Nebraska...not feeling Frosty anymore

[entropy]

btw.. this is #6.. it appears I wrote this.. this is bad.


"This is a conference game, but the Aggies might be leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, and fans haven’t seen these opponents play each other very often, Matcovich says. Plus LSU is highly ranked this year. "

[entropy]

Picture of the setup from Saturday's game. We arrived at 6:45, had some bailey's and coffee (and it was in that order too) and were set up by 7:30. Long day, but fun. The second picture is what I bought for the Michigan game.

[Wild Hoss]

Couldn't have felt as long a day as Southern Miss in that blazing, unrelenting sun. Fortunately it doesn't appear as though we're in for an "Indian Summer"...its cooled off quickly.

[lineygoblue]

Nice setup, Ent.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Ent...you still owe me dinner and drinks...

[Clashmore Mike]

I've got a feeling about UCLA...

That loss is going to look a hell of alot better in November than it does now.

[entropy]

Nice setup, Ent.

Thanks

[entropy]

http://m.huskers.com/mobile/PhotoAlbum.dbml?PALBID=489756&DB_OEM_ID=100&

Pictures from nebraska's last game

[Dr. Strangelove]

I've got a feeling about UCLA...

That loss is going to look a hell of alot better in November than it does now.

They've looked damn different, that's for sure.

[entropy]

Btw.. I really like the look of UNL's uniforms this year

[entropy]

Interview with Charlie McBride

HV: What do you emphasize when facing an athletic spread team like Arkansas State?
McBride: We were a defense that lived by the sword and died by the sword. We were going to knock that guy around a little bit and try to get him to throw the ball off-balance. A lot of teams are dropping guys and playing a lot of zone. We were more of a pressure team. We had speed so we could do that.
We recruited runners and hitters and the third thing was size. If the kid couldn’t run, we didn’t recruit him. I think that showed up. One year one of our linebackers ran a 10.4 100 meters and the other one ran a 10.6. Those guys could play defensive back in the NFL, and they did. Our only big linebacker was our middle linebacker, and we had some good ones, but the speed factor was really the thing.
A lot of people are afraid to pressure the spread with all these schemes and things, but if you really handle your business you have a chance to make some big plays.

http://hailvarsity.com/2012/09/mcbride-talks-defen se/

[entropy]

Published Monday, September 17, 2012 at 10:56 pm / Updated at 11:04 pm

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Shatel: Checkup only call for Pelini, any of us


True story. It was in the winter of 1990. I was lying on my couch watching TV, in between basketball road trips and late-night pepperoni pizza competitions, when it happened.

My heart was doing wind sprints. And it wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t catch my breath. I started sweating.

I thought I was having a heart attack.

I drove myself to the emergency room and excitedly told the nurse what I thought was going down. In a word, me.

They sat me down. Took my blood pressure. Took some tests. And here came the news.

It was stress. The doctor said I could watch my diet and make sure I get rest on the road. But he said I was in perfect health.

I felt like an idiot for having to go to the hospital.

I thought back on that night, as Nebraska football coach Bo Pelini talked about his experience during Saturday’s game with Arkansas State.

As he described what he went through, I nodded along. Different symptoms. Same end result.

At one point in his press conference, Pelini talked about having heartburn that started in his stomach and seemed to be going up. The burning sensation.

Pelini stopped short of saying he thought he was having a heart attack. But I, and many others in the room Monday, said afterward that’s what those symptoms sounded like.

For years, I never told anyone about my hospital visit. It was a pride thing. A guy thing, too. What’s the matter? Can’t handle a little stress?

I’m not going to theorize on what hit Pelini. It could have been acid reflux. Something he ate combined with the stress, and the stress meter of the NU job was at high levels after UCLA.

Good for Bo for agreeing to the tests, the hospital visit, everything. He’s the patriarch of the football program, the $3 million man, the high-profile big cheese in a football state.

It could not have been easy for a hard-core molder of men. You could read it in his face on Monday. Coach Bo was chipper, in a good mood, but willing to go only so far into details and trying to be very persuasive about a clean bill of health.

