Cotton Bowl Recap

I am a little late getting this story up, but we capped off the 2006 Husker season in fine fashion. We begged and pleaded for the Colonel to let us use his office, and he graciously accepted. It was much better getting the hookup with the couches and the flat screen than watching on the 20 inch TV in our office. Or outside on the patio, it is getting quite chilly at night here. We picked up a few pizzas and some near beer and were on our way. CSM Hall was even nice enough to let us bust out some Husker gear for some good karma as well.

This picture makes me laugh because SFC Kerchal is carrying a case of beer and looks like he is up to something. We keep hoping they will mislabel a case and it will end up not being N/A but those Germans are just too efficient.

The S1 hanging out in style. The beer was a 16 oz bottle which was pretty fun. And tasty.

Lucky was the man. He was one of the few bright spots on offense.

TD Huskers!!! This is the view from the Colonel's desk. Not too shabby.

As you know, the game didn't end up as we would have liked. Did you know that we only had 64 yards or so from the time we scored our second touchdown with 9:00 left in the second quarter until the end of the game? Our coaches did a terrible job making adjustments at the half, which was really too bad as the defense played terrific the entire game. They definitely gave us an opportunity to win. Think how big the Michigan win was last year, this could have been the same sort of springboard for the 2007 campaign. Unfortunately it wasn't to be and we are still on the outside looking in of the nation's elite teams. Oh well, only 70 some days until the Spring Game!

Interview with Jim from Thinking Right, Misc Stuff

I did an email interview this week with a gentleman named Jim for his blog Thinking Right. You can find it here. Thanks to SPC Erickson from Centcom public affairs for setting it up.

Also, the '95 Huskers were voted College Football's greatest team of all time. Herbstreit I guess accused the homer Nebraska fans of stuffing the ballot box, threw a hissy fit, and stomped off the stage at the show they had to announce the winners. Then they debated whether this years OSU team would compete with the '95 Huskers. No way. OSU is the best team this year, but greatest of all time? I think that is a stretch. This kind of reminds me of last year when everyone said last years '05 Trojans were the greatest team ever, right up unit the time they got beat by Texas.

Here are a few articles from around the web about our unit. SFC Lassek is one of our battle NCOs and runs a shift in the JDOC. This story from Omaha.com is about how his family is coping back home and a Sesame Street video that the military puts out. Benjamin gives the video 2 thumbs up. LTC Apprich, the Squadron Commander, did 2 interviews with Omaha.com while he was home. You can find them here and here. One interesting thing about being in a combat zone is there are lots of opportunities to do cool things. This story is about some of our guys that are part of an airborne command post, keeping the lines of communication open. SFC Brehm is one of our soldiers that went from being a medic to crew member.

Everyone's favorite soldier, SPC Beans, is going to be featured this week on KOLN 10/11. You can tune in Sunday night at 10:00pm. They profile a different soldier every week. After the story airs, it is posted on their website along with a short story.

Finally, I had to laugh when I read this article on Omaha.com. My brother is good buddies with the Jarvis brothers. My dad prayed for me when I left, their dad is giving them tips on how to be a better killer. Good stuff.

9 Wins, Big 12 North Title, All Around Good Year

As usual, your favorite soldiers downrange gathered to watch the NU vs CU game last night at 2330. Some of us got started a little early and gathered to watch A&M take it to Texass. Sorry Longhorns. Well, not really. I'm sure there are quite a few people in the Longhorn state that are pretty big Okalahoma State fans today, if the Cowpokes pull off the upset Texass will slide into the title game. If OU wins, they get to opportunity to lose to the Big Red. Actually, I am a little bit scared of Oklahoma, they can really run the ball well and their defenese is outstanding. We'll have a tough time moving the ball on them. But, we can break that down next week when we know for sure who we are beating.

We got a little bit crazy last night, as the big dog Lt. Colonel is back home on leave right now. Sidebar, this leaves MAJ Teegerstrom in charge of Task Force Saber aka Team Cav. The LJS did a nice story on him that you can find here. No mention of Tomahawks though. Back to the game, we bribed the CSM with some pizza and he let us hang out in the SCO's (Squadron COmmander) office for the game. There used to be a Brigade sized element doing our job, and they had a General in charge, so the SCO inherited a pretty nice sized office. By nice size I mean ginormous, it is bigger than the S1 section where we have 6 people working. As it was our 8 month anniversary, we always eat out, so we bought some Iraqi Pizza Hut, CSM Hall brought the NA beers, and we got to work. Very tasty. We joked about leaving all of the empty beer bottles and pizza boxes for him when we got back like some fraternity party, but decided that would be a CLM (career limiting move). Hammer took some pictures which I'm sure he'll post in a day or two for your viewing pleasure. All in all, it was a good time, the entire section (except for the Chief, as the nursing home locks him down at 2100), the Sergeant Major, SGT Hunt, and even the Chaplain hung out and enjoyed the victory. Good times were had by all. The only real negative is that some other group of soldiers came rolling into theater about a week ago and already have their own commercial supporting the Huskers. We've been here for the whole season, living and dying with every snap, and no love for us. Bummer. Plus they had on their Husker gear which we aren't allowed to wear, even in the office for the game at 0 dark 30. Well, what can you do?

Here are some pictures I stole downloaded from Omaha.com. Billy C sharing a last tunnel walk with Zac on Senior Day.

Barry Turner pulling in the TD on the trickery. We sure pulled out all of the stops in this game. Joe Ganz said this about the play: "Barry's always bragging about how he was a good tight end in high school. We ran the play in practice and he dropped it - so I didn't think I'd ever throw it to him again. And Defensive tackle Ola Dagunduro had this to say about Turner's catch: "I'm going to hear every day from him about that touchdown. But I'm happy for him. He was open and caught the pass. In practice he actually missed it, so we thought that we'd never go to him." How funny was it that ABC was ready with his high school stats at TE?

