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Another SEC Transfer


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We find out Thursday if 1st Team AA Briana Holman, MH LSU chooses us as her transfer destination. Been a rumor for a while now that she was interested in NU (and PSU).

 

She was in town last week.

 

Be curious to hear as to why she is looking to transfer.

 

http://journalstar.com/sports/huskers/volleyball/nu-volleyball-lsu-first-team-all-american-visits-nebraska/article_8e9a1739-3930-5a32-9c26-875d87c6f2d8.html

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We find out Thursday if 1st Team AA Briana Holman, MH LSU chooses us as her transfer destination. Been a rumor for a while now that she was interested in NU (and PSU).

 

She was in town last week.

 

Be curious to hear as to why she is looking to transfer.

 

http://journalstar.com/sports/huskers/volleyball/nu-volleyball-lsu-first-team-all-american-visits-nebraska/article_8e9a1739-3930-5a32-9c26-875d87c6f2d8.html

We had a great run later in the year. This could really help us. But please don't go to PSU.

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It isn’t immediately known when Holman will be eligible to play as a Husker. She said she is making the trip to Lincoln this weekend to begin classes when NU’s spring semester starts Monday. However, Holman has not yet received a release from her scholarship at LSU, a situation she said was “an ongoing process.” If LSU withholds a release, Holman would have to sit out the 2015 season and have two years of eligibility left starting in 2016.

Holman said while it isn’t ideal, she was prepared to essentially take a redshirt year in 2015 if she does not receive a release.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Holman will mark the third player to transfer to Nebraska from an SEC program in three years, and all three share a similar story. Kelsey Robinson and Mary Pollmiller, who both transferred from Tennessee, each spurned recruiting pitches in high school from NU coach John Cook because they didn’t believe they were skilled enough to play top-flight college volleyball.

Robinson eventually blossomed into the Big Ten player of the year in 2013, and Pollmiller was a two-year starter and team captain last season.

Holman, too, received interest from Nebraska as a prep player, but she said she couldn’t see herself excelling in the Big Ten. But after two standout seasons at LSU, her talent is not in question.

 

Wow. after reading this I am even more impressed with Cook's abilities as a recruiter. Seems like he knows better than the athletes themselves about their potential.

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Holman, who earned first-team All-American honors in 2014, confirmed to The World-Herald Thursday night she would be transferring to Nebraska from LSU, ending several weeks of speculation and giving Nebraska a huge recruiting victory over defending national champion Penn State, Holman’s other main suitor.

 

"This has been like a month-long process so it’s been very hard,” Holman said in a telephone interview. "Hopefully I can get some sleep tonight. I’m so excited for the future and what Nebraska has to offer."

 

The 6-foot-1 Holman, a two-time All-SEC pick, led the Tigers last season in kills (3.94 kills per set) and blocks (1.47 bps) while hitting .383, leading LSU to a 20-9 record. In her final match as a Tiger, she had 19 kills in LSU's loss to Oregon in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

 

It isn’t immediately known when Holman will be eligible to play as a Husker. She said she is making the trip to Lincoln this weekend to begin classes when NU’s spring semester starts Monday. However, Holman has not yet received a release from her scholarship at LSU, a situation she said was “an ongoing process.” If LSU withholds a release, Holman would have to sit out the 2015 season and have two years of eligibility left starting in 2016.

 

Holman was at the NU Volleyball Banquet last Sunday. Cook said she was originally recruited by Nebraska but didn't come here because she thought she wasn't good enough (same thing Kelsey Robinson said, oddly, and her brief Husker career turned out OK). When Holman called Cook about her decision, she told him he'd done a good job re-recruiting her, that she really appreciated all that he'd done, that she thought Nebraska was a great program, yadda yadda yadda - basically telling him "thanks but no thanks," and Cook was disappointed, then she drops the, "...and I want to be a Husker" on him. She played him, he said. So his response: "Why do you want to be a Husker?"

 

And her answer was really great. It wasn't because of the sold-out Devaney Center every night. It wasn't because of the facilities, the massive fan following, all the glitz and glamour. It was because of Boyd Eppley and Dennis LeBlanc. Eppley, as everyone knows, is the legendary Strength Coach who's just returned to Nebraska.

 

LeBlanc may be a little less well-known, but he should be a household name in Nebraska. He's the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Academics. That's a fancy title, but it boils down to, he's the go-to guy for our student-athletes to get their butts to class, study for tests, keep their grades in order, and overall be successful as the STUDENT part of "student-athlete."

 

Every year I attend the end-of-season banquet for the volleyball team. Every year, every girl mentions LeBlanc in their Senior Speech, thanking him profusely for his assistance. They make him sound like a superman, someone with 36 hours in his day. Mary Pollmiller became the latest player to recognize LeBlanc this year, even saying that he texted her about an upcoming test recently, even though she completed her eligibility last December. We don't cut student-athletes loose after their playing days are over, and LeBlanc is a huge reason for that.

 

Pollmiller, incidentally, will become the latest Husker Volleyball player to graduate this Spring. Her graduation will continue Nebraska's all-time graduation rate for Volleyball at 100%. You finish your Senior year at Nebraska, you're walking out of here with a degree. Every time.

 

That's what brought Holman here. All those championship banners and filled seats in Devaney are nice, but she's got her head in the right place - academics first, volleyball second. She should be a fine addition to the team.

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Holman likely will have to sit out both the sand and 2015 indoor seasons after transferring from LSU, where she led the team in kills and blocks in 2014.

LSU coach Fran Flory has denied her scholarship release, which would have allowed Holman to play in 2015. Holman also appealed to a faculty committee, which Cook says voted 5-3 to deny her release. LSU could still grant her release at any time to make Holman eligible.
Cook was most disappointed that LSU would not allow Holman to play for the Huskers during this sand season, a sport where there is not an NCAA championship on the line and LSU would not go head-to-head with the Huskers.
“For us, it’s OK to sit a year (indoors) with our depth chart, and she’ll have a chance to start on her masters, which she wants,” Cook said. “To me, it's win-win, let her sit a year, but to hold her out of sand is the part that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
Most volleyball programs are now releasing players to transfer.
“We’ll see how that’s viewed in the recruiting world, and club coaches. … LSU has already taken in a transfer, (middle blocker Tiara Gibson) from South Dakota, that’s training, eligible and ready to go,” Cook said.

 

LJS

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Great post knapple and after reading the LJS article that Mavric posted I'm just curious why in the heck wouldn't LSU just grant the girl a proper release? Probably hard for someone like us to answer but that just baffles me. These are young kids and for whatever reason they simply feel that the place they're at isn't a fit and want to make a huge life change and go elsewhere for college and athletics. Just baffles me. Why deny their release? I hope LSU is looked down upon for decisions like this.

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Great post knapple and after reading the LJS article that Mavric posted I'm just curious why in the heck wouldn't LSU just grant the girl a proper release? Probably hard for someone like us to answer but that just baffles me. These are young kids and for whatever reason they simply feel that the place they're at isn't a fit and want to make a huge life change and go elsewhere for college and athletics. Just baffles me. Why deny their release? I hope LSU is looked down upon for decisions like this.

Especially when they (LSU) have recently accepted a transfer whose previous school granted a full release.

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  • 1 year later...

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