Politics & Athletic Commentary Don't Mix For Some People

Steve Hanaway of the Big Red Network angered a few Republicans with a quip about a recruit earlier this week:

"To quote George W. Bush, Kevin Young is a “flip-flopper”. And America so dislikes flip-floppers, that we re-elected the worst president in U.S. history just to keep one out of office."

The fact that he also took a shot at Senator John Kerry in the same sentence was lost on a few right-wingers, who are obviously still smarting over the November election. I got a similar reaction last November, when I used a variant of a Barack Obama campaign slogan to state that I still thought Bo Pelini was doing a good job, despite the complete butt-whipping Oklahoma served up on Nebraska the day before.

Politics, religion, and our sports teams are three things in life we all believe in passionately...and in the process, sometimes fail to keep an open mind about. Certainly ESPN learned that the hard way when they inserted Rush Limbaugh into their Sunday morning NFL preview show. That was on purpose, hoping to stoke some controversy into the show, but many left-wing sports fans took offense, calling for a boycott of ESPN before he ever took to the air. (Of course, El Rushbo only lasted four weeks, resigning after denigrating Donovan McNabb.)

In this society, we like to associate with people of a same mind: Husker fans associating with other Husker fans, ridiculing Colorado fans. Republicans associating with other Republicans, demonizing Democrats. But what happens when two Husker fans start talking about the Colorado/Colorado State game, which took place on the same field where Barack Obama accepted the presidential nomination a few days earlier. Over at CornNation, CornBlight and I were doing our first predictions of the season against the backdrop of Obama's speech. I wondered what effect Obama's speech would have on the playing field, but CornBlight proceeded to take a few shots at the Democrats instead:

Corn Blight: Colorado State at Colorado in Denver.
Husker Mike: I have no Hawk love
Corn Blight: This game is interesting because of the high probabiity of riot.
Husker Mike: What will that field look like after being covered for Obama the last week or so.That's half the fun of this game.
Corn Blight: Made even worse because you know there will still be tons of anarchists who have discovered Boulder for the first time. The hippies will be more stoned, the punksters more enthused. Could be wild.
Corn Blight: Colorado 31, CSU 24
Corn Blight: 15 Arrests, 3 people hospitalized.
Husker Mike: Rams 23, Buffies 21, Denver Police 38
Corn Blight: We're assuming that they can scoop that much bullshit out of Denver before the game. Maybe it'll be postponed on account of a flash crap flood.

Now, I joined in with making fun of Colorado and Colorado State fans rioting, but I let the Democratic bashing slide. Maybe I was a little more tolerant in that case; maybe I didn't just didn't want to get into a political debate that night. But in a different mood, maybe I wouldn't have been so tolerant of politics interjecting themselves into the athletic world.

Certainly I know that people of all political backgrounds visit this blog. There have been people who agree with my opinions on football, but are 180 degrees to me politically. Likewise, some folks disagree with me rather strongly on sports, but are probably pretty close to me in their political views.

That's the great thing about America. Everybody has an opinion, and everybody has the right to express their opinion in a reasonable form. And while I agree with you on one issue, we might be bitterly in opposition on another. Welcome to America.

That also means we need to be a little more tolerant of others opinions. If you let someone's political opinion taint your reaction to someone's opinion on athletics, you need to take a step back. That doesn't mean that you have to agree with the politics, but rather, you need to be able to accept those politics. Sarah Palin's UNO hockey jersey has no bearing on the Mavs or on my opinion of Alaska's governor.

Likewise, when someone refers to George W. Bush as the "worst president ever", you don't have to agree with it (or like it), but you do need to accept that it's a viewpoint held by many people in a position to make that assessment. Just like Husker fans had to accept that shellacking by Missouri this season. (Things got better, wouldn't you say?)

Hal Daub and UNO Hockey Enter the Stadium Sideshow

Just when you think that things can't get any weirder in the discussions over the new downtown stadium and the Chalco Boondoggle, today Hal Daub and UNO's hockey program entered the discussions. Of course, former Mayor Daub is no stranger to the stadium debate, leading the stonewalling on the stadium early on, and as a member of the MECA board until last summer, was part of the initial failed discussion to bring the Royals to the new downtown stadium.

Now, Daub announces today that he wants to negotiate with Royals, and will cut a deal if he becomes mayor and the Royals are still looking for a new home. Which is all very interesting fellow MECA boardmember David Sokol (he of the "no sweetheart deals" pledge) is one of Daub's biggest supporters.

So what does this all mean? Well, the chances that Sarpy County can close a deal by March 15th just got more dim, what with Hal Daub playing Monty Hall in a press conference. With all the questions a Sarpy bid faces, the Royals will likely wait to see what's behind "door #2".

Meanwhile, UNO chancellor John Christensen sent an interesting letter to UNO Hockey supporters today, asking for feedback on UNO's hockey facilities. The survey specifically aspects what aspects of a facility are most important to fans, and also asks fans to rank the following options: Civic Auditorium, a renovated Civic, the Qwest Center, Council Bluffs soon-to-be-vacant Mid-America Center, and new facilities on campus or "in the SW area of Omaha". Christensen doesn't define "SW Area" means, as it could mean 75th and Pacific. But we all know that REALLY means Chalco, which makes it likely that Sarpy County is putting out feelers for something else to anchor their "entertainment district".

But like with the Lancers experience at the Mid-America Center, moving away from the heart of the city and even further from campus is likely to be an even bigger mistake for UNO. It's difficult enough getting students from campus to UNO hockey games as it is.

Sunday Night Dessert: Crazy Ideas Keep Springing Up in Chalco

Catching up on things I missed during a recruiting-induced coma last week:

Sarpy County is literally throwing the kitchen sink at trying to make SOMETHING happen in Chalco. The latest: horse racing. Of course, it could be an ingenious way to pay for it. Turn the entire ballpark into a large off-track betting parlor, then hold a single turf horse race in the outfield of the new ballpark. So far, that seems to be the most realistic way to fund this ballpark that's emerged so far. I sense that one Sarpy County board member is getting a little nervous that there's been no visible progress on an agreement to build a ballpark with the March 15th deadline just five weeks away.

Sarpy County had tried to bring the Omaha Lancers into the mix, but last week's announcement that they are leaving Council Bluffs to return to Omaha chilled that talk. Frankly, that's probably the most realistic option for Sarpy County. The Lancers deal to play in the Civic is just a one year deal, with options for two more years after that. Certainly gives Chalco and/or Gretna the opportunity to put something together. But frankly, the Civic is probably a better fit for the Lancers than heading even further away from the population base.

Speaking of hockey, it was yet another dismal weekend for the UNO Mavericks, culminating in another rout on home ice on Saturday night. The handwriting seems to be on the wall for Mike Kemp at this point, unless the UNO administration chooses to take back their expectations for UNO hockey. I have mixed views on this: I like Kemp, and always found him personable and a great leader and have the greatest respect for what he did to start the UNO hockey program. But I share the expectations of many UNO fans who wanted this program to do something more in recent years. Making the CCHA Championship game in year three was thrilling. Making the NCAA tournament in 2006 was great as well. But was that it? Is that all that UNO is capable of? I want to give Mike Kemp every opportunity to do it...but at a certain point, it seems UNO is going to have to shake the man's hand, thank him for all he's done, and find someone else who can take the program to the next level.

Maybe there's a hockey equivalent of Doc Sadler out there. After coming oh-so-close against Oklahoma, Kansas, and Oklahoma State, Doc's men finally got their pelt against Texas on Saturday. Even more impressive than the fact that they have a winning record in the Big XII is that they've been competitive in every game despite a huge size mismatch in the opponents favor. That speaks volumes for the type of basketball program Sadler is building in Lincoln.

National Signing Day!

Yes, it's time for the worst week in college football. National Signing Day is this week, and as usually, recruitniks are frothing over as usual, obsessing about rankings and statistics and prognosticating greatness.

And of course, it's as absurd as ever. Perhaps some of them will take time-out to watch the Super Bowl. Two great quarterbacks will be leading their teams onto the field in Tampa. Imagine the pride their families and alma maters must be feeling. And of course, the recruiting geniuses spotted these two early on.

Uh...wait...stop the presses. Ben Rothelisberger didn't even play quarterback until his senior season of high school. He ended up getting a college scholarship to Miami ... of Ohio. No "blue chipper" there.

Oh, but what about Kurt Warner? You know the former league and Super Bowl MVP? Had to be a huge get for somebody some signing day. Uh, no. He ended up at 1-AA Northern Iowa, and in fact, was third on the Panthers depth chart until his senior season. And then we all know the story of Warner. Tried out for the Packers, got cut, went to work for Hy-Vee as a stock boy, then played in the Arena game, then NFL Europe, then suddenly burst onto the scene in St. Louis. Now he's preparing to play in his third Super Bowl.

Yep...those recruiting geniuses were all over these two as well.

Here's some more classics from the past, in case you missed them on recruiting coverage:

• 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.

And with that, it's time to take a break from the absurdity of this week. Talk to you again when sanity rules.

A Tale of Four Quarterbacks

With National Signing Day only one week away, I thought about reminiscing about past signing days and how those recruitnik dreams panned out, especially in terms of four quarterbacks.

The first quarterback was rated four stars by Rivals and three stars by Scout. Rivals had the 6'4" quarterback rated the #9 pro-style quarterback in the country and the #27 prospect overall in one of the largest states in the country. Scout was less impressed, ranking him merely the #38 quarterback in the country. Among the schools that offered him scholarships were Michigan, Illinois, and Arizona State.