Purify making an acrobatic catch. That was a huge play, and came as they were interviewing his mom. I think if we are having problems moving the ball against our Big 12 South foe next week we should one of Taylor's relatives ready to interview. You are guaranteed a big play.

Brandon Jackson had another huge game. He is tough to tackle in the open field, as quite a few Buffs found out. He is slowly turning into one of my favorite I-backs.

This is one of the best pictures I've seen all year. Nice shot World Herald, Huskers carrying the Big 12 North trophy to the locker room.

On to the championship game. We'll be underdogs regardless of who we play. We'll need to eliminate the mental mistakes, turnovers, shoddy tackling, and penalties (6 false starts in the 12th game of the year is absolutely unbelievable) in order to have a shot. But we can beat either team with a solid performance. BCS here we come!

Well, I only got 3 hours sleep last night due to the late game time, so that is all I have to say about that. I am going to try to get bed early, so I can get up and watch the USC and Notre Dame game, which kicks off at 0400 our time. Most likely I'll reset my alarm for 0600 and just watch the second half, but a boy can dream. A boy can dream.

BigRed Network, Ohio State vs USC

One of the sites I've started checking quite often for news of my beloved Huskers is BigRedNetwork.com. I always surf by on Fridays to print out their handy pocket guide for each game. It has the 2 deep rosters for each time in addition to other fun facts and figures that you can use to impress your buddies during the game. They also do a nice job finding some of the more obscure news and links from around the web. For example, their link for a first person account at the A&M game led me to this little nugget. Herbstreit voted A&M #21 this week in his AP ballot. So surely the 'Skers are rated higher than that seeing as how the last game that was played we won. In College Station. Alas, we are no where to be found. I did some Googling (is that a verb yet?) this morning and tried to find his week 11 and 12 ballots to find out what he had us last week, but was unsuccessful. Maybe he turned the game off early and thought A&M won? If so, that is grounds for losing your vote.

The head honcho at BigRed Network contacted the Hammer and I to ask about how we roll on gamedays here in Iraq. They have a nice article you can find here with our answers. Head on over and check it out. Part II will be posted sometime soon, as usual I was long winded so you'll need a few minutes to dig through everything.

It was nice watching the big game on Saturday and not being emotionally invested. I was definitely rooting for Michigan. I've always been a fan of the Wolverines, ever since I harbored delusions of grandeur and attending U of M. However, those dreams were dashed when I found out they don't let poor people from Nebraska go there. Ohio State was definitely the better team on Saturday. Were it not for a few mistakes they may have won by a much bigger margin. Great effort by Michigan, but it came down to the basics and they just didn't tackle well.

So of course the big controversy is who is the best one loss team. First of all, I don't think everyone needs to get all worked up quite yet. Lots of football left to play. I saw a quote from Florida's coach Urban Meyer about how if Michigan and tOSU play again they need to immediately scrap the BCS. Settle down Urban. You've got a big game to win before you can get angry about getting passed over. Come back and get upset after you win the SEC and don't get a shot. In fact, but whining about it now I think you've assured yourself of a loss against the Razorbacks.

Second, as much as I hate to say this, I think USC will win out and jump Michigan. If they do, they deserve to get a shot. The main thing for me is that unless Ohio State plays and beats a good team from another conference, we won't know really how good they were. Michigan had their shot and they weren't good enough, sorry. Of course, by saying this I've now effectively locked USC out of the title game, see my earlier post about Auburn vs Michigan in the title game for an example. Nobody called me out on that one, so I am going to keep prognosticating. I wouldn't have a problem with USC, Florida or Arkansas in the title game. ND doesn't belong, but it would be fun if they beat USC, get the bid, and then get destroyed by Ohio State. That would be okay. I would only want to see Michigan get in if all of the 3 teams above lose in the next 2 weeks.

4 days to Colordao! Normally I'm the one warning about watching out for the Buffs as they always play us tough. Not this year. They are bad. Very bad. And we are a different team at home. Plus Cally with a week to prepare is always a good thing. I think we get up early and win handily. The game is on AFN so we'll be watching A&M vs Texass first and then our game, will be a good night of football.

Anger Management is for Sissies

One thing that is different for me this year is that I'm actually watching some NFL football. This is partly due to the fact that I'm stuck here with not much to do and partly due to our fantasy football league. I haven't done fantasy football for quite a few years, but we got a friendly league going here in the office. My team has been doing pretty well, at least up until this week. I was sitting at 6-3, tied for first in the league and looking to make a strong move into sole possession of first place with a victory over Chief Regan's team, who I absolutely dismantled earlier in the season. This was not to be, as he had Carlson Palmer (8000 yards and 20 TDs) and Frank Gore (842 yards rushing and 6 scores) have career days. So I needed Steve Smith to score 6 TDs on Monday night, and of course he didn't pull through. He really let me down with 150+ yards and only 1 TD.

Anyways, perhaps one of the greatest improvements to the NFL viewing experience since the last time I followed the league is the NFL Network. I believe there is some sort of litigation involving the NFL and Cablevision and Time Warner so you may not have it back in good old Nebraska just yet. The most enjoyable part is the NFL Replay, where they broadcast an entire game in 2 hours. They clip out all of the boring stuff between plays like the huddle, kickoffs that result in a touchback, and some 3 and out possessions. AFN broadcasts these replays throughout the week, so we get to catch a few more games than we normally would. Edited to add that they also show the interviewers with the players and coaches about certain plays while they are showing them. So you can hear what the coach was thinking when he called that bonehead play.

