Wow, what a performance. Nebraska came to play tonight with a focus and intensity we haven’t seen in a while. The team executed perfectly on both sides of the ball, and dominated throughout.

I really like where the Pelini Brothers are taking us…

We’re just hours from the Holiday Bowl kick off and I’m thinking about how this game will be the last time Barry Turner, Ndamukong Suh, Jared Crick and Pierre Allen will play together across the Husker defensive front.

I’m also thinking about how Bo Pelini is unbeaten in two bowl games as head coach at Nebraska. About how tonight’s match up with Arizona in another Stoops-Pelini Youngstown, Ohio affair. And I’m thinking about how we need to see our offense execute on the field of play tonight, that is, if we expect to win and look good doing so.

According to the Kansas City Star, Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said true freshman Cody Green would get snaps at quarterback, more than he did in the regular-season’s final few weeks. “We want him to have an opportunity to play and looking into the future, a chance to set up the competition,” Watson said.

Another are of focus tonight is obviously be on Suh. Los Angeles Times reminds us that #93 is coming in to the game with a fourth-place finish in Heisman Trophy balloting, the Outland Trophy and the Lombardi, Nagurski and Bednarik awards.

Last week, the Associated Press announced Suh as its player of the year, the first defensive player to win the award. Yet, he remains humble. “I haven’t played a perfect game yet so let’s try and see if I can do that against Arizona.”

Due to winter storms that closed I-80, members of University of Nebraska’s marching band struggled to make it back to campus in time for the band’s planned bus trip to San Diego. So the University’s Music Dept. canceled the band’s trip to the Holiday Bowl.

So who’s going to play “Hail Varsity,” “(There’s No) Place Like Nebraska” and “March of the Cornhuskers”? Lincoln Southeast, that’s who.

According to San Diego Union-Tribune, Lincoln Southeast was in the city early in order to be one of 15 high school bands to perform in tomorrow’s Big Bay Balloon Parade.

The high school band has played “Hail Varsity” in public exactly once, for parents and patrons of a grocery store. They have never played the others. Nor has the band represented the Cornhusker state on national TV before. We’re wishing the Knights well in this rise-to-the-occasion moment.

Winners have a certain swagger. It might be kept in check, but it’s always there.

Bo Pelini is a winner. Here’s what the coach had to say to the press earlier today in San Diego:

“Our guys feel we’re at a point in the program that now, going forward, we can beat anybody in the country,” Pelini said emphatically. “I can say it wasn’t like that 18 months ago. There’s a lot of hard work involved in that. There’s not a team in the country we don’t feel we can walk on the field and beat.”

“We also understand that there are teams in the country that if you don’t play right, if you don’t do what you need to do, they’ll come out and beat you,” Pelini said. “You know, there’s a respect for the game. There’s a culture about how we go about our business and how we take the field. With that, we’ve progressed.”

According to several sources including The Buffalo News, University of Buffalo head coach Turner Gill will be named the new head coach at Kansas.

Gill’s record was 20-30 at UB.

After a 2-10 opening season, Gill led the Bulls to a 5-7 record in 2007 and a share of the Mid-American Conference’s East Division title. But 2008 was Gill’s and UB’s breakthrough season.

Gill led the Bulls to an 8-6 record and to their first bowl bid in 50 years. But the highlight came in the MAC Championship Game against heavily favored, undefeated and No. 12 ranked Ball State.

UB scored two touchdowns on fumble returns and won the game 42-24, giving the school its first MAC championship.

Two years ago, Gill interviewed at Nebraska, where he was a player and longtime assistant, and he was considered at Washington State. Last year, he interviewed at Auburn and Syracuse and was believed to be the No. 1 prospect at Iowa State before pulling his name out of consideration.

Gill stands to make a lot more money in his job. Mark Mangino–who stepped down after accusations of verbal and physical abuse of players–was making about $2.2 million when he resigned. By comparison, the highest paid coach in the Mid-American Conference is Temple’s Al Golden at a reported $575,000.

Mark Ingram, the sophomore running back for #1 Alabama, won the 2009 Heisman Trophy tonight. In doing so, Ingram becomes the first player ever in Alabama’s storied program to win college football’s most prestigious award.

Ingram rushed for 1,542 yards this season, gaining and average of 118.6 yards per game and 6.2 yards per carry. He was propelled into the top spot after a three-touchdown performance in last weekend’s SEC championship game against Florida.