The second quarterback was rated two stars by both Rivals and Scout. The 6'3" quarterback didn't make any national lists, but did squeak into the top 25 list of his midwestern state. Other schools interested in him were Ball State and Eastern Michigan.

The third quarterback was a consensus four star recruit by both Rivals and Scout. The 6'1" quarterback was consider Rivals #3 pro-style quarterback and Scout's #11 overall quarterback in the country. This quarterback was recruited by Florida, Florida State, Miami, and Michigan among other schools.

The fourth quarterback was a consensus four star recruit as well. The 6'6" quarterback made the Rivals100 as one of the top 100 prospects coming out of high school, and Scout named him the #11 quarterback in the country. Among the other schools offering scholarships to this prospect were Oregon, Texas A&M, and Colorado.

At first glance, one of these stands out like a sore thumb. He barely gained any interest from MAC schools, while the others all were recruited by big names from BCS conferences. So let's concentrate on the other three names, who were destined for college football greatness.

#1 was Sam Keller, who would become Arizona State's starting quarterback late in 2005 and went 4-4 before becoming injured and losing his starting job to Rudy Carpenter. He then transferred to Nebraska, and went 4-5 as the starting quarterback before a collarbone injury ended his senior season.

#3 was Harrison Beck, who was pulled out of his redshirt late in his freshman season to throw 10 passes, completing one to a Husker receiver and one to a Kansas State defender. He then transferred to North Carolina State where he's throw 240 passes, completing 119 of them for four touchdowns and 16 interceptions. After a particularly horrific performance in the PapaJohns.com bowl this past season, his teammates were reported ready to "kick his ***" for laughing about his latest interception.

#4 was Josh Freeman, who backed out on his commitment to Nebraska to attend Kansas State. He went on to go 14-18 as a starting quarterback for the Wildcats, scoring 44 touchdowns but also throwing 34 interceptions in his career. Despite his career losing record as a quarterback, he declared for the NFL draft and is viewed as a potential first round draft pick by Mel Kiper of ESPN. Ironically, if people ranked Big XII quarterbacks this past season, Freeman would rank by most in the lower half (and maybe lower third) of quarterbacks.

Kind of a disappointing run for those quarterbacks. But let's go back to that other guy; the guy that only got a sprinkling of interest from the MAC initially. He went on to ride the bench for most of his first three years in college. But he got his break late in 2007 when he came in to replace the injured starter, and then went on to a 10-6 record as a starting quarterback, including some record setting performances (including a 510 yard passing game in just his second start). For a career with just 3 seasons (and really only playing 16 games), he threw for 44 touchdowns against 18 interceptions.

Whoa. The 2-star guy far out surpassed the 4-star guys? Who was that guy, and how did the recruiting services get it wrong?

Simply put, recruiting services tend to focus on only part of the picture. They focus on the measurables: height, weight, speed, arm strength, etc. They tend to ignore or dismiss the intangibles that they can't evaluate. So what happens is a quarterback like Joe Ganz tends to fall through the cracks of the system because for whatever reason, talent evaluators can't quantify what's inside players.

But that something is something that can be observed, if you look hard at the person. Character counts, and how you respond to adversity might be as important, if not more important, than having the greatest 40-yard time or having the strongest arm. That drive is something that isn't apparent to folks focusing on measurables. But you see in the responses to adversity. When Sam Keller got passed on the depth chart at Arizona State, his father flew him around the country to find a new program. Josh Freeman's father didn't even wait for adversity to come at Nebraska, pushing the eject button and diverting Freeman to Kansas State before he even had a chance ot sign. And we all know about Harrison Beck's disappearance at Nebraska.

Joe Ganz? What was his response to getting jobbed out of the starting job at Nebraska? He worked harder, and didn't complain at the time. That's character. That's something that was completely missed by the so-called experts.

And thus became yet another example of why the only meaningful information you'll find out next week as recruits sign letters of commitment is their names and home towns. The rest is pure speculation at best, and frequently irrelevent when they actually hit the field.

Monday Night Beer: Omaha's Fascination with the Cubs

I must say that Omaha's reaction to the Ricketts family's purchase of the Chicago Cubs surprised me. Apparently many people were thinking the same way I was; it's a sobering message to the Omaha and Kansas City Royals. Kansas City's inept management of the allegedly big-league Royals over the last fifteen years has turned a once proud franchise into a joke..and by proxy, their loyal AAA franchise three hours north. Until last week, Omaha's remaining Royals fans were reduced to praying that somehow, some way, Sarpy County could find a way to build a ballpark small enough to make a Royals crowd look impressive.

Then the bombshell of the Ricketts purchase hit, and suddenly baseball fans started emerging from the woodwork when the idea of the Cubs AAA franchise playing downtown started to emerge. It's not a slam dunk by any means. First, TD Ameritrade hasn't bought the naming rights to the downtown ballpark. Secondly, Des Moines still holds the rights to the Cubs AAA franchise through 2012. And finally, we still have to wait to see what happens with the Royals. Do they head south to Texas, leaving Omaha without a AAA franchise to swap with Des Moines?

But let's make on thing clear. If TD Ameritrade does purchase the naming rights to the downtown ballpark, there definitely is an incentive for the Ricketts family to have their AAA baseball team playing in "TD Ameritrade Park" versus Principal Park. Joe Ricketts owns a significant chunk of TD Ameritrade, and is on the board of directors. Pete Ricketts is on the board too. Not to mention the lead Ricketts in the whole Cubs transaction, Tom Ricketts, is yet another Ameritrade board member. It may not make much of a difference to the Cubs finances whose name is on the stadium where the Cubs AAA team, but it sure makes a difference to Ameritrade. And that is where the money for this transaction is coming from, and with three Ricketts on the Ameritrade board, they've got a significant interest in seeing the Cubs in Omaha.

On that same note, Tom Shatel thought he was first in suggesting a Cubs exhibition game in Omaha. Let the record show I proposed it a day before he did.

Kind of a crappy Saturday for the local teams. UNO hockey got pasted at home by Miami after UNO spent most of the first period in the penalty box. Nebraska basketball lost a squeaker at home against Oklahoma State.

But truth be told, UNO fans can thank their lucky stars that former Omaha Lancer Andrew Conboy reneged on his commitment to UNO to go to Michigan State. Conboy's freshman season ended on Saturday night when Conboy and Corey Tropp combined on an assault on Michigan forward Steve Camper. If you think the video was bad, check out what Mvictors.com found on their video. Conboy's season ended after Spartan coach Rick Comley reviewed the tape and suspended Conboy for the rest of the season for his actions.

Update 1/27/09: Andrew Conboy has withdrawn from Michigan State, and University of Michigan police are considering looking into the situation.

Ricketts Purchase of Cubs Adds New Wrinkle to Omaha Stadium Debate

Tonight, the Chicago Tribune announced that the Ricketts family is the winning bidder and will be the new owners of the Chicago Cubs, pending league approval. The Ricketts family fortune came from TD Ameritrade, which is also the leading candidate to purchase the naming rights for the new downtown Omaha stadium.

Now things start looking VERY interesting in Downtown Omaha.

For starters, with this combination, how do you open TD Ameritrade Park in the spring of 2011? Might I suggest the possibility of the Chicago Cubs playing an exhibition game in Omaha to close out spring training? If TD Ameritrade wants to get their money's worth out of the stadium name, why not bring in the team owned by the company's founders (who, by the way, still own a sizable chunk of the company)?

Want to think even bigger? Wouldn't it make sense to have the Cubs AAA minor league affiliate play in the stadium named for the company that the owners built? Outlandish at first, as the Iowa Cubs have done very well in Des Moines. But it's no secret that the Omaha Royals are in the market to leave the city of Omaha. Maybe they go to Sarpy County. (Hahahahaha!) Maybe they go to Texas.

Maybe they swap franchises with Des Moines.

Wacky idea perhaps? Well, it's more sane than the idea of the Chicago Cubs leaving Wrigley Field for Omaha.

It's an outlandish idea, but it certainly throws a new wrinkle into the whole stadium debate.

Does the WCHA Now Secretly Covet UNO?

The Western Collegiate Hockey Association's decision to explore expansion is creating a rippling effect in college hockey. The primary benefactor appears to be Bemidji State in Minnesota. The Beavers are currently play in the CHA, which will probably become extinct once the NCAA strips the CHA of it's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. That leaves Bemidji and Alabama-Huntsville lost, and without a home.

So Bemidji makes a good fit for the WCHA, but that leaves the WCHA with an odd number of teams, which makes scheduling a royal pain. The WCHA ideally wants 12 teams. Alabama-Huntsville is simply too far from the rest of the WCHA teams, so that's not a great option.

So ten years after calling things off with UNO, suddenly the WCHA seems to have interest in Maverick Hockey. In fact, the WCHA seems to have their eyes on not only UNO but also Northern Michigan as well, which makes for an interesting set of options for the WCHA. If they can convince either UNO or Northern to jump, they've got someone to match up with Bemidji. If they could convince both to jump, the WCHA could play hard-to-get once again, feeling that the left-out team could find a home in the CCHA, perhaps paired up with Alabama-Huntsville.

But here's the catch. Why would UNO be interested in the WCHA ten years after being dumped unceremoneously on the way to the altar. When UNO started their hockey program in the mid 1990's, the plan was always to play in the WCHA. After UNO's first season, the WCHA got cold feet, and UNO found themselves being pushed towards what would eventually be CHA. UNO wanted no part of that, and instead found a great home with the CCHA.

