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I work with a ridiculous amount of Aggies and Longhorns. The Longhorn fans are typically cordial about things but always say we should've never left the Big 12. The Aggie fans think they're the second coming and act surprised we still have a program. Those guys always make me laugh though because they're pretty easy to pile onto and rile up. Most ppl are friendly when they see my Husker gear though and everyone seems to think Frost is taking things in the right direction and he's the man for the job.
 
I dont hear much in my part of NC (charlotte/hickory area) because most either pull for app/ncstate/unc/49ers. I see a few huskers from time to time on my commute and at work. Its like instant brotherhood. I work with a half retired die hard Michigan fan and when we found out about each others loyalties, we had mutual respect. In his words, "Nebraska red is the only red I'll support in the Big10 when we aren't playing one another". I still cant get him to cave on the true '97 champions though. Although the closest I got to it was, "Well if we had played each other, it would have been a good game, I hope." Smirking, and knowing full well his team would have had more than their hands full.

We must practically be neighbors. I live near Hickory.
 
We recently moved to lower Alabama, in fact just a few miles from the Florida line and of course the majority of college football talk revolves around the Crimson Tide winning another national championship, lol. I do wear HUSKER shirts quite a bit as well as having a HUSKERS plate on the front of my truck so there have been occasions in the short time we've been here that I've been asked how long will it be before the HUSKERS get back to prominence. I would say 50% are still respectful of the HUSKERS and 50% think we won't make it back anytime soon. Over the past 10-15 years living in Georgia, Florida and Alabama, most of the conversation when it comes to the HUSKERS has still been fairly positive from fans of those states. A lot of the younger crowd throw jabs left and right about the demise of the HUSKERS though a 9 or 10 win season would certainly curtail a lot of that negativity.

Alabama fans seem to forget that from the retirement of Bear Bryant, I think in 1982, till Sabin was hired in 06 they were very mediocre most of the time and down right bad some of the time. With the exception of the 3-4 years that Gene Stallings had them at the top.

They had a lot of 3-4 loss seasons and a few losing seasons mixed in with it. It took the right coach to bring them back. Just like it will take the right coach to bring Nebraska back, which we now have. It will take Nebraska a little longer though. Alabama always had/has talent. Nebraska's talent is a little down.
 



Alabama fans seem to forget that from the retirement of Bear Bryant, I think in 1982, till Sabin was hired in 06 they were very mediocre most of the time and down right bad some of the time. With the exception of the 3-4 years that Gene Stallings had them at the top.

They had a lot of 3-4 loss seasons and a few losing seasons mixed in with it. It took the right coach to bring them back. Just like it will take the right coach to bring Nebraska back, which we now have. It will take Nebraska a little longer though. Alabama always had/has talent. Nebraska's talent is a little down.
Agreed, but it's a universal phenomenon. We'd probably be embarrassed to know how many Husker fans came of age in the Devaney/Osborne era who assumed that the Big 10 and SEC were mediocre teams while only Nebraska and Oklahoma (and later some teams from Florida) mattered. Does anybody have a high opinion of Pittsburgh anymore? Yet they were a perennial football powerhouse until the wheels starting coming off in the 80s. The Florida teams basically had no history to speak of before Miami and Florida State rose up in the 80s, yet everyone still thinks of them as blueblood programs.

The interesting thing about Saban is that he resurrected three storied college programs: Michigan State, LSU, and Alabama. Michigan State had been bad for decades except for a couple of seasons before Saban arrived. While they didn't start winning NCs again, they clearly started getting things turned around. LSU had a long, rich history, but hadn't done much for decades when Saban moved there. Since he left, they've still won another NC, and they've never fallen off the national radar. I don't think I need to waste words talking about what he did with Alabama. People can hate him all they want, what the man has accomplished as a college football coach is simply amazing and unprecedented. Bear Bryant's career is the only one that comes close. I would NOT want to be the coach at Alabama who follows Nick Saban. It won't end well.
 
Agreed, but it's a universal phenomenon. We'd probably be embarrassed to know how many Husker fans came of age in the Devaney/Osborne era who assumed that the Big 10 and SEC were mediocre teams while only Nebraska and Oklahoma (and later some teams from Florida) mattered. Does anybody have a high opinion of Pittsburgh anymore? Yet they were a perennial football powerhouse until the wheels starting coming off in the 80s. The Florida teams basically had no history to speak of before Miami and Florida State rose up in the 80s, yet everyone still thinks of them as blueblood programs.

