NU FOOTBALL - NU Re-View: Nebraska 40, Colorado 31

THE GOOD ...
- TOE MEETS LEATHER. A school record field goal with under two minutes to steal a game away from your hated (or at least disliked) rivals? Yeah, that works. There were plenty of reasons why Alex Henery shouldn't have been in that situation to start with, but the fact that he came through is a huge advantage, now and going forward.
- HELU, 2009. (Pronounce it like hello to get the joke, one that I'm sure won't get old). It's really too bad that Marlon Lucky didn't get to see the field on Senior Day. But it's also clearer and clearer as the season wears on that Roy Helu, Jr., is the best back by far of the current group. His ability to run, catch, and now pass block makes his future in 2009 as a feature offensive weapon very exciting.
- "IN SPITE OF" WINNING. Let's be clear, Nebraska did just about everything they could to lose this game other than staying home and having an extra-long turkey nap. For a good part of the game, the players looked like they had already won, and the coaches called plays like they had a three-touchdown lead. But in spite of all that, Nebraska found a way to win. While that's a little scary in terms of a team getting overconfident, it's also very encouraging to see a team that keeps fighting and playing regardless of the score or if bad things happen in the course of the game.

THE BAD ...
- GO BIG GREEN. As in rookie green. As in what Bo Pelini and the staff looked like for much of this game. Yes, the team wasn't mentally ready to compete, we'll get to that. But there were some shockingly boneheaded decisions made by the coaches that could have cost NU a deserved win. Calling the same fake field goal is the obvious one, but to me the worst was the pass play called on second down in the fourth quarter when Nebraska had the ball at the CU 30, well within range for a makeable field goal to win the game. Sure, Joe Ganz shouldn't be taking a sack. But why in the world would you put him in position to do so? There's less than two minutes left, for heaven's sake. Run the ball twice, make CU burn their time outs, kick the 40-yard field goal, and defend. Pelini and Shawn Watson's aggressiveness should have, in all rights, cost Nebraska this game and a shot at a New Year's Day bowl game.
- PRESS CLIPPINGS-ISM. No one is going to convince me that this group of 'Huskers thought a win was in the bag for Nebraska before the game started. Some of the mental flame-outs on offense and defense can be attributed only to a lack of focus and determination. Colorado is not a good football team, but they aren't a bad one either. Nebraska is certainly better (as the end of the game proved), but not better to the level that they could get away with rolling the helmets out and winning.
- NOT SO SPECIAL TEAMS. Sure, Henery's bomb was great, and going four-for-four on field goal attempts turned out to be just as important. But how can a team go the entire season and be so horrifically bad at defending a kickoff? I get it if there's some struggles with the play in a given week. But it was bad the whole year, and didn't get a lot better as the season went on. Good God, Bo, check YouTube or something and see if there's a tutorial there.

... AND THE POST-SEASON.
Yeah, that sounds pretty good. Nebraska gets a bowl game - possibly a New Year's Day bowl against an ACC opponent - and gets all of the practices that come with a bowl invitation. For the seniors on this squad, who had their careers bookended by coaching changes, the positive vibe they leave the program with has to be gratifying. Getting a shot at Florida State in Jacksonville on the first day of 2009 would be a very intriguing sight - the two powers of the 1990's, squaring off at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century.

THE BIG PICTURE.
At the start of the season, the key word was hope for the future. As we close out the regular season, there's no way to objectively look at Nebraska's performance without seeing substantial evidence to support that hope. Nebraska improved on offense and defense as the season went on, by leaps and bounds. Nebraska developed a toughness to overcome adversity. Nebraska began to develop an identity as a hard-nosed defensive squad that did what they needed to offensively to win. Nebraska got back a little of their swagger - almost too much of it against Colorado, of course. And, most importantly, Nebraska began the process of reclaiming the Big XII North. We thought Nebraska was going to do that after the 2006 season, but that turned out to be a mirage. However, if Pelini and company can recruit, and if Missouri takes a step back after the departure of Chase Daniel and Jeremy Maclin, then NU has the door open for them to reclaim the North. That's step one in the master plan for world dominance - or at least, for a shot at a national title a few years down the road. The cliche is that great coaches show their greatness in their second season (Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, Nick Saban at Alabama, Butch Davis at North Carolina), so next year could be a very interesting one indeed for the Scarlet and Cream.

See you in Bowl Week!

GBR, baby.