Nebraska...not feeling Frosty anymore

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http://hailvarsity.com/2013/06/what-are-the-odds-the-blackshirts-improve-in-2013/

Article on chance for UNL d improvement...

[WM Wolverine]

I'm going to take the over in most all of UNL games.

[entropy]

Yea.. I'm not as optimistic.

[Mike]

Sounds like there's a good chance that D could really suck. So that's nice.

[WM Wolverine]

You'll have to outscore their opponents for sure, which I think they actually can do. Your schedule looks really soft (I consider M's just soft) to me so like M, so you guys are likely to win about 9 games.

Like M again, your schedule is 'backloaded' with all the tough games in November, meaning M and Neb have a good shot at meeting (undefeated in conference at least) head-to-head playing for the division tiebreaker. MSU's has an even softer conference schedule so games between M & MSU & Neb will [obviously] be critical for the division crown. Hopefully everyone splits so we have chaos...

Not a big fan of Northwestern [I've seen lots of pre-season places giving them 9 wins], they've got the Buckeyes & Badgers so even if they do well in-division, they'll need to nearly sweep the division to have a chance at the west division. They won't be a pushover and probably will upset 1 or 2 of M, MSU, Neb but I don't see them as a factor in the division race.

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1 hour ago ? By BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star
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Nebraska and Cincinnati have agreed to a home-and-home series in men's basketball, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Thursday.

The newspaper said that no contracts have been signed, but that the schools have a verbal agreement. Nebraska will visit Cincinnati this season, and the Bearcats will play in Lincoln in 2014-15.

Cincinnati was 22-12 last season and lost to Creighton in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. It marked the third straight 20-win season and third straight NCAA Tournament appearance for Cincinnati.

The Bearcats return two starters, including leading scorer Sean Kilpatrick, who averaged 17 points per game. Kilpatrick was a second-team All-Big East selection last year as a junior and ranked fifth in the league in scoring.

Cincinnati, 13-5 in the Big East last season, will play in the renamed American Athletic Conference next season.

Cincinnati leads the all-time series with Nebraska 3-0, with the most recent game an 84-73 Bearcat victory on Dec. 31, 1996 in Puerto Rico.

Nebraska, which has home nonconference games with Florida Gulf Coast and Miami, plus an appearance in the Charleston Classic, will announce its complete schedule later this summer.

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4 hours ago ? By BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star

Hours before his high school graduation ceremony Friday night, Nick Fuller already was planning the next step of his life.

What to pack? What not to pack?

?I got all the bathroom stuff,? Fuller said in a phone conversation, ?now I?m working on the clothes.?

By Sunday morning, Fuller?s car will be loaded, and he?ll make his eight-hour trek, along with his parents and younger brother, from Sun Prairie, Wis., to Lincoln.

But that?s just the beginning of Fuller?s journey.

The Nebraska basketball recruit begins his college career Monday, when he?ll start summer classes -- English and public speaking -- and become acquainted with the Hendricks Training Complex.

Fellow newcomers Nate Hawkins, a freshman from Rowlett, Texas, and Leslee Smith, a transfer from Seward County (Kan.) Community College, also will begin classes Monday, the start of the first summer session.

Incoming freshman Tai Webster, from New Zealand, is planning on arriving in Lincoln in July for the second summer session.

Fuller was the first player to commit to first-year coach Tim Miles? 2013 recruiting class in August, and was joined a couple of hours later by Hawkins. They?ll be roommates starting Sunday night.

?We both want to win,? Fuller said. ?He?s a guy like me. He just says he wants to help the team, and when I talk to the other guys, like Shavon (Shields) and Terran (Petteway) and Walter (Pitchford), they just want to win, too.

?We have a bunch of guys who want to win and will do whatever it takes to win.?

Fuller, a 6-foot-7, left-handed-shooting wing, will have the opportunity to help do just that as a freshman.

?My thought is I?m just going to go hard, go down there and work hard and see what I can do,? Fuller said. ?I don?t know if that will mean a lot of minutes. I just want to contribute in any way I can and just work hard.?