The interesting thing about Saban is that he resurrected three storied college programs: Michigan State, LSU, and Alabama. Michigan State had been bad for decades except for a couple of seasons before Saban arrived. While they didn't start winning NCs again, they clearly started getting things turned around. LSU had a long, rich history, but hadn't done much for decades when Saban moved there. Since he left, they've still won another NC, and they've never fallen off the national radar. I don't think I need to waste words talking about what he did with Alabama. People can hate him all they want, what the man has accomplished as a college football coach is simply amazing and unprecedented. Bear Bryant's career is the only one that comes close. I would NOT want to be the coach at Alabama who follows Nick Saban. It won't end well.
In the 80s and 90s the B1G and the SEC were in a down time. At that point the ACC and Big 8 and Miami were dominating. 81-95 there were no NC from either the B1G or SEC. (PSU had 2 but they were not yet B1G)
 
Agreed, but it's a universal phenomenon. We'd probably be embarrassed to know how many Husker fans came of age in the Devaney/Osborne era who assumed that the Big 10 and SEC were mediocre teams while only Nebraska and Oklahoma (and later some teams from Florida) mattered. Does anybody have a high opinion of Pittsburgh anymore? Yet they were a perennial football powerhouse until the wheels starting coming off in the 80s. The Florida teams basically had no history to speak of before Miami and Florida State rose up in the 80s, yet everyone still thinks of them as blueblood programs.

The interesting thing about Saban is that he resurrected three storied college programs: Michigan State, LSU, and Alabama. Michigan State had been bad for decades except for a couple of seasons before Saban arrived. While they didn't start winning NCs again, they clearly started getting things turned around. LSU had a long, rich history, but hadn't done much for decades when Saban moved there. Since he left, they've still won another NC, and they've never fallen off the national radar. I don't think I need to waste words talking about what he did with Alabama. People can hate him all they want, what the man has accomplished as a college football coach is simply amazing and unprecedented. Bear Bryant's career is the only one that comes close. I would NOT want to be the coach at Alabama who follows Nick Saban. It won't end well.

I don't know if I would say Pitt was a perennial power but they had a really good 10+ year run under Johnny Major and then Jackie Sherril. They were a top ten program throughout that time. With a national championship in 76. I think I read that in 1973, which would have been Tony Dorsette's freshman class, Pitt took something like 60 scholarship guys. That was the time of unlimited scholarships. They were keeping the Pennsylvania guys home.
They did have some good teams here and there before that though.

Johnny Major actually coached at Iowa State before he was at Pitt. I'm sure you knew that. He had Jackie Sherril and Jimmy Johnson on his staff. I think there were a couple other guys that became HC on that staff also.

It is not lost on me that kids that were born after 1980 think the Florida schools were always good. They were usually fairly bad to mediocre. Good players from Florida went to Alabama, Georgia, or Tennessee to play football if it was in the SEC. Most of the good black players went North or played at traditionally black colleges. Black kids didn't really start playing for SEC schools in numbers until the early 70's.
 
In the 80s and 90s the B1G and the SEC were in a down time. At that point the ACC and Big 8 and Miami were dominating. 81-95 there were no NC from either the B1G or SEC. (PSU had 2 but they were not yet B1G)
Yes, exactly (except for Alabama in '92), which is why I used those examples. Most SEC fans now would be shocked to know how mediocre their league was for so long. Even in the late 60s and 70s, it was rare that anyone in the SEC was a national contender besides Alabama.
 



I don't know if I would say Pitt was a perennial power but they had a really good 10+ year run under Johnny Major and then Jackie Sherril. They were a top ten program throughout that time. With a national championship in 76. I think I read that in 1973, which would have been Tony Dorsette's freshman class, Pitt took something like 60 scholarship guys. That was the time of unlimited scholarships. They were keeping the Pennsylvania guys home.
They did have some good teams here and there before that though.

Johnny Major actually coached at Iowa State before he was at Pitt. I'm sure you knew that. He had Jackie Sherril and Jimmy Johnson on his staff. I think there were a couple other guys that became HC on that staff also.

It is not lost on me that kids that were born after 1980 think the Florida schools were always good. They were usually fairly bad to mediocre. Good players from Florida went to Alabama, Georgia, or Tennessee to play football if it was in the SEC. Most of the good black players went North or played at traditionally black colleges. Black kids didn't really start playing for SEC schools in numbers until the early 70's.
All true and well said. When I referenced Pittsburgh, I was going back a lot further in time, though. Their history was very comparable to Notre Dame's for most of the 20th century. Most people outside of the state of Michigan forget (or never knew) that Michigan voted for Pitt to join the Big 10 instead of Michigan State.
 
I'm surrounded by Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and Georgia Tech fans. I fly my DONU flag year round and rarely has anyone commented negatively. Most of them think getting SF back home will get DONU back to elite status. We all agree that football is more fun when the game is between 2 elite programs, expecially cross sectional.
 
Since I live in Kansas (and it's not Manhattan), I really don't have to worry about this. I just get asked why Nebraska left the Big XII.
 





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