ESPN: Minnesota, Nebraska fight to move forward

Per Mitch Sherman:

The 11 a.m. kickoff on ESPN provides a chance for Minnesota and Nebraska to move on from the disappointments of last week. There’s more at work, though. This 55th meeting in the series offers a study in how two programs appear on a similar trajectory, yet, upon close inspection, may represent passing ships in the night.

Minnesota is trending up. Eight wins over 12 games of Big Ten play marks its best run in 40 years. Nebraska, meanwhile after the debacle in Madison, is struggling to move out of neutral in its seventh season under coach Bo Pelini.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/111338/minnesota-nebraska-fight-to-move-forward

Nebraska is saying/doing the right things:

-- “We need to win this football game,” Bell said. “We have to.”

-- In practice on Tuesday, seven top-unit defenders voluntarily relinquished their traditional Blackshirt jerseys.

Whether that translates to success on Saturday remains to be seen, but I expect the Huskers to be fired up for this one. The Gophers have allowed 49 points and 618 yards in the first quarter over the last four weeks - changing that trend will go a long ways toward putting the Gophs in position to win a game where I think momentum will play a huge part. As someone else said in another thread, if Minnesota jumps out to a quick lead, things could snowball on the Huskers.

Jike Spingleton said:

Nebraska is saying/doing the right things:

-- “We need to win this football game,” Bell said. “We have to.”

-- In practice on Tuesday, seven top-unit defenders voluntarily relinquished their traditional Blackshirt jerseys.

Whether that translates to success on Saturday remains to be seen, but I expect the Huskers to be fired up for this one. The Gophers have allowed 49 points and 618 yards in the first quarter over the last four weeks - changing that trend will go a long ways toward putting the Gophs in position to win a game where I think momentum will play a huge part. As someone else said in another thread, if Minnesota jumps out to a quick lead, things could snowball on the Huskers.

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I wasn't aware of what the blackshirt signified, so looked it up on Wiki and found this interesting nugget:

The Blackshirt jersey was temporarily suspended from the practice field again after Nebraska yielded 271 rushing yards to the Minnesota Golden Gophers during the October 26, 2013 game in which Minnesota snapped its 16-game losing streak to Nebraska[5][6] and knocked the #24 Huskers out of the AP and USA Today college football rankings.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackshirts_(American_football)

Nate said:

I wasn't aware of what the blackshirt signified, so looked it up on Wiki and found this interesting nugget:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackshirts_(American_football)

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I think this is the main snippet from the Wikipedia article:

After a time, the black jerseys were only given to the defensive players who practiced and performed well.

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Its something the players want and it gives them motivation to get back. So i really do see a really motivated Nebraska team at home Saturday. Gophs are going to need to on top of their game and not come out slow.

“We need to win this football game,” Bell said. “We have to.” Pressure baby pressure

Jike Spingleton said:

Nebraska is saying/doing the right things:

-- “We need to win this football game,” Bell said. “We have to.”

-- In practice on Tuesday, seven top-unit defenders voluntarily relinquished their traditional Blackshirt jerseys.

Whether that translates to success on Saturday remains to be seen, but I expect the Huskers to be fired up for this one. The Gophers have allowed 49 points and 618 yards in the first quarter over the last four weeks - changing that trend will go a long ways toward putting the Gophs in position to win a game where I think momentum will play a huge part. As someone else said in another thread, if Minnesota jumps out to a quick lead, things could snowball on the Huskers.

Click to expand...

What about the other four? Locker room schism in Nebraska?