Win could set up NU's return to the national rankings

2005 Alamo Bowl

SAN ANTONIO - In the mayhem Wednesday night, with Nebraska fans cheering and balloons and confetti falling from the Alamodome rafters, Husker junior Jay Moore made one of those caught-up-in-the-moment comments.

“This is going to take off,” Moore said, almost shouting. “I tell you what, we're going to skyrocket. You better watch out for Nebraska.”

A funny thing then happened after NU players and coaches got a few hours of sleep and pondered the 32-28 upset of Michigan in the Alamo Bowl: They came out and said some of the same things Thursday.

“Expectations have to be as high as they possibly have been,” freshman Zach Potter said, taking at peek at 2006. “It's coach Callahan's third year. We're coming off a few huge wins vs. Colorado and Michigan. Our confidence level is going to be really high.”

Head coach Bill Callahan said a final Top 25 rating would be both deserved and important for Nebraska (8-4). Potter took it a step further and said the Huskers are “ready to be back there in BCS competition.”

That kind of talk mostly has been missing around the program since NU last played in a Bowl Championship Series game after the 2001 season.

“We just want to earn our respect back,” sophomore Cortney Grixby said. “We want the nation to see that we're Nebraska and we're trying to get it back to where it's been.”

No. 20 Michigan and No. 24 Georgia Tech will vacate at least two Associated Press Top 25 spots once the bowl season wraps up. No. 21 Wisconsin, No. 22 Florida State and No. 25 Iowa could also make room by losing.

Any entrance by NU could also be followed by a preseason rating in 2006, based on the Huskers returning 15 starters and a total of 29 players who appeared in games as freshmen, redshirt freshmen or sophomores in 2005.

BCS talk might be premature, but it shows the optimism brewing that wasn't there when Nebraska was 5-4 and under serious fire after the 40-15 loss at Kansas.

“Critics are going to be critics,” Grixby said. “That's what you've got to deal with in this game. We just sat back and didn't pay attention to it. Coach always tells us don't read the newspaper anyway. So half the time we don't even hear what people say.

“But we knew what we had to do, just go practice hard and come out and get three straight.”

Nebraska has yet to be ranked during the two-year Callahan era. It last appeared in the AP poll at No. 19 after beating Michigan State 17-3 in the 2003 Alamo Bowl.

“Growing up as a kid in Nebraska, it was never a question of Nebraska being ranked,'' Potter said. “It was, ‘Where are they going to be ranked?' It would mean a lot to us as a program to get back in there and prove we're worthy of that rating and that we can play with probably any of those Top 25 teams.''

Two of those teams lined up for next season will be playing in the Rose Bowl next week for the national championship. In 2006, Nebraska travels to Southern Cal and plays host to Texas.

Beating Colorado and Michigan might supply NU with some momentum into the offseason, Grixby said, and that's when preparations for the Trojans and Longhorns will start.

“We're going to have to beat them here in the winter time and the spring time,'' he said. “Right now. We've got to beat them now.''

Nebraska rattled off three wins to end a season for the first time since 1999. Michigan was a four-loss team coming into the Alamo Bowl, but the Wolverines were ranked No. 4 in the preseason and they were the only team to beat No. 3 Penn State.

Callahan pushed the Huskers hard during four weeks of bowl practices and said Thursday that it paid off. Several times in recent weeks he said the bowl game offered NU a chance to catapult itself into next season.

“We took another step,'' Callahan said.

Nebraska sniffed the Top 25 twice during the regular season, only to botch its next game. The consistency the Huskers lacked then started to show a little in the 30-3 win at Colorado and again Wednesday night.

“It was just a matter of time before we started clicking and before everything got to going right,'' freshman Cody Glenn said. “Coach Callahan's got so much stuff for us and we knew it was going to work eventually, once we got it down and knew exactly what we were doing. I feel like we've got it down now. We're rolling.''

NU players talked about watching ESPN highlights over and over again Wednesday night and Thursday morning. They kind of liked the attention.

“We beat a good ballclub in front of a national audience,'' Moore said. “That should do a lot for us.''