Nebraska...not feeling Frosty anymore

[lineygoblue]

Wiz: Cheer up .. the Husker softball team took the deciding game of the series on Sunday by a score of 7-4.

Those Husker gals are a very good ballclub.

[THE_WIZARD_]

shaddup

[entropy]

UNL basketball season ticket sales..

http://journalstar.com/sports/huskers/mens-basketball/hoops-ticket-sales-surpass/article_e5c3f790-b110-11e2-a7df-001a4bcf887a.html

[entropy]

I dont think Cincinnati knows exactly what it is they have drafted yet....

******************

Cincinnati Enquirer.

On Monday, Rex had a presidential meeting of his own, accompanying Jack Hoffman’s family on a tour of the White House. Jack Hoffman, whose battle with pediatric brain cancer gained national prominence after his 69-yard touchdown run in Nebraska’s spring game, met with President Obama for 15 minutes in the Oval Office

Said Burkhead of the visit: “Jack had a blast and great to be with the family and to invite me along with them. To see Jack interact with President Obama with eyes wide open was awesome.”

Burkhead met Jack, who is 7, in Sept. of 2011, a month before Jack had a second surgery to remove a brain tumor. Since then Burkhead has been the driving force behind the Team Jack Foundation, which has raised awareness about pediatric brain cancer.

After meeting Jack, Burkhead has worn a red bracelet that said “Team Jack Pray”. The Team Jack cause started to gain more attention during the Oct. 8, 2011, game between Nebraska and Ohio State. With the Huskers down by two touchdowns at halftime, Burkhead rallied teammates by saying “Jack’s not giving up and we’re not giving up.”

The Huskers ended up winning the game, which took place two days before Jack’s surgery, as Burkhead scored the winning touchdown. For the way he inspired Jack, Burkhead won the 2012 Uplifting Athletes Rare Disease Champion award.

“This whole campaign with the foundation, Rex is the co-pilot,” said Andy Hoffman, who is Jack’s father. “When Rex wore that wristband, he created awareness for the disease. When he won the Rare Disease Champion that then gave us the platform and a rallying cry. That was the catalyst where we need to move and swing for the fences.”

Over the past year, Team Jack has raised over $275,000 for pediatric brain cancer research.

The idea for the White House visit was initiated by Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer, who mentioned Jack’s story to the President. Fisher also had a resolution passed on the Senate floor last week that declares Sept. 26 National Pediatric Brain Cancer Day. Sept. 26 is also Jack’s birthday.

We’ll have more on Burkhead and Team Jack in Wednesday’s edition of The Enquirer.

[entropy]

http://btn.com/2013/05/01/tim-beck-offense-could-be-one-of-best-in-country/

Tim Beck talking about the offense

[entropy]

[ame]http://youtu.be/yCyuIGCLX8Q[/ame]

[Wild Hoss]

http://btn.com/2013/05/01/tim-beck-o...st-in-country/


Tim Beck talking about the offense

Nothing really groundbreaking there...yes, we need to play better. Fumble less, commit fewer penalties, and try to prevent our QB from being blindsided. It'd help to be more consistent as well, and stop having to turn on the nitrous in the 4th quarter because the offense was in neutral for long stretches.

Those Total and Scoring Offense numbers incorrect too. We were 26th and 28th in the nation respectively, not 14th in both.

[entropy]

Less than a month after his touchdown run in Nebraska’s spring game catapulted him onto the national scene, 7-year old Jack Hoffman visited the White House on Monday to meet President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.

Accompanying Jack and his family on the trip was the person Jack has called his best friend, former Nebraska running back and Bengals sixth-round draft pick Rex Burkhead.

Said Burkhead of the visit: “Jack had a blast and great to be with the family and to invite me along with them. To see Jack interact with President Obama with eyes wide open was awesome.”

What was supposed to be a short meet-and-greet between Jack, from Atkinson, Neb., and his favorite football player 19 months ago has evolved into something much more. Many in Nebraska have known about Jack’s story, but the run in the spring game raised awareness and funds for pediatric brain cancer research.

One person who was surprised by the effect Burkhead has had on Jack’s life is Nebraska coach Bo Pelini, whose players do a lot in the community. But what Burkhead has done goes above and beyond.

“There is such a depth to Rex that there aren’t a lot of kids out there like him,” Pelini said. “He made it his own quest to help change this kid’s life. In this day and age there aren’t a lot of guys who would go to the extent that Rex did. You’re not going to meet a better human being than Rex Burkhead.”
Not a one-time deal

Even before he met Jack, Burkhead knew that he wanted to be there for him. They met for the first time on Sept. 15, 2011, after Hoffman’s dad, Andy, contacted the Nebraska athletic department, hoping to get a picture of Jack with Burkhead, Jack’s favorite player.

