Can Ganz Beat out Keller?

Well, if last Saturday's scrimmage is any indication, the Nebraska quarterback race is a little closer than most fans would have thought at this point. Joe Ganz directed the first-team offense to scores in three of four drives, including 2 against the Blackshirts, while Sam Keller never was able to score in any of his drives.

Now, this is kind of like predicting an election based on the initial returns or even early polls. Sam Keller is going to have every opportunity to win this job, and will have the rest of the spring and summer to learn the offense. But in the West Coast Offense, it isn't the biggest arm or best athlete that leads to success, it's the smartest player. That's what they said about Joe Montana and it kind of applies to Rich Gannon. Now, while Joe Ganz isn't either of those guys...just remember that the most physically talented guy isn't always the best guy.

Initial reports on Marlon Lucky this spring sound very positive that we will finally see the talent that had recrutniks drooling over him in 2004. Not only has Lucky improved on the field, but his mental attitude seems to be better as well. Certainly a marked improvement from the February incident that landed him in the intensive care unit. We may never know exactly why it happened, and we really don't need to know either. But it's looking like he's back and better than before, and that's a good thing for everybody. DoubleExtraPoint's Jeffie Husker has more over at AOL's FanHouse.

Right now, the only compelling reason to attend this Saturday's spring game is to see Joe Ganz and Sam Keller shred the scrubs. That sounds slightly enticing, until you hear the weather forecasts. The meteorologists at KMTV-channel 3 and KETV-channel 7 in Omaha both are blogging that the weather is going to be dicey at best, with it being cold and blustery, and quite possibly accumulating snow as well. That will really dampen the attendance for Steve Pederson's recruiting show.

Sparty Finishes Off College Hockey

4 weeks ago, Michigan State finished off the UNO Mavericks hockey season. Tonight, Sparty finished off the season by capturing the national championship at the Frozen Four. If you're a "glass half full" guy, having your season ended by the national champion isn't exactly a bad thing.

The Frozen Four is rapidly becoming one of the premier NCAA championships, with sellouts nine of the last ten years. Bigger than NCAA volleyball? Definitely. Bigger than the College World Series? Hard to say. The CWS has definitely gotten huge in Omaha, but nationally, I'm not so sure. I've heard reports that Omaha has bid on the 2013 Frozen Four, which would be a MUCH bigger get for Omaha than NCAA basketball regionals. As we learned last month, most of the tickets for next years basketball regional are going to BrieJay fans (okay, more accurately, their scalpers). The Frozen Four brings in hockey fans from across the country, not just fans from the host area. Heck, several dozen UNO fans alone are in St. Louis this weekend for the action...spending money in restaurants and hotels. Bring those thousands of fans to Omaha, and you'll see an event that rivals Berkshire Hathaway weekend for toursim in this area.

Tonight's game featured a 3 goal flurry late in the 3rd period from Sparty. The first goal featured LA Kings prospect Brian Boyle getting confused on a faceoff, allowing Tim Kennedy to breakaway for the goal. Kings fans have been taunting Maverick fans pointing as of late, pointing out that Boyle is a better prospect than Scott Parse. Maybe they're right. All I know is that Parse has 6 points in 6 games with the AHL's Grand Rapids, and probably will be signing with another NHL team in August.

Oh, and how did Sparty score the last 2 goals? Oh, just the game winner scored with just 18.9 seconds left in regulation, followed by an empty-netter with 1.7 to seal the victory. Probably one of the best championship game finishes since Tejas/USC in the 2006 Rose Bowel.

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.

BrieJay Resurrection: Wooooo! Pig Sooie!

Hard not to post once again about Creighton after the bizarre turn of events, with Dana Altman suddenly resigning from Arkansas to return to Creighton. Many folks point to the bizarre, almost surreal "Wooooo! Pig Sooie!" chant that Broyles sprung on Altman as the turning point, but it that might be a little simplistic.

Anyway, most of the bandwagon BrieJay fans are suffering a little whiplash as they attempt to jump back on the Creighton bandwagon. Many of them are having to eat their words of disgust towards Altman, as they trashed their at-that-time-former coach. In that respect, they match Steve Pederson supporters in their extremist, polarizing philosophy that can be best summarized by the phrase "You're either with us, or against us."

Will this have any long-term effect on Altman or Creighton? Hard to say. Rumors of job offers should diminish almost entirely now. But listening to Altman's press conference today, it really sounds like this episode has changed Altman. Perhaps it was only exhaustion. It makes me wonder whether it will change Altman as a coach. Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, Frank Broyles, who was already taking a lot of heat for his coaching search before this episode, is calling in reinforcements. Kind of reminds me of another coaching search 3 years ago, except that this time the plane from Nebraska didn't leave Fayetteville's tarmac empty. Broyles even taunted Steve Pederson's search at the time, suggesting that he would hire a replacement in a few days.

Now that Broyles has worked through his "A" list (and likely his "B" list as well) of candidates, who is next up? Will Doc Sadler get a call next? Or has Broyles had enough of candidates from Nebraska?

BrieJays In Mourning

Today's announcement that Dana Altman was leaving Creighton for Arkansas certainly surprised me... I figured that Altman was going to stick around the Hilltop for a while.

It will be interesting to see how the bandwagon BrieJay fans will adjust to this. Many already are taking shots at Altman... which makes almost as much sense as Husker fans taking shots at Tom Osborne for honoring a friend, who last summer tried to resurrect Osborne's campaign for governor.

True Bluejay fans will recover much more quickly than the bandwagon fans...if they survived the Rick Johnson era, they can survive this. In the meantime, what will the bandwagonners do? Apparantly they are stuck with their CU tickets for next season, as renewals for next season were due this past weekend.

Speaking of tickets, Husker football tickets are going up $4 a game next season. Is it the increasing guarentees that need to be paid to teams? ($800,000 for New Mexico State in 2008?) To some degree, yes. But there's also the need to pay for the stadium improvements as well.

Bill Callahan and Tim Cassiday take issue with the perception that Bill Callahan is stubborn, pointing to the number of other coaches that they talk to. Maybe...maybe not. Certainly the play-calling can get stubborn at times. One guy that Callahan and his staff should try to talk to is Tom Osborne...it really could do wonders to start healing the deep wounds in Husker nation.

And speaking of former Husker basketball coaches...looks like Barry Collier will need to hire a new basketball coach at Butler, now that Todd Lickliter is going to be named head coach at Iowa. Will he rehire himself?

Husker Family Feud

The great schism of fans over the events at the end of the 2003 Husker football season is well known. But in Thursday's Omaha World-Herald, Lee Barfknecht revealed how deep the schism runs with the very players who wore the scarlet and cream.

