Crappy Awards Column, IV

Bo Pelini’s outburst – and subsequent close isn’t good
enough attitude – after the Big 12 Championship
Game might be the year’s defining moment.

Oh yes, it’s the end of the season and oh yes, it’s high time for another Crappy Awards Column. Why crappy? Because if you’re one of the 12.2 people who consistently read this baby, you know I think that end of the year award columns are basically a writer’s wet dream – an opportunity to be cliché, underachieve, and mail one in. Namely, a chance to be crappy.

And you love them. So here we are.
You know what else is crappy? The season is over. In fact (now that we’re a good two years removed from Bill Callahan having anything to do with it) that’s one of the only crappy things about college football (that whole BCS thing is another, but here is not the time or place) – the second it kicks off, you start thinking along the lines of “oh no, the season’s 1/12th over now” … “one-third over” … and “0.436791 over” and so on. After the Texas Tech loss, (obviously) one half of me was pissed off that we lost, but the other half was like “frick, the season’s half-over now. Nooooooo – that is sooooo not fair!” And was it just me, or did anybody else have ZERO clue what to do with themselves last Saturday? Division II playoffs? Ew. Kansas vs. LaSalle basketball, or even Creighton-George Mason? Not quite fired up just yet. Nebraska volleyball? Not when NU is getting dominated by a girl named Destinee Hooker – awkward! Heisman Trophy ceremony? Knowing that Ndamukong Suh had zero chance of winning, therefore increasing my chances of breaking something valuable about tenfold, I passed. Holiday shopping? Don’t go there, although sadly, I did. 

But anyway, I’m just whining now. Bowl games start on Saturday and by the time you read this, the countdown to NU’s Holiday Bowl against Arizona will already be down to 14 days – or less, so let’s get on with the Crappy Awards Column/season review. The final word on Nebraska’s 2009 regular season? All things considered, it was a damn good one. We were 1 second away from a BCS bowl game. Two years removed from B.C., that’s pretty damn good. And when you take all the good vibes surrounding the program’s overall direction, it was better than 2003, or 2006 and 2008. A good, solid, 8-and-a-half, and things could be even better next year, offense permitting (I’m looking at you, Shawn Watson). On with the awards!

MVP: Ndamukong Suh. Is there any question? Any doubt? Any debate? Hell. Freaking. No. Not only is Suh the most valuable player on this team, he’s the most valuable Husker of the decade. Period. And, this is just one man’s opinion, but I’ll go on record saying he’s the most valuable Husker of all time. Yeah, I said it. I know that sounds like one hell of a bold statement, and I know you’re probably already playing the “you’re bound to give the most credit to the most recent” game, but hear me out.

There have been a lot of great, talented and valuable Huskers over the years – players like Tommie Frazier, Grant Wistrom, Mike Rozier, Rich Glover and Johnny Rodgers to name a few. Let’s take a look:
Frazier was great and talented and valuable for sure, but we saw in 1994 when he got injured that a guy like Brook Berringer – and even Matt the Turman-ator to a much lesser degree – could step in and win games. With Berringer, not a whole lot changed. We were better with Tommie, of course, but still an undefeated-type team without him.  

And take a guy like Rozier. Again – great, talented and valuable. But I just caught a replay of the 1984 Orange Bowl late Saturday night (during ESPN’s University of Miami – “The U” – jerk-fest). At about 11:25 p.m. (yeah, it wasn’t my wildest of Saturday nights) Rozier gets injured at the start of the third quarter as NU falls behind dramatically, 31-17. Guess what happened next? Some guy named Jeff Smith enters the game and promptly runs for 99 yards and two touchdowns on just 10 carries, sparking the rally. We didn’t win the game – nof**kingsh*t, right? – but the point is, as with Frazier, Rozier was somewhat replaceable.

As for Wistrom, he was probably the best of the best on those great 1995-97 defenses, but look at the names that surrounded him: The Peter brothers, Terrell Farley, Jamel Williams, Mike Rucker, etc. (I’m not even going to try to speak on Rich Glover. I was exactly negative 8 years old for that Game of the Century contest where he had 22 tackles, and while that stat is out of this world, I’ve got to believe that was simply a different era of college football.)