Fuller brings one trait Nebraska needs: The ability to score.

He averaged 24.9 points his senior season and finished his high school career with 1,938 points, making him the all-time leading scorer at Sun Prairie High School and in the Big Eight Conference.

He also helped Sun Prairie to a 20-4 record and the school?s first conference championship since it joined the league in 1977-78.

Fuller, the Big Eight Conference player of the year, has a silky-smooth outside shot but also isn?t afraid to attack the rim and draw contact. He attempted more than 220 free throws as a senior, and made them at an 80 percent clip.

Fuller?s high school coach, Jeff Boos, has described Fuller as an ?offensive machine? who can score in many ways.

Of course, Fuller knows he?ll need to increase his size and strength to have a chance to do the same in the Big Ten Conference. He intends to spend this summer doing so.

Fuller finished his senior season weighing 200 pounds, has since put on 7 or 8 pounds, and wants to be at 215 by the time his freshman season begins.

What?s more, Fuller has proven durable. He finished his high school career having played in 99 consecutive games, and hasn?t missed a game -- varsity, youth or AAU -- since sixth grade. He played in more than 200 AAU games over four years.

?I?ve been fortunate,? Fuller said. ?A couple of ankles and fingers, but nothing too serious.?

Last week, Fuller was named the Madison Sports Hall of Fame all-area sportsperson of the year. In March, he was selected as the top senior wing player by the Wisconsin Sports Network, an award won the previous season by Sam Dekker.

Dekker made the All-Big Ten Freshman team last season at Wisconsin, and some recruiting analysts think Fuller has a chance to make a similar impact at Nebraska.

?Fuller has more athleticism than most give him credit for and is just an extremely tough kid,? wrote Fox Sports Next recruiting analyst Brian Snow. ?He has done battle against many of the top wings in the country, and usually has held his own. He could definitely be one of those under-the-radar type players who has a very good career and helps Nebraska make strides within the Big Ten.?

Fuller, who was recruited by former NU assistant Ben Johnson, chose Nebraska over Minnesota, which is where Johnson is now coaching. Fuller also had offers from Illinois, Creighton, Marquette, Butler, Drake and Northern Iowa.

On official offer from Wisconsin never came, but that doesn?t concern Fuller now.

?The way I look at it, I?m in the best shape for me,? he said, ?and I think it worked out perfectly for me in the long run.?

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LJS

A month ago, in this very blog, there was a good deal of words being paid to Jason Hall.

At the time the cornerback from Grand Prairie, Texas, was fresh off his commitment to Nebraska.

He was an interesting prospect because he didn't have many offers at the time -- just Nebraska and North Texas. But there was also some buzz down south about the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Hall according to some folks in the know.

So on May 10, I blogged this: "For those worried about recent Husker commit Jason Hall's offer list, you might wait a month to see what it looks like then."

Now, June 10: Hall's offer list now includes Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa and Nevada.

It seems Terry Joseph and Tim Beck got a foot in the door first on a pretty solid prospect, a recruit who committed to NU without having visited the campus.

The good news: Husker fans will no doubt see the defensive back's growing list of offers as encouragement in regards to Nebraska coaches' evaluation of Hall.

The bad news: The new concern will be whether the corner's commitment to Nebraska will hold as he gets courted by more schools, especially those closer to home like Bevo.

Hall told BigRedReport.com the Texas offer does present him with a tough choice.

"It puts me in a hard position. Because all the eyes are on me now. So I don't know what to do," he told the recruiting website.

He said he plans to have a long talk with his family to sort things out.

One positive for Nebraska is that it does seem to mean something to the family that the Huskers were the first big-time program to come knocking on his door.

?It?s a relief just knowing you?re locked into a big-time program for football,? Hall told the Journal Star after he committed to Nebraska.

And his dad recently echoed those thoughts with this comment to HuskerOnline.com: "It's nice that (other schools) have recognized his talents and hard work but it doesn't change anything with Nebraska. He is still 100% committed to them and they're committed to him. Jason will just be working out and working at his summer job. He won't be taking any visits to camps or anything."

One last thing to know about the Hall family?

