published on May 16, 2024 in gacor

Conspiracies, controversy and rancor: Nebraskas bizarre final Big 12 road game

The absurdity began on the first play of Nebraska’s third possession. Texas A&M defensive lineman Eddie Brown Jr. mauled Mike Caputo after the shotgun snap, and the center stepped hard with his left foot on the right calf of quarterback Taylor Martinez.

The already tender ankle of Martinez buckled. Caputo’s helmet sailed as he lost his balance and fell. Seconds later, Martinez collapsed to the grass in front of the Nebraska bench as backup Cody Green huddled on the sideline with offensive teammates.

From there, next to nothing went well for the Huskers on a wild night at Kyle Field that featured a school-record 16 penalties against Nebraska for 145 yards.

Friday marks the 10-year anniversary of the final road game in the Huskers’ 15 seasons of Big 12 play, a tumultuous time remembered as much at Nebraska for its early championships as the late controversy that reached a peak in College Station, Texas, on Nov. 20, 2010.

Before a national ABC audience, it was 185 minutes of combustibility that largely framed the remaining four years of the Bo Pelini coaching era at Nebraska.

Texas A&M won 9-6 to ignite a storming of its sacred playing surface for the first time in at least 35 years.

“The intensity was unbelievable,” said Omaha native Tim Cassidy, then the associate athletic director for football at Texas A&M who spent four years during the previous decade in the same position at Nebraska. “We had added seats down on the field, and obviously, at the end of the game, that was not a good situation.

“Personally, it was very emotional.”

Emotions ran high on both sidelines. The result meant little within a larger context. A&M coach Mike Sherman lost his job a year later with the school by then headed to the SEC. Pelini and Nebraska spiraled into Big Ten mediocrity.

But on this warm Texas night, a light shined bright on the Huskers, the Aggies and a crew of Big 12 officials whose decisions led to calls of a Big 12 conspiracy against Nebraska. Headlines in the Omaha and Lincoln newspapers after the game screamed “Flag football” and “It’s personal.”

Unusual news conferences followed, along with dubious phone calls, an independent review of the officiating and a bowl assignment that stunk of bitter feelings.

The Athletic went in search of missing answers and deeper explanations from the most memorable moments of a game that ranks among the most bizarre for Nebraska in this century — entirely for reasons that the Huskers do not want to remember.

A decade later, several of the important characters from that night did not respond to interview requests, including Martinez, Bo Pelini and Carl Pelini, the head coach’s brother and defensive coordinator for Nebraska. But many others agreed, offering details, comical and disturbing, previously unrevealed.

Five months earlier, Nebraska announced its split with the Big 12.

The Huskers had grown weary of league decisions seemingly dominated by forces in the South Division, particularly at Texas. And in early 2010, weeks after officials restored one second on the clock in the Big 12 Championship Game, allowing Texas to kick a winning field goal against the Huskers, Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne and chancellor Harvey Perlman began flirting with Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany.

In June, the deal was done. But one season of Big 12 play remained for Nebraska. Martinez, the dynamic redshirt freshman QB, led the Huskers to a 5-0 start and a No. 5 ranking before Texas ruined a giant party by pulling a 20-13 upset in Lincoln.

Even without defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, the No. 2 pick in the NFL Draft earlier that year, Nebraska’s defense featured star power in Prince Amukamara, Lavonte David and Jared Crick. Hybrid defenders Eric Hagg and DeJon Gomes fit perfectly in a Pelini scheme against the spread-heavy Big 12.

“The talent level on that team was just ridiculous,” said Jeremiah Sirles, Nebraska’s left tackle in 2010 as a redshirt freshman who later started 20 games over four years in the NFL.

Future NFL backs Roy Helu and Rex Burkhead flanked Martinez, with the likes of Niles Paul and Kyler Reed as receiving threats.

“We should have won more games than we did,” Sirles said.

Martinez responded to the October loss with a Heisman Trophy-caliber performance against nationally ranked Oklahoma State. But he suffered an injury to his right ankle in the first half a week later against Missouri. Green quarterbacked the Huskers against Iowa State, an overtime escape, and Martinez, though hobbled, returned before the trip to A&M for a victory against Kansas.

