The Wolverine Now

Nov. 6, 2013 Still Standing With A Last-Second Win Over Northwestern, Nebraska Lives To Fight Another Day Bo Pelini, now in his sixth year as head coach at Nebraska, led the Cornhuskers to at least nine wins in each of his first five seasons in charge. photo Courtesy HuskersIllustrated.com J By Michael Spath unior tailback Ameer Abdullah ran around in circles, looking for someone's arms to jump into. Teammates swarmed redshirt freshman wide receiver Jordan Westerkamp and senior quarterback Ron Kellogg III, who had connected on the improbable 49-yard Hail Mary touchdown — the first game-winner of its kind in Nebraska program history — while head coach Bo Pelini stared for a few moments in disbelief and then walked over to Northwestern players to console them. The Cornhuskers pulled off a miracle a week ago, going 83 yards on nine plays in the final 1:14 of regulation, culminating with Kellogg's heave and Westerkamp's catch, off a tip, to give Nebraska the 27-24 win and, momentarily, stave off the vultures that have been descending around Pelini this season. The victory also kept NU in the race for the Big Ten Legends Division; at 3-1 and with a game against Michigan State Nov. 16, Nebraska controls its own destiny. "The biggest complaint about Pelini has been the way they've lost," HuskerOnline. com publisher Sean Callahan said. "Last year, they get blown out by Ohio State, then win six in a row to finish 7-1, and they're the favorite in the Big Ten Championship but get crushed by Wisconsin. "Then this year, they give up 38 unanswered to UCLA in a loss and then get run over by Minnesota — it's not that he's lost games, it's the nature of those losses because overall he's been successful. "Nebraska is one of only four programs with nine or more wins five straight seasons, Pelini has won nine or 10 games in each of the last five years and there's a chance they'll get to double digits again this year, but the losses have been bad losses. "They haven't sat well with fans and alums, and it looked like last week was going to be another one of those. If they had lost to Northwestern at home, the mood heading into this weekend's game would be a complete 180." Instead, Nebraska players and fans are still reveling in the Huskers' win while Pelini faced a jovial press corps that didn't ask the probing questions about his tenure and future in Lincoln that he most certainly would have faced had his team dropped that game. "Like I said after the game, those things don't happen every day, and that's something the kids who played in that game will remember for the rest of their life," said Pelini. "I've been around it long enough to know that I've got to go to the next thing. I spent most of Saturday night thinking about what the next step is for this football team to finish out this season the way we want to finish it out. "I know we are going to have some serious challenges over the next four weeks." The win over Northwestern patched up some of the Cornhuskers' holes offensively and defensively, and more importantly provided confidence and momentum heading into this critical four-game stretch in which Game Facts What: Michigan vs. Nebraska. When: Nov. 9 • 3:30 p.m. Radio-TV: ABC will televise the game nationally. The game can be heard on the Michigan Sports Network (950 AM in the Detroit area and on SiriusXM Channel 91) with longtime partners Frank Beckmann and Jim Brandstatter, and sideline reporter Doug Karsch. Coaches: Michigan: Brady Hoke (25-9, third season). Nebraska: Bo Pelini (55-22, sixth season). History: Michigan leads Nebraska 4-3-1, last beating the Cornhuskers 45-17 in 2011. Nebraska Notes: Moving to the West Division next year, Nebraska will not see Michigan again until the 2018 season, unless the teams meet in the Big Ten Championship Game … With its win last week, NU is bowl eligible for the 50th time in program history … The Cornhuskers rank fourth all time in NCAA history with 862 wins and are one of just eight programs with 800 victories … Nebraska has won six consecutive games in November, dating back to 2011.

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