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What people here in the south are talking to me about.

rgrachek

Athletic Director
Gold Member
Dec 2, 2004
16,940
19,539
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It's really interesting, but I have had a lot of people I know here in Georgia and even clients nationwide comment to me this past week on how well Nebraska is doing, how good a defense we have, and how good DR is. They're bringing it up on most of our weekly conversations. These are people who may have their favorite team or school not Nebraska.

Something occurred to me after many of these conversations in that one of the reasons why Nebraska Football was and is so popular around the country is because of what we represent in the bigger picture, that being the image of really hard working, decent, and loyal people who win and even dominate in something that by all modern metrics there is no reason why we shouldn't be any better than any Mountain West team. Winning without all of the built in advantages many schools have, winning for reasons that defy media hype, winning because we will ourselves to win.

People like it when someone can buck the system and win despite not having many of the advantages others have (now we do have a lot of resources no doubt, but that's a testimony to a program in an environment where players are not plentiful locally). It gives them hope that they can overcome their built in disadvantages. This is why I believe I'm getting so many nice comments, comments I didn't receive when my current home state team, Georgia, was winning national championships. I think it's larger than just rooting for an underdog, but rather a hope people have that they can win too.

There was a quote by an philosopher many years ago "the best thing you can learn from winning is that you can". I think people yearn for that in their lives and I'm starting to believe that Nebraska Football in a way represents that to people around the country.
 
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