Wednesday Night Beer: Exit Okafor, Welcome Back Dillard

Redshirt freshman I-back Collins Okafor left the Huskers today. Not necessary a huge loss for the team, since he was buried on the depth chart. I know some fans were more impressed by his spring game performance than I was. You'd like to see players like Okafor stick around and try to work their way up the depth chart, but anymore, it seems to be the rule to transfer and take your chances elsewhere. We'll see where he transfers to, and hopefully it'll work out for him in the end.

It looks like Phillip Dillard is adjusting well to and making the most of his chance at WILL linebacker. Certainly, the Husker defense needs a boost at linebacker, and this week seems to be a good opportunity to get Dillard back into the game. Now the question is how much of this is injury related, how much of this is the performance of others in the first two games, and how much is this Dillard getting back into the coaching staff's good graces? Irrelevent now, but we'll see how this works on Saturday.

AJ the Huskerh8r really went fishing this week with his power ratings, and nobody's biting the bait, it seems. Iowa State ahead of Nebraska? He does have a minor point: Nebraska hasn't played anybody, so we really don't know much about the Huskers at this point. So while putting the Clones ahead of the Huskers is about as absurd as Phyllis Diller modeling for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition, it's not worth arguing at this point. Come Saturday, we'll have an answer one way or the other.

How bad are things in Colorado? The Buffaloes may have to keep Dan Hawkins for another couple of years because the Colorado athletic department can't afford to fire him. The Boulder Daily Camera determined that his buyout would approach $3 million...and that's money the Buffies don't have. In fact, Colorado is still paying off loans from the firing of Gary Barnett. You want a bleak outlook for Colorado football? Look at this scenario: Hawkins continues to coach for another couple of years in Boulder, with everybody knowing that his contract won't be renewed. Recruiting suffers because nobody wants to play for a lame duck coach. The already fickle Colorado sports fan ignores Buff football even more, causing athletic department revenues to fall further, leaving even fewer resources for the next head coach. Without any sort of bold reversal of fortunes in Colorado, the Buffaloes may be entering a Baylor-esque type of funk.

Meanwhile, Dean Blais has started preparing the UNO Maverick hockey team and is running them ragged in a series of four-a-week, 30 minute supervised workouts permitted under NCAA rules. Yes, run-and-gun hockey is coming to Omaha, and I have this feeling it'll be unlike anything else we've seen around here before.