To be sure, the WCHA is a better fit regionally for UNO. Colorado College and Denver to the west. North Dakota and Minnesota to the north. All are not only reasonable drives for UNO fans, but also for fans of visiting teams to drive I-80, I-29, or I-35/80 to Omaha for a weekend. It might also convince FSN to carry their college hockey broadcasts in the Nebraska area. (That's something I simply don't understand. FSN thinks that reruns of poker, sports bloopers, and the Best Sports Show are more interesting than live sporting events for some unknown reason.)

But while WCHA teams may have an edge on the CCHA in terms of college hockey tradition, the CCHA brings marquee names to Omaha that resonate with collegiate sports fans: Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State. For a program trying to grow it's market into the general sports audience who thinks football first, the CCHA names simply have better name recognition over the WCHA.

Frankly, I don't see UNO being interested in the WCHA at this time except on one condition, and that's for the greater good of college hockey in general. Especially after having been burned by the WCHA once before. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

A Momentous Day for America

After Sunday's Pittsburgh Steelers victory over the Baltimore Ravens, CBS interviewed Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin about the game. The biggest deal about Tomlin? He's the youngest coach to make it to the Super Bowl. Nary a word about his skin color.

Today, the United States takes the next step forward with the inauguration of Barack Obama. A day that many people thought might never happen is now ready to unfold in front of our very eyes. Certainly the eyes of the entire world will be on Washington, though really, it's not all about skin color.

America has had minorities run for the Presidency before, but none mounted a challenge like Obama. I attribute that to the fact that Obama ran not as a black man, but as a leader who happens to be black. After years of partisan bickering from both sides of the aisle, we've finally elected a President who really does seem to welcome input from all sides and viewpoints. Maybe it's all just rhetoric to this point, maybe it's all been a facade. Maybe Barack Obama will govern like that liberal tag his detractors tried to pin on him during the campaign.

After eight years of scandals followed by eight more years that some characterize as the "worst presidency ever," Americans screamed for Change. Some put their faith behind a Senator from Arizona with a reputation as a maverick. Others put their faith behind a one-term Senator who seems to inspire confidence like no other American leader since Ronald Reagan.

In the end, Obama won the election over John McCain. But the victor has held his hand out to his opponent, looking to the Republican maverick for inspiration and advice. No trash talk. No claims of "scoreboard" or "mandate". No rubbing it in.

Shouldn't that really be the way life should be? Shouldn't that the way sports should be? Wouldn't life be better if we all followed the code espoused in the Husker Prayer, whether it be at work, at home, or at play?

If we should win, let it be by the code,
Faith and Honor held high

If we should lose, we'll stand by the road,
And cheer as the winners go by

Yes, today is a great day for America and the world. It's not because a black man is now the President of the greatest country in this world. You may not agree with all his policies. You may not agree with any of his policies. You see, it's because out of all the partisan rancor coming out of extremists on each side emerges something more centrist, something that allows this country to come together, if we allow it.

God Bless America!

Sunday Night Dessert: Mavs Lose in Warm Alaska, Doc's Team Puts on Another Show

Disappointing weekend for the Mavs this weekend in Alaska as they were shut down once again by Chad Johnson, currently the #3 goaltender in the nation. In four games against UNO, Johnson has allowed 2 goals in 255 minutes as three of the games went to overtime shootouts. No time for the Mavs to sulk, as next up is #9 Miami.

Anybody else catch former Mav Bill Thomas on NBC's "Game of the Week"? He wore a microphone in today's Penguins/Rangers game, and even got in a plug for his old college team.

Impressive defensive performance by the Husker basketball team last night against Kansas State. It's easy to dismiss Doc Sadler's four (and at times, five) guard lineup, but with the defense that they're showing, they'll be competitive against much of the Big XII. If Sadler can ever get his roster squared away, Husker hoops has a bright future if they continue to show that same kind of effort.

The World-Herald's Tom Shatel looks wistfully back at the Danny Nee era in today's paper. Problem is that for as great as the early to middle 90's were for Husker hoops under Nee, the final Nee years weren't anything to be proud of. Between player walkouts, awful fundamentals, and a me-first style of play, the final years of the Nee era weren't terribly watchable. Barry Collier had plenty of faults, but his teams weren't like the final farce of the Nee era.

Not that I necessarily blame Shatel for wanting to remember the good days of Nebraska basketball under Nee. I have plenty of great memories of heading to a sold-out Devaney Center to watch the Huskers upset a highly ranked Big 8 opponent (i.e. Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, etc.). I remember Dickie V telling fans in Lincoln to watch out for an incoming freshman quarterback from Florida named Tommie Frazier.

Is Doc Sadler recapturing some of that magic? Hard to say, but I like the way his teams play.

(BTW, if you are looking for some great Husker basketball coverage, check out HuskerLibrarian's coverage over at CornNation.com)

I did catch something interesting with Nebraska's "other" division 1 basketball team. I gotta admit, I don't follow Creighton basketball much at all. It's not the coach or the team; they do a fine job in their mid-major conference year-in and year-out. Dana Altman does it right for the most part. Case in point is the case of Cavel Witter. He got into a shouting match with several Southern Illinois players after last week's game, but after thinking about it overnight (and a talking-to by Altman), he regretted his actions and actually apologized for starting it. I give Altman the credit here; I don't think Altman had to tell Witter to apologize because he didn't have to tell him to. Altman has set a standard for how his team plays and acts, and all that needed to be done was to remind his player that what he did wasn't anywhere near that standard that he wants his team to follow. And thus the apology.

Wednesday Night Hot Toddy: Warmer in Fairbanks

It's flippin' cold out there tonight. Right now, it's -5 here in Omaha. But hey, I thought...at least I'm not on the UNO hockey team getting ready to head to Fairbanks for a series with Alaska t his weekend. Uh scratch that. Currently it's 31 in Fairbanks, and the forecast for the next three days is for high temperatures in the low thirties. That's right...the weather in Fairbanks is better than in Omaha.

This weekend's UNO/Alaska series is another critical matchup. The two teams tied twice in Omaha in December, and UNO has lost three of their last four games. UNO has fallen to #20 in the ratings, right behind #19 Yale, who the Mavs pasted just after Christmas. The Mavs really need to come away with two or three points at least. Last weekend's series was rather painful to watch, as Northern Michigan really took it to the Mavs on Saturday night. The Wildcats are a better team than their record indicates, but UNO really needed the sweep.

Nothing like a cold snap to make you think of summertime sports...but that's the big news of the day in Omaha. USA Swimming and the NCAA have made an agreement to end the 2012 College World Series on June 25th or 26th in order to allow the Olympic Swimming Trials to begin on June 27th. All the details are still being finalized, but things are really looking promising for three unbelievable weeks of action in downtown Omaha.

Recruitniks can breathe a sigh of relief. Cody Green is enrolled in class in Lincoln. Now rather than worry about whether he'll actually follow through, now the worry is whether he'll live up to the hype. My suggestion: quit talking about it, and we'll eventually find out how he adapts to the college game. With an added spring practice for him, there's plenty of time for him to develop. Hopefully fans will allow him that time.

Former Husker linebacker Barrett Ruud missed out on making the Pro Bowl this season. So rather than planning a trip to Honolulu, he instead headed to a cabin in north-central Nebraska. I have this feeling that he'll eventually get that Pro Bowl honor, though the loss of Monte Kiffin as his defensive coordinator won't help his career.

Big XII Offenses Lament The Need to Runaround Suh in 2009

Offensive coordinators in the Big XII got the message today loud and clear: they'll need to focus on keeping Runaround Suh away from their quarterback in 2009. With apologies to Dion, Husker defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh announced today that he'll return to the Huskers for his senior season.

It's not really a surprise, as Suh had said all along he probably was coming back. But there was always that little opening, and it's tough for a college student to turn down millions of dollars from the NFL.

Was it the right move for Suh? Only he can judge for sure. Suh blossomed as the season progressed under the tutelage of the Pelini brothers, and it's not hard to imagine that improvement continuing with another season. Certainly LSU's Glenn Dorsey got value out of staying for a senior season with Pelini. If he turns late first round/early second round money into early first round draft money, it'll still be money ahead for Suh.

Looking ahead to 2009, that means the Huskers will have three returning starters on the defensive line: Suh, Barry Turner (expected to get a medical redshirt), and Pierre Allen. Add in Phillip Dillard at linebacker, and Larry Asante, Rickey Thenarse, Anthony West, and Anthony Blue, and depending on how you count, you've got seven or eight returning starters off a defense that, believe it or not, ended up second in the Big XII in total defense. (#55 nationally.)

After the BCS title game, the World-Herald's Tom Shatel noted that a great defense might be the key to stopping all the high-powered offenses in the Big XII. Well, with the return of Suh, Nebraska might be putting themselves in just that position. To be sure, Nebraska is going to need to answer quite a few questions on offense this spring and fall. But defensively, this group looks like it might be an effective counter to what the rest of the Big XII is bringing.

Reflections on Sooners vs. Gators

Not sure what was up with our local Fox television station here in Omaha, but after listening and reading some of the national press today, I'm convinced that KPTM-Channel 42 must have broadcast a different game. I mean, the final scores happened to be the same, but the national media all saw something breathtaking that wasn't shown here in Omaha.

I'm speaking, of course, about Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. All day long, it was "perfection", best ever, once in a lifetime player, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Whoa. Stop the car. Tebow is a great player, mind you. But some of the talk is getting a little insane. Especially since the key to Florida's victory last night wasn't so much Tebow as it was the Gator defense and Percy Harvin.

