Friday, March 17, 2023

Fire Mike Gabinet


After the first month of UNO's hockey season, I figured I was going to be writing a post with this title about this time. I don't believe anything is gained by firing a coach during the season, so I was just watching the season play out.  (Did firing Scott Frost make Nebraska football better in 2022?  I don't believe you can say that with a 4-8 final record.)  UNO opened the season by getting swept by Niagara, a school that went 11-22 the previous season, then split with Alaska-Fairbanks and Lake Superior State. A bad start against bad competition.

So no need to jump on the bandwagon. And when the UNO hockey season started to turn around, the "going to have to fire Mike Gabinet" hot-take started to look rather premature.  Some of that was because the NCHC is having a bit of a down season.  North Dakota ended up being a .500 team in conference and Minnesota-Duluth ended the season with a losing record.  And more importantly, freshman goaltender Simon Latkoczy shook off some early season struggles and found a groove in December and January.  And UNO found themselves in the upper half of the NCHC for the first time in years.

A sign of progress?  Absolutely.  So would I still be calling for Mike Gabinet to be fired at UNO with what finally looks like some progress?  Probably not.

Of course, the whole discussion became moot when UNO extended Gabinet's contract in January.

So firing Mike Gabinet now is off the table. Does this mean I'm wrong about Gabinet?  Not ready to admit that yet.  Did you watch North Dakota end UNO's hockey season yet again in the first round?  UNO's 2-1 victory over the F'n Hawks was Gabinet's FIRST and ONLY postseason victory of his career.  He's now 1-10 in the postseason.  UNO is the ONLY NCHC school who hasn't played in the NCHC's Frozen Faceoff.

The ONLY school.

I've heard excuse after excuse after excuse for Gabinet's struggles.  First, it was the fault of former head coach Dean Blais.  You know, the guy who recruited Jake Guentzel to UNO and led the Mavs to a Frozen Four in 2015.  Then, it became the fault of one of Gabinet's first assistants, Peter Mannino, who curiously abandoned Gabinet after just one season to take an assistant job at Miami under Rico Blasi, who was on the hot seat with the Redhawks.  (Predictably, Blasi and thus Mannino were fired one year later. And this weekend, Mannino will be at the NCHC Frozen Faceoff, now as an assistant coach for Colorado College.)

Six seasons.  ONE single postseason victory.

This was all so predictable. Gabinet had only ONE year of head coaching experience at the Canadian equivalent of the NAIA before coming to UNO as an assistant coach. That was probably an OK move, but giving him the keys to the program one year later was a mistake. 

A mistake that nobody at UNO is willing to admit. In fact, they've doubled down on the bet with this contract extension.  So this gamble continues on.  I should have seen it coming; some tried to argue that Gabinet faced a "seven year rebuild"...well, next season is year seven.

How long does Mike Gabinet get a free pass?  Dean Blais faced quite a bit of criticism his last few years from some of the biggest self-proclaimed fans out there.  Today, crickets. I get that; it's a young team who outperformed expectations in 2022-23.

Still... it's yet another March failure.  UNO and Mike Gabinet did it again.

It's so friggin' frustrating.  Most coaches don't get nearly as much leash to prove themselves as Mike Gabinet has received from his alma mater. Not to mention the puffery that gets thrown Gabs way.  Remember the end of the 2020 season?  Before COVID shut everything down, Gabinet bragged about the "momentum" that a win over North Dakota gave the Mavs.  What Gabs didn't say?  That single victory was sandwiched between three other games where the Mavs failed to score ONCE.  So when Mike Gabinet gets praised for the progress he's making, remember that it's based on an extremely low threshold.

Mike Gabinet isn't going to be fired this spring. But at some point, Gabinet has to start winning games in March.  Next year is "Year Seven" of the "seven year rebuild" at UNO.  Time is running out.

Posted by Husker Mike at 12:40 PM 0 comments

Friday, April 09, 2021

Thoughts on UNO Hockey's Surprise Run to the 2021 NCAA Tournament


As sports resumed amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, I've reminded myself of the reality that even though the games are being played, the circumstances are so different that you shouldn't really care about the results. Enjoy the games we get, hope the players develop in spite of the virus and don't take away much from what happens. So many things happened different out of necessity that hopefully won't be the case in future seasons. In many respects, it was merely an exhibition season with trophies awarded.  The games will count in the record book, but the results on paper won't show the games that were cancelled or rescheduled or played with incomplete rosters as players were quarantined.

So what to take away from UNO hockey's surprise run to the NCAA tournament in this pandemic year? Well, I've tipped off my answer by using the words "surprise" because, quite frankly, I didn't see it coming until the tournament committee released the brackets. And when UNO went down with a whimper in a 7-2 shellacking by Minnesota, I wasn't terribly surprised either.

Did UNO hockey improve in this pandemic season? Yes. 

That's one conclusion I feel pretty strong about, but that's because UNO hockey has been pretty awful the last few seasons. When the pandemic ended the 2019-20 season, I could only roll my eyes at the talk of "momentum" coming out of the last few games of that season.  Yes, the Mavs had an exciting 4-1 victory over North Dakota in the second-to-last game of the season.  But bookending that single game were three games where UNO didn't score a single goal.

You cannot say you have anything resembling "momentum" when you were shut out in three of your last four games.

I would have said that much louder a year ago, but with the pandemic beginning to rage, there wasn't much of a point to it. There were far more important things to worry about.

So yes, UNO hockey was improved from a rather mediocre 2019-20 team.

But was UNO any good?  Some would say yes, because they received an NCAA tournament berth.  Some would say yes, because they finished in fourth place in the NCHC.

However, I simply can't dismiss that UNO played 17 games on their home ice, versus nine elsewhere.  The NCHC started their season with a controlled pod at Baxter Arena to minimize travel and exposure of players and coaches to the virus.  UNO did very well playing all of these games on their home ice (though using the visitors bench in several of them), ending the pod in 2nd place.  For the season, UNO finished in fourth place as St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth passed the Mavs in the second half of the season. So some of that improvement could simply have been playing in familiar circumstances almost all season long.

