THE 2024 HUSKERS – Wary Optimism vs Red Flags: Opt for a Belief in Miracles Nebraska Matt Rhule Ted Lasso Dylan Raiola

And, no, it’s not Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights again. But don’t you dare tempt me.

Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a list of the 10 Husker games since 2014 which made me want to chug a fifth of Sailor Jerry like Bluto when the movers were cleaning out the Delta house. Or dare Mike Tyson to punch me in the face like Steve-O. Or juggle some cactus…never mind, you get the picture.

But there was one which was different.

That miserable, goddamned Dublin Northwestern game. To me, it hit worse than the 62-36 2001 Nebraska-Colorado drubbing, though I couldn’t describe exactly why. Maybe it was the rock solid belief the “greatest 3-9 team of all time” was about to turn the corner that season. Who knows? I just remember feeling stunned after. The tab immediately paid, I quietly picked up and headed home to the goofy, fun-loving mini-Aussie (Coco) I was dog-sitting.

This is me about three minutes after getting home and twenty minutes after the final gun. It took a few decades, but I had finally learned how to put disappointment behind me after games. Now farting about with a borrowed dog may not work for everyone – perhaps a Farrelly brothers comedy (one of the early ones) or biting the cork off your favorite brown liquor savoring it while enjoying a cool evening on your deck will set you on the path – but all I know is the following weekend, I was taking in the North Dakota game with my daughter and her boyfriend.

IT’S THE HOPE THAT KILLS YOU

For those Ted Lasso fans out there, the phrase above is a familiar one. (And if you haven’t watched Ted Lasso, I recommend it without reservation. Come for the outrageous humor and stay for the fantastic characters and their stories.)

However, it wasn’t invented by the show, it’s an actual phrase English football fans have used for years as a way to skirt the emotional damage caused when high hopes come crashing down. The folks in the pub had mentioned it to Ted repeatedly and he took it to the locker room before a big game:

“…I think it’s the lack of hope that comes and gets you. See, I believe in hope. I believe in belief. Now, where I’m from, we got a saying too, yeah? A question, actually. “Do you believe in miracles?” Now, I don’t need y’all to answer that question for me… but I do want you to answer that question for yourselves…”

One’s more fun than the other even if it comes with some gut punches – okay, okay, a bunch of gut punches, ass kicks, cheek slaps and other figurative abuses – but if miracles happened every day we’d get bored and have to call them something else.

And this season, “Do you believe in miracles,” isn’t even the order of the day. More like, “Do you believe in measurable improvement and a bowl game?”

Yeah, I can believe in that.

LIMP ON THIS SEASON

I have nowhere close to the ego required to believe this little article will make readers lift their arms to the sky and proclaim themselves healed, hallelujah!! And believe me, there’s still times when I want test my skull’s thickness against hard objects. For instance, if I have to stare down at Deion’s Buffaloes celebrating on Memorial Stadium’s field turf next Saturday night.

But I’ve learned to shove it off to the side quicker and doing so allows me to hope harder. It’s about all I can ask for.

A little known and underrated movie called “The Upside of Anger” has the quote which perhaps describes it best for me. It starred Kevin Costner and Joan Allen as a couple of caustic but functional alcoholics who drink their days away while slowly falling for each other. Allen is trying to explain her pain and Costner has the answer:

[of her broken heart] “It’s not the kind of thing that ever heals.”

“Yeah, it does. It heals. It just heals funny. You know, you more or less walk… with a limp.”

I guess the best way I can put it is I have a hell of limp, but I’m still walking. Even if there’s not always a borrowed dog around. And a sip or two of rum is taken occasionally.

Go Big Red.

Now, more than ever, I’d like to hear where everyone is at as kickoff nears. Everything ranging from “I’ve got a therapist on retainer” to “We’re going 11-1 and I don’t care who knows it!!” is fair game – pile into the comments below!

Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports

Nebraska Cornhuskers

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