Yeah, Harvin. Remember him? 171 yards of offense? After spending the entire month of December frantically rehabilitating his sprained ankle? Uh, scratch that. Make that a fracture, not just a sprain. There's your MVP right there.

But hey, Tebow's a great story: he can run, he can throw, he can circumsize like no other quarterback we've ever seen. So let's run with it. And while we're at it, let's go ahead and crown the Gators the 2009 National Champions while we're at it.

No need to play next season at all. We all know what's going to happen this fall, right here on January 9th. (Has the electoral college finished tallying the votes between Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney, by the way? Oh right...things change over time.)

Renny over at the Big Red Network got the alternative feed of last night's game as well, as he pointed out that Florida ran a similar bubble screen as Nebraska did against Oklahoma, except that the Sooners picked off Joe Ganz's pass. Florida gained 15 yards on it. That's Florida speed, correct?

Absolutely not. That was a case where Nebraska had run that play over and over and over so many times this season, that the Sooners knew what was coming as soon as the ball was snapped. They read the play, and reacted. Touchdown Oklahoma. The only impact speed had on the play was that it left an extra second on the clock once Dominiq Franks crossed the goalline.

Yeah, Nebraska needs to recruit well, but enough with the obsession with "top five" classes already. We need speed, sure. We need playmakers, absolutely. But we also need players that play hard and never give up. We need guys who take their game to another level when they get to college, not necessarily guys who put up huge numbers in high school. And more importantly, we need to coach these guys up and get them ready to play.

I see Oklahoma fell all the way to fifth in the polls for some reason. Especially bizarre after Oklahoma looked much better than Texas this week in bowl games. Texas nearly embarassed the Big XII in the Fiesta Bowl... Oklahoma just got beaten by a pretty darn good team.

One thing is for sure, we might have seen the first signs of a significant move away from the BCS format. Oh sure, the BCS is here for another five years. But after that, who knows. Some people have been pushing for a "Plus-One" format, where you take the top four teams in the BCS and match them up in New Years Day bowl games, then have the winners play the next week. It all sounded good until this week.

Florida, Oklahoma, USC, Texas, Utah. Oops. That's five, my friends.

Who would you have thrown out? Utah? Well, after Utah beat Alabama worse than Florida did last month, that argument isn't going to hold water.

Here's what'll happen: an eight or sixteen team playoff. Bowl games will be for everybody else who's out of the playoff. All games are played on someone's home field; fans are NOT going to travel to bowl games on one week's notice for two or three consecutive weeks. Ticket sales attest to the difficulty in selling some of this year's bowl matchups. And besides, home fields are how they handle just about every other playoff.

2008 Final PowerPoll

The Gators earned it on the field tonight, but Oklahoma proved themselves worthy of their place on the field tonight. If Oklahoma's receivers make a couple of catches, rather than letting them bounce into Gator hands, we might be hailing Bob Stoops instead of coronating Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow.

1. Florida
2. Oklahoma (Yes, Bob Stoops lost another bowl game. But you know what...he keeps putting the Sooners into the BCS Championship game. That counts for something.)
3. Utah (Undefeated, and their victory over 'Bama makes them worthy of consideration)
4. USC
5. Texas (No, Colt McCoy. Squeaking by Ohio State makes your claims of #1 even more shaky.)
6. TCU (Lost to Oklahoma and Utah...)
7. Alabama
8. Oregon
9. Georgia
10. Penn State
    

Nebraska's Gator Bowl Win the Best So Far in the Big XII

Let's quickly review the Big XII in bowls this season:
Alamo: Missouri squeaks by Northwestern in overtime.
Holiday: After Zach Robinson and Dez Bryant get hurt, it' s all downhill for the Cowboys as Oregon State win.
Insight: Kansas handles Minnesota rather easily.
Gator: Nebraska bounces back from a bad first half to upset Clemson.
Cotton: Texas Tech loses to a 4 loss Ole Miss squad.
Fiesta: Texas scores with :16 left to avoid losing to an Ohio State squad who had been beaten badly in their last three nationally televised non-conference games.

Two observations: At this point, Nebraska's win over Clemson is likely the Big XII's best bowl win so far. Texas narrowly escaped an embarassing loss, while Missouri narrowly escaped the Pinkel factor. When you consider how Minnesota finished the season, it's no surprise Kansas won going away. (How bad are the Gophers? They're apparently ready to hire Kevin Cosgrove to be their defensive coordinator.)

Other than Alabama and South Carolina, the SEC has been relatively solid in their bowl games. That doesn't bode well for Oklahoma tomorrow night. My New Year's Eve prediction was Florida 45, Oklahoma 42. When you consider the injuries to the Sooners, the Heisman jinx, and the poor performance of the Big XII South so far this bowl season, all signs point to an Oklahoma loss at this point.

I hope I'm wrong, but I'm extending my margin of victory. Florida 49, Oklahoma 28.

MECA Calls the Omaha Royals Bluff

Today's announcement that the American Association intends to approve an independent league baseball team to play in the new downtown stadium raises the stakes in the battle between the Omaha Royals and MECA, the operators of the Qwest Center and the new stadium. The Royals hoped to use Sugarland, TX and Sarpy County's pipe dream of a new Chalco stadium as leverage in their negotiations with MECA last year, but the two sides either wouldn't ... or couldn't budge.

So the Royals decided to move forward with exclusive negotiations with Sarpy County, and with nearly a third of that period gone by, there has been no public signs of progress. No plans on how to fund a $40 million ballpark, other than groveling to the Legislature for money.

Meanwhile, as expected, MECA now has an agreement for an independent league team to play downtown. That news has mixed implications for Omaha and baseball. On one hand, it means that if (when!) the Royals leave the Omaha area entirely, there still will be professional baseball in this area. It also means that there will be some activity in the new stadium in the summertime.

But let's not kid ourselves... it's not remotely the same level of baseball as the Royals. Might not even be up to CWS standards. Some people might wonder how Omaha can support two baseball teams, but that's not the question. The question is more likely: which one will Omaha support? The question might be answered for us, as while we know the downtown stadium will be built, the Chalco stadium proposal is, at best, just a dream.

Best case scenario for Omaha? The March 15th date passes by with no progress on building the Chalco stadium, and the powers that be (some might call them a Cabal)in Omaha bring MECA and the Royals back together to do the right thing. The whole downtown stadium came back from the brink several times last winter as MECA, the NCAA, CWS Incorporated, and the City went back and forth over proposals. At times, it looked hopeless as well. But in the end, the right thing was done.

Am I naive? Maybe. Am I stubborn? Perhaps. (My wife probably says "YES!") But I think while both sides have other options, both sides have much more to lose by staying with their current partners than by finally compromising and coming to an agreement.

A lot of people think the downtown stadium is too big for the Royals. Perhaps, but I wonder how the stadium will work when you divide the grandstand into two decks, allowing you to close the upper deck for smaller crowds, thus giving the impression of a 16,000 seat ballpark. Still too big, you say? Perhaps...but that was the size of Rosenblatt for years.

I'd argue that a 6500 seat Chalco stadium is too small for the Royals. Average attendance this season was nearly 5300 fans a night. That includes the 4th of July fireworks crowd...and those cold, windy April evenings when only die-hards want to head to the ballpark. Yeah, you have grass berms for standing room / general admission, but even that will limit crowds to around 10,000 fans. It's certainly possible that the Royals could pack a Chalco stadium on weekends...and still end up with lower attendance in Chalco, unless they can get large crowds during the week.

Bottom line is that this appears to be another round of hardball in the battle over the future of professional baseball in Omaha. We may have hit DefCon 4 today. But I remain convinced that the best plan for both MECA and the Royals is a deal with each other downtown, no matter how hard they try to spite each other. Time's a wasting.

Sunday Night Dessert: The End is Near

Just three more games in this season's college football season left. It looks like I actually had one of my better week's with my picks; I'm 7-3 so far against the spread. I did miss the Georgia Tech/LSU game badly, and while I was wrong about Utah, I couldn't help but root for the Utes, who showed they belong in the BCS.

Unlike the Big MAC conference, who are once again proving themselves unworthy of consideration as a major football conference. Certainly Ohio State is unworthy of their Fiesta Bowl berth. Originally, I think the Fiesta Bowl might have hit the panic button and thought that the Buckeyes would flock en masse to the Phoenix area one more time. Well, that didn't happen. The Big MAC is now reduced to hoping that Texas is still moping about not being in Miami. If they feel they've got a score to settle, it could get ugly tomorrow night.

Although Ndamukong Suh says he's 99% sure he'll return to Lincoln for his senior season, I think I'll wait until January 15th passes before passing judgement. Nothing against Suh, mind you. I just think that until the date passes, it's always up for rethinking. It's going to be very tough for a college student to turn his back on NFL money. Especially when it comes time to pay the second semester book bill.

Steve over at the Big Red Network thinks that Florida Atlantic's victory over Central Michigan in the Motor City Bowl means next year's season opener isn't a laugher anymore. Truth be told, while the bowl victory is nice for FAU, it really doesn't change opinions dramatically about Owls. Their only out-of-conference victories are Central Michigan, Alabama-Birmingham, and Western Kentucky. Even with the bowl victory, they probably won't crack Sagarin's top 100 college football teams.

On the Chalco stadium front, nothing new to report, though we'll probably hear something either later this week or next week with the Nebraska legislature scheduled to begin a new session on Wednesday. Here's the mood in Lincoln: they're looking for income and property tax cuts for the citizens of the state. They aren't looking for tax incentives for businessmen from out-of-state. And while they use Ted Turner as an example, you could just as easily say that state incentives for a baseball team owned by out-of-state interests probably will get just as cool of a reception. Not that we didn't already know that.