It's worth noting that both St. Cloud and UMD are heading for Pittsburgh and the Frozen Four.  So any criticism of UNO hockey needs to be tempered by the fact that the Mavs play in the strongest league in college hockey by far.  There's no shame in finishing fourth in this league.

(Of course, tell that to the "better fans than me" that perpetuated the myth of "Swoontober", because merely finishing in the upper half of the NCHC was cause for outrage.  Or maybe that was simply a facade to cover for hating the most successful coach UNO has ever had in hockey.)

Two years ago, I thought I'd give Mike Gabinet until now to really gauge where his program is at.  But the disruption of COVID-19 says to wait another year.  Gabinet's program showed some improvement this season, to be sure, but it's far from saying that Gabinet is a "great success" thus far at UNO.



Posted by Husker Mike at 2:35 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Could Joe Burrow Have Done THAT at Nebraska? Could He Do It In The NFL?

It was a great night for some legacy Huskers as Joe Burrow and his LSU Tigers finished an impressive 15-0 season by demolishing Clemson in the National Championship football game. And, once again, the second guessing of Nebraska's pursuit of Burrow reached frantic levels.
It would have been a great story; the four-star son and brother of former players leading Nebraska to greatness. But would it have been the same greatness that we saw in New Orleans?

Probably not.

Burrow had an amazing, record setting senior season at LSU, but let's be honest.  NOBODY saw this coming. Burrow was kind of buried on the depth chart at Ohio State, losing out on the starting job in 2018 to Dwayne Haskins.  So he looked elsewhere, and wound up at LSU.  He had a good, but not exactly great junior season:

57.8% completion percentage, 2,894 yards, 16 touchdown passes, five interceptions, 399 yards rushing, 7 rushing touchdowns.

Decent numbers to be sure.  But for those of you second guessing things, here's what Nebraska's starting quarterback did that same season:

64.6% completion percentage, 2,617 yards, 17 touchdown passes, eight interceptions, 618 yards rushing, 8 rushing touchdowns.

Yep, Adrian Martinez had a better season in 2018.

In 2019, the tables flipped... and boy did they flip.  Martinez played injured all season (requiring surgery in early December) while Burrow found magic when LSU hired passing game coordinator Joe Brady.

The rest is history, and now Burrow, Brady and Ed Orgeron are now living legends on the Bayou.

I get the remorse over Burrow not ending up in Lincoln, but there are reasons.  When Burrow was coming out of high school, Nebraska took a shot at quarterback Lamar Jackson instead. Came up short, but the former Heisman winner chewed up the NFL this season. And Frost could have pursued him two years ago, but chose to stick with Martinez.  It's a decision that looked good up until Burrow went nuts this season while Martinez played hurt.

Hindsight is always 20/20, people.

Time to put the bitterness and hand-wringing aside and congratulate Joe Burrow on an incredible 2019 season.  And then be a little concerned about expectations getting way out of whack as he moves to the NFL.  Former Husker Zac Taylor's Cincinnati Bengals have the first pick in the NFL Draft, and it would be hard to comprehend the Bengals bypassing the Heisman Trophy winning kid that grew up 150 miles away.  But Cincinnati doesn't have the receiver talent that LSU does (though they do have Stanley Morgan and Cethan Carter on the roster), nor do they have an offensive mind like Joe Brady, who reinvented the LSU offense this year.

Football is a team game, and we may learn down the line that Burrow caught lightning in a bottle in Baton Rouge that may not have translated to Lincoln...or eventually Cincinnati.  Or maybe I'll be wrong, but I am worried that the expectations train has long left the station on this one.
Posted by Husker Mike at 1:00 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Are My Concerns About Mike Gabinet Being Validated By UNO Hockey's Awful Season?

It's been a tough season for UNO Hockey's players and fans.  The Mavs started the season slowly, to put it most positively. Frankly, they didn't even look competitive much of the time. The Mavs looked unconditioned and weren't ready to play. As the season went on, playing games seemed to force them into shape and they did play better...but playing against the best teams in college hockey, it didn't really help.  Since New Years, UNO finished the second half of the season with a 3-14-1 record for UNO's second worst season in program history.

The worst season?  The 2003-04 season where UNO only won eight games, and frankly, I felt better about UNO's future after that season than this.  That 2003-04 team featured several impressive freshmen such as future NHL goalie Chris Holt and Hobey Baker finalist Scott Parse.  This season's UNO team was young, to be sure, but the biggest contributors were the departing seniors, not the young guys. Frankly, how much worse could the season have been if not for senior goaltender Evan Weninger?  Four of UNO's nine wins came in shutouts by Weninger.

Now he's gone, along with co-leading scorers Mason Morelli and Fredrik Olafsson.  This likely isn't a one year blip; in fact, now it's looking like a major rebuilding process. Some Gabinet supporters have suggested it's a seven year rebuild.

Frankly, if it's REALLY a seven year rebuild, that's a strong indication that Mike Gabinet isn't the right guy.

The Gabinet defenders throw lots of reasons why it will take that long, but they come off more as excuses than anything. Or just don't have much of a basis, such as the excuse that Dean Blais stopped recruiting his last few seasons.

That omits the fact that in the six months prior to his retirement, Blais secured commitments from seven players; five are already playing for UNO.

Or the guys who seemed to be heading to UNO when Blais left but somehow ended up somewhere else. Papillion native Ethan Frank told CBS' Ben Holden last fall that he wanted to attend UNO, but couldn't get a call returned after Blais left. He went to Western Michigan instead, where his 15 goals this season ranked seventh in the NCHC this season. Casey Dornbach signed a letter of intent to play for UNO while Blais was head coach, but somehow found himself at Harvard this season, earning rookie of the year honors in the Ivy League.