I do have a point here, so just hold on a minute and I'll get to it. So, there I was, spending a little quality time on the treadmill last night. Lo and behold, the St Louis vs Seattle game was on the TV directly in front of me. I knew that it ended up on a last minute field goal by Carrie Underwood stalker and Nebraska's own Josh Brown, but I was still excited to see how it went down. Classic game. St. Louis is up 16-14 midway through the 4th quarter. Seattle's Nate Burleson returns a punt 90 yards for the score on an unbelievable return, where he actually stopped dead in his tracks on the sideline, restarted, and nobody touched him. You don't see guys stopping in the NFL very much, usually all that is good for is getting your head separated from your body. This makes it 21-16 for The Seahawks. St. Louis battles back and marches down the field. With 2:30 left, Stephen Jackson scores on a ridiculous run where he breaks a few tackles and then pushes a couple of 'Hawks into the endzone. Huge, huge run to put the Rams up 22-21.

Now, here is where our story starts. After the touchdown run, there is a big pile in the endzone, and Mr. Jackson has his helmet ripped off. Guess who is there to protect him? None other than our favorite bad boy Richie Incognito! For those of you that don't follow Husker football as a religion, Richie was dismissed from the team back in 2004 due to continued "personal problems." He then transferred to Oregon or Oregon St. or some other Pac 10 team, not that it matters which one because he never played a down and left for the NFL. He is now the starting center after some other dude went out with a knee. So, Richie comes roaring in, drills a guy way late, and gets flagged 15 yards for a personal foul. Not a big deal, you say, they still scored. Well, we'll come back to that. So, St. Louis goes for 2 to open up a 3 point lead. And the conversion is good! Oops, wait a minute, there is a flag on the field. Holding, #68, on the offense, repeat the play. Nicely done Ritchie. The second try is then no good. The 15 yards is then marked off on the kickoff, which means St. Lous is kicking off from their own 20. Seattle takes it out past the 50, they only need about 20 yards to get into field goal range. You know the rest, Josh Brown is the first kicker (I think in history but I could be wrong on this) to beat the same team twice in the same season on a last second FG. I don't think it is too much of a stretch to say that Richie greatly contributed to the Seahawk's win. Nice work Richie on keeping that temper under control. You've matured greatly since your days in the corn.

The Lowest of Lows to the Highest of Highs

I got a little bit of sleep last night and have settled down a little bit. Just a little bit though, I still can't believe we won that game. We really had no business getting the W. I don't know what it is about this team but we are just not a second half team. Do we just not make halftime adjustments? It is just strange how we've taken off almost 3rd quarter this year after getting up big. We have only scored 42 points in the 3rd quarter this year. Here are some sweet pics I got from Omaha.com.


Cody Glenn scoring early. What a stud. Definitely outplayed the Aggie's big back. Nice to see a Texas boy who had 60 to 70 friends and family in the stands get a couple of chances to take it to the house. Yup, he don't play.

Man, we needed a 3 and out and a miracle and we got it. Aggie fan can not be happy about their back going out of bounds on 1st down. I would blame the coach for running a freshman back towards the short side. That saved probably 45 seconds on the play clock and really gave us a lot of time to work with on the final drive. I don't think we win with only 1:15 and no timeouts. What a huge block. I read that Cryer said he knew the snap count and told Turner to just follow him. Nicely done.

What a catch. Wow. It is nice to see us exploit a matchup of WR vs corner as we have gotten worked all year on plays like this.

I think Mo is excited. He said this after the game: "(Taylor) said, 'I'll get you the ball, no matter what,'" Purify said. "All I was thinking was, I have to get it. I can't drop it."

What a great picture. With a bye week coming up, you know that Billy C didn't want to spend 13 days answering questions about blowing another big lead.

Positives:

• The defensive line was great all night. Carriker and Moore have really arrived. The D tackles played I think their best game of the year. We had great pressure all night from the front 4 without doing hardly any blitzing.
• Running game was great in the first half against a tough run defense. Our backs do a great job of finding holes and exploiting them. Nice to see Kenny Wilson get a few carries.
• Lucky is a great receiving back. What a weapon out of the backfield.
• I thought the game was very well officiated. I don't really remember any questionable calls other than some holding that didn't get called, but it looked like they were pretty consistent at least not calling it on both sides.
• How tough is Taylor? Man did he take some shots and just keeps getting up. He is a warrior. Although he may be the worst scrambler I've seen this side of Drew Bledsoe. Get down buddy! Don't take those shots.
• Offensive line did a pretty decent job on pass pro. Taylor usually had time to throw, although it looked a lot of the time like Zac couldn't find anybody open, hence the scrambles or sack.
• How big was the late hit? I was relieved that it was a clear penalty and not a close one that would be debated for days.
• Huskers did a nice job taking care of the ball, other than the one pick that was almost disastrous.
• ABC didn't show one smooch that I saw. Nice. Nice.