I sensed he was a little sheepish about it. Why? Because of reactions such as the tweet sent out by cbssports.com columnist Gregg Doyel: “How can Bo Pelini demand toughness of his players? He had a tummy ache AND LEFT THE GAME IN AN AMBULANCE.”

Not funny. It was the right call, the only call. There’s a long list of men out here in the bleachers who have felt heartburn or dizziness or irregular heartbeats — just not felt right.

Most make sure they see attention.

Some were dismissed as “false alarms.” For others, those pains were actual heart attacks.

At the end of the day, there’s no pain too small to get checked out. Whether you’re a tough guy coach or a wimpy sportswriter, there’s nothing to feel vulnerable about.

At the end of the day, you want to see tomorrow.

>> Here’s a few things that should help Pelini’s stress level. Michigan State’s offense. Michigan’s offensive and defensive lines. Cal’s ability to run on Ohio State. Northwestern’s struggles to put away Syracuse and Boston College. Wisconsin’s stinking Badgers. If the Huskers can keep their focus, and get out of their own way, there’s a Big Ten championship to be won. How about Nebraska-Purdue in the Big Ten title game?

>> Ron Brown didn’t ask me, but 10-12 carries sounds about right for Rex Burkhead against Idaho State. Get some timing back, get hit a few times and call it a day. Good to have Rex back but the season for him essentially starts with Wisconsin.

>> It’s been too long (1997 season) since Nebraska played in the Orange Bowl. Maybe that’s about to change. The Orange Bowl and ACC are close to a deal that would pit the ACC champ against Notre Dame or an SEC or Big Ten team that is not in the future four-team playoff or the Champions or Rose Bowl. Since the SEC figures to have at least one team in the four-team playoff, and another in the Champions Bowl, that could free up the Big Ten to go to Miami a bunch. That would be very OK.

>> Pretty soon we’ll be getting East Stadium expansion updates — from Creighton soccer. The Jays had a record 6,848 for Old Dominion last Friday night. CU has always drawn well but coach Elmar Bolowich has made soccer a hot ticket. Either that, or Doug McDermott showed up at halftime.

>> Everyone is trying to run Chiefs General Manager Scott Pioli out of town. The list of former New England Patriots employees who left the nest and flopped keeps growing. It’s just another reminder that Bill Belichick and Tom Brady are that good.

>> Is there a better coach right now than Jim Harbaugh? He not only has the 49ers bringing the wood every week, the program he left behind at Stanford is doing the same. Smashmouth football is alive and well and living in Bill Walsh’s old aerodynamic lab.

>> The same people who awarded USC’s Matt Barkley the Heisman Trophy before the season have now repossessed it and declared the race open in mid-September. Nice of them to do that. There is no favorite now, which is the way it oughta be.

>> What a volleyball state. Nebraska gets a lot of well-deserved love, of course. But look at Creighton: off to a 10-1 start and making an early case for an NCAA tourney bid. Meanwhile, UNK is ranked No. 1 in Division II. Well done, ladies.

>> I’m thumbing through a book I just received: “4th & Goal,” which is the story of Joe Moglia’s return to coaching from TD Ameritrade. A considerable section of the book details Moglia’s season as coach of the Omaha Nighthawks.

One chapter begins with the Nighthawks arriving in Las Vegas for a game. Moglia stands up in front of the bus and reminds the players that, if they’re going to gamble, “Know your limit. And stick to it.”

From the back of the bus, nose tackle Dusty Dvoracek yells, “What’s your limit, coach?”

“Twenty-five million,” Moglia says. “And not a nickel more.”

>> Shout Out: To Elkhorn football coach Mark Wortman, who got his 300th win last Friday against Plattsmouth. His greatest accomplishment, however, might be having raised four daughters. For that, he’s my hero.

[entropy]

A win over a nobody... And Nebraska starts talking.