Another favorite excuse is the Peter Mannino escapade. Mannino, an assistant coach, abruptly left UNO after one season, only to resurface at Miami a few days later. Several UNO commits flipped to Miami in the months afterward, earning Mannino scorn from not only Gabinet but many UNO fans as well.  Without absolving Mannino, two questions need to be answered on this one.  First, who hired Mannino in the first place?  Second, why did Mannino jump to a conference rival? What made Miami a more attractive job to Mannino than UNO? Especially when you consider that Mannino was dismissed today along with Enrico Blasi.  Apparently he thought that it was better to roll the dice and bet on Blasi's hot seat being a better opportunity than staying in Omaha.

I don't pretend to think that Gabinet is in any real danger at UNO. Two years really isn't enough time to prove that a coach isn't working out. Besides, UNO's financial situation doesn't lend itself to pulling the plug on Gabinet.  And frankly, I know I'm in the minority on this one. One notable UNO fan famously said that if Gabinet had UNO playing it's best hockey at the end of the season, he'd be fine.

And the fact is that Gabinet DID have UNO playing it's best hockey at the end of the season. (LOL Swoontober.)  UNO was competitive at times at the end of the season; you couldn't say that with a straight face at the start of the season.  Maybe that's a sign that Gabinet might actually be starting to figure this thing out.  He's had a rush of commitments in recruiting in recent weeks.

This guy was pegged as a bad hire.
Maybe he'll prove me wrong.  I'm on record as saying that hiring Gabinet was a huge mistake. And my "bad hire" detector has had a pretty good track record up to now, and it's still blinking red on Gabinet.

In fact, it's flashing even more rapidly.  Just because UNO fans want an alum to succeed doesn't mean it will.

So was this guy.

Posted by Husker Mike at 4:48 PM 0 comments

Sunday, February 24, 2019

UNO Hockey Plays St. Cloud State During Blizzard To Help The Huskies Get Stranded on Minnesota Highway

As this weekend's blizzard approached, most people did the sensible thing. They stocked up on essentials. Plans were cancelled or rescheduled, in deference to the situation. As the storm hit, travel became impossible and authorities urged people to stay put.


Except for UNO of course. Nevermind the weather outside, they decided to go ahead with their scheduled hockey game against St. Cloud State anyway. The Huskies' hotel is only a few blocks away from the arena, so might as well play.

In a nearly deserted arena.  The official attendance (i.e. tickets sold) was 4,267; a picture of the crowd suggested the actual attendance was probably closer to 267.  I didn't go, as did the vast majority of fans. It simply wasn't worth  the risk.

But why was the game played in the first place? I get that the teams were already here, but why not postpone the game until Sunday?  Perhaps it was because St. Cloud was in a hurry to get home.  Well, Mother Nature had some other ideas.  You see, that same blizzard was pretty much blasting the Huskies path home.  They made it as far as St. James, Minnesota when their bus got stuck.

Eventually, they got rescued, but with the roads closed all through Minnesota, they had to hunker down with the Watonwan County Sheriff's Department, according to assistant coach Mike Gibbons.

It's great that the team is in a good mood, and making the best of the situation, but I still go back to the original decision to play the game Saturday night.  Frankly, it was a reckless decision; the game should have been postponed until today. It was clear yesterday that the St. Cloud bus wasn't going anywhere last night, and frankly, it should have been expected that the route to St. Cloud would be dangerous today as well.

The smart thing to do would have been to postpone the game until today.  It would have been better for fans, and frankly, better for the players as well.  Better for the people who who had to work the game as well as the people trying to keep the roads clear Saturday night too.  But the smart thing wasn't done.

Why?
Posted by Husker Mike at 8:48 PM 0 comments

Saturday, November 10, 2018

Mayor Stothert: This is Omaha, not Atlanta. 1" of Snow Shouldn't Paralyze the City

It happened once again.

A seemingly innocuous snowfall under two inches once again brought the city of Omaha to a crawl Friday morning.  20 minute commutes turned into two hour ordeals.  And it's not like today was just bad luck; it's happened multiple times over the last few years.

Around here, Nebraskans used to joke how just a little bit of snow would bring a southern city like Atlanta to it's knees.  We'd always say that we knew how to deal with snow; we're used to it.  We're prepared for it.

But not anymore.  Or at least, the city of Omaha isn't. 

It didn't use to be this way...but it is now.  After this keeps happening over and over and over again, Mayor Stothert's excuses that since the snow hit at rush hour, there was nothing the city could do.

Except there was something the City could have done...and that's pretreat the roads.  Bellevue did that last night, and reportedly didn't have near the issues that Omahans did.  Bellevue officials said they did that in two hours.

Omaha officials say it takes 30 hours to do it.  And apparently, since they only had about a ten hour window to work with to pretreat the roads, they decided against it.  There are two problems with that decision:

First, if it takes 30 hours to pretreat the roads in Omaha, Omaha doesn't have enough equipment for pretreating.  If Mother Nature hadn't intervened to melt this snow, nobody would have accepted waiting 30 hours to get sand and salt trucks out to areas of town.

Second, even if you couldn't pretreat ALL of the roads overnight, you could have pretreated the main routes overnight.  It wouldn't take many trucks to make a pass over I-80, I-480 and I-680, as well as Dodge, Maple, Center and L Street. 

You can argue that this costs money...which is true, except that NOT treating the streets costs money too.  How many businesses lost productivity because their employees were stranded in traffic?  How many vehicles were damaged in collisions?  And what about the Omaha police officer who slipped and fell, ending up in the emergency room?

It didn't used to be this way.  A snowfall like this used to turn a 20 minute commute into a 30 or 40 minute commute.  Not 120 minutes, like today.  And it's not the first time the city, under Mayor Stothert, has failed in handling a relatively minor snowfall.

And frankly, unless something changes at City Hall, this won't be the last.
Posted by Husker Mike at 9:02 AM 0 comments

Monday, July 23, 2018

Ron Brown's Return to Huskers Spurs Outrage from LGBT Community

This week's news that Ron Brown is returning to the Nebraska football program was simultaneously cheered and booed this week.  Depending on your perspective, this was either the greatest thing or the greatest outrage.  (Isn't that the case more and more these days?)

