Aug

24

Finally, we have a Cornhuskers football game this weekend!

Filed Under 2008 Opponents, Western Michigan | Leave a Comment 

After what’s seemed like longest offseason in the history of Nebraska Football, it’s finally here. WE HAVE CORNHUSKERS FOOTBALL THIS WEEKEND!

We’re so excited for the season to begin, we spent the last few days tearing down and subsequently rebuilding the entire Huskers Gameday blog! We hope you dig the new look.

This week, HuskersGameday will be providing our world-renowned Big 12 and national football picks, along with our in-depth analysis of the first opponent of the Bo Pelini Era, Western Michigan.

The Western Michigan offensive line only returns two starters, so we’re pretty damn positive the Pelini Borthers have drawn up some sick monster blitz packages to intimidate and confuse QB Tim Hiller. Hopefully this will allow the defense to force some freaking turnovers. That’s what we want to see this Saturday - Sacks, Turnovers and Gang Tackling. More in-depth analysis and our predictions coming soon…

Jul

23

Stewart Mandel drops knowledge

Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment 

In his mailbag, Stewart has a great retort:

In your list of program-changing losses, how could you forget the game that sent the most dominating program of the 1990s spinning down the toilet? Nebraska’s undefeated 2001 regular season culminated in a 62-36 whupping by Colorado, followed by another blowout in the national championship game by Miami, and you know the rest of the story … totally destroyed one of the greatest dynasties in college football history.
–Bret, Omaha, Neb.

I agree to an extent, but let’s not kid ourselves. The Huskers rebounded to post a 10-win season just two years later.

Colorado and Miami did not destroy the Nebraska dynasty. Bill Callahan destroyed the Nebraska dynasty.

Bravo!

Jul

23

Corn Feed - The Bo Pelini Edition

Filed Under 2008 Preview, Big 12, Big 12 Preview, Bo Pelini, Corn Feed, Joe Ganz, Nebraska Cornhuskers Football | Leave a Comment 

Sipple has a look at the coaches and their YouTube moments.

Jesse Coffey, an offensive line commit from Texas, commits to the Huskers. Ranked

Collegefootballnews.com preview for Nebraska.

Bo Pelini on the proliferation of the spread offense in the Big 12 and how things have changed since 2003:

“I think it’s not just the Big 12, but college football in general,” Pelini said. “You see all the spread offenses that are happening. It’s gone from option football to zone read and spreading the field with fast break-type offenses.”

Video highlights of Bo among other at Big 12 media day.

Pelini: Nebraska is still an elite program.

Bo is making practice fun again for the players.

“The game is fun again,” Nebraska offensive lineman Matt Slauson said. “We’re playing for a coach we can really relate to. Coach Bo is a real fun guy to play for. He’s a player’s coach. He’s a guy you want to work hard for because he’s working as hard as we are.”

News and notes on Joe Ganz scrambling, Nebraska’s overall approach, slimmer playbook.

Jul

17

Corn Feed - Lucky All-Big 12, CJ Zimmerer Profile

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Marlon Lucky has been named all Big 12 by the media.

Missouri lead with 8 First Team selections.

Steve Sipple has the the rundown.

Big 12 offensive player of the year -Chase Daniel of Missouri

Defensive Player of the Year - Auston English of Oklahoma

Newcomer of the Year - Darrell Scott of Colorado

Preseason All-Big 12 selections:

Offense

WR - Michael Crabtree Texas Tech 6-3 206 So.
TE - Chase Coffman Missouri 6-6 245 Sr.
OL - Duke Robinson Oklahoma 6-5 330 Sr.
OL - Phil Loadholt Oklahoma 6-8 350 Sr.
C - Jon Cooper Oklahoma 6-2 285 Sr.
OL - Louis Vasquez Texas Tech 6-6 335 Sr.
OL - Colin Brown Missouri 6-8 325 Sr.
OL - Cedric Dockery Texas 6-4 315 Sr.
WR - Jeremy Maclin Missouri 6-1 200 So.
QB - Chase Daniel Missouri 6-0 225 Sr.
RB - Marlon Lucky Nebraska 6-0 215 Sr.
RB - DeMarco Murray Oklahoma 6-0 191 So.
PK - Jeff Wolfert Missouri 6-2 185 Sr.
KR - Marcus Herford Kansas 6-3 208 Sr.

Defense

DL - Auston English Oklahoma 6-3 257 Jr.
DL - Ian Campbell Kansas State 6-5 249 Sr.
DL - George Hypolite Colorado 6-1 285 Sr.
DL - Brian Orakpo Texas 6-4 260 Sr.
LB - Sean Weatherspoon Missouri 6-1 235 Jr.
LB - Joe Mortenson Kansas 6-1 250 Sr.
LB - Joe Pawelek Baylor 6-3 236 Jr.
DB - Nic Harris Oklahoma 6-3 226 Sr.
DB - William Moore Missouri 6-1 230 Sr.
DB - Jamar Wall Texas Tech 5-10 196 Jr.
DB - Jordan Lake Baylor 6-2 206 Jr.
P - Justin Brantly Texas A&M 6-3 241 Sr.
PR - Jeremy Maclin Missouri 6-1 200 So.

