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As always, this game is personal.
The Colorado Buffaloes vs. Nebraska Cornhuskers rivalry might be the most underrated in college football. Dating from the days of Bill McCarney and Tom Osborne duking it out for national titles in the late 80s and early 90s, to the Buffaloes’ 62-36 beatdown of the #2-ranked Huskers in 2001, there’s never been any loss of bad blood between these two sides.
The Buffs and Huskers both began to fall apart in the mid-2000s and went their separate ways, Colorado to the Pac-12 and Nebraska to the Big Ten. The two teams have only played each other three times since then, with Colorado winning all three of those contests. It’s been over 5000 days since the Huskers last beat the Buffs and the CU players intend to keep it that way.
“I feel like every week is personal, especially this one,” said Buffaloes starting left guard Justin Mayers. “It’s a bigger game because it’s rivalry week, but we want to attack every week like it’s rivalry week. Nebraska I hear is going to be sold out, but that doesn’t phase us.”
Mayers' former team, the UTEP Miners, got destroyed by the Huskers by a score of 40-7. Five-star quarterback Dylan Raiola started for Nebraska and balled out, passing for 237 yards and two touchdowns in his college debut. Playing the Huskers in Lincoln will be a challenge, but Colorado head coach Deion Sanders isn’t shying away from it.
“I look for [Nebraska] to be physically tough and imposing,” said Coach Prime in his Tuesday presser. “I look for them to try to run the football. They have a freshman quarterback that had a pretty good day last week, but we gotta do what we do. We have to go in [to Memorial Stadium] and do what we are capable of doing.”
Coach Prime knows he’s going into hostile territory and has been preparing his team for the ruckus crowd in Lincoln. Husker faithful has sold out Memorial Stadium for 397 consecutive games, and Saturday will be no different. To help combat that, Deion and Colorado’s staff have been blaring the Nebraska fight song during practice to help simulate the environment.
Last season, tempers flared between the Buffs and Huskers before their week two matchup at Folsom Field. Deion Sanders declared that the game “was personal” and Shedeur Sanders started beef with Nebraska coach Matt Rhule after he held a team meeting on the CU’s midfield logo.
This season, it seems the temperature has cooled a bit. On Tuesday, Prime opened his presser by complimenting Rhule and the work he’s done to rebuild the disheveled program in Lincoln. It’s evident there’s a great deal of respect between Sanders and Rhule, a far cry from the days of McCartney and Osborne.
“First things first, I have a ton of respect for Matt Rhule,” said Sanders. “He’s a professional... He has a ton of experience, and I love what he’s accomplished in his college coaching career.”
Rhule spent time in his mid-week presser to return the favor, complimenting the way Sanders is running Colorado’s football program.
“I think [Colorado’s] a competitive culture,” said Rhule. “They go recruit and get the best players they can get. They do well in school. They don’t get in trouble off the field, and they compete. I respect what they do.”
Regardless of how the coaches feel about each other, Colorado’s fans are more than ready for Nebraska hate week. Thousands of Buffs are removing red from their wardrobe, corn from their diet, and even the letter N from their social media posts. Colorado long-snapper Camden Dempsey, nicknamed “The Governor” by Deion, has declared the run-up to Saturday as “No Red Week.”
This game means so much to Colorado fans and the city of Boulder. At the time of writing, this is the last Colorado-Nebraska game on the books. CU’s schedule is full until 2029, so it’ll be a long time before the Buffs and Huskers get to play again. That’s why it’s so important to make this game count. Beating Nebraska would be amazing, but being able to hold our four-game win streak over them would be the cherry on top.
As a wise man once said, it’s better to be dead than red. Let’s beat the Huskers.
by RylandScholes
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