• Nebraska dominates Kansas State 56-28
• Husker Bball Opens Season with Win
• Huskers set to take on Kansas State
• Bo Pelini hands out some Blackshirts to the defense
• Cody Glenn has been suspended indefinitely
• 2008 Basketball Preview
• NebSports.Com welcomes two basketball bloggers!
• Suh and Helu lead the Huskers past the Jayhawks 45-35
• Huskers look to get back on track against Kansas
• Nebraska and Kansas set for PPV - NU/K-State possibly
• Huskers are crushed by the Sooners 62-28
• Nebraska and Oklahoma ready to renew rivalry
• Nebraska pulls out 32-20 victory over Baylor
• Brandon Rigoni vs Mark Manning Youtube Video
• Nebraska is ready for the Baylor Bears

Well I am finally back at home after the dissapointing lose to Virginia Tech on Saturday night. The Hokies played “Beamer Ball” to the fullest as they scored on special teams and did a lot of little things to beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers 35-30.

Things got off to a rough start as the Hokies blocked Nebraska’s first punt of the game out of the endzone to give the Hokies the 2-0 lead. They never looked back as they quickly scored a touchdown off a Joe Ganz interception to take a 9-0 lead.

Ganz finished the night 17-of-26 for 281 yards and two touchdowns but did have the costly interception. Ganz made a few bad reads at the line of scrimmage and didn’t get rid of the ball when he needed to a couple of times that really hurt the team. What really hurt the team on the offensive side of the ball however was the lack of push from the offensive line and the lack of a running game.

Once again the line did not open up any holes for the running backs as Marlon Lucky only had 17 yards on eight carries. Roy Helu Jr. once again led the running backs with yards as he finished with 21 yards on four touches and one touchdown. You just can’t sit back and expect to beat a stingy defense like the Hokies had when you can’t run the ball.

On the defensive side, it was a very poor game by the linebackers and secondary. We all knew it would be a tough year for the secondary but I didn’t expect it to be this bad to be honest. Larry Asante was out of position and gave up big plays way to often. The linbackers missed tackles like crazy and always seemed to be out of position. (After the game, Coach Ekeler took the blame for having his players out of position) The defensive line played very good I though. Zach Potter led the team with six tackles, three of which were for a loss and also half a sack.

The biggest play of the game for the Huskers came in the fourth quarter when punt returner Nate Swift took back a 88 yard punt for a touchdown that got the Huskers back in position to win the game. However, with less then a minute left in the game after forcing the Hokies to punt, Ganz hit Todd Peterson in the middle of the field and was stripped of the ball and Virignia Tech recovered.  Even had Peterson held onto the ball, I think the clock would have ran out before Ganz would have been able to spike the ball.

Congrats to Virginia Tech as they won a tough game on the road. Nebraska just made to many stupid penalties and to many mental mistakes on defense. Things sure don’t get any easier either as the Missouri Tigers will be coming into Lincoln for another night game on Saturday.

The secondary and offensive line better have a great week of practice or things are going to ugly pretty fast against the Tigers.

The Nebraska football team had no problems with the New Mexico State Aggies on Saturday night as the Huskers dominated to a 38-7 victory. It was the first game this season where the entire team played good and the game was never in question.

Marlon Lucky and Joe Ganz had a great game for the Huskers. Ganz was the third husker player to throw, run, and pass for a touchdown in one game. Ganz had a 33 yard touchdown run, a 35 yard touchdown pass to Mike McNeill, and also caught a touchdown pass from Lucky. Ganz finished the game 13 of 17 for 158 yards and one touchdown.

Lucky went over 2000 yards for his career as he finished the game with 108 yards on 15 carries and scored two touchdowns. Lucky had a career long 58 yards shortly into the third quarter that really helped out his stats.

Quentin Castille looked very good as he had 10 carries for 78 yards on the ground. Roy Helu Jr., added 35 yards, while fourth string back Marcus Mendoza showed off his speed and finished with 35 yards as well.

