"4 for 40" - It Starts Now! - Nebraska

I've decided to chronicle my journey and my game day experiences with words and pictures right here on Cougar Corner.



Leaving Mesa
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Had to hang the flag at home to show all my neighbors who they should be cheering for this weekend. After a convoluted trip to Omaha that included a broken plane (coincidentally the plane that we arrived on) in Minneapolis, and a plane / gate change, we arrived on Omaha before midnight. It was nice to see the Cougar faithful starting to appear in MN. I was surprised that we didn't see another hat or shirt in Phoenix.



Cougar Town
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We started in Cougar Town. Bought some Swag. Saw some familiar faces. Talked with Huntsman's family. Took pictures with Cosmo. Talked with several "House Divided" fans (actually took 1/2 BYU shirts and sewed them to 1/2 Nebraska shirts). Very nice (conflicted) people. It didn't take long to realize why.



Campus
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We headed over to campus. Best Game Day experience ever! Until Saturday, Notre Dame was the high bar. We were approached by at least a dozen Nebraska fans that said "Welcome, we're glad you are here. We hope you have fun today....but not too much fun". When we said "wow, you are the friendliest fans that we have ever met"! The would say, "If you meet someone who is not, you let me know". We need to do this at LES.



We visited some tail gates with the same courtesy. They offered us drinks, we accepted water. They shared their food (delicious pork tenderloin that the man with 20,000 pigs slaughtered for game day, deviled eggs, and these pickles wrapped in cream cheese and ham (looked like pickle sushi).

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As we were socializing, we heard the sirens escorting the Cougar buses to the stadium, so we hurried over to the gate where they were arriving. We met Cougar Fans 10 deep so we didn't see much. I did get a selfie with Chad Lewis after the team entered the stadium. I asked Chad if it was going to be a good day and he said "of course!"
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Amen to fan niceness to opponent fans!! This is why BYU MUST CHANGE THEIR TAILGATING POLICY!! It's rediculous that it's not encouraged more and we don't invite visiting fans into our version of partying. But if not, we need to reach out to visitors every chance we get. Good call Mesa. Happy journeys!!

Inside the Stadium
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Amazing! We had seen so many Cougar faithful outside the stadium that I though we would be well represented inside. I don't know how many tickets that we were allotted, but it didn't feel like much once the stadium was full. Big Stadium. Small seats. I had to sit lady like with my knees touching and turned once it filled up. The guy in front of me stood for 90% of the time, so I had to stand too. Sorry to the folks in front of me that I kept hitting with my flag!

On TV you could see the small spec of blue that was in the one upper corner of the end zone. It looks like maybe there was a "like" group kitty-corner from that group where this pic was taken. What a sea of red there was.

The Game!



What a series of highs and lows! We had that guy stuffed in the backfield! Should have been 3! When Taysom ran in that second touchdown, we saw the yellow hankee and assumed that it was coming back for holding (pre-conditioned reaction). I saw Taysom kind of pull up, but I thought all the players kind of stopped on the play. From my vantage point, I thought they must have thought the play was coming back as well. When Taysom came out, we started getting speculative texts, but we didn't know what was going on. By halftime I was very confident that the Cougs had the game in the bag! Who would have thought that drop by Algie would have meant so much? I wonder if Bronco regrets not trying for the long field goal instead?



3rd Quarter



Ouch! All of a sudden NU takes control. TT's loss was major! Nebraska exposed some gaping holes in the middle of our D.



4th Quarter



Pretty even. When we got the ball back with just under 6:00 minutes to go, I thought that we would score and regain the lead. When we went three and out, I was devistated! I started thinking that we were going to lose. In my mind I said "we're going to cover, and that's respectable. Still an amazing experience!"



Last Drive



I thought- Not enough time. Why did we call that timeout on their punt? I thought we need to get to the 25 for a decent shot at a kick into the wind. I thought why didn't Kurtz catch that ball? Why didn't they review it (after watching on tv, I thought he may have controlled it to the ground). I thought a 1 point loss to Nebraska in their home is respectable, and the media shouldn't destroy us for that. We may even gain in the polls?



The Catch!
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Un-freaking-believable! In two plays Tanner becomes Max Hall & Jim McMahon! We are in for a real treat with him for a long time. Gotta give great props to big Mitch! He was really quiet for the entire game, until he took on 7 NU defenders at the goal line and battled for that ball. The Houk hug still makes me giggle. The whole roller coaster makes me giggle! Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!

