NUance

Favorite way to travel to Memorial Stadium? On foot. Here was my typical gameday ritual during my college years at UNL. Wake up, slightly hungover from the Friday night party. Scrounge through dirty clothes for something Husker red to wear. Grab a late breakfast to keep the stomach from rumbling. Gather with buddies to load up the bota bags and have a few pre-game tequila shots. Then hoof it to the stadium to be seated in time for a couple more shots before kick-off. Scream head off during the ensuing slaughter. These days I am generally sober as a Baptist preacher on gameday. I am usually driving to/from game with a carload of family and friends.

Ha ha! That would have been more satisfying than trying to ask real questions—-given that I got skunked. Maybe I should have asked something like, “What is your personal best running the 40, Tom? Could you run a 5.5 if your life depended on it? What if Terrence Cody was naked and chasing you, planning to knock you down and sit on your head? Could you outrun him?”

Article on Rivals about Mike Leach's deposition, and the depositions of Craig and Adam James. Mike Leach is going to be taking a LOT of pirate booty out of the Texas Tech athletic dept coffers. linky

Well, Dienhart stopped taking questions. That was quick. None of my questions got answered. These are the questions I posed: Does the firing of Mangino and Leach signal the Big 12 becoming a kinder and gentler place to play football? Is USC’s win streak run over? Or will they dominate once again? If Tim Tebow did not attend Florida, would the Gators have a worse reputation for thuggery than the Miami Hurricanes of the 80s/90s? What staff has the best recruiters—if you take away geographic advantages? (e.g., Could Mack Brown’s staff recruit at, say, Oregon). What programs do the best job of developing unheralded talent? That is, where do recruits tend to improve the most?

Ask college football questions in Rival's Tom Dienhart live chat. Live right now, noon Monday 3/15 live chat link

Yeah, it really is a shame the way things worked out. I was a big fan of Q. The guy had tons of talent. The potential to be a Sunday player. But he pissed it away. And now the Supplemental Draft? He would have been better off staying in school and getting a degree.

Great to hear. I hope it translates to the field. And I think it will. /takes swig from winter conditioning Kool-Aid./

Yoshi will start next year. I have met this kid and he is just one hell of a focused kid. He doesn't think he will make it to the NFL, he knows he will make it to the NFL and he knows how to get there. He is very proud to be a Husker and takes pride in where he is from. Yoshi has all the tools to achieve greatness at Nebraska and I strongly believe he will. I dunno. It’s hard to come into a top program and win a starting O-line position the first year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Yoshi make the two deep. Might even get significant PT. But I am skeptical that he will be a starter this year.

This link won't last long but this is the picture we were talking about: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/ncaa/?eref=sinav Here's the pic uploaded:

Multiple sources say he got booted for drugs and bad work ethic, so I don't know what else you are looking for. There will never be anything official that says why he was booted. Yeah multiple sources say Tupac is still alive too...I'm just asking if anyone KNOWS FOR SURE hey shiney, take a look around read a bit, bo will never come out and say "i threw him off the team because he makes cheech and chong look like straight edgers. I'm not saying I want a signed affidavit, I'm wondering if anyone knows from anyone on the inside or something. I knew personally why Q got kicked off the team because of people I know in the athletic department, I'm looking for that type of answer. People can tell me they heard this and that till they're blue in the face, but saying it over and over again doesn't make something true, that's all. Oh this rumor is legit alright. Straight from the saltwater aquarium guy himself.

Yeah, Matt Davidson did not have blazing speed. He really didn’t even have decent speed. He was slow. But Davison had the best hands of any wide receiver I can think of. Better even than Swift. If a pass was thrown anywhere near Davison he would haul it in. The guy had hands like an industrial vacuum cleaner covered with stickum. I don’t think many people appreciated how talented Matt Davison was at catching the ball. If Niles Paul had Matt Davison’s ability to catch the ball he would be the best WR in the country.

Gilley just needs to grow into his role at receiver. I think we'll see a much more improved and mature player this season. Yeah, I think Gilleylen is going to be a good one. Maybe great. Then again I thought that about Will Henry too. We have lots of young receivers with talent. Currenski Gilleylen, Brandon Kinnie, Khiry Cooper, Antonio Bell. Our problem at WR isn’t lack of speed. It’s hands. I think Swift was the last WR we had with great hands. Swift was a great WR for us even though he lacked speed. Last season we had problems hauling in passes and holding onto the ball. Niles Paul is as guilty of this as anyone. Sure he has great speed. But he won't be a great WR until he improves his ability to catch the ball. And hold onto it. How many drives ended because our WR dropped a catchable pass? We got speed. We need hands.

I saw this. I don’t see what the big deal is. He talking to a bunch of football players in the lockeroom. Isn’t this how coaches talk?

I am surprised you can hit anything past about 15 feet with that short barrel and tiny handgrip. But it is a cool looking little weapon. I'll bet it is loud as heck with that short barrel.

So this guy is saying that when two guys get in a fight the coaching staff is supposed to call the cops? What a bunch of baloney. If that was the case NU would have had to install an LPD branch office in North Stadium just to handle the Richie Incognito calls.

wow! That's the biggest friggin bobble head I've ever seen!