They pay very close to the entire college football landscape -- not just what happens in Texas.

?I come from a family where we always watch sports,? Hall told me after his commitment last month. ?My dad, he watches as much sports as anybody I know, and he knows exactly how Nebraska is and knew it was the right choice for me to go there.?

We'll see how this one plays out.





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Yes, Nebraska is now taking assistants from Georgetown

Turns out, Otto Porter wasn't the only person to leave Georgetown this offseason.

The majority of John Thompson III's staff is gone, too.

Nebraska coach Tim Miles announced Monday that he's hired Kenya Hunter away from Georgetown, making him the third assistant coach to leave the Big East school since the Hoyas lost to Florida Gulf Coast in the Round of 64 of the NCAA tournament. Former assistant Mike Brennan is now the head coach at American, and he took former Georgetown director of basketball operations Scott Greenman with him.

JT3 hired Northwestern's Tavaras Hardy and George Washington's Kevin Sutton to replace Brennan and Hunter as full-time assistants. The DOBO job remains open.

So what does all this turnover mean?

The moves by Brennan and Greenman make sense, honestly, because both are now in obviously better positions -- Brennan as a first-time head coach, Greenman as a first-time assistant. But the Hunter-to-Nebraska development is wild, mostly because it means Nebraska just poached an assistant from Georgetown. And while it would be easy to question how Georgetown could let that happen, I think a better use of this space would be to highlight exactly what's going on in Lincoln.

Simply put, this is not your grandfather's Nebraska.

Or your father's Nebraska.

Or even your older brother's Nebraska.

The Big Ten school opened a new $20 million basketball practice facility in October 2011, will open a new $179 million basketball arena this season, and is paying second-year coach Tim Miles a salary that'll eventually exceed $2 million annually, which brings me to Hunter and his salary. A source told CBSSports.com that it'll be $230,000 a year, and that all three Huskers assistants now make at least $200,000 a year. So while Nebraska is still quite obviously a "football" school, the administration has made it clear it thinks there's no reason basketball can't operate at a high level, too.

Will it?

We'll see.

But the school is undeniably investing properly.

And that's almost always the first step toward something great.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/blog/eye-on-college-basketball/22385197/yes-nebraska-is-now-taking-assistants-from-georgetown

"Don't pray when it rains, if you don't pray when the sun shines." Leroy "Satchel" Paige

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By Randy York

The most successful Big Ten Conference coach in Rose Bowl history had a recent knee replacement. Despite being dramatically limited in terms of mobility, he was making arrangements late Monday afternoon to fly privately to Lincoln. He refuses to miss Wednesday’s visitation and Thursday’s funeral for one of the most important people in his life … the man who convinced him that Arizona State, Virginia, West Virginia and Wake Forest were good schools, but they were no place like Nebraska.

“John Melton was not a great football mind, but he was a great recruiter and a real character,” Barry Alvarez said in a telephone conversation. “He wasn’t a head coach, but he was one of college football’s most loyal assistants. Don’t get me wrong. He understood the game and knew how to make adjustments during the game. But his best strength, by far, was recruiting. He recruited so many great players, and they all loved him, partly because he was such a character.”

Count Alvarez as the captain of that camp of players after Melton recruited him from the same high school he graduated from in Burgettstown, Pa., while on Bob Devaney’s staff at Nebraska. Like Devaney, “John always had a one-liner that could crack you up,” Alvarez said. “That’s why everyone wanted to watch film when he was giving his analysis. He would tell you what happened, but he would make you laugh every time you took the time to watch.”

Melton Had the Ability to Laugh at Himself

Melton died unexpectedly and suddenly Saturday while working in his backyard in Eagle, Neb. He was 86, but his sense of humor made him seem younger. Nebraska Athletic Director Emeritus Tom Osborne always has appreciated Melton’s ability to laugh at himself, and Alvarez is another big fan of his self-deprecating personality.

