The Curse of Black Friday – The True
History of Nebraska’s epic fall
After Nebraska's Cornhusker football team suffered an embarrassing loss on
national television to Ohio State it is time to take a hard look at the program and figure out what is going on. The Ohio State beat down of our beloved Bug Eaters was hard to bear this came after an even more
embarrassing loss to an unranked Colorado team. The
Colorado loss coming after the Huskers had shut out Colorado in the first half
and statistically seemed to have no chance of losing the game. CU marked what seemed to be an impossible
come back and defeated Nebraska in overtime. Stunning the Huskers in attendance who looked like fools as they were laughed out of Boulder. This happened In a Colorado stadium full of red wearing Nebraska fans the Cornhuskers had every advantage and no excuse. The loss still seems utterly unbelievable. It does not make sense! Nothing can explain it,
except for the Curse of Black Friday.
Any Nebraska fan will be quick to tell you
stats from the ancient past, way back in the 90s. Yes, the Huskers were good back then, they mattered, they
beat great teams and Big Red was something the whole state could have pride
in. However, since 2001 the team has
been by any standard been a complete door mat, mediocre, and completely
forgettable. Much of Corn Nation still
believes they have a great team but statistics tell another story.
Statistics point to one Logical
Conclusion. The Huskers are cursed and
will never be the same again until the Curse of Black Friday is removed. Lets look at statistics to explain the
horrible curse and also look at why the curse occurred in the first place.
Stats since 2001 Nebraska has been an altogether different football team:
Since 2001 Nebraska has a record of 26 wins and 68 losses.
Nebraska before the Curse of Black Friday:
15 top 10 finishes
11 Conference Championships
3 National Championships
17 Major Bowl Appearances
8 Major Bowl Wins
Nebraska after the Curse of Black Friday
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And it get even worse ---
Over this dismal time Nebraska has only
won against Power 5 schools with a 7-5 or better record a pathetic handful of
times. Nebraska has only won 9 games for
teams that have 9 wins or better. This
includes:
2006 - Texas AM (9-4) 28-27
2007 - Wake Forest (9-4) 20-17
2010 - Oklahoma State (11-2) 51-41
2010 - Missouri (10-3) 31-17
2011 - Michigan St (11-3) 24-3
2011 - Penn State (9-4) 17-14
2012 - Northwestern (10-3) 29-28
2015 - Michigan State (12-2) 39-38
2016 - Minnesota (9-4) 24-17
PATHETIC!!!!!!!!!!!!
These are the most notable wins of the
Nebraska program since 2001 and none are all that awe inspiring. Some may even call these nine as pathetic
especially when compared to Nebraska’s glorious ancient past. Meanwhile Nebraska has racked up 19 entirely
embarrassing losses to teams with under a 57% win %. Losses that no team should lose much less a
team that thinks it is the God’s gift to Earth like Nebraska does. Also note how pathetic this is given that
Nebraska has extremely high attendance at games, massive investment in the team
and facilities, solid recruiting and top notch coaches. The Nebraska Cornhuskers have no reason to
fail like this. But they have again and
again.
Further embarrassments..
NOT INCLUDED IN THE LOSS COLUMN ABOVE
2002 - Iowa State (7-7) 36-14
2004 - Southern Miss (7-5) 21-17
2004 - Kansas St (4-7) 45-21
2007 - Oklahoma St (7-6) 45-14
2007 - Texas AM (7-6) 36-14
2007 - Colorado (6-7) 65-51
2009 - Iowa State (7-6) 9-7
2010 - Texas (5-7) 20-13 *Red out against
the world* sigh
2010 - Washington (7-6) 19-7
2011 - Northwestern (6-7) 28-25
2015 - BYU (9-4) 33-28
2015 - Illinois (5-7) 14-13
2015 - Purdue (2-10) 55-45
2017 - Oregon (7-6) 42-35
2017 - No Illinois (8-5) 21-17
2017 - Minnesota (5-7) 54-21
2018 - Colorado (5-7) 33-28
2018 - Troy (10-3) 24-19
2018 - Purdue (6-7) 42-28
Nebraska underperforms relative to its recruiting class.....WHY?
The Nebraska faithful have suffered a
great deal but most have not come to grips with the cold hard truth. They continue to mouth off in arrogant
fashion and cite their victories of their ancient past. The hard truth though
is that the Nebraska Cornhuskers are suffering from the Curse of Black Friday.
Why must we be so sad. So much sadness has been endured and it seems
there is no end to it in Nebraska! Why!
The Sadness continues. Nebraska hired what they hoped to be a savior
Scott Frost but on his first game back a game where he was to be baptized in
the red flames of Memorial Stadium we were beaten senseless by a weak Colorado
Buffaloes team. That began a slide in which
we suffered one of our worse seasons in our entire history.
WHY!?!!?!?
WHY!?!?!?
Why must we endure such sadness?
Why must we be so pathetic?
There is an explanation, but most
Nebraskan fans won’t want to know the truth for it will make them even sadder.
To understand we must go back to the 2001
Nebraska team that was widely expected to win the National Title and would
have…if for not for Black Friday. The
2001 team had a powerful defense that was absolutely stingy on defense. They had won 11 games and seemed almost
unstoppable. Only one game remained a
trip to Boulder against their rival CU where Nebraska had won easily for
years. The players on Nebraska’s 2001
team believed they were destined for greatness.