The final voting breaks down as follows:

Mark Ingram, Alabama – 277 1st place votes, 1304 points
Toby Gerhart, Stanford – 222, 1276
Colt McCoy, Texas – 203, 1145
Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska – 161, 815
Tim Tebow, Florida – 43, 390

In the end, 161 sports writers and past Heisman winners picked Suh to win. It’s a testament to Suh’s ability and hard work, and some skillful coaching from the Pelini brothers.

What started as a movement to get Ndamukong Suh an invite to the Heisman award ceremony is turning into a grassroots campaign that may just find Ndamukong Suh as the 2009 Heisman Award Winner.

The University of Nebraska also launched http://suh93.com/ with video and photo highlights of Suh in action this season:

As of 12:49pm Eastern Time, the Heisman Trophy watch site StiffArmTrophy.com, has Suh projected with a winning margin of 0.2% based on projections centered around public votes from Heisman Trophy voters. Granted, the voting deadline is 5:00 pm and there will be some swings in projections as the voting deadline approaches. However, an interesting fact about StiffArmTrophy.com – they are 7 for 7 projecting the winner over the last seven seasons.

Follow all of our latest links and notes on Twitter by following @HuskerZone.

Bonus Coverage:
4:14 of Suh in action from the Big 12 Championship game:

The Huskers gained ground in the polls after last’s night’s effort in Arlington. We are now ranked #20 in the Associated Press and #19 in the USA Today.

In the USA Today poll, Nebraska is the highest ranking team with four losses. In the AP poll we’re ranked one slot ahead of 9-3 Oklahoma State, the second best team in the Big12 South. Texas Tech at 8-4 is not ranked in the Top 25 despite wins over Oklahoma and Nebraska this fall.

It’s good to have football historians with a blog in our midst. Guys like Husker Mike, who remembers well.

Harken back to January 1, 1994. A roundly criticized and mocked Nebraska squad takes the field in the opponent’s home state, with nobody giving them a chance to win. Nobody except fans wearing red, that is. A tremendous gritty, gutty performance with the defense dominating the opponent, and the offense making just enough plays. Nebraska gets a field goal with just over a minute remaining. But the kickoff goes out of bounds, and then the defense gives up a big play aided by a personal foul call to put the opponent into field goal range. Even the refs putting a second back on the clock for a final field goal. And in the end, Nebraska comes up just short.

HM points out that the Cornhuskers went on quite a tear following that game with Florida State in the Orange Bowl. Let’s hope we see the same kind of response from the Pelini-led Huskers.

Last night’s brawl in Arlington is one of the toughest losses this team has endured under Bo Pelini. It hurts bad. Not the way being embarrassed under Loserhan hurt, that was an issue of wounded pride. The loss last night, along with the Virginia Tech loss earlier this fall, stand as testament to how good our team really is. A fact, which makes it all the more difficult to accept the outcome of these two one-point games.

While I accept there are no moral victories when you’re wearing a Nebraska uniform, this team does have a solid identity again, one that’s the direct result of football learned the Youngstown, Ohio way. In other words, Huskers near and far have every reason to hold their heads high again. We’re a tough football team, like we used to be, and that means things are right with the world, whatever the won-loss tally shows.

Now, to the part of last night’s game no one is ready to accept. We did not score a touchdown. I’m sorry, but you’re not going to beat Texas without scoring a touchdown. And last night one touchdown was all we needed to win, but it never came, not even after the amazing punt return to the 10-yard line by Niles Paul late in the game. The sequence of three runs up the gut that followed was hapless play-calling by Shawn Watson, no way around it. We played it safe, not wanting a turnover, thinking that all it would take to win was a chip shot by Henery. But we needed a touchdown to win, as we soon learned.

This team has lost three games by a total of four points. Only one team–Texas Tech–brought the heat this season. The reality is we’re a few bad bounces away from being 12-1 right now. But we’re not 12-1, we’re 9-4. And the reason for it is easy enough to see—we simply can’t score enough points. We now have three weeks and a few days to correct this before lining up to play another good team in our bowl game.

I don’t know if Shawn Watson is on the fence, or if he’s been looking for an out, but I do know that in a high-performance job like his, he needs to get it right and get it right, right now.