“Recruiting was different back in the ‘60s,” Alvarez said. “Coach Melton came to see me and my parents in Pennsylvania the day after Nebraska played in the Orange Bowl. I was just getting out of basketball practice, and a bunch of big snowflakes were coming down. John shivered when he met me and said he forgot how cold it was in Burgettstown. I told him: ‘Coach, the temperature is 32 degrees. That’s why I’m wearing a light jacket. You mean, it doesn’t get cold like this in Nebraska?’”

Alvarez will never forget Melton’s comeback. “It gets cold sometimes,” he told Alvarez. “But in Nebraska, it’s a dry kind of cold, not a wet kind of cold.”

Alvarez became an All-Big Eight linebacker for the Huskers in 1968, a season when the Blackshirts led the nation in total defense. He laughs out loud just thinking about the characters recruited by a character himself. “I mean, John recruited (All-America end) Tony Jeter and (running back) Harry ‘Light Horse’ Wilson,” Alvarez pointed out. “He recruited all those players from Green Bay that played on Bob’s national championship teams – Jerry Tagge, Dave Mason, Jim Anderson and Dennis Gutzman.

Melton Recruited Iowa with Amazing Results

“John owned Iowa when he was recruiting for Devaney,” Alvarez said. “Everyone wanted Roger Craig and Jamie Williams, but John was the one who got their signatures. He was the one who recruited Scott Raridon and Steve McWhirter. He was one of those guys who could list all the positives of Nebraska, and after he did it, he could make you feel something without saying it. He could make you feel like if you didn’t choose Nebraska, you’d be a fool.”

Alvarez remembers how fiery Melton could be as a coach, and, according to Osborne, it didn’t make any difference what the score was. Nebraska could be 40 points ahead, and Melton would still get fired up like the Huskers were behind. Jim Ross was the first assistant to follow Devaney from Wyoming to Lincoln, and Melton was the second. Carl Selmer and Mike Corgan stayed in Laramie to see if either might follow Lloyd Eaton at Wyoming as head coach. They did not, so they joined Devaney’s staff in Lincoln. Devaney also retained Clete Fischer and George Kelly from the existing staff after Bill Jennings was fired, and his last two hires were two graduate assistants - Dallas Dyer and Osborne.

“Nebraska had a lot of excellent coaches, and it’s always sad to see them go,” Alvarez said. “Bob’s gone, Mike’s gone, Clete’s gone, George is gone, Jim’s gone and now John’s gone. Those guys helped put Nebraska football on the map. They’re all important parts of Nebraska history. They worked together, laughed together and won together.”

Laughter: Melton’s Ultimate Sign of Respect

About five years ago, Burgettstown was celebrating a state championship football team and asked Melton to be the featured speaker. Alvarez arranged for private flights to accommodate that request. “John had the whole room laughing and thoroughly entertained,” said Alvarez, who also invited Melton and Margie, his widow, as personal guests for the Nebraska-Wisconsin game in 2011 in Madison. At a luncheon on the Friday before the nationally televised night game, Wisconsin’s Hall of Fame football coach/athletic director introduced Melton to a large room full of Badger fans. Alvarez also allowed the emcee to show a film of him intercepting a pass against Wisconsin when he was a linebacker at Nebraska playing for Melton.

Melton told the emcee it was an easy play for the announcer to describe his runback on that interception. “Alvarez intercepts the ball. He’s at the 40, the 39, the 38,” Alvarez said, laughing. “John was an intense guy, but a funny guy and a creative guy. He always had people laughing.”

Melton’s funeral will be Thursday at 11 a.m. at First Plymouth Church in Lincoln. Poignant memories will be shared, tears will be shed and laughter will be an important sign of respect to honor Melton’s memory. He was, after all, a man who truly felt that a day without laughter was a day wasted.

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LJS

What was Kenya Hunter’s first reaction upon learning Tim Miles was looking for an assistant men’s basketball coach?

Well, it’s probably one you’d expect from a Virginia native who spent the past six seasons coaching at Georgetown.

Nebraska?

Really?

“Obviously, it’s in the middle of the country,” Hunter said in a phone interview, “so nobody really knows.”

Then Hunter did some homework on Miles and what he’s doing with Nebraska’s program.