Negatives:

• First of all, the announcing was some of the worst I can remember. Did anybody else think that the was one of the worst examples of Homerism they've seen since Griese was calling Michigan games while his son was playing? I mean, come on, the play by play guy was screaming at the top of his lungs every time A&M busted a big play. They also constantly hyped the A&M players it seemed to me. The color guy was fine but the other yahoo really chapped my hide. I scoured the Internet this morning looking for a tie to Texas or A&M but couldn't find anything other than this and this. No smoking gun unfortunately, other then one of the dudes started 3 years at UCLA at QB and likes to play poker.
• The telecast wasn't that great, other than the aforementioned no smooching. There were a lot of plays they didn't bother showing a replay, like that play where the ball popped out on the goaline. Maybe it wasn't a fumble, but can we at least get a replay on it? This happened a few other times I think. ABC should be better. And what was up with the camera being 3 miles away?
• Where were the linebackers? Octavien had a few nice plays, Ruud had the athletic play where he knocked down the pass, but other than that I don't remember seeing them make many plays, other than Brandeberg who had some big hits.
• Way, way too many dropped balls. Purify dropped 3, Peterson dropped 1, and Nunn dropped 1 as well that I can remember. Some of them were tough catches but this is D1 baby and you need to go out and make those plays on the road.
• Tackling was piss poor for this late in the season. You know, I don't mind when our corners get beat because they aren't very good, but when 3 guys have a shot at making a tackle they need to bring the guy down. Wrap him up and wait for your buddies. Could have, and probably should have, cost us the game. Most of the big plays were a result of missed tackles as opposed to
• What happened to out tight ends? Started out hot and haven't seen much from them at all.
• I don't know whether this is a positive or a negative, but I'm going to drop a dime on my co-workers. We did our usual late night burger cook out, and SSG Johnson was in rare form. The nachos and burgers were great. After the Taylor interception, SSG Johnson, SFC Kerchal, and SPC Fleck left the office as they thought the game was over and they were disgusted by our collapse. I was disgusted as well but of course there was still time left and we were still in the game. I made a joke to Hammer that it would serve those guys right if we came back and won it. I also made a joke that hey, at least all of goals are still intact. Ha ha. I'm sure you are all laughing with me right now. Sure enough we roared back. Brad came sprinting back to the office after the TD to celebrate with us. SFC Kerchal went to bed and missed the finish. Good stuff. Hammer made a joke that once we cleared out the negative vibes it cleared the way for the Skers to come back. Lots of jokes in this section.

Bottom line:

• I'll take the win anyway we can get it. On the road, ranked team, Big 12 south. Gutty performance. That last drive was awesome. Converted a 4th down, a 3rd and long, and made the plays we needed to. Nice job Huskers. I talked to Dan on the phone after the game, and he was at the Arena in Omaha. He said after the Taylor interception the bartender got on the intercom and gave a little speech about Veteran's day and not to give up on the Huskers just yet. Good work on the homefront.

So, a week off next week. Disappointing, but we have biggest CFB game since last year's Nat'l championship in Ohio State v. Michigan to take its place. Should be a great one. Michigan is 0-3-1 when undefeated against an undefeated Buckeye squad.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Texass loss (we held the Mildcats to 3 points by the way so I don't really care that you lost your QB). I don't like Texas. I don't like anything about them. Burnt Orange makes my physically ill. So, I root against them at every opportunity and nothing puts a smile on my face like a big Horns loss. It is even better than a Iowa loss (those happen quite a bit nowadays so they have lost their luster). Sorry Texass fans, this may not make me a good sportsman but you have caused me so much pain since 1996 that it is only right that you get a little bit right back at 'ya. I hope you lose to A&M and then lose your bowl game as well. Badly. By like 50 points. Sorry. I just can't help it. And I will hate the player and not the game. I'm making the down with the horns sign as we speak.

Are You Kidding Me????????

MO PURIFY!!!! SCORING FOR THE HUSKERS!!!

I'm so jacked right now I can barely type. What a win for the Huskers. That was unbelievable. Our offense takes the second half off, and then decides to stage one of the greatest comebacks that I can remember. Unbelievable. And AWESOME!!! More to follow in the morning.

MO PURIFY!!!! SCORING FOR THE HUSKERS!!!

Louisville, Michigan vs Auburn, Texas A&M

Wow! What a game. Woke up this morning and watched the end of the Louisville game. If you didn't see it, it was a barn burner. Louisville needed the win to keep their Nat'l Title dreams alive. They were up 25-7 in the 3rd quarter and Rutgers came screaming back to tie it up. Rutgers got the ball with under 4 minutes to go inside their own 10 yard line. They ended up driving down inside the 20 for a game winning field goal. And they missed! But wait, Louisville is offsides, and they get another chance that they convert. Unbelievable finish. Good stuff.

There were about 10 1 loss teams that were watching and cheering, let the politicking begin for who deserves to play Michigan in the title game. I think it will be interesting because you know that some of these teams will start talking about how they deserve a shot, and the coach that screams the loudest will usually be the one that loses a game before the end of the year. It always seems to work out that way. You heard it here first, but I think Auburn ends up the title game. I'm not a huge Florida fan, although they should cruise into the SEC championship. Most likely Arkansas will be their opponent, as they are unbeaten in the conference and even if they drop one against either LSU or Tennessee they'll have the tiebreaker with Auburn. So we could have some more BCS hi jinx where Auburn doesn't win their conference but still goes to the big show ala Nebraska in '01. And I'm all for controversy. Of course our beloved 'Skers will get a huge win in KC knocking Texass out of the hunt.

We are on a roll with the AFN folks, and they've picked up the A&M game this week. At the beginning of the season we were hoping to get the USC and Texas games and feel very fortunate to have had 4 in a row with a great shot at getting the CU game as well (and a Big 12 title game). The only negative is that the game is on at 1130 PM our time, so we'll be up late. Which is fine by me. I think we match up pretty well with the Aggies. College Station is one of the toughest places to play but we should have a good shot at shutting down the run. We'll have trouble running on them as well, but that is why we installed the West Coast Offense so we can throw it around a little bit. I'm already mentally preparing myself for the whole kissing your girlfriend debacle. I'm sure if you are a cadet it is pretty cool but watching it on TV really turns my stomach. I'm feeling a solid win for the good guys, we get up early and then grind out the W. We'll do our part with a SSG Johnson led BBQ in the middle of the night, you do your part with steaks on the grill and co' beers.