Profile from Omaha on future Husker fullback C.J. Zimmerer. Some highlights:

He works out for an hour in the mornings and does demolition work — tearing out and lifting cement and drywall as part of construction and remodeling projects — with his dad in the late mornings and afternoons. Weekends are for downtime with friends.

…Zimmerer’s thankful that Cotton and the NU staff made their own evaluations.

“I must be doing something right,” he said. “Even if I wasn’t getting a whole lot of offers, I got one. That’s all you need.”

Jul

16

Corn Feed - Nebraska picked 3rd in Big 12 by media

Filed Under 2008 Preview, Big 12, Big 12 Preview, Corn Feed, Husker Ass Whompin's, Joe Ganz, Nebraska Cornhuskers Football | Leave a Comment 

Latest…

The results:

(First-place votes in parentheses)

North

1. Missouri (51) 306
2. Kansas 234
3. Nebraska 183
4. Colorado 181
5. Kansas State 108
6. Iowa State 59

South

1. Oklahoma (49) 304
2. Texas (2) 230
3. Texas Tech 227
4. Oklahoma State 140
5. Texas A&M 118
6. Baylor 52

11. I predict that Nebraska’s defense will be drastically improved — to the point where it achieves actual mediocrity. (It cannot help but be dramatically better than last year’s semi-permeable unit, which gave up, to various opponents, 49, 40, 41, 45, 36, 76, 31 and 65 points.)

12. I predict that Bo Pelini’s honeymoon in Lincoln, and the good will generated by his savvy vow to revive the Big Red’s once-potent walk-on program, will last for up to seven weeks, at which point the ‘Huskers will have lost three straight, and be staring down the barrel of a second-straight losing season.

Big 12: This is a clear top choice thanks to a lot of heady leaders who make smart decisions and have proven to be very accurate with the ball. The league has four guys with legit Heisman hopes in Chase Daniel, Sam Bradford, Graham Harrell and Colt McCoy. A fifth, Todd Reesing of Kansas, is as tough and as sharp as they come, although I expect KU to backslide some this year. Behind those five is plenty more talent that probably could merit all-conference consideration in any other league save for the SEC. In fact, 10 of the league’s top 11 passers return. Depth-wise, this is better than it’s ever been for the Big 12.

Jul

16

Corn Feed - In the year 2010, Nebraska will be…

Filed Under 2008 Preview, Corn Feed, ESPN Sucks, Ivan Maisel | 3 Comments 

CollegeFootballNews has an ongoing round table discussion with CF ‘experts’ from around the country.

On of the questions on topic was the 2010 pre-season ranking of Nebraska, Notre Dame, Michigan, Miami, and Florida State.

It seems most of the participants expect a return to the Top 25 although Bruce Feldman isn’t as bullish on the 2010 Huskers, but then again, we aren’t that bullish on his work or his colleagues at ESPN.

Charles Davis: 2010 pre season rankings for Florida State (20), Miami (15), Michigan (10), Nebraska (25), Notre Dame (5)

Stewart Mandel: 1) Michigan, 2) Miami, 3) Florida State, 4) Nebraska, 5) Notre Dame

Fiu: Michigan 3rd, Notre Dame 11th, Miami 15th, Nebraska 23rd, Florida State 25th. I have a gut feeling RichRod will get one or two key players, like a Pat White and a Steve Slaton, to quickly turn around the Wolverines. ND will be fine, Miami will be building to one big year, and then be slightly disappointing, Nebraska will be good, but won’t be Nebraska again, and FSU doesn’t seem to have any positive momentum right now.

Steve Greenberg: 1. FSU 2. Nebraska 3. Miami 4. Notre Dame 5. Michigan

Teddy Greenstein: 6. Miami, 9. Michigan, 13. Nebraska, 24. Florida State, receiving votes: Notre Dame

Dennis Dodd: Michigan, top five
Nebraska, top 10
Notre Dame, top 15
Miami, top 25
Florida State, unranked

Richard Cirminiello: Michigan…No. 15. Better get the Wolverines now before Rich Rodriguez recruits well and doesn’t take kindly to losing (see Urban Meyer).
Miami…No. 17. With a year of seasoning for the young kids, the ‘Canes might be ready for an ACC crown.
Nebraska…No. 24. By 2009, Bo Pelini’s fingerprints will be all over the program. In other words, the Blackshirts will be back in Lincoln.
Florida State…unranked. After another season of mediocrity, any optimistic pollsters will have vanished.
Notre Dame…unranked. The Irish will inch closer to the Top 25, but still are a year away.