Ron Brown was a key member of the Nebraska coaching staff during the glory days, and just about every former player seems to have good things to say about the man. And many fans as well. But there always was one element of Brown that rubbed some people the wrong way: his religion.

Or maybe more accurately, his passion in his faith. Brown makes no effort to hide his faith; in fact, he celebrates it. And that rubs many people the wrong way, especially at a public university.  It is who he is.
"I am not a secular Ron Brown and a Christian Ron Brown. I am a Christian Ron Brown, period."
Many years back, Brown was passed over as a candidate to be the next head coach of Stanford; that quote came from an article that basically said that Christian Ron Brown wouldn't have been a good choice at a school like Stanford.

For some, Christian Ron Brown isn't a good fit for Nebraska either.  That's a controversial point as well. I don't believe Brown's critics target his beliefs, but rather his proselytizing.  That's a fine line, here.

It erupted when Brown drove to Omaha to testify against a proposed city law to expand civil rights protections to the LGBT community. He gave his address as "One Memorial Stadium" because, well, as a football coach, he spends more time there than anyplace else. But that also sent a message that he was acting as an official of the University, not as a private citizen. That's a somewhat silly argument in the context of the entire Lincoln campus, but in terms of the football program? There's a point there.

I'm not sure Ron Brown discriminates against LGBT individuals in and around the Nebraska football program. In fact, I really doubt he does. Why do I say that?  I start with Brown's relationship with Ameer Abdullah. From that World-Herald feature:
“We’re not proselytizing, ” Brown said. “We’re not trying to jack kids over the head with stuff. We’re just saying, ‘Hey, this is who we are. They go to school here. They’re hearing from professors all kinds of philosophies. Those professors aren’t apologizing for who they are. They’re saying, ‘There’s no God, ’ some of them. ‘There is no right from wrong.’ I’m saying, ‘Yes, there is God. There is Jesus Christ. And there is right from wrong.’ 
"You guys do what you want with it. You don’t have to believe me if you don’t want to. It ain’t gonna cost you a down of playing time. It ain’t costing Ameer any playing time.”

But that's not LGBT right?  Well, here's former Nebraska kicker Eric Lueshen, who was with the team about 15 years ago. Openly gay. And Lueshen describes Brown as having a "kind demeanor."

Now, Lueshen does say that Brown does owe an explanation of how his past statements can be reconciled with the likelihood that there are other LGBT individuals in and around the football program today.  For what it's worth, I think Brown answered that six years ago in a letter to the Lincoln Journal-Star.
I wholeheartedly agree with UNL's Non-Discrimination Policy. As a follower of Jesus Christ, and a UNL employee for twenty-two years, I haven't, nor will I violate this policy.
But it's probably worth reiterating now. There shouldn't be any discussion the LGBT community deserves the right to live, learn, love and work the way they desire, like any other U.S. citizen.

That also being said, Ron Brown's religious beliefs that that homosexuality is wrong also deserve respect as well. The two rights do not have to be in conflict.  In today's society, we should be able to tolerate diverse beliefs; isn't that the whole point of diversity anyway?  Vegetarians can believe that eating meat is morally wrong. They even can say so and try to convince me of it.  But they can't actually stop me from enjoying a tasty cheeseburger.

I do share the concerns that Ron Brown endorses discrimination against the LGBT community; I said so six years ago after he spoke to the Omaha City Council, and say it again. To be fair, he said he spoke because he wanted to make sure that the rights of Christians were protected.
"I was there because I realize that protection of one group of people as a class is going to unprotect another group."
That's a rather slippery slope. I get that two women can't sue a Catholic Church to become married, but sometimes, things get silly, such as the recent Supreme Court case over refusing to bake a cake. Some Americans are still too intolerant of people that look, behave and believe differently than yourself. Wrapping yourself in the flag and pretending that only your way is the way that should be accepted is offensive. It would have been offensive to our Founding Fathers, who fled Europe for just this very reason centuries past.

For what it's worth, that former gay Husker makes it seem that Brown was more accepting of LGBT individuals than it appeared at that City Council meeting.  Lueshen never made it into a game, but was on the roster in 2003 when Ron Brown was receivers coach for the Huskers. Of his experiences with Brown, he said Brown was always cordial to him despite being known as being a gay player.
Did Coach Brown ever treat me with disrespect or animosity during his time as a coach while I played? No.
I'm hoping that's how Brown has and will continue to treat the LGBT community in practice. People with religious concerns would be much better served by follow the lead of people like Jesuit Father James Martin, who preaches a message of respect. He doesn't mean that you should change your views on morality, but rather that you change your actions to open a bridge with those who believe differently.

I love that message.  "Building a bridge" could solve a lot of the problems in America today; not just in terms of LGBT issues, but all of the issues we face.  Understanding where both sides are coming from, and finding some room in the middle to accommodate more people would go a long way towards the divisiveness we see in society today. 

We don't have to agree on everything.  We don't have to believe in everything. But can't we just find a way to live together?
Posted by Husker Mike at 1:05 PM 0 comments

Monday, June 11, 2018

Me and a few hundred friends out at Sarpy County's "Trailer Park"

I finally did it.

Sunday, I finally attended my first baseball game down in Sarpy County 

Why so long?

Well, it's just never bubbled up to the top of my agenda.  I'm not a Kansas City Royals fan, so it's never been something that particularly enticed me.  And for me, it's pretty much out of the way; the only time I go that direction is driving to Lincoln. From my home in West Omaha, the "Trailer Park" is about the same distance south as TD Ameritrade Park is east.  And since I work downtown, I've been to the downtown ballpark many times, whether it was for baseball, football, or yes, even hockey.  (Man, I wish UNO would try this again downtown.)

"Werner Park?"  Not until today.  A family friend gave us some tickets, which finally pushed me from my inertia.  So this afternoon after lunch, my son and I headed south.

