AC: You and I every once in a while, will DM (Direct Message on Twitter) or text about Husker Football, because you are an avid Husker Football fan. I have to imagine you became a Husker Football fan because you grew up on a farm in Pawnee Nebraska, that’s pretty cool. Now, you went down to Florida. So what made you stay a Husker Football fan, versus adopting the ’Canes, the Seminoles, the Gators, or otherwise?

LCG: Because I am Nebraska born, Nebraska bred. I am a Nebraska Cornhusker. I couldn’t care less about Florida. The only other team that I would consider rooting for is UCF, the Golden Knights of Central Florida, and that’s because I used to do a bunch of stuff with them when I was on the radio station in Florida and I was really good friends with the broadcasting group. And Scotty Frost is now the coach, which makes me like them even more. But no, I would never abandon Nebraska for nothing. Matter of fact, I was the only guy driving around in Florida in Orlando, I had a Dodge truck on a 12” lift with 38½ Mickeys on it, and I had Nebraska Husker stickers on my license plates, and all over it. I also had- I lived out in the woods, and I had 30 something acres out there, and I had a basketball court. It was a sports court and it was all Nebraska, out in the middle of the woods. I developed it so I could live there, but the cool thing was when you flew over it, you saw it! If you flew into Orlando International Airport coming into Sanford, and you looked down by Lake Joseph, all you could see was trees and a big open area with a Big Red basketball court with a white N in the middle of it. Once you were born and raised in Nebraska, you’re a Nebraska fan. And I never ever -- I always come back and visit my grandparents, and I have friends, and so I would always come back and see people. When Nebraska -- before the internet and all that, I could never see the games because I was in Florida. I used to call the Funny Bone in Omaha and Colleen used to set the phone by the radio, and I used to listen to every game that wasn’t on national TV. I used to listen to every Nebraska game on the telephone from the radio station in Omaha through the Funny Bone.

AC: Wow, that’s dedication.

LCG: You bet it is, you shoulda seen the phone bills, and I wasn’t making that much money at the time. It was fun, but it sucked after a while, at the end of the month. But it was fun while it was happening.

AC: Yeah, I can imagine. So, I gotta ask; longtime Husker fan, what is your roughest Husker memory, and what is your favorite Husker Football memory?

LCG: My roughest Husker Football memory was I believe our first losing season, in 2002? I think we went 7-7 in 2002, right? I was working in Albany, New York, and we had lost to Oklahoma State. We hadn’t lost to Oklahoma State since I was 10, probably in 3rd grade. It was a tragedy. But there wasn’t a time that I had been alive where Nebraska didn’t win 9, 10, or 11 games and play in a huge bowl game. Just forever, we’d never lose. We’d lose one or two games and it was just a tragedy, but when we lost more games in one season than we lost almost the entire decade of the 90s, I mean, it was a tragedy. That was a low point, and the other low point was watching Nebraska lose to Texas Tech, 70 something to 20 something. I mean, that was about all I could take. So those are my worst memories.

My best memory of Nebraska football was living in Florida around all the cocky Miami Hurricanes fans, this was 1995, I hadn’t moved to Sanford yet. I was still in West Palm Beach. But I was around all these cocky Miami Hurricanes fans. And when Nebraska beat Miami in the Orange Bowl, there was silence out in the streets, except for a little fat kid in a red shirt, running up and down the street screaming “GO BIG RED!” I mean, I was so flippin happy. That was the greatest time. And for a while, I had a picture of Sapp, Warren Sapp taking oxygen hits. And I had that picture framed up there somewhere.

AC: That’s still in my in-laws’ basement to this day. They still have that picture up to this day.

LCG: I’m telling you what, man, it was the greatest day of my life. So awesome.

AC: Now, I got a few more Husker questions. Who was your favorite (yeah, yeah, bring em on!) Husker of all time?