Jack started to like Burkhead because his dad and uncles liked him, too.

“He was a hard-nosed, blue-collar player,” Andy Hoffman said of Burkhead. “Call it osmosis, but I guess it reached the point where Jack decided that’s my guy, too.”

Instead of just a photo, Burkhead went out to lunch with the family, showed them around Memorial Stadium and challenged Jack to a race on the field. Jack gave Burkhead a red wristband that ready “Team Jack Pray.”

On Oct. 8, two nights before Jack had his second surgery in Boston to remove a cancerous brain tumor the size of a golf ball, Burkhead mentioned Jack to a national audience as Nebraska rallied from a 27-6 third-quarter deficit to beat Ohio State 34-27. In the fourth quarter, Burkhead had 96 of his 119 rushing yards and scored the tying and winning touchdowns.

At halftime, Burkhead had a simple message for his teammates – “Jack’s not giving up and neither are we.” Shortly after the surgery, Burkhead told Jack that they were thinking about him when they were trailing.

“I had the wristband on and a bunch of other guys on the team did as well. It was a symbol that even though we are down we had to keep fighting. Even though we found ourselves in a tough situation, it was nothing compared to him,” Burkhead said.

Since then, both have continued to help each other. The surgery got 95 percent of the tumor, but it grew back. For the last year, Jack has undergone chemotherapy that has helped to shrink it again. The regular treatments will be completed in June.

Last season, Burkhead missed six games with a knee injury. Instead of Rex providing words of encouragement, this time it was Jack. After gaining 1,357 yards as a junior, Burkhead was limited to 535 last season.

“Talking to Jack and seeing what he has gone through, it put my little injury into a different light,” Burkhead said. “It gave me a positive mindset throughout the injury and to keep fighting, stay positive and help the team out.”

Added Andy Hoffman: “It is very humbling to hear Rex say that. It was kind of rewarding as a family to spiritually support Rex.

“He is an incredible guy. I wish everyone could meet him. I tell people all the time, I’m 34 years old and as a grown man he has the characteristics I try to live by.”
Team Jack and The Run

For the way he inspired and mentored Jack, Burkhead won the 2012 Uplifting Athletes Rare Disease Champion award. Team Jack started as a small group of friends but has become the Team Jack Foundation. Over the past year, Team Jack has raised more than $275,000 for pediatric brain cancer research.

“This whole campaign with the foundation, Rex is the co-pilot,” said Andy Hoffman. “When Rex wore that wristband, he created awareness for the disease. When he won the Rare Disease Champion that then gave us the platform and a rallying cry. That was the catalyst where we need to move and swing for the fences.”

The 69-yard touchdown run in Nebraska’s spring game on April 13 will create even more awareness. Pelini knew before the game that he wanted to do something different to liven up what can be a mundane game. A couple of days before the game, Pelini contacted Burkhead and then the Hoffmans.

With the Red team facing fourth-and-1, Jack ran onto the field wearing miniature football pads and a No. 22 jersey, which he wore the first time he met Burkhead. The ball was snapped and Jack went left, then zagged right and up the sideline for a 69-yard touchdown. As he reached the end zone, he was mobbed by players and fullback C.J. Zimmer hoisted him on his shoulders. The 60,000-plus fans at Memorial Stadium and millions more over that weekend made it one of the most-watched videos of the year.

Burkhead was on the sideline with Jack’s family, recording the details.

“To see him out there on the football field like he was a Husker football player, it was a very emotional time and a very exciting time,” Burkhead said. “It was really inspiring for not only me, but the fans that were there and how it has spread across the nation. It was just an awesome experience.”

Pelini, like many others, was surprised by how much national attention the run has received, and is happy that it has been embraced.

The run also caught Obama’s attention. The idea for the White House visit was initiated by Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer, who mentioned Jack’s story to the president. Fischer had a resolution passed on the Senate floor last week that declares Sept. 26 National Pediatric Brain Cancer Day. Sept. 26 is Jack’s birthday.
The next step

Due to injuries last season, Burkhead’s stock took a hit that caused him to drop to the sixth round, but he is considered a back who could fill the role that Brian Leonard played for the past four years. Pelini compared Burkhead to a back he saw plenty of as a former NFL assistant – former Patriots standout Kevin Faulk.

Said Burkhead: “I think I can bring a lot to the table, whether it’s catching balls out of the backfield, pass protecting, run the ball or split out as a wide receiver. So yeah, I think my versatility is something they were interested in and felt like I could bring to the team.”

Now that he is in the NFL, Burkhead has plans to keep spreading the word of Team Jack. There will soon be orange and black T-shirts for Team Jack. The Hoffmans already are trying to figure out ways that they can attend training camp and some of the games. One possibility is the Aug. 24 preseason game in Dallas, which is close to Burkhead’s hometown of Plano, Texas.

