A couple of interesting nuggets from the Lincoln Journal-Star. One is that Big XII Commissioner Dan Beebe wants to eliminate the redshirt season for football players; everyone would get five years of eligibility.
It's an interesting idea, though one would wonder what impact it would have on scholarship numbers, since I doubt in this day and age of Title IX, the number of scholarships could go up in football. Obviously, except for guys leaving early for the NFL, football careers would last longer, so you would have to cut back on the number of players you recruit each season. Would players get a benefit out of playing on special teams rather than on the scout team? In some positions, such as defensive secondary, linebacker, and receiver, quite possibly. Offensive linemen and quarterbacks...not so sure since they frequently have to master the mental game first.
Some recruitniks are all up in arms over the 2009 recruiting class. Yep...they're worried about guys who are finishing up their JUNIOR year of high school. Most notably, a commit from an Alabama safety...who was apparently only receiving interest from Samford. NU recruiting coordinator Ted Gilmore puts it in a little perspective:
“The only perception that matters is those guys that are in that office, sitting there watching the tape and doing their evaluations."
KOZN's Kevin Kugler passed on a little gem a couple of days ago. (podcast) Seems that the operators of dumpcoz.com got a response, supposedly from a cousin of Kevin Cosgrove. Coz's Cuz is still a little miffed about the negativity, asking how Husker fans sleep at night with all the negativity they've shown towards Cosgrove, especially since Coz was beloved everywhere else he coached. (Must not have talked to many people in Wisconsin; my wife's cousins up there thanked us in early 2004 for taking Coz off their hands...)
Now I understand that it's tough for the family to hear people they love criticized and condemned, and the natural inclination is to want to defend your family. And some of it, especially the phone threats and chants directed to his son were completely out-of-line and completely unacceptable. But simply stating how horrible Nebraska's defense was last season? (#114 out of #119 1-A teams? Allowing 76 points to Kansas, then 65 to Colorado?) That's failure of such magnitude that frankly, you have to expect criticism.
CornNation.com has a whole new look, so if you've got a few free minutes, wander over and check things out. Jon will hopefully have some good news on Husker baseball to cover this weekend.
Have a great weekend, everybody. And don't forget to take a minute to thank the men and women who served this great country in our Armed Services.
Ummmm Mike, does it count as "negative" if some of your fans call the man up and threaten to kill him?
ReplyDeleteSeems a bit more than "negative" to me.
That's more than "negative"... like I said, death threats are just about as out-of-line as it gets.
ReplyDeleteIt's a frickin' game, not life and death.
The treatment our players and coaches received from our fans last year was an embarrassing disgrace. Yeah, the team was bad, but nothing excuses the fan behavior. Death threats? Booing? Yelling obscenities at players? Mocking the families of coaches?
ReplyDeleteThe mask came off Husker nation. The only reason our fans used to be so "nice" is because we always used to win.