It's pretty much the same as it was the last time I drove by there five years ago, other than a few more houses north and east of the stadium. That whole "Pennant Place" development, which was supposed to provide the economic justification for this whole boondoggle, remains to be a dream.  In it's eighth season, the stadium remains a lonely outpost surrounded by empty fields. Eventually, as Papillion grows west, something will sprout there; it just won't be because of the ballpark.  ("Told you so!")

My son had fun at the wiffle ball field before the game, though I'm glad he's outgrown the Merry-Go-Round or bounce houses.  ($7 for that???)  And since nobody was playing miniature golf, it was easy to get him past that. (Another $3 saved...)

In fact, what struck me was that the stadium was pretty much empty today. It probably was the heat, though frankly, it wasn't that bad out there.  (AccuWeather said the high was about 90.)  But as the game got started, I realized that I probably could count the number of people in the stands.

At first pitch, there couldn't have been more than 400-500 people out there. As the game got started, a few more people emerged, but at most, maybe 700-800 on the afternoon. Since it was my first game out there, I don't know if this is the usual summer afternoon crowd or what; I've heard that they draw better on weekend evenings. But I was really surprised.

Other than promotions and contests every half inning, it wasn't a particularly entertaining game outside of the baseball.  (Maybe I should have went and played mini-golf?)  My son was disappointed that after we spent a half-inning getting a sno-cone, we were informed by people nearby that two foul balls had landed right nearby.  But that disappointment relented as the game went on; one nice lady gave my son a foul ball a couple of innings later.  (I suspect that's one that we missed earlier in our sno-cone excursion.)  And then he grabbed a t-shirt in a contest and then won a iPhone fan in another giveaway.

I guess extra swag is one of the advantages of going on "dress as an empty seat" day.

Will it be another eight years before I go to another Omaha AAA baseball game?  Probably not.  (Though before I go again, I've got to explain that he can't expect to come away with a bunch of free stuff every time...)
Posted by Husker Mike at 8:29 AM 0 comments

Friday, June 08, 2018

John Cook Stumbles Into A Trump Controversy

In a now-deleted tweet, Nebraska volleyball coach John Cook put out a public request on Tuesday night for a White House visit for his volleyball team.
Nebraska would love to go to the White House! Huskers would be honored and proud to visit our leaders in DC and represent Nebraska and the Natty! #gbr
Nothing wrong with a White House visit, per 'se. Husker volleyball has been to Washington after each of their previous national championships; they deserve the trip.

But the tweet rubbed a lot of people wrong.  Myself included.

Why?  It was the timing.  Tuesday was supposed to be the day that the Philadelphia Eagles were supposed to visit the White House, but when many players passed on the visit in response to President Trump's criticism of NFL players, the event was scuttled.  Instead, Tuesday was filled with all sorts of back and forth.  Criticism of the NFL and it's players.  Criticism of Trump.

And suddenly, there's John Cook and Nebraska volleyball, seeming to side with Donald Trump in the debate.  ("If the Eagles don't want to go, we'll do it!") Whether that was Cook's intention or not, Nebraska volleyball was now thrust into the noise and disorder of American politics.

Cook expressed surprise to the World-Herald that this was controversial.  I kind of understand how that could happen if he pays little to no attention to politics. (That's a blissful position, to be honest, considering where we are in this country.) But by that same manner... why is the most successful active coach in the state of Nebraska begging for a White House invitation on Twitter?

Why weren't our Congressional representatives already working on this?  Both U.S. Senators and all three House Representatives belong to the same political party as the President.  These visits after previous championships had been all arranged and set up in the spring.

John Cook shouldn't have been tweeting for an invitation for his volleyball team; he probably should have been more aware that there was a reason why this was all over the news Tuesday.

But just the same, he shouldn't need to request something like this on Twitter. This is something that should have been handled by our elected representatives in Washington.  All five members of Congress bear responsibility for this mess.

Yes, John Cook is better than this.  But more importantly, Cook and his volleyball team deserved better.
Posted by Husker Mike at 12:12 PM 0 comments

Thursday, May 03, 2018

Why Do Some People Feel Threatened by Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza?

I have to admit that that I was rather amused by the reactions of some people locally to the news that Giordano's is planning to expand into the Omaha area.
Some felt that we don't "need" a national chain because we have plenty of places that serve pizza here in Omaha.  While that's true that we don't "need" another national chain, more choices and competition is a good thing. And to be honest, I'm only aware of two places that serve a Chicago-style deep dish pie in the area:  Pudgy's and Davlo.  Both are on the west side of town; there's plenty of room for a third option.

The other is that it's not actually pizza.
Which, of course, brings out the LOLOLOLOLOLs. Of course it's pizza.  It's a different style of pizza than what they serve in New York City.  Which also is different from the style they serve in Italy, apparently as well.  I get that people have preferences in style, but the only reason thin-crust pizza snobs have for denying that deep dish pizza is pizza is that they somehow feel threatened.

And I get that, because frankly, Chicago style kicks New York style pizza's ass every day of the week (and three times on weekends)  I've tried several of the "authentic" New York style pizzas in town, and nearly every one of them made me wish I would have eaten somewhere else.  Don Carmelos, Sam and Louies, Pitch, and the worst:  Zio's.  Somebody brought Zio's to the office a year ago, and I remarked that it had been years since I'd been to Zio's.  It took less than a slice to confirm that old opinion.

The only decent New York style pizza in Omaha is Noli's in midtown.  It's a pretty pricey pizza, but if I have to eat a New York style pizza, it had better be Noli's.  A 2015 World-Herald review of Noli's, in fact, confirmed why I don't like New York style pizza:  a New York style pizza simply can't hold toppings.  NY fans work around it's fatal flaw by folding it over.  But frankly, if I want to eat a Hot Pocket, I'll spend $2 at the grocery store and get the microwavable sleeve thrown in at no extra charge.

