There is no place like Nebraska

Since Syracuse doesn't play this weekend, I decided that I needed to get my fill of college football and I will be returning to the land of my roots to watch Nebraska take on Missouri on Saturday in Lincoln. Growing up in Nebraska in the 90's spoiled me as to what good college football is. After watching Tommie Frazier run all over Florida in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, I have had an expectation of what great college football teams are supposed to be.

I will say that I was pleasantly surprised when I first visited Syracuse University and took in my first football game. We had tickets on the 20 yard line and we witenessed Syracuse beat Miami in Donovan McNabb's last game in the Dome, 66-13. From that moment on, I knew I wanted to go to Syracuse. Little did I know, I would be treated to seeing Troy Nunes and his brilliance the following year.

Regardless, I return to Lincoln with two of my good friends from high school, Matt and Justin. While there we will see friends and family (both my brother and sister live in Lincoln) and will be treated to the finest college football experience you could ever find.

From the moment you see Memorial Stadium off the interstate as you arrive in downtown Lincoln, you get a sense that this is more than just a football game and that these are more than just typical football fans. Bobby Bowden once said, after the home fans applauded his visiting Florida State team which beat Nebraska, "I have never seen people with more class than I saw at Nebraska, the Nebraska fans, players, cheerleaders, band, officials, coaches, etc., gave me living testimony of what college football should be all about."

The sentiments regarding Nebraska football fans can be summed up perfectly by the line that is etched over the gates at Memorial stadium that read, "Through these gates pass the greatest fans in college football".

Anyhow, with this reunion weekend of sorts at Nebraska's homecoming game (Yeah, Syracuse schedules I-AA Northeastern and Nebraska plays #3/#4 Missouri for theirs. Ouch.) I will be away from the blog scene until Monday unless there is major movement by Daryl Gross on any of the fronts that we have been keeping a close watch on.

Want-to

I am back from hiatus. Life has been busy. Too busy. But, I am back with an attitude. I'll have a conclusion of the 2007-2008 Syracuse Athletics season soon. In the meantime, here are some items of note from while I was gone.

• Daryl Gross (allegedly) got a contract extension for three more years. This means that Greg Robinson's future is no longer tied to the good DOCTOR's and that must be troubling news for Mr. Robinson.
• With the buzz that was generated by US Olympic Swimming and most particularly Michael Phelps, isn't it time that Daryl Gross rethink his decision to cut the swimming and diving programs?
  

And a little something disturbing that I picked up off the wires. Apparently Gregisms are spreading to other programs across the country. Nebraska Receivers Coach Ted Gilmore had this to say about receiver Menelik Holt:

"His positioning is better. We've still got to get more consistent, but the effort is there. The want-to is there. We'll get the rest of it."

Nebraska should know they are in trouble if Bo Pellini starts talking about Osmosis or his players flashing.

In Case You Were Wondering

Daryl, you should probably be doing things like this and this.

Steve Pederson East

In response to a question in his mailbag on SI.com, college football writer Stewart Mandel called Daryl Gross, "essentially the East Coast version of Steve Pederson." Stewart goes on to say that Gross "isn't likely to pull the plug on his grand hire after just three seasons." This was in response to a question about Houston Nutt trying to save his job.

Pederson, as you know, is the former Athletic Director of Nebraska who lost his job mid-season due to issues internal to the Athletics Department. Speculation is that Pederson was alienating many fans, donors, staff members, and former athletes. Not that this sounds anything like the Daryl Gross administration...

Mandel included Coach Greg Robinson in his list of coaches who are close to being in trouble but need to perform poorly over the rest of the season to actually get canned. With South Florida, UConn and Cincinnati left to play after this weekends matchup with Pitt, things don't seem to be looking that much brighter for Robinson.