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BIG RED HEAD ZONE

Iowa State Game: October 1, 2005

By Jim Meier

THE CRUX:

See my writing after the Pitt game about HOLDING…holding penalties, holding the offense and a defense holding on. This crux flows directly from two weeks ago.

A)The Head Air Traffic Controller (offensive play caller) got the message!!!
He:
1) showed up for work
2) put on the head set
3) wisely used radar at his controls
a) full sweep (total field)
b) sector scan (one on one coverage assessment)
4) made decisions to help safely land 36 planes (passes).
On this Saturday there was no holding the air game!!!
HEY! Give the guy some frequent flyer miles. Like it or not, he let pilot
Taylor maneuver on TO field flaps up….and did so in Cyclone conditions
B) And Phew! there was a wonderful hold put on the holding penalties
C) And the Blackshirts remained solid with their tenacious holding-on prowess.
Helped, I believe, by a healthy dose of MST (more sideline time) watching the
"O" favorable more aggressively offend the line of scrimmage

The QUOTE:

"Are we having fun yet?"
Tom Shatel Omaha World Herald, Oct 2, 2005

And since it is a question maybe the quote deserves a "simple" answer

NO…if fun=dominance and consistent precision execution
YES..if fun=equals college kids playing A GAME called football and scoring more than the other team they've played every game so far this year
NO CLUE…if fun=confusion about your expectations of this Husker Nation team

MENTAL MUSCLE:

After the Wake Forest game I wrote that the crux was:
" win #2 was that I believed it yielded more overall team confidence."
I would add that win #3 did little to add more team confidence although certainly there were individual players whose play vs. Pitt was strong enough to anchor confidence…especially those on the defense. But I'm talking about team confidence here. Synergy. 5+11+11+ =27 SYNERGY. Special teams +defense +OFFENSE. The whole team equaling the sum greater than its parts synergy that this Iowa State game produced. With this Cyclone game that little bit of confidence should be BIGGER. I say should be. The only thing that makes that the actually "the truth" is the strength of one's own mental muscle…players, coaches and fans alike!

An even more valuable take away from win #4 is this : reclaiming resiliency. I mean…
Here is an offense that twice falls behind. The first time in '05 our little red offense had trailed. An offense that has wobbled even in fair weather. And now it is facing 1) a gale wind onslaught of eleven cyclone defenders and 2) worse yet, a multitude of dogged doubters who see no hope on THEIR Dopler screen. What do those doubters see? 11 dried up corn stalks in Nebraska red jerseys. Frail stems about to be snapped and scattered apart by a cyclone. Naysayer doubt ready to shout, "It's over! It's over! We're 3 and out!" Yet those young offensive corn people on TO field shook free 50 very big yards from those cyclonic winds. Winds blowing in from Ames and maybe stronger still from Memorial stadium, bars, basements, lounges and living rooms across Husker Nation.

NOTE: few things are as powerful as being resilient

Well…Jim Meier's Mental Muscle motto loudly applauds the staying power of this new team. if I were speaking with them I'd ask them to repeat and repeat and repeat this….

"TODAY WE DECLARE A NEW, HIGHER LEVEL FOR HUSKER FOOTBALL. TODAY WE COMMIT TO CREATING THE TRUE FOUNDATION FOR A NEW BIG RED DYNASTY. OTHERS MAY NOT BELIEVE US. THIS DOES NOT MATTER BECAUSE…WE KNOW, WE BELIEVE AND WE HAVE A VISION OF GREATNESS WHICH WE WHOLEHEARTEDLY COMMIT TO"

WEEKLY METAL GAME TIP:

Play each down, each series, each quarter and each game anew!!!

Maintain an even keel. Keep a balanced perspective. Ensure confidence does not turn to over-confidence, then complacency or worse yet arrogance. Indeed, acknowledge your success! Draw heavily upon it! But remember the score is 0-0 when the next game kicks off with 15 minutes left in the first quarter. Heed the words of Rudyard Kipling, "meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same".