Of Omaha's deep dish joints, I'll give the edge to Pudgy's; I think the crust is better.  But I'm looking forward to Giordano's coming to town; I've enjoyed it in Chicago ... and Orlando ... and Las Vegas.  If you don't like deep dish, don't order it.

But if you are bringing pizza to the office, let me know ahead of time if it's a New York style...so I can grab something else for lunch.
Posted by Husker Mike at 1:06 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

The Myths and Reality of UNO Hockey's "Swoontober"

There's been no lack of animosity surrounding UNO hockey over the last year or so.  Some of it focused at me for my skepticism of Mike Gabinet, but mostly at former head coach Dean Blais. Much of the criticism of Blais focuses on the notion of "Swoontober", a phenomenon where UNO's hockey season fades away in the closing weeks of the season.  Ill-prepared for the modern college hockey game, Blais' coaching philosophies were at the core of UNO's failure to make it to Minneapolis to play in the WCHA's "Final Five" or NCHC's "Frozen Faceoff" semifinals.

At least that's the narrative.

And now that UNO hockey sits ever-so-slightly-above-.500 after New Years' Day, some proclaim that "Swoontober is Over!"  Yes, finally winning a game against (slumping) North Dakota at Baxter Arena proves that Gabinet was the answer.

Well, maybe.  Or maybe not.  Let's look a little closer at the phenomenon known as "Swoontober" - specifically the schedule. You see, UNO is a member of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference which, quite frankly, is to college hockey what the SEC thinks they are to college football.  Pretty damn good.  How good?  Each of the last three years, two of the four NCAA Frozen Four teams have been NCHC teams.  UNO made it in 2015, North Dakota in 2015 and 2016, Denver in 2016 and 2017, and Minnesota-Duluth in 2017.

And it's not just that the NCHC had two excellent teams; in 2016 and 2017, four NCHC teams earned bids to the 16 team NCAA tournament.  In 2015, six of the eight teams made it.  So one fact is blatantly clear:  UNO's conference schedule is about as tough as it gets.

Here's another fact to keep in mind about "Swoontober":  UNO plays all of their nonconference games in the first half of the season.  So the schedule is, almost by definition, backloaded to be tougher at the end than at the beginning.  For comparison, look at Nebraska football in 2016:  the Huskers jumped out to a 7-0 start (and a Top Ten ranking under Mike Riley), thanks to a relatively weak schedule.  And then lost four out of the last six games as they played the best teams late in the year.

Did the Huskers have a "swoon"? Nope.  Just a dose of reality combined with injuries to the best quarterback Mike Riley had throughout his three year tenure.  Nebraska wasn't as good as they looked when they arrived in Madison with a top ten ranking, nor nearly as bad as they looked against Iowa in that bloodbath.

So let's look at UNO hockey over the last few years.  I've compared UNO's opponents Pairwise rankings in both the first half and the second half of each season, just to get a relative idea of the strength of the schedules.  It's eye opening.

Pairwise RankingsFall 2015Winter 2016Fall 2016Winter 2017Fall 2017Winter 2018
1 - 101-11-111-33-11-12-40-4
11 - 202-00-02-2-20-04-24-2
21 - 303-0-10-20-00-01-13-0-1
31 - 606-22-28-1-13-0-12-1-10-0

There's not a lot of difference between the seasons when looking at opponents ranked outside the top ten in the Pairwise...but that top line is eye-catching.  In the winter of 2016, UNO played 12 games against the top ten, winning just one.  Last winter, 14 games against the top ten, winning just three with a tie.

This winter?  Just four games so far.  Two more this weekend against number 8 Minnesota-Duluth on the road, and if UNO wins those, you probably have a case to say that Swoontober is over.  If UNO gets swept, then the Mavs probably end up having to go back to Denver, the defending national champions.  That probably makes 0-8 against the top ten a very likely scenario...and Swoontober lives on.

I used to think UNO's issue was with Baxter Arena, but this year's home record suddenly reversed that trend.  Digging into this further, I realized that UNO went 0-6 and 1-5 at home against top ten teams the last two seasons after Christmas.  This year?  The last top ten team to visit Baxter Arena was Duluth in December.

And those home losses the last two seasons take a toll on the fan base.  Nobody likes losing; it's caused fans to turn on each other and spew a lot of nonsense.  (The worst take has to be that Dean Blais went to the UNO/North Dakota game in early January to cheer against his former players.  My goodness.)

This "Swoontober" is nothing more than having to face the best teams in the nation...and UNO isn't there yet.  It's not even really a swoon, which implies that UNO suddenly started playing worse than they are capable of.
Posted by Husker Mike at 12:23 PM 0 comments

Thursday, February 15, 2018

"Thoughts and Prayers" - A Tired Response to a Growing Problem

It's happened again in America. Mass shootings happen so frequently in this country that we're losing track of them all.   18 school shootings so far this year.

The story just keeps on repeating.  Heroes rush in, sometimes making the ultimate sacrifice.  A community is traumatized.  Doctors attempt to repair the mangled bodies of the survivors.  Heartbroken families bury those taken cruelly and violently away from us.

The gun lobby offers up "thoughts and prayers."

But what are they reflecting on?  What are they asking God for?

At one time, it probably was true to say that it was "too soon" to "politicize" a tragedy before the dead were buried and doctors had a chance to heal the wounded.  But this has been going on far too long now.

Now, each shooting is a reminder we still haven't done a damned thing in this country to do something about all of the previous ones.  Other countries found the idea of mass bloodshed so reprehensible,  government acted.  Not here.  At least, not when it comes to mass shootings.  Sure, at the airport, we now have to take our shoes off, get groped and not bring anything to drink.  But massacres in schools and at concerts?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Las Vegas shooting site, three months later.
Last month, I was in Las Vegas and found out that my room overlooked the site of the concert shootings last October.  Which also happened to be right next to the airport.  It's all cleaned up now, but frankly, nothing has been done to stop it from happening again.

Just like nothing really changed after the Von Maur shootings ten years ago.