They came into Boulder ranked #1 and the Buffs while ranked still came
in at a distant #15. Nebraska’s players
and fans hoped to crown themselves on their rival’s turf with one of their
greatest victories ever. The fans filled
Folsom field with red waiting for victory but this was not to be……..The Curse
of Black Friday happened.
Some say it was the Oline, but most agree
it was players on the defense that headed out one night into city of Lincoln
determined to pursue the ultimate slight against their rival CU and in so doing would curse the Cornhuskers forever. It was
in November of 2011, nights before the big game and they came up with the idea
of eating a raw buffalo heart as a slight against CU’s mascot the buffalo. It took some doing but the players found a butcher
that gave them one large raw buffalo heart.
In a demonic like ceremony the Nebraskan players took turns taking a
bite out of the raw buffalo heart. They
then beat the remains and desecrated it in the very ground that the buffalo
used to call home. Little did they know
that such an act was considered a slight not just to the Colorado team but also
to the very land they hail from.
For many years the buffalo was a sacred
animal to the plains Indians who inhabited Nebraska. The tribes planned their lives around the
movements of the buffalo herds and would harvest nearly every part of the great
beasts. For this reason the buffalo was
held above all other animals as the spiritual manifestation of the west. The Native Americans took great pride in
hunting the buffalo and each hunter marked his arrows and spears with his
symbol so that his kills could be separated from others. The natives believed the ultimate gift of
hunting a buffalo was eating its heart after a successful kill. Only hunters who successfully killed a
buffalo earned the right to take the bite of the buffalo heart. The plains Indians believed that eating the heart
made the hunter even stronger bringing in some of the strength of the sacred
beast. However, eating a heart that was
killed by another was considered disgraceful and would curse perpetrator and
their family forever.
The act of 2001 Team eating a heart from a
Buffalo that they did not kill was a desecration and act against nature, an act
against the spirit of the Buffalo.
It is in this way that the Nebraska team
cursed themselves for all time, the spirit of the buffalo remembers their
disrespect and rises up to squash Nebraska any time they prepare to take a step
forward, the curse arises and smacks them down.
Often times these defeats have come from the very totem of the Buffalo
itself, the Colorado Buffaloes football team.
November 23, 2001 the #1 Nebraska
Cornhuskers entered Folsom field to a welcoming crowd that was heavily red
despite being in their rival’s stadium.
The Colorado team ranked #15 boasted a strong running game but the
Huskers had the best run defense in the country. Victory seemed assured. Chris Brown and Bobby Purify the running
backs from CU did not get the memo. They
ran around, through and over the Nebraska defense and ultimately they clobbered
the confused looking number 1 team. The
offense of CU was relentless they hammered Nebraska, broke their souls, and
rung up a 62 point victory over the then #1 team. Nebraska fans in the stands cried and
whimpered as their champion was beaten down, hoofed again and again by their
vicious rivals. Their rivals seemed
possessed by the buffalo, like they had had become the totem of vengeance
against the slight of the buffalo. The
hysterical Nebraska fans begged the buffalo spirit to have mercy but the
buffalo is a vengeful spirit that hungrily drank up their tears and wanted ever
more.
The victory from a statistical perspective
makes no sense. The only thing that
makes this game make sense is….The Curse of Black Friday. Yes, it is real. Losing to a #15 team is not necessarily
disgraceful, but the beating they took gives Nebraska fans nightmares to this
day.
Since that fateful day anytime the Huskers
seemed like they were starting something good, the buffalo spirit would rise and
its firm, strong voice would say, NO, NEVER, you will NEVER be good again. The Buffalo spirit would say that you spit on
my heart, and now I will crush your puny souls and make your children, women
and even grown men cry and gnash your teeth for all time. I will break your players and make them
depressed and sad. You will watch their
legs snap, their shoulder’s break, and their careers end long before their
time. The Buffalo spirit does not care that the players that committed the
crime are long gone. It delights in the
pain and suffering of Nebraska and their slights against it. The Buffalo remembers the crime and will
continue to stomp on the Red wearing fat faces again and again and again. This is an immortal, merciless, primordial
spirit of ages past and does not pause from its rampage…ever.
I asked a Native American shaman if there
was any way that the Huskers could end the curse of Black Friday and appease
the angry buffalo spirit. He said
perhaps, smiling, if the Husker can give back and make amends perhaps. He said
that the State of Nebraska would have to sacrifice and give greatly to the
wounded buffalo to ease its anger. I asked if the curse would ever go away and
he said No, that the curse of Black Friday could go on forever. The buffalo never stops he says. What the buffalo chooses to do, it will do
for all time. It is the most stubborn of
animals he says, and so it is the most stubborn of curses.
This is the sad, brutal and statistical proven
reality that the Nebraska Cornhuskers face.
It does not matter who they recruit, or who they get to coach they will
always lose for the angry buffalo spirit that inhabits the very ground beneath
their feet wants nothing more but for the arrogant red wearing men to get their
faces stomped in and so they shall again, and again. It continues to drink Nebraskan tears and
hungers for more.
Welcome to the eternal sadness that is
Nebraska’s future. Still I salute you
fellow fans for staying true to our cursed team, we can hold each other and cry
in on our red arms together whilst huddling in sobering scores at Memorial
Stadium. Oh Memorial Stadium even
sounds like tomb, I suppose it is. It is
the grave stone of our ancient greatness that is now very dead. It is
time to stop believing that our old greatness will return that time is
officially over and dead.
More stories, metrics and facts on the Black Friday Curse to come,
Herb J, the ever loyal but very sad
Nebraskan. Go Big Red! Even though you
are dead.
