• Missouri clobbers the Huskers 52-17
• Penalties and mental mistakes doom the Huskers
• Huskers and Hokies are ready to face off
• Former Husker Thunder Collins arrested for murder?
• Nebsports.Com is back online!
• Nebraska - Virginia Tech game to be shown on ABC
• Huskers have no problems with New Mexico State
• Nebraska lines up future games with Miami and Fresno State
• Huskers are ready for New Mexico State
• Andy Christensen re-instated by Coach Pelini
• Vote for Cornhusker cheerleader Katie Rockwell
• Huskers stuggled against San Jose State but win 35-12
• Huskers are ready for San Jose State
• Nebraska Football Tickets available
• Andy Christensen found not guilty

The NFL Draft happened over the weekend and only three Husker players were drafted.  Sure shows you what NFL staffs thought of the players that Nebraska has had lately… Not very much talent they thought.

Zack Bowman was the first Husker picked as he went in the 5th round to the Chicago Bears.  They Bears said they drafted Bowman hoping that he would be 100% over his knee injuries and back to the he had during his junior season.

Carl Nicks was drafted in the 5th round as well as he went to the New Orleans Saints.  Nicks was once thought to be a 2nd or 3rd round pick but slipped to the 5th round.  You have to think that his off the field incident and not being able to work out at the Nebraska Pro Day really hurt his stock.

Bo Rudd was picked up by the New England Patriots in the 6th round.  Rudd will have to really impress the Patriots during mini camps if he wants to make the team.

So far three other Huskers have signed free agent contracts.  Steve Octavien with the Kansas City Chiefs, Courtney Grixby with the Carolina Panthers, and Lance Brandenburgh with the San Francisco 49ers.  Brett Byford has signed on with the New York Jets.

Maurice Purify will take part of the Cincinnati Bengals mini camp but has not signed a contract.  The same deal with Corey McKeon who will take part in Tampa Bay Bucs minicamp and Tierre Green who will take part in Green Bay Packers mini camp.  We have also learned that Frantz Hardy has signed with the Philedelphia Eagles.

Marlon Lucky and Carl Nicks have been named to 2nd team All-Big 12.  Ten other Husker players were added to honorable mention as well.  Not too bad overall for a team that finished below .500 and not going to a bowl game.  Hopefully Lucky decides to come back and play his senior year for the Big Red, and will be first team next year.

The players that received honorable mention are:

Brett Byford
Lydon Murtha
Jacob Hickman
Maurice Purify
Zach Potter
Bo Rudd
Steve Octavien
Larry Asante
Cortney Grixby
Dan Titchener

It wasn’t what Nebraska fans had expected on Saturday as Nebraska struggled against Ball State in a 41-40 victory.  Thanks to Sam Keller and the offense, the Huskers improved 3-1 on the season.  Should they have won though?  Probably not but some teams have to get lucky at some point.

I’ll start off a good note and that was the offense.  Sam Keller and company were scoring on almost every possession.  Keller finished the day with completing 29-of-37 passes for 438 yards and three touchdowns.  A big play of the game came in the 3rd quarter when Keller connected with Sean Hill on a 73 yard pass.  Keller also connected with Maurice Purify on the final drive of the game to give the Huskers win.  Keller looked great 90% of the time yesterday and the receivers were all catching the ball instead of dropping them.  A+ for the passing game!

Marlon Lucky, Quentin Castille, and Roy Helu all carried the ball the Huskers.  Lucky led all the running backs with  21 carries and 102 yards.  Lucky also caught 11 passes for another 81 yards.  Castille caught a nice swing pass and then ran it in for a yard out in second quarter.  Helu was the suprise as he got quite a bit of playing time as Cody Gleen sat out the game.  Helu is a quick back that finds the hole and gets to it quick.  He needs to add some weight but he will be pretty good down the road.

Now for the bad part of the game.. The Blackshirts or I think we should start calling them the pinkshirts.  What a disgrace the way the defense is playing right now.  Ball State ran and passed all over the defense and should have put up more points but four dropped balls really hurt them.

I did like the fact that Ricky Thenarse and Phillip Dillard played more, and they need to continue to get more snaps every day.  Tierre Green, Bo Rudd, and Corey McKeon all sucked once again, and only Rudd had one good play on the interception and td.

Nate Davis is a hell of a quarterback, but the Husker defense made him look like a first team all american all day long.  If Cosgrove doesn’t start making some adjustments during the game, it is going to be a long season for the defense.

In the end I’m happy with a win and that is what really matters, but it doesn’t really feel like a Nebraska win.  It was ugly, and one of the worst performances by the defense in a very long time.

