Nebraska football tailgate Week 8: Huskers go Gopher hunting

Last week was brutal for the Nebraska football team.

Watching that Nebraska football loss was like watching your nemesis kiss your boyfriend brutal. Speaking of horrible things, after suffering through that 54-21 beat down last year by Minnesota, the Gophers can kiss my carb loving A**! Ok, I got that out of my system now. Who can blame me for venting? That 99 yard drive by Northwestern at the end of the game had me flashing back to that pitiful Diaco defense that folded like a $2 lawn chair to Minnesota last year. (so maybe it wasn’t all out of my system)

But let’s move forward. Nebraska has another 2:30 game on BTN this Saturday and the weather looks perfect! Game forecast is 60 and sunny so layers are the key. It will be a little chilly to start the tailgate but hopefully the Husker WIN will warm us plenty.

Minnesota brings Wide Receiver Tyler Johnson to Lincoln off of back-to-back 100 yard rushing performances against Iowa and Ohio State. Their record is 4-2. They also bring punter Jacob Herbes who has a pretty good leg. He’s punted 28 times with 15 being fair caught and 10 inside the 20-yard line. This isn’t a walk in the park. But nothing has been this year for the Huskers.

This game is played to own the bragging rights to a sideways chair. That’s pretty much what the season has been so far – something simple gone sideways. How does Nebraska set it right? I’ll let you listen to those with a better football pedigree than I have for those answers. I would say, run the damn ball in the same place which is bringing you success (like NOT up the middle 3 times at the end of the game).

On a brighter and more positive note, Noah Vedral was cleared to play so there are backup options. I’m not hoping we need him but in case Adrian Martinez comes down with a migraine (aka Tanner Lee last year in the Gopher gutting) we do have options.

But let’s get back to my area of expertise — tailgating. It’s always good to have options. I keep a fridge full of them.  Jello has a yellow (not golden) island pineapple flavor that is rather tasty. It’s tastier when you add coconut rum to it. I used 3/4 cup rum to 1 cup water so that it sets up correctly. It’s apple cider season in Big Red country so add 1  boiling cup of that to orange jello and mix in 3/4 cup of FIREBALL!

With nice weather I say fire up the grill this weekend. Burgers and brats are always good simple choices. This week my inspiration comes from wanting to topple the Gophers. The Huskers need to get on top (start scoring early) and stay on top. Clearly no lead is safe. A tasty topper for either brats or burgers is a spin on a slaw recipe from Midwest Living. I added in some yellow raisins to go with the maroon of the cabbage.

1/3 cup olive oil, 2 TBS Sugar, 4 TBS red wine vinegar, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp dry mustard. Combine and shake well. Toss together 4 C shredded red cabbage, 3 ounces of dried cranberries, 3 ounces of yellow raisins. Pour vinaigrette over the cabbage and toss to coat. Cover and chill for 2 to 24 hours. Top that burger, brat or hot dog and enjoy!

There is a group of Gopher fans that charter a bus to come down to Lincoln and tailgate. They don’t care that their teams aren’t great. They just come for the food, the friendship and a little football. Moral of that story, “in the deed, the glory.” Let’s go get that first Nebraska football victory this weekend. As always, GO BIG RED!