Cornhuskers 'Restore the Order'
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BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
The game had been over for all of five seconds and here was Mark LeFlore stripping at the Folsom Field 20-yard line. Off came the helmet. Off came the jersey. Off came the pads. And then, thankfully for the children, the Husker receiver stopped the tease there. “See this?” he said, flexing like a GQ cover boy and pointing to the words on a cut-off T-shirt he was wearing: RESTORE THE ORDER.
You couldn’t miss those words following Nebraska’s 30-3 flogging of those despised Colorado Buffaloes on Friday. One-by-one, Husker players ripped off their jerseys, not just to celebrate the team’s biggest win in four years, but also to reveal T-shirts with a rallying cry.
RESTORE THE ORDER
“We need to restore the order of who’s No. 1 in the Big 12 and I think it starts with us and Colorado,” said Husker linebacker Bo Ruud, who was so delirious at game’s end he had to be reminded the score.
Excuse Ruud for the brain freeze. It was pure mayhem as the Husker players ran through a parted Red Sea of screaming fans to their locker room. A spontaneous pep rally broke out at the same setting Nebraska had been buried 62-36 four years earlier .
Assistant coach Jay Norvell pounded his hands together as fast as he could, trying to keep up with the “Go Big Red” chant.
Defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove hugged every family member he saw.
Athletic director Steve Pederson’s wife, Tami, jumped into the arms of another lady and whirled around like it was her wedding day.
Running back Cory Ross, a native of Colorado who has poured his soul into Nebraska’s program even through the darkest of days, pounded the fist of what seemed every fan in red.
“He touched me,” said 6-year-old Husker fan Nate Hart to his father after Ross whisked by. “Did you see that? I touched him.”
Yeah, to say this one was sweet for the Huskers is to say Donald Trump has a thick wallet. This was arguably the program’s biggest victory since a 2001 win against top-ranked Oklahoma.
The Huskers did not just merely beat a Colorado team that had defeated them three out of the last four seasons. Nebraska took the Buffs apart, made them want to take their ball and go home by the third quarter, and caused the home fans to pout in the process.
With just more than 10 minutes left in the game, Sections 115 and 116 of the CU student section were asked to leave the stadium after continually throwing bottles, tennis balls, and even golf balls, onto the field.
“They probably felt the same frustration that all of us felt today and they just had some things they could throw,” said Colorado coach Gary Barnett. “They’re just a microcosm of what we were feeling inside as well and we just couldn’t do anything about it.”
Many Nebraska fans in the other corner of the stadium laughed at the behavior and chanted “CU lata” in retaliation.
About that time, Steve Pederson was receiving a phone call from a close friend
“I’m seeing some unbelievable coaching going on,” the unnamed friend told the athletic director.
Pederson responded: “I know that. We just got to keep everybody focused on the big prize down the road.”
The AD, who has received his fair share of criticism for Nebraska’s struggles the past two years, was going to need more than a shower to wipe the smile from his face.
“What I love is being in the locker room with our team and seeing guys that have sacrificed so much, coaches and players having the success that they deserve,” Pederson said.
Asked if this was a statement game for NU head coach Bill Callahan, the AD replied: “Sure.”
Husker coaches had passed out the RESTORE THE ORDER shirts the day before the game. The shirts were not just about beating Colorado.
The motto represented something bigger than that.
“We haven’t won our last two (regular-season) games since 1999,” Pederson said. “At Nebraska, the benchmark for success has been to win championships, not to win games. There are schools that say if we win so many games that’s a good thing, but we want to be a school that wins championships. ... They’ve been doing that for 40 years here.”
At 7-4, this year’s Husker team won’t win a championship. But for the first time in a long time, there was not one bad word a guy could say about the Nebraska football team.
Said defensive end Wali Muhammad: “It’s so perfect that we did it at their house. ... (Shoot), we did awesome.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7438 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
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