Nebraska receiver Taariq Allen celebrates as an official signals a touchdown at Northwestern on Oct. 20, 2012. Allen outjumped a Wildcat defender to score with 5:55 left in the fourth quarter of a 29-28 comeback win for NU. MATT MILLER/THE WORLD-HERALD
I started covering the Husker football team back when they were good. Really good. Great.
I was bad. Really bad. Abysmal.
I’ve gotten better throughout the past 15 years. I went to UNL and worked for the Daily Nebraskan, a five-day-a-week student paper. Although I wasn’t at the “Miracle in Missouri” in 1997, I did cover head coach Tom Osborne’s final game in charge.
With the exception of two seasons while working at my first job in Rochester, Minn., I’ve covered most of the games. They are mostly blurry in my memory. With all the pads, helmets and identical jerseys, the personalities of the players often merge together in my mind; I don’t get to know them off the field. I don’t root for the team to do well. I just root for plays to happen in my direction on the field. Since I’ve shot thousands (if not millions) of pictures of Huskers football, the pictures that I find most interesting aren’t always the ones that are published. They are not usually the definitive touchdown catch photos, like this one from earlier this season:
The photos I like often have quiet moments. They are of the fans. They have nice light. They have humor or a detail.
Muriah Messersmith gets a surprise lift from Clinton Norgaard outside the Rose Bowl before the Nebraska-UCLA game on Sept 8, 2012. The two are high school friends from Maywood, Neb. Messersmith, who now lives in Susanville, Calif., got two tickets and called Norgaard, who lives in Los Angeles. MATT MILLER/THE WORLD-HERALD
Nebraska’s Josh Mitchell breaks up a pass intended UCLA’s Devin Lucien in the first quarter. MATT MILLER/THE WORLD-HERALD
Jared Nun of Akron, Ohio, who is a Lincoln native, takes a photo of the north entrance to Ohio Stadium on Oct. 6, 2012. Nebraska was in Columbus, Ohio, to take on Ohio State. MATT MILLER/THE WORLD-HERALD
Husker players head back to the locker room after warming up before the Ohio State game. MATT MILLER/THE WORLD-HERALD
A young Husker fan found her book more interesting than the game in the third quarter of the Nebraska-Northwestern game on Oct. 20, 2012, in Evanston, Ill. MATT MILLER/THE WORLD-HERALD
Some Husker fans left the game with Nebraska down by 11 to Northwestern midway through the fourth quarter, and the ones that stayed showed their frustration with the performance. MATT MILLER/THE WORLD-HERALD
Nebraska’s Eric Martin and NU defensive coordinator John Papuchis celebrate Martin’s sack on the final play of the first half against Michigan on Oct. 27, 2012, in Lincoln. MATT MILLER/THE WORLD-HERALD
