Big 12 Media Days Should Be Eventful!

See what the Dallas News says about this week's Media Days!

Dallas News

News of the day!

Alberto Contador won the Tour de France for the second time. Lance Armstrong did not win. He was well back in time but did finish third in his attempt at a comeback. Will he retire again?

Jamie McMurray is free to shop around for another team. Roush Fenway Racing said they may look to move McMurray to their partner Yates Racing. Presently Roush's drivers are Matt Kenseth, Carl Edward, Greg Biffle, David Ragan, and McMurray. Dewalt says they will not sponsor Matt Kenseth's #17 next year also. It will be weird to see Kenseth with a different looking car. I guess we have gotten used to Tony Stewart's car not being Home Depot so we can get used to this also.

McMurray has been rumored to be in contact with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing to take over the #1 car as Martin Truex Jr is moving after this year.

Look to Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, and Kyle Busch to finish in that order today at the Brickyard.

Coffee grinds caused an emergency landing today in New York. Personnel on board thought they smelled something burning or a fire. Sounds like home.

Larry The Cable Guy is beginning the filming of his Christmas Special this week! Maybe that's why my wife has started her shopping already.

JK Wedding Entrance Dance

THIS IS AWESOME!!! YOU MAY HAVE TO HIT PAUSE AND LET IN LOAD SO YOU CAN WATCH IT ALL AT ONCE!

British Open exciting without Woods!

Steady Tom Watson made this year's British Open one of the best in years. I forgot Tiger didn't even make the cut. No Tiger Woods but lots of drama. Tom Watson was only two over for the day in regulation. Pretty good golf with all the pressure. Many younger extremely athletic golfers played much worse on Sunday.

Golf needs to have a golfer from the past be in the hunt of winning a tournament about once a month. Why not? Wrestling does it, why not golf.

Found myself not liking Stewart Cink for an hour or two yesterday. He seems to be a good guy though. But why did he have to beat Watson?

I think I'll Join the Michael Vick fan club. For Pete's sake he was mean to some dogs and he went to prison for a couple of years. The press is after him and when that happens, as we see in politics, they can ruin you.

Walter Cronkite announces death of JFK

This is one of my most memorable moments in my lifetime. At the time had had a huge impact on the nation. John F. Kennedy had instilled into the lives a vision and a hope for each of us to get better. The nation responded!! This day could be compared to 9/11 when you look at how it affected the nation and the world.

Top 10 Greatest Knockouts Ever

When boxing was fun!

Hahaha

It's a good day to have a laugh!!!

Joe Moglia

Former coach and chairman for TD Ameritrade Joe Moglia is the new life skills and leadership consultant for football. Read on..

Huskers.com

Dead Squirrel

The female version of Fred, I think. Funny.

Best shape ever!

In 2008 when strength and conditioning coach, James Dobson, took over the workouts they, were much more strenuous than what the players experienced with the previous staff. Well, it sounds like this year the workouts have been stepped up a few more notches. The workouts have been very vigorous and players say they are in the best shape of their life. This will result in more wins. You have to give the players and staff a big A+ for the off season work they have done. The first game is right around the corner. As a fan it is invigorating to know the effort that has been set forth to put the best product on the field. This writer is grateful but also glad he isn't one going through the workouts.

I am starting to get the fever and believe that NU can win the Big 12 North. The game at Kansas will be huge. So many things can happen before that game, but if NU can stay mostly healthy at key positions, they will win at Lawrence. Do fans know how much teams will take to prepare to stop Suh? He is the man.

Curse of the Home Run Derby

The Wall Street Journal had the following statistics today on those that have won the Home Run Derby.
Pre-Break Post Break
2008-Lance Berkman 1 HR per 15 AB 1 HR per 31 AB
2007 Alex Rios 1 HR per 21 AB 1 HR per 42 AB
2006 David Wright 1 HR per 17 AB 1 HR per 41 AB
2005 Bobby Abreau 1 HR per 18 AB 1 HR per 44 AB

Two experienced Kansas football players made position changes in critical areas. Kansas lost three starting linebackers so Angus Quigley, the team's second leading rusher last season, has moved to linebacker.