The first bit of Bengals gear for Jack will be a No. 33 jersey, which is Burkhead’s number with the Bengals.

“Long before we met Rex we were fans of him for all the wrong reasons,” Andy Hoffman said. “We liked him what he did on the field, but now we know what kind of person he is. He entered our life at the darkest days and made a huge impact. Cincinnati has one heck of a player and a better person.”

[entropy]

hoss... as we discussed today, UNL and the fans have never put demands on basketball to push it forward... hopefully, this is a sign fans want a competitive program.

==========

Lincoln – The University of Nebraska Athletic Department announced Thursday afternoon that less than 300 public season tickets remain for the first season of Nebraska men’s basketball at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Six months ahead of the first exhibition game, the Husker basketball program has easily shattered the previous best of 12,000 season tickets set during the 1992-93 season. Season ticket sales are up over 90 percent from last year, and this marks the third straight year that season ticket sales have increased for Husker men’s basketball, the first time that has occurred at Nebraska since the mid-1990s.

NU student tickets sales are also strong, as 1,470 of the student allotment of 1,650 seats have been sold. This is more than a 25 percent increase from the 2012-13 campaign. Pinnacle Bank Arena will feature an expanded student section with seating behind the benches, on the end court and in the 300 Level. One thousand of the 1,650 total student tickets will be located in the lower bowl. Student tickets are $50, and UNL students should visit Huskers.com/students for more information on how to purchase tickets for the upcoming season.

At this point, the only remaining public tickets available are in the 300 Level . Those seats are on sale for $85 with each seat requiring a $25 deposit. Tickets can be purchased by visiting Huskers.com/Arena, calling the Nebraska Ticket Office at 1-800-8-BIGRED (402-472-3111 in Lincoln) or by stopping by the NU Athletic Ticket Office during regular business hours (8 a.m.–5 p.m., Mon.-Fri.). A waitlist will be implemented via Huskers.com after tickets are sold out in the event tickets become available at a later date.

In addition, tickets in the student sections will be available to the public for any Husker Basketball game played during winter break on campus (late December and early January). Details on those tickets will be announced when the 2013-14 schedule is released later this summer.

Nebraska finished 15-18 in Coach Tim Miles’ first season and will return three starters for next season, including guard Ray Gallegos and forwards David Rivers and Shavon Shields. In all, 10 letterwinners return next season, while a trio of transfers who sat out the 2012-13 season will be eligible.

[entropy]

By Randy York

In a recent lunch to celebrate a significant gift to the Nebraska Athletic Department, the donor was asked if he realized the potential benefits of his generosity. Ken Graeber curtailed the conversation immediately, explaining that he didn’t want or expect anything in return. All the former Blackshirt middle guard wanted was the certainty that his gift would continue to support the nation’s best walk-on program.

Tom Osborne, Graeber’s former head coach and now Nebraska’s Athletic Director Emeritus, was not surprised. Candor is one of the best qualities of an un-recruited walk-on who paid his own way to Lincoln from Minneapolis in the early 1980s and played on three teams that were legitimate national championship contenders in 1982, ’83 and ’84.

“That’s the way so many walk-ons are,” Osborne said. “They all learned early in college not to expect anything in return, even though they worked every bit as hard, if not harder, than our scholarship players. Sometimes, the most generous people we deal with are the walk-ons who have come up the hard way, and Ken certainly exemplifies that.”

Scholarship Honors Coaches Osborne, McBride

Graeber’s gift to his alma mater came straight from his heart. “I grew up a Christian and have given almost exclusively to Christian causes, but I felt compelled to make a gift to the walk-on program,” he said. “I gave to honor Coach Osborne, who I believe ran the program under a Christian framework, and Coach (Charlie) McBride. In my mind, those are two of the best coaches in the history of college football. They both treated every walk-on player who stepped foot on that field the same way they treated every scholarship player. There were no distinctions then, and I hope that philosophy continues forever. That is what makes Nebraska different from everyone else.”

Osborne agrees, and even though walk-ons cannot receive any financial benefit from the generosity of donors like Graeber, the money can go to support equipment, uniforms, locker room space and all the other extra expenses inherent in fielding dozens of extra players.

“Ken was one of those guys who just played hard all the time, whether it was practice or in a game,” Osborne said. “All he ever wanted was a chance, and fortunately, we were equipped to give him that chance. We really appreciated his efforts and his accountability. When your heart’s in the right place and you give great effort, he was able to do what all walk-ons strive to do – get better every single day.”