Mike McNeill had the highlight for the receiving corps when he scored on a 35 yard pass from Ganz in the third quarter. McNeill avoided a couple of tackles after catching the ball and then flipped into the endzone for the touchdown. McNeill was lucky that he did injure himself on the play as he almost landed on his head in the endzone.

The defenst played very well in the game as they almost had their first shutout of the year. The crowd was feeding off the defense and you could tell that the defense feeding off all that extra noise from the crowd. Armando Murillo and Matt O’hanlon both picked off Aggies passes to cause two tournovers. Zach Potter came up big in the game as well when he blocked a field goal attempt on the Aggiest first drive of the game.

Eric Hagg led the Huskers with 10 total tackles while Lance Thorell finished with eight. Thorell was a big suprise as he filled in for Anthony West who sat out the game due to injury.

It would not suprise me one bit if the defense is awarded the blackshirts before the upcoming game with Virginia Tech. I can see it happening next week a couple of days before the big game. The team is going to be jacked up for the big game and hopefully the crowd is loud and the Huskers can come away with the biggest win for the Huskers in quite a while.

GO BIG RED!

The Nebraska Football team is ready to face off against New Mexico State on Saturday afternoon, and I’m ready to watch another husker victory. I will be watching to see if there is any improvement on the offensive line and how well the secondary plays against the pass happy Aggies.

I really think this is the game that the running game gets going. Lydon Murtha is back and will start the game and I really feel that will be a big help on the offensive line. With the aggies playing a 3-3-5 defense, it is going to be a lot of 4-5 yard pickups on the ground I think. If Marlon Lucky, Quentin Castille, and Roy Helu Jr. can make a few people miss, those four and five yard runs will be turned into 10 and 15 yarders.

Also look for Castille to line up in the fullback position a little bit with Lucky or Helu behind him. Thomas Lawson will be out for the game as he had his appendix removed earlier in the week.

On the defensive side of the ball the secondary needs to play better and tackle better. They are going to have plenty of chances as the Aggies like to throw the ball a lot. It will be their first game of the year so I expect their qb to make some mistakes and Nebraska needs to take of those advantages. If the defensive line can get pressure on the qb, it’s going to be a long night for the Aggies.

My prediction is 42-17 in favor of the huskers. Leave us a comment and let us know your prediction!

It was another struggle for the Nebraska Cornhuskers as they had plenty of troubles with San Jose State on Saturday afternoon. The Huskers had a small lead in the second half until they scored 21 un-answered points to beat the Sparans 35-12. A win is a win but this was sure an ugly one.

The game turned around with 12:07 left in the game and the Huskers only up 14-12. Niles Paul returned a 85 yard kickoff back for a touchdown to extend the Huskers lead to nine points. After Paul’s huge kickoff return, the Huskers got a 14 yard touchdown by Roy Helu Jr, and a two yard touchdown by running back Marlon Lucky. The cornhuskers poured it on in the fourth quarter to make it looks a little better on the scoreboard but they sure can’t be to happy with the win.

All three Nebraska running backs scored in the game. Quentin Castille scored the Huskers first td with a three yard run in the first quarter. I’m still not happy with how the running backs performed, or the offensive line for that matter. There just wasn’t very many holes and the o-line should have been domination the smaller spartans d-line.

On the defensive side of the ball, Ndamukong Suh intercepted a bal and ran it back for a 49 yard touchdown. The d-line of the Huskers played pretty good but will be without Barry Turner who broke his leg early in the first quarter. Pierre Allen will now need to step up and take Turner’s starting spot. Look for Turner to apply for a medical redshit and be back next year.

Joe Ganz had a decent game as he was 17-25 for 216 yards. He went without a touchdown pass for the first time in his five career starts, and he did throw one interception. Nebraska senior wide receivers Nate Swift (6 rec., 70 yards) and Todd Peterson (4 rec., 59 yards) combined for 10 catches in the game.

