Husker Tailgate Week 9: Trick or Treat week

Husker football is on the road to West Lafayette for a Halloween night game at 6:30 CDT, televised on BTN.

It’s been a long and scary October for Big Red and no one is sure where the team is headed other than down the road on Saturday. Purdue has been playing well despite the loss against Rutgers last week. If you look beyond the score, they had over 500 yards of offense. It’s gut check time for Riley and company. Pack up the bus and get your tailgate on or put together a Saturday night homegate.

Lots of questions in the air? Will the Cornhuskers have enough tricks and treats in their goody bag to pull out enough wins to qualify for a bowl game? Did their bye week give the walking wounded a chance to heal up or will they look like a bunch of zombies just going through the motions? Will Riley last the year or survive into next year? Husker nation will be able to tell a lot by the end of the first quarter.

Night games are perfect for entertaining at home. Home parties after the dinner hour are all about the munchies that are available. The easiest snack mix is a bag of candy corns and peanuts. Get creative, like throwing in some pretzels and cheez-its in if you have a bigger party group. Add simple twist on rice krispie bars. Mix in red and yellow food coloring to the melted marshmallows to produce orange bars. Get really crazy, like tossing a post route, over the back shoulder bomb to Stanley Morgan on 2nd and short crazy, and toss in those Candy corn treats with the orange krispie bars.

Dip the grid pretzels in almond bark bar and sprinkle with any of the orange and black Halloween sprinkles. If you want to go healthy, alternate between cheddar (or any orange cheese) cubes and blackberries on a wooden skewer. Let’s hope Husker QB Tanner Lee has a gameplan that skewers the Boilermakers defense while we’re at it.

To spice up the Husker home bar, try adding in a black vodka for such simple cocktails as the Black Widow or the Black Rose. And if you want to really theme up for Purdue, try the Black and Gold martini which adds in Goldschlager. My inspiration for this week’s jello shot came from my research into Halloween cocktails and it’s inspired by the Witch’s Brew cocktail. After all, the Huskers are going to need some magic to get through the rest of the season.

Heat 8 ounces of pineapple juice to combine with cranberry jello. Once the jello is dissolved, add 3/4 cup of Malibu rum (or any coconut flavor). Pour into shot cups and chill. You may need to get online to get the cranberry jello as it’s a seasonal thing. But I plan on using it for a black Friday game that Husker football needs to win to salvage an otherwise bloody season.

The real magic I want to see is Riley and Big Red to produce better results on 3rd downs. Both Purdue and the Husker team are awful in this statistic. One of these teams will come out a winner. I have a feeling it will take all of Riley’s tricks to treat the fans to a victory against Purdue. I still say they are up to the task! Get your Husker gear on, or get your costume out and cheer on Nebraska this Saturday night. As always, GO BIG RED!