Blackshirts Dominate Tigers in the Gator Bowl

Today's Gator Bowl continued a trend that began in November, where the Huskers won a game that was much closer than it really should have been. A handful of plays in the Kansas, Kansas State, and Colorado games were the difference that prevented those games from turning into Husker blowouts. Same thing today. A missed tackle here, a bad decision there, and suddenly Nebraska found themselves down 14-3 at halftime.

When I reviewed Clemson's season for CornNation.com earlier this week, I noted two things. As C.J. Spiller and James Davis go, so goes the Tiger offense. And in the final two games, the Tiger defense created a bunch of turnovers.

That storyline pretty much played out today. The Blackshirts shut down turned the Tigers "Thunder and Lightning" backfield into a light drizzle, as they combined for 49 yards. It all began up front with Ty Steinkuhler and Ndamakong Suh up front. They spent so much time in the Clemson backfield, they may need to file a South Carolina tax return next year. Want some more evidence? Total rushing numbers for Clemson when you subtract out sacks of Cullen Harper: Four yards.

A lot of Husker fans are going to suggest that Nebraska "gave" Clemson those turnovers. Truth be told, Clemson's defense forced those turnovers. Especially that first fumble on the option pitch. Maybe it was inexperience in reading the option, but while you can blame Ganz for forcing the pitch, recognize that DeAndre McDaniel blew up that option play and essentially intercepted the pitch.

Nebraska's offensive woes weren't helped by some poor playcalling by Shawn Watson in the first half. The Husker offense gained an identity late in that Missouri blowout, adopting a spread look that loosened up defenses. That spread look was forgotten in the first half, as Nebraska tried to run the ball against a stout Tiger defense. When they weren't running the ball, they were trying short screen passes. All in all, it kept the Tigers defense in the box and made the Husker offense anemic.

Second half, they spread the field better and threw the ball downfield more, and not surprisingly, opened up the running game a bit. Quentin Castille came up huge today replacing the injured Roy Helu and Marlon Lucky. No fumble problems today, and Castille ran like a man possessed.

All in all, I never felt that despite the Huskers mistakes that they were ever out of the game, and so once Nebraska took the lead, it was more a matter of keeping the game under control.

So Nebraska ends the season 9-4, which is their best record since the last time Bo Pelini coached the Huskers in a bowl game. Certainly something to savor, and while the future of Nebraska football looks better after the 2008 season than it did after the 2007 season, there are plenty of questions that will need to be answered.

Who will take over at quarterback, now that Joe Ganz's eligibility is over? As Ganz went, so did the Huskers this season. Will Ndamakong Suh return for his senior season? He doesn't sound so sure now, as I'm sure the NFL has to be impressed by Suh's performance in the latter part of the season. Who will replace Nate Swift as a clutch receiver?

We'll have plenty of time to get answers to those questions. For now, Husker fans should savor a nine win season. I'm not sure that the Huskers will end up in the Top 25 after the bowl season, but nine wins is unmistakably a huge improvement from 5-7 in 2007. The improvement in the team as this season progressed is unmistakable, both in terms of just making plays, but also in character as well. This year, we saw a team that didn't dwell on their mistakes, and simply played harder as the game went on. They may have been outmatched early, but they always came back hard and finished each and every game strong, as evidenced by comeback attempts against Virginia Tech and Texas Tech, plus come from behind victories against Baylor, Colorado, and Clemson.

Is Nebraska football "back"? Is "Order Restored"? Hardly not. This is not where Nebraska football strives to be. But it's the first step on that journey. It may not happen next year. But this program definitely is moving in the right direction.

2008 Bowl Game Predictions

For those of you who followed CornBlight and I this season with our prognostications, you all know that we both generally sucked this season. Schedules didn't permit us to do this for the bowl games, but I'll throw out my predictions on the bigger games remaining on the schedule.

Sun Bowl: Oregon State (-2.5) vs. Pitt
OK, I'll admit it... I'll be rooting hard for the Beavers, as I'm not a fan of Dave Wannstadt (and especially his boss). I'm still not sure how the Beavers lost to Stanford and beat USC. I guess it depends on which Oregon State shows up.
Oregon State 31, Pitt 21

Insight Bowl: Kansas (-9) vs. Minnesota
Gophers fell off the face of the earth in November, losing to putrid Michigoon, awful Wisconsin, and getting blown out 55-0 by Iowa. In contrast, Kansas finished strong by upsetting Missouri in Kansas City. Oh, and the Big 11 is already 0-2 in bowls this season. Make that 0-3. Fortunately for Big 11 fans, this game is on the NFL Network, so nobody's watching.
Kansas 45, Minnesota 21

Chick-Fil-A Bowl: Georgia Tech (-4) vs. LSU
LSU is still reeling from the loss of Bo Pelini, and will be replacing Pelini's replacements with Tennessee's John Chavis. But wait...shouldn't the Tigers be focusing on the Yellow Jackets instead?
Georgia Tech 38, LSU 14

Outback Bowl: Iowa (-4) vs. South Carolina
Iowa had a strong finish to the season by sparing the college football world from another of a Big 11 team in the BCS title game, then shutting out Minnesota. Spurrier's team ended the season reeling in a blowout loss to Florida and then a loss to Clemson. Looks like the Big 11 gets off the schneid in Tampa.
Iowa 31, South Carolina 17

Citrus Bowl: Georgia (-7.5) vs. Michigan State
Spartans best win appears to be a 37-20 victory over Northwestern. Georgia started the season #1, and ended the season losing to Georgia Tech. Not a very compelling matchup at all.
Georgia 35, Michigan State 9

Rose Bowel: USC (-9) vs. Penn State
Recipe for a blowout: Big 11 team in a BCS game. Very talented USC team. In California. Add in endless gratuitous ESPN promotion.
USC 42, Penn State 10

Orange Bowl: Cincinatti (-2.5) vs. Virginia Tech
The price Miami pays for hosting the national championship game? Getting this matchup in the Orange Bowl.
Virginia Tech 24, Cincinatti 20

Cotton Bowl: Texas Tech (-4) vs. Ole Miss
After getting blown out by Oklahoma, the Raiders struggled against Baylor. Ole Miss showed signs of life under Houston Nutt. At first, this looked like a mismatch, but this might be a good matchup.
Texas Tech 42, Ole Miss 35

Sugar Bowl: Alabama (-9.5) vs. Utah
Utah makes their second appearance in a BCS bowl game, but it won't be a home game, and it's against a very good SEC team. It won't be as ugly as Hawai'i last season.
Alabama 31, Utah 17

Fiesta Bowl: Texas (-8) vs. Ohio State
Oh no! Not the Buckeyes again!
Texas 49, Ohio State 13

BCS National Championship: Florida (-3) vs. Oklahoma
Not a lot of commonality in opponents, so this is a tough one to evaluate. Sooners are missing a couple of key pieces, and also need to fear the Heisman jinx. I might change my mind after the other Big XII/SEC bowl games.
Florida 45, Oklahoma 42

Gator Bowl: Clemson (-2.5) vs. Nebraska
OK, which is it. Are ACC defenses that good, or are ACC offenses that bad? Likewise, are Big XII defenses that bad or are Big XII offenses that good. My personal take is that Big XII offenses are for real. Looking at Clemson's schedule, I don't see a lot of great teams on there. Somehow Jeff Sagarin likes them though. To me, it comes down to Nebraska has gotten burned by mobile quarterbacks who exploit the NU secondary. That's not Clemson. Clemson has a couple of great running backs, and some OK receivers. With the way the NU defensive line has played as of late, and if Phillip Dillard is pretty close to back, I think NU can stuff the Clemson backs. On offense, Nebraska just needs to continue their ball-control attack that was so effective the last half of the season. This might be the best defense Nebraska's faced outside of Oklahoma's (who they ended up scoring 28 on anyway).
Nebraska 34, Clemson 21

Sunday Night Dessert: Enough of the Holidays

Hope everybody had a great holiday season, no matter what you choose to celebrate, whether it's Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Festivus.

As we were driving through North Bend on the way to visit some out-of-town relatives, I noticed that the Herbie Husker painting on the local Co-Op was finally gone. (It was a really bad painting, as it made Herbie look a little bit, well, not well...) In it's place was a rather nice portrait of North Bend's own Jake Wesch. Some artistic license took place as it shows Wesch rolling out for a pass in his Husker uniform, which probably hasn't happened in a game situation. But since Wesch was a quarterback in high school, they certainly have the right to salute Wesch any way they choose. The picture looked pretty good, though I only got a five second look at it as we drove through town.

More bad news for people still dreaming of a Chalco ballpark for the Omaha Royals: the Legislature is going to have enough trouble dealing with the revenue shortfalls resulting from the economy to consider any new spending projects. Especially one that's already been rejected twice when times were better. Sarpy County's ability to build a ballpark is going to be determined on "plan B"...but from all indications, we'll have to wait for the Legislature to officially reject the bailout before we hear how Sarpy County really thinks how they'll pay for this stadium.

Tomorrow night, UNO hockey (currently ranked #16 in the country by USCHO/CBS College Sports)begins a huge week of hockey with a game at Yale, followed by #8 Princeton on Tuesday night, then #17 Minnesota State Saturday night. This week might be the biggest games of the season so far.

Larry Asante sounds a businesslike tone for the Huskers:

"Me, personally, I didn’t come out here to have fun. It’s a game. I haven’t been out the past two nights. Me and Armando Murillo, we stayed in," he said. "Basically everybody in the secondary except for a couple of scout guys stayed in and watched film last night. It’s a business trip. We didn’t come out here to have fun."