First Quarter (Nebraska 7, Ball State 0)
NU - Marlon Lucky 28 run (Alex Henery kick), 4:43

Second Quarter (Nebraska 14, Ball State 10)
BSU - Darius Hill 20 pass from Nate Davis (Jake Hogue kick), 2:58
BSU - Hogue 45 field goal, 3:40
NU - Quentin Castille 1 run (Henery kick), 4:10

Third Quarter (Ball State 31, Nebraska 28)
BSU - Davis 14 run (Hogue kick), 0:59, 3-39
NU - Sean Hill 73 pass from Sam Keller (Henery kick), 1:22
BSU - MiQuale Lewis 43 run (Hogue kick), 1:44
NU - Nate Swift 18 pass from Keller (Henery kick), 2:40
BSU - Love 58 pass from Davis (Hogue kick), 1:15

Fourth Quarter (Nebraska 41, Ball State 40)
BSU - Madaris Grant 21 pass from Davis (kick failed), 1:29
NU - Bo Ruud 34 interception return (Henery kick)
BSU - Hogue 22 field goal, 2:10
NU - Maurice Purify 11 pass from Keller (two-point conversion failed), 3:45

It sure wasn’t a pretty win, but a win is a win and that is what the Nebraska Football team needed as the traveled to Winston-Salem, North Carolina to play the Wake Forest Deamon Deacons on Saturday.

It was a very sloppy game for the Huskers yesterday as they could never really get into a roll and score three times in a row while holding the Deamon Deacons at bay.  The Huskers had a very hard time running the ball early in the ball game.  Wake Forest was usually throwing 8 guys in the box and it created havoc for Sam Keller, the offensive line, and Marlon Lucky.  Lucky who finished with 90 yards on 24 carries had a nice run of 22 yards in the third quarter but that was really his only big run of the day.

Keller looked very confused out there.  Maybe it was because it was his first road game in two years?  I don’t think so since Keller has been around for a while and played in some big games during his career at Arizona State.  I don’t think he takes all the reads he could, and yesterday he didn’t have a lot of time to do that with the Wake defense.  Keller also over threw about 4 balls that could have been some big gains.  Hopefully he will get that rust off and lay those balls in where they need to be.

The wide receivers and tight ends did not help out Keller’s stats either.  How many more times are we going to see dropped balls in key situations?  Hold onto the ball before you try running guys!  Catch the ball, take the hit, and move the chains!

As far as the defense, I was pleased with how the defensive line played.  Suh was a beast during the game and if he gets one arm on the running back he is going to go down hard.  I would have liked to see the defensive ends stay at home more often with all the mis-direction and reverse type plays Wake Forest was running.

The linebackers played terrible I thought.  Corey McKeon and Bo Rudd had a ton of missed tackles.  You can’t arm tackle everyone!  Lower your head, wrap up, and tackle the opposing player.  Stop trying to go for a strip every play and lay some damn wood like a good linebacker does.

The defensive backs played alright despite a couple of let downs on the same type of play.  Luckily for the Huskers, only one of them went for a TD, and the receiver dropped the ball on the first long pass.  If Tierre Green is out for any amount of time at his safety position, I would really like to see what Ricky Thenarse could do back there.  He will lay some lumber and lay out some wide receivers and that is what we need to see.

Overall a win is a win and that is what we got.  The Huskers went into a tough place to play, against the ACC Champion and came out of there with a win.  I’ll take a win no matter how ugly it is!

Rushing Stats
Lucky, Marlon      24 rushes for 90 yards, 1 touchdown
Castille, Quentin   6 rushes for 28 yards
Keller, Sam         2 rushes for 1 yard
TEAM TOTALS        34 rushes for 115 yards, 1 touchdown

Passing Stats
Keller, Sam        24 for 41, 258 yards, 1 touchdown, 2 INT
TEAM TOTALS        24 for 41, 258 yards, 1 touchdown, 2 INT

Receiving Stats
Nunn, Terrence      6 catches, 80 yards
Swift, Nate         5 catches, 45 yards
Lucky, Marlon       4 catches, 34 yards
Purify, Maurice     3 cathces, 30 yards
Teafatiller, Hunter 3 catches, 21 yards
Hardy, Frantz       2 catches, 20 yards
Hill, Sean          1 catch,   25 yards, 1 touchdown
TEAM TOTALS        24 catches, 258 yards, 1 touchdown

