That's all it took for Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini to win the Big 12 North. But he wouldn't even talk about the accomplishment for two minutes after NU's 17-3 win over Kansas State.
"We'll enjoy tonight, but we still have a short week ahead of us and a heck of a challenge at the end of this week," Pelini said. "It's an accomplishment to win the Big 12 North, but we want to make sure that we turn our focus to Colorado."
The 3-8 Buffaloes have Pelini's undivided attention this week. The big shining lights, the house of excess built by Jerry Jones and the several-ton Bevo will all have to wait. Pelini told his staff, players and even the football office workers that he doesn't want to hear about Texas.
"I don't want to hear about plans, about travel plans, about tickets or anything else about the Big 12 title game," he said. "That means nothing. That time will come. Our full focus is on Colorado."
The "10 wins and no excuses" Buffaloes are coming off a Thursday night game where they gave No. 13 Oklahoma State all it could handle before the Cowboys were able to pull away 31-28 late in the fourth quarter.
The Huskers will obviously be wary of Colorado's play. The Buffaloes are not without weapons. There is explosive running back Rodney Stewart and a young but dangerous quarterback in Tyler Hansen.
CU's biggest asset on Friday could be Husker complacency. It would be easy for Nebraska to not show up in Boulder: short week, bad team, and their spot is already clinched.
Attaining the bid after beating KSU is nice, but Nebraska doesn't care about formalities. Someone had to play Texas. The Husker players still feel like they need to earn the right.
Before the season, the team set a list of goals including things like winning the Big 12 North, winning on the road and consistent success against the Big 12 North. Those goals are starting to get crossed off one by one.
"Obviously, we accomplished one of our main goals to get to Dallas," defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh said. "We want to dominate the Big 12 North, and the only way we can do that is to go down to Boulder and take care of business."
This can't be classified as a trap game. Nebraska and Colorado have played after Thanksgiving since the inaugural Big 12 season, and, in most cases, the game has had little bearing on the North representative in the conference championship.
During his press conference Monday, Pelini pointed out that NU isn't the only team looking to avoid complacency this weekend.
"I'm sure Mack Brown is down there in Texas doing the same thing about the (Texas) A&M game," Pelini said. "Coach Nick Saban (Alabama) and Coach Urban Meyer (Florida), the coaches that have these games coming up, you have to take care of your business."
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3 comments
It was great to see A&M break down the Steers’ defense, as well as to see the Huskers excel on defense and special teams (as well as being fully functional in all other aspects of the game.). If NU plays this strong in the Big 12 championship, Texas will need some big gains from their special teams or from Shipley to have a chance at the National Championship Game. GO BIG RED!(On a side note, Colorado needed help from a referee that couldn't count for their lone national championship. See ESPN's worst calls in sports history for details: espn.go.com/page2/s/list/worstcalls/010730.html)