Lincoln, Neb. – I have been coming to Lincoln for the better part of 15 years and have found exactly three reasons worth returning: the Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning, a Nebraska football game on Saturday afternoon and Barry’s Bar & Grill on Saturday night.
Barry’s is one of the best bars in the Big 12. Yeah, I know. That’s a little like being one of the best opera halls in Wyoming. But it’s still worth a visit on game day. Barry’s represents the pulse of Nebraska football. The wall is lined with framed pictures of past glory, of big, fast backs optioning teams to death on rain-slickened AstroTurf.
After home games, Nebraska fans come from as far as Scottsbluff and Fargo, N.D., to rub elbows with students and townies, all with a passion, all with an opinion. It’s as red as a sea of blood, which is what the insanely loyal Nebraska faithful have bled the past three years.
Two years ago, I visited Barry’s after Kansas State invaded Memorial Stadium five blocks away and undressed the Cornhuskers, 38-9, their worst home loss in 45 years. That loss essentially marked the end of the Frank Solich Era.
Now, it’s the dawn of a new season, and Barry’s still hadn’t put up its customary football posters.
“I have not seen the intensity,” co-owner Lou Mary Webb said from behind the bar Thursday. “Because of last year, people are a little cautious about talking about what they think is going to happen.”
As humiliating as the Kansas State loss was, as unfathomable as the 7-7 season in 2002, last year represented Ground Zero for Nebraska football: a 5-6 record, its first losing season since 1961 and first without a bowl since 1968. The growing pains of new coach Bill Calla- han’s West Coast offense included a mind-numbing 70-10 loss to Texas Tech, Nebraska’s worst defeat in 115 years of football.
Webb has owned Barry’s, a Lincoln landmark since 1958, for 18 years along with Ken Hambleton, who became somewhat of a landmark by covering Nebraska football for two decades for the Lincoln Journal-Star. They know the Big Red. When I was a regular here in the early 1990s, Barry’s patrons talked about a national championship.
Today, they’re wondering how the Huskers will do in the Sept. 3 opener against I-AA Maine.
“I’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘This game is going to be very telling,”‘ Webb said. “How they come out on the field and how they win is going to be really important.”‘
Everyone knew Callahan needed time to get players for his system. Webb says Nebraska fans are normally a patient lot, but Callahan not only delivered their first losing season since the Kennedy Administration, he also was the first outsider to coach Nebraska since 1962.
“The general fan still bought into the whole thing, that (Tom) Osborne said Solich would work and that’s how we did things,” Webb said. “I don’t think you have that anymore. I think Callahan’s going to have to produce.”
He should. Nebraska opens with five consecutive home games, but the last three are against Pittsburgh, Iowa State and Texas Tech. New quarterback Zac Taylor is playing to rave reviews and the defense has been tweaked to play more zone and less live-and-mostly-die man-to-man.
“We had a good recruiting class last year, and it’s just a start,” Callahan said after practice Thursday. “We’ve increased our depth on a quality basis. You still have to integrate those guys. We’re trying to close that gap between the veteran player and the younger player.
“But they haven’t been under the gun yet.”
And he’s not – yet. He’s athletic director Steve Pederson’s controversial late hire, and you can bet he’ll give Callahan more than two years, even if Nebraska’s second floor falls through this season. Callahan said he’s a little amazed at how much more pressure college coaches are under than when he left the college ranks for the NFL in 1995.
Last year was supposed to be his transition year. It became a nightmare.
“Anytime you transition, you go through adversity,” he said. “I truly believe it makes you a better coach and a better team. We certainly had our share of it last year, and I take that responsibility. And I take it seriously. I’m excited about this year.”
Nebraska fans want to buy into it. Webb said she’ll put up those posters this weekend.
John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
