Nebraska gets a basketball recruit

Shavon Shields is coming to play basketball for Nebraska. Shavon is the son of Will Shields, a standout for Nebraska and an All-Pro lineman for the Kansas City Chiefs. Shields is a 6'4" guard and had offers from Long Beach State, Wyoming, and Weber State. There was also interest from Stanford. Shields has a three star ranking with Rivals.com.

Former Nebraska running back Brandon Jackson has been put on IR for the rest of the season with the Cleveland Browns.

Adi Kunalic was released by the Carolina Panthers and Steve Octavian was released by the Browns.

Ricky Henry has been put on the practice squad for the Packers. but Chris Brooks was released by the Colts. Anthony West was released by the 49ers along with Philip Dillard by the Giants.

Lydon Murtha has been put on IR by the Dolphins.

Nebraska's first game is good and not so good!

Good

Nebraska is a young, young team. Nebraska started a number of freshmen and sophomores in their first game of the season. Three of the offensive line members were in these two classes. Tyler Moore became the first true freshmen lineman ever to start his first game. Quincy Enunwa is a sophomore and started at receiver. Jamal Turner is a true freshman at receiver and should start soon. Taylor Martinez is only a sophomore and the three backup running backs are all true freshmen. Jason Ankrah (sophomore) started at defensive end. Ciante Evans (sophomore) and Andrew Green (RSfreshman) started at our corners. Courtney Osborne (sophomore) started at safety.

2. Nebraska committed only three penalties and the offensive play-calling was very efficient. It has been a long time since this has been the case.

3. Playmakers. Nebraska has more playmakers than it has had in a long time. Nebraska will be the fastest team in the Big 10. This team may be the fastest team Nebraska has ever had. That doesn't mean we are the best, but we will be the fastest. Damien Stafford (safety)played like an NFL linebacker we will see him on the field more as the season goes. Jamal Turner is a Johnny Rodgers clone with size. We need to get him more involved. Ameer Abdullah also looked very good at times and will break a punt return soon.

4. Nebraska did show enough of their offense to make other teams' game preparation difficult. We ran out of the option, I-Back, pistol, shotgun, and a diamond formations.

5. Our special teams were excellent. Brett Maher looks like a keeper.

6. Taylor Martinez can get to full speed in three steps. Just unbelievable.

NOT SO GOOD.

1. The offensive line was a disappointment. We looked bigger and stronger but on a lot of plays we, in no way, dominated the line. Our three freshmen backs need some kind of hole because they are not power runners, at this point.

2. Taylor Martinez zeros in on his receiver and throws a little to late a lot of the times. There are very few plays that the defensive back doesn't have a chance to get his hand on the ball.

3. We do not run the option very well at all. Just doesn't look like we can do much with it at this time.

4. This writer hated to see Lance Thorell dislocate his shoulder during the game. He made some good plays while he was in there.

Hopefully we will improve between the first game and next week's game with Fresno State. Fresno State will be a very tough team to beat.

2.

Nebraskans in the NFL

This last week in the NFL the following Nebraskans accomplished these stats:

Philadelphia/Alex Henery/ One for two in FG's with a 49 yarder. He was also three for three in extra points
Tampa Bay/Larry Asante/ Two unassisted tackles with two assisted tackles
Washington/Niles Paul/ Three catches for 21 yards
Washington/Dujon Gomes/ One unassisted tackle and two assisted tackles
Carolina/Adi Kunalic/One for One in FG's with a 20 yarder and 1/1 in extra points
Cleveland/Steve Octavian/One tackle
Chicago/Zach Bowman/One tackle
Kansas City/Demorrio Williams/ Two tackles
New Orleans/Scott Shanle/Two tackles
Buffalo/One unassisted tackle and one assisted tackle
Indianapolis/Chris Brooks/ One catch for 26 yards
Baltimore/Sam Koch/ Eight Punts for an average of 44.8 yards
St. Louis/Josh Brown/One for one on FG's with a 35 yarder and 3/3 in extra points
Jacksonville/One catch for 20 yards
New England/Danny Woodhead/Two runs for 11 yards
Arizona/Stewart Bradley/One interception

Nebraska wins first game

Nebraska will win the first game in 2011 vs. Chattanooga-Tennessee 49-7.

Dillard has three assisted tackles

Philip Dillard had three assisted tackles Monday night vs. the New York Jets Monday night.

Jason Ankrah starts for Nebraska at defensive end. The competition has been high with Josh Williams, Eric Martin, and Dan Carter all fighting for the position.

Andrew Green will make his first start over Afonzo Dennard who is hurt.