Husker Ramblings

It may end up badly for us again, but we are on a hot streak with AFN. NU vs Mizzou will be televised, and again since it is an early game we will be able to watch it at 8:00 here. Now, the 3 games that AFN has picked up live are USC, Texas, and Okie St. Hmmm, coincidence? I am ignoring that they played Iowa State on tape delay as that doesn't help my argument. So part of me was hoping that they were going to not televise so we could break the streak.

I think the Huskers have some work to do this week. Obviously the balance of the season is resting on this game. I don't think must win quite covers it. The match up isn't a great one for us, as Missouri's spread offense may wreak havoc on our secondary and really challenge our linebackers. The front four is going to have to do a better job of penetrating and stopping the run, and the linebackers and secondary really need to show up for this game. Offensively we should be able to run the ball on Missouri, as Oklahoma looked to have some success against them last week without Peterson.

As far as last week's games, it really took a lot out of me. I kept waiting for the funk to lift all week so I could get excited for this game, but it still hasn't happened and the game is tomorrow. There is just something about the team basically shutting down that left me depressed. I still don't know why we went away from the run after the 1st quarter.

We were working out the other day and Scream was on the tv. There wasn't any sound but I was able to watch the first 20 minutes or so. Great horror movie, one of my favorites, and the opening scene is fantastic. Some say this reinvigorated Drew Barrymore's career. Anyway, the point of the story is that when you are battling a serial killer, and you get a nice heel stomp, head butt, or crotch punch in, you don't immediately run away. This never works. What you should do in this situation is seize the advantage, and seek to crush a windpipe, break a skull, or reign down repeated blows on the assailant before stealing his knife, stabbing him in the heart, and saving the day. Analogy time: this is what the Husker team seems to be lacking this year. We can score some points and get up early, but then we try to run away and crawl through the doggie exit in the garage door. (BTW, there is no way that a garage door could lift a person, even one as small as Rose McGowan, much less crush them to death again the garage). Next time we are up by 17 points early (tomorrow I hope), the gloves need to come off. We need to start breaking some stuff, and not go away from what got us the lead. Take that knife and put it firmly in the chest like a TO coached team liked to do.

The other thing that bothered me after the game was Billy C's attitude. The whole, "All of our goals are still intact" speil is starting to get old for me. While technically correct, it lacks the aforementioned killer instinct. I'd rather hear a Jim Mora profanity laced tirade about how the coaching was atroucious, our guys weren't ready, and we got beat but a second class citizen of the no so Big this year 12. Big 12 North titles are for the Kansas States and Missouris of the world, National Championships are what the Huskers should be focused on. Do I think we have the talent this year to compete for a National Title? No way. But that doesn't stop the focus and the attitude being on more than just winning the North and getting another shot at Texas and hopefully playing decent and not getting blown out. It is a subtle difference in my mind. If we do end up winning the North, playing well in the title game, and getting a decent bowl game, that would be a decent season. But we should want more. We should want to go on the road against teams like Okie St and Iowa St. and take care of business, leave no doubt that we are in the elite and they aren't. Beat them into submission. Let them know this is how you play if you want to compete in Division 1.

Well, that is all I have to say about that. We are going to do burgers and italian sausage on the grill tomorrow, so that should help. And by we I mean SSG Johnson, he is the NCOIC of grilling operations due to his superb showing so far this year. There is also a rumor of some semi-famous nacho dip being involved as well. The one good thing we have going for us it that SFC Kerchal's wife sent us some Misty's seasoning so that can only be a good omen. Go Big Red.

Another Heartbreak, Texas Style

I think I read somewhere that sometimes talking about your pain is an effective technique to help get over intense times of grief. So, I am going to attempt it. My first thought this morning when I got up was that I was going to pretend like yesterday never happened. But denial never helped anyone. I am going to post some pictures from our grill out and party first and then share my thoughts on the game, so those of you that don't care about the Skers can check out early.

As mentioned, the game was on AFN at 1900 here in Iraq. Now, when the game is on at 0300 only the diehards show up. For a prime time game, especially between 2 ranked teams, the fans come out of the woodwork. Our First Sergeant (head enlisted over HHT), 1SG Cleveland, organized an outdoor barbeque out on the patio that he just built. They had it all, brats, burgers, chips, salad, pop, NA beer, and 2 flat screens to watch the game on. The S1 showed up in force of course, we even picked up some nice steaks to get our grill on. You can find more pictures on Hammer's blog as well.

This is an early shot of the patio and people starting to gather. I'm checking out College Football Gameday, one of my favorite shows.

Beans and MAJ T running "Grill Zilla." This has been MAJ T's pet project while we've been here.

Another shot of Grill Zilla. This has been entirely fashioned from spare parts found around the base here. The grill on the left is a rotisseire and the one on the right is a charcoal grill. We cooked our steaks on the little Webers up front to avoid the brat and burger backup.

SSG Johnson, me, and the Hammer enjoying a NA beer and a cigar.

More people gathering and getting close to game time.

Steaks on the grill!

SSG Johnson was the grill master, and my t-bone was..... you guessed it, Awesome! Best cut of meat I've had in Iraq without a doubt. We even timed it perfectly so that we started eating right before kickoff and finished up just as the game started.