Punting Stats
Titchener, Dan      5 punts, 45 yard average

Field goal attempts
Henery, Alex       2 for 2 each 22 yards

Kickoff Stats
Kunalic, Adi       5 kickoffs, 1 touchback

Defensive Stats
Asante, Larry       4 solo, 5 assist, 9 total tackles
Bowman, Zackary     4 solo, 3 assist, 7 total tackles, 1 INT
Octavien, Steve     6 solo, 6 total tackles
Dillard, Phillip    5 solo, 1 assist, 6 total tackles
Potter, Zach        4 solo, 1 assist, 5 total tackles, 1 sack
McKeon, Corey       2 solo, 3 assist, 5 total tackles
Ruud, Bo            3 solo, 1 assist, 4 total tackles
Eisenhart, Ben      2 solo, 2 assist, 4 total tackles
Turner, Barry       1 solo, 3 assist, 4 total tackles
Green, Tierre       1 solo, 3 assist, 4 total tackle
Grixby, Cortney     3 solo, 3 total tackles
Suh, Ndamukong      3 solo, 3 total tackles
Brandenburgh, Lance 2 solo, 2 total tackles
Thenarse, Rickey    2 solo, 2 total tackles
Barfield, Shukree   2 solo, 2 total tackles
Murillo, Armando    2 solo, 2 total tackles
Dixon, Kevin        1 solo, 1 assist, 2 total tackles
Jones, Andre        2 assist, 2 total tackles
Cammack, Wes        1 assist, 1 total tackle
Blue, Anthony       1 assist, 1 total tackle
Wilson, Bryan       2 solo, 2 total tackles

The 2007 season is almost here and we can hardly wait the last 48 hours to see the Nebraska Cornhuskers take the field against the Nevada Wolfpack.  Husker fans have been waiting a long time for the season to start and well here it is!  Get your tailgating stuff ready, make sure your beer is cold, and lets start off the season with a win over Nevada!

First off I’ll start out with what I expect out of the Nebraka offense against the WolfPack.  I look for Marlon Lucky and Quentin Castille to get around 35 carries together.  I’d also expect Roy Helu and possibly Cody Glenn to get 5 or so handoffs in the game.  Coach Callahan hasn’t said if Glenn will play or not so between Helu and Gleen I’d expect 5 carries.

Sam Keller will have plenty of time in this game to get his feet wet with the Husker offense during a real game.  Look for him to to throw for 2-3 touchdowns atleast.  I see a big day for Keller and and the receivers on Saturday.  With Maurice Purify sitting out the first game of his suspension, Terrance Nunn, Nate Swift, Todd Peterson, and Frantz Hardy should all catch a few balls each I would imagine.  Who will score the td’s?  I’ll go ahead and predict that Nunn, Swift, and Lucky will each have a receiving touchdown in the game.

On the defensive side of the ball for the Huskers, lets pay close attention on how the new d-line plays together.  Nevada will be down to their third string center for this game so I expect Ndamukong Suh to have a huge game up the middle.  Look for him to blow through the line ateast a few times and either sack the QB or stop the running back behind the line of scrimmage.  I also think that Barry Turner and Zach Potter will combine for atleast two sacks in the game.

The linebackers are the strength of the “Blackshirt” defense this year.  Corey McKeon, Steve Octavian, Bo Rudd, Phillip Dilliard, and Lance Brandenburgh will have huge days for the Huskers.  Expect them to be very good at gang tackling and possibly causing a few tournovers.

I’m really excited to watch the defensive backs in this game as well.  Since Nevada runs the pistol offense and is always in a shotgun, expect them to really mix up the run and pass quite a bit.  I’d expect some safty blitzes in this game with Larry Asante who is really licking his chops to get to the quarterback in his first Husker game.  Cortney Grixby and Armando Murillo will start at the cornerback positions while Tierre Green and Asante will be the safties.  Expect too see a lot of Andre Jones as well as Nevada loves to run atleast 3-wide most of the game.

Special teams will be a big deal for the Huskers this season.  They haven’t had a punt returner that really put a scare into opposing teams since Groce graduated.  Grixby, Nunn, Jones, and Swift will be called upon to help out on punt and kick returns.

Freshman Alex Henery and Ali Kunalic are still battling it out for the kicking job.  No one will probably know who the starter will be until gametime.  Dan Titchener will be back to handle the punting job for the Huskers.

I’ll go ahead and throw this score out there just as a guess.  Nebraska 45 Nevada 17

Fifteen defensive players for the Nebraska Football team have been awarded their blackshirts.  Six of the fifteen players are earning their blackshirt for the first time.  They are cornerback Armando Murillo, safety Larry Asante, defensive tackles Ty Steinkuhler and Ndamukong Suh, defensive end Zach Potter, and linebacker Phillip Dillard.

Other players receiving their blackshirts that have been awarded them in the past were, defensive end Barry Turner, linebackers Lance Brandenburgh, Corey McKeon, Steve Octavien and Bo Ruud and defensive backs Zack Bowman, Tierre Green, Cortney Grixby and Andre Jones.

Congrats guys, now make sure you don’t lose them and you play some hard nosed defense!

The Nebraska Football players voted and selected the three captains for the 2007 season today.  Brett Byford, Bo Rudd, and Zack Bowman were all selected by their teammates.  All three of these players are great competitors and leaders and have their teammates looking up to them.

Here at Nebsports.com we would like to say congratulations!