Nebraska...not feeling Frosty anymore

[lineygoblue]

Too bad you guys don't play them OOC.

[entropy]

We should have had a crossover game like the SEC and BIG have done to protect rivalries.

It was one of the factors in why Nebraska fans never accepted the Big12.

[lineygoblue]

The B1G is far from perfect, but I think they would have found a way to preserve a traditional rivalry like Oklahoma v Nebraska.

[entropy]

It is sometimes tough for hoss and I to be critical of the BIG. The 12 was so bad, everything seems perfect in the BIG. I am confident the rivalry would have remained.

And what a shame.

[Hannibal]

It is sometimes tough for hoss and I to be critical of the BIG.

Just wait until the honeymoon is over. Jim Delaney is a total twat.

[entropy]

You misspelled Dan Beebe.

[entropy]

Sometimes the phone rings and a man must consider a change. Especially when those calling are old friends.

He'd spent 5? years with Derek Dooley. "Five-and-a-half good years," Terry Joseph tells you.

But now Bo Pelini and John Papuchis wanted to know if Joseph, already making a fine living coaching defensive backs at Tennessee, wanted to come to Nebraska.

"My first thought was, ‘Man, I grew up in the South, I coached in the SEC, I don't know if this is the right thing,'" Joseph said. "But then I got home and I started researching it. And within 48 hours there was no way I could not come because of the opportunities."

It wasn't easy saying goodbye to Dooley. The Tennessee coach had given Joseph his first full-time assistant's job at Louisiana Tech, then brought him along to help coach the Vols.

When Joseph told those in Tennessee his plans to go to Nebraska, some assumed he was just going to visit.

"I said, ‘No, I'm just going,'" Joseph said. "And then when I got here, I knew I made the right choice. Because, when you see what's here, it's a special place, even more special than you see from a distance on TV. When you get here, you really feel it."

It was just a week ago that his hiring as Nebraska's secondary coach was made official. But Joseph took little time grabbing the full attention of his defensive backs.

While not a big man in stature, the 38-year-old coach's presence is hard to miss.

"He's got that strong voice, and when he talks to you he gets his point across," said senior safety P.J. Smith.

"He's challenging us every single day in the meeting room. We have a test every day we get in there. We have some type of test, and we've never had it before. And with these tests, you see that guys are really learning what they've got to do. He's working us."

There's no doubt who's in charge.

"One thing I did make clear when I came in is that I'm the new secondary coach," Joseph said. "We're going to do it the way that I want to do it and that's coming from the top down and the way Coach Pelini wants to do it."

Joseph is not as far behind in knowing NU's defensive system as some might think.

He was a grad assistant in 2006 at LSU while Pelini was the Tigers' defensive coordinator. Papuchis was there too.

Even after Joseph moved on to Louisiana Tech and Tennessee, he kept the playbooks from that year at LSU.

Sometimes he'd flip through them and pull out ideas he thought could help his team.

That experience is a big reason he said yes when Pelini came calling.

"Some people would tell me, once you're a G.A., the guy always looks as you a G.A.," Joseph said. "But that made me want to come to Nebraska because (Bo) never treated us as a G.A. That was a big step in my coaching career that he let us be hands-on."

Now that he's here?

He sees talent.

"The biggest thing I noticed is that we're a lot bigger and more athletic than we were at Tennessee," he said.

That doesn't mean success will come easy. Never does in this game.

"If you do it right, we're going to pat you on the back and tell you to do it right again," he said.

Players know he means business.

"I don't think I've seen him smile," said junior cornerback Ciante Evans.

Yet Husker recruiting followers will no doubt smile at the attitude Joseph brings to recruiting.

In his previous jobs, Joseph forged connections in Louisiana, the Dallas area, Atlanta and the Mississippi junior colleges. While he was at Louisiana Tech in 2009, Rivals.com ranked him the fourth-best recruiter nationally at a non-BCS school.

He's already busy recruiting for Nebraska.

"We're going to grind it out," he said. "I can tell you this: We're going to recruit against them all — the SEC, ACC, the rest of the schools in the Big Ten. We won't back down from anybody. We're going to go out there and recruit aggressively, and that's the only way I know how to."

What's his pitch to a kid from the South?

"When you see it, you won't believe it," Joseph answered.

That's how he felt, at least.

He counts himself lucky.

After college, Joseph played minor-league baseball. Played for Williamsport, Rockford, Orlando, Jackson, Mobile.

He had one really good year. Made a Double-A all-star team. But the next year he couldn't hit a slider.

"And I kind of promised myself I wasn't going to be a 10-year guy on buses," he said.

Another profession called. He coached baseball and football at a couple Louisiana high schools.

There was something about football. More scheming. More of a challenge.

"It was more than just the pitcher throwing 95 mph and you win," he said.

So the climb up the ladder began.

And while he might be new here, Joseph likes how this all feels.

A football guy in a football town.

"When you get something to eat, when you're walking in the mall, this place is all about Nebraska football."

[entropy]

After Sunday's loss husker baseball wins three in a row. Monday over Cal 9-5, Tues. over SDSU 12-3, & today over LATech 9-2.

[entropy]

He'll never forget that phone call.

That drive from Omaha to Lincoln.

The feelings of anger, confusion and hurt.

"I'm on the passenger side," Alonzo Whaley recalls. "I'm screaming, I'm cussing."

It was last July. Whaley had just returned to Nebraska from his hometown of Madisonville, Texas. He had just left the Omaha airport. He thinks it was a Saturday, because the 105 Husker football players designated for preseason drills were scheduled to meet the next day.

When he looks back, he's glad he wasn't driving. His world was about to crumble.

His cell phone rang. It was Wince Morris, Nebraska's director of player personnel.

"Hey, you're not making the 105, and you don't have to come to the meeting," Morris told Whaley.

Turns out, Whaley was having problems in school. Heck, he was having problems with life. He made a couple bad decisions, he said. Those decisions and those problems in school caught up with him and waylaid him right then and there, on that horrible trip to Lincoln.

"It was a humbling experience," Whaley said Wednesday. "Now I go out and I don't take football — I don't take nothing — for granted."

The 6-foot-1, 230-pound senior is the leading candidate to replace Lavonte David as Nebraska's starting WILL linebacker.

Yeah, that's a daunting challenge. David was one of NU's best linebackers of all time. It's a huge job, Whaley said. So he watches video of David, watches how he moves, how he attacks.

Whaley has faith in himself. He built a truckload of faith last summer in the weeks after that phone call. As his teammates worked through preseason drills, he sat alone in his house in Lincoln. He read the Bible. He talked to his mother. He talked to Will Compton, a fellow Husker linebacker. He talked to T.J. Hollowell, a graduate assistant coach. He talked to Ross Els, his position coach.

His teammates and coaches were there for him.

He especially recalls long talks with Hollowell, "and the thing I remember him telling me was, 'When you make it through all this, as a man, you'll feel like nothing can defeat you.'

"And that's the attitude I have right now."

Whaley is downright buoyant as he tells his story. He's peacock proud. He should be. His is a story of growth. Of beating adversity. Yeah, it's sort of corny. But there's nothing corny about a college kid standing before you, telling you how he was brought to his knees, and how he chose to respond.

For several weeks last summer, Whaley said, he lost his scholarship. He fought to get back on track academically. To get his scholarship renewed. To get his football career back. To get his life back.

"I've probably grown more in the last year than in probably 21 years of my life," he said.

The rebound began to really take shape late last August, when Whaley reported to camp with all the players who weren't on the initial 105-man roster. He began at the bottom of the depth chart at BUCK linebacker. Ground zero, as it were. 5th string.

"Nothing was given to me," he said. "I completely worked."

He played sparingly last season, finishing with 10 tackles, including three on coverage units. He did receive a handful of regular-down snaps at Michigan, the second-to-last regular-season game. In the last regular-season game, he started against Iowa — after receiving a coveted Blackshirt the week of the game.

A criminal justice major, Whaley is only 21 credit hours from his bachelor's degree.

He thinks back to that dreadful summer day, to that call from Morris. The director of player personnel didn't just deliver the bad news; he encouraged Whaley to stick with the program. In a sense, Whaley's story is what Bo Pelini's program is all about. If Pelini can't trust his players off the field, he says, how can he trust them on it?

Some players have to live and learn. Whaley can now help others who struggle.

"If I didn't have guys who cared about me like I knew they did in this program — it's one of the reasons why I chose to come here, because of the bond we have," Whaley said. "If I was somewhere where I was just another guy, I probably wouldn't be here."

Here's part of the beauty: Whaley doesn't feel like just another guy. He feels like nothing can defeat him.

"I'm proud of who I am today," he said.

========================================

It is good to see these kids grow up and end up being better players and people as a result

[entropy]

Howland to Nebraska heated up in a hurry Thursday — and then cooled off just as fast.

Such is the drama that comes with a coaching search.

A source close to Howland said Thursday afternoon that Nebraska was in talks with the UCLA men's basketball coach about its coaching vacancy, and that Howland had a decision to make by the end of the week.

This came two days after UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero announced he was retaining an embattled Howland for a 10th season, and after Howland, at a news conference, talked about his plans for improving the UCLA program.

Yet Howland issued another statement Thursday evening reaffirming his plans to stay at UCLA.

"I am proud to be returning to my dream job as the head coach of the Bruins next fall, and I intend on ending my coaching career at UCLA," Howland said. "I'm already very excited about the prospects for next year's team, am currently on the recruiting trail ..."

Nebraska fired Doc Sadler on March 9 after he went 101-89 in six seasons. Sources on the day of Sadler's firing said that Howland would be a leading target in NU's coaching search.

Howland worked previously under Nebraska associate athletic director Marc Boehm when the two were at Pittsburgh.

Howland has led UCLA to three NCAA Final Fours, but the Bruins have also not played in the postseason two of the past three seasons. That, combined with a Sports Illustrated story last month that said Howland's program was lacking discipline, led to speculation about his future at UCLA.

In addition to Howland, Nebraska has been in contact with Wisconsin-Milwaukee coach Rob Jeter.

Neither Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne nor Boehm is commenting on the search process.

Reach Brian Rosenthal at 402-473-7436

[entropy]

I think Howland and Dixon are being polite in talking to UNL, but Boehm should receive a portion of their pay raises.

[entropy]

Was told Howland said no today.

[JRB]

Given Howland's recent results at a program with every possible advantage in college basketball, I'm thinking he did Nebraska a favor by declining.

[entropy]

Sounds like the boosters are running the UCLA program... Not the AD or coaches... Messed up.

[entropy]

Also heard that Nebraska is very interested in Groce.