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Turning Point Games

1962, CD's first season. Went 9-2, if my memory serves me. The start of the Devaney/Osborne era, the resurgence of NU football. GBR
 
I'm going with 2005 against TT. The LeKevin Smith INT and subsequent fumble. No reason other than that was the moment where I became convinced the football Gods had turned on NU and all the good luck from the past was now requiring pay back.

Also, my son was 2 at the time. As soon as the INT happened I jumped up and screamed YES! Then he fumbled and I kicked my son's inflatable castle. For months afterwards my son would scream YES and then run over and kick that stupid castle. My wife gave me a dirty look each and every time!
I’ve thought about the football Gods, a type of curse. It’s definitely crossed my mind, and I don’t even really believe in that nonsense. NU has definitely had quite a bit of hard luck in the past 20 years. Haven’t had much really go their way. Seriously, every close, big game, they’ve managed to lose. The Texas and OU losses, that was serious hard luck. Should have won them both.
 
I’ve thought about the football Gods, a type of curse. It’s definitely crossed my mind, and I don’t even really believe in that nonsense. NU has definitely had quite a bit of hard luck in the past 20 years. Haven’t had much really go their way. Seriously, every close, big game, they’ve managed to lose. The Texas and OU losses, that was serious hard luck. Should have won them both.
I do believe at the end of the day things even out. My dad is a huge baseball fan and always says "the back of the card doesn't lie" meaning that players have good years and bad years but they come back to average at some point. I view these lean years as coming back to average a bit. I do find solace in teams like OU and Bama though. They had some lean years and have come back.
 
Reading through the best teams since 2003 thread, on thing that gets touched on a lot are turning points - when the program could have turned the corner (for the positive) but things just went sideways. We win that game, and everything's different. There are a number of these games that I'm sure we could all come up with, but the one I'll highlight 2011 Michigan, a 45-17 loss.

We were ranked 17, they were ranked 20th, and we'd beaten two top 15 teams in three weeks (sandwiching a loss to a 3-5 Northwestern team, the inconsistencies of the Pelini era) leading up to the game. We put up a fight in the first half, but then Mich found something that worked, and just kept doing it. The lack of adjustments, the willingness to give up... this was for me when the bloom truly fell from Bo Pelini's rose. Bo had had blowout losses (Wis. earlier that year) and head scratching losses (Texas in 2010, ISU in 2009) but this one just left me feeling resigned. Michigan wasn't a great team, but not only could we not beat them, we couldn't hang with them.

If we win, this still wasn't a great team but it changes the phycology of the program. This game would have won the division for us. In the title game we'd have had a rematch against Wisconsin. Wis. was a better team, but strange things can happen in rematches. Just as important, it'd have shown we belong in the Big 10. In year one we win the division and hang some "pelts" on the wall. The national conversation around us is different. We'd have had momentum within the league, and maybe a bit of belief. Instead, I went from thinking "this isn't the year we return to greatness" to "this isn't the coach that returns us to greatness".
The national conversation around Nebraska has never changed. Not in my lifetime. Not when Nebraska was loosing to Florida state and/or Miami in the 80’s on their own field, not in the 90’s while we were running away as the team of the decade. The national media has long ago locked onto a Nebraska narrative and have stuck with it.... now it fits
 




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