You ask and you shall receive. Chris Williams was the Texas class 5A defensive player of the year for 2007. You can think of all the talent in the the state of Texas, and then think he will be all ours come next year!!! This guy is TRULY awesome!

[via The Big 12]

I like what Tad Stryker says about the game in Ames.

Thud! There, it’s done. Bo Pelini and his coaching staff went to Ames, Iowa, and slid one of the foundation stones for the Cornhusker football program into place.

It looks square and plumb, and for the first time in a long, time – solid.

In other words, we played Iowa State the way we used to play them. There was never any question about which team had command of the game.

The foundation Stryker refers to is our ability to win conference games on the road. Iowa State is a start. Personally, I want to see us win on the road in the Big 12 South. When we clear that hurdle, things will be right with the college football world again.

fire away in the comments.

This morning it was Carl Pelini’s turn to speak at the Big Red Breakfast in Omaha.

Pelini called the preparations for ISU “the best week of practice I may have ever had as a coach.” The highlight was the 20-minute team portion starting Tuesday where the Huskers matched their first-team units.

“We stretched and we did a little individual, and when we came together for that period it was the fastest, most violent, physical period I’ve ever seen in a practice,” Pelini said. “I turned around and looked at Bo and went, ‘Hmmm. How about that?’ Look what’s going on out there. I’m thinking to myself, ‘Boy, this is Tuesday.’ That is a great indicator of where we’re headed.”

Virginia Tech, Mizzou and Texas Tech away…

We all knew it was going to be tough going and it was. But it’s behind us now. And while it’s easy to Monday morning quarterback the last three games, it’s also easy to see we could have won two of the three.

Bo Pelini sees that. According to Omaha World Herald, he said:

“We’re not good enough yet. We’re hurting ourselves. We’re not executing well enough to win. When I look back . . . I thought we should have won two of the three football games. We just have to keep working to get better.”

So, let’s look forward, shall we? Oklahoma on Nov. 1st is scary, but this team can beat our other five opponents, provided we show up to play football the way we did on Saturday.

And speaking of Oklahoma, I can not wait for the day when the storied rivalry with the Sooners is once again the game we all anticipate. You know it’s coming, I know it’s coming and Oklahoma knows it’s coming.

Samuel McKewon of Nebraska Statepaper sums up how well we played today in Lubbock:

NU (3-3 overall, 0-2 in the Big 12 Conference) outgained Tech (6-0, 2-0) by 50 yards, had 13 more first downs, ran 32 more plays and possessed the ball for 20 more minutes. The Huskers were especially unstoppable in the second half, scoring on all their drives, including three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Watson mixed Ganz’s controlled passing plays with an inside/outside running game featuring Marlon Lucky and Roy Helu, Jr. The offense resembled, in some respects, a hybrid of Watson’s West Coast attack and Kansas’ screen-and-shotgun spread offense.

“(Watson) called an outstanding game,” Pelini said. “He kept them off balance, he did a lot of different things, we ran the ball well. I thought it was a good game plan.”

McKewon also heard Pelini speak these key words:

“I came down here fully expecting to win the football game,” head coach Bo Pelini said. “It didn’t happen. It just – didn’t happen. We had our chances, and we didn’t capitalize.”

Ganz connected on 36-of-42 passes for 349 yards in another stellar performance. I’m sure he’s kicking himself over the interception at the end of the game and I understand the pain of losing, but Ganz has every reason to be proud of his performance today. He and many other Huskers did what they needed to do to win. Like Pelini said, “it didn’t happen.” The good news is we all know it will happen.

Castille runs it in for the score

Game notes coming but go ahead and start your comments.

Steve Beideck of Omaha World Herald attended the Big Red Breakfast at the Holiday Inn convention center this morning. Tight ends coach Ron Brown–who received a standing ovation from the crowd of 500–talked about the team’s need to “get better.”

He said working to get better on the things the Huskers can control has been a primary focus.

“That’s how we’re approaching this week,” Brown said. “Our greatest opponent is not Texas Tech, our greatest opponent is Nebraska, it’s ourselves.

Big Red Network’s Darren Carlson is saying something similar. Basically, that we just need to rear back and play football again.

Ron Brown also added:

“It’s making sure that we don’t take on the definition of success that everybody around us might want to put on (us), and make you feel bad. It means that we look at ourselves and correct the things we need to correct, and we attack it.”

I know what he means and focus is great, but the team isn’t just playing for itself. The expectations and well wishes that fans bring to the game is all part of the deal in college football, especially in Lincoln. I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but for me, it’s not the team’s won-loss record, it’s the way we’ve been losing that I find intolerable. We’re not even in the game at the times when we most need to be.

No one expects us to win in Lubbock tomorrow. But every Husker fan wants to see the team compete and leave it all on the field. If we do that, the wins will come. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon.

Nebraska has lost its past 18 games in a row against teams ranked higher than 20th in the country:

Nov. 23, 2001: No. 14 Colorado 62, No. 2 Nebraska 36

Jan. 3, 2002: No. 1 Miami 37, No. 4 Nebraska 14

Sept. 28, 2002: No. 19 Iowa State 36, No. 20 Nebraska 14

Nov. 2, 2002: No. 7 Texas 27, Nebraska 24

Nov. 16, 2002: No. 11 Kansas State 49, Nebraska 13

Nov. 29, 2002: No. 13 Colorado 28, Nebraska 13

Nov. 1, 2003: No. 16 Texas 31, No. 12 Nebraska 7

Nov. 13, 2004: No. 2 Oklahoma 30, Nebraska 3

Oct. 8, 2005: No. 15 Texas Tech 34, Nebraska 31

Sept. 16, 2006: No. 4 USC 28, No. 19 Nebraska 10

Oct. 21, 2006: No. 5 Texas 22, No. 17 Nebraska 20

Dec. 2, 2006: No. 8 Oklahoma 21, No. 19 Nebraska 7

Jan. 1, 2007: No. 10 Auburn 17, No. 22 Nebraska 14

Sept. 15, 2007: No. 1 USC 49, No. 14 Nebraska 31

Oct. 6, 2007: No. 17 Missouri 41, No. 25 Nebraska 6

Oct. 27, 2007: No. 17 Texas 28, Nebraska 25

Nov. 3, 2007: No. 8 Kansas 76, Nebraska 39

Oct. 4, 2008: No. 4 Missouri 52, Nebraska 17

[via Omaha World Herald]