The excuse that "we should wait until we know all the facts" doesn't work any more. This nation hasn't done anything in response to the dozens of prior massacres in the country.

Why are some politicians more concerned about voter fraud (when we have scant evidence that it actually exists) than mass shootings?

It's beyond time to start solving this problem, which is uniquely American. You don't have to look far to find workable answers, and with every rerun of this awful tragedy, the likelihood that those solutions will come to this country keeps increasing.

Deep down, we all know what the answer is.  If you want something different, you are running out of time to get it in place.

We don't have any more kids to spare.
Posted by Husker Mike at 12:49 PM 0 comments

Monday, January 29, 2018

Why I Hate the New England Patriots

When Super Bowl LII kicks off next Sunday evening, I'm not sure I'll be actually rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles to win.

I will be cheering hard for the New England Patriots to lose.

It isn't because of any sort of jealousy or envy of the Patriots incredible run of success in the 21st century; the dislike actually started before they won their first Super Bowl. When Tom Brady's fumble in the snow against Oakland was overturned by an obscure football rule nobody had ever heard of before, the Patriots and Brady were forever tarnished in my mind. It's hard for mind to reconcile the fact that the winningest Super Bowl quarterback ever could never even be the clear-cut quarterback of his college team.

The Patriots reputation of playing fast and loose with the rules is well established with SpyGate and DeflateGate. And yes, the reactions of Tom Brady and the rest of the New England Patriots made it clear they were guilty; every parent can recognize the tacit admissions of guilt by Brady and company, even if the NFL's 2015 investigation was a bit clumsy in execution.  Maybe the evidence isn't admissable in court, but you know and everybody knows that Tom Brady and the New England Patriots cheated to get to that Super Bowl.

And that's the stuff we know about.

Add in the whole "Masshole" phenomonon, and frankly, the New England Patriots are simply unlikable. I had a small amount of sympathy for Boston fans in the 20th century; I liked Larry Bird, and sympathized with them over the Bill Buckner error in the World Series. (Besides, I hated those Stupid Mets...)  But that dissipated quickly once Matt Perrault started shoveling his dreck on KXSP ten years ago.  One of his famed predictions was that "no Manning would ever win a Super Bowl ring" - only to have the Manning brothers win the next two Super Bowls.

I get why he did that... he loved his Boston teams, but more importantly, loved to troll everyone else.  That's why he didn't last in Omaha, though he's apparently now has a national show.  Go figure.

New England and Boston:  Thoroughly unlikable and despicable. Go ahead, Philly...and give them the full Santa treatment.

Because even awful fans who hate Santa deserve a Super Bowl trophy more than the New England Patriots.


Posted by Husker Mike at 1:01 PM 0 comments

Friday, January 05, 2018

Despite Recruitnik Worries, Scott Frost Wins On and Off the Field in Transition

Even before Mike Riley was officially fired, the recruiting gurus sounded the alarms over the direction Nebraska seemed to be heading.
I understood the concern and the argument, but I also completely disagreed at the time.
Let's be honest. Was Bill Moos supposed to tell Scott Frost that he couldn't coach UCF in the bowl game?  Apparently yes.  And what would Frost say to that?  Before you answer that, remember this:

Yes, it's very possible, if not likely, that Frost would have said no.

I get Schaefer's point; I really do.  With the early signing period, December recruiting has taken on increased urgency, and so Nebraska's next head coach needed to be very busy doing that. But Schaefer made the same mistake recruitniks always make:

You can't recruit your way to success.

Now, before anyone overreacts to that statement, let me explain it. It's true that championship teams tend to have come from highly rated recruiting classes (see Alabama and Ohio State).  It's also true that highly rated recruiting classes do not necessary result in championships. (See Texas)
Look at this season:  Ohio State's blowout victory over Nebraska could be explained as a "talent gap".  Ohio State's 31 point loss to Iowa could not.  And if that doesn't blow your mind, then explain how Minnesota had enough talent to beat Nebraska 54-21...but then couldn't score another point the rest of the season in shutout losses to Northwestern and Wisconsin.

Recruiting hasn't been Nebraska's problem in football in recent years; the Huskers have had the best recruiting rankings in the Big Ten's west division. Nebraska's problem has been in developing and coaching.  Bo Pelini was a good head coach...but wasn't good enough, especially against Wisconsin.  Mike Riley made the tragic mistake of dragging along coaches that had failed or were failing at Oregon State (Mark Banker, Mike Cavanaugh, Danny Langsdorf and Bruce Read) to Nebraska.

Enter Scott Frost, who has a short but attention getting resume.  Would it have been better to let Frost go another year or two Central Florida?  Maybe, but Nebraska couldn't allow Mike Riley and his clown show of assistant coaches to remain any longer.  It's hard to argue any more with a straight face that Frost isn't ready for the NU job.  Frankly, he's proven he's more qualified than everybody who succeeded his mentor, Tom Osborne.

My family spent part of New Year's Day opening gifts from part of the family; we had to be out of town on Christmas Day. But the biggest and best present I got was that Central Florida offense.  I haven't hidden my extreme disgust at the Mike Riley/Danny Langsdorf offensive scheme since it arrived in Lincoln.  It's obsolete, outdated and this season, it was simply constipated. These coaches didn't know the first thing about running the ball or blocking for it, except to throw more guys into block for it.  Which it turn brings more defenders into the box and makes it even more difficult to find running room.

Riley and Langsdorf played tiddleywinks.  Frost and Troy Walters are playing 3-D chess.  You saw what they did to Auburn.

Now, they won't be able to do this right away in Lincoln. The Huskers will have to break in a new quarterback - and probably a couple, because only Tristan Gebbia shows any signs of being able to operate a modern college offense like Frost will bring.  I'm not worried about Gebbia's size; did you see the size of UCF's Mackenzie Milton? 

The hype for Frost is going to be overwhelming; we should go into 2018 and 2019 with no expectations on the final results.  There's so much development that needs to be done behind the scenes that it's silly to expect a UCF-like turnaround.  It might be possible, but it might take a while longer.

