Appeal to Nebraska Football and Basketball Fans Falls Flat
Hoping to address Nebraska football, basketball and any other sport under the Big Red sun, an onlooker from South Carolina says fans aren’t helping the situation by being…fans.
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Listening to Unsportsmanlike Conduct‘s signature “Whatcha Say” segment on Monday, March 6, I expected the typical mirth and merriment. Didn’t expect to hear someone talking about potentially taking on a puppy, but that’s neither here nor there.
Towards the end of the segment (the 11:30 mark for our purposes), a caller — we’ll call him Craig because, well, that’s what he identified himself as — from South Carolina chimed in on the state of Nebraska athletics.
A hot topic, especially after Nebraska basketball’s worst loss ever at Pinnacle Bank Arena and one that has fans asking about (and in some cases calling for) head coach Tim Miles’ job.
Craig first pointed out his view that Nebraska is battling Texas for the title of the nation’s most underachieving athletic department.
Now, I can see where he’s coming from with this statement. We’ve already touched on Miles and the jury’s still out on football’s Mike Riley and baseball’s Darin Erstad. His argument was salvageable at this point. Then it went south.
Craig pointed out that a reason for a fair chunk of Husker sport stagnation lately is — wait for it — the fans.
"“Nebraska is the Enron of college athletics. It’s a comedy of errors and unwittingly, Nebraska fans are kind of — in a roundabout way — to somewhat blame for it, because they continue to donate and support and show up like brainwashed lambs to watch this stuff.”"
Craig would go on to talk about how Alabama had the likes of Mike Price and Mike Shula pacing the sidelines before hiring Nick Saban away from a national championship program in LSU because of “25,000 empty seats in Bryant-Denny Stadium”.
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Then, for the final blow, our beloved caller went into how Nebraska’s success has been because of great coaches like Bob Devaney, Tom Osborne or John Cook.
Why are you showing up for this crap when you don’t have to? Yes, that is Craig saying that you, yes you Nebraska fan reading this, are quite a bit to blame for the Cornhusker athletic department’s current malaise.
Here’s how monumentally stupid that argument is.
As I understand it, Texas and schools like Alabama or Clemson (Craig’s a season ticket holder, so I’ll throw the national champs in there) are, by gum, in one of the most talent-rich portions of the country.
Say what you will about the Longhorns, but with the resources that they have, there’s no reason Texas athletic director Mike Perrin shouldn’t be cashing his paycheck with good reason.
A diverse college smack dab in the Lone Star State that can’t field successful talented athletic programs on a consistent basis? That’s either the worst luck of the draw ever or laziness internally.
Nebraska having difficulties? If you’ll peruse the Nebraska football roster alone you’ll find players from all over the United States and in some cases outside of them (hey, David Knevel).
The Husker basketball team just held a lovely ceremony for Tai Webster, its senior leader from New Zealand. This young man played on his country’s national team that went up against the likes of Jimmy Butler, Kevin Durant, Paul George and Kyrie Irving.
The Cornhuskers can’t afford to cherry pick out of in-state recruits to a large degree. Mike Riley can’t just take any random Timmy from Cherry County and coach him up to be an All-American. Neither can anyone else.
Coaches like Devaney, Osborne and Saban come along once in a while. That’s why they end up in the Hall of Fame with a bunch of rings on their fingers and trophies behind glass.
Want to know what helped put them there? A lot of really good recruits and when they are properly coached up, you have several literal NFL draft picks because they were damn good to begin with.
In regards to fans not showing up, why would any Nebraska team voluntarily kill one of it’s main recruiting points? I assume Craig isn’t familiar with the Nebraska football team’s sellout streak. It’s kind of a big thing. Recruits talk about it regularly.
That fans fill The Vault (and will continue to) isn’t something that should be chided. So Nebrasketball fans choose to show up and support the players rather than throw a tantrum. So what?
Fans of every Cornhusker sport all have one thing in common. They all have very loud voices and the powers that be in the athletic department hear them all…the…time.
Nebraska fans aren’t going away because the university is part of the state. There is no Auburn. It’s the Big Red against the world. You can make the same argument about coaches whether Memorial Stadium is full or Bryant-Denny has 25,000 less in attendance.
However, in the Cornhusker State, they all stick together in all kinds of weather for Dear Ol’ Nebraska U.