And last week, Hunter came to Nebraska for the first time. He talked with Miles, whom he’d never met. He toured the $20 million Hendricks Training Complex, saw the $179 million Pinnacle Bank Arena, set to open this fall.

He was sold.

On Monday, Miles announced Hunter would join Nebraska’s coaching staff. He replaces Ben Johnson, who left for Minnesota in April. Hunter begins his new job June 17.

“My intention was not to interview for any job,” said Hunter, who noted the success he had under coach John Thompson III at Georgetown. “It was just one of those things -- perfect storm, perfect timing, whatever you want to call it. It was just one of those things where it seemed like the perfect opportunity for me.”

Hunter, 41, was Thompson’s longest-tenured staff member at Georgetown. He previously served as an assistant coach at Xavier for three seasons and was director of operations at North Carolina State for four. Combined, he had 10 NCAA Tournament appearances in 13 seasons at those schools.

At Georgetown, he played a key role in developing four NBA players, including Roy Hibbert and Greg Monroe, and will likely help produce a third NBA first-round draft pick in Otto Porter, the Big East player of the year who’s expected to be among the top five picks.

Hunter said he doesn’t consider himself as someone with recruiting ties to any particular area, but rather as a coach who can recruit anywhere.

“Being in the business for 15 years, I’ve had a lot of contacts,” Hunter said, “and I’ve recruited different areas.”

Hunter said he has strong ties with DC Assault and Team Takeover — two AAU programs based in Washington, D.C. — and has a “really good relationship” with Keith Stevens, director of Team Takeover.

“I know a lot of people. Hopefully they can help me out and get a couple of players,” Hunter said. “I have some guys I’ve been recruiting (in the 2014 class). Hopefully, after they get the news that I’m at Nebraska, I’ll try to get some guys in.”

Miles acknowledged Hunter’s recruiting ties but said that’s not the only reason he brought him on staff.

“He’s got a network of contacts that I think expand our boundaries,” Miles said. “But he’s really a well-rounded coach and a good guy, so I think he’s one of those guys who can help you in a variety of ways, whether it be on the floor with the guys or in a scouting report or during a game or on the recruiting trail. He’ll be good for us in all of those areas.”

Miles, who also interviewed Oakland’s Saddi Washington and Wright State’s Chris Moore in Lincoln, said Hunter’s name came up a few times during his search process, but that he was “a little skeptical” a coach would leave Georgetown for Nebraska.

“But at the same time I got to talking to Kenya, and as we got going and got to know each other better, it became more and more of a great fit and I think a better match,” Miles said. “I’m really excited about it.”

Hunter, who has spent much of his coaching career running Princeton-style offenses, said he’s eager to learn a different offensive style under Miles, as well as develop ties in other areas of the country.

All will be beneficial as Hunter aims for his ultimate goal: To one day be a head coach.

“For me, it’s an opportunity to learn a different way,” Hunter said. “In this game, you always want to continue to absorb and learn new things.”

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1 hour ago ? By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON
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Shawn Eichorst made his monthly radio appearance Tuesday on the Husker Sports Network's "Sports Nightly" show with Jeff Culhane.

Let's begin with the Husker athletic director's thoughts on football scheduling, and then hit a few other kernels on the way out, including his take on Tim Miles' newest staff addition.

But, first, what about those Big Ten schedules for 2014 and 2015 that were recently released?

"These things are never perfect but I think they worked out as well as they could," Eichorst said.

And in 2016 when the conference goes to a nine-game league schedule?

The challenge for Nebraska will come in the even years when the Huskers play five league games on the road.

"It tells us we can't travel any more games if we're going to have seven (home games), right?" Eichorst said. "So even years are years we're going to have to attract that BCS-level opponent like us in the non-conference to come to Lincoln."

The good thing, he pointed out, is that Nebraska's future non-conference schedules right now sync up well to meet that challenge.

Nebraska has Tennessee coming to Lincoln in 2016, with a trip to Knoxville the next year, and Colorado coming to Lincoln in 2018, with a trip to Boulder the next year.

And then there's Oklahoma coming to Lincoln in 2022, with a trip to Norman scheduled for the year before.

"We're just going to have to be mindful of how that imbalance is, and we've been aggressive in the marketplace trying to find games," Eichorst said. "I think we're a lot farther ahead than some other institutions are with their marque home-and-home games, so that allows us to focus on inviting teams just to come to Lincoln for guaranteed games."

* Eichorst praised Miles for his patience in the process of hiring of new assistant basketball coach Kenya Hunter.

"He knew exactly what he wanted and I think he got it," Eichorst said of Miles.

"In this case, speed isn't as important as getting it right..." Eichorst added. "What I like about Tim, and I think why our fans gravitate to him is he's extremely positive and energetic. He doesn't worry about the things we don't have, whether there's an airport close or we're early or late in recruiting and all that sort of stuff. He just focuses on the strengths of the program and saying, 'Why not Nebraska? Why can't we be good in basketball?'"

* There's a lot of energy in the athletic department right now, Eichorst said, with football summer conditioning beginning and summer camps for high schoolers going on this week.

Then, of course, there's the important Big Red Weekend recruiting event this weekend.

"I know our football coaching staff has done a great job identifying the right kids. You know, this place, at the end of the day, sells itself. Certainly behind the scenes, we're trying to do everything we can to put our football program in a position to be successful. And these are key weekends."

* Eichorst said Indiana's run to the College World Series can do nothing but help the perception of baseball in the Big Ten.

"It certainly raises the profile and the tides," he said. ""High tides rise all boats. And we want to be right there with them."

We'll have more on the Hoosiers' appearance in Omaha in the days to come.





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1 hour ago ? By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON
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With Big Red Weekend about to hit, I had a chat this week with Husker recruiting coordinator Ross Els to get his take on the state of Nebraska recruiting.

I'll save the meat of that conversation for a story that will be on the web later tonight. Here's a few leftovers, because sometimes leftovers taste OK, right?

* Els said Nebraska has somewhere around 250 offers out at this point.

"Something like that. I think it's a little bit higher," he said. "I really thought our coaches did a fantastic job this spring. We've got some guys that were -- and I hate using recruiting terms like 'under-the-radar' -- but they kind of were. It's hard in this day and age to find a kid that everybody doesn't know about, and we've found a couple we really liked.

"And then as soon as we got on them, then the Texases and Oklahomas started to jump on the bandwagon. But I thought our guys really did a good job of finding more kids this year. I think our pool is bigger than what it's been."

* Last year's Big Red Weekend featured inflatable obstacle courses, foosball face-offs, home run derbies and golf chipping contests.

And, of course, a barbecue. Husker coaches wanted a family feel.

They got an immediate payoff with commitments from Nathan Gerry and Gabriel Miller. (Terrell Newby and Zach Hannon also were visitors to last year's BRW who eventually committed, though they didn't do so until some months passed.)

Now, in Year 2 of the Big Red Weekend, what's the sentiment Els most wants to get across to recruits visiting this year?

"There's really two things," he said. "We need to get the recruits near our support people. They've heard from our coaching staff. We've been out to some of their practices. ... We've talked to them on Facebook and on Twitter. We've talked to them on the phone. So the coaching staff, they might feel a little bit of familiarity with. But we need to get them around all our strength and conditioning (people), and academics, and life skills, and nutrition, and show them what a great support staff we have here to get them what they need out of college.

"And then the second thing is we want to get them around our team. We want to get them around our players where you can see this family atmosphere that Bo's created -- of guys that want to be here, who work awfully hard but are having fun while they do it. It's a pretty good selling point when we can get them around both those types of people."

* What about entering Big Red Weekend with four commits?

"I'm never satisfied," Els said. "If we're going to sign in the low 20s, maybe 20 or 21 this year, I want to have 20 or 21 committed now and obviously we don't. But I would be worried about not having very many commitments only if we didn't have good relationships with some good players, and we do have those kind of relationships right now."

More coming from Els. And plenty more on the big recruiting weekend ahead.

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Randy York:

The night before John Melton's memorial service at Lincoln’s First Plymouth Congregational Church is an appropriate time to ask Husker Nation to sit down, chill a bit and read about the ultra-rocky relationship between the late Bob Devaney and Jerry Murtaugh, an All-America linebacker and co-captain on Devaney’s first national championship team. The time is right because Murtaugh plans to spill the beans about Devaney’s disdain for him when he speaks at the funeral anyway.

Timing is one of life’s greatest ironies. Nebraska Athletic Director Emeritus Tom Osborne regrettably had to tape his message for Melton’s funeral because he could not change an out-of-the-country retirement gift for his entire family.

Margie Melton, John’s widow, asked Murtaugh, who has remained very close with his old linebacker coach, to speak from five to eight minutes at her husband’s memorial service.

Murtaugh will speak from the heart to honor a man he has made a point to see every month for years upon years, along with Van Brownson and others. As the years went by, players joined Melton in his dream backyard facing hole No. 7 at Woodland Hills in Eagle, Neb., where there’s a sanctuary nestled among at least one tree more than 100 years old. The former Huskers would join their favorite Nebraska coach in a group of Adirondack chairs and cover every topic you can imagine – politics, religion and everything in between. But somehow, the conversation would always end up relating to Big Red football – what it was like way back when, how it's going now and what might happen in the future.

Melton: Murtaugh Caused Multiple Problems

“John always told me I was the only guy who got him fired and caused his first heart attack, and I’m very proud of that because he was the one who always came to my rescue when Bob Devaney had had enough of me,” Murtaugh said, pointing to Melton’s knack to be incredibly loyal to both at the same time.

That was no small feat, especially when Devaney fired Melton twice for the same reason – his inability to control a superior athlete from North Omaha who simply could not stay out of T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

Both firings lasted only one day, but they were intended to make a serious point for Murtaugh, who remains Nebraska’s second all-time leading tackler, even though it's been more than four decades since he last pulled an authentic Blackshirt over his head. “I just couldn’t stop hitting quarterbacks, even when they were off-limits in certain drills,” he said. “Bob never liked me, but that was only one of several reasons why.”

Devaney’s war with Murtaugh was never-ending. Truth be told, the roots of their fractured relationship traces back to Devaney’s recruitment of a physical linebacker who had five sisters and four brothers. All the Southern schools, plus Notre Dame, Southern Cal and Oklahoma recruited Murtaugh, who didn’t see Nebraska’s Hall-of-Fame head football coach and iconic trailblazer any differently than the other head coaches pursuing him.

Finally, when Murtaugh had given OU an oral commitment without so much as a visit – and was contemplating switching that decision to Colorado – Devaney and Murtaugh sat down and had a heart-to-heart talk in Omaha.

Devaney Helped Turn His World Right Side Up

Devaney told Murtaugh that the Big Eight pendulum was swinging and if he wound up at Oklahoma, he was going to miss playing in front of his family every week when Nebraska was winning the Big Eight and beating OU down the stretch.”

He told me I was going to be an unknown,” said Murtaugh, who changed his focus and signed his National Letter of Intent with Nebraska, but continued to torment his head coach throughout his career.

Barry Alvarez, an All-Big Eight Husker linebacker in 1968, remembers Murtaugh's refusal to go to Nebraska’s 1971 Orange Bowl game unless his infant daughter could make the trip as well. Devaney said no. Melton said no. Everybody said no.

Wednesday I asked Murtaugh if that was true. “Yes,” he said. “I was bound and determined not to go. In fact, I refused. Coach Melton got so frustrated, he could hardly talk, but he found a way to get me to go. He asked his first wife (the late Bev Melton) to talk to me. She knew I had my mind set, and she finally quit arguing my point and said: ‘I understand why you’re upset. Don’t go to play for Coach Devaney or for John. Go to Miami for your teammates. Go for the state of Nebraska. Go to help Nebraska win its first national championship.’”

Somehow, Bev Melton cracked a hard-headed skull that was otherwise impenetrable. “She’s the only reason I went to Miami,” Murtaugh said. “When I got there, I was still irritated and went up and told Mrs. Melton ‘You’re the only reason I’m here, and you’re the only one who could talk me into it.’”