In other words, those guys were great – and valuable, too – but you could argue right back that they were kinda, sorta replaceable or at the very least the Husker machines they played on would have kept chugging right along with or without them (that’s the same reason why I’m not sold on Mark Ingram of Alabama winning the Heisman – the Tide could’ve plugged his backup right in and they would be in the same position they are now; in fact, they were forced to do just that in their season-saving win against Auburn). And it’s probably not fair to those guys from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, or it’s comparing apples and oranges, because the talent and depth on those teams of Huskers past skews the argument. But in 2009, my argument lies in the fact that if you took Suh away from this defense, maybe it doesn’t exactly fall apart – but I Sean B. Guarantee you it doesn’t rank 9th nationally in total yardage and 2nd in points allowed.

I really do believe that. All the double and triple teams that opened things up for his buddies up front, all of the quarterback hurries that took pressure of the secondary, all of the game plans changed to avoid Suh. Sure, I think our defense will always be good in the hands of the Pelinis, but don’t for one second just assume that Jared Crick or Baker Steinkuhler will just step in and do the same types of things that Suh did this year. A lot of us made the mistake of thinking that Zac Lee would just step in this year and do the same things Joe Ganz did as quarterback last year. Um, how’d that work out? Yup, thought so. Which makes it scary to think that we can’t even possibly realize Suh’s true value at this moment – and maybe we won’t until Washington is hanging 31 on us in Seattle next fall. Not saying that is going to happen for sure, but it could. 

And if all of that isn’t enough for you, just read back through his stat line: 82 tackles, 12 sacks, 23 tackles for loss, 10 pass breakups, 24 quarterback hurries. All he needs to do in the Holiday Bowl is eat Arizona’s mascot and we’re all set. Amazing. No defensive tackle will ever approach those numbers in our lifetime. Ever. And if you want to go deeper, get on ESPN Insider and read Ron Cherry’s backhand reacharound on Suh, where he gets in-depth with stuff like: “The 50 runs directed at Suh’s Point of Attack (POA) gained a meager 116 yards, or only 2.3 yards per attempt. That is impressive enough – but Suh also won 18 of the POA blocks. That equates to an outstanding 35.3 percent POA win rate overall, but it gets even better when the 23 double-team blocks are taken out of the equation.” Awww, football dorkdom prose never sounded so beautiful.       

Best Player: Suh. I always like to differentiate between “most valuable player” and “best player” – like last year, when Suh was our best player but Ganz was our “most valuable.” Not this year. Suh was Nebraska’s most valuable and the country’s best. Too bad the Heisman Trophy voters are big fat stupid idiots.

While we’re here, two things on the Heisman (and contrary to what I said above, I couldn’t help but watch at the end in the vein hopes that Suh would win): 1). Whoever allows voters to cast their ballots before the last game is played should be dragged outside, stabbed in the neck, and promptly given a dirt nap. Really, this makes sense in what world? Ten percent of voters cast their ballots before NU even played Texas last week. Ten per-fricking-cent! The fact that some voters cast their ballots before the last game was played is irresponsible and lazy. But the fact that they’re even allowed to in the first place? That’s criminal, and worthy of neck stabbing, no? 2). I’m not the first to say this and I won’t be last – and yes, I know it sounds a little whiny – but change the qualifiers for the award from “nation’s most outstanding player” to “nation’s most outstanding skill position player.” You know, to simplify things for the big fat stuuuuuuuhpid idiots.
OK, contrary to what you’ve read so far, other players did play for Nebraska this year, and some of them had fine seasons and a big hand in the 9-4 record and Big 12 North Championship. Here’s a list of runners-up for NU’s best player:

2. Alex Henery. You know who else is a big fat stupid idiot? Anybody who left Henery off their ballot for All-Big 12 – kicker or punter. Another huge injustice. But the sky is the limit for Henery as a senior in ’10. I don’t pretend to know exactly how the NFL works, but let’s just say he’s punted well enough that an NFL team should consider drafting him to do kicking and punting – and thereby saving themselves a roster spot.  

3. Prince Amukamara. Raise your hand if you thought you’d ever see the Journal Star’s Steve Sipple write “Amukamara needs another year,” as if he was implying Prince might go pro a year early. Me neither – but considering his size and speed and the way he played last year, he’d probably go in the first few rounds this April. What a transformation – but as is the case with a couple of other defenders, I’m curious to see how he’ll do without the help of Suh.