Brett Maher has been named the starting kicker.

Sport shorts

Nebraskans in NFL this weekend

Indianapolis/Chris Brooks Two catches for 18 yards and one TD
St. Louis/Josh Brown Two for two in extra points
Kansas City/Demorrio Williams Three tackles
Tampa Bay/Larry Asante One tackle
New England/Danny Woodhead Four carries for 28 yards and three catches for 21 yards.
Detroit/N. Suh/ One tackle
Chicago Bears/Zach Bowman four tackles
Tennessee/Barrett Ruud Two tackles plus two assisted tackles
Arizona/Stewart Bradley Two tackles

Gomes has great game for Redskins!

Dujon Gomes had seven unassisted tackles for the Washington Redskins Thursday night versus Baltimore.

Roy Helu Jr. had 13 carries for 44 yards and one catch for 14 yards for the Skins. Niles Paul had no catches but had two kickoff returns for 32 yards

For Baltimore, Sam Koch had four punts for a 43 yard average. He had one punt for 61 yards.

Alex Henery had a 37 yard field goal and was 3 for 3 in extra points for Philadelphia tonight.

True freshman Tyler Moore is working as the No. 1 right tackle right now for the Huskers. It will be interesting to see if Marcel Jones can get healthy enough to beat him out.

Nebraska picked up the first known member of its 2012 recruiting class on Thursday when Marshalltown (Iowa) Community College center Keith Coleman committed to the Huskers. Coleman is huge at 6'9" and 240 pounds. Coleman is rated one of the nation's top five big men by Hot 100 Hoops. Nebraska's Almeida is a senior this year and Diaz is a Junior. After them, NU is pretty short. Coleman should work well in the Big 10.

Nebraska Football Jerseys 2011

Nebraskans in NFL

More Huskers in NFL

New Orleans/Scott Shanle One tackle
Oakland/Josh Bullocks Three tackles
St. Louis/Josh Brown One FG of 42 yards and 2 for 2 in extra points
Buffalo/ Chris Kelsey Two tackles
New York Giants/Philip Dillard One tackle and one assisted tackle

See the following videos below!

Husker Pie 3

Lance Thorell and Nebraska in the NFL

Congrats to Lance Thorell who has just received a scholarship for football at the University of Nebraska. Lance is presently practicing as the No. 1 dime back.

Nebraskans in the NFL
New England/Danny Woodhead Five carries for 63 yards
Tampa Bay/Larry Asante Two tackles
Philadelphia/Alex Henery Two extra points No missed Field Goals
Washington/ Dujon Gomes One tackle and one assisted tackle//Roy Helu 14 carries for 101 yards and four catches for 23 yards//Niles Paul Four returned punts for nine yards

Indianapolis/Chris Brooks One catch for nine yards
Kansas City/Demorrio Williams Three tackles
Baltimore/ Sam Koch Seven punts for a average of 43.9 yards per punt
Detroit/N. Suh One assisted tackle
Cleveland/ Brandon Jackson//Eight carries for 10 yards and one catch for five yards
Carolina/Adi Kunalic One field goal of 38 yards and one extra point
Arizona/Stewart Bradley One tackle

Sports Shorts

Bubba Starling decides tonight whether to stay at Nebraska or play for the Royals. His agent is known for last second signings so we will stay with him going to the Royals. However I think we will all be following his future no matter what he does.

This week in the NFL games, the stats were as follows"

Philadelphia/Alex Henery was 2-2 in field goals with the longest being 35 yards.
Baltimore/Sam Koch punted three times for a 35 yard average.
New England/Danny Woodhead ran five times for 17 yards
Seattle/Zac Lee didn't play/Pierre Allen had one sack with a forced fumble/Ricky Thenarse had one assisted tackle

Arizona/Stewart Bradley one tackle
Oakland/ UNK's Mason Brodine one unassisted tackle
Washington/ Roy Helu Eight carries for 28 yards and one catch for 10 yards/Niles Paul one catch for 16 yards/Dejon Gomes two tackles

Tampa Bay/Larry Asante one tackle
Kansas City/Demorrio Williams one tackle
San Fransisco/Anthony West one tackle
New Orleans/Scott Shanle one assisted tackle
Cleveland/Brandon Jackson Eight carries for 28 yards and one catch for seven yards/Steve Octavien Three tackles

New York Giants/Philip Dillard One assisted tackle
Carolina/ Adi Kunalic one extra point
Indianapolis/Mike McNeil three catches for 33 yards

Kudos to Mike McNeil and Roy Helu. Brandon Jackson had a good game. Adi Kunalic had an extra point and Alex Henery was 2-2 in FG's. Steve Octavien had three unassisted tackles. Some Huskers didn't make the box score so maybe this coming week it will be different.

