Rod's Tuesday Ramblings 8/25/09

I am a Nebraska football fan. I grew up in Nebraska. Saturday afternoons were football afternoons. I have only been to 1 Husker game, that was in 1978 when I.M. Hipp was the touted tailback or I back in the Huskers offense. But every Saturday, the radio was on growing up, listening to Lyle Bremser do the games on KFAB out of Omaha. Most Husker folks live and die with every play. And I do not exagerate. I can remember Nebraska scoring 50 some points on the University of South Dakota in the early 60's. South Dakota State didn't fare much better all those years ago. Some of the best and most exciting Husker games were against the Golden Gophers of Minnesota. They played each other every year. And games went down to the wire. And the Oklahoma games were like none other in college football. The Sooners won a few, I still can't stand Boomer Sooner when the OU band strikes that up on TV games, and the Huskers won a few. Times have changes. OU fell on a few years of hard times but bounced back. The Huskers fell on some hard times and now are hopefully on the way back under head coach Bo Pelini. It is refreshing to see a guy on the sideline that lets his emotion show. He expects that from his teamplus he expects something else from his players. They have rules. Rules that are to be followed. If they aren't, that player no longer is a member of the Nebraska football team. So was the case earlier this week when running back Quentin Castille was dismissed from the team. All Pelini said was he (Castille) violated rules that were pretty black and white. How refreshing to see a big time college coach, whose job is dependent on winning games, to follow the rules he made. Castille was expected to do big things this year. He blew it and is gone.! I dare say Not every top tier program in the country would do the same! It's good to see that the good players are treated the same as those that are not quite as good and the starter must play by the same rules off and on the field that the scout team player must abide by. And the coach sticks to his guns! Perhaps even Dr. Tom should look back and say that he really didn't need Lawrence Phillps that year the Huskers won the national championship. Maybe he should have stuck by his guns a little bit. Maybe Lawrence wouldn't be spending time in jail again. And, there are some high school programs and coaches, right here in our state that could learn a lesson from Pelini this week. No player, no parent, no fan is bigger or better than the program. Isn't that really the way how loyalty is earned!!!!!!