huskerhaze

New Year's day bowl games are awesome, but my head really hurts!

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;_ylt=An...p&type=lgns Mason fired as Minnesota coach By JON KRAWCZYNSKI, AP Sports Writer December 31, 2006 MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Critics of college football's bloated bowl system say it's too easy to qualify for postseason play and only a handful of the games actually mean something. Tell that to Glen Mason. Minnesota fired Mason on Sunday, two days after the Gophers blew a 31-point third quarter lead against Texas Tech in the Insight Bowl and exactly one year after signing a four-year contract extension. "If we had not lost the way we had lost, we probably wouldn't be here today," athletic director Joel Maturi said. Mason was 64-57 in 10 years at Minnesota and led the Gophers to seven bowl games. But he was just 3-4 in those games, with his latest loss proving to be the backbreaker despite the lengthy contract extension. The Gophers led the Red Raiders 38-7 in the third quarter on Friday before Tech orchestrated the biggest comeback in bowl history. The 44-41 loss dropped the Gophers to 6-7 for the season, the first time they have finished under .500 in five years. Maturi said he received plenty of e-mails from angry fans and alumni after the historic collapse in Arizona, two months after chants of "Fire Mason!" started springing up at home in the Metrodome. "I try not to let any influence like that make any significant difference, but at the same time, I'm sure those kinds of things are involved in what is the long-term future of Gopher football," Maturi said. "And how positive can it be? Are students going to be behind us? Are fans going to be behind us? Are we going to have the energy that's necessary that we would like to move forward." Way too many questions for him. Maturi met with school president Robert Bruininks on Saturday and said he asked Bruininks "to support my decision to make a football change." Mason was not present at the press conference on Sunday, but issued a statement that said he was given "no specific explanation" for his firing during a phone call from Maturi. "Needless to say, I am extremely disappointed, however I respect the decision of my superiors, Mr. Joel Maturi and president Robert Bruininks," Mason said. For the second time in just over a month, the university will be forced to buy out the contract of a high-profile coach. Men's basketball coach Dan Monson was ousted on Nov. 30, just seven games into the season. Mason was being paid $1.65 million annually and it will cost the university close to $4 million to buy him out. Mason came to the Twin Cities from Kansas in 1997 and took over a Big Ten doormat that hadn't had a winning season in seven years. The Gophers made several strides under Mason, emerging as one of the premier rushing offenses in the nation with stars such as Marion Barber III and Laurence Maroney carrying the ball. Minnesota beat Michigan in Ann Arbor for the first time in 20 years last season and also had big victories at Ohio State and at Penn State during his tenure. The improvements helped the university gain approval for a new outdoor football stadium that will open in 2009 and finally get the Gophers out of the dingy Metrodome and back on campus. But the Gophers never were able to build on that success and become a legitimate Big Ten contender, and fans grew weary of heartbreaking losses in big games. Perhaps Mason's toughest loss came in October 2003, when the 6-0 Gophers hosted Michigan and led 28-7 in the second half. But the Wolverines stormed back to win 38-35, and the Gophers folded down the stretch. Minnesota also blew a 24-0 lead in the 2000 Micronpc.com Bowl before losing to North Carolina State 38-30 and lost to Wisconsin last year when punter Justin Kucek dropped a snap in the end zone that the Badgers recovered for a touchdown in the final minutes. And so Mason's legacy at Minnesota will be defined not by the improvements made on offense and in recruiting, but instead by missed opportunities and a 3-15 career record against Michigan and Wisconsin, two of the school's three biggest rivals. "I felt we needed a new voice, a new vision and new leadership to bring a football championship to the University of Minnesota," Maturi said. He will have to move fast. National signing day is just over a month away, making this a prime time for recruiting. "It will certainly make us hurry the search, but I don't want to do it so quickly that we don't hire the best long-term fit for the University of Minnesota," Maturi said.

