Pay zat Man his Money

Jeeze…how does one follow up a passionate, hate-fueled rant about what is probably the most anticipated regular season Husker game this millennium? No seriously, give me a call with some ideas. Since I can’t do two FU UT rants in consecutive weeks, I guess we can talk about the Nebraska defense (this mofo knows better than to dedicate an entire post to how Taylor Martinez is the second coming...after one game...against a JV program...no matter how sexy his arm tattoos are). So how about that defense? Obviously, no one earned a Blackshirt after WKU racked up 300 yards.

Side rant: Are we seriously going to be subjected to week after week of dumb reporters and stubborn coaches going back and forth about something as trivial as when the damn Blackshirts are being handed out? C’mon Bo, give us a break and give the defensive starters freaking shirts that are freaking black. Yes folks, that was an actual criticism of Lord Bo Pelini. Luckily, other than the Blackshirt / no-Blackshirt pissing match and maybe the temper issue (which, for the record, I find his downright embarrassing at times), Bo is simply the best there is. End of side rant.

But yeah, the defense wasn’t very good in week 1. Good enough to pull out a coverlicious cover, but not good enough to excite the Husker faithful. I mean, I didn’t hear one SUUUUUUHHHHHH yodel the entire game. Say what? Suh what? Graduated? Lions? Oh no. Oh God no. NOOOOOO!!!! Haha, I kid. Obviously the loss of that ridiculous beast is going to be a huge factor this season. And I am ready to concede that our defense will not be as good as last year. Repeat: We will NOT be as good as last year on defense. Suh was a disruptive dude. No player or group of players is going to give us that…not this year…and maybe never again in our lives. No problem though. We are going to be a top defense. The non-quite-yet-but-soon-to-be-Blackshirts defense will get better every week and we should be ready for the big boys when the time comes (10/16/10). There is no possible way our offense can suck as bad as last year, so we are cool. And how about that AP ranking? Dang, I liked the 8 spot a little better. We’re getting some respect though…just not enough for ESPN to show one freaking Husker highlight all freaking week. Suck it ESPN.

So yeah, Bo Pelini is a defensive guru. Bo is soooo good, that I get a little worried about how much money other coaches, inferior coaches, make. Eventually, we need to pay this guy some money. But how much is enough??? Enter Jim Brazda and his brilliant mind. (Let’s do the conversation thingy again, as it seemed to work out well last week.)

Me: How much do you think NU should be prepared to pay Bo Pelini when the inevitable poaching attempts begin?

Brazda: As much as he wants. Seriously, as much as he freaking wants.

Me: Do you think Nebraska would be down with paying as much as Alabama pays Saban? Or USC pays Kiffin?

Brazda: They better. As much as he wants. And if the state of Nebraska needs to raise taxes to keep him, I have no problem with that. I’d be all for that.

Me: (Nodding in total 100% agreement)

Brazda: You know what they should do…they should put out jars at gas stations similar to the ones for crippled kids or cancer research. Except this jar would be for Nebraskans to voluntarily donate to the “Keep Pelini” fund.

Me: If I see that jar...I donate. Every. Single. Time. Honestly I’d have to fight the urge to hit the ATM if I didn’t have any cash.

Brazda: Yep. Sorry crippled kids. Daddy needs some Peso defense.

Week 1 Tailgate Notes

Thank you for making the first tailgate of the year a success! With the first Husker win, we are on our way to the Big 12 Championship.

Just a couple of notes and reminders:

BEER:
The beer at the tailgate is provided by Jose Rivera and Ryan Kenney. This is not paid for through sponsorships as these two are paying for it out of their own pocket. Please be sure to find one of them each week and give them some money to help with the beer. Thanks!

SPONSORSHIPS:
If you are a sponsor and haven't already paid, please be sure to find Gail or Denise at the Idaho tailgate to pay. If you are not going to make it to this weeks tailgate, please email Gail at dglist@cox.net or Denise at dgzehoviak@yahoo.com to arrange for payment.

HOUSEKEEPING:
Last but not least, please help keep our tailgate clean by throwing your trash in one of the bags located around the tailgate.

