Nebraska put together 4 quarters of consistency and char-broiled the Buffaloes 37-14.

The Huskers dug into their bag of tricks today and pulled out some winners. A fake fieldgoal attempt from an offset line that went for a 29 yard touchdown pass from Joe Ganz to Barry Turner. A fake hard count on 4th down that saw Taylor walking to sidelines looking like he was going to call timeout only to see a direct snap to Tierre Green who rushed for the 1st down.

All-in-all, I think Nebraska put together their finest four quarters of football all season. Colorado had two drives for scores in the game, both of which seemed to exploit the Blackshirts. With Mell Holiday’s 49 yard touchdown rush in the third, it looked like Nebraska was ready to step into their 2nd half meltdown mode, but they regained their composure and took it to visibly tiring Buffs.

Brandon Jackson had his number called early and often, putting up 150 yards on the ground on 34 carries. Zac Taylor finished his final game in Lincoln going 19 of 28 for 249 yards.

Kenny Wilson put the nail in the coffin with less than a minute to go on a 7 yard, tackle breaking scamper into the endzone. Bill Callahan received the Gatorade dunk.

The Huskers are eagerly awaiting the winner of Bedlam, the in-state rivalry game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. If the Sooners win, Nebraska takes them on next Saturday in the Big 12 Championship game from Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

The Aggies knocked off the Longhorns today 12-7. With a win by Oklahoma on Saturday against in-state rival Oklahoma State, Nebraska will face Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship!

Bring on the Sooners!

Although, with the beating that Longhorn’s QB Colt McCoy has taken in the last two weeks - including being carted off the field, strapped to a back board in the in closing seconds of today’s game - Texas might be the easier opponent.

Tom Shatel of the Omaha World Herald is sick of the CU-NU “not a real rivalry” matchup on Black Friday. He’s not alone.

Larry Bradley and Jeff Leanna have started a campaign, complete with a petition and Web site (nu-ou-forever.org), to get the Nebraska-Oklahoma series going again, every year, on this classic day for college football.

They are trying to rally the troops in the Nebraska and Oklahoma media. Their goal is to get 85,198 signatures (a sellout at Nebraska) and move on to the two schools and league office.

To sign the petition online visit Nebraskans for NU-OU Tradition.

In Shatel’s piece, he happens to reveal that first-year Colorado coach Dan Hawkins said to his team, “Just remember this: At 0-5, the worst days as a Buff is better than the best days as a Husker.”

While it is hard to get properly fired up for Colorado–since they’re such a weak team from a place with an attitude problem–it’s not difficult at all to look forward to stomping the Buffs simply for the fun of it.

A conference-leading 15 Nebraska football players were named first-team Academic All-Big 12, the league office announced Tuesday afternoon. Overall, 22 Huskers received either first- or second-team recognition by the Big 12. They are:

First-Team (3.20 GPA or higher; * 4.0 GPA)
Name – Year - Major - Hometown
Lance Brandenburgh - Jr. - Business Administration – Overland Park, Kan.
Adam Carriker – Sr. – Business Administration – Kennewick, Wash.
Andy Christensen – So. – Construction Management – Bennington, Neb.
Jordan Congdon – So. – Undecided – San Diego, Calif.
Andy Kadavy – Sr. – Elementary Education – Seward, Neb.
Newton Lingenfelter – Sr. – Mechanized Systems Management – Plainview, Neb.
Kurt Mann – Sr. – Mechanized Systems Management – Grand Island, Neb.
Matt O’Hanlon – So. – Secondary Education-Social Science – Bellevue, Neb.
Todd Peterson – So. – Nutritional, Exercise and Health Science – Grand Island, Neb.
J.B. Phillips – Jr. – Marketing – Colleyville, Texas
Zach Potter – So. – Business Administration – Omaha, Neb.
Brandon Rigoni – Sr. – Psychology – Lincoln, Neb.
Andrew Shanle – Sr. – Family and Consumer Sciences Education – St. Edward, Neb.
Dan Titchener – So. – Marketing – Cheyenne, Wyo.
*Dane Todd – Sr. – Biological Sciences – Lincoln, Neb.