Tidbits

Men of a Certain Age has been cancelled by TNT. One of my Top 5 best shows!

Nebraska actor Justin Bruening will reprise his role as Kamie Martin on "All My Children." He grew up near St. Helena and went to school in Wynot, Nebraska.

Now on to sports. Scott Frost wants to be a head coach when the time is right. He is now receivers coach at Oregon and he will be speaking to the Coaches Assn this week.

Rivals.com has named its Top Ten in the Big Ten players. DE Jared Crick and LB Lavonte David are on this list. Both are great players and will anchor the Nebraska defense this year. David and Crick have a chance to both be All-Americans. Without injuries, these two will go down as two of the best in Husker history. Both are seniors this year.

Denard Robinson (QB) from Michigan, Montee Ball (RB) Wisconsin, Reilly Reif (OT) Iowa, Edwin Baker (RB) Michigan St., Shaun Prater (S) Iowa, Michael Brewster (Center) Ohio State, Jerel Worth (DT) Michigan St. and Dan Persa (QB) Northwestern are the other eight. Prater played high school football in Omaha. He is a senior. Persa and Brewster are the other seniors otherwise the other five players are juniors.

Its hard to believe that Rex Burkhead is off the list. Watch for Taylor Martinez to challenge for all conference. His game last year against Oklahoma St. was the BEST I have ever seen from a quarterback at Nebraska. If he is injury free, watch out.

Rivals also predicts Wisconsin to win the Leaders Division and Nebraska the Legends Division.

Nebraska defensive line coach John Papuchis is one of this writer's favorite coaches. He expects to play five to nine players this fall. Papuchis says Crick's best football is ahead of him and he hasn't reached his potential yet. He also praised Cameron Meredith. He is fully recovered from his shoulder injury and has improved himself in the off-season.

Coach Tim Beck is very excited about the speed the running backs have this year and the incoming players will contribute.

Coach Beck said there will be five to seven players that will get a look as kick and punt returners this fall. Some will be freshmen and my guess is that Jamal Turner or Aaron Green will get the nod.

Coach Beck said that offensive linemen Tyler Moore and Jake Cotton and receivers Jamal Turner and Kenny Bell were his biggest surprises coming out of spring ball.

Coach Papuchis said that defensive ends Eric Martin and Jason Ankrah, safety Austin Cassidy, and defensive back Justin Blanchard were his biggest surprises.

The two back offensive is the biggest difference between the Big 10 and the Big 12 according to Papuchis.

Jennifer Lopez is near a deal to do another season of American Idol.

No deal on the debt ceiling yet. Good grief! Cut expenses and save our children and grand children.

The NFL is near an agreement. Hopefully tomorrow. We will see soon how much the season is shortened.

Tyler Gabbert without a team!

Tyler Gabbert who once committed to Nebraska, is now without a team. Tyler, Blaine Gabbert's brother, left Missouri and recently said he was going to Louisville. Louisville is where Shawn Watson, the former Nebraska offensive coordinator, is coaching.Tyler Gabbert, who was thought to be the next starter at Nebraska until he got beat out this spring then left Louisville after a week. Missouri does not want him back as of now.

Zac Lee has signed a Pro deal with the Las Vegas Locomotives of the United Football League. He is one of three quarterbacks listed on the team. The Locomotives still have Chase Clements (RICE), who led them to the championship last year.

The Royals lost again tonight 8-4 to the Twins. Alex Gordon was 1-4 and is batting .299.

Taylor Martinez is listed as the No. 5 quarterback in the Big 10 this year. Kirk Cousins, from Michigan St., is listed No. 1.

Eric Crouch has signed with the Omaha Nighthawks of the United Football League. We will watch his progress closely. Omaha also has Maurice Purify, Mike Smith, Jay Moore, and Anthony West plus others trying to make the team. Taking Huskers will help team support.

The Cox Classic will have John Hurley, the former O'Neill High School graduate. Hurley has graduated now from Texas A & M and is trying to move up to the pros. He is known for his 400 yard drives.

Welcome to the Big 10

Nebraska is now an official member of the Big 10. Something new and something exciting.

Lots of memories remain from the Big 12. There were some great games and great competition in all sports. Nebraska had much success, but didn't dominate. Oh yes we have had great football teams. Our volleyball team has been National Champs. Our women's basketball team was one of the nation's best a couple of seasons ago. Rifle and bowling have done well. The track teams are towards the top each year. Our baseball and softball teams have competed well in the past. Competition in the Big 12 was really good.