Sophomore Jeremiah Hatch started 12 games at left tackle last year. He has moved to center.

QB Todd Reesing is the only QB projected to start this fall that has won in a bowl game.

Tonight on FSN, the September 1996 between Arizona St and Nebraska was shown. NU had a 26 game winning streak going and was upset 19-0. Pat Tillman recovered a fumble by Ahman Green to ice the victory. Arizona St. went 12-0 that year and then got beat in the Rose Bowl by Ohio State.

Virginia Tech Enter Sandman Entrance

Today ESPN radio said that the money people say Virginia Tech and Boise State are the two toughest places to play. Nebraska goes to Virginia Tech 9/19/09. Virginia Tech is pre-rated in the top five in most polls. It will be interesting to see how many NU fans dressed in red can get tickets to the game. Should be a blast!!

John Mayer performing Human Nature Michael Jackson Memorial Tribute

This is pretty neat. Suggestion: hit play and then hit pause so you can let it load. Enjoy

Moonwalk: Michael Jackson's YouTube Legacy

Dangerous Tour (Live In Bucharest) - She's Out Of My Life

2008 FOOTBALL 202-PART 3

This is the third segment of Football 202 attended by 132 Husker fans. There were fans from twelve states that attended Football 202. One of those fans was the dad of Husker great Terry Connealy, Marty Connealy. He had two of his grandsons with him who look like they could be Huskers soon. They go to school in Mullen.

Also in the football office on Friday was Cody Green, a great quarterback recruit in the 2009 class. He was with his sister and mother. He is a tall athletic looking kid who reminds this writer a little like Josh Freeman. It looked like he was having a good time. He did not attend Football 202.

The Football 202 group had the pleasure of listening to Bo Pelini for a generous amount of time during the day. He told about his story of getting into the coaching ranks.

After playing for Ohio State, he went to Iowa as a GA and worked with the offense. He left after one year because they didn't offer the right setup to go into Sport Administration, which was what he wanted to do. He still wanted to coach also so he did send out numerous resumes to various teams. He was helping coach a high school team when one day the following fall Dwight Clark of the 49ers called him and asked if he was interested in being a scout for them. Clark met with Pelini and asked him to analyze three players and send the results to San Fransisco so they could evaluate his work. They were impressed and Pelini was hired as the head of scouting.

Pelini said he quickly "became bored" working in this area. He spent evenings with Ray Rhodes and other defensive coaches looking at film. They were impressed with his ideas and he was hired in mid-season as an assistant to the assistant secondary coach. At the end of the season Ray Rhodes went to the Philadelphia Eagles and Mike Shanahan went to the Denver Broncos. They both offered him jobs. But Mike Shanahan did give him some advice. He suggested that Coach Pelini stay with the 49ers who had a great system, George Seifert as head coach, and a defensive coordinator named Pete Carroll. Coach Pelini said "the best career decision he ever made was not taking the Bronco or Philly job as an assistant coach." He said "you are a product of what you are exposed to." The five years with the 49ers formed him into a great defensive coach. The rest is history.

Coach Pelini believes that coaching is all about relationships and teaching. In regards to teaching he learned in San Fransisco the following concepts:

1. Teach a player what to do
2. Teach a player how to do it
3. Most importantly, you need to teach WHY you are doing that way.

Whatever job that you have, you have to know the WHY. That way when there are changes in formations or adversity, you know how to react in a positive manner.

Coach Pelini believes that the best player is even in his emotions. "Players have to in control. Emotion happens when you have built a team, when you are playing for "N", not themselves."

Coach Pelini said "the players aren't quite ready yet, but they WILL be ready for the first game." This writer believes him.