As part of Steve Pederson's desire to transform the spring game into a show for recruiting, the athletic department has organized a golf outing for former Husker lettermen the last three years. It's a great idea... bring the former players back to town, especially the one's busy in the fall playing on Sundays in the NFL.

Except now several former Huskers have organized an alternative golf outing, called "Fun - The Original Husker Way" and scheduled it at the same time as the "official" letterman's golf tournament. The alternative outing is promoted as a tribute to former trainer Doak Ostergard, and has drawn comittments from many "big names" -- the Peter brothers, Tommie Frazier, and Tom Osborne, to name a few. Frank Solich is even trying to sneak away from Ohio spring practice for the afternoon. So far, over 150 people have signed up for the alternative outing, compared to 130 last year for the sold-out Letterman's outing.

While the organizers of the alternative outing won't say it, the name definitely suggests dissatisfaction with the athletic department. One might say that the timing does as well, but with the number of events scheduled that weekend for all the players that are coming in from out of state, there might not have been another good time. But it's fairly obvious that the divide amongst some fans also applies to the former Huskers as well.

What's really interesting is the venom of a small contingent of Steve Pederson fans against Tom Osborne accepting the invitation to appear at the alternative event, claiming it as a "shot at the program." Apparantly, 25 years of coaching, with 3 national titles pale in comparison to the fact that Osborne chose to honor a trainer that served the program for 18 years.

Yep...Nebraska is really getting over 2003. Not.

Parse Avoids LA; Detours through Grand Rapids on the way to the NHL

UNO all-time leading scorer Scott Parse surprised Maverick hockey fans this week (and probably the brass of the Los Angeles Kings as well) when he signed an amateur tryout contract with the Grand Rapids (MI) Griffins, the AHL affiliate of his beloved Detroit Red Wings. Interesting move from Parse, who last summer said that the Kings "didn't want me." Kings assistant GM Ron Hextall showed some inpatience with Parse last week, complaining that Parse was playing hardball with them. The Kings look like they aren't going to be able to sign Parse. Since Parse could have signed a tryout deal with any AHL club, one has to wonder if there was any interest in Omaha's AHL team. Certainly, they need all the help they can get.

Looks to me like Parse is schooling the Kings, much like he schooled much of college hockey the last 4 years. In his first AHL game, Parse scored in a shootout and also tallied an assist to break the Griffins' 6 game losing streak. Parse will likely become a free agent in August; look for Parse to remain unsigned until then. Right now, I'd give the Detroit Red Wings the lead in the Parse derby, though many Mav fans would love to see Parse reunite with Bill Thomas. BLT's contract with the Coyotes expires at the end of the season, though. Maybe UNO will have a couple of free agents getting attention from the NHL this summer...

Former UNO door-opener (and executive producer of the Mike Kemp Show) SAM is compiling a list of the greatest players and moments in the first 10 years of UNO hockey. Voting continues through April 5th, but here's my ballot:

Best Forward: Scott Parse (duh), Jeff Hoggan, Alex Nikiforuk, David Brisson, Jeff Edwards, Bryan Marshall, Billy Pugliese, Bill Thomas, Allan Carr, James Chalmers
Best Defensemen: Greg Zanon, Jason Krischuk, Daniel Samuelsson, Juha Uotila, Mike Eickman
Best Goaltender: Dan Ellis, Chris Holt, Kendall Sidoruk
Best Moment: Tuesday Night over Bowling Green, St. Patrick's Day Massacre of Michigoon, Mavs in NCAA Tournament, Billy Pugliese's series winner in double OT to send UNO back to the Joe in 2000, Scott Parse's series winner in OT against Lake State to send UNO to the Joe in 2005.
Best Games: Tuesday Night, UNO defeats Ohio State with Pugliese's double OT goal to return to the Joe, St. Patrick's Day Massacre, UNO follows up 11-0 drubbing by beating #1 Maine 4-3 in year #2 of the program, Mavs Rout Lakers 8-0 in 2006.

Let the BrieJay Whining Begin: Husker Hoops vs. Oregon at the Qwest Center

Today's Omaha World-Herald confirms the BrieJay fans worst nightmare: Nebraska will play a basketball game against Oregon this December at the Qwest Center, otherwise known as the home of UNO Maverick Hockey. (Despite the claims of some of the more elitist Creighton fans that CU somehow "owns" the Qwest Center.)

Also, Doc Sadler dismisses talk about him leaving the Huskers for the open Arkansas job (which looks like it's going to A&M's Billy Gillespie at this time):

"But since coming to Nebraska in August, the commitment our fans have made and our administration has made is even stronger than I first realized. My family and I are committed to Nebraska for a long time, and want to help build a program that some day the people of Nebraska can be very proud of. I'm talking about a team that expects to be in the NCAA tournament every year. That's my commitment, and it hasn't wavered one bit, nor will it."

Big Red Roundtable: Pre-Spring Practice Edition

Well, with spring practice beginning, it's time to reconvene the Roundtable, with me hosting on the subject of football as we look forward to spring practice. We may need some extra security this time, as the Roundtable invites not only "Blankman" and Jon from MidwestCoastBias but also AJ the HuskerH8er. This is kind of like pairing up Rush Limbaugh with Al Franken on "Meet the Press". If anything, this round should be interesting with some very different opinions... Hopefully, nobody pops a cup here.

The coaching staff says the quarterback race is wide open between Sam Keller, Joe Ganz, Beau Davis, and Patrick Witt. What is your expectation as how this will turn out next season?

First of all, I really do believe this is an open competition. Having said that, if Sam Keller is everything he's touted to be, he'll win the job in the end. As an incoming freshman who joined the Huskers halfway through his senior season of high school, Patrick Witt gains just from the extra bonus experience. As for Beau Davis, his disasterous debut against Texas Tech in 2004 left a bad taste in many Husker fans mouths. Bill Callahan says he's improved dramatically from his freshman year, and since he's only taken 10 snaps in mop-up duty since then, I can't argue. Nevertheless, I think this becomes a 2 person race between Joe Ganz and Keller.

My take on Joe Ganz is that he's Nebraska's version of Rich Gannon. Not a highly regarded physical talent, but found a system with Bill Callahan that fits his abilities. We really haven't seen much of Ganz in game situations, but my take is that he's a better player than most people give him credit for.

Sam Keller is Nebraska's version of Brett Favre. He's a gunslinger that was penciled in as a first-day NFL draft pick next month until Dirk Koetter went insane at Arizona State. Keller brings in a lot of strengths: strong arm and experienced at a BCS-conference program. That experience in handling the pressure of starting, not to mention recognizing and understanding BCS-caliber defenses is huge. That's what Husker fans are banking on when they ink Keller into the starting spot in 2007.

