Thursday, April 14, 2011

Thursday Night Beer: Will the Weather Hold for the Spring Game?

Earlier this week, the forecast for Saturday's Nebraska Spring Game was looking rather dicey... upper 40's and windy.  But now, it looks like the monsoon that's hitting Nebraska tonight looks like it'll be out of town Saturday morning.  Forecast is now for low 60's. Probably still windy, but 15 degrees warmer is a good thing.

And since it's Nebraska, that means that the weather is going to change and change again. And the forecast is calling for rain for the opening of Omaha's new baseball stadium on Tuesday night. TD Ameritrade Park is scheduled to debut to a sold-out crowd with Nebraska playing Creighton that night.

Back to the Spring Game, I found some of the lineup decisions to be interesting.  The Whites will have Cody Green and Brion Carnes at quarterback, while the Reds will have Taylor Martinez and Ron Kellogg. Martinez is supposed to be limited, so I wonder if we won't see Carnes or Green switch sides at halftime.

I'm guilty of wanting to see more of Carnes, as he's on my list of players I want to see in action. Other names I'm planning to keep an eye on are wide receivers Jamal Turner and Kenny Bell, and linebacker turned defensive end Eric Martin. And of course, there'll be one or two players that make you go "hmmm!"

I don't expect to see much of a running game on Saturday. Rex Burkhead is the only I-back with productive experience on either squad.  With three freshmen I-backs arriving this summer, this might be the last call for Collins Okafor to make a move. And frankly, if Taylor Martinez's ankle isn't 100%, I really don't want to see much of him running the ball.

I know the UNO football and wrestling supporters are still hurting over the loss of their programs. But hopefully they'll open their eyes to see the reality of the situation. Like today's news out of Lincoln, where UNL shut down the Industrial Engineering program, a victim of budget cuts. Whether you like it or not, colleges only have so much money to fund programs, and right now, colleges are having to make tough decisions. Just like other government programs, just like businesses, and just like nearly everybody else is having to make. So while it may be cathartic to draw Hitler mustaches on pictures of Trev Alberts, it's delusional to continue to hang onto conspiracy theories.

Yep, apparently that's former Omaha sportscaster Travis Justice with the error-ridden blog siding with the conspiracy theorists. Go figure.

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