Nebraska football fans have been held up as the best fans in football. Supposedly.
"People will come up and be like, 'You suck!'" said Bowman, a senior cornerback. "To me, to the team, they say it to anybody. Anybody associated with the football program. It's bad.
"You see them at the games. They'll come up behind the bench and just be like, 'Y'all suck,' or, 'How can y'all wake up in the morning?' I'm dead serious, man."
...At least two other players mentioned that they could hear an assortment of catcalls from fans while sitting on the bench during games. The more vitriolic comments seem on the increase after embarrassing back-to-back home losses to Oklahoma State (45-14) and Texas A&M (36-14).
Bowman and senior receiver Maurice Purify said Tuesday that, at least in their experience, the simple booing of a month ago has given way to more bitter and pointed remarks — and traveling to Texas on Saturday might not be a bad thing for an embattled team.
NU fans know college football. Nebraska fans of old have been gracious, applauding the opposing team after a hard-fought battle. I saw this with my own eyes in 1998 when MU lead NU at halftime in Lincoln, only to lose 20-13 to the Bugeaters in the end. The applause was welcome, and classy, I thought. Still, I was skeptical that NU fans really were that much different than college football fans from other parts of the midwest. What if NU didn't have the winning tradition? What if you replaced "N" with "IS" or "M?" What then? You probably wouldn't be able to tell them apart from any other group of midwestern fans: good, knowledgeable people. But people, nonetheless.
Now the shoe is on the other foot, and guess what. NU fans are acting like any other group of midwestern football fans: gracious when they are winning, not so gracious (and understandably frustrated) when they are losing. Whodathunk?