By the time the game got started I bet there were close to 30 people gathered around the tv. It was a fun way to watch an entertaining, although heartbreaking game. For me, this one ranks right up there with any of our Texass losses as far as pain. I felt after the game like somebody had dug my heart out of my chest with a dull spoon. I almost threw up at the end I was distraught. In no particular order, here is what I thought was good and bad about the game:

The Positives

• Unlike Solich coached teams, Callahan's teams are always in games. I remember a time where if we got down by more than 7 the game was all but over. In this game I wasn't nervous being down in the 4th quarter as we can move the ball when the game is on the line.
• Brandon Jackson is a stud. That TD was phenomenal against a great Texas defense. We watched in disbelief as the TV coverage switched to his brother during the run. Hammer and I were discussing and can't remember that ever happening before. Ever.
• Halftime adjustments were outstanding. The second quarter was pretty sad as far as pass protection and run blocking, but the second half was entirely different. Taylor with time to throw is a good thing. Night and day picking up the blitz and pass rush.
• I was really impressed with our defense. They kept us in the game and gave us a chance to win. Lots of big stops when we really needed them. Texas was leading the nation in points scored per game and Blackshirts kept them off their game for the majority of the game.
• I wish I could have been there in person, because it sounded like the crowd was a loud of any in recent memory from start to finish.
• I thought the play calling was solid, it was clear early that we weren't going to be able to run right at them, so we threw the ball more. I was worried we were going to keep trying to pound the rock but we had to take what the defense was giving. Once the pass pro help up we were then able to move the ball and then work some nice runs in.
• I liked the pass call on the last 3rd down. If you complained that Cally was too conservative the last few weeks, then you can't complain that he wanted to seal the victory. The fumble sucked but I don't think the play call was the problem here. I went back and forth on this, as punting to them with less than 2 minutes and no timeouts would have tough for them to score, but this is Texas and if we are 2 yards away from the win, I say go for it.

The Negatives

• Special teams. Wow. For this late in the season we had some bonehead plays that could have (and maybe did) cost us the game.
• Turnovers. Goes without saying that they killed us.
• Dropped passes. A couple of big ones that hurt us.
• Penalties. Some dumb ones. We needed to be perfect and we weren't.
• Clock management. No excuse for this at the end of the game. I don't know why we didn't call a timeout when they pushed the ball inside of the 10. At that point they are a chip shot away from going ahead, let's start calling timeout and save some clock.
• I still can't believe that Texass threw the ball on 3rd down in double coverage. I know our corners are not very good but that is a risk that I wouldn't take. We came close to picking it off and ending the game. I really don't get it.
• The return on the last play was lame, especially since we just needed 3 points. Run the ball right up the field and save the clock.
• I am not going to let this go until someone confirms it for me. I think on the first hail mary, that the ball either hit Nunn in the hands or the helmet. Did anyone else see the same thing?

Bottom Line

• 3 Fumbles in the last 4 minutes (McCoy fumble on sack, Nunn fumble, Texass fumble on final drive). All go to Texas. Just one goes the other way, and we win. You can argue they got the bounces, but alot of it was good coaching and hustle. Cryer celebrates instead of seeing the ball and going after it. Nunn's ball goes right to the defense. On the last fumble, an o lineman is 15 yards down field to recover the fumble. That hurt.

I think in a few days I'll be able to see some positives. Like we stayed with the number 5 team and had a chance to win. We still control our destiny in the North. We proved we are back, somewhat. For me, I think the only consolation is that this loss was incredibly painful. This is a good thing I think. Back in the day, I took each loss personally and was sick for days after a loss. In the last 5 years, I've kind of gotten used to the Huskers getting beat in big games, small games, at home, to Kansas, whatever, and been able to respond with a shrug and a memory of better times in the past. Last night, the pain was back, which shows how far this team has come. So, back to work, gotta somehow put this one behind us, and get ready of Okie State next week. go big red (lower case due to my Husker hangover).

Game Day in Iraq

The Husker season has really helped our time go by quickly here. Every game is a milestone, and with each Big Red victory we move one week closer to coming home. Between our fantasy football league and the college football games, we are hoping that the fall will fly by and it will be January before we know and time to start thinking about coming home.

I've mentioned this before (as have SGT Hanseling and SSG Johnson) that game days are still a big deal here. Due to the time change, the game was scheduled to start at 0210 our time. Ouch, worst possible scenario. Basically in the middle of the night, so sleep must be sacrificed in order to listen to the game. Plus the game was pay-per-view which meant no shot of AFN picking it up, which meant that we would listen to the game on Huskers.com. The S1 is semi-famous for having a pretty good showing at our late night parties, and our office has quickly become the place to be for the game.

SSG Johnson had the great idea this week to get our grill on. He bought some beef patties (at least we think it is beef) from the PX and then we snagged the buns, cheese, sides, etc. from the DFAC. I must admit, at first I was a little skeptical of how the whole thing would turn out. We can get burgers every day in the DFAC so it sounded like a lot of work for not much benefit. Let me be the first to say that I couldn't have been farther off. The burgers were fantastic. Our master chefs, SSG Johnson and SFC Kerchal, grilled them to perfection. Pics are below.

SSG Johnson getting the coals ready.

Our main dish.

Meat on the grill. My four favorite words.
We are talking about getting crazy next week and picking up some steak from the PX. It won't be a prime cut from Leon's but sometimes you have to make do. The sacrifices we make...

We should get the Texas game on AFN, and with the 1100 am start time we actually will be able to watch at a semi normal time (1900 IZ - we started our daylight savings time already so we are currently 8 hours ahead until you folks back in the States switch over). 3 weeks ago I would have said that the we didn't have much chance against Texas. I'm not so sure right now. Here is what I think we have working for us. Our game plan the last few weeks has been to grind the ball on the ground, build an early lead, stop the run, and force the other team to throw it every down. Texas's run attack has not been dominant, and I think we have a good shot of shutting down the run early, forcing their freshman qb to beat us at Ol' Grandma. If we have success with the pass rush I think we have a shot of taking the game into the 4th quarter, where it is anybody's ball game. If we can stay in the game until the 4th quarter, I like our odds at home.