But the gunslinger reputation might not be the best fit for this offense, which has been considered a "dink-and-dunk" offense by some. That's not Keller as I understand him. He's more like Favre, who grew into this offense in Green Bay, but early on, trusted his arm more than his mind and forced balls into coverage, resulting in interceptions. Over time, he learned to go through his projections and throw the ball away if nobody was open. His interceptions dropped, and the Packers ended up in the Super Bowl. Great analogy? Perhaps, except Keller has one year of eligibility left. With the season opening with 3 opponents that went to bowl games (including 2 in the BCS) in 2006, the Huskers don't have the luxury of letting Keller learn the hard way.

Then, there is whatever caused his teammates in Tempe to revolt against him last summer. Perhaps it was more Rudy Carpenter than Keller. We don't know. That's why Keller's little parking lot disagreement is a little concerning to me. Does Keller have a problem with his temper? Will Keller throw the ball into coverage, expecting his receivers to somehow get open, and if it ends up being intercepted, how will he respond?

In the end, if Keller's departure was because of Carpenter and Keller adaps well to this system, he'll win this job easily. Those are big assumptions, and thus, I don't completely eliminate Joe Ganz either.

Besides quarterback, what positions will have the biggest battles and how do you expect them to work out?

In my mind, the next biggest hole is on the defensive line, where Adam Carriker and Jay Moore will be early draft NFL draft picks, and Barry Cryer and Ola Dagunduro graduate. That's a huge loss. Ndamukong ("A Boy Named") Suh and Barry Turner are going to be the first two guys who are going to need to step up and fill 2 of these spots. After that, it's an open competition. At tackle, Ty Steinkuhler has the edge for the other spot, but will Brandon Johnson make a move here? With Turner out this spring due to injury, that will open up the competition. The move of Clayton Sievers to defensive end is intriguing; is CozBohl going for more athletic defensive ends? My instinct suggests that the d-line against Nevada will be Suh and Steinkuhler inside being backed up by Johnson and perhaps Craig Roark. Outside will have Turner and Zac Potter on the ends, being pushed by and alternating with Sievers and Pierre Allen.

After that, the next interesting competition will be in the secondary. Zack Bowman is still out this spring, but will Armando Murillo challenge Andre Jones and Courtney Grixby? At the very least, it will provide more depth in the secondary. And can Rickey Thenarse bring his physical play to the secondary at safety? My take: Next fall's opening secondary: Bowman, Grixby, Thenarse, and Tierre Green.

I'd also like to see some of the touted (hyped) receivers like Menelik Holt, Chris Brooks, and Will Henry make a splash. Nebraska's receiving corp had trouble getting seperation in losses against Oklahoma and Auburn, leaving Zac Taylor few options. Could one of these youngsters explode and push the rest of the group?

2 years ago, the 2005 recruiting class was touted as one of the nation's best. Only a few players from this group have made an impact thus far; who do you expect to emerge this spring?

I've said it before...the 2005 class was good, but not as good as recruitniks hyped them when they signed. So far, only Bowman and Marlon Lucky have made a real splash so far. Turner, Steve Octavien, Suh, and Cody Glenn have had their moments. This spring, I would have hoped that Craig Roark would have made his move, but he's out with a shoulder. Two guys that need to step up this spring are linebackers Nick Covey and Phillip Dillard, as the incumbents at linebacker are all seniors. I also wonder if we're finally going to see Chris Brooks make an impact at wide receiver.

In the 1990's, Coach Osborne started matching up the #1 offense against the #1 defense in the spring game. Bill Callahan switched this around and put the #1 offense and defense on the same team, playing against the reserves. Do you prefer a format?

I really prefer the old format of 1's vs. 1's. Watching the top squads overwhelm the reserves doesn't tell us anything about either squad, unless a reserve breaks through and makes a play against the starters. And the problem is, with the blowouts of recent years, very few reserves make an impact. In fact, it generally makes it an uninteresting event. I gave it a chance the first couple of years, but skipped last year. Right now, I'm leaning towards skipping this year's spring game as well as it seems to be more of a PR show for fans and recruits than anything else. If my daughter was a few years older, I might consider it as an low-cost, low-risk way to introduce her to the game of football.

So what do the rest of the members of the Roundtable think? Brandon and John over at MidwestCoastBias give their thoughts in this week's podcast. (If you can't listen to the whole show, fast forward about 38 minutes in; their response goes for the last 20 minutes or so). At the other end of the spectrum, AJ should inflame with his hostile outsider's perspective. And as always, our regular compatriots over at DoubleExtraPoint, Big Red Network, and Corn Nation will also be checking in as well.

Sam Keller already in trouble in Lincoln

The Lincoln Journal-Star is reporting that QB Sam Keller was cited by UNL Police today for "disturbing the peace" after an incident over a parking spot near Memorial Stadium. Allegedly Keller yelled obscenities at a woman and threw a plastic cup at her car after she took a parking spot that Keller wanted.

Big deal? By itself...nope. Darren over at Big Red Network really explains it well.

However, this does bear watching. Last fall on the scout team, Keller was known for yelling at teammates. And of course, there was the circumstances revolving around Keller's departure from Arizona State, with questions about Keller's behavior. So while it might be tempting to pass this latest incident off as a "no-big-deal" magnified by campus security (who have been accused of blowing incidents out of proportion before), it's not like this behavior is out of character for Keller either.

The question I asked last August still applies: Is Sam Keller the Huskers' Savior or did we just get someone else's problem? We'll see how it plays out.

Alumni Like Doc Sadler

The World-Herald's Lee Barfknecht talked to former captains Dave Hoppen, Beau Reid, Bruce Chubick, and Andy Markowski about Doc Sadler's first year as men's hoops coach at Nebraska. All came away optimistic with Sadler and the future. Let's be honest. Nebraska had a rough off-season with coaches departing and players questioning the program. Some didn't qualify, and some decided to leave. The uncertainty left a short bench, which grew shorter during the season. Injuries didn't help things either.

Yet except for two blowouts by Kansas, Nebraska hung in there this year and competed against most of the conference. Even kept hope alive for the post-season well into February. Not bad for a squad that, even before the roster shrunk, was picked to finish 11th.

Is Sadler headed to Arkansas next? He says not, and he hasn't given us any reason to doubt him to this point. In any event, the off-season could be a little difficult. Sadler is still out recruiting for next season, including Ola Dagunduro's little brother Adeola. One slight problem is that Sadler has signed more players than he has open roster spots for next season, which means that unless some of these guys don't qualify, some current players will be asked to leave the program. That could be a sensitive issue, depending on how it's handled. Perhaps it's naivete, but I'm not expecting a problem.