Walk-Ons Heart-and-Soul of the Osborne Era

Walk-ons were the heart-and-soul of Osborne-coached teams for a quarter century. “About 40 percent of our travel rosters were walk-ons over that period of time,” Osborne said. “Just about every player who traveled played, whether it was on offense, defense or special teams. If we couldn’t spend the extra money to provide practice opportunities for those walk-ons, we couldn’t have accommodated them.

“The No. 1 benefit of walk-ons is the depth you’re able to achieve on the team,” Osborne said. “That depth enabled us to practice differently than just about everybody else in the country. We were always able to have two offensive stations and two defensive stations going simultaneously because of No. 3 teams. A lot of those guys just kept getting better and better.”

That ascent happened quickly for Graeber, who grew up in Minnesota yearning to play for either Nebraska or Oklahoma. He chose the Huskers because of its sustainable culture for walk-ons, which he equated to the land of opportunity.

Graeber Sat Down and Wrote Osborne a Letter

“I had so much appreciation and respect for Coach Osborne I finally decided to write him a letter and ask if I could walk on,” Graeber said. “I had such admiration for two of the greatest programs in the country. Oklahoma recruited me to a degree, but didn’t offer. So I knew where I was going – to Nebraska, where Frank Solich was in charge of the walk-on program at that time.”

Graeber immersed himself in the culture and ended up earning three letters, including two where he was considered either the starter or a co-starter. “Walk-ons like Ken were major factors in establishing the culture of the team,” Osborne said. “The scholarship players would see the sacrifices the walk-ons were making just to get on the field, and their drive and effort were rather contagious. They really were the heart and soul of our teams in more ways than one.

“Recruiting is such an inexact science,” Osborne added. “Walk-ons earned their time on the field through their character, their attitude and above all else, their tenacity. They were willing to hang in there through their freshman and sophomore redshirt years to create an opportunity. I would say that Ken’s tenacity was pretty high. He might have been close to the very top. He really worked hard, and he really improved.”

Tenacity Paid Off in Business World, Too

Graeber, in fact, became the strongest player on the Blackshirts during his tenure. He could bench press 425 pounds and lift 850 pounds on the hip sled, yet still run a 4.82 40 as a 6-foot-2, 255-pound senior.

Ken Graeber worked just as hard in building an Omaha-based natural gas business with his partners (Encore Energy) as he did building his body and his playing time at Nebraska.

Osborne sees Graeber’s generosity as both a thank-you and an endorsement of a walk-on program that helps Nebraska overcome a statewide population of only 1.85 million people. “It’s a compliment when a walk-on, who came through the program and has succeeded in business just like he succeeded on the football field, makes a generous contribution to something he strongly believes in,” Osborne said.

Steve Graeber Following in Dad’s Footsteps

That isn’t the only contribution from a Mechanical Engineering graduate. Graeber earned a high GPA at the same time he played on teams that won 34 of 38 games, including Orange and Sugar Bowl wins over LSU that became bookends for the ’83 Huskers that came within inches of a national championship. We all remember how that one ended, 31-30, after a failed two-point conversion under a moon over Miami.

Hope in this Omaha household, however, springs eternal. Steve Graeber, a 6-foot-1, 255-pound defensive tackle, is Ken’s youngest son. A first-team Super State selection from Millard North’s Class A state championship team, Steve Graeber is also a member of Nebraska’s 2013 class of walk-ons.

“He’s a much better athlete than I was and very smart,” Ken said of Steve. “He can power clean 365 pounds, squat 510 and runs a 4.71 in the 40.” Like his dad, Steve is quiet and not boisterous. “He’s stronger right now than I ever was,” Ken said. “You don’t see that animalistic defensive lineman attitude displayed in his day-to-day life, but when he gets on the field, he plays like a madman. I tell him what Coach Osborne and Coach McBride told every walk-on who ever played at Nebraska – It all comes down to a matter of work and how much you put into it. If you use your God-given talent, you overcome a lot of things, but it’s still a matter of who works the hardest. Those are the ones who get to the finish line.”

[entropy]

[ame="http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nebraska-7-Year-Old-Jack-Hoffman-Autographed-2013-Upper-Deck-Star-Rookie-Card-/161019145138?pt=US_Football&hash=item257d7d2bb2"]Nebraska 7 Year Old Jack Hoffman Autographed 2013 Upper Deck Star Rookie Card | eBay[/ame]

Jack Hoffman Autographed card at $1,125.. 9 days left

[Dr. Strangelove]

Huskers officially sold out for the 2013-14 season. Really impressive, fellas

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/huskers-announce-2013-14-season-213048402--ncaab.html

[WM Wolverine]

What else is there to do in Nebraska?

[lineygoblue]

Bowling?

[entropy]

Nebraska 7 Year Old Jack Hoffman Autographed 2013 Upper Deck Star Rookie Card | eBay

Jack Hoffman Autographed card at $1,125.. 9 days left

Now $1,500