Scenes From The Colorado Tailgate

Dan Beebe Fears for his Life

By BLAIR KERKHOFF
The Kansas City Star

After a week of receiving threatening messages, including death threats, Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe didn’t want a member of his staff attending the game.

“The decision was to be safe,” Beebe said. “It probably wasn’t a good idea to be there.”

Beebe said he has received more than 2,000 “vulgar and nasty” e-mails and voice-mail messages from Nebraska fans who have been upset at what they’ve perceived as unfair decisions by the conference office with a suspension and officiating decisions against the Cornhuskers.

Some of the messages have included threats to Beebe, his family and Big 12 staff members.

“I’m a big boy, I can take this, but our staff doesn’t deserve the vulgarity and the nastiness aimed at them,” Beebe said.

Beebe said he received a message from a person impersonating a police officer who said “they had my daughter, who is in college, and she was unresponsive.”

There also was a death threat.

“We had a threat talking about you’re going to die and your family is going to die in your house,” Beebe said. “You have to start taking it seriously. All it takes is one crackpot.”

Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne said he had communicated with Beebe earlier in the week and knew there wouldn’t be a conference representative at the game.

“They said they didn’t think it was safe to send somebody up,” Osborne said Friday.

Beebe said the angry messages started after the league imposed a one-game suspension on linebacker Eric Martin for targeting a player with the crown of his helmet during a kickoff return Oct. 23 against Oklahoma State. No penalty was called on the play.

Beebe said he made the decision after consulting with a security official who works as an independent contractor for the NFL.

“We were told it’s not worth the risk until there was more time to sort it out,” Beebe said. “There hasn’t been enough time to chase down the people who left some of the most threatening messages.”

At some point a trophy will be presented to Nebraska, and if the Cornhuskers win the Big 12 title game Dec. 4 in Arlington, Texas, a ceremony will take place on the field with a Big 12 official.

Beebe presented the division championship trophy to Nebraska in 2006 and 2009.

Score Predictions - Colorado

Enter your Score Predictions for this week's game in the comments section.

Previous Winners

Week 1: Denise - Off by 1 Point! - (Guess 50-10, Actual 49-10)
Week 2: Luke - Off by 1 Point! - (Guess 38-16, Actual 38-17)
Week 3: Denise - Off by 11 Points - (Guess 45-21, Actual 56-21)
Week 4: Kristin - Off by 31 Points - (Guess 41-10, Actual 17-3)
Week 5: Kovar - Off by 5 Points - (Guess 52-12, Actual 48-13)
Week 6: Kovar - Off by 9 Points - (Guess 22-20, Actual 13-20)
Week 7: Kovar - Off by 14 Points - (Guess 52-28, Actual 51-41)
Week 8: Kovar - Off by 3 Points - (Guess 33-18, Actual 31-17)
Week 9: Hepp - Off by 16 Points - (Guess 28-17, Actual 31-30)
Week 10: Dean - Off by 24 Points - (Guess 38-9, Actual 20-3)
Week 11: Dean - Off by 15 Points - (Guess 17-13, Actual 6-9)

Niles Paul Out for Friday and Likely Season

In a statement issued Wednesday, head coach Bo Pelini confirmed that an injury will sideline wide receiver Niles Paul for the Buffaloes game, if not longer.

“Niles Paul suffered a foot injury in Tuesday afternoon’s practice,” Pelini said in a statement. “He will be out for Friday’s game against Colorado. His status for the rest of the season will be evaluated.”

According to the Omaha World-Herald, and citing three sources close to the situation, Paul will be sidelined at least a month because of a broken foot. Obviously, depending on the date of the Cornhuskers’ bowl game, Paul’s NU career could be over as well as he’s a senior.

Paul currently leads the Cornhuskers with 39 receptions and 516 receiving yards.

10 Memorable NU/CU Games

1986 Colorado 20 Nebraska 10: The Buffaloes punked one of the Huskers' finest defenses with a reverse and a halfback pass, both for touchdowns, while NU's high-powered offense never found its footing in the mountain air, rushing for just 123 yards, its lowest total in eight years. Most Husker fans trace the rather unkind treatment they received at the hands of the Buff faithful back to this game.

1988 Nebraska 7 Colorado 0: Flying toward the end zone untouched for the game's first touchdown, Colorado running back J.J. Flannigan did a funny thing. He fumbled. And while he recovered the ball at the NU 19-yard line, a botched reverse two plays later left the Buffaloes out of field goal position. That meant Ken Clark's third-quarter touchdown stood up as the game's only score in another defensive scrum.

1989 Colorado 27 Nebraska 21: The finest game in the series, really, with the most at stake, two undefeated teams, No. 2 and No. 3, battling on a gorgeous day in Boulder. NU struck on its first offensive player, a 51-yard pass from Gerry Gdowski to Bryan Carpenter. Colorado answered back with two quick touchdowns, and the game settled in from there, an old-fashioned, back-and-forth affair. NU's pass to the end zone on the game's final play was knocked down. Nebraska outplayed the Buffs, but a controversial pass interference penalty on the Huskers – plus two key punt returns by Jeff Campbell, was the difference.