CU Spins the Great NCAA Ticket Heist

The uproar over tickets to the 2008 NCAA basketball tournament continues, with the Creighton folks circling the wagons and changing their stories. Surprisingly, KXSP-590 AM is turning themselves into the Pinnacle Sports Network in terms of doublespeak.

CU Athletic Director Bruce Rasmussen was interviewed yesterday over the whole issue and acknowledged that they knew they were going to face criticism for choosing their supporters over the general public. Creighton's position does have some merit. Originally, Creighton sold NCAA tickets to season ticket holders on a 1-to-1 basis; if you have 2 season tickets, you could buy 2 NCAA tickets. I don't have a huge problem with that. I don't like it...but I understand that's the way it works.

When that was done, Creighton was left with about 1,000 tickets. At that time, they chose to remove the limits and allow their ticket holders to buy extra tickets. Their logic was that if they didn't do that, Creighton and the Qwest Center would be forced to hold a ticket lottery, where the NCAA would charge everyone who entered the lottery $9 per ticket, whether they got tickets or not. Creighton decided that would result in a large number of unhappy folks who got charged fees and not get any tickets, and so they chose the lesser (in their minds) evil of offering the remaining tickets to their ticketholders.

I see Rasmussen's point...but I'm still not sure I agree with it. And let's clear up something else: this was permissible under NCAA rules, but just because it's permitted by the rules doesn't necessarily make it right. Ever run across a rule that isn't quite right? How about the tuck rule? What about the clock rules in college football last season?

Basically, it comes down to the fact that the Qwest Center was built with the promise of big events for the people of Omaha. The fact remains that the people of Omaha are paying for this building, and they never had a shot to buy a ticket to one of these premier events. The issue of the $9 fee is disconcerting, but that's an NCAA problem. If you let folks know that there are only 1,000 tickets available, people will get the idea that the chances in the lottery aren't very good, and people will set their expectations.

The primary problem with Creighton's decision is that it perpetuates the perception of elitism of Creighton supporters. And when KXSP's Matt Perrault throws gasoline onto the fire in his blog, the perception becomes ever-so-greater. Let's look at a few things Perrault said:

If you aren’t a Creighton fan, well, sorry – maybe you should be if you want the chance to go to the NCAA basketball events at the Jays home arena.

The very definition of elitism. 'Nuff said.

Without CU running the event and asking for the event to be held with the help of the Missouri Valley Conference – the event wouldn’t have ever come to Omaha.

How the heck did Nebraska become the host for the NCAA volleyball championship? It's not Creighton's home court? Think again. That's not a Husker logo on the Qwest Center calendar; that was a Creighton home game at the Qwest. Plus, it's not like the idea of the Huskers hosting a basketball game at the Qwest Center is completely foreign. And did you know that Rutgers is hosting this weekend's regional at the Meadowlands on Seton Hall's home court? In other words, Creighton's involvement was not required to bring an NCAA regional to Omaha.

And that’s why so many people are bitching about this. Husker fans believe they are entitled to whatever they want because that is the way it has been in this state for years.

When I first heard about this story, guess who were the first people I heard criticize it. A Missouri fan (the HuskerHater), an UNO alumnus, and an Iowa State alum. Yep, some Husker fans are upset too. But it's not just Husker fans who are criticizing it. The problem is that the NCAA championship transcends Creighton, but also appeals to all sports fans in the Omaha area.

Even Creighton knows that it's not "their" event. When CU announced that tickets were gone, the press release was titled "Omaha Announces Sellout For 2008 Basketball Tournament". Problem is that while the people of Omaha are the reason why this great event is coming to Omaha, it's Creighton fan who gets the spoils. Bruce Rasmussen at least realizes this, Matt Perrault doesn't. (And don't even get me started on Travis Justice...)

Position Changes and Creighton Fans Hoarding Hoops Tickets

The Journal-Star has some interesting pre-spring practice position changes:

• Bo Ruud to SAM linebacker to replace Stewart Bradley. This should open up the weakside linebacker position; will Steve Octavien become a consistent threat?
• Clayton Sievers to open defensive end to compete with Barry Turner, who will be out this spring due to injury. Pierre Allen to "base" defensive end to compete with Zach Potter. Is Cozbohl looking for smaller, quicker ends?

Also, offensive coordinator Shawn Watson says that 4 quarterbacks will evenly split snaps this spring: Sam Keller, Joe Ganz, Beau Davis, and Patrick Witt. Hmmm...we'll see how long this lasts. Color me skeptical here. Zac Lee is still hampered by his knee. Also, Major Culbert will see time at I-back to complement Marlon Lucky. Cody Glenn still is hampered by his foot problems. No word on Kenny Wilson, which must mean his knee is still not right.

I see that Creighton fans are more interested in next year's NCAA regional (that won't feature their team) than this year's regional. In fairness to Jays fans, travel on short notice is never reasonable, though I'd expect that more would pack into the car and head to the French Quarter. And who can blame Jays fans for grabbing all of the regional tickets for next year so they can make a nice profit.

The real criticism goes to the folks at Creighton and MECA who didn't give the general public a chance to buy the tickets. I understand giving Creighton's patrons the first shot to buy tickets...but it should have been limited to the number of season tickets you have. 4 season tickets = the right to buy 4 NCAA regional tickets. Where Creighton did the people of Omaha wrong was by going back to CU fans and asking them a second time to buy tickets. Creighton fans already had their chance; the rest of the tickets should have been opened to the rest of the general public, who are backing the bonds that built the Qwest Center and made an NCAA regional possible in the first place. Shame to Creighton, and Shame to MECA for forgetting the people who made this NCAA regional possible in the first place.

I see the BrieJay fans over at the BrieJay Cafe are joining the Defenders of the Faith over at South Park in their hatred of Kevin Kugler. Interesting that each group thinks that Kugler "hates" their program and is "in love" with the other. In other words... the extremists in Red and Blue are both so whacked out that they've lost perspective and mistake criticism with hatred. Even KXSP's Matt Perrault isn't immune to it. (Of course, in his case, it's more professional jealosy...)

Sparty Finishes off the Mavs

UNO's hockey season came to it's end tonight with a 4-1 loss to Michigan State. Sparty came out rolling in the first period, outshooting the Mavs 19-6 and the Mavs were simply unable to recover. And thus ends a season that fell short of expectations, finishing the season 18-16-8. The sweep by the Spartans wasn't a complete surprise after the announcement that Scott Parse would be unable to play this weekend, but this weekend's series was merely UNO's final last gasp opportunity to achieve the goals for the season.

We can go through the season and we'd find a season filled with missed opportunities. It all started with the opening weekend in Alaska and continuing all season long. But I'm not sure what that proves. Perhaps our expectations were out of line all along. In many respects, the snake claimed many UNO fans this season.

