Once Upon A Time Thanksgiving Weekend Meant Turkey, And The Gravy On Friday And Saturday Was Intense Football Rivalries, Including Nebraska And Colorado. Long Gone. But Is It Possible This Year That The Once-Beaten Cornhuskers And The Resurgent Buffaloes, 6-2, Could Meet Again At The Year-End Holidays In A Bowl? Pass The Stuffing, Please, As Mark Knudson Writes
Colorado-Nebraska Back In The Day
By MARK KNUDSON
@MarkKnudson41
MarkKnudsonsInsidePitch.
com
There are many reasons devoted followers of college football aren’t fans of conference re-alignment. Chief among the concerns is the end of storied rivalries.
It was college football fans who were the losers when Texas A&M and Missouri left the Big 12 after the 2011 season and ended their rivalry series with the Texas and Kansas respectively.
It’s not 100% accurate to say that Nebraska’s departure for the Big 10 ended its rivalry series with Oklahoma. That rivalry killer actually happened with the formation of the Big 12 in 1996. When the two powerhouses were in the Big Eight conference, they historically ended the season against one another, often times with national championship implications. The Big 12 decided to make Nebraska v Oklahoma a ‘twice every four years’ match up. It removed much of the luster. But still, at least they were in the same conference.
When Nebraska changed conferences after the 2010 season, the actual victim was the game that had replaced NU vs. OU on the day after Thanksgiving – the annual Nebraska vs. Colorado game. (Colorado left for the Pac 12 at the same time.) Those two rivals had played every season since 1948, and while the Huskers had dominated the series overall (49-18-2) it had become far more competitive since the start of the new century. The 2000’s began with CU beating Nebraska three times in the first four meetings, but the Huskers responded by taking five of the next six.
But like most rivalries, the game meant more than just the series records. To this day Buff fans still relish CU’s 62-36 win over the top ranked Huskers in 2001, while Husker fans still take delight in a 30-3 upset win in 2005 that started a three-game CU losing streak and marked the end of Gary Barnett’s tenure as CU’s head coach. On the flip side, Colorado’s last win in the series in 2007 marked the final game of Bill Callahan’s tumultuous run in Lincoln. (That was also the last season that CU went to a bowl game.)
Over their last 25 years these games became known for the high level of emotion involved in every meeting, regardless of the stakes. Even though the game normally meant more for Nebraska on the national stage in terms of needing to win, Husker fans always tried to downplay the “rivalry” aspect of the Colorado game, which was puzzling to say the least. If you watched it closely, the CU – NU meetings checked every single box when it came to describing what a rivalry series should be. The Huskers should have embraced that.
Then it was gone.
In their new conferences, the Buffs play Utah and the Huskers meet Iowa in end of season contests that aren’t close to reaching true “rivalry” status yet. Maybe, someday, they will, but for now, they’re simply the last game of the regular season, nothing more. In Nebraska’s case, they’re one of the few big time college football programs that don’t have a true “rivalry” game on the schedule every season. At least the Buffs still have Colorado State.
There’s a slim chance that this bowl season could end up bringing it back, albeit briefly. As we come down the home stretch of the 2016 season, it remains possible they could meet in a bowl game. No one would have envisioned that happening a year ago at this time.
It was Halloween 2015 when Nebraska hit an all-time low on the football field, losing to lowly Purdue to fall to 3-6 in Head Coach Mike Riley’s first season. At that moment, the Huskers looked downtrodden, destined to miss out on a bowl game for only the third time in the past 60 years. It being just his first season, Riley’s job was not in actual jeopardy, but Husker Nation was very unhappy and Riley would have been wise to rent rather than buy.
Meanwhile, Colorado’s decade-long drought continued. The Buffs were finally competitive in the ultra-competitive Pac 12, but were still losing and head coach Mike MacIntyre was in grave danger of losing his job. In his third season, MacIntyre’ssquad had shown just enough improvement to make the ‘closer than they used to be’ losses painful. But L’s were still L’s.