1990 Colorado 27 Nebraska 12: NU was on the right side of this equation in 2009, when the Huskers overcame a 12-0 deficit at Missouri on a rainy night with 27 straight points in the fourth quarter. On this day in 1990, CU continued its march toward the national title with a series of clutch runs and throws from quarterback Darian Hagan. Eric Bieniemy overcame four lost fumbles to rush for as many touchdowns in the fourth quarter to go with his 137 rushing yards. Nebraska failed to convert two fourth-down plays in the fourth quarter that helped facilitate CU's points.

1991 Nebraska 19 Colorado 19: Perhaps the coldest game ever played in the series– the kickoff temps were well below zero and snow was packed into the bleachers at Folsom Field – ended in a tie thanks to two CU blocks of Byron Bennett kicks – one an extra point that Greg Biekert returned for a 2-point conversion, the other a field goal at the gun. On the field goal, Buff students were hurling snowballs at Bennett's feet. Surprisingly, the option-heavy teams combined for more passing yards (321) than rushing yards (272).

1994 Nebraska 24 Colorado 7: CU's finest team expected to roll into Lincoln and continue its drive for a second national title in five years. Not to be – as Nebraska continued its drive for its first in 24 years. Quarterback Brook Berringer, frustrated after hearing that he wasn't much of a threat to beat the Buffaloes, hammered Colorado with his arm, completing a series of short passes to tight ends in the first half before putting in the dagger with a 30-yarder to Eric Alford in the third quarter. NU's defense, meanwhile, turned Kordell Stewart into mincemeat, sacking him four times and limiting him to just 150 yards passing.

2000 Nebraska 34 Colorado 32: Aided by perhaps the worst squib kick in the history of them, NU won thanks to a last-minute Eric Crouch drive that set up a 29-yard field goal by Josh Brown as time expired. The Huskers appeared ready to run away with the game after taking an early 14-0 lead, but the Buffs, behind freshman quarterback Craig Ochs, fought back to take an 17-14 lead in the third quarter. From there, both teams traded haymakers, with Colorado appearing to win the game on a late touchdown and 2-point conversion with 44 seconds left. But head coach Gary Barnett called for a squib on the ensuing kickoff, and CU screwed it up, kicking directly to NU running back Dahrran Diedrick, who returned the ball nearly to midfield. Crouch found Bobby Newcombe on two passes to get NU in field goal range and Brown made the chip-shot for the win. Colorado's response, seen here, is fairly priceless.

2001 Colorado 62 Nebraska 36: The Day After Thanksgiving Massacre. The Buffaloes ran that power counter over and over and over up and down the field – and threw for 202 yards to boot. CU took a 35-3 lead before the Huskers started to make their move, closing the gap to 42-23 by halftime and 42-30 in the fourth quarter. A third-quarter fumble by NU running back Dahrran Diedrick stung deeply. Some argue the Huskers have never really recovered their dominance after so clearly losing it in that game. Nebraska still headed to the BCS national title game over the Buffaloes one week later.

2007 Colorado 65 Nebraska 51: Also known as Bill Callahan's final game, where Kevin Cosgrove's defense was buried for good, never to R.I.P. The two teams combined for 1,128 yards and 116 points, as CU used a 21-point third quarter to wrest the lead from the Huskers and never relinquish it again.

2008 Nebraska 40 Colorado 31: The Kick Heard Round Nebraska. Alex Henery's 57-yard boot to give NU a 32-31 lead – followed by Ndamukong Suh's interception return for a touchdown just moments later, is the loudest Memorial Stadium's been in years. Good thing Henery made that kick, too, because the Huskers were about to give an easy one away to the Buffaloes.

Bad Time to Play CU

While Nebraska's offense has hit a wall the last few week's, Colorado is just catching their stride. Check out Offensive stats for both teams comparing averages from the first 8 games to averages during the last 3 games. (2 of the 3 games for each team were against common opponents..ISU and KU)

Kellogg Works With 2nd String

With starting quarterback Taylor Martinez out of action Monday, Nebraska redshirt freshman Ron Kellogg III spent time with the No. 2 offense, he told reporters.

Kellogg said he's been sharing reps with the twos along with senior Zac Lee while Cody Green takes snaps with the first string.

"Today I took the majority of the reps just because Zac has to worry about his elbow and stuff," said Kellogg, a walk-on from Omaha Westside.

Kellogg moved up from the scout team the week of the Nov. 13 Kansas game and since worked mostly with the twos and threes. Now, he said, he's working mostly with the twos.

"Of course I was a little shocked when I got the call-up," he said. "But after that, I sat down with coach (Shawn) Watson and got a level head about everything. Basically, you have to study the playbook. If you don't study the playbook, things won't go well in practice. If you get thrown in the game, things won't go well in the game."

He said he studies and learns so his teammates will have confidence in him if he's called upon in a game.

After working with the scout team, he said, "It's a dream to come up to the big field. Now that I've got that opportunity, I don't want to lose it."

5th Down - 20 Years Ago Today

I still can't believe Colorado won a (split) National Championship
This play sure helped.

Fox Sports Sideline Reporter Jim Knox Gets Leveled