4a. Larry Asante. Man I’m going to miss heckling him over dropped interceptions. I never thought one of my own player’s failures could be so damn fun. But kudos to Larry for turning himself into a damn good player ... you know, in between all those dropped picks.

4b. Dejon Gomes. The Mustard Man came out of nowhere in the rain against Missouri to quietly put together a great season as our dime back. You might be saying to yourself, “yes, he had a fine season – but our fourth best player? Come on.” And I might agree with that – except stop and think about how crucial three of the seven turnovers he forced this year were: the pick against Mizzou (which led to our knockout blow in that game), the forced fumble against Kansas (as they were about to seize the lead, momentum, and maybe the game) and the impossibly great interception against Texas (which directly led to the field goal that briefly gave us the lead with 1:44 left). This guy has that knack for making the big play; I’m excited to see where this is heading … does he stay at that dime position? Or do they try to switch him to an every down corner? Stay tuned.

5. Roy Helu Jr. Despite a bad shoulder injury and a midseason slump, he managed 1,139 yards and 10 touchdowns. He and sophomore-to-be Rex Burkhead will form one hell of a duo next season.

Most Husker of Them All (And all 12.2 of you know the story by now, but in case we have any newcomers the Most Husker of Them All goes to the best native Nebraskan – and is a stolen, red-handed, byproduct of a story from when a friend visited USC’s campus and his friend walked him over to a statue of USC great Charles White that read, “here stands the most Trojan of them all.” Which is awesome, so I stole the idea, naturally. Past winners include Bo Ruud in 2006, Cortney Grixby in ’07 and Todd Peterson in ‘08): Matt O’Hanlon.

Matty O! What can I say? O’Hanlon turned into an absolute beast this year, tying for the team lead in interceptions with 5 and finishing fifth in tackles with 64 while putting together a final nine games that were good enough to make us all completely forgive him for his brainfart against Virginia Tech, which was a huge upset in itself that I never would have thought possible in my drunken haze following that game (not that the VT loss was completely his fault or anything – I was just a wee bit irrational after 14 beers). Plus, he was National Defensive Player of the Week after his three-interception game against Oklahoma. Not bad for a kid who only made the team thanks to a long shot tryout. His is the type of Husker football success story that will never get old. Ever.    

Play of the Year, Good: I’m going with Suh’s interception against Missouri. Down 12-7 and with the momentum beginning to turn after Lee’s 54-yard touchdown pass to Niles Paul, it was kind of like he said, “Oh? You offensive guys finally feel like f**king playing now? Well OK. Hold on while I go get you the ball real quick.” And he did. And we did. Considering what happened the next two weeks against Texas Tech and Iowa State, it’s a damn good thing we won in Columbia. Runner-up: That facemask penalty Kansas committed in the fourth quarter when we were down 17-16 and about to face a 4th-and-Forever. That probably saved the Big 12 North for us. 

Play of the Year, Bad: Eight-way tie between all those stupid turnovers against Iowa State. Take any one of those away and we’re sitting at 10-3. Runner-up: V-Tech’s 81-yard, fourth quarter bomb past O’Hanlon that got them the win on Sept. 19. Take that away and we’re sitting at 11-2. Second runner-up: Suh being too good for his own good and getting to Colt McCoy too quickly on the “last play of the game” against Texas. If that second does run off the clock we’re sitting here at 12 and good god man I need to stop doing this to myself.
Defining Moment: Had to be Bo’s tantrum after the Texas loss in the Big 12 Championship. Obviously, coming so close for a competitive guy such as Bo is hard to take (that’s putting it nicely – in actuality, I’m glad he didn’t punch Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe in the face). Am I proud of his antics? Not necessarily. But there’s that word again: close. And, obviously, close doesn’t cut it for Bo. And thankfully, as a fan, it’s starting to feel like close shouldn’t be cutting it for us anymore, either. Losing Suh could be bigger than we know, and God knows the offense needs a lot of fixing, and we still need to learn how to win, but there’s plenty of reason to believe we’re getting very close to leaving coming close behind.