Published On: September 8th, 2019Categories: Uncategorized


Despite their best efforts, Buffs fans couldn’t stop a red sea of Husker faithful from flooding Folsom Field on Saturday. But after a game that started poorly for Colorado, the second half saw an historic comeback that sent Nebraska’s fans quickly packing.

Colorado was down 17-0 at halftime but roared to life in the second half, squeezing by with a 34-31 win in overtime.

Big Red fans came from across the country to represent their team for the highly anticipated game and occupied about half of the 53,613 seats of the stadium.

In an attempt to stem the tide, CU fans had launched a Twitter campaign, #KeepTheRedOut, but that appeared to fail miserably, and Nebraska fans turned that on its head, with mocking tweets such as one that played off the Spanish meaning of Colorado: “That explains it: CU couldn’t #KeepTheRedOut if they tried…because it’s in their name.”

“Nebraska travels extremely well,” said Nebraska student Dalton Bohac about the football team’s fans.

He and a group of friends drove seven hours from Lincoln to stand outside of the stadium and watch the game on a giant screen.

Bohac wasn’t the only ticketless Husker fan. Many came from out of state just to tailgate for the game.

Adrien Ouellette drove from Wichita, Kan., to meet up with his friend and fellow Husker fan Josh Hanson in Boulder. They were frantically still looking for tickets online as the game got underway. Both said they were prepared to pay the hundreds of dollars tickets were going for on resale sites.

“We’re prepared for that,” Ouellette said. “It’s worth it.”

Hype around the game was building for months in advance, as the revival of an historic rivalry through which the schools battled for decades, until 10 years ago, when both teams left the Big 12 conference — Nebraska jumping to the Big Ten and Colorado to the Pac-12 — and the separation mellowed out the intense rivalry.

Some Husker fans deny that there’s ever been a real competition between the schools, but alumnus Mark McDowell disagrees. McDowell graduated in 1985, when the rivalry was at its peak, he said.

“It was a bit bitter,” he said. “We all hope it gets back to the way it was. It’s just fun.”

The last time the teams played in Boulder was 2009, when Nebraska topped Colorado 28-20. Resuming hostilities last year, the Buffs played the Huskers at Memorial Stadium and claimed a 33-28 win that wounded Big Red fans.

“I was upset about how we blew the game with the stupid penalty,” Hanson said. “The personal foul gave CU new life and they ended up winning because of that.”

Bohac said the Huskers were out for vengeance this year, and they backed him up by posting 17 unanswered points in the game’s first half.

But with an offense that sparked to life and a defense that stiffened its backbone, CU was able to send Bohac and his many cohorts streaming out of Boulder smarting from another defeat at the hands of the Buffs.

Boulder has now won in their first two games of the season, and if anyone has advice for the team for future games, it’s their fans.

“Montez, you better step your game up, you’re a senior,” said alumna Ellen Richard. “He’s driving me crazy.”

 

 


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