The Nebraska Novice Drivers
Just another reason to point and laugh at Scott Frost and his mom.https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafb/college-football-world-reacts-to-nebraska-s-confusing-scenario-in-ireland/ar-AA114X9i?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=0e06258b589e40a3c3ecc830c7c11aba
August 25th, 2022 at 8:40 AM ^
I wonder if there’s a secondary factor associated with “out hitting” and the impact that may have on the “N” drivers in Ireland.
August 25th, 2022 at 9:25 AM ^
"N" is for knowledge
August 25th, 2022 at 8:42 AM ^
saved you a click
According to a Tweet from Rodger Sherman of The Ringer, student drivers in Ireland often put large red “N” stickers on the back of their cars to indicate that they are novice drivers. As Sherman points out, this large “N” sticker looks a lot like Nebraska’s football logo, which could lead to quite a bit of confusion when Nebraska fans arrive in Ireland for this weekend’s game.
“Huskers fans are gonna get here and think there are hundreds of thousands of Irish Nebraska fans,” Sherman said in his Tweet.
“Alternately Irish people might think Nebraska fans are huge Novice Driver fans,” he added in a follow-up Tweet.
It’s an amazing coincidence that could lead to some hilarious mixups. And the college football had plenty of fun with the possible confusion.
August 25th, 2022 at 9:10 AM ^
I still can't believe that ESPN is opening the college football season with a match between the University Of Nebraska Novice Drivers and Northwestern. The sport can definitely do better.
Apologies to our Irish friends.
August 25th, 2022 at 9:25 AM ^
Apologies indeed. This game is going to make some eyes bleed. Of course, I'll be watching.
Also, the game is on FOX, not ESPN. And to show you how little FOX thinks of this game, they have their 'B' announcer crew of Jason Benetti and Brock Huard calling the game and they'll be doing so from a studio at home, not from Dublin.
August 25th, 2022 at 10:03 AM ^
But do you blame them? As long as the cameras capture the game, the fans are happy. The announcers can be in a phone booth for all I care.
I watched the Alabama-LSU game last year through the skycam feed and it was awesome. The only announcer you could hear was the PA announcer. I think if we had that option for FOX, a lot of us would take it.
August 25th, 2022 at 10:25 AM ^
There is another post just down from this one with some of the classic TV and radio calls from UM games last year. Reading and listening to some of those calls gives me goose bumps. Not sure I'd have that if I was watching on TV with no announcers....and I don't think we'd get the same level of excitement in the calls if the announcers weren't calling the game from the stadium.
That said, no I don't blame FOX for not sending an announcing team. Sure, the TV ratings for the NW-Neb game will be higher than if it were played in say mid-October, but I don't think sending Benetti and Huard to the game will impact that at all. I also don't blame them for not having Gus and Klatt on the call.
August 25th, 2022 at 1:54 PM ^
OH - JAH - BO!!
August 25th, 2022 at 11:47 AM ^
The Detroit Tigers did this a few (maybe several now) years back where they just had a game feed and it was AWESOME. I can understand why a casual fan might light announcers to possible help them contextualize a game or interpret a rule or infraction etc., but I often loathe announcers and would greatly prefer the vast majority of them be banished.
That said, I loved Keith Jackson and Ken Daniels and Micky Redmond are the sound of my childhood. So maybe I should just STFU.
August 25th, 2022 at 10:43 AM ^
That's the B crew?
WTF is a Jason Benetti? And how did Huard ever get to a #2 team? I'm confused...
August 25th, 2022 at 12:05 PM ^
Benetti is a solid PbP guy but I don't think too many like Huard. The 3rd Fox announcing crew is Tim Brando and Spencer Tillman....and yeah, no thanks. Brando has a hall of fame voice but is a terrible PbP guy plus when I hear him all I can picture is this: BrandoDab GIF by Ace Anbender | Gfycat
August 25th, 2022 at 10:53 AM ^
I like Jason Benetti for college football. He seems to be enjoying himself and his backstory is worth reading.
However, I don't like Jason Benetti for White Sox games, mostly because I hate the White Sox.
August 25th, 2022 at 1:23 PM ^
I don't understand why FOX isn't sending the announcers there. How much of an incremental cost could it possibly be? Even with the game being overseas, it can't be that much.
Seems like FOX just being cheap.
