ESPN's take on the Red-White game

I'm a few days late on this but I was waiting for the fine people at Red Lasso to hook me up with an account.

What follows is the Nebraska portion of ESPN's College Game Day Final from last Saturday. If, like me, you weren't able to make it Lincoln of were out of the country (DT, Jeff), here's what they were saying right after it happened...



I felt like their post-spring assessment of Nebraska was pretty spot on. Ed Cunningham foresees "7-5ish" which seems about right and he cuts right through the feel good aspects of the Cody Glenn story to point out that a converted running back would probably start at linebacker if the season started today. While intriguing, that's typically not a good sign. (No pressure, Will Compton.)

Tom Luginbill, on the other hand, seems a bit more enamored with the Cornhuskers, specifically Joe Ganz. The irony here, of course, is that Luginbill is one of those professional star givers and Joe Ganz, out of high school, was not much of a star getter.

If you had to rank the signal-callers in the suddenly QBgasmic Big 12 heading into 2008 where does Ganz fit in? I'm thinking the 7, 8, 9 range is fair depending upon your opinions of Freeman, McGee and Hawkins.

Fabian Washington. Subtle.

Anyone who reads this site knows that Doug Dubose's 'SECRETARIAT' necklace is my all time favorite piece of Cornhusker bling. It can't be topped but Fabian Washington is certainly trying:

It's not that the necklace says "LOOK AT ME!" No, it's more like it backhands you across the face, grabs your cheeks between its icy fingers and pulls your eyes down around the navel. I'm entirely convinced that this is a very clear plea to Jerry Jones to get Fabian the hell out of Oakland.

The photo is but one of many great ones from the spring game that you can find at Husker Faithful. Additionally, Corn Nation, Husker Mike and Big Red Network were all in attendance and snapped photos as well.

I'll defer to their firsthand experiences because, as I suspect a number of Nebraskans outside the state discovered on Saturday, the spring game doesn't really translate to radio and video coverage was spotty at best.

We do know this, however: Nebraska's home jerseys are 10 points better than their road jerseys heading into Fall 08.

Better, Skinnier, Happier: The Memes of the Spring

What have we learned thus far from Nebraska's one-practice old spring session? That everyone was fat and unhappy last year.

At least it seems that way based on the memes of the spring:

• Matt Slauson went on record Monday as not being either happy or skinny last season.
• Larry Asante wasn't really feelin' the coaching methods last year either.
• Phillip Dillard now fits into his favorite jeans again. So does Zach Potter.
  
• And finally, Cody Glenn comes out and reveals the frustration he felt with running backs coach Randy Jordan in 07. Here's a quote:

"The thing about me is, when you tell me you're going to do something, I expect you to do it. Once you don't, I just kind of don't have any trust in you. We had a few situations like that, and I never got an explanation for it, where he'd come up to me and say, I did this for this reason."

Very similar to the comments Slauson had made earlier in the week regarding his playing time. As Husker Mike noted, we're finally starting to see how much of a clusterf*** the whole thing was last year.

My question is this: is there value in that sort of revelation? Both for the team and the fans?

Personally, I always enjoy a good shot to the Callahan ribs and rarely miss the opportunity to take one, but what about everyone else?

Is it worth the effort to rehash this stuff just so we can all sort of nod and say, "See, I knew they weren't having any fun/didn't believe in the staff/were too pudgy to really put it in gear/were so swamped in terminology/(your self-affirming notion here) to be any good!"

I'm not entirely convinced that it is, which frightens me because I think that means I'm officially asking the players to get back to more platitudes, "last year's behind us we're just looking ahead blah blah blah," and I've never wanted that.

What do you think? Keep the confession session going or keep on truckin'?

Enough Talk, Let's Practice

Any one else get the sense that there are few things Bo Pelini likes less than talking about football? We've now had three press conferences with the new head coach and in each of them his uneasiness with explaining himself, his strategy, his procedure, etc. has been palpable. The guy's not an orator he's a coach and you can just sense his readiness to stop theorizing and start terrorizing out on the practice field.

Thankfully, for us and for him, today's presser marked the unofficial start of the spring practice/semi-real news season. I'll stick with the term "semi-real" because as we learned today practices will once again be closed to the media for the most part. Pelini's answer to that very question was probably the best of the day:

"I just don’t want distractions. I don’t like the media making their determinations based on who’s doing what. That’s the part I don’t like. I want the message to get out, but I want to make sure the correct things are getting out there."

Read: I want MY message to get out, but that's fine with me. It's probably the best approach in most cases but especially in a football-mad state such as Nebraska. It's hard to envision a scenario where, say, QB snaps were counted could be a positive thing for anyone so we'll just continue feasting on whatever morsels we're given. Same as it ever was.

Beyond that, it was a pretty mundane press conference. Pelini said all the right things--"doing the right thing" is high on his list as well as is building a foundation and getting what you earn in terms of playing time--but it did herald the start of one very good thing: we are one day away from some semblance of football.

While that probably means Pelini can stop talking about it, it also means the various media and blog outlets can start talking about it in earnest. Thank God for that.

Other assorted press conference thoughts:

--When Pelini used the phrase "good football player" to describe Cody Glenn it absolutely sent chills up my spine. Shouldn't somebody have briefed Bo about the dangers of that phrase? Don't do that to me.

--Bo Pelini is not Phil Jackson. No "psychological books" here. I like that but there's something to be said for "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." Look what it did for Scottie Pippen. He's a Top 50 all-time player and fabulously wealthy...or maybe just a Top 50 all-time player.

--Everyone's excited about Joe Ganz based on his performance last year but after listening to him speak, I think the bigger factor might be the freedom given to him as "QB1." Sounds like it's a pretty big weight off his shoulders knowing that he's earned his shot now.

--I don't care what anyone says, having a QB with a Chicago accent can't be a bad thing. Da Bears! If Callahan had spoken with Ganz accent I would've liked him 200% more.

--If you had to bet on who is going to become the star of Pelini's first Blackshirts defense, is anyone taking somebody other than Larry Asante? He's been the source of a lot of the pre-spring season media coverage and it certainly seems like he's all in at this point.

--And while we're here why not interpret a quote as one last shot at Callahan? Said Asante:

"I think every football team takes the attitude of the head coach. I think that's what we're doing. Like I said, our head coach is an intense guy. And he wants to win. Players take the attitude of their coach and that's what we're doing."

It all sounds good to me. Let's get started...