The Huskers landed in College Station at 9-1 and ranked ninth, in need of one win to secure the North Division title.

The Aggies, in their third year under Sherman, remained nine months from negotiating their breakup with the Big 12 for the SEC. They turned in 2010 to former wide receiver Ryan Tannehill at QB to replace veteran Jerrod Johnson after three losses to open conference play.

Before the Nebraska visit, A&M beat four consecutive Big 12 foes, including Oklahoma, and rose to No. 18 in the rankings at 7-3.

With Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit on hand in the TV booth the week before Thanksgiving, a record crowd of 90,079 filled the stadium. Students sat in chairs on the edge of the grass. It was electric.

The level of noise surprised even longtime A&M observers. ABC sideline reporter Heather Cox chatted with Martinez before the game. He told her his ankle felt good, she said during the broadcast. Pelini wore an intense look, a gray sweatshirt and a white hat, as usual.

His reputation preceded him. The coach attracted attention for drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Virginia Tech in 2008. Personal fouls plagued his team, and Pelini blasted officials in 2009 after the controversial Texas game.

“During that time, Nebraska was very good,” Cox said, “so we had a lot of Bo Pelini games. I do remember Bo and Carl being abrasive and showing their emotions on the sideline. And this wasn’t the only game I remember with Coach Pelini where there was an issue with our cameras catching things that shouldn’t be seen on TV — or shouldn’t be happening.”

Oh, what the cameras caught.

Nebraska led 3-0 when Martinez limped to the sideline with five minutes to play in the first quarter. Four plays later, Green and Helu mismanaged a handoff and the ball popped free near midfield. Nebraska tight end Ben Cotton pounced on it, and A&M defensive tackle Tony Jerod-Eddie jumped on Cotton.

“Everybody knows a lot of crazy stuff can go on at the bottom of the pile,” Cotton said.

Cotton said he felt a sharp pain between his legs. “I thought I was getting bit.”

He screamed at Scott Campbell, the umpire who was trying to unstack the pile, that an A&M player was biting him. “Obviously,” Cotton said, “the video showed otherwise.” It showed Jerod-Eddie grabbing and squeezing Cotton’s genitals.

“At some point, I just kinda boiled over,” Cotton said. “I couldn’t take the pain that I was feeling, so I started kicking.”

One of his kicks connected with Campbell. Out flew the first flag, 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct. Seconds later, Cotton, while pleading his case, removed his helmet, drawing a second personal foul.

“We got yellow all over the 50-yard line,” Musburger barked.

Said Cotton: “I never thought I’d be the reason for third-and-44.”

Pelini yelled at Cotton and sent him to the bench, never acknowledging the explanation offered by the sophomore, whose father, ex-Husker Barney Cotton, served as Pelini’s assistant head coach in charge of the offensive line.

“Ben could be a little dramatic,” Sirles said. “So when he was saying, ‘He was biting me,’ we were like, ‘He obviously wasn’t biting you. Let’s relax.’”

Cotton continued to plead his case on the sideline and returned to play on the ensuing Nebraska punt. After the game, his teammates saw the damage. “There was bruising, and there was broken skin,” Cotton said. “I’ll leave it at that.”

“We all felt kinda bad,” Sirles said. “I’ve had my mouth fish-hooked in a pile. I’ve had fingers try to get broken. But I’ve never seen someone just legit try to squeeze someone else’s balls like that before. That was a whole ‘nother level of ridiculousness.”

The existence of video evidence surprised Cotton. He heard plenty from friends and family about the incident, but Pelini didn’t say anything more.

“He never apologized,” Cotton said. “I don’t think it was necessary. Everybody saw it after the fact.”

Sherman said at the time that he addressed the situation with Jerod-Eddie. The defender was “remorseful,” Sherman said, but he did not face a suspension. Cotton never heard from Jerod-Eddie.

But the Nebraska tight end did speak on Monday morning after the game to officers from the Texas A&M and College Station police departments, Cotton said. They called him to ask if he planned to pursue legal action.

Did he consider it?

“No way,” Cotton said. “That never crossed my mind.”