By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, September 23, 12:19 PM

LINCOLN, Neb. — When Taylor Martinez and his Nebraska teammates needed an extra push to get through a summer workout, all they had to do was remember that cool October evening in Madison last year when Wisconsin gave them their Big Ten initiation.

“Just what happened last time, I keep thinking about that,” Martinez said.

Revenge, of course, is a powerful motivator. And the No. 22 Cornhuskers (3-1) are using it for all it’s worth heading into this Saturday’s Big Ten opener against the Badgers (3-1).

“We owe these guys one,” offensive lineman Jeremiah Sirles said. “We all know it. We all know we need to play our best to beat these guys. We enter big-time play now, Big Ten play.”

The Huskers were a popular choice to win the Big Ten in their first season in the league. They went to Madison 4-0 and ranked No. 8. The Badgers also were unbeaten and ranked No. 7.

After a promising start for the Huskers in front of a national television audience, Martinez threw three interceptions over a six-minute span of the second and third quarters. Nebraska’s 14-13 lead turned into a 41-14 deficit. Final score: Wisconsin 48, Nebraska 17.

“I remember being on that field at the end of the game last year,” Sirles said. “It left an awful feeling in my gut. We have to come out and play hard. We need to.”

Last year’s loss started Nebraska on its way to a third-place finish in the Legends Division. Wisconsin ended up winning the Leaders and going on to its second straight Big Ten championship.

Nebraska is picked to end up third again in the Legends, but based on Michigan State and Michigan’s performances the first month of the season, the division looks wide open.

With Ohio State and Penn State ineligible to play in the Big Ten championship game, Wisconsin is favored to repeat in the Leaders Division.

The Huskers’ 73-7 victory over Idaho State of the Football Championship Subdivision closed out an eventful nonconference schedule.

Martinez showed off his improved passing ability in the opener, throwing for a career-high 354 yards and five touchdowns in a 49-20 win over Southern Mississippi.

The next week the Huskers’ defense surrendered 653 yards — second-most ever by an opponent — in a 36-30 road loss to UCLA.

Coach Bo Pelini had a health scare the following week. He left by ambulance in the middle of a 42-13 win over Arkansas State, complaining of heartburn and dizziness. Hospital tests were negative, and Pelini went back to work the next day and said he had been given a clean bill of health.

On the personnel front, the Huskers have had starting defensive tackle Chase Rome quit the team, then return a week later, and had promising linebacker Zaire Anderson sustain a season-ending knee injury.

Though Arkansas State and Idaho State were clearly overmatched opponents, defensive coordinator John Papuchis said his charges are ready for conference play. The Huskers allowed 286 yards to Arkansas State and 210 to Idaho State.

“What I know is that over the last two weeks we’ve gotten better,” he said. “We still need to continue to improve to be where we want to be at the end of the year. I like the trend and direction we’re heading.”

Papuchis said the first campaign through the Big Ten was a learning experience. The second go-round should be smoother because the coaching staff is more familiar with the opponents.

“I feel more comfortable understanding not what they do schematically, but more the personnel,” Papuchis said. “I think that was the hardest thing to evaluate off the film a year ago. You knew what they were trying to do offensively and defensively, but you didn’t know quite how good guys were, how big they were, how fast they were until you saw them full speed and in person.”

Wisconsin might be without Montee Ball, who sustained a head injury in Saturday’s 37-26 win over UTEP. Ball tore through the Huskers last year for 151 yards and four touchdowns.

Nebraska’s offense will be full strength. Rex Burkhead, who missed two games with a knee sprain, wore a brace while running for 119 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries against Idaho State.

Martinez completed 9 of 13 passes for 165 yards and two TDs before turning things over to backup Ron Kellogg the third in the second half. A 56-percent passer last year, Martinez is completing 70.7 percent through four games and is 10th nationally in passing efficiency.

“I think we’re right where we want to be,” Martinez said. “If we keep this momentum going we’ll be tough to beat.”




Post Extras: * * *

[THE_WIZARD_]

I think some intramural flag football teams could have given Idaho State a good game...

[entropy]

I prefer the shut up and play