In football, most of the rivals were created by "chip on our shoulder" type of attitude. Colorado developed this against Nebraska in the early 80's and hated Nebraska. They proclaimed Nebraska their "rival". Missouri did somewhat the same. The old Big Eight was the best. Much better than the Big 12.

We had much success with Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, and Oklahoma State but they won some big games also. Sometimes those losses hurt much more.

Oklahoma was our rivalry. I think it started with Nebraska have a "chip" because we couldn't beat them. They found a way to beat us almost every year until the 90's when we dominated the series. It was a great rivalry but sadly the Big 12 broke it up.

Now on to the Nebraska fans. Once known as the country's best for some reason we aren't much different than most other fans. Yes, Nebraska football is the only game in town so we only route for one team, generally, but the complaining has raised to an annoying level.

Let's take Texas. The Texas players like playing at Nebraska. I think the Nebraska players like playing Texas. But because of the "conspiracy" that Texas gets what they want, the fans complain and gripe about everything. Texas does have money and they like the power but we would too if we had the resources they have.

The last half of last year was the worst. After the Texas A & M game, every time a ref threw a flag most of the fans would yell and boo. Pretty sad. Show some class. Hopefully this will get much better this year.

I am not sure how excited I will be this year going to watch out games with new opponents, but I do want them to win. I think this alone will raise the level of Nebraska's fans' class. We want to win! But if somebody beats us two years in a row, I hope we don't start feeling there is a "conspiracy" to beat us and we develop a "chip". Some teams in the Big 10 will be able to beat us. It should be great competition.

A real rivalry may be when there is a hate-hate relationship. Texas never hated Nebraska but we may grow to hate Iowa and Iowa hate us. This would then become a great rivalry. Wisconsin is a possibility also. We just want it to be fun.

I am a little worried that the Big 10 doesn't have the desire to make baseball a higher priority in the league. Let's hope that doesn't happen. Nebraska could push them to a higher level and this would be good for the league. Let's hope there is no league limits on scholarships for baseball.

Can you believe!

41 drivers have lost their lives over the years at the Indianapolis Speedway!

The Big 10 basketball league play begins this December.

If Cody Green leaves, Nebraska has a somewhat depleted quarterback group.

The Big 10 Conference is know as a very weak baseball conference, at least at this time.

A Tucson, Arizona restaurant advertises African Lion tacos. Business around the country are offering lion meat as a novelty. The big cats can be butchered and sold like hamburger in the United States. They say it tastes like pork, except it's chewy and costs $60 a pound.

Scotty McCreery, who just won Idol has signed a $250,000 record deal. I knew I should have tried to get on the show.


Master Chef starts in about a week on Monday nights.

What a finish to the Indy 500 today. What a bad deal for the young rookie driver, JR Hildebrand and a great thing for Da Wheldon.

Alex Gordon was 0-5 in a 7-6 loss to Texas today.

Kyle Busch was picked up for going 128 in a 45 mph zone. If he loses his driver's license, he can still drive in NASCAR.

Tony Romo finally got married.

New Grandson!!

On May 13th, I became a grandpa again with the birth of Nolan Scott Wheeler. His proud parents are Scott and Jessica Wheeler. Jessica is my daughter. Nolan was born 7 lbs 11 ounces and was 21 inches long. Nolan is very cute and we feel VERY blessed.

When baseball was the summer pastime!

Before I was even a teenager in the 1960's, baseball was most kids favorite sport to watch and follow. The New York Yankees were the best team most of those years; at least to the middle 60's. I was a Yankee fan. They had pretty much the same players every year or at least it seemed like it. There was Elston Howard and Yogi Berra catching. Whitey Ford, Steve Hamilton, and Mel Stottlemyre were the pitchers I remember the most. Al Downing is also memorable. Joe Pepitone and Moose Skowron were the first basement. Tony Kubek was at shortstop and Bobby Richardson played second. Clete Boyer was the third baseman. The awesome outfield was Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Tom Tresh.

I remember 1961 when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's record and hit 61 home runs. What a year!! A lot of the year it looked like Mantle would break the record and then he got hurt. Years later I found out that people didn't like Roger Maris because he broke the "Babes" record and many thought that Mantle should have broke it if anybody did.

I am presently reading "The Last Boy Mickey Mantle". It is a great book but it led to to view Mickey Mantle a little differently than when I was a kid.

Mickey Mantle was probably even better than I imagined when I was younger. He hit mammoth home runs. Now he was my hero as a kid but he was a better hitter, according to his peers than I even viewed him as at that time.