Second-Team (3.0 – 3.19 GPA)
Name – Year - Major - Hometown
Isaiah Fluellen – Sr. – German – Rammstein, Germany
Matt Herian – Sr. – History – Pierce, Neb.
Josh Mueller – Jr. – Business Administration – Columbus, Neb.
Chris Patrick – Jr. – Criminal Justice – Ithaca, Mich.
Clayton Sievers – So. – Communication Studies – Elkhorn, Neb.
Nate Swift – So. – Sociology – Hutchinson, Minn.
Zac Taylor – Sr. – Communication Studies – Norman, Okla.

Nebraska’s senior fullback Dane Todd was one of two players honored for having a cumulative 4.0 grade-point average. Todd, who plans to enroll in medical school, is a strong candidate to be named an Academic All-American for the second consecutive year later this month.

[SOURCE: NU Media Relations]

They say Coach Callahan is a good recruiter. When it came to signing Maurice Purify, a wide receiver out of juco football factory, San Francisco City College, I think he’s a bit better than good.

photo courtesy of Dallas Morning News

Purify cleansed the program from untold pains this afternoon. His grab in the end zone to win the game with 20 seconds on the clock in College Station was freaking HUGE. Amazingly, it might not have been, had Purify not excercised patience while fighting to get into the lineup earlier this season.

Here’s what he had to say to his hometown paper, The Eureka Reporter, earlier this week:

On Sept. 16, when the Huskers played the University of Southern California, which featured Purify’s Logger teammate Rey Maualuga, Purify didn’t even play in the game.

Frustrated by the fact his mom was in attendance, Purify questioned his decision to play for Nebraska.

“If you would have asked me after USC, I probably would have said I wanted to transfer” Purify said. “I thought it was a special day for me since my mom was there, and I was angry about that. Then I just went and talked with (offensive coordinator Jay Norvell) and asked why I wasn’t playing. He told me (head coach Bill Callahan) didn’t want to put anybody on the field who didn’t know what they were doing. I told him I knew what I was doing, then they started throwing me in. Since then my role has been getting bigger and bigger, and now I’m starting.”

In the end, Purify admits the time spent becoming familiar with the program before being thrown into the fire might have helped him in the long run.

“I think it was good to make me wait, to make sure I knew what I was doing,” he said. “They didn’t want me in there before I was ready because they didn’t want me to lose confidence if things didn’t go well right away.”

Wide receiver Todd Peterson also played great today. He enjoyed his best game of the season with seven catches for 82 yards and a score. Five of Peterson’s second-half catches went for first downs.

Mark your calendars for December 2, 2006. The Huskers are heading to Kansas City!

One of the most amazing 2nd half collapses rectified by touchdown pass from Zac Taylor to Maurice Purify with 20 seconds left on the clock.

Taylor also becomes the Nebraska record-holder for most passes in a season (currently at 22).

Most sports writers think A&M will prevail this afternoon. But why listen to them when you can hear what Larry the Cable Guy has to say?

His pick courtesy of the Lincoln Journal Star:

Huskers 31, Texas A&M 20: The Aggies’ confidence by the fourth quarter will disappear like a fat girl playin’ dodge ball.

I don’t know what’s worse, my picks or my jokes. Anyway, talk to y’all at Thanksgiving. Love, Larry the cable guy. Git-R-Done!

In his piece on Nebraska’s quest to win the Big 12 north, Lincoln Journal Star writer Steven M. Sipple points out some glaring facts.

Nebraska has yet to beat a South Division opponent beside Baylor during the Callahan era.

Callahan is 5-8 on the road at Nebraska, losing by an average of 23.8 points.

The game on Saturday at College Station is huge. A win against the Aggies on the road takes this season in the right direction.

I’m going High Definition this week. Call me whatever names you wish for being a slow adopter.

With Cox’s ongoing battle with KETV (Omaha’s ABC affiliate), do any experienced HDTVers out their have any tips as to what I need to get the digital signal from the antenna? According to my set’s specs:

The set’s built-in ATSC (DTV) tuner pulls HD signals (480p/720p/1080i) right from the airwaves, and its QAM tuner is fully compatible with unscrambled HDTV cable reception. A standard analog NTSC tuner receives standard-definition (SD) programming.

Since I have the ATSC tuner, am I okay with simple rabbit ears or do I need something else more advanced? I’m in the Millard area if it makes a difference.

Feel free to post any answers or comments via the Comments link. Thanks in advance.

Game time has been set for 2:30 pm Central time when Colorado visits Nebraska for the traditional Black Friday game on November 24th. Coverage provided by ABC.