Game Week: Wisconsin (2015)

In every bar in Husker Nation there is a poster. Sometimes normal-sized, sometimes the size of an entire wall. It’s a schedule poster, hand-drawn or pilfered from the nearest Valentino’s. And I’ve begun noticing a very sad, sad pastime in Husker Nation related to these posters.



See, the manager of the bar likes to mark the scores on the schedule poster. The first week, it’s usually carefully written, with the Huskers’ score in red and Directional Tech’s score in black. You can feel the enthusiasm in the calligraphy.

But the enthusiasm wanes, as evidenced by lettering that gets sloppier, more hastily-written.

And then, it just stops. At whatever the “Oh fuck this” game of the season is. Wisconsin in 2014. Minnesota in 2013. Ohio State in 2012. And… Illinois in 2015. Those 2015 schedule posters hanging in Husker bars will never again know the taste of Sharpie ink. Even if we win the rest of our games, the Sharpie’s are sheathed for the season. We are past “oh fuck this.” Welcome to “Well this oughtta be interesting” territory.

Which is kind of nice, you know? The thing I liked about this season before it started was the lack of expectations and the absence of angst. Everybody was in “Let’s see what happens” mode. Then we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in 3 of our first 5 games. And we went from “I don’t know what to think” to “I’m going to need to drink heavily during all of these games.”

That’s a fun place to be. There’s nothing to lose now. All that’s left is to figure out how to start winning. A really great place to start? With Wisconsin. Because in case you’ve forgotten… fuck Wisconsin.

This week in the Tunnel, Mike Riley is pulling out all the stops. I mean, all of them.

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