Shatel: NU should hitch wagon to Helu

Quarterback controversy? Nope. It doesn’t matter.

Here’s what does: a healthy dose of Roy Helu — with emphasis on “healthy’’ — the last three games. The only controversy at Nebraska will be if Shawn Watson doesn’t put the offense on Helu’s back in November’s stretch run. Helu is the Huskers’ best, if not only, playmaker on offense. Neither Zac Lee nor Cody Green are currently up to that task. Neither are the receivers. Yes, this offense is bad. It should be nicknamed the “Scoring Implosion.’’

But this is where this team is with three games left: Great defense, great punting and an offense with a quarterback under center, a fullback and Helu getting at least 20 carries a game is the formula for winning two out of the last three games (including Kansas State), which is what it will take to win the North. You bet your gray sweatshirt Bo Pelini should try to win the North this year. He’s trying to re-instill an urgency in this program that every game, every season matters.

• Once again, it’s time for college football officials (all, not just Big 12 zebras) to step forward and be heard. As former Iowa State coach Jim Walden used to crow, “You can criticize the President, but you can’t criticize an official.’’ Officials make mistakes like coaches and players. Coaches and players are held accountable and must answer to their mistakes after each game. So should officials. The first question after Saturday’s game: How can you review a play after you’ve let another play run?

• I’m hoping that the zebras blew the false starts on Nebraska’s offensive line because there’s no excuse for a false start in your own stadium. How many times is this going to occur? Former O-Line coach Milt Tenopir would have fired that lineman for offenses like that. Then again, Uncle Miltie had more depth in his stable than the current regime.

• Watching Ahman Green become Green Bay’s all-time leading rusher on Sunday made me wonder: Is Green the greatest Omaha and Nebraska native to play professional football? He might be. We generally give that title to Gale Sayers. Green has more career yards than Sayers (9,045 to 4,956) in a 12-year span, compared to Sayers’ seven-year career. Both were four-time Pro Bowlers. Sayers is a Hall of Famer who is considered a standard still today. Will Green match that?

• If Tom Osborne and Bo Pelini want to accommodate Boise State’s offer of a one-time game in 2011, go for it. NU already plays Washington, Fresno State and Wyoming that year, so good luck. But when I hear the athletic director and coach at Boise accuse BCS schools of ducking them, I laugh. Put the Boise A.D. and coach at a BCS school and see if they would play Boise. The answer: You must be joking. That’s just reality. Same would be true if you put Creighton’s Dana Altman and Bruce Rasmussen at a BCS-level school; there’s no way they would come to Omaha to play the Jays.

• It’s probably the parent in me, but I have no problem with Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount being reinstated. Yes, he threw a punch and lost it. But I see it as a teaching moment. Get some good out of the episode. Blount’s biggest crime may be that he doesn’t play for Florida, where eye-gouging gets you a half-game suspension.

• As a parent, it is with deep regret that last week I quoted John Heisman as saying, “It is better to have died a small boy than to fumble this football.’’ Goes without saying I wasn’t thinking clearly on that one.

• Congratulations to UNO football for being invited to the Kanza Bowl. I think. This is the NIT of Division II football. I’m sure an extra game will be a good thing for Pat Behrns’ younger players. But this is Dec. 5, against West Texas A&M, at a 6,000-seat high school stadium in Topeka, Kan. Nothing against the good folks in Topeka, but if that’s a reward, I’d hate to see the penalty.

What does Omaha have to do to get a bowl game? Roger Dixon, get on that one.

Contact the writer:

444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com

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