In the afternoon, we had the pleasure to listen to Eric Crouch. Crouch was introduced as not only a great player and Heisman winner, but also a great person by Jeff Jamrog.

Crouch discussed his pro career. He said "he wanted to play quarterback" but the Rams drafted him as a receiver. Crouch was burned out from football when he left the Rams. He was injured most of his pro career and had nine surgeries before it was over. He said he doesn't know if his pro career is over now, but he does enjoy his recreational equipment sales business in Omaha.

Crouch raved about his high school football coach Fred Petito of Millard North.

Crouch said you always needed to "know what you were doing during the game" at NU. He said he would stay after practice and throw balls for an hour or two after practice. He worked hard.

His greatest college game, he said, was beating Notre Dame in overtime at Notre Dame with the stadium mostly red. He also mentioned the TD pass he caught from Mike Stuntz and the long Missouri run for a TD.

Crouch was very humorous and talked about the time when he was in New Orleans for the Walter Camp award. He said officials called him to go eat. He met Rex Grossman in the elevator and asked him if he was going out to eat because he assumed all the candidates were invited. Grossman was in shorts and had a pizza so he figured out real quick that he was going to eat with them by himself. They told him that night at supper that he was going to win the award.

Crouch also talked about running to a defensive team's strength sometimes when the defense would shift. He said "I thought, what the heck and they would go out and make ten to fifteen yards."

Part 4 will be the final segment. It will include more on Coach Pelini, the offensive coaches installing plays, and meeting with four of the players! Stay tuned.
Crouch had a great message and was interesting to listen to.

An interesting web site is www.tv4u.com. Check out Classic Sports/Classic Football and look for the 1976 Bluebonnet Bowl with Nebraska vs. Texas Tech. Ron Franklin is a sideline announcer and the game is shown in its entirety.

TV4u.com

Perlman Surprises!

I have never considered Harvey Perlman a representative of sports let alone being a spokesman for the BCS. Perlman has seemed to be a square shooter and he seems to be more comfortable with science and music announcements than sports. Just found it interesting.

What in the world is Congress doing talking about the BCS anyway. There are much more worldly issues to be dealing with than if the BCS is breaking anti-trust laws. Let the courts decide it rather than Orrin Hatch trying to spell out that Utah is better than Nebraska. It appears now that the BCS setup as we know it will be gone. That may be good but keep it out of Congress.

Personally I am ok with the BCS but don't have power conferences. Just take the best teams and let the system set it up. If two teams end up undefeated at year end, let's play one more game to decide the overall champion. Most years there wouldn't be an extra game but it would add excitement to the bowl games. Money needs to be split with the conferences that have the better teams. Last year the Mountain West Conference got $9.8 million which was half of the amount of money the three bigger conferences got. When they won their BCS bowl their conference should receive more money. It needs to be a little more fair. Their conference is not equal to the Big 12 but the payback should be more fairly distributed. How much? I am not sure.

I would like to see somebody that knows all the facts comment on this.

Look for Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, and Kyle Busch battle for the Nascar race this week.

2009 Red White Spring Football Highlights

60 days until Florida Atlantic

Harlan County Lake elevation

On June 29th the elevation of the Harlan County Lake was 1947.03. This is compared to 1947.88 on 6/29/08. On June 26th, 2007, the elevation was 1939.85. The town of Alma had a record crowd for its parade today.

2008 Football 202 Part 2

I attended the UNL Football 202 program last year. It was a GREAT experience!! Here is the second part of what I wrote last year.


This is Part 2 to this writer's day at Football 202. 132 Husker football fans attended "class" to learn more of the "inside" workings of the football team. Please refer to my July 26th blog for this writer's first set of notes.

It was mentioned in my Part 1 blog that next year's attendance may double when it gets around what a neat time we had with Football 202. The great thing of having 132 was that we all fit in the players meeting room in the football office.

After James Dobson spoke to us we took a break. At that time my daughter Kim introduced me to Chris Kiffin. He is a son to Monte Kiffin of the Tampa Bay Bucs and a brother to Lane Kiffin, the Oakland Raider head coach. Chris is 26 and is an intern for the football team. He will work with the tight ends this season. He played football for Colorado State as a defensive lineman. Coach Watson said that when he was with Colorado they had to use a smash block on Chris when they played Colorado State. A smash block consists of two lineman blocking one defender using a certain technique. Needless to say, Chris Kiffin was an excellent college football player and is a very good kid.

Also working as an intern is Austen Everson who was a standout QB for Coach Frank Solich at Ohio University in 2005 and 2006. It is my understanding he will be working in the video area.

After break we had the pleasure to hear Trev Alberts speak. His story is interesting and he has a passion for Husker football that may only be matched by Jason Peter.

Trev said that a Husker player has the "burden and responsibility to represent the state well" and to win football games. To be a Cornhusker means you do everything possible to put a winner on the field and anything less than that is not acceptable. He mentioned that, as a player, you have to understand what Nebraska football means to the fans.

Trev Alberts was from a small school in Iowa. He said his dad really didn't want him to play football because he needed to help with farm work. He said when they grew up they didn't have a TV. He did go out for football and had a pretty successful career.

Back when Trev was getting recruited, they didn't have internet recruiting services but Tom Lemming had a publication. Trev's dad called Tom Lemming and asked why his son wasn't on his all Midwest team. Lemming told him to send $25 and he would send Trev future copies. The next publication had Trev Albert as second team on the Midwest team. This helped him get recognition with college football programs.

One day Earl Bruce, who was then coaching Northern Iowa called him and said they would like to offer him a scholarship. He asked what that meant. Coach Bruce said that if you come here we will pay for your schooling if you play football for us. Trev said "alright, sounds good to me."

One day the legendary Nebraska linebacker football coach, John Melton, showed up at his door. That started his relationship with Nebraska. He had two or three offers from other schools and Iowa had asked him to walk-on but then Nebraska got interested. Dave Gillespie asked Alberts to send him some film. Trev laughed when he told us what his football tape consisted of. A father had taped a couple of games on an old recorder. He sent that tape to Nebraska.

Trev Alberts admired Tom Osborne. When Coach Osborne visited him, he wrote down on a piece of paper eight names. Trev's was at the bottom. Coach Osborne explained that if Trev came to Nebraska that he would be listed as the eighth linebacker. It would be up to him to move up. He admired Coach Osborne because he didn't make promises that he would start if he went to Nebraska. Coach Osborne also wanted competitors on his football team and they had to have the drive to improve themselves to start.

Trev Alberts went to Nebraska despite his parents wanting him to stay closer to home and attend Iowa. Iowa offered him a scholarship after Nebraska did. The other reason he went to NU was:

1. He loved the visit to Nebraska
2. His high school football coach told him to go to Iowa because he could never play at NU. He said he still loves his high school coach dearly.

Trev Alerts said playing at Nebraska created a "larger mission of college athletics". He said that the student-athlete was never mistreated. We were always treated right."

He said that playing at Nebraska gave him many life lessons. Perseverance was a key. He felt like quitting many times but his dad told him he was not to quit and that being a quitter makes it easy to quit other things in life. He learned a different level of toughness and work ethic and that the work ethic was set by those that had an investment in the state.

"We believed in what we believed and we didn't waiver. We had principles." Another life lesson learned was honesty.

Trev Albert ended up as a rush end for the Cornhuskers. He attributes a lot of his success to his position coach, Tony Samuel. He won the Butkus award when he was a senior.

Trev Alberts was very entertaining. You can see why he has been successful on television. He said he is still friends with Mark May and had just spoke to him a couple of weeks ago.

Trev left us with "Football can't be about total thinking. You have to be free to play."

Next up is Bo Pelini.

Mayo Clinic atrium piano, charming older couple...

I wished I would have learned how to play the piano better