Instead, I'd like to salute Scott Parse as he prepares to transition to the NHL, either with the LA Kings over the next few weeks or as a free agent this fall. His absence due to injury was felt this weekend by no doubt, and his mark of 197 career points will probably stand for a long, long time. Scotty...it's been a pleasure to watch you in person the last four years.

Patrick Departs...and some Hockey Talk

Senior-to-be tackle Chris Patrick declared today for the NFL's Supplemental Draft in July, citing family reasons and denying some of the rumors floating about him on the internet:

"There have been all kinds of wild rumors. It’s been ridiculous really. People can speculate all they want. My standing with the team was good.“

In response, Bill Callahan would only say that Patrick's status with the team was under evaluation.

Compare that to last week's story when Patrick was quoted as saying:

“I’ll let the university comment. I’m not going to say anything right now.”

Once again, it sounds like there might be more to this story. Darren over at Big Red Network speculates on some possibilities why Patrick could be on the outs with the coaching staff, but then just as quickly rejects any chance that the coaching staff could be at fault. Kind of inconsistent in my opinion, since we simply don't know anything other than what Patrick has said. If you are going to reject Patrick's story and start speculating as to what is actually the cause, you've got to be open-minded to consider all possibilities. Especially when the answer could be "all of the above".

The UNO Mavs hockey team gave up another goal in the final minute of regulation tonight at Michigan State, losing the opening game of the best-of-three series. UNO's next loss will be the last game of the season. Tough break for UNO, with Scott Parse and Juha Uotila out of the game tonight with injuries; they'll need to find a way to win tomorrow night and then again Sunday. On the positive side, UNO has been playing much better lately on Saturday's than on Friday's.

Sports Illustrated and Fox Sports have an interesting article about how Omaha's three hockey teams may be a crowd. ESPN's Barry Melrose, the man keeping the mullet alive, feels that if there ever was a market that could support three hockey teams, it would be Omaha:

"The market will determine who stays. Omaha's situation is rare, for sure. If Omaha ends up supporting three teams, that says it's a great sports town, not just a great hockey town.''

Personally, I think that it's going to be tough for three teams to survive in this market, let alone thrive. Especially with the casual sports fan jumping on the Creighton bandwagon. There simply aren't enough die-hard hockey fans in this area to support three teams... you have to grow the audience for hockey. The Lancers have the tradition of 20 years to work from, and UNO has the alumni base of a school with 15,000 students now competing against the likes of Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, and Ohio State. The OAK's have ... umm... a cool logo, I guess.

I see that the Ak-Sar-Ben Knights now acknowledge that they are losing millions of dollars in this experiment... though they should have seen this coming. And they aren't quite ready to throw in the towel...yet... (Personally, I thought the OAK's would be gone this summer, but it looks like they'll give it one more shot.) But if the Knights are going to survive, they have to quit trying to sell tickets to the fans of other hockey teams, and start finding fans of their own. Sure, there are some people who can't get enough hockey, but that's a limited audience.

In the end, I still believe that Omaha is better off without the Knights...especially with the possibility of the Penguins relocating to Kansas City. (The arrival of the Pens and Sidney Crosby to KC will certainly increase awareness of the sport around here.) Three teams dilute the audience for each team, and lightly attended events simply don't have much atmosphere. Even worse, the casual sports fan gets the idea that Omaha doesn't care for hockey since the all of the teams play in front of a lot of empty seats... when in fact the opposite is true. Omaha loves hockey... it just has more hockey than it probably can handle at this point.

Kemp to UNO Athletic Director?

Today, UNO announced five finalists to be the next athletic director: Cliff Dochterman from Cal-Riverside, David Miller formerly of SMU, William Weider formerly of South Florida, Bruce Van De Velde formerly of Iowa State, and UNO hockey coach Mike Kemp. An intriguing group of candidates.

The big name on the list is Van De Velde, who was in charge of the Cyclones for 5 years. He brings not only Division 1 experience, but also experience in a BCS conference.

Miller has a local connection, as he hails from Manning, IA and has a brother-in-law who played football for UNO. Dochterman has experience with several division II schools who have transitioned to division 1.

Kemp is the intriguing "internal" candidate. The timing of the announcement could be better, what with the Mavs on the road at Michigan State for the 2nd round of the CCHA playoffs. They need to win 2 out of 3 games this weekend without Hobey Baker candidate Scott Parse, who left Saturday night's game against Bowling Green in the 1st period with an injury. They probably don't need the "Kemp for AD" distraction this weekend.

Many UNO fans are torn with respect to (and for) Kemp as coach. AJ thinks he must go; Sam wants him to stay. So why consider him for athletic director? Two reasons come to mind: (a) he knows the program, it's wants and needs, and the community and (b) he's very personable and able to sell the program to players and fans. Is he the best business mind? Don't know, but I don't know about the other candidates either. But in this environment where UNO's athletic department has burned bridges with many supporters, Mike Kemp might just be the right guy to come in. Of course, one question is how Kemp is viewed by the other athletic programs. Would they view Kemp as "one of them" --- or the hockey guy firming up his power over the rest of the athletic department?

Now, could Kemp wear both hats? Guys like Barry Alvarez have done it for a period of time. But Kemp told 1620 the Zone today that with the needs at UNO that it would be difficult to wear both hats. In some respects, this might be a win-win situation for UNO by allowing Kemp the opportunity to rebuild UNO athletics and name his successor at the very least. It could be a way to start the healing after UNO's summer of discontent.

Mav Hockey: Next is Michigan State

Saturday night, UNO finished off the sweep of Bowling Green 7-5. It was a unceremonius swan song for Scott Parse, as he left the game early with a leg injury without scoring a point. Which is very unfortunate, because he didn't get the ovation from the fans he so richly deserves. Still UNO scored 7 goals Saturday night with Parse and Dan Charleston out of action, so the Mavs certainly are clicking offensively. That's five victories in a row now...

Next up for the Mavs is a best of three series against Michigan State in East Lansing, with the winner going onto the Joe. UNO needs to keep on winning to keep their season alive, and while they are playing well as of late, the competition gets a whole lot tougher from here on out.

Bowling Green nearly didn't make it to Omaha on Friday for this series, as they only made it as far as Des Moines before I-80 was shut down. Jonathan Matsumoto blogged about their adventures in making it to Omaha, as they ended up heading south and taking 2 lane state highways through the blizzard. Their pre-game meal ended up being at the Pizza Hut in Red Oak, IA, and when they got out, the bus was stuck in a drift. They ended up getting pulled out by a John Deere tractor:



Fortunately, they made it to Omaha in plenty of time for the Friday night game and put an scare into the Mavs, but UNO ended up winning in overtime Friday night.

