Huskers Unite!

It will be ours. Oh yes, it will be ours.

I am not ashamed to say that I am a flaming Cornhusker. And this year, we will win the National Championship.

Nebraska is currently ranked number one in both the AP and CNN college football polls. The Huskers are 11-0. And this is the year that the waiting ends.

Next Friday, we play Oklahoma. Win that game, and it is on to an Orange Bowl matchup, most likely against Miami.

How perfect.

Not since January of 1987 has Nebraska won a bowl game, and each of those losses seemed to be against Miami or some other Florida school. Even though the Big Eight representative is always officially the home team, it seems like every fan is rooting for the Canes.

And it was Miami, of course, that batted away the two-point conversion attempt to Irving Fryar that would have earned Nebraska the National Championship in 1984.

It's always been Miami's fault. And this year, the Huskers are going to whip them good, and bring home the title.

Sure, a victory against Florida State last year would have ended the streak and gotten the trophy.

But I just don't feel the same resentment towards FSU as I do towards Miami. It's not just that the Hurricanes beat us, it's that they beat us with such gall.

At it worst, Miami wouldn't simply shut a team out. It would spot their opponent 13 personal fouls to make it more of a challenge.

And they'd do it again and again and again.

I have a vivid memory of watching the last bowl victory. it was against Louisiana State in the Sugar Bowl, and the Huskers won. In the Brown household, it was a joyous New Year.

But each year after that, it has only been heartache. Every December, I pick Nebraska in my dad's office pool. And every year I have lost that game.

We lost Florida State a couple times in the Fiesta Bowl, and once to Georgia Tech in the Citrus.

And if the Huskers are tough enough to be the Big Eight champs, there has always been either Miami or FSU there to administer a clobbering.

Some Nebraska faithful say that Miami should come up to Lincoln in January sometime when it's minus 82 degrees, but that's defeating the purpose.

I want to beat Miami at home, with 60,000 of those Canes fans yelling. I want to see students dressed as Ibises twisting their beaks in front of the camera, and I want it to be 80 degrees with no wind.

It will be on Miami's turf, in Miami's conditions, and with Miami's fans. Then, and only then, can the Huskers triumph.

That is the only way to exorcise the demons of seven years of woe. If we best, say, Florida State at home in late November, no one would pay attention to it.

Everyone would say, "Yeah, but you couldn't beat the Seminoles in Tallahassee."

And so, this January, there is only one team that we can really defeat.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, Nebraska must beat Oklahoma. And a month and a half after that, the Huskers must beat Miami.

Nothing else can happen. This scenario might as well be fated.

At that point, no matter how much Penn State or Alabama or who-ever else complains, we will have earned our bowl victory and our National Tile.

Then, and only then, will the curse of the Nebraska Cornhuskers be lifted.