Cyrus Gray, the Aggies’ junior running back who outgained Helu and Burkhead, got untracked in the second quarter as A&M evened the score with a field goal.

Meanwhile, Nebraska’s injured quarterback received an examination on the bench. Martinez underwent an X-ray that did not indicate a fracture, according to a report by Cox, and he limped to the locker room for additional treatment.

His father, Casey Martinez, seeing a replay of the moment that caused the injury, was concerned and called members of the Nebraska medical staff, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times. No one answered, so the elder Martinez called his son and left a message.

Taylor Martinez returned the call while still in the locker room during the second quarter. It was a short conversation, Casey Martinez said at the time.

“He thought he was done for the game,” Casey Martinez wrote in the 2010 email to ESPN.com, “and I thought he seriously broke his leg from the replay I saw and was going to be in street clothes.”

The phone call during a game violated team policy. Martinez returned to the sideline midway through the second quarter, only to get chewed out by Pelini, who had learned of the locker-room conversation, in full view of the ABC cameras.

The coach screamed at Martinez, nose to nose and poked an index finger in the chest of the quarterback, who stayed quiet and wore his helmet propped on his forehead.

“Just offering a little encouragement there, I guess, to the young man,” Herbstreit said after a full 10 seconds of silence on the broadcast during the replay of the sideline meltdown.

“Wow,” Musburger responded. “That was … strange.”

Cassidy, the A&M administrator whose son, Austin, played for Pelini and served that night as a defensive captain, was taken aback by the footage. “I don’t think it appeared great for the state of Nebraska to have that situation.”

Osborne, the legendary former Nebraska coach and athletic director who hired Pelini in 2007, said Pelini was a “hot reactor” through the entirety of his seven seasons at Nebraska. Before his 2013 retirement, Osborne discussed several of those sideline moments with the coach, including the incident with Martinez in College Station.

“It probably would have been better if the trainer hadn’t said anything to Bo,” Osborne quipped in an interview this week. “‘He’ll be right out,’ or something like that.”

Green finished the first half with the score still tied, 3-3, and Cox asked Pelini about his interaction with Martinez.

“It was something completely unrelated to the injury,” Pelini told Cox. “It’s not a big deal.”

But it was a big deal. Perlman, the chancellor, weighed in on the morning after the game, saying that he and Osborne would address the sideline behavior with Pelini.

“Bo has a lot of passion for his football team,” Perlman told the Associated Press, “and there is a strong upside to that. But again, overall, the conduct was unfortunate.”

Martinez played the second half against the Aggies. On Sunday after returning to Lincoln, he missed a team workout. His absence sparked rumors that Martinez had left the team or planned to transfer after the season.

Pelini shot down speculation a day later, but it persisted until he released a statement in January, even as Martinez started two more games in 2010.

Teammates knew little about what happened in the locker room or on the sideline. Until later.

“Dude, he called his dad,” Sirles said. “What? It’s just one of those things where there’s a time and a place for it. I love Taylor to death, but that was not the time, nor the place.”

The Aggies went ahead 6-3 on a field goal in the opening minute of the fourth quarter. And the Nebraska penalties started to mount. Linebacker Eric Martin was flagged for his second personal foul on A&M’s ensuing kickoff. Pelini got flagged, too, placing the Huskers at their 5-yard line to start a drive.

But Burkhead carried defenders for 33 yards on the first play and pulled Nebraska into field goal range. On third-and-7 at the 12-yard line, officials tossed a flag on A&M for pass interference against Brandon Kinnie, but referee Greg Burks picked it up after a discussion among the crew. So kicker Alex Henery tied the score at 6-6 with eight minutes left.

Seven plays into the next drive, facing a third-and-11 at the Nebraska 49 with five minutes to play, Tannehill threw incomplete. He was hit an instant after the release by Nebraska safety Courtney Osborne. And out came the laundry. Roughing the passer, the most baffling and impactful of the 16 fouls.

“That is a questionable call,” Herbstreit said on the broadcast.

The Aggies capitalized on the 15-yard foul to move into field goal range and go ahead for good. Nebraska’s last possession fizzled as pass rusher Von Miller turned up the heat on Martinez and the crowd noise grew deafening.