LCG: I’m trying to find a spot to park here at Bryan Hospitall, there ain’t no spots! All right, go ahead. (Who’s your favorite Husker of all time?) Oh man, you know what, I can’t even- there’s so many! So many memories, but the one guy, and I gotta call him. If you see him, tell him I say hello. He always calls me at my busiest times when I’m on a plane somewhere. But, my longtime favorite player ... I have a lot, believe me ... Jarvis Redwine. Of course, Johnny Rogers, of course all the big guys everybody names. I.M. Hipp was one of my all time favorites, old Isaiah Moses Hipp, I loved him, but I mean, there’s so many! So many memories I had with all these players so I hate to have to say one. You know who I always liked was Phil Ellis.

AC: I remember Phil. When did he play?

LCG: I gotta be honest, I can’t even remember the years he played. But I liked Phil Ellis, because I always liked Phil Villapiano with the Oakland Raiders. Phil Villapiano was number 41. Nebraska finally had a guy who was number 41, and he was just as crazy as Phil Villapiano. And Phil Ellis was a bad ass. I always rooted for Phil Ellis. He was great.

AC: That’s awesome, I can’t remember the exact years he played, but that’s all right. Let’t talk a little bit about modern Husker Football. The current state of the Husker Football program. How are your feelings about it? The plusses, the minuses, things that need improvement. What are your thoughts?

LCG: You’re going to get me in trouble, talking about this. Here’s the thing. Obviously, I support the team, and I’m a booster, and I’ll do whatever it takes to try to give them the best facilities, as will other people. There’s a bunch of us out there. I try not to say something where I’m damned if I do, damned if I don’t. If I say something, people yell at me, if I don’t say something they yell at me. I’m just like any other fan. I see something, and I want to say something, and sometimes I’ll go on the internet. I’m live tweeting the games sometimes from the suite box. I’ll live tweet something, then right after that, I’ll tweet, “Well, I guess I just lost my sideline passes for the week.”

In all honesty, I love Nebraska football, and just like anybody else, I want to see us back on top again. And I get irritated sometimes with these people that go “Hey, man, we won 8 games!” Yeah, but we’re Nebraska. We should be like Alabama, we should be like Oklahoma. We are one of these teams that’s a top- I mean, when you think of College Football, we’re on of those top 8 teams that you always envision as always having a good football program. You’ve got your Nebraska, Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Michigan; you know, your core teams that are always there. We’re one of those teams. I think we’ll get back there, I really do. In my humble opinion, and I could be dead wrong, I always thought when we hired outside the system was what hurt us. I mean, when you hire outside the system and you go to a whole different offense, and you go to a whole different- Nebraska is known for the option. We should have kept the option, but we should have branched that into something else.

We were known for turning out professional offensive linemen, we were known for turning out great running backs. Now, we’re trying to do an offense like every other team. Plus, we’re in the Midwest, where it’s cold, windy, and rainy. As I remember Nebraska football, it was always turn out the first downs, shove it down your throat, and put in a defense that’s just so aggressive, it knocked everybody right in the face. If an offensive powerhouse comes to Nebraska, you keep them off the field by getting first downs and just shoving it down their throat, and you take your defense and you give em a couple 3 and Outs. Next thing they know, they’re down 21-0 and they don’t know what happened. Instead of always trying to always compete with these teams that have been doing this- it all started when we changed the culture. We hired from outside the program, we brought in people from other universities that just don’t seem like they really know the culture. We’ve had 17 years now of trying to bring back the culture, and there’s just something that’s not there. I’ve always been a big fan of hiring within the culture of Nebraska football. Nebraska football, you know, we had one bad season and we did a complete 180 and said, well this ain’t working anymore, let’s try something else. But it does work. It does work. We just quit doing it.

AC: You know, first of all, you’re a fan, you’re entitled to your opinion, I know people are going to react one way or another. (Oh yeah, they’re gonna hate me.) Oh now, you have to be able to respect other people’s opinions. It seems like society doesn’t always allow that, but on my show that’s how we roll. Honestly, I felt like I asked myself that question and I was listening to my own response, because I agree with a lot of what you said. I do think we have to give Mike Riley a chance, because he’s our coach. He’s here, he’s now. That’s the best thing to do now.

