Sunday, August 31, 2008

Graham Couch, Lincoln Nebraska


Disadvantages pile up for Western Michigan University in football
'mecca'
by Graham Couch
Kalamazoo Gazette column
Sunday August 31, 2008, 12:26 AM


LINCOLN, Neb.Less than 24 hours before Saturday night's game, Western Michigan University's football equipment sat in a modest rental truck on a dark side street just outside Memorial Stadium.
A day earlier, Broncos coach Bill Cubit couldn't help but poke fun at the situation as student managers loaded their "Two Men and a Truck" from Waldo Stadium.
"Wonder what they'll think (at Nebraska) when we pull up with that?" Cubit joked.
At the Nebraskas of the college football world, of course, the equipment trucks are owned, not rented, and have fancy team logos on their sides.
The lack of financial equality between WMU and Nebraska, it shouldn't be forgotten, is why the Broncos found themselves on hostile turf at Memorial Stadium Saturday night -- forced to open up against a program that hasn't lost its opener since 1985.
Technically, Nebraska won, 47-24. Really, the final score should read: Nebraska 1-0, WMU $800,000.
Because for all the hopes of fans and hype provided by members of the media, Saturday was about a payday for the university -- a football program doing its duty for the sake of the athletic department.
47-24 -- that's what happens when mid-level programs, no matter their experience and perceived talent, walk into one of the "meccas" of college football, as Cubit called it.
Played on a random 100-yard patch of grass anywhere outside of the Big Red state, maybe, on the right day, WMU vs. Nebraska is a game worth watching in the fourth quarter.
But that's not how this works. The Cornhuskers won't be returning this one to Waldo Stadium next year (They don't even take to the road this year until Oct. 11).
The Broncos didn't play their best game Saturday. They needed an uneventful first quarter as much as they needed a quick start.
Instead, behind bad field position, shaky early play from quarterback Tim Hiller, an unlikely turnover by running back Brandon West and a defense that -- aside from a few whacks by Louis Delmas -- looked out of its league, they found themselves behind 17-0 10 seconds into the second quarter.
WMU made a bevy of first-half mistakes -- from off-target passes, to shallow punts and kickoffs, to failing to wrap up Nebraska quarterback Joe Ganz when, at rare times, he was with in its grasp.
Those things can't happen, no matter how unfair the circumstance and venue, if you hope to be Boise State of 2006 or Hawaii of 2007.
Nebraska was simply better than its billing -- its quarterback and defense more formidable than realized.
Still, there's good news for Western Michigan of 2008.
Unlike a year ago, when Saturday would have only been the beginning of a death-march nonleague stretch, a league game at home against Northern Illinois is next.
The Broncos' only other BCS foe, Illinois, is two months away and the game's at Ford Field -- in what the college football higher-ups tout as a home game for the little guy, even if it's 140 miles from the little guy's home.
Most importantly, Saturday's result doesn't count in the Mid-American Conference standings.
"The tough part about this is for the fourth straight year you go into an environment that is a little bit hard," Cubit said after the loss. "The kids get all geeked up and ready to go, and we didn't handle it well (as we could have)."
WMU did show a bit of gumption Saturday, fighting back close enough to challenge the two-touchdown spread in the fourth quarter.
And, after playing in front of more than 84,000 rabid Cornhuskers, the Broncos can afford to gas up their equipment truck for the ride home.

No comments: