Hot Reads: Watch Listing
Nebraska center Cole Pensick was named to the Rimington Trophy watch list on Tuesday. He was one of 44 players on the initial list and one of four from the Big Ten along with Travis Jackson (Michigan State), Corey Linsley (Ohio State), and Brandon Vitabile (Northwestern). Pensick made the list despite starting just two games at center last year. Not bad -- and I think Pensick will be one of the best centers in the nation this year -- but it ...
A Sweet and Surreal Saturday Night
A young man, covered in head-to-toe bronze paint, rode the long escalator down to the main floor of CenturyLink Center on Saturday. He was a living Heisman Trophy on his way to somehow help salute retired Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne. If you got within 10 feet of him you could smell the paint. If you got within two feet of him you could see that the paint was covering a Ryan Klachko jersey. A fitting disposal, I suppose, of a ...
A Brief History of Husker Recruiting Rankings: 1987-2012
On the surface, recruiting class rankings are an exercise in subjectivity. Individual players are rated by individual experts and you inherently get some wildly divergent opinions on the hundreds of high school player who end up playing college football. With that many kids scattered across the country, it would be more surprising if there weren't differences of opinion. But overall the recruiting services do a good job of evaluating high school talent. Matt Hinton -- of CBSSports.com, SB Nation and Yahoo! ...
Hot Reads: Tom’s farewell party
Randy York has the details on "A Tribute to Tom," the Mar. 9 send-off for Tom Osborne in Omaha, and it's shaping up to be perhaps the most surreal retirement party in recent memory. Barry Switzer, Bill Snyder, and Barry Alvarez will be there. So will a dance company from Florida. Chris Fowler will host and Holly Rowe will be there "looking to go table-to-table for updates and analyses." Johnny Rodgers, Irving Fryar, Eric Crouch, Scott Frost will also be in ...
Hot Reads: Bold Predictions
A BOLD NEW WORLD >>> Are we past the expiration date for year-end type stories yet? Not at ESPN. The Worldwide Leader rolled out its big, "bold predictions" package yesterday across all conferences. Within the Big Ten, Adam Rittenberg predicts that both Ameer Abdullah and Taylor Martinez will top 1,200 yards rushing. (So will five other players in the conference according to Rittenberg.) Abdullah and Martinez nearly did it this year with 1137 and 1019 yards respectively, but doing it again (and ...
Hot Reads: Goin’ down to Florida
With Christmas in the rearview (barely) both Georgia and Nebraska are headed to Orlando to begin preparation for the Capital One Bowl. Nebraska departs this afternoon for Orlando and will hold its first practice Thursday morning at Freedom High School. Georgia will also arrive on Wednesday. The Bulldoogs will hold a practice right away Wednesday night at Celebration High School. Players from both teams will have the option of attending the Russell Athletic Bowl where Rutgers and Virginia Tech will play on Friday. ...
What winning looks like at Nebraska
At a place like Nebraska, you're expected to win. That's the baseline. And at a place like Nebraska you can probably win about 70-percent of your games simply by being Nebraska. When you factor in the seven or eight home games every year, the significant advantage in money over most schools, the significant advantage in resources over the bottom half of your conference, and simple name recognition, that's where you start. Not incidentally, that's the school's all-time winning percentage -- ...
A quick, historical look at Nebraska’s 2012 offense
We all know that Nebraska's offense is good. At the moment, it's the best in the Big Ten and 20th nationally in terms of yards per play. The real question is how good? Just to satisfy my own curiosity, I decided to look at Nebraska's numbers this year against those of the past 20 years. I wouldn't call it historically good quite yet, but it's close, and a year of experience in offensive coordinator Tim Beck's offense has made a significant ...
Huskers stuff Gophers 38-14
LINCOLN -- It felt anti-climatic, this 38-14 win over Minnesota in Lincoln. No comebacks, no questionable calls, no drama. Just dominance. Was there any other way to send Tom Osborne out? There was a deep sense of nostalgia in Memorial Stadium on Saturday, with the former coach presiding over his final home game as athletic director. Osborne, walking side by side with coach Bo Pelini, led the team out of the tunnel. Former players (Frazier, Frost, et al), foes (Switzer, Snyder), ...
Leaving a Legacy
In honor of Tom Osborne's final home game as the University of Nebraska's athletic director, we're publishing, for the first time online, a story that originally appeared in Hail Varsity magazine the week after Osborne announced his retirement. You can find more stories like this each week in Hail Varsity magazine. Click here to subscribe. *** Picture this. Three days before Nebraka’s biggest home game in two years, Tom Osborne is sitting alone high up in the Memorial Stadium press box. He’s wearing ...