LCG: Well, you know what, you didn’t ask me about that, let me just say this about Mike Riley. I like Coach Riley. He is a decent human being, he’s a great football coach. I like Coach Riley. And I’m excited about next year. I have nothing against the man, I never did, but he had to fire Mark Banker. I’m sure Mark Banker is a nice man, God bless him, I have nothing against him. But listen, if I went on stage every day and I was hired to do a job, and I tanked every day, at some point they’re going to get a new comedian because this one ain’t making anybody laugh. Well, it’s all business. But we couldn’t stop anybody. It was like Bill Callahan. Bill Callahan had some pretty good offenses. But he couldn’t stop anybody. Coach Riley, I mean he couldn’t stop anybody. We’d have to score 40 something points a game to beat somebody. And I could never understand why coaches that are really good coaches stick with coaches that aren’t doing their jobs. I totally think if Mike Riley would have tried different defensive coordinators his whole career, he would have a great winning percentage. But you know, when you look at those Oregon State years, they would have to score 40-50 points a game. Some of their games ended up 45-37, 52-55. It’s hard to win football games when you’ve gotta keep scoring and scoring.

I’m really optimistic, I’m excited about this new defensive coordinator we got, I love Parella, I think they’ve got a good team around them. I’m excited for next year. I’m excited for Coach Riley. He did what I thought he needed to do. I thought we needed a new defensive coordinator, and that’s what he did. So I’m excited about it, and I hope we turn the corner and Nebraska football starts coming back. Because I think Riley’s a good coach, I think he’s gonna run a good balanced attack, so there you go. I’m excited about next year and I’m optimistic.

AC: Yeah, I completely agree with you. All I was saying was we gotta give Riley a chance, but if it doesn’t work out for some reason in 2 or 3 years, I’m all for going back to that option quarterback. But I’m with you, I’m excited about Diaco and the 3-4 defense. Final question, what’s next for Larry The Cable Guy?

LCG: We’ll see how that offense works, but you know as well as I know, Coach Osborne always told us, he was never really too excited about those kinds of offenses because we play where we play. I mean, Callahan had some pretty good offenses, but there again, there were games he had pitiful offenses. So you have to find an offense that defenses aren’t used to defending. So, I think he’ll get creative with it, I think he knows what he’s doing, I think he’s a good coach. But we’re known for running the football down people’s throats. If we can still do that, and pass the ball, and have a good defense, then I think we’re gonna be something next year.

AC: Yeah, I agree. I’m excited to see what happens with that quarterback battle this year. But, one last question. What’s next for Larry The Cable Guy, where can your fans find you? What are you working on next?

LCG: Well, Cars 3 comes out in June, that’s gonna be awesome, the movie is really good, hope everybody goes out and catches that. We got a new theme park in California, and it’s funny because Mater talks Spanish. So I got that going on, and Jeff Foxworthy and I are touring together. We’re doing shows, just me and Jeff, and then we have our own Sirius Satellite station called Jeff and Larry’s Comedy Round Up on Sirius 97. We do some live stuff on there, I have a show on Fridays every now and then. And then we’re also going to do a fall type picnic show in August and September where it’s gonna be me and Jeff and a couple of bands. We’re experimenting with it. But it’s going to be me and Foxworthy and Foghat, and Marshall Tucker Band.

AC: All rright, very cool. Keep an eye out for that, ladies and gentlemen, I know my son is excited to see Cars 3, he’s a little bit older, but he still gets excited. As always, you can catch the Carriker Chronicles every Monday, Wednesday, and Fast Friday right here. Same time, same great place. So until next time, GO BIG RED, and always remember to THROW THE BONES. And ...

LCG: GIT ’R DONE!!!