Husker Football Tailgate Talk: the Fordham perspective

It’s the first Nebraska home football game and there will be fans in the stands! It’s been 655 days since that last happened. How’s that for some perspective? And there will be tailgating! (where we ALWAYS win) Fordham comes to town to play at 11 am in Memorial Stadium. The game is televised on BTN and if you can’t watch it there, listen to it on 590 am radio.

Fordham is a Jesuit college in the Patriot League up in the Bronx, New York. They aren’t a school with a strong eye on football like Nebraska. When I looked at their football home page the ad for the Gridiron Golf outing (Aug. 16) was still the lead story. Fordham didn’t even get a 2020 fall season and they played only 3 games in the spring.  Again, perspective? I doubt we will see many wearing maroon and gray walking the streets of Lincoln but that’s ok. It leaves more space for Nebraskans to come to town and spend some money in Lincoln.

My new outlook for Saturday is I’m focusing forward instead of rehashing the painful Husker history of last week. You can’t field a ball on the 2-yard line and expect good things. You can’t drive a QB into the turf, then talk trash and not expect to be flagged. You can’t miss point-after kicks. And you CAN NOT carry the ball like a loaf of bread and fumble the ball. Giving any opposing team 11 points (or more) for free isn’t the way to success. The good news is that these are all correctable things.

How sure am I that Nebraska kicker Connor Culp won’t miss 2 PATS again? Last year out of 563 football games, it only happened a total of 6 times. I think the outlook and percentages are on our side for this part of the game.

I expect Nebraska to win by a lot Saturday, but I expect Frost to be very vanilla plays so as not to provide much film for opponents. Keep it simple. I expect to see some passing with hopefully a late game Logan Smothers or Heinrich Haarberg and more running the damn ball. (If you know where I can buy the RTDB shirts, hit me up!) #22 Gabe Ervin Jr. looked good last week until Coach Frost abandoned the run game. He was the first true Husker freshman to start at running back. Husker running back, Markese Stepp looked really good too. There are positives here people.

Husker fans have been through enough morning tailgates to know what to bring. Breakfast becomes brunch. Bring your bloody mary mix and your mimosas. Snacks are key as I suspect a lot of people will wander out of the game around 3rd Q and try to beat the traffic out of town. Stuck sitting in traffic on P Street is not a view anyone wants.

My point is, Husker fans, don’t get all “Debbie Downer” just yet. Frustrated, yes but that’s because you care. Think back to this time last year. No season looming at all. (#FireKevinWarren)  From my vantage point, things could be WAY worse.

If last week’s Husker lack of production gave you the blues and left you with a bitter taste in your mouth, I have the perfect solution. It’s called the Berryetto. I stole the name of the shot from a drink I used to make when I worked at the Elephant’s Eye bar in Kearney. Mix 1 cup of boiling water with Berry (blue) jello until dissolved. Add 3/4 cup Ameretto vodka. Pour into shot cups and chill.

There will be another home game next week so feel free to send me your drink or food recipes for Saturday’s 2:30 kickoff. Hit me up on Twitter @ Kelian_NE . Be good fans and as always, GO BIG RED!