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.

Callahan Wants an Extension & The Empire Strikes Back

Didn't get to check out in person the Mavs beating Bowling Green 3-2 in overtime tonight, thanks to the blizzard. It was a white out drive home, and the only plow I've seen in the neighborhood is broke down. So it was an evening to listen to the game on the radio...hopefully, everything will clear up tomorrow so we can get to see Scott Parse one last time. (Ooh, ahh, more snow than Knights fans!)

The Omaha World-Herald reports that Bill Callahan is looking for a contract extension. You might be surprised to hear me say this, but Nebraska probably needs to get moving on this. I'm still not sold on Callahan, but every other Big XII coach is signed through 2010 or beyond. Callahan's deal expires after 2009, and recruits are going to want to see a commitment to the coach. And in this world, it's just paper. It doesn't prevent coaches from being fired, or from coaches leaving.

In a way, I'm surprised that Callahan's agent is saying this in publicly. I read a report last month that Callahan is privately grumbling about things at Nebraska that I questioned at the time, but sometimes where there's smoke, there's fire.

The cult is rejoicing over Steve Pederson's response to Tom Shatel's column in yesterday's World-Herald letters to the editor. I thought it was a swing-and-a-miss by Pederson at first. Pederson's comment about it taking 52 seconds seemed odd to me, because the Shatel column I read didn't mention how long he waited. Apparantly, earlier editions stated five minutes, but not the more commonly read metropolitan issue. So that line came up empty with me, though I understand why folks who saw earlier versions found it noteworthy.

Pederson's final line came across as exceptionally lame:

"I would have been happy to explain all this to the writer, had he just asked."

Why so lame? Well, (a) Shatel DID ask Pederson's SID, Keith Mann, about the policy before writing the column and (b) apparantly Pederson has rejected several interview requests from the World-Herald.

The whole point of the article is that Pederson has locked up access to the program, and the only person who seems to have much access to it anymore is Jim Rose who isn't about to ruffle any feathers. Whether Tom Shatel had to wait 52 seconds, 5 minutes, or 5 hours wasn't the point...the point is that the media wants to cover the Huskers, and they aren't welcome. Guys like Matt Perrault and Kevin Kugler come across as one-sided Husker bashers only because the Husker athletic department refuses to give them anything to balance it out. If you compare it to a sport, Nebraska forfeits this game each and every day by not showing up to play in the game of sports media. Yes I know that Pinnacle/Host Communications is spending a lot of money for access to the program... but the result is that it leaves a vacuum elsewhere in the media. Remember, nature abhors a vacuum.

DoubleExtraPoint has a nice article about the winter of discontent. I've commented on this before, and my "Cult" entry earlier this week certainly is guilty of adding to the discontent. Inconsistent on my part? Not necessarily; I didn't say anything about the 2003 coaching change. That is over and done with and can't be reversed. But Steve Pederson's recent actions are still open for criticism, whether it's locking the doors of new complex or requesting boosters send him "thank you" notes. Those are new events, and certainly open to criticism.

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....

The Cult of Steve Pederson?

I've frequently referred to Steve Pederson suppporters as "kool-aid drinkers" as a light-hearted slam. However, several stories have come out in recent weeks that start making the satire very much real. First, there was the Doak Ostergard departure. Many people have chosen to "blame the victim" here and delve into innuendo (not to mention minimizing Ostergard's contributions to the program) when they admit they have no familiarity with the situation to defend the actions. While Bill Callahan does have the right to decide who is involved with the Husker football program (and I'm not going to criticize him for making the decision), a 20+ year dedicated employee of the program deserves better treatment. I think the responses from Ben Kingston (fullback, 1995-99) and Jeremy Slechta (defensive lineman, 1998-2001) speak to that.

Then, there is today's column from the Omaha World-Herald's Tom Shatel. The World-Herald does not publish this column online, so I'll summarize. Shatel went to Lincoln to the Husker Media Relations department, and found the doors to the Osborne complex locked with nobody at the guard desk. When the guard finally returned, he interrogated Shatel to determine his business and then escorted the columnist to the Media Relations department where the sports information director is then asked to vouch for Shatel's identity. Shatel is amazed that it's so difficult to get access to the program, calling it the "Secret Society of Steve Pederson". So Shatel does a little comparative research, and successfully makes it to the offices of UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman's and Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman.

So Husker athletics now needs more security than the Governor? Well, the official response is that it's because there are "female athletes in the building", despite the fact that females are well represented across the entire campus, not to mention the State Capitol building. Shatel checked with other athletic departments, and he couldn't find another program with similar restrictions.

Some fans will ask... what's the big deal? In the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal by itself. But look at the trend: Shatel today, cheerleaders on Sunday, Ostergard last week. And that's just this month. When you look at the big picture, the explanations start becoming excuses. And the long running chain of excuses start to wear thin after a while. One of these days, a kool-aid drinker is going to try to change the subject by saying "What a lovely dress you have on, Mrs. Cleaver!"

On KOZN radio today, Kevin Kugler and Mike'l Severe asked Shatel if these continued PR debacles will eventually be Pederson's downfall. Shatel responded that while it is likely to be tied to Bill Callahan's eventually result, at some point, the status of fund-raising will need to be approached. A later caller pointed out a promotional magazine mailing to boosters from last December from Nebraska's "Touchdown Club" which opened with an article titled "Keeping the Faith" calling for all critics to admit they, not Pederson, were wrong:

"So if you haven't done so already, it's time to send Steve Pederson a thank you note and let him know that you can see now that he was right all along. Thank him for keeping the faith."

Uh, no. But thanks for more evidence that the #1 problem facing Husker athletics is one man's ego. Why on earth is a call to stroke Pederson's ego the first thing you see when you open this magazine? And why is the Touchdown Club spending money (presumably donated funds at that) to publish and distribute this call?

At first, "kool-aid drinkers" was satire. But as this goes on, it's starting to actually resemble a cult. And you know how cults sometimes go out...

Update 10/7/2007: Time to Pull the Plug on Steve Pederson

Nookie & Cheerleaders (and a Tigger Too)

UNO's hockey team is returning home from it's annual trek to Alaska with it's first ever sweep in the Great White North. Outside it was -30, but other than part of the 1st period Friday night and the tail end of the 3rd period last night, UNO dominated all weekend. Nanooks coach Tavis MacMillen paid the Mavs quite a compliment last night:

“I’ve said from the start of the year that’s the best skating team in our league. They have the best set of forwards, 1 through 12. Give them time and space, they can make plays, and they did it early and often tonight.”

Up next for the Mavs is the CCHA playoffs. The first round opponent is the same as last year: Bowling Green. The Mavs swept the boys of Duct Tape twice already this season... they'll need to make that a half-dozen victories.

