Tom Osborne wasn’t among the 76,021 at Memorial Stadium when Nebraska opened the 1998 season in the Eddie Robinson Classic. He had an out-of-town speaking engagement. The Eddie Robinson Classic ...

When Osborne thinks on Mac, he doesn’t immediately go to 1985. Or to 1988. Or 1991, the 19-19 game in BoCo, when someone emptied their beer all over the head of McBride’s poor mother.

So he had to call Coach. "Because that's my Abraham Lincoln, without a doubt." Tom Osborne did not answer on the first try, so Wright left a message, and that was seemingly that. They had last ...