I was surprised to see Missouri get beat by Texas A&M and Colorado hammer Texas Tech. I'll say this about the rest of the season, you can't point at one game on the schedule and say it is a gimmie win. I think we'll see a lot more games this year like the last few, tightly contested games whether on the road or at home. We need to be ready to play every week or we'll get beat. One thing to remember is that we aren't the Huskers of the mid 90s, so going on the road and getting a win is a big deal, whether we win by 18 or 80. It would be nice to see us put some of the teams away after building an early lead, but I think Coach Cally is content at this point to keep the offense simple and let the defense win games. The only problem with that is our porous secondary, the opponents are only 1 play away from a big td at anytime. I don't know about you, but if I was a Husker defensive coach, I would be scared to death by Okie State and Adarius Bowman. He had 300 yards receiving and 4 touchdowns this week against KU (see story on ESPN.com.) 300 yards!!! 4 touchdowns!!! Do you think they like the Jones/Grixby matchup? I'm having nightmares already.

I mentioned this before but I really like it when Iowa loses. Especially to Indiana. Ouch. Georgia losing to Vanderbilt was pretty crazy as well. Hated to see Adrian Peterson get hurt for the rest of the season. Bad deal. So, I was watching the end of the Florida - Auburn game last night. Great comeback by Auburn. On a side note, I picked the upset. I also won our weekly Husker pick 'em for the second time to become the first 2 time winner and undisputed champion. When you factor in that I missed 3 weeks while home on leave you will better understand my dominance. I am predicting that I will every week from here on out. Starting with the Husker upset next week! Anyway, back to the Auburn game. So Auburn is up by 4 and the last play of the game is Florida making an attempt at the old lateral, shovel, pitch play to score a touchdown. They end up fumbling the ball and Auburn picks it up and takes it to the house (they don't play). Meaningless points, right? Not so fast my friend. Immediately my thoughts go to the industry that is college football gambling. Florida was favored so no impact to the spread. But I am thinking to myself that there is no way that play didn't impact the over/under. Sure enough, Hammer told me this morning that the over/under was 40 points, and this play moved the game from "under" status to "over" status. (For you non-gamblers out there you can bet on the total points scored by both teams and whether it will be over or under a certain number, in this case 40 points). I had visions of guys with their mortgage payment on the unders thinking they are golden until the last second of the game, and then screaming at the tv for the defender to just take a knee. Priceless. The good thing is they can just double their bet on a few NFL games, and then when they lose those bet the farm on Monday Night Football. Someone is going to end up homeless becuase of this one hook and ladder play.

10 Miler vs Husker Game Update

You have to click on the picture to enlarge it, but it is worth your time. I'm all for people that burn the flag getting burned in the process.

Good news on the Husker front. While not getting the game live, they are going to air it tape delayed at 1000 am Sunday morning. I think this time we really have the Hammer to thank. We all sent nasty emails to the programming people at AFN after they cancelled the NU vs KU game at the last minute. We got a canned response saying, sorry, we thought baseball was more important. Most of us said oh well and went on our merry little way. Not Hammer, he continually emailed this guy until he broke down and agreed to hook us up. So, I can both run (or jog/walk) the Army 10 miler in the morning and then catch the game. The only challenge will be not hearing the score before then, so for those of you at home please don't email me any Husker scores, news, updates, rumors, pics or anything else before noon on Sunday (your time). Your help is appreciated! And Go Big Red!!!

Pain or Pleasure?

As many of you are probably aware, I do some of my best thinking in the shower. It is one of the few places a man can go to be alone for a few minutes. Except for here where you get to shower with 10 of your closest friends. It is not as bad as basic training where you have to share a shower head as we have individual stalls, but they are in a big room and you have to see other dudes naked, which is never any fun. Anyway, I was thinking through my week this morning and had a startling discovery, I have 2 concurrent activities scheduled this Sunday morning at 0600. Hard to believe I know. Here is the breakdown.

First, there is a road race every year in Washington, D.C. called The Army Ten Miler. According to the website it is the biggest 10 mile run in the world, drawing 24,000 participants this year. Here is a little bit about the run from the website:

• 10-Miler Shadow Runs - A number of 10-mile shadow runs are being coordinated overseas to run in conjunction with the official, 8-Oct-06 Army Ten-Miler race in Washington, DC at the Pentagon. These 10-mile shadow runs support soldiers that serve in harm's way and demonstrate the Army bond around the world.Army Ten-Miler Supports Soldiers - All proceeds from the Army Ten-Miler go to soldier and soldier family MWR programs. Read more at Army Ten-Miler Proceeds Help Others.

LSA Anaconda is hosting one of the Shadow Races, which I signed up for when I got back here from leave. Now, I was running quite a bit before I left for home, and was up to over 20 miles a week with a long run between 7 and 9 miles on the weekend. As you can probably imagine, I had better things to do at home then go run, so I only ran a total of 7 miles in 3 weeks. I've only had 2 weeks to re-prepare, and with my body adjusting to the time zone here pretty much all of last week, I haven't put very many miles in yet. But, I can still struggle through and am not necessarily worried about finishing, but probably will have a hard time with my goal of running at 9:00 pace. Usually once I commit to something I like to follow through on it.

Second, as I realized in the aforementioned shower, the Huskers play Iowa State this weekend, and of course the powers to be have scheduled another night game, which means we'll be getting up in the middle of the night at 3:00am Sunday (we started daylight savings time here so we are currently only 8 hours ahead which is really taxing my math skills). BTW, it would be nice if we could have a noon or 1:00 kickoff every once in a while which would be 10:00 our time. Can somebody arrange this for me? After the dismal performance of the defense this last week, I am fully expecting that we'll be in another tight game this weekend. So, around 5:00ish, when I should be heading to the race, the Huskers will be mired in an epic battle with the Cyclones, probably somewhere in the 3rd quarter. Husker football has been taken to another level this year for us fans over here this year, as it is often the highlight of the week and really gives us something to look forward to.