But correct me if I am wrong...It is not going to be broadcast in High Def.

check here.. http://www.huskerboard.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=828

Cotton Bowl ticket prices droppingAssociated Press OMAHA, Neb. -- Tickets for the AT&T Cotton Bowl are so cheap that a family of four could see the New Year's Day game between Nebraska and Auburn in Dallas for less than $100. The lowest price found Tuesday, on StubHub.com, was $12 for a ticket with a face value of $90. San Francisco-based StubHub is among the online marketplaces that bring together ticket buyers and sellers. Company spokesman Sean Pate said the so-called "secondary market" gives a true indication of how hot -- or cold -- a ticket is. Typically, fans go to the secondary market for hard-to-get tickets -- and often pay significantly more than face value. Buyers are getting the better end of the deal with the Cotton Bowl. TicketsNow.com had $15 tickets, and several other online brokers had plenty listed for $20. Prime seats still go for several hundred dollars, but what surprises Pate is that it would cost fans very little to get a seat. "Those tickets are dropping to unforeseen territory for a bowl game of that magnitude," Pate said. Neither Nebraska nor Auburn had sold out its allotment of 12,500 tickets, all priced at $90. All but about 3,500 of the 68,252 Cotton Bowl stadium seats have a face value of $90. Omaha-based Ticket Express is getting 10 calls from people trying to sell Cotton Bowl tickets for every one trying to buy, president Chad Carr said. Carr, like others in the travel and ticket business, say fans aren't enamored with Dallas as a destination. Brokers say Nebraska fans are let down after the Huskers lost to Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game. Same goes for Auburn fans, who saw their Tigers' national championship hopes end with a November loss to Georgia. The 10:38 a.m. kickoff time is also difficult to overcome, Carr said, as is the unpredictable January weather in Dallas. At StubHub, the average price for a Cotton Bowl ticket is $90, with $406 the highest paid so far. Pate said he expects the average to fall as the game nears. The average price is 19th among the 32 bowls and ranks behind games such as the Texas Bowl ($100), Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl ($116), Emerald Bowl ($125) and Alamo Bowl ($138). The Tostitos BCS Championship Game, Pate said, is fetching an average of $1,400. Jason Randall, CEO of Austin-based Coast to Coast Tickets, said he's not caught off-guard by the low Cotton Bowl ticket prices because the stadium is large and the matchup pits teams from distant places. "When there's not a championship on the line, it makes it a lot harder to justify the travel expense," Randall said. "If [the University of Texas] were playing in the Cotton Bowl against an interesting opponent, maybe that would shake things up. As it is, this game isn't that big a deal."

http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/6306984 More than 20 Tigers miss practice EL PASO, Texas (AP) - The cold and flu season is something Missouri probably thought it was escaping when it left for the Sun Bowl just before Christmas. Instead, the bug might have followed the Tigers. More than 20 players were held out of practice Tuesday, with only three days to go before their game against Oregon State. No starters appeared to be affected on a warm day, although coach Gary Pinkel said some of his assistant coaches were hurting. "It was unhealthy," Pinkel said. "We had coaches out, we had players out. I've never been through anything like this before." Players said the same thing. "I didn't really realize it until this morning when I walked into the training room and Rex (Missouri sports medicine director Rex Sharp) said the list was so long he was forgetting people's names," tight end Martin Rucker said. "Then I came out here and there was nobody at practice." Missouri (8-4) and Oregon State (9-4) are practicing on well-appointed high school fields about a half-hour drive apart on Interstate 10. But they were together at a dinner function Monday and were scheduled to appear together again at the Sun Bowl barbecue dinner Tuesday night. Oregon State hasn't had any widespread sickness problems. After hearing of Missouri's woes, coach Mike Riley gave his team some sage advice. "I told them to stay away from those guys tonight," Riley said. "That's the last thing you need at this stage. That's not good." Pinkel, who has led Missouri (8-4) to its third bowl in four seasons, appeared confident the bug would be short-term. That would be good news for wide receivers coach Andy Hill and tight ends coach Bruce Walker, both of whom had to sprint off the field for unscheduled pit stops during practice. Defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus's 14-month-old daughter spent time in the hospital Monday night receiving IV fluids for dehydration. Pinkel said he was not ill. "Not yet, I'm not," he said. "I'd better not." Just in case he took steps to avoid a similar fate, getting a flu shot and buying "everything I could to stick in my body so I wouldn't get sick." Missouri players said it will not be a distraction. "The show must go on," tight end Martin Rucker said. "That's what you do, and you've got to get used to it, because in the game you still may be sick and you've just got to go." His strategy for avoiding the bug: "I don't eat anybody's eggs by my mom's," Rucker said. "Whenever you walk up to somebody, you say, 'Are you sick?' If they say yes, then you walk away." Quarterback Chase Daniel, who was feeling fine, said despite the situation Missouri seems to be peaking for the game. "Overall, we've had two of the best practices of the year, in my mind," Daniel said. "So we just need to keep going, fight through the sickness and hopefully get better by gametime."