Love the tone, and hope these guys finish it out. It sure sounds like the Huskers really want to win the Gator Bowl, and that's usually a big key to determining how a bowl game turns out.

Need any more proof that there are too many bowl games? I saw a report on TV this morning that Maryland had sold 16 tickets to Tuesday's Humanitarian Bowl. Well, it turns out that data is a little old (about three weeks old), but the news hadn't gotten much better. Now, Maryland's sales are up to 800. Woo, hoo! Cha, ching, Boise! Especially considering Georgia Tech only sold 250 tickets last year.

Merry Christmas!

Yes, a blatant ripoff of Tom Shatel and his Christmas Wishes....

To Husker fans: A nice Gator Bowl victory, and a good quarterback battle in spring practice.

To Recruitniks: A recruiting class that generates more excitement on the field than on signing day.

Omaha baseball fans: Once the Sarpy County bailout strikes out for the third time in the Legislature, the Royals and MECA finally start negotiating seriously.
(Update: After opening up my morning World-Herald, I see Tom was thinking the exact same thing...)

USA Swimming: A plan to squeeze the 2012 Olympic Swimming Trials into the Qwest Center between the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting and the College World Series.

Doc Sadler: Getting a Big XII-calibre forward or center enrolled at Nebraska.

Mike Kemp: An even stronger second-half of the UNO hockey season, especially with games against Princeton (currently #8 in the country), Miami (currently #2), and Notre Dame (currently #1).

UNO Hockey Fans: Spending February watching the Pairwise rankings, and spending March travelling to Detroit and perhaps Minneapolis.

AJ the HuskerH8r: Recognizing the hypocrisy of "Gabbert living up to the hype".... (Heh heh... seriously... enjoy your retirement!)

The Pelini family: Condolences and prayers.

Josh Freeman: Realization that while you may have NFL talent, you haven't shown it on the field.

Radio stations that flip to "all-Christmas" programming weeks before Thanksgiving: Remembering that today is actually the "First Day of Christmas", and not the last.

To everyone: A most joyous Christmas season and an even better 2009!

Monday Night Beer: WTF is a MagicJack, WTF is EagleBank, and WTF Are They Bowl Games?

In the holiday hustle and bustle, I did glance at the TV a few times and caught a few minutes of some of the pre-Christmas bowl games. But I've got to admit that Saturday's games are simply proof that college football has way too many bowl games.

Note I said "too many bowl games" and not "too many college football games". There's a big difference. Saturday's games were played college football hotbeds such as Las Vegas and Albuquerque. They were played on a soccer field and a baseball field. The game on the soccer field was named for a local bank with 15 locations across the greater Washington area. The baseball field bowl game was named for a computer gadget that allows you to plug your home phone into a computer so you can make calls without having a local phone line.

Attendance for all of the games on Saturday: 103,306. Even having a home team like South Florida playing less than 25 miles from campus didn't help the attendance in St. Petersburg. (And what was up with the glossy turf at Tropicana Field? Makes the smurf turf in Boise look downright sedate.)

Let's be honest. Fans don't want these games. The teams only play in them to get the extra practices. The payouts don't even pay the expenses for the teams to attend these games. There's got to be a better way to finish out the season. Go ahead and get an eight or sixteen team playoff in place, then match up everybody else in kind of a NIT consolation, but on home fields. Some teams just don't have the following to make a home game viable; that's fine. Send 'em on the road. Let's set up some nice intrasectional matchups across the country. How about Florida State or Miami having to play up in the midwest in late December?

Speaking of attendance: Props to the 14,000+ volleyball fans who still showed up strong on Saturday night for a Husker-less volleyball game. Those numbers go a long way towards making a case for the NCAA to not only make Omaha a regular stop on the NCAA volleyball championship circuit, but also to make Omaha simply a regular stop for all NCAA championships.

And sequeing along the lines of NCAA championships: the MNDaily from the University of Minnesota made the first prognostication of this season's Big Skate, and placed UNO in the regional in Minneapolis along side Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Still absurdly early, but UNO's hot start has gotten the Mavericks into the conversation. They'll need to bring back a couple of wins next week as they go on the road to Princeton, Yale, and Mankato.

The Future of Volleyball's Final Four in Omaha is Saturday Night

I missed most of the first two sets of the Nebraska/Penn State semifinal; frankly, it doesn't sound like I missed much. But those final three sets were some of the most exciting volleyball I've seen as Nebraska scraped themselves off the deck to take the volleyball match to a fifth set. One NU save practically was made from where the end zone faceoff circle, if the hockey rink were still in place at the Qwest Center.

With NU falling 15-11 in the final fifth set, the Husker season comes to an end. But that's not the end of volleyball season in Nebraska, as it will be interesting to see what happens on Saturday night for the Penn State/Stanford final. How many Husker fans will drive back to the Qwest Center on Saturday night for the final? That's the question that the NCAA will be interested in finding out. If 14,000 fans show up and the lower bowl looks mostly full, the NCAA should be impressed and consider yet another bid to bring the NCAA volleyball championships back to Omaha.

If the place is half empty... I'm sure the NCAA may think twice about returning to Omaha quickly. Yes, the tickets are sold, but how many of those tickets would have been purchased if Nebraska wasn't a team with a good chance to make it to the Final Four? (Conversely, playing the NCAA volleyball Final Four in Omaha is kind of like playing Miami for a national championship in the Orange Bowl. Not exactly a neutral site.)

Omaha can make a statement that we'll support the NCAA Volleyball Championship (and not just Husker volleyball) as well on Saturday night.

Urban Design Board Wants Changes to Downtown Ballpark

In response to concerns raised by nearby businesses, Omaha's Urban Design board limited their approval of MECA's plans to foundation work for the new downtown ballpark today. What does this mean? Well, construction can begin next month, but only on the underlying infrastructure.

Saddle Creek Records, a local indie music publishing company, developed the "Slowdown" project just west of the new ballpark in part based on the promise of a new downtown ballpark that would bring vitality to that part of downtown. Over the years, the ballpark grew in size to accomodate the College World Series, but with the prospects of the Royals moving to Sarpy County instead (if Sarpy County can ever figure out a way to pay for it) and MECA eliminating the retail elements of the stadium that would bring activity to the area even when the stadium isn't in use, landowners around the stadium hit the panic button this week.

The idea of moving the stadium back to it's original location in Lot D sounds nobel, but that fight was waged last year, and lost. But the push to drive MECA to build something closer to the original vision should be welcomed. I'm not sure I agree that building a stadium a block to the east is a barrier to development; after all, what does that present a barrier to? The other Qwest Center parking lots?

But it does represent a missed opportunity to launch the "North Downtown" area. Part of the reason the NCAA wanted the College World Series downtown was for the proximity of hotels, restaurants, and shopping. It wanted a vibrant area around the stadium where fans, teams, and NCAA officials could walk to any number of attractions. The current MECA plans don't support that vision.

I understand the frustration of the downtown developers. MECA seems to have failed to find a way to make the downtown stadium work for the Royals, and now seems to be failing in the design. It's great that Omaha is keeping the College World Series, but it would seem that it would make far more sense to build the stadium with the amenities that the NCAA wanted in the first place.

Will Omaha's Urban Design Board be able to push MECA to design the stadium to encourage development around the stadium? Do they have enough clout? That's a story worth watching over the next few weeks. The stadium is going to be built; the only question is what will it look like.

Sarpy County Looks to Legislature for Bailout for Chalco Stadium

Sarpy County leaders confirmed plans today that they plan to resurrect the bill to use state funding to pay for much of their proposed Chalco baseball stadium. This same plan that has been rejected twice before for development in Sarpy County (specifically, the Cabela's store) and a baseball stadium (in downtown Omaha, designed specifically for the Royals).

Third time's a charm, correct? Well, the devil is in the details, but in this economy with tax revenues likely to shrink, I'm not sure how practical it is to divert state tax money to build a second ballpark in the Omaha metro area. It remains to be seen how this proposal will differ from the previous ones, but I hardly think that simply expanding the reach to allow other areas of the state to utilize these tax incentives is going to work. In fact, that's how the second go-around to use this in downtown Omaha came about. As noted, it failed as well.

Backers of the proposal point to the success Kansas City, Kansas has had with their "STAR" financing proposals. Which is true; the "Village West" area has blossomed as a result of this. But there is a huge difference between what Kansas City did and what Sarpy County is doing.

Huge difference, but it only takes six letters: N. A. S. C. A. R.

Yes, they built a ballpark out there as well, not to mention a regional Cabelas. But the big driver is the Kansas Speedway, which draws tens of thousands of people to this area from across the midwest. That's the driver for all this development. That justifies everything.

That's not happening in Sarpy County. There's absolutely nothing in the works to attract tourists from outside the Omaha metro area.

And that's why I'm waiting to hear what Sarpy County's "Plan B" is, because that is the most likely way they will be able to get their stadium built. Certainly "Plan B" got Cabela's built in La Vista. "Plan B" got a downtown stadium built as well. (A bigger stadium, in fact, that actually will attract tourists from across the country, I might add.)

If I'm a legislator who is likely going to need to be making difficult budget decisions, I'm not sure I'd react too positively to a third go-round with this measure with the knowledge that this proposal turned out to be unnecessary the previous two times.

Honors for Mavs & Huskers

At last night's Husker football awards banquet, Joe Ganz was named team MVP, with Nate Swift named offensive MVP (I guess that's to spread the awards around), and Ndamakong Suh defensive MVP. Ganz, Swift, Zach Potter, and Ty Steinkuhler were also named season captains as well.