Nebraska rallied to finish 6-7, including a bowl win over UCLA (even though they should have never gotten a chance to go to a bowl with a 5-7 record.) Things were looking up in Lincoln. Better days appeared on the horizon.
Only the most optimistic would have seen that same favorable horizon for Colorado.
MacIntyre, to his immense credit, had already brought on a former head coach (Jim Leavitt) as his defensive coordinator, and the improvement was apparent. After the 4-9 season in 2015, he brought in a future head coach in Darrin Chiaverini to upgrade his offense. Both assistants could have been viewed as threats to McIntyre’s job, and a lot of coaches (yes, we’re looking at you, Bo Pelini) would not have the guts to make those hires. McIntyre did, and it’s paid off.
Along came 2016. While playing a favorable schedule, Nebraska jumped out to 7-0 start and a top 10 ranking before falling in overtime at Wisconsin Saturday night. The Huskers look like a good bet to land in the Big 10’s number four bowl “slot” which probably sends them to Florida for New Years (Orange, Citrus or Outback Bowls.) CU’s redemption tour began when they hammered their rival CSU in the opener and played Michigan tough on the road before winning what had been previously “unwinnable” conference road games at Oregon and Stanford. Like NU, the 6-2 nationally ranked Buffs remain in the running for a division title, but look like a good bet to land the Pac 12’s third or fourth bowl slot.
A Huskers v Buffs Rose Bowl game is the longest of long shots right now, but if CU won the Pac 12 South and Washington makes the College Football Playoff, then, well, you never know. Nebraska would need both Michigan and Ohio State to make the play-off (unlikely) and have Wisconsin lose again so they could squeeze into the Big 10 title game. Then could they be bound for Pasadena? Well, you never know.
It’s also still possible we could get a Colorado vs. Nebraska match up in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. That game takes the Pac 12’s fourth team and the Big 10’s fifth. That could happen. Bowl organizers do look for compelling story lines when they set match ups, and the two former rivals would certainly deliver that…and they’d sell a lot of tickets. (If both lost a couple more games in November they might get matched up in the Foster Farms Bowl…but Nebraska went to that game after last season so it’s very unlikely they’d go back in 2016.)
The two former conference rivals are scheduled to meet in Lincoln in the second game of the 2018 season for the first time as non-conference opponents in more than 100 years. Fans will probably have to wait until then for the rivalry to be renewed. But well, you never know.
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Mark Knudson, former outstanding Colorado State and Major League Baseball pitcher, has joined woodypaige.com as a columnist and contributor. Born and raised in Denver, Mark Knudsonearned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Colorado State University while pitching for the Rams baseball team. He became the third round draft pick of the Houston Astros in the June, 1982 Major League draft, and in 1985, made his big league debut in the Astrodome. He was a member of the Astros 1986 National League Western Division champions. After being traded to Milwaukee, Mark spent five seasons as a member of the Brewers pitching staff. In 1990, he tied for team lead in starts and innings pitched, including shut-out wins over the world champion Oakland A’s and the Boston Red Sox in a ten-day span. He was the Brewers’ Opening Day starter in 1991 when Milwaukee defeated Nolan Ryan and the Texas Rangers.During his career, Mark recorded wins over three of the four members of the “4,000 strikeout club,” including Ryan, Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson. He signed with his hometown expansion Rockies before the ’93 season and in May of that year became the first Colorado native to play for the Colorado Rockies. After retiring, Mark returned to sports writing and broadcasting, working at Denver radio stations AM 850 KOA and AM 950 KKFN where he was selected by Boulder Daily Camera as “Best Sports Talk Show Host in Denver market for 2001.” Mark was a feature writer and contributing editor for Mile High Sports Magazine as well as a sports talk show host on Mile High Sports Radio and columnist for the Mile High Sports Daily. He currently contributes twice weekly columns for the Ft. Collins Coloradoan. Mark’s television work included serving as a color analyst for Fox Sports Rocky Mountain and the Mountain West Sports Network for six years. This year marks Mark’s 19th as one of Colorado’s Heisman Trophy voters.)