Bruce Feldman: Michigan, Miami, FSU, Notre Dame, Nebraska

HG: Michigan (Top 5), Nebraska (Top 15), Miami (Top 25), Notre Dame (Unranked), FSU (Unranked)

Your predictions?

Jul

15

Corn Feed Extra: No news in the Khiry Cooper watch, which means we have another article

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A Mitch Sherman article that reveals nothing signficant about the Khiry Cooper watch.

(By the way, we are selling “The Khiry Cooper Watch 2008″ t-shirts and mugs in our store.*)

Let’s look at the Conventional Wisdom towards Khiry Cooper:

Nebraska Staff: Cautiously optimistic

HG: Cautiously pessimistic.
HG wants to prepare Husker Nation for what we believe is the inevitable: Khiry Cooper will strike a deal with the Angels. Why? Because money talks.

Khiry Cooper is leveraging the Huskers for more money. Plain and simple.

The Angels realize that even the 200,000 offered to Khiry Cooper is a lot more than what Nebraska can offer.

Only the Sooners can offer close to what Khiry is looking for.*

Also, an interesting nugget from today’s article:

Gilmore and baseball coach Mike Anderson, in fact, discussed the situation Monday. Anderson said he told Gilmore it’s not Aug. 15 that should most concern Nebraska but rather Aug. 7 or 8, when the Angels assess their signing-bonus budget and make a final run at Cooper.

* - denotes a joke

Jul

15

Corn Feed: James W. Conradt sued…by Oklahoma paper

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Can we all take a deep breath?

Ok, here is the latest of Darth Husker’s legal problems:

The Oklahoma Publishing Co., which publishes the Oklahoman newspaper and newsok.com Web site, filed a civil lawsuit Monday against James W. Conradt, a Nebraska football fan who works as a service manager for UT’s information technology department.

The 10-count civil lawsuit accuses Conradt of libel, copyright violations and trademark infringements. It seeks unspecified financial damages.

Conradt, 36, used a template from the newspaper’s Web site to publish a fake article on the Internet on July 9 that stated OU quarterbacks Sam Bradford and Landry Jones had been arrested for intent to distribute cocaine, the lawsuit alleges.

Landry Jones father is also expected to file suit against Conradt.

HG Take: We think Darth Husker’s actions clearly show that he needs a hobby. We also don’t really find the humor in the ‘parody.’

That being said, we are surprised how far this has gone. Are lawsuits really necessary at this point? Does anyone out there really believe the fake Sam Bradford and Landry Jones story? If anything, Darth Husker’s misdeed’s have received far more attention than the original phony article. He has also been skewered from across the country, from OU and Nebraska fan sites alike, and on HG on this classic post.

And I’m sure this has been extremely difficult on this family.

He’s guilty of bad judgment and a bad sense of humor.

But, I think it’s time we chill out and consider the public humiliation of James W. Conradt appropriate punishment for his misbehavior.

Footnote: We’ve tried to contact Darth Husker to see if he has any letter of apology he’d like to post. The best we could find was this statement on his site:

There was a fake news story posted for a few hours Wednesday at this location that was intended to be a joke
about Oklahoma football. A link to this site was posted on a Husker fan discussion board. I have decided to take
down my entire Husker site.

I am sorry for any trouble this has caused.

Please consider this to be an official retraction and correction. If you see a link to this page referencing
the previous story, please ask to have it removed. Thank you.

Jul

14

Corn Feed: Sporting News has Nebraska ranked 40th

Filed Under Classic Videos, Uncategorized, Videos | Leave a Comment 

Bo Pelini, Nebraska: Running a reclamation job on Nebraska will test the patience of any man, but most especially someone who oversaw their once-proud defense at its finest. A good comparison? Letting a friend borrow your car for two weeks and discovering he spilled coffee all over the dash, replaced your high-performance gas with rotgut regular grade and ripped the bumper off on the corner of the house. He deserves at least one big fit in year one.

And no, we aren’t going to show.

I said no, we aren’t going to show it.

Of course we are going to show it!

Another reason to cut back on gas- you might be funding terrorists and Oklahoma State Football program via T. Boone Pickens.

Jul

12

Corn Feed for the weekend, updated throughout the weekend.

Filed Under 2008 Preview, Bo Pelini, Corn Feed, Former Huskers, Huskers in the NFL, In Bo We Trust, Media on Huskers, Nebraska Cornhuskers Football | Leave a Comment 

I don’t think players in general really stay on top of commitments to tell you the truth,” he said. “If you asked someone about a guy who committed, they’d be like, ‘I don’t know.’

  • News and Notes from the Journal Star. Interesting: James Conradt is actually a UT employee and Jim  “Sweater Vest” Tressel on Bo Pelini:

Bo Pelini is going to do a good job. He’s competitive and I think he’s got the right perspective. He’s going to build something bigger than a program and bigger than a team.”

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