AD Admits A&M “Not Ready” For SEC Competition

4 months ago, Texas A&M and the Southeastern Conference confirmed that the Aggies nearly moved their sports programs from the Big 12 to SEC. Since then, there’s been much conjecture about why A&M elected to stay in the Big 12 instead of bolting for the SEC.

Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne cleared up much of that speculation with a brutally honest assessment of the situation during a guest appearance on WTAW-AM in College Station, Texas, this week.

Byrne on why A&M didn’t make the move to SEC:
“I was concerned with changing conferences that we may not be ready for the level of competition if we decided to leave. I was very concerned about trying to take things slowly, and not rush.”

Byrne also cited the school’s athletic dept. balance sheet for staying in the Big 12:

“If we looked at where we stacked up financially in the Pac 10 conference, we were about third. If we looked at where we stacked up in the Southeastern Conference, we were eighth out of 12. We didn’t rank very well.”

Byrne cited the Aggies move from the now-defunct Southwest Conference to the Big 12 as an instructive lesson:

“My big concern was that when Texas A&M made the move from the Southwest Conference to the Big 12 conference [in 1996], they were not ready for the level of competition that was out there.”

“[A&M] had not made the investment in facilities, staff or salaries - all the things you need to build a great program. And you saw the results of that. We had a good football team in 1998, then we had problems.

“We had terrible basketball [teams]. … We had significant issues in track and field. We had problems with most of our sports because we were not ready for the level of competition.”

While non-A&M observers appreciate Byrne’s honesty, I can’t imagine his sentiment will go over too well with a good many, diehard Aggie fans. (Longhorn fans? Completely different story.)

Georgia State Gatorade Celebration

Thought this was funny.

Meet the Vandals

Team: Idaho Vandals
Location: Moscow, Idaho
Colors: Silver and Vandal Gold
Enrollment: 11,730
Conference: Western Athletic (WAC)


Head Coach: Robb Akey (Weber State, 1988): 12-26 in fourth season as head coach (all at Idaho)
Offensive Coordinator: Steve Axman

2010 Record: 1-0
National Ranking: Unranked
Series Record vs. Nebraska: First Meeting

Game Time: Saturday, Sept. 11, 11:30 a.m.
Stadium: Tom Osborne Field - Memorial Stadium (81,067)
TV: FSN Pay Per View
Radio: Husker Sports Network

Signal-Caller: Senior quarterback Nathan Enderle (6-5, 233), a native of North Platte, is a member of the 2010 preseason watch lists for the Manning, Davey O'Brien and Johnny Unitas Gold Arm awards. Enderle has passed for 7,081 yards in his career after completing 24-of-37 attempts for 311 yards and two touchdowns in last week's 45-0 season-opening victory over North Dakota. He ranks fifth in school history in passing yards and needs 320 yards to move into fourth place.

On the Ground: Despite losing De'Maundray Woolridge's production (979 rushing yards and 18 TDs last year), the Vandals still returned two of their top three rushers from last season in Princeton McCarty (5-8, 192) and Deonte' Jackson (5-8, 199). To open the 2010 campaign, McCarty led the squad with 12 rushes for 89 yards and two touchdowns last week, as seven players had a carry in the walkover.

Catching the Ball: The Vandals returned three starting receivers from last year in Eric Greenwood (6-6, 233), Preston Davis (6-2, 201) and Maurice Shaw (6-3, 205). Greenwood tied for the team lead with four catches last week for 41 yards and a score in the opener. The trio was among 11 Vandals with at least one catch last week, including H-back Daniel Hardy (6-4, 242) who had 82 yards on four receptions. Junior college transfer Armauni Johnson (6-4, 194) hauled in the longest play of the day with a 54-yard scoring reception in the fourth quarter before finishing with three catches for 86 yards.

On the Line: The offensive line is in rebuilding mode after losing four starters to graduation, including guard Mike Iupati, who was a first-round NFL Draft selection (17th overall by San Francisco). Junior tackle Matt Cleveland (6-4, 311) is the only returning starter on the O-line. Opposite Cleveland, Tyrone Novikof (6-7, 318) manned the right tackle spot while Sam Tupua (6-2, 374) and Tevita Halaholo (6-5, 335) started at left and right guard, respectively. Clell Hasenbank (6-0, 287) got the nod at center.

