Nebraska Fans Should Watch The Alabama-Clemson National Title Game

1976.

“Rocky” is released in November and goes on to win the Best Picture Award. It wins Best Director Award for John G. Alvidsen. Sylvester Stallone and Talia Shire are nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively. They nominate Stallone for Best Original Screenplay. Burgess Meredith garners a nomination for Best Supporting Actor as does Burt Young.

Roger Ebert calls Stallone the “new Marlon Brando”.

I saw the first Rocky movie in my hometown. I recall a friend of mine who sat next to me saying that he was afraid I was going to punch him. The first Rocky was something different and new.

Stallone went on to make Rocky II, III, IV and V.

What was once an original idea turned into a cash cow and the subject of many jokes as Stallone’s career turned into its own laughable mess. What we learned was that Sylvester Stallone was incapable of doing any acting beyond being “tragic hero guy”. This was highlighted in the Rambo series and was painful when he tried to act with Dolly Parton in the “please remove my eyes with a spoon” movie “Rhinestone”.

This has zero relation to the national title game tonight between Clemson and Alabama other than it’s become a cliché just like that fourth Rocky movie. The only reason you would have watched that fourth Rocky movie was because they bore you or because it was on TV at the time or because you really need to take a girl on a date and couldn’t think of anything else better to do.

Nebraska fans should tune into tonight’s game. You don’t have to watch the full thing, but you should at least watch part of it. It would give you an idea of how far behind our football is compared to two national title level teams.

To be fair, everyone else in the nation is behind these teams. That’s why they’ve met for the fourth time in a row.

This is the last college football game of the season. Our most beloved sport will go away and not be seen for many months – unless you consider YouTube reruns and the spring game as valid substitutes. I do not. I typically go through depression this time of year but our Nebraska basketball team may stave that off because they are exciting to watch despite their last two losses on the road.

We will go into Kool-Aid drinking season tomorrow. This means that we will be subjected to months upon months of “glory story” articles and by the time our next football season rolls around we will be convinced that our beloved Huskers will win the division and get selected for the College Football Playoff.

We are nowhere near the talent level required to get to the College Football Playoff. It will take a few years for us to get there. I don’t care what Scott Frost did at UCF and how he took them from a winless team to undefeated in two years. That is not happening at Nebraska and if that is your expectation then you need to get a clue.

Part of that clue starts with watching tonight’s game and realizing that there are zero of our existing players who would start on either team’s offensive or defensive lines. You could make a case for some of our playmakers on offense, such as JD Spielman, but you would be hard-pressed to do so.

Is there a player on our defense that would make the two deep for either team playing tonight?

No.

I contemplate writing such a negative article. Unfortunately, this is the truth. I know that I should do a better job of sucking up in 2019, but to me 2019 won’t start until tomorrow. It’s always been this way – the last college football game of the year signals a new start for me.

I wish we weren’t watching the same cheese that we’ve watched the previous three years in row. I’m not talking about “Rocky”. I’m talking about this crap-fest of a game between the two top college football teams in the nation.

It sucks that we are here again, but it does have a point. If you want to beat them you’re going to have to get as least as good as them. We are nowhere close.

The good news is – no one else is either. The floor is open. It may be difficult to take the stage but it’s not out of reach.

What will the next two or three years hold for Nebraska football?

Perhaps we will get nominated, that’s not the same as winning it.