August 26th, 2022 at 12:16 AM ^
If I were Benetti and Huard I would be a little miffed that I would not be getting an all expenses paid boondoggle to Ireland for this barnburner.
August 25th, 2022 at 11:47 AM ^
I am sure when it starts it will be a N00N game.
August 25th, 2022 at 1:32 PM ^
nice
August 25th, 2022 at 1:57 PM ^
I see what you did there...and I love it. +1
August 25th, 2022 at 9:19 AM ^
An Irish priest is driving along a country road when a policeman pulls him over. He immediately smells alcohol on the priest's breath and notices an empty wine bottle in the car.
He says: "Have you been drinking?"
"Just water," says the priest.
The cop replies: "Then why do I smell wine?"
The priest looks at the bottle and says: "Good Lord! He's done it again!"
August 25th, 2022 at 9:55 AM ^
There are just so many jokes about bad special teams play here.
My favorite of the replies to the original tweet.
August 25th, 2022 at 10:00 AM ^
“Alternately Irish people might think Nebraska fans are huge Novice Driver fans,”
Imagine how confused all those Irish tourists are going to be when they go to visit Nebraska.
August 25th, 2022 at 8:46 AM ^
can nebraskans get loans to attend driver's education, if they can't afford it on their own?
August 25th, 2022 at 10:46 AM ^
The loans are forgiven through Farmer's Aid. No worries, though - they all learn to drive in a combine by the age of 9.
August 25th, 2022 at 11:09 AM ^
I learned to drive on a farm.... '67 chevy step side, 3 on the tree.... i was 10.
by the time i was 16 I was chopping corn in a John Deere 4440.
Those were good times.
August 25th, 2022 at 9:06 AM ^
Who is the “home” team in this game? The B1G schedule appears to indicate it as a home game for both teams.
August 25th, 2022 at 9:29 AM ^
I think they are both AWAY teams.
August 25th, 2022 at 9:16 AM ^
No no no, out “N” stands for knowledge!
- brasker fans
August 25th, 2022 at 9:20 AM ^
It's much more likely their "N" stands for "knuckleheads".
August 25th, 2022 at 9:22 AM ^
kNucklehead U!!!
August 25th, 2022 at 2:00 PM ^
They're in Britain. The N stands for Nobbers.
August 25th, 2022 at 9:26 AM ^
Too weird. It feels like a comedy sketch some writer thought up.
So it's NU vs. UN.
I'm still waiting for an explanation why the University of Nebraska is NU—other than it's always been that way, but that's not an explanation. (It's also in a Nebraska song but song lyrics aren't an explanation either.)
August 25th, 2022 at 9:28 AM ^
It's the NUUN game instead of the M00N game.
August 25th, 2022 at 9:44 AM ^
I like that 👍.
Hope you and Mrs EQ are doing well.
Go Blue 🏈🏈🏈
August 25th, 2022 at 1:34 PM ^
We are well. And now rested from the long drive from the UP. We were pretty close to your neck of the woods. We went to Spring Lake to my Uncle's family cemetery plot and had a family reunion and met with my siblings and their spouses and my cousins. My sister lives in Saginaw and then we trekked north to TC and then nort to the UP (Soo) before the long drive home. Did some Sleeping Bear, lighthouses, Charlevoix, Petoskey, Lehto's, Clyde's (SSM), Munising/Pictured Rocks Cruise, Tahquamenon Falls, and the Soo Locks.
Hope you guys are well and enjoying the tail end of your summer! GO BLUE!
August 25th, 2022 at 9:50 AM ^
I have a friend who attended Northwestern. I once made the mistake misabbreviating Northwestern as "NW", not "NU", and got an earful of scorn from them.* Since that encounter, I have mentally treated each year's Northwestern v. Nebraska football game as the Battle for "NU". Winner gets abbreviated as NU; loser has to bear the shame of being NW or NE for the next year.
*A minor point of order about proper abbreviations may be the most animated and enthusiastic I have ever seen anyone get about Northwestern sports. Peak Northwestern right there.
August 25th, 2022 at 10:22 AM ^
So no one else is curious why the University of Nebraska is NU?
Next thing ya know, everyone will accept THE Ohio State as normal.
August 25th, 2022 at 10:33 AM ^
I went hunting for an answer, but found nothing definitive. My best explanation comes from Nebraska's fight song, "Hail Varsity",* which was penned in 1936. Its lyrics reference "Nebraska U". My guess is that "Nebraska U" was popular nickname at the time the song was written and is the basis for the "NU" abbreviation.