So, you can see my dilemma. I would like to participate in both activities, but probably can't. On one hand, I love my Huskers and that is pretty much the highlight of the week. Plus, there is a chance that AFN will try not to screw us over this week and televise the game and not baseball (jerks). I can say that I would watch the 1st half, and then leave, which would be okay if we were up 28 to 0, but if the game is close at all I doubt that will happen, you know peer pressure and all. On the other hand, I've told people I was going to run and it is one of the things I've been looking forward to since my JAG buddy from Florida that was stationed here told me about it when I first got here. Plus my running buddy and good friend back home did a half marathon a few weeks ago so I have the innate desire to keep up with the joneses so to speak. What do you think????

Husker Flag Back in Iraq

You may remember that back in late April/early May, the Husker flag that I brought with me to Iraq that was flying over the JDOC here at Anaconda was stolen right off the flag pole. Bad times. The culprits were never found. However, sometimes good things come from bad. MSG (master sergeant or E8, second highest enlisted rank) Richard Aldag is the NCOIC (nco in charge) of our Intel section. He works for the State Patrol back home, is an Army Ranger, Husker fan, and all around good guy. He noticed that I was severely depressed by this blatant theft, and has been working ever since on getting me a replacement. We were both home on leave at about the same time, and while he was home he was able to get me hooked up with a new flag autographed by this years team. One word: Awesome! Before finding a prominent place to display in our office, we ran it up the flag pole for a few minutes. Here's the pics:

SSG Johnson and I getting ready to fly the flag, Hammer is running the camera.
The flag on the pole getting ready to fly.

Out with the old (temporarily), in with the new. We noticed how faded the current Husker flag is, SGT Hanseling has a new flag on the way to replace mine, at which time it will be retired to a place of honor.

On the way up!

GOOOOOOO BIIIIIGGGGG REEEEEDDDDDD!!!! Go Big Red!!!

More good news on the Husker front. AFN (Armed Forces Network), our cable system, picked up the Husker vs KU game, so we'll be watching tonight at 0300. We are all pretty pumped, they have 3 channels they devote to football on Sat/Sun, so actually getting our game picked is, in a word, nice. You can see how we roll on game days on SGT Hanseling's Blog and SSG Johnson's Blog. We are giving all the credit to the Hammer, he sent AFN an email on Tuesday before the schedules came out requesting, in fact begging, for the hook up. The next day our dreams were realized. The AFN guy emailed back and said that he was just sitting at his computer surfing the net, trying to decide which game to pick, when he saw the Hammer's email. He was so moved by the Hammer's impassioned plea that he bumped the Michigan vs Minnesota game to, as we say in the Cav, "make it happen." Even in the face of rioutous fans of the matchup for the Brown Jug threating his life and the life of his family, he said he will hold fast for us Husker fans. We are going to send him a Stetson and some spurs for his troubles. Okay, I made that all up (except for the part about Hammer sending the email) because that is what I like to think happened. But, I will tell you that someone from this office will be sending a weekly email to AFN pleading our case. It can't hurt, right?

Husker Flag is Flying Again

We are back in business! We will not be intimidated by common thugs and thieves that stole the original flag. This flag is courtesy of my brother, it is again flying proudly over LSA Anaconda. Instead of posting snipers, we are taking it down every night before we leave. We don't think anyone will try to take it in the daytime.


In the front right you can see a relic from the Iraqi Army. There is an anti-aircraft gun that has been restored. It is really in good shape.

Missing Husker Flag

I couldn't remember if I sent the picture home or not so I thought I would post it on the blog. This is an old Iraqi tank that is behind our building, with SSG Johnson and I holding up the still MIA and presumed lost Husker flag. Today is Sunday. We still work but the day does seem to be a little more laid back. We can go to church services if we want in the morning, which breaks up the day. Chaplain Luken preached a good sermon today. The topic was deliverance, he talked about the story of Gideon from Judges. He is working his way all the way through the bible, hitting a book each sermon, and tying them all in together under the overall subject of our covenant with God. It will be interesting to see how it progresses. The Squadron received what I'm sure was an answered prayer a few nights ago. We had a Humvee get hit by IED and totally destroyed, however all 3 soldiers escaped without any injuries. I haven't seen the Humvee, but from what I've heard from looking at it is a miracle they weren't seriously hurt. Please continue to keep our soldiers in your prayers, they are often in harms way and all though the violence has definitely lessened since we've been here, Iraq is still a very dangerous country. Also pray for the families at home. Without going into any details there have already been issues both at home and over here that are testing the resolve of soldiers and their families. The stress of separation weighs heavily on even the most stable of relationships.

Chief Regan ran in a Marathon relay today. They did teams of six and said they had a good time. I was going to try to round up a team, but I originally misread the flyer and thought the entire thing was going to be run at the stadium on a quarter mile track. Running 18 laps in a row is not my idea of a good time. Turns out that was just the starting point. It also started at 0530 so that was another reason not to go. SFC Kerchal and SPC Benes went on a mission recently and were tasked with driving a couple of Army semis on a round trip. They said it was quite an experience and very different from life here on Anaconda. There was a tense moment when one of the trucks in the convoy got stuck but it turned out to be uneventful. They re-iterated what has been said before but I don't know if I've shared, our soldiers are incredibly professional and they do their jobs as if they've been here for years. There isn't another unit in the Army that I would be more proud to serve with. We have our share of issues from time to time, but overall our troops are motivated, dedicated, and always in pursuit of doing the difficult job here better.