Meanwhile over at UNO, defenseman Eddie del Grosso was named CCHA defenseman of the week for the third time this season, with Jerad Kaufman taking goalie of the week honors for his big performance on Saturday night.

MavRick pointed out the following disjointed story about Saturday night's Laker/Mavs game. The reporter seemed to confuse the Huskers and Mavs, and got most everything wrong...even the Lakers next game. Either the Lakers are going into the time machine to finish out a 2nd century game against Yale, or the intrepid reporter is going to miss the Lakers games in the Badger Showdown. Yikes...I hope that's not the work of a graduate of the LSSU school of English and Communication.

Sunday Night Dessert: Gill to Ames?

Now comes the aftershocks from Auburn's hiring of 5-19 Gene Chizik. Namely, who will Jamie Pollard hire this time. Two years ago, Chizik looked like a home run hire, but never topped the Mendoza line in Ames. The Des Moines Register throws out a few candidates: Turner Gill, Brady Hoke of Ball State, Ed Warriner (Kansas offensive coordinator), Bill Cubit of Western Michigan, and Shawn Watson.

While I think Buffalo is a better job than Auburn, I'm not sure Iowa State is exactly where I'd like Gill to end up. The situation is better than Auburn, and the scars that Chizik left certainly call for a coach like Gill. But I've got to admit, I don't relish the thought of seeing Turner Gill on the other sideline every season. I guess I liked the idea of Gill taking over a program like Syracuse, though it sounds like Gill turned down the final set of interviews for the Orange. (Perhaps he thought he was the leading candidate for the Auburn job...)

While I think that Oklahoma and Florida are the top two teams in the country, I'm not convinced that Sam Bradford deserved the Heisman. Sure, he put up fine numbers, but deep down, from what I saw, Colt McCoy had a bigger role in his team's success than Bradford. Bradford simply had a lot of help from his offensive line and wasn't forced to create like McCoy had to at times. If I had a vote, I would have voted McCoy #1, Tebow #2, and Bradford #3. (Of course, they don't give us bloggers many votes. I think it's prejudice against people sitting in their parents basement wearing just their underpants...)

The World-Herald flew a reporter out to New York to try and interview Bill Callahan, and pretty much came up empty handed. Did get some quotes from some Jet players, including Brett Favre, who had nothing but nice things to say about Callahan. For as poor of a head coach Callahan turned out to be, the evidence seems to indicate he's a great offensive line coach. His obsession to detail, which turned out to be a liability when he micromanaged Nebraska and Oakland, seems to allow him to flourish now that he can concentrate on his offensive linemen. Bottom line is that Tom Osborne's decision appears to be a win-win for everybody; Callahan got a job that better fits him, and Nebraska upgraded it's coaching staff in the process.

The World-Herald also looks at the disappointment of some developers towards the downtown ballpark, and lost possibilities. I have mixed feelings about this; I see the point of the north downtown people, but the fact remains that this stadium has to serve it's master first. And that master is the NCAA. The College World Series brings in enough revenue to justify the stadium, even if it's only used two or three weeks a year. Anything more is simply frosting on the cake. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't hope and insist that the stadium be used more than just the CWS, but rather that our disappointment should be put into perspective.

The idea of independent league baseball might help mitigate some of those concerns, but let's be honest, baseball fans are going to cringe at the idea of replacing AAA baseball with an independent league team. MECA already has a bad track record with forcing a team to play in competition with an existing team, so at least initially, it's a fairly safe bet that somebody will be playing baseball downtown on a regular basis.

Maybe it'll be the Royals after all. I remain unconvinced that Sarpy County can afford to build a stadium, no matter how much the Sarpy County board covets the idea. (Interesting side note: Sugarland, Texas is now looking at the American Association as well. Wouldn't it be ironic if Omaha vs. Sugarland is the first professional baseball game downtown?)

Kaufmann Sizzles in Sweep of Lakers

UNO goalie Jerad Kaufmann seemed to be a man possessed tonight as he stopped 47 shots as the Mavericks defeated Lake Superior State 3-2 to complete a sweep on the road. #19 UNO heads into the Christmas break at 11-4-3 on the season, good enough for third place in the CCHA.

Some hockey fans hate the idea of rotating goalies, considering it like akin to quarterback in football. But right now, how do you bench either Kaufmann or Jeremie Dupont, who had a shutout last Friday night against Alaska. Both goalies are playing outstanding this season; neither has done anything to warrant being benched in favor of the other one.

UNO returns to action on December 29th with a game at #8 Princeton, followed by a game at Yale the next night, then at #14 Minnesota State on January 3rd. Those three games might be the keys to establishing UNO's credentials towards the end of the season. Premature to worry about those games? Perhaps. But if UNO is going to make some noise this season, these next three games can set the tone for the second half.

Gill to Auburn: War Eagle ... or Run Far Away

The talk of Turner Gill heading to Auburn to replace Tommy Tuberville continues to increase, though Auburn is talking to a lot of people right now. Steve Sipple of the Journal-Star thinks it might be a great move for Gill.

I'm not so sure. It sure looks like a heck of a promotion; SEC conference team at a school that has the resources to compete. But underneath that facade lays a swirling storm of micromanagement that has been chewing up and spitting out head coaches for three decades.

It all ties back to a Auburn alumnus and bank executive who also is a member of Auburn's Board of Trustees for 25 years. The name is Bobby Lowder, and according to ESPN, his fingerprints are all over the firings of Auburn football coaches ever since. The Chattanooga Times-FreePress calls him the "Emperor of Auburn" (unofficially, of course). And now after changing his mind on coaches almost as often as George Steinbrenner, he's taken a shining to Turner Gill.

To be sure, if Gill were to become head coach at Auburn, he and his family would be set for life. But at what price? Auburn's run-ins with the NCAA are legendary. I'll be quite honest; I'm not sure this is a situation that Gill can control, even though his name would be on the football program.

I really want the best for Turner Gill, but I really question whether Gill can tame that Tiger, or if the Tigers will devour Gill, much like they've devoured everybody and everything else in the past.

Week 15 Power Poll: Three Teams/Two Spots

I really don't know how controversial things will be once the BCS standings come out; I think it depends just on how close things are. I don't accept that Florida is a lock for the BCS title game, as while the Harris Poll will likely have the Gators #1 this afternoon, the computers had Florida 6th last week. Now, the computers will move the Gators up at least one spot with Alabama's loss, but will that be enough to jump them over Texas Tech and Utah? Remember, Florida's home loss to Ole Miss is still the worst loss of all the team.

There are three viable candidates for the BCS title game in my opinion, with only two spots. Personally, I'd be happier with an Oklahoma-Texas rematch personally, but that's not necessarily the best matchup.

1. Florida (Tim Tebow did it nearly single-handedly...)
2. (really 1a; it's hard to choose between Florida and the Sooners) Oklahoma (Sam Bradford essentially did it single handedly, due to his hand injury, not to mention DeMarco Murray's injury.)
3. Texas (Odd man out in my poll.)
4. Alabama
5. USC
6. Utah
7. Texas Tech
8. Penn State
9. Boise State
10. TCU

Big XII Standings

1. Oklahoma (I know you needed to make the case with the BCS, but you didn't need to leave Sam Bradford in the game to RUTS, Bob...)
2. Texas
3. Texas Tech
4. Oklahoma State
5. Missouri
6. Nebraska
7. Kansas
8. Baylor
9. Colorado
10. Texas A&M
11. Kansas State
12. Iowa State

Friday Night Beer: In Awe of Turner Gill

Tonight, I only managed to catch a few minutes of Buffalo's 42-24 victory over previously undefeated Ball State in the MAC Championship game. ESPN prefered to point to Ball State's four fumbles as the story of the game, but for Husker fans, it was all about the head coach of the Bulls.

In just three years, Turner Gill took a team from ten wins in seven years to 8-5 and MAC champions in his third season. Think about that for a second. ESPN noted that Gill had to take the league standings with him on the recruiting trail to prove to players that the Bulls were actually in division 1-A.

MAC champions, knocking off a top-15 team? Are you kidding me?

If you weren't in awe of Turner Gill already, all you need to do is catch Gill's postgame interview with ESPN. Nearly speechless and in tears, he deflected all of the credit to his team, praising "them" for what "they" had accomplished. Truly a class act. The ESPN broadcast closed with a poignant scene of Gill huggling Buffalo athletic director Warde Manuel; both men in awe of what had just occured.

Way to go, Turner Gill.

Also noteworthy was tonight's UNO 1-0 shootout victory over #20 Alaska tonight, with great goaltending by both UNO's Jeremie Dupont and Alaska's Chad Johnson. It stayed 0-0 through regulation, overtime, and the first four rounds of the shootout before UNO finally scored in the 5th and 6th rounds. Dupont's final save in the 6th round gave the Mavs the victory.
(I'm pleasantly surprised all three local TV stations stayed to cover the end of this game. Props to our local media!)

No word if Alaska's governor was wearing her UNO jersey tonight back in Wasilla.

Chalco Baseball: Done Deal or Boondoggle?

Today's announcement that the Omaha Royals have agreed to negotiate exclusively with Sarpy County over the next four months isn't exactly a surprise, as it's become clear in recent weeks that Sarpy County fully intended to pursue the Royals.

But it's not a "done deal" as some people are reporting.

Namely, I'll believe this deal is happening once I learn of a reasonable financing plan. I've been skeptical of the ability of Sarpy County to pull this off, and this latest announcement doesn't answer those questions. In fact, today's announcement was intentionally vague, merely stating that the deal is dependent on a "mutually agreeable financing plan."