Nebraska also has a secondary fight song, "Dear Old Nebraska U (There Is No Place Like Nebraska)", which was purportedly written about a decade earlier than "Hail Varsity". Its title and lyrics lend credence to my theory.
*It's a very original name.
August 25th, 2022 at 11:58 AM ^
Yeah, I'd seen that, and mentioned the "evidence" of song lyrics, but it doesn't feel like an explanation.
August 25th, 2022 at 10:43 AM ^
Many universities in the middle of the country called themselves "______ University"
eg, Colorado: CU, OK: OU, NE: NU, KS: KU
Then about 40-50 years ago, they decided that "The University of _________" sounds cooler, basically. But the inertia of the exisitng brands and logos and the common local language stuck around, as it tends to do.
August 25th, 2022 at 11:52 AM ^
Probably this guy's father was an AD somewhere out there....
August 25th, 2022 at 11:59 AM ^
This feels closer to an explanation, a cultural trend that many places adopted.
But it still doesn't explain why the "University of _____" got called "______ University" in the first place.
August 25th, 2022 at 12:37 PM ^
Duh Ohio State is the "new normal". Got that memo a while back.
August 25th, 2022 at 10:55 AM ^
I'm pretty sure the whole "NU" thing is holdover from their days in the Big 8/Big 12 when it was (and actually still is) common for the member schools to use that formatting as an abbreviation despite not being technically consistent with the institution's actual name. NU for Nebraska, KU for Kansas, MU for Missouri, CU for Colorado, BU for Baylor, OU for Oklahoma etc etc.
August 25th, 2022 at 11:09 AM ^
I've also often seen Nebraska referred to as "UNL" (University of Nebraska -Lincoln).
Not sure if that's official in any way but it works for me.
August 25th, 2022 at 11:41 AM ^
That's another common one for sure. Funny enough, I actually grew up in Omaha and I see this abbreviation used frequently by in-staters to delineate between the different University of Nebraska institutions: UNL--Nebraska-Lincoln (the flagship campus, obvi), UNO-- Nebraska-Omaha, and UNK-- Nebraska-Kearney.
August 25th, 2022 at 12:04 PM ^
Right but that's a new usage, after the introduction of branch campuses. (I know about them, having taught at UM-Flint.)
However, I'm eager for evidence, a specific historical or contextual reason beyond simple speculation—or song lyrics—why a school named the "University of _____" decided to start calling itself "______ University."
I recall seeing "Michigan University" but that was stupid marketing, some person of business trying to make money off UM but avoid paying for the privilege.
August 25th, 2022 at 12:14 PM ^
No idea as to the specifics, but I hope you find what you're looking for. Let us know if you find anything.
Edit: Just wanted to add that you're asking interesting questions, but also wanted to offer up that there honestly may not be a concrete answer to what you're looking for, and speculation based on historical trends might be the closest thing you'll find. Sometimes language and how we refer to things are totally arbitrary without much rhyme or reason behind it. I study languages as a hobby and am oftentimes confronted with "wait, why the hell do they say (insert thing) THIS way??" Sometimes there IS some sort of reason associated with maybe religion, a significant historical event etc associated with the ethnic group or nationality that speaks that language, or maybe a word or phrase borrowed from another language/culture, but most of the time the answer is, "Because that's just how you say it." Maybe the same thing or something similar holds true with regard to the whole NU abbreviation thing. Idk. Good luck tho.
August 25th, 2022 at 12:57 PM ^
Great point. Language and ideas don't usually develop in a linear, logical way.
Pink was obviously a boy color in the 1800s and a few decades into the 1900s but now is obviously a girl color, and it's not clear why it switched.
But it feels as if there must be some reason that UN got called NU.
August 25th, 2022 at 1:03 PM ^
Also, while speculation can contribute to an explanation, adding possible explanations, it can also veer wildly off the track.
For instance, "gringo" derives from Spanish for foreigner (or, apparently, gibberish) but it's still easy to find the speculation that it originated because white cowboys sang "Green Grow the Lilacs."
August 25th, 2022 at 1:09 PM ^
I'm glad of that, I'd hate for some dude to replace the lovely Molly Ringwald in the starring role of Pretty in Pink.