Nebraska Football: Could the Huskers Lose to the Minnesota Golden Gophers?

(Iowa State head coach Paul Rhoads in 2009, celebrating another of Nebraska's inevitable victories. Image originally located here.)

Welcome to another edition of the Husker Hotwire, the sometimes-weekly, sometimes-funny look at Husker athletics!

After the 2009 Holiday Bowl, Bo Pelini told the world that "Nebraska's back, and we're here to stay!" At the Husker Hotwire, we believed him. Or at the very least, we were far too scared of him to say anything otherwise.

So as Nebraska comes off a bye week and prepares to face the 1-5 Minnesota Golden Gophers, we have seen evidence that Nebraska truly is back. Namely, the collective opinion of college football analysts that say Nebraska will not be challenged by Minnesota—or that the game won't be competitive, or that there's not much point in playing the game altogether.

Which is quite the relief for a Husker Hotwire staff that enjoyed the week off. After all, Nebraska traditionally does so very well when expected to dominate. Remember when Ohio State came to town a couple of weeks ago? They had an offense which all the analysts said couldn't move the ball against Nebraska. There's no way the Buckeyes could roll into Lincoln with that offense and, say, put up a 27-6 lead on NU in the third quarter. That's just silly talk!

And it's not just this year's performances that give the Hotwire staff reassurance of another easy day. Nebraska has a history of playing very well when it is a prohibitive favorite—like against Iowa State in 2009, against Iowa State in 2010 or against FCS South Dakota State in 2010.

Plus, Nebraska is coming into the Minnesota game riding the momentum of a thrilling victory against the Buckeyes. And that victory was totally due to the phenomenal play from NU. Nothing at all to do with the injury to Buckeye quarterback Braxton Miller, even though Miller had been torching the Blackshirts the whole game and Ohio State's offense completely dried up after his removal.

What a relief! It's so much nicer for the Hotwire staff to know that the game against Minnesota is completely in the bag. It's not like there would be much more preparation being done, even if the game was likely to be competitive, of course. But the chances of being embarrassed by that lack of preparation are at least reduced should NU hold serve and dominate the Gophers.

If nothing else, if Minnesota does pull off a shocker, at least the Hotwire won't look silly all by itself. That would be a nice change of pace.

Bee-One-Gee Conference Update

At the Husker Hotwire, we are committed to providing you with ongoing coverage of Nebraska's new opponents in the B1G Conference. Illini Hotwire reports that people are surprised that some Illinois fans wanted head coach Ron Zook fired, even after he led the Illini to a 6-0 start. Apparently those that are surprised didn't notice that those fans expected Illinois' clunker against Ohio State, including a shocking decision from Zook to not kick a field goal down 10 late in the game. Or that Zook's Illini teams have gone 5-7, 3-9 and 7-6 since Illinois' surprise Rose Bowl berth in 2007.

Around the Hotwire Network

Tiger Hotwire reports that Missouri will absolutely, for sure, no questions asked, remain as a member of the Big 12 10 9 ?? 12 Conference. At least until Friday, when Missouri's Board of Curators will meet and may or may not vote on Missouri heading to the SEC. After that meeting, we'll all see just how inevitable and imminent Missouri's conference shift will be.

BC$ Hotwire reports that the bigwigs in charge of college football's kiss-and-cry room with sequins and stuffed animals method to pick a national championship game are prepared to listen to Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson's proposal for a 16-team playoff, which would nearly triple the payouts to the participating conferences and create a fair chance for everyone to compete for a national title.

And by "listen," the BC$ bigwigs mean "politely ignore while we have a third helping of prawn pate and mango mousse at our fancy hotel meeting room." Because while Thompson's proposal does dramatically increase the money available to all schools, it doesn't allow that money to be controlled solely by the BC$ bigwigs. And we can't have that, can we? Think of the children!

Curmudgeon Hotwire reports that CBS's Dennis Dodd writes one column that nearly hits for the "grumpy old sportswriter" cycle by (1) complaining that lower-tier schools fighting for their survival should have have the decency to wait with their realignment talk until the offseason, so as not to disturb his football; (2) saying that those damn kids should stop with the new uniforms and just wear what their grandfathers did and like it; and (3) complaining about teams not playing much defense, like they did in the good ol' days of leather helmets and 6-3 final scores.

Dennis, all you needed was a good long moan about how those uppity women reporters don't belong on the sidelines covering a "man's game," and you'd have made history. Missed opportunity!

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