LINCOLN, Nebraska – When you mention Deion Sanders, Rodney Lousberg recognizes a jealous Nebraska fan from nowhere.

“Everyone (Cornhuskers fan) says, ‘He’s selfish,'” Lousberg said of the Buffs’ second-year football coach before CU faced rival Nebraska at Memorial Stadium on Saturday night. “I thought, ‘Yeah. We knew that when we hired him.’

“That’s their thing. I think everyone wants to beat Deion Sanders. They want him so bad. I think that’s what made them the most angry, we’re actually on prime time TV even though we’re not that good.”

Lousberg is a rare breed – a CU fan in the middle of Big Red Country. Well, technically on the outskirts of Big Red Country.

The Buffs season ticket holder also owns the Middle of Nowhere Bar & Grill in Venango, Nebraska, where he serves burgers and beer to bugeaters a mile from the Colorado-Nebraska border, three hours west of Folsom Field and four and a half hours east of Lincoln.

“CU and Nebraska have both been irrelevant for the last decade,” Lousberg laughed. “(The Big Red) are just mad because they live in the ’80s and ’90s.”

“Now everyone (Huskers fans) is hoping (Sanders) leaves after his kids (finish at CU). But that’s not going to happen. I don’t think he wants to coach the pros. He can’t develop pro players because they’re overpaid crybabies.”

Behind enemy lines, Lousberg has learned from his supporters and neighbors that Nebraska fans get really worked up when they mention Coach Prime because nationally known voices can’t stop talking about him – and therefore can’t stop talking about the Buffs, win or lose.

“I think it depends on which Nebraskans you talk to,” Jake Behrens, a former CU fullback and Omaha native, told me before the game. “I think some are jealous and wish (Nebraska) had him.”

“It’s mixed. Very, very mixed. Some jealousy. They wish they had him, but still like him. I have friends who love Deion because he was big when we were younger. When we were 7, 8, we all imitated Deion playing football in the backyard… there’s some jealousy too. But that’s to be expected.”

Boulder and Lincoln still go together like quinoa and a runza. But when it comes to football, they’re all chasing the same pie.

Big Red locals admit the Huskers want bad what CU got just by hiring Sanders, without having to win a ton of games first: relevance. A seat at the table with the big guys at ESPN and Fox. Nebraska fans don’t care if they love or hate Big Red football. They just miss people talking about it, caring about it.

“I think (Coach Prime) has done a great job of bringing awareness to this program,” Jamie Schnegelberger, who grew up near Boulder and now lives in Ogallala, Nebraska, told me recently. “The excitement when we walked into Folsom (Field) last season against Nebraska was something you can’t really describe.”

You know what else she can’t describe? The words a Big Red fan once hurled at her at a gas station because she had the audacity to wear a CU sweatshirt while filling up.

“But the majority is carefree,” said Schnegelberger, who also proudly wears a pair of bison tattoos on her arm.

“They usually tell me they thought I was ‘smart enough to know better’ or they give me a hard time and say I ‘lost a dare’, but I’m pretty quick-witted and can usually come up with a response to catch them off guard.”

Behrens, who played fullback at CU from 2006-09 after a redshirt debacle in 2005, also has an answer: 5,034. That means that before Saturday night, that’s how many days had passed since Nov. 26, 2010 – the last time Nebraska beat the Buffs in football.

“It calms them down pretty quickly,” chuckled Behrens, who now calls Parker home. “I feel like there’s a good-natured dislike for each other in one way or another. … I think it’s fun and friendly to be a part of it. As a fan, there’s a little more at stake for me because I have a good group of friends from Nebraska that I’ve enjoyed chatting with over the last 14 years.”