The secondary of the Huskers still scares me a little bit. Larry Asante is going for the big hit everytime out there it seems like and he is making way to many mistakes. He needs to settle and down and get back to fundamentals and learn how to tackle correctly. You don’t have to light someone up on every play to have a good game.

The Huskers will need to have a good week of practice and and practice running the ball more in my opinion to have a good game on Saturday. I’d love to see a good game out the offense, defense, and special teams against New Mexico State. Kickoff will be at 5 p.m. central time.

GO BIG RED!

First off, I’d like to say I’m sorry for just now getting the game recap up. It was a long weekend with a lot of friends and family members over for the game. (Isn’t it always like that when you have the pay per view games on?!)

My first thoughts as the game was ending was “Wow that was a sloppy win” but now looking back it wasn’t as bad as I had originally thought. Sure there were mistakes in the secondary which we all figured was going to happen. But overall I thought they played pretty well and hopefully the mistakes that happened Saturday night will be fixed and we will see better play out of the secondary against San Jose State.

One thing I love seeing was the pressure being applied to the Western Michigan quarterback during the game. The Huskers finished with four sacks and caused three tournovers in the game. It seemed like they didn’t have three tournovers all last season lol. Cody Glenn was a beast in his first game at the linebacker position. Glenn was flying around all over the field and led the team with 12 total tackles.

As for the offense, they put some huge numbers as Joe Ganz had a pretty good game. Ganz completed 20-36 passes for 345 yards and four touchdowns. Ganz put the ball in the hands of seven different husker receivers in the game. Joe did make a couple of mistakes as he threw a couple of interceptions.

Nate Swift had a huge night as he caught five balls for 121 yards and two touchdowns. Mike McNeill and Marlon Lucky caught the other two touchdowns from Ganz. Menelik Holt added five catches for 59 yards, while Quentin Castille and Todd Peterson each added three receptions.

The running game was quite a letdown I thought. With the husker offensive line out-weighing the Western Michigan line by average of 40 lbs per player, I thought the Huskers would run all over the Broncos but I was mistaken. The Broncos stacked the box and the Huskers had problems running as they only finished with 159 yards on 31 attempts. Lucky had the only rushing touchdown which came in the first quarter to put the huskers up 6-0. Roy Helu Jr. lead the team with 54 yards and 7 carries. Lucky then followed with 52 yards on 12 carries.

The specials teams part of the game was awesome. Field goal kicker Alex Henery was 4-4 with all four field goals being from 44 yards. The sophomore place-kicker from Omaha also tied the Memorial Stadium record with four field goals by a Husker, most recently accomplished by Jordan Congdon against Maine in 2005.

Now the Huskers will be watching film and have a hard week of practice to get ready for Saturday’s game against San Jose State. Hopefully the Huskers secondary plays better and shuts down the San Jose passing attack and we see another Huskers victory. I expect a blowout and the defense playing a lot better in the secondary.

What are your opinions on the game? What needs to be worked on? What did you like about the game? Leave us a comment and let us know!

GO BIG RED!

The much anticipated depth chart has been released for the game against Western Michigan this Saturday. There are a couple of suprises on there that is for sure. Also, it shows how thin the defense is at key positions when you have so many freshman/sophomore’s in the twp deep. Did we not have a junior class on the d-line?

Anyways here it is and let us know what you think and what really suprised you about it.