Whatever the heck that is.

The Sarpy County estimates show the total cost of the ballpark would top $40 million, and that doesn't include land acquisition costs. The Royals are offering to make a "substantial" contribution, though what "substantial" means isn't clear. But how will Sarpy County pay for it? Stadium revenues will help, to be sure. But it'll likely take more than that. Property taxes? A request to the state legislature for funds? That's very likely unless somebody steps forward with a sizable donation, much like Omaha's corporate titans donated millions for the new downtown stadium. With a big enough donation, anything is possible and in fact, very feasible.

Counting on property or state tax revenue? That's a whole other situation, and something I'm still skeptical of.

And thus, my skepticism continues.

World-Herald Joins in the Texas Whine

Whether it's the old 1997 Husker/Weasel debate or this year's debate between Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech, you can always count on the sports media taking an opinion and refusing to even consider contrary opinions.

Yes, I said Texas Tech. I may not be allowed into the press box, but the Big XII web site shows all three teams tied with 7-1 conference records and 11-1 overall records. But if you read the paper and listen to the radio, you'd swear that Texas Tech somehow lost another game somewhere along the way.

Here's Tom Shatel:

The Big 12 should follow the Southeastern Conference (touchy subject, sorry) and have a three-way tiebreaker that says if all three are ranked, the third highest team is thrown out. And if the top two are within five spots of each other, you use head-to-head results as the tiebreaker.

OK, so the BCS formula is OK to use to eliminate Texas Tech...but not Texas. Shatel doesn't say why, but it leads you to his desired result. Texas. Nevermind the inconsistency.

Even more inconsistent is the suggestion that if the teams are within five spots of each other, head to head trumps the BCS standings. OK. Let's see: #7 Texas Tech, #3 Texas. Hmm... Texas eliminated.

His colleague Lee Barfknect had a slightly better, yet still inconsistent take:

For me, a head-to-head result carries huge weight. Another key factor when it's this close is who had the "best" loss.

Texas Tech is ruled out by getting hammered 65-21 at OU. The Sooners lost by 10 to Texas on a neutral field. Texas lost at Texas Tech, with its wildest home atmosphere in history, 39-33 on a touchdown pass with one second left.

So Texas wins that competition, too. Yet Oklahoma advances.

Barfknect wants to give Texas credit for the "best loss" in losing to Tech. Point Texas. And he downgrades Tech for the "worst loss". But shouldn't you also give credit for the "best win" of the bunch, and that's Oklahoma taking Tech to the woodshed right from the opening kickoff?

You see, head to head is the first tie breaker...and it's 1-1 for all three teams. Everything else is just grasping at straws.

Shatel adds one final comment:

Big 12 games are great. Make them count.

They do count. But it seems that Shatel and Barfknect only want to count the game played in Dallas. They don't want to count the other games on the schedule. From my perspective, when you look at all of the games these teams played, Oklahoma looks a little stronger than Texas overall. Yes, Texas got 'em in Dallas in October in that single game, which is duly noted. But that game wasn't a one-game playoff; you have to consider ALL of the games, not just the Red River Shootout.

In fact, that's really the correct solution to this whole mess. Eight team playoff, and this debate goes away. Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech, USC. Heck, bring Utah and Boise State into the mix, and there's no excuses anymore. I know it's not happening anytime soon, especially with ESPN locking up the BCS. But deep down, you know it's the right answer.

Week 14 Power Poll

As far as I'm concerned, the whining from Texas fans is just that: whining. Yes, you beat Oklahoma by ten on a neutral field. But you also lost to Tech. And Oklahoma took Tech behind the woodshed early and often. So how do you break this three-way tie? Head to head is a draw. So you look at who is the stronger team, and Oklahoma is the clear favorite there. Big East champion Cincinnati? Top 15 TCU? Oklahoma State? Texas Tech? All are impressive victories for the Sooners, and that's why I give the Sooners the edge.

1. Florida (Computers hate 'em, but I think they're the best team in the country.)
2. Oklahoma (A close second to the Gators...)
3. Alabama
4. Texas (Here's the thing...if Florida beats 'Bama this week, there's a distinct possibility that Texas could stay above the Gators. If that happens, you might see the whole OU/UT issue worked out in Miami in January...)
5. USC
6. Utah
7. Texas Tech
8. Penn State
9. Boise State
10. Ball State

Big XII Standings

1. Oklahoma
2. Texas
3. Texas Tech
4. Oklahoma State
5. Missouri (Hey, if they somehow pull off the upset in KC, who knows what would happen to the bowl lineup. It could be a repeat of 1998, when K-State fell all the way to the Alamo Bowl since every other bowl had already made up their mind as to who they would take.)
   
6. Nebraska
7. Kansas
8. Baylor
9. Colorado
10. Texas A&M
11. Kansas State
12. Iowa State

Sunday Night Dessert: Lost in Freaky Friday

With all of the buzz over Alex Henery's 57 yard field goal, I nearly forgot to mention the other "can you believe that" play from Friday's game. Did anybody else catch Roy Helu's third quarter hurdle over a Colorado tackler who tried to go too low? Track coach Gary Pepin might be knocking on Bo Pelini's door if he's searching for a high hurdler next spring. Hopefully that'll end up on YouTube soon. In any event, I think Nebraska will be even stronger at I-back next season with Helu taking over as the expected full-time starter.

After Missouri's choke job in the snow at Arrowhead yesterday, Nebraska claims a share of the Big XII North title. Of course, since only two teams tied for the North (unlike in the South), head-to-head is the tie-breaker, so Mizzou gets to play a second game in Kansas City. Now, the question needs to be asked: Is finishing 5-3 and tied for first in the North anything to be proud of? Maybe if you're Iowa State, you put that "fake" trophy on your equipment trailer. Nebraska? Nope. But by that same manner, it's a nice bounceback from finishing tied for last place in the division. It is what it is: a sign of improvement.

Nebraska's 54-52 victory over Creighton in basketball was ugly in every sense of the word. The best thing that can be said about this game is that it'll keep chirping from the Hilltop down. Nebraska has won three out of the last six, and leads the series 11-10 over the last twenty years and 24-18 lifetime. In other words, neither school can brag about "ownership" in this series.

Tough weekend for UNO hockey in getting swept at Ohio State this weekend. Both losses were painfully late, with the winning goals scored with 2 seconds left on Friday and a minute and a half on Saturday. No time to pout: third place Alaska comes to Omaha this upcoming weekend.

Oh Henery! Huskers Beat Buffaloes 41-30

With 4th and 25 facing the Huskers, the fans in the South Stadium discussed the options left at that point. And of course, there really aren't a lot of good options on 4th and 25. Throw a shorter "Hail Mary" pass? I asked if anybody would dare send kickoff specialist Adi Kunalic's big leg out to attempt a 57 yarder. Nobody had any good ideas; there almost was a sense of disbelief that Nebraska screwed around too much today and was actually going to lose this game. The Huskers emerged from the huddle, and I was shocked to see Alex Henery out there preparing to kick a field goal. (First thought: ANOTHER FAKE?!?!? Second thought: Absolutely not. Not in this situation.)

The disbelief continued as Henery went through his preparations. Surely Colorado is going to call a timeout and ice Henery... right? Nope, the ball is snapped and Henery launches the ball in an eerily quite Memorial Stadium. It's a long, long field goal, and it seems to be traveling in slow motion. Wide right, it appears. D**n. Then suddenly, a little draw. It's going to hit the f*-in upright! The stadium still is quiet. But the draw becomes more pronounced, and finally the ball drops behind the crossbar.

And Memorial Stadium exploded like it hasn't since Eric Crouch caught "Black 41 Flash Reverse Pass" against the Sooners in 2001.

It was an adrenaline shot to 81,000 Husker fans, who seconds before were standing in resignation that Nebraska had made one too many killer mistakes against a spunky, yet short-handed bunch of Colorado Buffaloes. There were the opening four plays, when the Buffs attacked the Husker secondary for 148 yards and 14 points. After that, the Pelini brothers spent an extended amount of time on the sidelines with the defense, making adjustments. The remaining 55 minutes of the game: 143 yards for the Buffaloes.

There was a disasterous fake field goal that turned a likely ten point lead into a tie game. I've ripped Bill Callahan for running fake field goals and punts, and I'll leave it like this: I've had enough of fake kicks, and do not want to see another one anytime in the next few years.

There were penalties, and fumbles in the red zone. There was a fifteen yard sack that looked to take the Huskers out of field goal range with only two minutes left in the game.

Suddenly all was forgiven now, in large matter. And once Zach Potter tipped the ball to Ndamakong Suh, who then ran over Cody Hawkins on his way to the end zone, victory was assured, ripped out of the jaws of defeat.

Several players deserve game balls for today's performance. Potter, Suh, and Ty Steinkuhler kept CU's running game in neutral and kept the pressure on Hawkins most of the day. Roy Helu with 215 yards of offense. (Anybody still going to argue that Helu isn't NU's most complete back?) And, of course, Alex Henery with the school record, game-winning, field goal.

It's a win, and Husker fans are relieved to have it. But it shouldn't have been that close. Credit Colorado for making the plays to take control of the game early on and throughout. But there will be plenty on this week's game tape for these players to review and correct over the next month.

Husker Mike's PostGame Colorado AudioBlog

Initial, unfiltered reaction to Nebraska's 40-31 victory over Colorado.

Gabcast! Husker Mike's PostGame AudioBlog