Yeah, kind of. The great Harry Beck made one play for us that got us in field goal range to beat K-State. But his pick from the previous series resulted in a field goal (almost a pick 6) and nearly cost the game. For the half dozen plays he was on the field that day he burned his shirt. And then his mom called "Supper!" and he had to run home. Forever.

Funny little quip about Cally's 2007 class. Back in Feb. 2007 not that many folks were excited about the guys mentioned in the quote above-—especially Roy Helu and Eric Hagg. IIRC more people were excited by guys like Quentin Castille and Jaivorio Burkes. I admit that I was. Maybe other people had better foresight back then than I did. Or maybe just poor memories. And 20-20 hindsight.

Wow, that is an interesting development. I wonder if this is true, or if Stewie Mandel is just filling column space with fluff. I would hate to see UT develop a monster running game like they had with Ricky Williams.

Great call on all three. These guys were top notch. Especially Warren Powers. After he bolted NU for the HC job at Mizzou, he knocked us out of playing for the national championship when he beat us in 1978.

Jay Norvell???? You're joking, right? For DC's I could see a 3 way fight between Bo, Monte, and Charlie McBride (he was okay, too, ya know). John Blake as recruiting coordinator? I'm not so sure about that. While the guy could probably sell ice to an Eskimo, the "talent" brought in while he was here never turned out to be much. Dr. Tom was a much, much, MUCH better evaluator of talent than John Blake ever was. But he would be the best OC we could have, so he might have to wear 2 hats. What can I say? I think the guy is a good coach and I liked the offenses he put on the field. In 2006 Norvell had NU’s offense ranked 14th nationally. I don’t know if you remember the Callahan years, but our offense wasn’t the problem. Norvell even had OU ranked 23rd in total offense last season—--with RS freshman Landry Jones at QB, a committee of RBs, and a whole new set of WRs from the year before. Who would you choose instead? You’ve said who you don’t like. Are there any NU coaches who you do like? Unfortunately, I remember that Callahan was the coach here, but I don't remember alot of specifics. I do remember that the offense pretty well sucked most of the time. Just briefly looking through his 3 years here as "OC," NU averaged under 30 points per game (maybe someone can help me here?), but I remember games where the offense struggled mightily against powerhouses like Maine and ISU. Or games against OU or USC where the offense never did anything. Norvell is the WR coach and I guess the co-OC at OU. Besides, he was OC in name only here, Callahan called the plays. I'm not sure if you remember, but the West Coast Offense at Nebraska never worked well and WAS a problem. Yes, there were a few games sprinkled in here and there that were gems (usually against Div-1 AA opponents), but for the most part, it was junk, no matter who the coach was: Callahan, Norvell, or Watson. Go back and look at the stats and scores from 04-07, less than impressive. Dr. Tom is the best OC NU has ever had. I would bet the farm that he could put together a offense that would score 40 points per game, easily. That’s the thing. A lot of folks don’t remember that we had a pretty good offense under Callahan. At least, during his final two years. The first two years pretty much sucked, both on offense, and to a lesser extent defense (2005 defense wasn’t too bad). But by 2006-2007 our offenses were pretty good. But our defenses sucked. Big time. The 2007 Blackshorts defense may have been the worst defense ever for NU—but the offense was pretty good. In 2007 we scored 31 on #1 ranked USC and scored 39 on #8 ranked KU, but got beat soundly both times. Look at the CU game: We hung a half a hundert on CU in Boulder—And they beat us! (51-65). Not the offenses fault in any of those three losses. Consider the overall offense and defensive ranking for our last two years of Callahan: 2006 total offense: 14 2006 total defense: 56 2007 total offense: 9 2007 total defense: 112 Our defense sucked. Our offense was pretty good. As for TO being the offensive coordinator, I wouldn’t say that’s a bad choice at all. Dr. Osborne built one of the most potent offenses in the history of college football—The 1983 Scoring Explosion. His offenses from the middle 90’s were very good, but maybe not great. The great Blackshirt defenses 92-95 helped out our offenses considerably. But I would prefer an offense that can pass as well as run. That’s why I gave Norvell the nod.

Jay Norvell???? You're joking, right? For DC's I could see a 3 way fight between Bo, Monte, and Charlie McBride (he was okay, too, ya know). John Blake as recruiting coordinator? I'm not so sure about that. While the guy could probably sell ice to an Eskimo, the "talent" brought in while he was here never turned out to be much. Dr. Tom was a much, much, MUCH better evaluator of talent than John Blake ever was. But he would be the best OC we could have, so he might have to wear 2 hats. What can I say? I think the guy is a good coach and I liked the offenses he put on the field. In 2006 Norvell had NU’s offense ranked 14th nationally. I don’t know if you remember the Callahan years, but our offense wasn’t the problem. Norvell even had OU ranked 23rd in total offense last season—--with RS freshman Landry Jones at QB, a committee of RBs, and a whole new set of WRs from the year before. Who would you choose instead? You’ve said who you don’t like. Are there any NU coaches who you do like?

Chris had tons of talent. But seemed to be more high on his own agenda, rather than being committed to team goals. Similar to the situation with Quentin Castille.

Who would be on your Husker coaching staff Dream Team? Taken from Husker coaches past or present, in their prime. HC: Bob Devaney DC: Carl and Bo as co-DCs OC: Jay Norvell Not sure who I’d staff at the various assistant coaching positions.

Ha ha! Good stuff. Makes me want to crack open a cold one and help out the economy.