EM_Puma wrote:
On TV you could see the small spec of blue that was in the one upper corner of the end zone. It looks like maybe there was a "like" group kitty-corner from that group where this pic was taken. What a sea of red there was.

I imagine that there were a lot more BYU fans where we were, but I couldn't see if we impacted the sea of red at all.

Lame Cougar fans who don't wear blue should get a fricken clue about the power of a sea of home color.

Cougs_Rule wrote:
Lame Cougar fans who don't wear blue should get a fricken clue about the power of a sea of home color.

Nebraska's power of the sea of red didn't seem to help. Fan apparel is way to important to fans. It simply doesn't make one iota of a difference.

SpiffCoug wrote:

Lame Cougar fans who don't wear blue should get a fricken clue about the power of a sea of home color.

Nebraska's power of the sea of red didn't seem to help. Fan apparel is way to important to fans. It simply doesn't make one iota of a difference.

Agree to disagree. I have heard "sea of red" from in multiple media sources and fan opinions. It's part of the loyalty a fan base should have towards it team.

If it doesn't matter why is the Admin trying to improve it?

Just Bc Nebraska lost on a miracle of a play doesn't mean that home field wasn't an overwhelming context and advantage, it's all part of home field advantage.

But if you want to support fan apathy, be my guest. I don't think you will have many who agree with you.

Mesa, I think with your luck and your great travelogue, we should start a CC fund to get you to every away game. If you want I'll join you as a sidekick. :whistle:



Seriously though, great job documenting your trip. Something you'll never regret.

BroncoBot wrote:
Mesa, I think with your luck and your great travelogue, we should start a CC fund to get you to every away game. If you want I'll join you as a sidekick. :whistle:



Seriously though, great job documenting your trip. Something you'll never regret.

Thanks Broncobot! You are always welcome to join me on my travels!



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How many fans attended in your opinion? It didn't look like many on tv.

scott715 wrote:
How many fans attended in your opinion? It didn't look like many on tv.

We were discussing that, maybe 10,000. I know that we sold out our original allotment of seats, but then NU made more seats available to us.



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thanks for the travelogue!



I have been to 1 game at Nebraska (vs Northwestern) and was terribly sad not to be able to make this one.



The Memorial Stadium game day experience is like no other. The locals are generous (as you experienced) and the fans are savvy. even on TV it was unreal the difference in crowd noise when the Huskers were on D vs O. Plus, everything that can be red in the stadium is (even the face plates on the stairs!)



So glad you got to do this and good luck on the rest of your tour!

Thanks HC! I told myself before I even left for these games that regardless of outcomes, the memories and experiences were what we're going to define my "4 for 40". The "Hail Mary" is icing on the cake!



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Very nice post. I look forward to the next one.



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I'll throw in my takes from my trip to Lincoln-



I was on the front row of that blue section in the corner of the picture above. With how many blue fans I saw outside the stadium, I fully expected to see more blue inside ala Texas but it looks like we filled every section allotted to us but nothing more. We were cheering loudly over there but sound didn't carry across. It didn't sound as loud as I expected but that could have been my location on row 80. I will say that stadium left something to be desired. Tiny seats, and a single portal to fill 4 sections with 60 rows. It took us forever to get up to our seats! The heat/humidity on our side (in the sun) was brutal but worth it in the end.



I can attest that the fans were super friendly; even after the game. They were kinda shell shocked walking out of the stadium but still I got plenty of "have a safe trip home" comments while leaving.



Anyways, it was a great trip and can't wait to see how we handle the Donk's on Saturday night!

I'm planning on leaving Mesa tomorrow morning after I drop my littles off at school. I'll be bringing my now 16 yr old son with me. His birthday was yesterday (born 9/9/99). We will be eating cookies in Jacob Lake on the way up, and we will be Rappelling in American Fork canyon Saturday morning and eating burgers in the American Fork Hospital (I understand that they make the best burgers in the world!). Can't wait!

The thing that makes AF Hospital burgers so good is the price. Their double cheeseburger is big, on a solid sesame bun, and costs like three bucks. St Street Grill is just down the road from the hospital, their burgers are even better, but more expensive.



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