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:asshat

I don't know about everyone else, but this gets me excited!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://journalstar.com/articles/2006/12/22...62961981144.txt Bill Busch has a clear image of the type of player he wants to coach. Asked which specific traits he desires most in his athletes, the Nebraska safeties coach quickly pointed to one. “Right away, the main thing I look for is violence — I look for people on the field who are very violent people,” Busch said Thursday. “You see it in their tackling, you see it in their running. You see quick, sudden, violent movements, and you see it at the point of attack. That’s the part that catches your eye the most right away.” Busch obviously saw those traits in Larry Asante of Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College, one of four junior college players who signed a letter of intent with Nebraska on Wednesday, the first day of the midterm signing period for juco players. “He was the only junior college safety that we targeted, period,” Busch said of Asante. “That was our guy. He’s the best safety in the country.” In addition to Asante, Nebraska received signatures from quarterback Zac Lee of City College of San Francisco, cornerback Armando Murillo of Eastern Arizona College and defensive tackle Shukree Barfield of Garden City (Kan.) Community College. The new signees will begin school at Nebraska on Jan. 8 and participate in spring practice. “They’re tremendous kids and great athletes, and I don’t throw that term around too often,” Nebraska head coach Bill Callahan said. “There is some real greatness in that group.” Asante arguably leads the list. A 6-foot-1, 205-pound athlete, Asante finished with 76 tackles this year as a redshirt freshman at Coffeyville. He already has said he plans to play strong safety at Nebraska. Busch said it’s too early to say exactly which safety position Asante will play. Often, the coach said, the safety positions are interchangeable. “It depends what the offense lines up in whether you’re the strong or free,” said Busch, making clear that Asante could adapt to either position. Indeed, Asante is a “brilliant kid with great grades,” said the coach, who particularly likes the player’s upbeat personality. “He’s so bright-eyed when you talk to him,” Busch said. As for Lee, Callahan said the quarterback has good timing and accuracy on this passes. He can make a wide variety of throws and showed strong command of his team’s offense this season. The 6-2, 200-pound Lee completed 64 percent of his passes for 3,500-plus yards and 34 touchdowns, with five interceptions. At least one other trait stood out in Callahan’s mind. “Boy, he can run with the football,” the coach said. “He can make plays with this feet. That was really impressive.” In addition to the four early junior college signees, two incoming freshmen — Patrick Witt, a quarterback from Wylie, Texas, and Marcus Mendoza, a running back from Houston — will enroll in January and be on hand for spring drills. Arriving in the spring will expedite the players’ process of becoming acclimated to the playbook and campus life in general. Plus, newcomers on hand for spring practice tend to show up for preseason camp in August in better shape physically than those arriving during the summer months, Busch said. “They’re never in the shape you’d like them to be in because they’re not with the team,” he said. The remaining Nebraska recruits can sign letters of intent starting Feb. 7. “We’re going to continue to put the pedal to the metal,” Callahan said. “Recruiting in this day and age is very different. Players often have a change of mind, a change of heart. Because of that, you have to keep recruiting and go hard until the very last day, until signing date.”

You do realize your "positive" post was really a "negative" post about ZT....don't you?

What a refreshing and unique spin you have put on our chances to win the game.....I think we have only seen you post the exact same thing about 1000 times....oh wait you only have 90 posts...I guess you have only bagged on Ruud 90 times.