But Mickey Mantle would not have survived with today's press. The press used to protect their sports heroes. I know the Nebraska Cornhuskers used to do a lot of things wrong but never received space in the newspapers or on TV. It was ok then.

The same happened with Mickey Mantle. He drank in excess even when he was playing baseball. Some of his best games came after a hard all night drunk. He is reported to have spent a lot of time with other women even though he was married. By the way his wife stayed with him until the end even though he knew a lot of these things were going on. Mantle later died of alcohol.

I didn't realize when I was following the Yankees as a kid the injuries that Mantle suffered. He had so many that we never really saw him reach his REAL potential. Mantle's knee had so many scars from operations that he never wanted to wear shorts when in public.

The Yankees were dominated by white players. Al Downing and Elston Howard were a couple of players who weren't. This may have attributed to their downfall in the late 60's. The National League had embraced non-white players and they went past the Yankees and the American League during this time.

The late 50's and during the 60's major league baseball was everything. You found a way to watch the game of the week. I can remember Pee Wee Reese and Dizzy Dean did a lot of the games I used to watch. It was a very special time and unlike today when you could watch every game on TV if you want to pay for it.

I looked at every newspaper during the baseball season to see how my Mickey Mantle had done the day before. I followed Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale, and Sandy Koufax. I liked the Minnesota Twins and I followed Harmon Killebrew. I remember actually listening to the Houston Astros, of all teams,on the radio. Joe Morgan, Nolan Ryan, and Rusty Staub are some of the players I remember following. Those were the days.

I would be curious to know if others have memories from this time.

Finally the fullback runs the ball!

Tyler Legate ran for two touchdowns in the Red-White game on Saturday. This fall we should get some fullback traps in a real game. This writer has been talking about this for seven years now and finally...........Use ALL our weapons.

Taylor Martinez is still hobbled by his injury and until he gets that taken care of, he should stay off the field. Hopefully he can get healed by the first game but right now he doesn't look much different than the Big 12 game and the Bowl game.

Let's try Cody Green at tight end. Get him on the field but not as a quarterback. He seems to be a leader for the football team.

Burkhead is our offensive MVP.

We have not had a game changer for quite a few years but Jamal Turner can be that person. He may be the best since Johnny Rodgers. He will be great barring injuries.

Brion Carnes and Ron Kellogg can play. I hope if the others don't get better we let them play. Brion Carnes is good enough to play Big 10 football.

Our defense across the board is very good. From the defensive line back to the safeties, we should be as good as ever. Lots of speed.

Not completely comfortable that the offensive line is where we want it. There is hope but we still have a long ways to go.

How about Alex Gordon and those Kansas City Royals. WOW!!

Jimmie Johnson wins the Nascar race today. The restrictor plate races are now down to pairing up with somebody to draft with. It does provide some pretty good racing.

Former Huskers try out for Omaha Nighthawks!

The Omaha Nighthawks, under former Husker consultant Joe Moglia, have invited some former Huskers to try out. This is great marketing. Nebraskans love to watch former Huskers play football. Eric Crouch and Zac Lee have both tried out at quarterback. Marlon Lucky is trying to make the team at running back. Add Menelik Holt, Jon Briekemeier, and Will Henry and you have the Husker eye.

The Omaha Nighthawks have some financial concerns as does the entire league. If Crouch would make starting quarterback that definitely would help ticket sales. The Nighthawks want a championship team so hopefully the former Huskers can be part of this.

How about Alex Gordon? He is batting .380 and is helping the Kansas City Royals win some games. Billy Butler and Gordon are the offensive leaders. Great job Alex.

Nebraska to the Big 10 is becoming a reality. It has taken time for reality to hit but here we go. The Iowa rivalry may be unlike any we have had in the past. This may be the first hate-hate rivalry we have had. In the past we hated Texas but they didn't have the same feeling towards us.

Sounds like our offensive line and defensive line will be better. That right there will make us a much improved team. Can't wait until our fullback runs the ball for the first time. Can't wait.

The Masters is one of the best sporting events to watch on TV. Can't wait for the the 1pm telecast on CBS today.

Logan Ehlers starts for the Huskers today. It will be very interesting to see how he performs. The Huskers need him to pitch well to take the series from Kansas. He will be an important piece for the Huskers for the rest of the season. This game is on the radio today and it starts at 1pm also.

On the high school front, Scott Boehler's Gretna golf team looks like they could take a run for the Class B title this year. Also watch for the Holdrege girl's soccer team to take a run for the championship.