OFFENSE:

Quarterback: Joe Ganz, Patrick Witt, Zack Lee
Running Back: Marlon Lucky or Roy Helu or Quentin Castille
Fullback: Thomas Lawson, Justin Makovicka
Tight End: Mike McNeill, Dreu Young, Ryan Hill, Ben Cotton
Wide Receiver: Nate Swift, Menelik Holt, Will Henry, Chris Brooks
Wide Receiver: Todd Peterson, Niles Paul or Curenski Gilleylen
Left Tackle: Mike Smith, Jaivario Burkes
Right Tackle: Lydon Murtha, Marcel Jones
Left Guard: Mike Huff, Keith Williams
Right Guard: Matt Slauson, D.J. Jones
Center: Jacob Hickman, Mike Caputo

DEFENSE:

Open End: Barry Turner, Pierre Allen
Base End: Zach Potter, Clayton Sievers
Nose Tackle: Ndamukong Suh, Shukree Barfield, Terrence Moore
Tackle: Ty Steinkuhler, Jared Crick
WILL Linebacker: Cody Glenn, Blake Lawrence
MIKE Linebacker: Phillip Dillard, Will Compton, Colton Koehler
BUCK Linebacker: Tyler Wortman, Sean Fisher
Right Corner: Anthony West, Prince Amukamara
Left Corner: Armando Murillo, Eric Hagg
Strong Safety: Larry Asante, Major Culbert
Free Safety: Ricky Thenarse, Matt O’Hanlon

SPECIAL TEAMS:

Place Kicker: Alex Henery or Adi Kunalic
Punter: Dan Titchener, Jake Wesch
Long Snapper: T.J. O’Leary, Justin Baumgartner

The punt and kick returners have not been announced but word is that Nate Swift and Niles Paul will be returning punts.

So what does everyone think? I think the defense looks very thin with a lot of young players going to see action. I think the lines are going to have to play very good for the team to have success. Hopefully players can step up and make the plays they are capable of making.

We will have our writeup about the Western Michigan game later today or on Wednesday so stay tuned for that! GO HUSKERS!

Award watch lists are starting to make their way out into publications and websites for the upcoming college football season and so two Nebraska players made it on lists today.  Marlon Lucky has been named to the 2008 Maxwell Award watch list, which is given annually to the nation’s top player by the Maxwell Football Club. Joe Ganz has been named to the watch list for the Jonny Unitas Golden Arm Award, given to the nation’s top senior quarterback.

Congrats to Lucky and Ganz, but I’m sure they both know it is all just preseason talk and nothing will happen until they step on to the field and have a great season for the University of Nebraska Football team.

The Nebraska football team concluded their spring practices with the annual spring game on Saturday afternoon.  The starters were split up between teams so the competition was pretty good.  The red team led by Joe Ganz beat the White team 24-14.

Ganz threw for 131 yards and two touchdowns against the white team defense.  Ganz hooked up with Curenski Gilleylen on a 77 yard touchdown.

Patrick Witt and Zac Lee both had decent days as well for the Huskers.  Witt took most of the snaps so I assume he is the clear leader for the #2 spot over Lee at this point.  Witt completed 6-of-12 pass attempts for 61 yards. He was intercepted one time.  Lee completed 6-of-11 attempts for 87 yards and a touchdown.

At the running back position, Marlon Lucky ran for 37 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries.  Quentin Castille ran for 47 yards and also caught two balls for 55 yards.  Roy Helu finished the game with 67 yards and one touchdown while Marcus Mendoza ran for 33 yards and caught a 24-yard pass for a touchdown.

Prince Amukamara and Armando Murillo made eight tackles to each for the red team.  Amukamara forced a fumble and Murillo and an interception as well.  Colton Koehler led the Whites with six tackles.

Coach Pelini said after the game that there is still plenty of work that needs to get done to get ready for next season.  Hopefully all the kids take it serious this summer during off season conditioning and they come out ready to play in August!

GO BIG RED

Junior running back Marlon Lucky came out and officially said that he will be back for his Senior season next year.  This is a great decision for Lucky in our opinion.  There were so many good running backs that entered the upcoming draft, that there was no way he would be a first or second round draft pick.  Spending one more year in the program, getting stronger and faster will only help to be drafted higher in a littler over a year.

Lucky said he is excited to play for Coach Pelini and thinks they will do great under the new coaching staff.  I would expect to see Lucky have a monster year in 2008!

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