My expectations are simple.  Show me progress, which shouldn't be difficult after the worst season of Husker football since before Bob Devaney.  Like Devaney, I think Frost has inherited more talent than the record indicated.  (I mean, does anybody REALLY believe that Minnesota and Iowa were four and six touchdowns better than the Huskers?  Or were the Big Red simply coached that poorly.)

Develop.  Regain the passion.  Show progress.  That's what I want from Nebraska football in 2018.

This is going to be fun to watch.  I can't wait for the spring game and the fall, and that's something I couldn't say the last three seasons.
Posted by Husker Mike at 1:03 PM 0 comments

Saturday, December 09, 2017

Scott Frost and Mike Riley Head Home, Back Where They Belong

It's been a rather busy couple of weeks around here, even without the hustle and bustle of the holidays.

Two weeks ago, I was at my son's hockey practice, working on the CornNation report card from the Iowa game when suddenly the reports of meetings  in Lincoln broke.  We all knew what was going to happen; we just didn't know when.


I gave Mike Riley a chance; I really did, though I didn't think it was a good choice. But by October 2015, it was clearly obvious Shawn Eichorst had completely bungled that coaching search. There simply was no excuse for those losses to Illinois and Purdue. And when people tried to blame those on "talent", I knew that that many people were simply choosing to believe whatever they wanted to believe, facts be damned. Kind of like our politics today, but I digress.

So I knew it was only a matter of time before Riley was out of Lincoln.  The only thing that I got wrong was the timing; I thought he'd survive this season at 7-5.

That was in response to a Twitter meme asking for the most socially unpopular opinion you had.  So yes, I knew he'd fail; I just didn't think he'd fail so massively and completely.  Where did he go wrong?

It turns out that the only person who really thought Riley would be a good fit at Nebraska was Shawn Eichorst. Riley wouldn't normally leave Oregon State, but he was under pressure there; he had just been told that his assistants weren't getting contract extensions, and he knew their time was up.

Minutes later, Eichorst calls and offers him a golden parachute. Riley takes his whole embattled staff and uproots them to Lincoln; Riley really wasn't expecting a new job and wasn't thinking about how he'd do things differently.  Instead, all his buddies got their salaries doubled and more time before the inevitable.  Stability, for the gang.

Yes, I said more stability.  They all would have been fired by Oregon State within a year or two.  So Mike Cavanaugh getting three more years of pay (at a huge, unjustified raise) plus severance from Nebraska.  So that was a better situation for Riley's guys.

But that was, in the ends, the genesis of Mike Riley's failures.  Other than Trent Bray and Keith Williams, none of his assistants should have been hired by a program like Nebraska's. Riley slowly came to that recognition and fired three of them. Another left on his own accord.  And maybe if Riley could have found a way to scramble to get to seven or eight wins in 2017, he might have had an opportunity to replace unqualified assistants like Cavanaugh or Danny Langsdorf.

But he couldn't.  And in the end, that may have worked out in Nebraska's favor.  As it became clear that a coaching change was coming after Thanksgiving, I started to put together my list of candidates.  And frankly, Scott Frost wasn't on top of my list initially.  I had TCU's Gary Patterson and Stanford's David Shaw higher up on the list.

Those would have been stretch hires, to be sure. NU would have had to pay dearly to get proven coaches like that to Lincoln, but that's money Nebraska now has, thanks to the Big Ten's new television deal.  Nebraska had mucked around long enough that it was time for NU to just go ahead and prove that this athletic program was serious about competing for championships.

But as we got to November, Frost moved up to the top of the list. Not because I thought he was better than Patterson or Shaw, but simply because there was no way Nebraska could NOT offer Frost the job.  The native son is the only undefeated coach in division 1-A and was being pursued by other blue blood programs such as Florida and Tennessee.

How could Nebraska and Bill Moos offer anybody other than Frost?

In that light, it was a no-brainer to chase Frost. Could he have used another year or two of seasoning at Central Florida?  I'd say yes.  But the circumstances at UCF, Florida, Nebraska and Tennessee forced the timing to 2017.

Some people had heartburn initially that Frost and his staff were going to split their time between coaching UCF in the Peach Bowl and recruiting players to Lincoln.  I wasn't, because the most important thing Frost could do was to respect and not abandon his UCF players. It's more work for him, and while it might hurt recruiting a bit initially to try doing two jobs 2000 miles apart, it'll pay off long term.

That Peach Bowl broadcast will be a recruiting event for Frost; maybe not so much for the 2018 class, but definitely for 2019.  He'll showcase an exciting modern offense that should interest athletes across the nation.

And man, after watching a bit of last week's Central Florida/Memphis game, I can't wait to watch Frost's offense in Lincoln. After three seasons of Mike Riley's cold bologna sandwich offense, I'm starving for a modern college football offense. Now, a lot of people are concerned about the defense that UCF showed in their final two games; let's be patient on that.  (And truthfully, the Blackshirts were so befuddled the second half of the season, that even a porous defense would still be an upgrade.) There are a lot of reasons why the Knights' defense allowed a lot of points, and some of them aren't their fault.

Speaking of Riley, I'm not completely surprised he's back at Oregon State in an advisory role. Corvallis has been his home almost his entire life; the only thing I felt sure about was that Riley wasn't going to be a head coach.  What would surprise me is seeing any of Riley's long standing assistants getting jobs like they had at Nebraska ever again.  Danny Langsdorf will probably do the best; the New York Giants liked him as pure quarterbacks coach. I suspect he'll head that direction again; like Bill Callahan, I think most smart football people recognize that playcalling isn't in his skill set.  The Williams' will do best in their post Nebraska careers. Donte is a top notch recruiter; perhaps some day, he'll hook up with a defensive coordinator who'll help him with his coaching ability.  Keith is a solid receivers coach who'll get a look somewhere else; he's the one Riley assistant I would have liked to stay in Lincoln.
Posted by Husker Mike at 4:04 PM 0 comments
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