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Not even the garage-sized utility room that served as Nebraska's post-game interview area could contain the Cornhusker football team's enthusiasm late Saturday night.
Amid rolled-up rugs and awkwardly placed dividers, Husker players excitedly answered questions following a big win in Ames, Iowa, where NU exorcised a few road demons with a 28-14 win over Iowa State.
Oh, the perks of playing away from home.
Iowa State, which annually alternates Iowa and Nebraska as its premier home opponent, always has something in store for the big game. This time, ISU faithful wore yellow T-shirts (supposedly they were gold) boasting the phrase, "The Golden Rule: Beat Nebraska."
If by "beat" the shirts meant, "get dominated by the Husker offensive line," then the Cyclones pulled off the feat quite nicely.
NU Coach Bill Callahan said after the game, any road win is hard to come by. When that win is a Big 12 Conference game in a place NU hasn't won since 2000, it's even better.
Indeed, the Cyclone crowd did what it could to slow Callahan and Co. throughout the game. The raucous fans in "gold" were part of the reason NU senior quarterback Zac Taylor had to call a timeout early in the first quarter, and they did their darnedest to inspire the Iowa State offense to do something, anything, against a determined pack of Blackshirts.
ISU was even making a run at breaking the all-time attendance mark at Jack Trice Stadium, which was set at last weekend's game against Northern Iowa.
Saturday's crowd of 55,338 fell just short of the 55,518 that showed up one week earlier. It was one of many areas in which the home team just missed coming through.
"We want the biggest game ever," NU junior linebacker Corey McKeon said in a mock impersonation of ISU fans. "We want a thousand-billion people. Oh, we had 50,000."
McKeon added he thought there were more people at the stadium for Nebraska than Iowa State. Though that didn't actually seem to be the case, the Husker faithful that packed the south corners of Jack Trice Stadium made themselves heard late in the second half as NU headed for another victory while Cyclone followers headed for the exits.
Yes, it's still very early in the conference season and Nebraska still has some big games to play before it can claim a North Division crown (ahem, Missouri). But winning on the road by running the football like the Huskers did Saturday should instill some mega-confidence that this team is more than capable of winning a few other games away from Memorial Stadium before the year is done.
Next week's opponent, Kansas State, comes to mind. NU junior linebacker Bo Ruud was as surprised as I was to recall Nebraska hasn't won in Manhattan since 1996.
Callahan, like after the USC game, said a championship-caliber team needs to be able to run the ball effectively on any field. In Callahan's third year, it's starting to happen.
Just ask running backs Cody Glenn and Brandon Jackson, the sophomore and junior who set career highs in rushing yards and attempts against Iowa State, with many of those carries coming in the second half as Nebraska played keep-away with the Cyclone offense.
NU took another Big 12 game, this time at Iowa State's expense, to improve to 2-0 in the conference for the first time since 2001.
Taylor's touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Maurice Purify with just seconds left in the half was a buzz-killer for the home crowd. So was the way Nebraska held the ball for nearly 37 minutes of the game. Not exactly like 2002 and 2004.
Yes, it's safe to say the Huskers broke the Golden Rule.