Not His Greatest Game, but He Learned From It

Murtaugh’s Orange Bowl performance became a reflection of his attitude. “I think I only had seven tackles,” he said. “LSU took good care of me, but they let Eddie Periard run loose and Willie Harper had the game of his life. LSU was so busy blocking me, they forgot about Eddie and a sophomore defensive end who became an All-American himself the next year.”

Make no mistake. There were times when Melton would get every bit as mad at Murtaugh as Devaney would. “I would drive Coach Devaney and Coach Melton absolutely nuts,” Murtaugh said. “I was goofy, no question.”

Finally, during month-long family vacations together on an island near Honduras, or in a dream backyard in Eagle, Melton and Murtaugh reached a conclusion. “John finally said that you have to be half nuts to play linebacker, and you have to be half nuts to coach linebackers, so we’re all a little off the charts. We applied the same principles to guys like (Mike) Knox and (Marc) Munford and (Steve) Damkroger and Barry (Alvarez), and all the other linebackers just like them, and we concluded we were just doing the job we were called to do.”

In This Potential Footrace, Neither Would Win

Alvarez attended Wednesday night's visitation to honor the man who recruited him, and Murtaugh couldn’t help but remember what Melton would say about him and Barry. “If you two ever got in a footrace, neither one of you would win,” Melton once said, and the echo of that quip still draws healthy laughter from both former Husker linebackers.

To this day, deep inside Murtaugh’s head, he finds it difficult to view turmoil the same way his coaches did. “I didn’t see anything as a problem, but everybody else did,” he said, adding that, if Devaney were still alive, the two would still clash like a set of cymbals in the Cornhusker Marching Band. “I’d still be hitting the quarterbacks that they’d be trying to protect, and Coach Devaney would still get mad and fire Coach Melton for not being able to control me. Every time Coach Devaney would get mad, Coach Melton would look at me, shake his head and repeat the same three words … ‘Jerry, Jerry, Jerry … what are we going to do with you?’”

Whenever Coach Melton would call Murtaugh by his last name, he'd feel trouble free, and that was another conclusion the two made when they'd find the time to share more stories than most family reunions.

He Was Blessed, Loved His Flowers, at Peace

“John loved it when his former players would drive to Eagle to see him and just sit around with their stogies and talk,” Margie Melton said Wednesday. “He loved that the family was coming for Father’s Day. He had his cathedral of flowers all in place and aligned in his favorite setting near the dogleg on the seventh hole. He died right there in the midst of all the roses he was caring for. His heart just stopped. There was no pain. He told me that morning how blessed we were and how beautiful everything was. He was at peace.”

Margie didn’t want to put pressure on Murtaugh to talk about a man he was so close to, but she also knows that her late husband would have wanted No. 42 to be the one to help others take a stroll back through memory lane. Since John Melton was one of Bob Devaney’s staunchest loyalists, it is only fitting that one of his best all-time players would share stories that will bring more laughter than tears.

That’s the way someone who coached for Devaney at Wyoming and Nebraska would want people to remember the role he played in a state that he dearly loved.

Devaney and Murtaugh Finally Saw Eye-to-Eye

We’re compelled to end this column with an important footnote. “Coach Devaney and I never saw eye-to-eye in the four years I was at Nebraska,” said Murtaugh, who who hosts a Legends radio show in Omaha. “There was a reason we clashed. Bob was Irish Catholic, and so am I, so we were both too darned stubborn. At his retirement party, Bob’s late wife (Phylis) finally got the two of us together, and we had a great conversation. Bob told me that everyone thought he was a great football coach and that he really wasn’t. He told me he just hired the nine greatest assistants in the country, and he insisted they were the ones who made the national championships happen, not him.”

As Murtaugh prepares to honor one of those nine coaches Thursday, he knows exactly what Devaney meant. “We lost one of our best,” Murtaugh said. “He worked for a coach who knew it wasn’t about him, and we played for an assistant who felt the same way. We’ve all been truly blessed. There’s absolutely no question about that.”

[entropy]

Farmer interview..

http://nebraska.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1514765&PT=4&PR=2