Are the Huskers falling behind in recruiting?
If Dave Gillespie was worried in the early days of 1993, he definitely wasn't going to admit it to the largest newspaper in the state. The Huskers had just lost the Orange Bowl 27-14 to Florida State nine days earlier. It was Nebraska's sixth straight bowl loss and fourth straight season where the Huskers fell outside of the Associated Press' final Top 10. But that wasn't Gillespie's biggest problem. His immediate concern was that the Huskers had just six players verbally committed ...
Vegas favors NU in three home games
As teased earlier this week, the Golden Nugget promised point spreads for more than 200 college football games today. The Golden Nugget has delivered, which always provides an interesting early look at the perceived strength of teams. Spreads for five Nebraska games were released today with the Huskers favored in three of them, all home games. The point spreads and my quick reaction to them below: 9/14 UCLA @ Nebraska (-6): Based on where these teams are falling in the preseason polls thus ...
What are the odds the Blackshirts improve in 2013?
Four is likely the number you're going to hear mentioned most when the preseason pundits talk about Nebraska this summer. As in four returning starters on defense, the fewest of the Bo Pelini era. The Huskers are one of just 20 teams (out of 125 in FBS this year) with four or fewer defensive starters back in 2013 according to Phil Steele. Any preseason prediction for Nebraska likely hinges on how well the prognosticator thinks the Huskers can handle that inexperience ...
Ranking the Big Ten: Defense
There's nothing better to kick off the summer than the promise of fall. With the first ever Hail Varsity Yearbook hitting newsstands and mailboxes soon, all this week we're celebrating that glorious time of year (i.e. now) when the college football preview magazines start to arrive. Call it "Preview Week." Our Big Ten outlook, all-conference teams, position-by-position breakdowns and power rankings are all in the Yearbook but to help get things rolling we'll be posting additional rankings, ideas, and opinions on the 2013 ...
Ranking the Big Ten: Offense
There's nothing better to kick off the summer than the promise of fall. With the first ever Hail Varsity Yearbook hitting newsstands and mailboxes soon, all this week we're celebrating that glorious time of year (i.e. now) when the college football preview magazines start to arrive. Call it "Preview Week." Our Big Ten outlook, all-conference teams, position-by-position breakdowns and power rankings are all in the Yearbook but to help get things rolling we'll be posting additional rankings, ideas, and opinions on the 2013 ...
Which preseason magazines are the most accurate?
There's nothing better to kick off the summer than the promise of fall. With the first ever Hail Varsity Yearbook hitting newsstands and mailboxes soon, all this week we're celebrating that glorious time of year (i.e. now) when the college football preview magazines start to arrive. Call it "Preview Week." Our Big Ten outlook, all-conference teams, position-by-position breakdowns and power rankings are all in the Yearbook but to help get things rolling we'll be posting additional rankings, ideas, and opinions on the 2013 ...
Money Talks
"What today brings is an opportunity for me to stand in front of you and chase a dream," Bret Bielema told the reporters and hog-calling cheerleaders assembled at the December press conference announcing him as the next head coach at Arkansas. It's the sort of thing you've got to say when you leave one high-profile football school for another, but Bielema made it pretty clear the real reason he decided to ditch Wisconsin days after winning his third straight Big Ten ...
Huskers get favorable 2014 schedule
On Thursday the Big Ten released the 2014 football schedules, the first season for the conference under the new East-West divisional alignment. Nebraska's new schedule is as follows: 9/21 Illinois, 10/4 at Michigan State, 10/11 BYE, 10/18 at Northwestern, 10/25 Rutgers, 11/1 Purdue, 11/8 BYE, 11/15 at Wisconsin, 11/22 Minnesota, 11/28 at Iowa. Assuming that 2013 plays out as expected, this looks like a pretty favorable slate of games for the Cornhuskers next year for a number of reasons: 1) Nebraska likely will ...
Huskers in rare financial company
On Wednesday, USA Today released its annual database of revenues and expenses for the 228 public school athletic departments in NCAA Division I athletics. Of that group, only 23 athletic departments were in the black, taking in more money than they spent in 2012. Nebraska was one of those schools. In 2012, the athletic department took in $81.63 million in revenue and spent $77.03 million on athletics. Nebraska's $4.6 million surplus ranked 13th nationally in 2012 and third in the Big ...
The 10 Best B1G Games in 2013
I felt my first genuine twinge of excitement for the coming college football season this week. I was doing research for the Big Ten team capsules that will appear in next month's season preview issue of Hail Varsity and I saw a game that elicited an almost literal Pavlovian response. I didn't start drooling, but the salivary glands definitely went into action. "That's going to be a huge game," I said to the cat in my office and then I wandered ...
