nebraska.

In 2005 the entire Colorado student section was ejected from a game:

Officials ordered two sections full of students at Folsom Field cleared Friday when debris came flooding out of the stands during the fourth quarter of a game Colorado was losing badly to Nebraska. With Colorado trailing 27-3, water bottles and other junk came flying from the student sections in the southeast corner of the stadium.

Then in 2007, from Jon Johnston when he wrote this for CornNation.com in 2008 as the link he cited is out of commission, that:

University of Colorado police reported ejecting more people from Friday’s game against Nebraska than any other game at Folsom Field this year. - 84 total ejections- 57 ejections were alcohol-related - 5 were for throwing snowballs- 3 people were ticketed for underage drinking - 5 people were taken to detox.

One of the themes I heard on talk radio this week include stories from Husker fans about their trips to Colorado to watch Nebraska take on the Buffaloes.

For me personally I don’t have a single event. But I do have my experience from an entire game. My friends and I made the trip to Colorado in 2007 to watch Nebraska but boat-raced. It is safe to say that I have never been flipped off, told to f%^$ off, or been physically confronted more in my life than I was at Folsom Field. I’m not a small guy and the group I was with made the decision that nobody goes to the bathroom alone.

So I don’t know if it started with Bill McCartney circling Nebraska on the calendar when he was first hired, or if it is just a symptom of being a fan of a program that will always be mediocre.

Probably both.

Please Colorado fans, remember how you are treated when you show up to Lincoln this weekend. Hopefully you did not come just to start slashing some tires. We should not have to take our license plates off our cars in our own state right?

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On to the Friday Flakes...

News with Shades of Scarlet and Cream

Area codes on helmets allow Huskers to represent pride in their origins | Football | journalstar.com
Scott Frost's staff started the practice of putting area codes on the "bumper" part of the helmet — the small plastic piece just above the facemask — at Central Florida,

‘Strange’ night in Nebraska leaves Huskers and fans wanting much more - Chicago Tribune
Long story short, Nebraska is still 0-0. The lightning never left, causing just the third cancellation in program history.

Moos wants to find a 12th game for Huskers
Moos discusses scheduling situation facing Nebraska after Saturday's cancellation.

Non-Husker Related Sports

5 things we learned about Big Ten football - Chicago Tribune
The beasts of the Big Ten East must be better. Penn State needed overtime to survive a date with Appalachian State. A fluke? Hardly.

‘It’s like stealing’: After 25 years of GameDay on the road, Lee Corso is still having the time of his life – The Athletic
A staple of ESPN’s Saturdays, 83-year-old Corso reflects on a dream job, headgear picks and more than 60 years in college football.

THE DEBATE AROUND BACON: This is where I fall and it tastes so good.

Cook Bacon in the Oven, Eat More Bacon, Win Life | Bon Appetit
Making bacon in the oven, instead of a skillet, is easier, way less messy, and better for your kitchen than cooking it in a skillet. You're welcome.

Don’t hate it until you try it. It “fries” in the bacon fat like it does on the stove but you can cook so much more of it at a time. Oh and there isn’t the cleanup.

“STICK TO SPORTS!” Nah.

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Here’s the iPhone Hack that Works

Little do some people know is that the companies that make our cell phones or run social media sites do not care about you. All they care about is making what they are selling as addictive as possible.

I don’t know if other phone devices have this “hack” but I found out about one on iPhone and now both me and my wife do this and we can tell a huge difference.

As I told my wife, it is somewhat creepy how less addictive the phone becomes the moment you do this. It’s like they have your brain hacked. Well I guess they do.

See below.

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The Favorite Thing I Saw On the Internet This Week

Random Wikipedia Article: Facts You Never Knew You Needed

The Belgium–Luxembourg Economic Union, abbreviated to BLEU or UEBL, is an economic union between Belgiumand Luxembourg, two countries in the Benelux Union.

BLEU was created by a treaty, signed on 25 July 1921, despite a referendum against such a proposal, between Belgium and Luxembourg, and came into effect upon ratification by the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies on 22 December 1922. Under the terms of the treaty, the economic frontier was lifted and the Belgian franc and Luxembourg franc were set at a fixed parity (though revised in 1935 and 1944) establishing a monetary union, which existed up until the introduction of the Euro. The original treaty lasted for fifty years, expiring in 1972; this was extended for ten years in 1982 and again in 1992. On 18 December 2002, the two countries and the three regions of Belgium signed a new convention.

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