Back to What's Important

This week, the Journal-Star's Steve Sipple talked to linebacker Corey McKeon about leadership and the quarterbacks. He also confirms some of my fears about Sam Keller:

“Joe, he’s a product of the system. He goes through his progressions: ‘He’s not open, you go to him. He’s not open, so go to him (repeats) …’
Sam’s going to attack people. He’s got that experience where he’s looking for Maurice Purify every play. You look over and see Cortney Grixby guarding Maurice Purify, he knows where to put the ball to get a big play.”

Can you see defensive coordinators drooling over this scouting report? Disguise your coverages and watch Keller force the ball into coverage as the safety comes in for support. Remember Josh Bullocks in 2003, who stepped in front of passes time and time again for a key interception? In fairness to Keller, Damon Benning watched practice on Wednesday and said yesterday that the gunslinger reputation Keller has may be a misconception. Let's hope so.

Speaking of McKeon, the pressure is on the linebacker corps to lead the defense with the inexperience up front and Zack Bowman's blown patellar tendon raising questions about depth in the secondary. While defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove is confident Bowman will return this season, the medical research I've seen suggests that this injury may take 9 months to a year to return to full form. This is especially true for a corner, which will depend on this tendon for leaping. After missing last year due to an ACL, would it make sense for Bowman to look towards a possible medical hardship season and try to play in 2008, rather than rush to try and play in 2007? In any event, with Andre Jones having a season of experience and transfer Armando Murillo already learning this spring, Nebraska is much deeper at cornerback this season, even if Bowman stays on the sideline.

Nebraska announced that football tickets are going up over 8% next season. Although it would be easy to take a shot at Pederson over this one, I won't. It's part of a sad trend in college sports as everything escalates in price. For what it's worth, Steve Pederson has tried to buck this trend for the most part, even reducing prices in 2003 when he arrived. (And you thought all I did was badmouth SP!) With money games now fetching $800K a year, one wonders how long it's going to be before college teams start playing tougher non-conference games. The BCS really needs to bring "strength of schedule" back into the BCS equation to penalize teams for loading up on home games against weaker opponents. It might be bad for some schools budgets, but it's good for the game. Steve over at Big Red Network suggests that games like New Mexico State are kind of a necessary evil, not exactly enticing to fans, but coveted by just about every big college program.

Speaking of Big Red Network, they have some interesting takes on Osborne's retirement 10 years ago and the Husker Family Feud that I commented on previously. It's a great conversation item to speculate on what would have happened if Osborne had stayed on for a while longer. My take is that I'm not sure it would have made as much of a difference in 1998 or 1999; heck, many folks thought in 1999 that Nebraska was the best team in the country. And if Osborne would have waited to retire, would Bill Byrne still have allowed Osborne to name his successor? If he hadn't, the entire schism we now are experiencing would have occured years before. Some people wonder "what could have been" if the rumors that Byrne wanted to hire Mack Brown in 1997 were true. My take: based on how Texas fared in Brown's early years (regularly outcoached in big games, benching Major Applewhite for Chrissy Simms, etc.) and the divisiveness that was sure to ensue after a change of this sort, Brown would have been fired at Nebraska before he would have had a chance to recruit a Vince Young.

Big Red Roundtable: What About The "Other" Husker Sports?

In this second edition of the "Big Red Roundtable", many Husker bloggers give their opinions on the "other" Husker sports. (What, there's something else besides Husker football?) Thanks again to CornNation for hosting this round. (Hmm...we're going to have to find a better tablecloth though...)

What's your interest in the 'other' Nebraska sports those beyond Husker football?
Historically, my second favorite sports was Husker men's basketball. Growing up as a kid, I'd turn on my old Soundesign AM/FM radio to hear Kent Pavelka describe the exploits of Jack Moore and Andre Smith and the like, especially that night when Pavelka had to excitedly whisper the call as the Huskers upset #1 Missouri in a eerily silent Hearns Center. In the '90's, I even went to several games; always fun to watch the Huskers beat Kansas down in Lincoln. About the time Danny Nee imploded the program, my alma mater UNO started their hockey program, and I had less time to follow Husker hoops. And as Omaha's media interest has shifted to Creighton, it's become more and more difficult to watch as the games just aren't televised in Omaha anymore. That's a huge problem.

In recent years, I've jumped on the bandwagon a little for Husker baseball and volleyball. I don't follow them in depth like others do. Everybody loves a winner.

In which sport besides football would you like Nebraska to succeed most and why?
I'd have to say basketball. Yes, the College World Series is in Omaha and is a great event, but it really doesn't have the interest on a national level. With talk about making Omaha a permanent (or at least regular) host of the volleyball championship, you can say the same thing for it as well.

But until college football institutes a playoff system, March Madness is the most popular championship playoff in this country. (The Super Bowl is still a bigger single game.) Nebraska needs to become a regular participant in it. Dana Altman has taken Creighton from playing in front of a couple thousand fans in the old Civic Auditorium to now selling out a 17,500 seat arena on the strength of a few NCAA berths (a couple of wins several years ago didn't hurt either). I look at the people who have jumped on the bandwagon for the Jays in recent years and just wonder how huge Husker basketball could become. The potential is there.

