Eric the Red
Team HuskerBoard
Everyone is trailing Texas
Jennifer Saleaumua (26), Tracy Stalls (11) and the rest of the Husker volleyball team won the only conference title for Nebraska in the 2005-06 season. (Jill Peitzmeier)
The mighty Longhorns had everyone hooked in 2005-06, winning 13 Big 12 crowns, compared with one in volleyball for Nebraska.
BY TODD HENRICHS / Lincoln Journal Star
A $50 million investment in steel, brick and mortar couldn’t come at a better time in Husker Nation.
On the field, it’s been a lean year for Nebraska in the hardware business.
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A well-rounded athletic program that hauled home 42 Big 12 championships in the previous six years collected a mere one in 2005-06, a revelation as stunning as Missouri going a seventh straight year without even one conference title.
At the other extreme is Texas, which with 13 league championships in 2005-06 threatened to make a mockery of competition within the supposed super-conference.
Texas won championships in seven of the nine men’s sports in which the Longhorns compete. And in the other two, UT finished second.
By sweeping conference titles in football, men’s basketball and baseball, Texas did something the Longhorns hadn’t accomplished in more than 30 years.
“Bevo and the 11 Dwarfs” is how the San Antonio Express-News referred to the Big 12 in a story highlighting the Longhorns’ success.
“Texas had a dominant year this year. They won just about everything,” Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson said in reviewing the Huskers’ year in sports. “Overall, we made much more progress this year, but we just didn’t win as many Big 12 championships.”
It’s a belief born out in the Directors’ Cup standings, the all-sports competition sponsored by the nation’s athletic directors.
Once baseball results are added in, Nebraska should finish 19th, up from 21st a year ago and the Huskers’ best finish in five years.
Nebraska finished among the top 25 nationally in 15 of its 23 sports, including top-five finishes from five women’s teams — bowling, rifle, volleyball, gymnastics and outdoor track and field.
Volleyball, the Huskers’ only Big 12 conference champion, reached the national championship match to easily rank as the best of Nebraska’s high-profile teams.
Both basketball squads failed to reach the NCAA Tournament for another year, yet their matching 19-win seasons were gains over 2004-05.
Baseball, like women’s soccer and women’s gymnastics, flirted with winning a conference title. But the Huskers’ late-season swoon ended with a disappointing two-and-out performance in the NCAA Regional.
Football, meanwhile, ended on a high note with wins against Colorado in the regular-season finale and Michigan in the Alamo Bowl.
Other highlights were a second consecutive NCAA appearance in women’s tennis, a top-20 finish in women’s golf and a NCAA regional berth for a men’s golf program that had finished dead-last in the Big 12 three of the past four years.
Those accomplishments, combined with the fast-approaching conclusion of the Memorial Stadium Improvement Project, has Pederson believing momentum within the NU athletic program is at its highest point since his arrival as athletic director in 2003.
“Back then, I’d go into places and there would be good crowds, but there was sort of this tentative feeling that we weren’t going anywhere,” Pederson said last week. “People would say to me, ‘I hope we’re going to get everything fixed and turned around.’
“That seemed to be the common theme.”
Much like Texas winning Big 12 titles.
“We’ve got to stay focused on winning the conference,” Pederson said. “If you can win the championship in the Big 12, you’ve got a chance to win the national championship in any sport.”
Reach Todd Henrichs at 473-7439 or thenrichs@journalstar.com.
Jennifer Saleaumua (26), Tracy Stalls (11) and the rest of the Husker volleyball team won the only conference title for Nebraska in the 2005-06 season. (Jill Peitzmeier)
The mighty Longhorns had everyone hooked in 2005-06, winning 13 Big 12 crowns, compared with one in volleyball for Nebraska.
BY TODD HENRICHS / Lincoln Journal Star
A $50 million investment in steel, brick and mortar couldn’t come at a better time in Husker Nation.
On the field, it’s been a lean year for Nebraska in the hardware business.
Advertisement
A well-rounded athletic program that hauled home 42 Big 12 championships in the previous six years collected a mere one in 2005-06, a revelation as stunning as Missouri going a seventh straight year without even one conference title.
At the other extreme is Texas, which with 13 league championships in 2005-06 threatened to make a mockery of competition within the supposed super-conference.
Texas won championships in seven of the nine men’s sports in which the Longhorns compete. And in the other two, UT finished second.
By sweeping conference titles in football, men’s basketball and baseball, Texas did something the Longhorns hadn’t accomplished in more than 30 years.
“Bevo and the 11 Dwarfs” is how the San Antonio Express-News referred to the Big 12 in a story highlighting the Longhorns’ success.
“Texas had a dominant year this year. They won just about everything,” Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson said in reviewing the Huskers’ year in sports. “Overall, we made much more progress this year, but we just didn’t win as many Big 12 championships.”
It’s a belief born out in the Directors’ Cup standings, the all-sports competition sponsored by the nation’s athletic directors.
Once baseball results are added in, Nebraska should finish 19th, up from 21st a year ago and the Huskers’ best finish in five years.
Nebraska finished among the top 25 nationally in 15 of its 23 sports, including top-five finishes from five women’s teams — bowling, rifle, volleyball, gymnastics and outdoor track and field.
Volleyball, the Huskers’ only Big 12 conference champion, reached the national championship match to easily rank as the best of Nebraska’s high-profile teams.
Both basketball squads failed to reach the NCAA Tournament for another year, yet their matching 19-win seasons were gains over 2004-05.
Baseball, like women’s soccer and women’s gymnastics, flirted with winning a conference title. But the Huskers’ late-season swoon ended with a disappointing two-and-out performance in the NCAA Regional.
Football, meanwhile, ended on a high note with wins against Colorado in the regular-season finale and Michigan in the Alamo Bowl.
Other highlights were a second consecutive NCAA appearance in women’s tennis, a top-20 finish in women’s golf and a NCAA regional berth for a men’s golf program that had finished dead-last in the Big 12 three of the past four years.
Those accomplishments, combined with the fast-approaching conclusion of the Memorial Stadium Improvement Project, has Pederson believing momentum within the NU athletic program is at its highest point since his arrival as athletic director in 2003.
“Back then, I’d go into places and there would be good crowds, but there was sort of this tentative feeling that we weren’t going anywhere,” Pederson said last week. “People would say to me, ‘I hope we’re going to get everything fixed and turned around.’
“That seemed to be the common theme.”
Much like Texas winning Big 12 titles.
“We’ve got to stay focused on winning the conference,” Pederson said. “If you can win the championship in the Big 12, you’ve got a chance to win the national championship in any sport.”
Reach Todd Henrichs at 473-7439 or thenrichs@journalstar.com.