If casual fans need a reason other than "playoff hockey" to head to the Qwest Center this weekend, here's another: Scott Parse. Parse, currently #3 in the nation in scoring, is 3 points away from 200 career points. These will be his last games in Omaha for one of the greatest players to wear an Omaha sweater. Last week, I commented that Parse's play in the final minutes of the Friday game against Ohio State reminded me of the way Parse took command last January. Since then, UNO has won three straight. They can't take the BeeGee's for granted this weekend.

Speaking of sweeps, the Husker men's basketball team completed a season sweep of Missouri in overtime yesterday to move to 16-11, erasing some of the bad taste of last week's demolition at Kansas and breakdown against Baylor. Some people might feel that talking postseason is out of line for a team like Nebraska...but remember, it's called "March Madness" for a reason. You never know what can happen, and Nebraska certainly is in a position to have their season continue beyond the Big XII tournament. And it's certainly setting the expectation level where it needs to be.

Today's Omaha World-Herald had yet another example of how not to treat people, courtesy of the Husker athletic department. The Huskers have decided to eliminate reimbursments for meals and books to cheerleaders, as well as reduce the number of cheerleaders and reinstituting Bill Byrne's ban on stunts. Let's break this down into two seperate arguments. First of all, what is the appropriate level of support from the athletic department for cheerleaders. Nebraska says this is still more than most schools, and that may very well be the case. I'm not going to argue that point at all. In fact, I've even read some comments that some people don't think that there should be any financial support to cheerleaders. I don't agree with that either, but I can see the point.

My main criticism is that the cheerleaders weren't told of this in person, but rather found out when they noticed some things were missing from the announcement of tryouts on the Huskers web site. Elimination of over $2000 a year for each member of the squad would be a big deal to any student... and not being upfront with the members of the squad is yet another gaffe for the Huskers. There certainly are probably valid business reasons to cut the funding for the cheerleaders, and probably the biggest is the lack of progress in funding the stadium improvement project. We saw it in how Barry Collier was left to starve without a contract extension or buyout of his existing contract.

Preparing for the Blizzard

A few thoughts as we await the arrival of a blizzard tomorrow night:

Much of HuskerNation is abuzz over former Husker offensive lineman David Kolowski's book "Diary of a Husker", who played during Frank Solich's first five years as head coach. Not sure what to make of this book, which I first heard about over a year ago and wondered what happened with it. It seems that Kolowski was unable to find a publisher and is self-publishing it himself for now. The Omaha World-Herald describes the book as"Kolowski's evolution from wide-eyed freshman to disgruntled upperclassman." It apparantly provides plenty of dirt about the team - players smoking pot, drinking on the team bus after a pasting at Kansas State, and plenty of criticism of Solich.

So what does this book mean? Hard to say. Players being unhappy about not playing isn't particularly noteworthy. Unhappy players complaining and criticizing the coaches isn't exactly new either. Is there any value to it? Perhaps. I might see about checking out of the library at some point down the line, just to judge for myself. But deep down, I'm not sure rehashing the firing of Frank Solich does any good in 2007. We need to move past it.

Longtime Husker football trainer Doak Ostergard was dismissed last week by Bill Callahan, and Ostergard isn't sure why. In fact, Ostergard feels he helped bring Callahan to Lincoln. On one hand, Callahan has the right to choose his staff. On the other hand, you hate to see yet another contributor to the program depart, especially so unhappily. It's a sad trend... Jordan Congdon, Shane Siegel, Andy Birkel, Joe Dailey, Jack Stark...

As I post this, UNO is leading Alaska-Fairbanks 4-3 in the 3rd period in the Great White North where it is currently -29 degrees. UNO's Scott Parse is getting more consideration again this season for the Hobey Baker award. After all, he's 3rd in the nation in scoring this season. Sad to think that next weekend will be his last games in Omaha wearing a Mavs sweater.

UNO Game Winner against Ohio State

CBS has posted Bryan Marshall's game winner from Saturday night on YouTube...

Dear Abby: How important are the Huskers?

The famed gossip columnist Dear Abby has learned a lot about Husker fans over the last month or so. Back on January 6th, she published a letter from a new bride who's father skipped the reception to catch a college football game. At the time, Abby thought it was just her father showing disapproval of the marriage.

Of course, she never took into consideration the devotion of Husker fans. And thus, has devoted an entire column to the responses to that letter. Of course, you'll see similar responses from folks in Texas, Oklahoma, and other states where football is akin to a state religion.

I can speak firsthand to this situation. When my wife-to-be and I were planning our wedding, we were faced with a dilemma. Do we wait until after football season or not? We chose a bye week instead, as we knew what would happen. My parents even told me that if I needed to schedule it on a game day, they would understand. Our decision was clear... we weren't going to schedule it on a Husker game day because (a) we wouldn't want to skip the game either and (b) it would be a huge distraction for most folks. Another couple we know had set their wedding for the last Saturday in August after carefully checking the football schedules, only to have the Huskers schedule one of those "Pigskin Classic" extra games after the deposits were down and the date was already set.

A Slow Starting Weekend

If you thought the first half of "Big Monday" between Nebraska and Kansas was bad...the second half of the rematch in Lawrence was even worse. Altitude decided to show a hunting show instead of the game, so I was limited to catching bits of the radio coverage, and Nebraska was competitive early on. But Kansas went on a run late in the first half and it continued into the second half until Doc Sadler waved the white flag and cleared the bench for the final 10 minutes, creating an eyepopping 92-39 blowout. I see Doc's point...the Huskers have 5 games left, and they all look winnable to some extent: at #142 Baylor (2-10 in conference), #66 Missouri (5-7 in conference; Huskers won at Columbia last month), #130 Iowa State (4-8 in conference), at #236 Colorado (2-10 in conference), and #20 Oklahoma State (5-6 in conference).

After the game, the Huskers were even talking about the NCAA tournament. Some people might call it insane, but winning out will give the Huskers a 20 win season and a 9-7 conference record. Likely? Probably not, but nobody expected the Huskers to have a winning record at this point either. The Huskers still don't have a big win, unless you want to count their November win over vastly overrated Creighton. (#49 in RPI and sinking...)

Friday night, UNO mailed in the first 50 minutes against Ohio State in hockey, falling behind 4-0 before Scott Parse took over, scoring two quick goals to cut the lead in half. Parse picked up the action down the stretch, but the Mavs couldn't get closer than 4-3 in the end.

Saturday night, Parse made sure that UNO wouldn't make the same mistake when he fed Alex Nikiforuk who buried the puck 22 seconds into the game. However, the Mavs went scoreless the for the next 60:07, with Bryan Marshall scoring 29 seconds into overtime to give UNO home ice for the first round of the CCHA playoffs.