Some Husker fans have the attitude that former athletic director Bill Byrne focused too much on 'other' sports which hurt the success of the football team. Do you agree with that statement?
I can see where people get that idea, but I think it's a little simplistic. Bill Byrne does get credit for helping get Haymarket Park built for Husker baseball, and that did take a lot of resources to get done. Meanwhile, at that same time, nearly everybody else in college football (except for the Huskers) were plowing funds into football facilities. Sure Byrne built the skyboxes and renovated much of the stadium, which kind of counts as football improvements, although 99% of the investment was for the fans, not the program itself.

It would have been nice to take the funds from the skyboxes and use them on improved facilities for the players and coaches, but deferred maintenance of Memorial Stadium was taking it's toll. Remember section 14 crashing to the ground shortly after the spring game about 10 years ago? What if that happened on game day? The fact is that Byrne had no choice but to put that money into the stadium.

Should Byrne have pushed harder for Boyd Epley's strength complex? Definitely.

And as a follow up to the previous question, do you think that the 'other sports' detract from or compliment Husker football?
For the most part, they compliment. Tom Osborne used a Husker basketball game to help sell a kid from Florida named Tommie Frazier to come here. Perhaps under Bill Byrne, it siphoned some funds away that could have been used for the football program, but Husker football is the 80-ton gorilla in terms of interest around here. No other sport can even make a noticeable dent in the interest level of football, no matter what they accomplish. (Even if basketball were to get really, really good, football would still be king, and it would probably free up even more funds in the department for football, since football really funds most everything in Husker sports today.)

What do the other members of the roundtable have to offer? Look for the responses from CornNation, DoubleExtraPoint, and Big Red Network. And AJ the HuskerH8er gives his rebuttal as well.

Saturday Morning Sunshine

The sun finally has come out, hopefully signalling the end of the Blizzard of 2007. Still haven't seen a snowplow operating in my neighborhood yet, though. Hopefully the roads and weather will improve enough for the family to get to the Mav hockey game tonight.

A few new items:

AJ has a hilarious satirical rebuttal to Nebraska's bogus Big XII North Division championship ceremony after the Colorado game.


Trev Alberts, now with CSTV, says that "things (are) just not the same at Nebraska":

"It seems to a lot of people, who have a real care for the program, that anyone who was or is intimately associated with coach Frank Solich or coach Tom Osborne is not welcome there. The truth of the matter is it's just an insecurity factor. That's what I've been able to ascertain. I mean, who would want to follow coach Osborne? The footsteps are so large at Nebraska that I really don't fault Callahan for his insecurity, or Steve Pederson either, for that matter."

The Daily Nebraskan has even more about the concerns about the cheerleaders. Seems that the athletic department's new sponsor for the squad, Carrie Vitulo, has not taken the NCAA-required one-day safety certification course since being hired three months ago, effectively reducing the cheerleaders role to standing, clapping, and yelling.

Comings and Goings and Developments

Bill Callahan filled the open spot in the Husker coaching staff by hiring one of his former players at Wisconsin, Joe Rudolph, as tight ends coach. Rudolph doesn't have a lot of experience in coaching, so it looks like Callahan is basing this hire on their 5 years together at Wisconsin and with the Philadelphia Eagles. DoubleExtraPoint has a little more commentary on Rudolph.

The Lincoln Journal-Star reports that expected starter Mike Huff will miss spring practice after surgery on his Achilles' tendon, putting his status for the fall in question. Another starter, senior Chris Patrick, appears to be exiting the football program, with both Patrick and Callahan declining to say anything.

The Omaha city council yesterday voted to spend $70,000 to determine how viable the Omaha Civic Auditorium is in the long term. Currently the Music Hall sees sporatic activity and the arena is home to the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights (for this season anyway) and the Omaha Beef. This looks to be the first step towards justifying the construction of a new mid-town coliseum near Ak-Sar-Ben for UNO hockey and basketball. This one bears watching as UNO ponders the future of it's athletic programs. And as the Capitol Avenue corridor in downtown Omaha continues to be redeveloped, the land the Auditorium currently occupies will soon become much more valuable for future economic growth for the city of Omaha.

Speaking of UNO, Bowling Green is heading into town for the first round of the CCHA playoffs. While Bowling Green struggled for the first 4 months of the season, they've played better as of late, winning games at both Michigoon and Michigan State in the last few weeks. In any event, playoff hockey can bring out the best in a team, making playoff hockey one of the most exciting sporting events you can find. If that isn't enough of a reason, it's the Omaha swan song for UNO's career scoring leader, Scott Parse. UNO is firing up the Hobey Baker hype machine for Parse, who will attempt to break the 200 point barrier this weekend.

No word as to whether or not Bowling Green is bringing any duct tape or Sharpies with them this trip. Not sure what that means? AJ gets a little more graphic and explicit in his explanation....