Yeah....the "and Co." are pretty hot!!

I wish they would not have guaranteed CU the prime after Thanksgiving day spot. If the continue to suck and have their fans escorted from their stadium, I would have liked to have the option of having them replaced with someone else!

Did we lose this guy??? He is no longer on our Scout.com committ list! And his profile says no interest....

I wonder if it was for on field stuff or "off the field" stuff that we don't know about yet?

Neb 35 Aub 23 Rush 200 Pass 225

Few snippets I pulled from pedia.. Traditionally, the students who pack Folsom Field on fall weekends have been among the most loathsome in all of college football. Drunk and inevitably out of control, these are the fans who, in happier times, thought it fun to stuff marshmallows with batteries and hurl them at opposing players. The police ejected 60 fans in the opening loss to Montana State and 68 more in the loss to ASU a few weeks later. Both totals were Folsom records. Funny thing is, the numbers actually indicate student enthusiasm has hit an all-time low. "If we tried to arrest every intoxicated person who was throwing things when the Buffs were winning, we would have ejected a majority of the student section," says Commander Tim McGraw of the campus police. "Football is a powerful part of CU's ritualized drinking," says Robert Maust, of the University's Standing Committee on Substance Abuse. Students start early in the morning and don't stop. By the time they make it to the game, what happens on the field is irrelevant." "We found a student in the bushes who was turning blue," he says. He blew a .40. He survived, but it happens all the time." Already this season, more intoxicated fans have needed emergency medical attention on game day than in the past two years combined. "Students come in with a .30 blood alcohol level and think it's funny," says Chris Saunders, of the Boulder County Public Health's Addiction and Recovery Center. "We want students to take pride in our team instead of disparaging our opponent," Bohn says. "People should feel welcome at the stadium." According to an ESPN poll, 22% of fans say they go to fewer games because of the drunken fans.

I have to disagree....Michigan fans were DOUBLE :asshat :asshat !!!!!!!!

Keller this year...Lucky next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the real question for next year is.....Will Lucky and Glenn be happy sitting behind BJax again....or with another year under their belts will either of them beat out BJax for the top spot???

For a passing QB the heisman is a lot about the talent around you. I would like to think we will have enough talent around Keller next year to let him build up some pretty awesome stats.

I do not subscribe, but on Allbuffs they are complaining about it!! Something about how crappy their fans are....Students drunk all the time and rush the field too much!!

We will know after the USC game if he is a candidate or not....then the hype machine will start.

http://journalstar.com/articles/2006/12/09...bc745851006.txt Teammates name Taylor offensive MVP By the Lincoln Journal Star Husker teammates of Zac Taylor, here throwing a pass against Colorado at Memorial Stadium last month, named him the offensive MVP. (William Lauer) Senior quarterback Zac Taylor was honored by his teammates Friday as Nebraska’s offensive most valuable player at the Huskers’ annual football banquet. Taylor also earned the Guy Chamberlin Trophy, awarded to the senior player has the qualities and dedication set forth by former Husker Guy Chamberlin. The award is voted on by members of the media who cover the team on a daily basis. Senior Adam Carriker was named the team’s defensive MVP. It was the second straight year the defensive end has received the honor. Greg Austin was presented the Tom Novak Trophy. The offensive guard suffered a career-threatening knee injury during his freshman season, but has contributed heavily the past three seasons. The trophy is given to the NU senior who “best exemplifies courage and determination despite all odds in the manner of Nebraska All-America center Tom Novak.” The Cletus Fischer Native Son Award was presented to fullback Dane Todd, a graduate of Lincoln Southeast. The award is given to a senior player, selected by coaches, who best presents a good work ethic, competitiveness, leadership, forthrightness, sense of humor, pride, loyalty and love of Nebraska. Freshman Rickey Thenarse was named the special-teams MVP. Scout-team awards went to Sam Keller (offensive) and Tony Sullivan (defensive).

Top ten class now according to Rivals.... http://rivals100.rivals.com/teamrank.asp