Kicking It Around: Trey Farquhar (6-1, 180) and Bobby Cowan (6-5, 230) return as the starters at place-kicker and punter, respectively. Farquar, who was 13-of-19 on field goals last year with a long of 54 yards, hit all six PATs and connected on a 22-yard field goal in the season opener while missing a 56-yard attempt. Cowan averaged 39.4 yards on five punts against North Dakota after averaging 43.0 ypp last season.

Return Game: Defensive back Shiloh Keo returned two punts for a total of nine yards in the opener while running back Kama Bailey added one kickoff return for 15 yards.

They Said It: "I think I was sending a message. We said we were going to play as fast as we can, as hard as we can for as long as we can, and that's the whole daggone game. I didn't like the way we were playing at the end of the half. If I have to set the tempo for them, I'll set the tempo. That's the head coach's job." - Head Coach Robb Akey on why he called for an on-side kick to start the second half, which the Vandals recovered.

Notable Idaho Alumni: Idaho has had 70 players selected all-time in the NFL Draft, including guard Mike Iupati (No. 17 overall by the 49ers in 2010) and running back Ray McDonald (No. 13 overall by the Redskins in 1967). Jerry Kramer, who went on to become a five-time world champion and five-time All-NFL selection with the Green Bay Packers, also played three years (1954-57) at Idaho.

2010 Husker Tunnel Walk Video

In case you weren't at the first game, here is the New 2010 Tunnel Walk Video

Scenes from the Western Kentucky Tailgate

Poll Results

Who will play in the Last Big 12 Championship Game?

NU vs OU 61%
NU vs Tex 28%
KSU vs South Champ 9%

Score Predictions - Idaho

Get your score predictions in for this week's exciting game against Idaho!
Enter your score prediction in the comments section

Previous Winners

Week 1 : Denise - off by 1 point! (Guess 50-10 Actual 49-10)

Welcome to the 2010 No Option Tailgate Blog

It's that time of year again, the Cubs are all but mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, Tim and Aaron choked in golf league and finished 2nd again, a new (bigger) TV was purchased for the trailer, Olive Garden has unlimited pasta bowls, the Huskers have another Quarterback controversy, and the first No Option Tailgate is only days away.

As you have noticed we have made a few changes to the No Option Blog this year...
(including the address: http://www.nooptiontailgate.blogspot.com/ --Save link to your favorites now)

How to Navigate this site:
Directly below the Blog title and in the right sidebar, you will see several tabs with links to new "pages". Click on these for updated information such as History of the No Option Tailgate, a list of all the sponsors that help to make this tailgate possible, Information on who won the weekly pool, Big 10 News, and Tailgater of the Week.
On the sidebar to the right you will also find information on the current week's game, polls, and links.
Also, each week we will have new posts such as Score Predictions, Pictures from previous tailgates, Big Husker news stories, and of course, Ben's weekly rant.

Note: If you do not have one of the new Tabbed Browsing versions of Internet Explorer, all features may not work.

Be sure to check back weekly and let us know if you would like to help contribute to this blog in order to make it successful.

aagzehov@yahoo.com
kristin@spotlessliving.com
jonlist10@yahoo.com

Looking forward to a great season of No Option Tailgating!

Thanks,

No Option Tailgate Team

Win one for Muss

Our Nebraska Cornhuskers start the season ranked 8th in the AP Poll. I’ll take it (as most NU fans will). And like most of you, I am happy with the state of the Husker program. However the phrase I keep hearing is that we aren’t “back” until our Huskers are playing for National Championships. Well, I have to disagree with that. I don’t care if we stay at this level for years and years. I don’t need another National Championship right this minute. I’m not dying for an appearance in the National Championship game. And hell, to be perfectly honest, I’m not even feening for a BCS birth. I got mine. 3 of them boyyyyyy!!!!!. As a lifelong Cub fan...I’m not about to be greedy. But I would like to be a top 15 team every single year. Yeah (grinning ear to ear), being a perennial power is a REQUIREMENT. This isn’t Missouri. This isn’t Texas Tech or Ole Miss or Arkansas or Iowa or Wisconsin. This is Nebraska. It is important we are good at football. We should all thank God that Tom Osborne lost in his gubernatorial run, thus freeing him up to fix this shit (but that doesn’t make sense because…well you know…T.O. is God). But in my opinion we are back. We are back to where I know we are good. And I know we will be good next year. And I know we will be good the year after that. Pheww. Seriously. Time to kick back and root for the best. Except for one thing…

