'Huskers, 'Cats still have hope

Originally Published: November 11, 2003

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By Mark Wangrin
Special to ESPN.com
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The Nebraska Cornhuskers and Kansas State Wildcats will be playing Saturday for the inside track to a conglomeration of crystal, wood and bronze that this season signifies two things.

The first is the Big 12 North Division title.

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The second is the opportunity to get their heads bashed in by Oklahoma.

That's the sad reality for a division that was once considered the nation's best. When the Big 12 was formed in 1996, the North was made up of four teams that had finished the 1995 Big Eight season ranked in the top 10.

This year only No. 15 Nebraska and No. 25 Kansas State are ranked and they're a combined 3-3 against the South Division, a stat worth noting because neither played OU in the regular season. The South has two teams, OU and Texas, in the top five of the BCS rankings. They're a combined 6-0 against the North.

This year the North is 5-11 against the South and needs wins by Kansas at Oklahoma State and Missouri at home against Texas A&M Saturday to avoid the league's all-time worst record in interdivisional play.

This year it's even possible the North Division champion will have three losses, something that's never happened. If Kansas State beats Nebraska and loses to a Missouri team that wins out, there'll be a three-way tie for the North, with the tiebreaker coming down to head-to-head competition between the three teams. Missouri would win that.

Bottom line: This year the six Big 12 North teams have acted like the single guys who stand on the dance floor with their hands thrust in their pockets when the groom throws the garter. Nobody acts like they want it, but it will have to fall in somebody's lap.

Right now it's Kansas State and Nebraska who stand in the figurative lingerie line of fire, both at 4-2 in Big 12 play.

"Nebraska is a monumental ballgame for us," said KSU Coach Bill Snyder.

"It'll be a crucial game for both teams," said NU Coach Frank Solich.

At least they're talking like they used to, even if they aren't playing like it.

The Cornhuskers and Wildcats are both seriously flawed teams that are trying to rebound from disappointment.

For KSU, there was the three-game losing streak early in the season that dropped the Wildcats from No. 6 in the nation to out of the polls. They lost quarterback Ell Roberson to a broken hand and found out replacing standout defenders like Terence Newman and Terry Pierce from last season's team wasn't easy.

Can Demorrio Williams (7) and the Blackshirts keep a mobile quarterback in check?

For Nebraska, this was a season that started with promise after last year's 7-7 nosedive. But Missouri and Texas exposed the rebuilt Blackshirt defense as being exceptionally vulnerable to mobile quarterbacks -- like Roberson -- and the Longhorns held the Cornhuskers to only 53 yards rushing in a 31-7 loss, the fewest yards NU has run for in a game since 1969.

Missouri, the only other team still alive in the North race, hasn't won a true road game all season and can't seem to get consistent play out of quarterback Brad Smith, who teases as much as he produces.

All is not as hopeless as it may seem for the North. The divisions have always gone back and forth winning the title, and it hasn't always gone according to form. Three of the first seven champions -- Texas in 1996, A&M in '98 and Colorado in '01 -- were heavy underdogs.

This season resembles 1996, the league's first year, except with North-South role reversed. That year Nebraska was a national title contender, with KSU and Colorado close behind. Texas, which at one time was 3-3, went 6-2 in league play to win a weak South Division.

Nebraska was a three-touchdown favorite over Texas in the championship game, a spread that inspired Longhorn quarterback James Brown to spout, "I think we'll win by three touchdowns."

Brown's bold talk elicited laughs from most corners. The Cornhusker nation was so confident that a group of NU coeds sent Brown a wreath of lilies with a card that read, "Thanks for keeping us focused." He stuck them in a vase in his apartment.

"Somebody later told me they were funeral flowers," Brown said. "I didn't even get the joke."

Neither did Nebraska. On the 55th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Longhorns used a crucial fourth-and-inches pass play to ice a 37-27 win and upset the perceived Big 12 balance of power.

"That's why they make pencils with erasers," then coach John Mackovic said.

That's why Kansas State and Nebraska have hope this year. Hope for a trophy -- and to avoid a good head bashing.

Mark Wangrin covers the Big 12 for the San Antonio Express-News.