At the end, Bo Pelini chased after the officials. Thousands of students charged onto the field. And Carl Pelini got caught in a mess of people. As Cassidy recalls, a member of the Texas A&M medical staff tapped Pelini on the shoulder amid the chaos to offer his best wishes to the Huskers.

Misunderstanding, Pelini angrily turned around and noticed Brandon Jones, co-owner of TexAgs.com, the well-known website that covers the Aggies, with a camera pointed at the Nebraska coordinator.

“I didn’t know Carl,” Jones said this month. “He sees me and turns around to come at me. I pulled the camera down, across my body to protect (the camera). He reaches across. Our noses are touching. I remember saying to him as calmly as I could, ‘What are you doing?’”

Pelini didn’t answer. He grabbed the camera and pulled several parts from it, Jones said, sending them to the grass. Jones gathered the parts and made his way to the sideline, where he found Gabe Bock, host of the TexAgs radio show. Bock identified Carl Pelini as the aggressor and quickly produced a video about the incident.

Bock reported more about the encounter on radio.

And soon, with the backing of several incriminating photos and some inconclusive video, this Carl Pelini skirmish had ascended past Cotton’s mishap, all the penalties and Bo Pelini’s run-in with Martinez as the viral moment of the night.

Jones was besieged by media requests from Nebraska. He accommodated as much as possible, while still doing his postgame work. Cassidy on Sunday received a call from Hunter Goodwin, a good friend and former A&M and NFL offensive tackle who serves as chairman of the board for TexAgs.

“He calls and says, ‘Listen, Carl Pelini went off on one of my guys,” Cassidy said.

Right then, Bo Pelini called Cassidy. Cassidy, of course, knew Pelini well. Cassidy’s wife, in fact, hosted the other Nebraska parents at their home on Friday night before the game. Pelini asked for Cassidy’s help. The coach offered to pay for the camera.

“I called Hunter back and just said, ‘Forget it. Bo will take care of it,’” Cassidy said. “I was kinda pissed Carl would have done that. As a Nebraskan myself, I’d say that doesn’t need to happen.”

A day later, on Monday, Bo Pelini downplayed the incident during his regular news conference in Lincoln. He said Carl Pelini was trying to help a Nebraska player off the field when he got entangled with Jones. Jones disputed the description, and TexAgs published its account of the incident.

Then while at a movie with his wife on Monday night, Jones missed a call from Bo Pelini. The coach left a voicemail, asking to speak with Jones. And on Tuesday morning, preparing to return the call to Pelini, Jones received another call from Nebraska.

It was Tom Osborne. The AD wanted to know what happened.

“He was really kind,” Jones said. “He said he’d meet with Bo. He said he’d get it taken care of.”

When they hung up, Bo Pelini called Jones. “This was the slimiest conversation I’ve had in this business,” Jones said. “He wanted to know how he could make it go away.”

Jones said he asked Bo Pelini to do two things.

“You can make a public apology, because you’ve now offended me twice,” Jones said he told Bo Pelini. “And I want Carl to call me.”

Jones got a public apology from Carl Pelini. And a phone call.

“It was a respectful conversion,” Jones said.

Carl Pelini said he believed Jones’ footage on the field might have caught him in a compromising position. And according to Jones, Carl Pelini said he had “no business grabbing” the camera.

What about Jones’ camera? Bo Pelini never paid to replace the Sony NX5U, because it didn’t break. The parts snapped back into place, Jones said. TexAgs still uses it today.

Bo Pelini answered questions from the media for less than five minutes before leaving the stadium.

“I’m not talking about penalties,” Pelini told reporters. “You guys can make your own deductions. All you have to do is look at the numbers.”

Texas A&M was penalized twice for 10 yards.

The theories began to circulate before the game ended: The Big 12 had it out for the Huskers, they said, and these officials were in on it.

Dan Beebe, commissioner of the Big 12 from 2007 to 2011, heard it all. He heard a lot more, in fact, in his many voicemail messages.

“My poor executive assistant listened to them all,” Beebe said this week. “There were some that were pretty threatening.”

One message in particular included a threat against Beebe’s daughter. It and others were turned over to law enforcement.