We need to beat Texas. For so many reasons. At the top of the long list of reasons we need to beat Texas, is Ben Mussmann. Nebraska needs to beat Texas for me. Nebraska is jetting to the Big 10 after this season, so there is no “next year”. That being said, please scratch that entire first paragraph. This particular season I feel a buttload of urgency. We need to beat Texas. And if we play Texas again in December, we need to beat them again. So if we are going to beat Texas twice, we may as well just run the table and go play Ohio State for all the marbles.

I’ve been in Houston for the last 5 years (and if you don’t know, now you know) and for the most part I really like it down here. The biggest headache about living is Texas is the amount of shit I take from Longhorn fans on a regular basis. Honest to T.O. It isn’t the heat or the traffic or the van loads of illegal aliens…it’s the freaking Longhorn fans. They are superior and the Skers are a 2nd tier program. They act like it has been that way forever. Now I am not trying to sound like a pussy. I mean I rarely, rarely call my mom crying about being picked on by the mean Texas boys. I understand them. They have beaten us 124 times in a row. I would probably hold my nose in the air too. But kicking their ass would be freaking awesome.

Here is an example conversation between Texas Doucher (TD) and me:

TD: So, your Cornhuskers got tired of getting pounded by Texas and decided to bolt to the pussy-ass Big 10, eh?

Me: I like the move (breathing deeply through the nose).

TD: Yeah, I think you guys could do well there. You will have a much better shot than you do in the Big 12.

Me: F*** YOU! (It really doesn’t take long for me to lose my cool anymore.) We are going to kick your ass this year and then take our f***ing title belt with us to the f***ing Big 10. You and Oklahoma can keep jerking each other off while Baylor and ISU watch.

TD: Nebraska sucks.

I’ve had this exact conversation roughly 87 times in the last 6 months. Last Saturday, it went to another level and I bet some TD that Nebraska would win in Lincoln. Mussmann make a bet??? Noooo. Yeah, I’ve been known to make a bet or two. But this one is ridiculous. Loser has to eat an entire bar of soap (yellow Dial). Now of course this was a drunken bet that I regret making…but no backing out now. I don’t know the ramifications of eating an entire bar of soap, but I’m guessing multiple vomits and possible hospitalization may be involved (on the bright side, maybe some bubbly farts???). I’m not worried about that. I’m worried that I will have to listen to TD after TD talk for years to come about how Nebraska tucked tail and ran...to get away from Texas...Nebraska = Pussies. OMG we have to win! Or should I say, OMTO we have to win!

College GameDay Preseason Predictions

National Championship Game:
Desmond Howard: Alabama over Miami (FL)
Lee Corso: Nebraska over Florida ("just like 1995")
Kirk Herbstreit: Ohio State over Oklahoma

That's right, our friend Lee Corso actually picked NU to win it all this year.
Maybe he didn't want to pick against Nebraska for risk that he might have to ride the bull again.

Corso on why he picked NU:

“Nebraska is building a good team. They won five of their last six games last year, they lost one point to Texas and clobbered that Arizona team. They’ve got a lot of good guys coming back and coach a good defense. They’ve got a good offensive line, good running backs. I think they’ve got a chance. They have to beat Texas, but they got Texas at home. Then they got to beat Oklahoma, I think, in a championship game. That’s why I pick them because they’re real good defensively.”

Score Predictions - Western Kentucky

Enter your score predictions for this week's game in the comments section.
The winner will be determined by the combined margin of difference from each team's score

For the record.....

Put your season prediction in writing. What games do you think the Huskers will win or lose?

Copy and paste the schedule in the comments section and mark every game with a W or L.

09/04 Western Kentucky
09/11 Idaho
09/18 @Washington
09/25 South Dakota State
10/07 @Kansas State
10/16 Texas
10/23 @Oklahoma State
10/30 Missouri
11/06 @Iowa State
11/13 Kansas
11/20 @Texas A&M
11/26 Colorado