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LINCOLN - It was an electrifying start to the Scott Frost era on Saturday night. 

The new head coach and former Huskers quarterback led his team through a theatric tunnel walk, declaring his return to Lincoln has begun.

Frost’s demeanor was that of a man ready for the homecoming role that he accepted on December 2, 2017, the same day that he coached the University of Central Florida to a win in the American Athletic Conference Championship game against the Memphis Tigers. 

Frost led his team confidently through the tunnel, his eyes never wavering from the end of the tunnel where the field and a sold out Husker crowd anxiously awaited the start of another UNL football season.

Before the gates to the locker room were opened, fans in the stadium watched a pregame video that included Tom Osborne, Grant Wistrom, Joel Mackovica and lastly, Stanley Morgan. The song that has played for so many tunnel walks before, “Sirius by the Alan Parsons Project, began to play as the crowd roared.

The doors to the locker room opened and Coach Frost was the first one out the door. The song changes to “Jungle” by the X Ambassadors, but the crowd does not change tone. 

It is football season and all the talk through the summer of who will start quarterback, what to expect from the Frost regime, and other natural questions faded away. 

It was time to see what this team could do, hosting Akron in primetime, with thousands of televisions throughout Nebraska tuned into Fox for the very same reason.

There may have been too much electricity in the air from this long awaited football season to begin. A lightning bolt during the opening kickoff immediately sent the game into a weather delay.

It was like teasing a child with candy but then giving that kid a plate full of brussels sprouts and beets.

Fans frantically checked the radar, this delay couldn’t last long could it? 

The Huskers are going to still play tonight, right?

These were the thoughts voiced by many on Saturday night whether from calling a friend at the game or from someone there watching the game in Hartington.

The radar did not look good though, and one after the next, lightning within the area continued to push the delay farther and farther back.

After waiting for two hours and 50 minutes, officials called the game for the night. Fans at home still held out hope as across the bottom banner it read that the Nebraska vs. Akron game had been postponed until 10:30 the next morning. That would be another moment of the night where Husker fans became hopeful, but it would soon be taken away with news of a cancelled game.

College football reporters like Brett McMurphy, formerly of ESPN, perpetuated the Sunday morning game with tweets saying that it would be on FS1, according to Fox Sports.

An article on the Omaha World-Herald website on Sunday clarified what happened. Nebraska associate athletic director Butch Hugg said after the game there was a scramble to get all the necessary parties involved coordinated for a Sunday morning game. 

Then came the news that Akron had left the stadium and would be flying home. The Sunday postponement was being planned by the Big Ten and Fox Sports, who would broadcast the game. 

It is unclear why Akron may have declined the Sunday morning change.

Regardless of the cancellation, Husker fans got a taste of the Frost era and it was electrifying, exhilarating and everything in between.

All eyes are now on next week’s real season-opener — a game against former Big 12 rival Colorado.

Ohh, now that will be a fun one to watch. Please, no phone calls Saturday. I’ll be busy watching the Huskers… I hope.

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