“I’m not a shrinking violet,” he said. “I’ve been in tough situations. Hell, I played football and rugby.”

But Beebe chose, after a discussion with Tom Osborne, not to attend the Nov. 26 Colorado game at Memorial Stadium, a 45-17 win for the Huskers in which they clinched the North Division and secured a spot against Oklahoma in the title game.

“Look, my experience with Nebraskans and Nebraska fans was overwhelmingly positive,” Beebe said. “They were the most gracious and considerate fan base that I think I’ve ever encountered in the sport. However, every fan base has its lunatic fringe that can enter the fray when things go awry.”

Osborne said he didn’t recall a conversation with Beebe or the Big 12 about penalties in the Texas A&M game, but Beebe said the Nebraska athletic director was “so worked up” that the Big 12 asked for an independent review.

Walt Anderson, former supervisor of Big 12 officials, said he asked Mike Pereira, former NFL vice president of officiating, to handle it. Pereira, an NFL rules analyst for Fox, and Anderson confirmed Beebe’s assessment that the review found no major problems. More penalties, in fact, could have been called, Beebe said, though he didn’t specify against which team.

“If there was a conspiracy,” Beebe said, “people didn’t do a very good of keeping (Nebraska) out of the championship game.”

Oklahoma came from 17 points down in Arlington, Texas, to beat Nebraska 23-20, and the Big 12 sent the Huskers to the Holiday Bowl, a repeat appearance, for a rematch against Washington. Nebraska beat the Huskies 56-21 in September. Pelini’s team lost 19-7 in December.

“There weren’t a ton of people who gave two craps about that game,” Sirles said.

No hard feelings, the former commissioner said.

“It doesn’t pay to be vindictive,” Beebe said. “There was none of that. In fact, we had pretty good negotiations on the departure.”

Still, doubts persisted about the officiating. Pelini, at Big Ten media days in July 2011, told Omaha World-Herald columnist Tom Shatel that officials in College Station indicated to the Nebraska coach that his team was in for a long night.

“It was highway robbery,” Pelini told Shatel. “An absolute joke. I’ve moved on.”

So have all parties.

Beebe founded a consulting business in 2011 and works with a range of sports organizations.

Cassidy moved in 2012 to Arizona State. He serves as the top football administrator for Herm Edwards’ program.

Sherman most recently coached the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL two years ago. His son-in-law, former Nebraska QB Zac Taylor, a 2010 graduate assistant at Texas A&M, is the 37-year-old head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Jerod-Eddie spent parts of five seasons in the NFL and received a coaching fellowship this year with the Broncos. It reunited him with Miller, Jerod-Eddie’s high school and college teammate who was drafted five months after this Nebraska game with the No. 2 pick by Denver.

Tannehill, the Aggies’ receiver-turned-quarterback, is an eight-year NFL starting QB in his second season with the Tennessee Titans, earning $17.5 million this year.

Taylor Martinez works in the tech industry in Texas. His dad, Casey Martinez, is still raising three boys and two girls in California. Cotton started a job this year at Hudl, the Lincoln-based sports performance and technology company, working in sales with the pro football market.

Bo Pelini’s defense at LSU ranks 121st nationally through five games in allowing 7.2 yards per play. The Tigers are set to play at Texas A&M next week, Pelini’s first trip to coach at Kyle Field since 2010. Carl Pelini coached their alma mater, Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown, Ohio, to a 2-6 finish this fall.

Tom Osborne remains retired. He did not attend Nebraska’s home opener last week, a win against Penn State. But Osborne watches all the games, he said.

He thinks back at times, too, to Pelini’s Nebraska years, which took a turn, undeniably, one decade ago. The Huskers’ next conference road game after that night at Texas A&M was a 48-17 loss to Russell Wilson and Wisconsin.

“Sometimes I think Bo Pelini is, because of some things that he might have said or done, viewed negatively,” Osborne said. “But if you look at it from a win-loss standpoint, he won nine or 10 games every year as a coach and kept the stadium full.”

This year, more than ever, there’s value in that.

(Photo of Bo Pelini at Texas A&M in 2010: (David J. Phillip / Associated Press)

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