The positioning for the playoffs is quite a jumble with UNO, Ohio State, and Western Michigan all within 1 point of each other. UNO needs 3 or 4 points this weekend in the great white north of Alaska if they want to host the hapless Bowling Green perverts.

While it's been a rather disappointing season for UNO so far, I remember the last time I saw Scott Parse take over when the Mavs looked like they were short on heart... it was early January 2006, and UNO went on to only lose once over the next 6 weeks. Not sure if UNO has another run like that in them...but if they do, look out. This team definitely has the talent to compete with anybody...but is also inconsistent enough to lose to anybody.

A Rose by Any Other Name

Well, now that I have to drop my little girl off at day care, I have to leave earlier and now get to hear more Jim Rose in the morning, and so far I'm two-for-two with head scratchers from the Husker Information Minister.

Yesterday, Rose let slip this little gem that Husker receivers coach Ted Gilmore notified his players via text message that he was leaving Lincoln to join the Oakland Raiders, only to change his mind later on. Apparantly, dropping bombshells via text message is much more acceptable in February 2007 than it was in December 2005.

This morning, Rosie decided to reject the calls to respect Marlon Lucky's privacy and instead try to disprove some of the internet rumors about Lucky. Frankly, speculating about Lucky is in poor taste while he's in the hospital, even if you are (feebily) trying to defend the guy.

In response to all of the innuendo, Nebraska reversed it's position about not commenting further on Lucky, releasing a statement from Lucky's family and Bill Callahan to deny some of the wilder rumors. It's great to see Lucky is recovering, and hopefully he'll be out of the hospital soon.

Prayers for Lucky

The internet is abuzz with rumors about Marlon Lucky and his hospitalization in the intensive care unit. WOWT and Huskers Illustrated are reporting that it is an overdose. Of course, some assume that "overdose" means alcohol or illicit drugs, but that's not necessarily the case. It could be as simple as Tylenol or aspirin.

In any event, it's fruitless to speculate at this point. The attention needs to go towards Lucky's health at this point; there will be plenty of time to consider what happened once Lucky recovers.

The "no further comment" statement issued by the Nebraska athletic department certainly doesn't help matters at all. In the absence of information, speculation runs amok, and in nearly all cases, the speculation is worse than the truth. HIPAA privacy laws limit what can be said without the approval of the patient, so I understand why the statement was made...just commenting that it's counterproductive in this situation. Take the case of Phil Kessel of the Boston Bruins. Last December, he left the team due to a medical issue and the rumor mill ran out drugs, alchohol, and depression before the truth of testicular cancer emerged. Instead of protecting Kessel's privacy... the ambiguity only made the story worse for Kessel.

Bottom line... everyone should concern themselves with prayers for Marlon Lucky at this time.

Catching Up

Zzzz...oh hi there! Looks like the mind-numbing drama of Signing Day got the better of me. Here are a few takes on real events of the past week:

I wasn't terribly surprised by the Super Bowl, as the Colts defense really turned it up in the playoffs. A lot of people forget football is a team game... and that's what causes people to claim that "Peyton Manning could never win a big game". That includes Omaha's local Jim Rome wannabe, Matt Perrault, who cemented his reputation as a "say anything to get a reaction" shock jock by first saying "Peyton Manning played like he always does when it's a big game....like the choke artist that he is.", then amending it to say that he wouldn't win a Super Bowl, then feebling saying only "I was wrong." once he was shown to be ludicruosly wrong. Football is a team sport, and quarterback is just one position on the team. Heck...Baltimore won a Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer starting. John Elway was a huge Super Bowl loser until he was surrounded by a team in his final two seasons. Now Manning is part of a great team. Teams win Super Bowls, not individuals.

Perrault's comments can probably best explained by the phenomenon of ESPN and other talkers who will say anything and everything to get a reaction. And Perrault's hatred of Manning is easily explained, since he is a native New Englander. But alas, his credibility is once again shot. Maybe I should give NPR a second shot... they probably know more about sports...

Husker hoops continue to plug along. A couple of nice road upsets against Mizzou and Texas Tech certainly are intriguing, showing Sadler's ability to make adjustments to win games. Nobody should expect Sadler to turn this team into a Sweet 16 team in a matter of months, but
Sadler is setting a tone that Nebraska hoops are on the road to recovery. Not this year...probably not next year either. But it will be interesting to follow. Late update: Sadler suspends Jamel White for the rest of the season.... Why? Nobody's saying. But Sadler is setting a tone for how the program is going to operate.

UNO Maverick hockey continues struggle to win points...only netting two points over the last 2 weeks against #6 Michigan State and #1 Notre Dame. Friday night's game against the Irish was especially frustrating, as the Domers scored on a wraparound with 9.6 seconds left in the game...kind of a microcosm of the season. Saturday night, UNO rallied late in the third period to tie the Irish. AJ is calling for Mike Kemp's head again, and while I still disagree, I'm seeing his point.

I will give Kemp props for quickly suspending Adam Bartholomay and Bobby Henderson after their arrests for intoxication at a Iowa casino last weekend. Of particular concern is Henderson's quote in the police report: "I am a hockey player. I'll get out of this." Granted these statements were made drunk, but it reflects poorly on the team and the institution. Too often we hear about athletes abusing their status...which is completely unacceptable.

I'll also give the parents of these young men props as well for going on MavPuck.com to accept responsibility. Henderson's eligibility is now over, but hopefully Bartholomay can work his way back onto the team for next season.

Comprehensive Husker Recruiting Report

As RecruitNik nation eagerly approaches the most important day of the year, here's the low-down...

• Tom Lemming says that "no one should take it seriously".
• Rivals.com says that "it's all make-believe".
• And it's destroying college athletics.
  

There... and that didn't cost you a thing. Now go out, turn off the recruiting coverage, and do something useful. Thinking about going to the recruiting dinner? Cancel your reservations, and go out to a fine restaurant instead. Or better yet, donate the $40 a person to the Food Bank.

It's truly sickening the amount of attention signing day gets. Take a look at the list of names... Some of the names will never enroll for one reason or another. Others will never play, and many will never make any impact. And some of the so-called "can't miss" prospects ... will be a huge miss. Do I know which ones they are? Of course not. Nobody knows. Not even the coaching staff, who's jobs depend on it, know. We're dealing with 18 year old kids here, and frequently the issue isn't the 40 yard time or how far he can throw the ball or how much he can bench press or how many "stars" some recruiting geek assigns to him from his parent's basement, but rather maturity and character.

So with that, I sign off for this recruiting season. Wake me up when it's over. (Or if CozBohl takes the Vikings job.... pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease, make it happen....)