We’re back for some more volleyball on a rare Saturday that the Nebraska football team doesn’t play. No. 2 Nebraska is at Michigan tonight on the Big Ten Network with first serve set for 7:30 p.m.

Tonight represents the hometown return of freshman Harper Murray who grew up in Ann Arbor. She'll against her sister, Kendall, who's a fourth-year attacker for the Wolverines.

NU remains unbeaten at 14-0 and 5-0 in the conference after beating an upstart Michigan State team last night in front of a record-breaking crowd at the Breslin Center. It wasn’t a good night for Nebraska who had its worst set of the season in a 25-16 loss in the second set. The Huskers responded with two dominant sets following the intermission, but tonight gives NU a chance to rebound and feel good as they go back to Lincoln. Here is last night’s recap in case you missed it:


Plus, the weekend preview to give you a better picture of the Wolverines. Michigan has struggled under first-year head coach Erin Virtue. The Wolverines went through one of the more rocky coaching chances in the country last year by firing 24-year head coach Mark Rosen. You can read more about that here:


Plus, head coach John Cook spoke with the media earlier this week to preview the weekend and the emotions surrounding Murray’s return to Ann Arbor.


Finally, freshman Bergen Reilly and Maggie Mendelson also spoke with the media as they headlined this week’s Players’ Corner.

Illinois - 3.5 vs Nebraska - also crush the Under - Illinois is terrible, but Nebraska won't score more than 10. Gonna be a 17-9 final.

Ohio State - 19.5 vs Maryland - crush the under - There is no bigger fraud in College Football right now than Maryland - Buckeyes win 42-10

Wisconsin - 14 vs Rutgers - crush the under - Wisconsin continues their path thru the easiest schedule in football - 27-10 final.

Iowa - 2.5 vs. Purdue - crush the under - Purdue is awful. Don't let that Illinois final tell you otherwise. Hawks - 20 - 10 final.

Minnesota +20.5 vs. Michigan - crush the over - PJ Fleck has covered in 10 straight home night games, outside the Covid Season. Michigan has failed to cover in their last 4 (non covid season) Big Ten Night games vs a opponent not named Rutgers.

Non Big Ten Games:

KU - 2.5 vs UCF - Jayhawks win by 3 TDs.

Georgia - 14.5 vs. Kentucky - this result will resemble Nebraska vs. Michigan from last week.

Arizona @ USC Crush the over 72. - The Wildcats have played a really solid schedule and their offense is damn good. On the flipside, USC cant stop air. I realize that number is huge, but I think this will be like a 52-30 final for USC.

Could they be reasonably split into games where what the offense is doing now will be enough to win (NW, PU, and MSU), and games where the offense will have to produce more for the defense to hold serve (Wisc and MD). Not sure which group Iowa belongs to.

Some very interesting lines this week. Who ya got?

Although it hasn't been pretty, Rhule's first season has started out much better than Frost's.

Day by day...

scrap it out huskers

Unbelievable how much time we spent within their 30 and to only have 20 points is beyond concerning.

Our D though!!!!! Stepping up on the goal line stand early and then throughout.

We beat a team we haven’t been able to the last 3 years while playing disgustingly bad on O. I’ll take it. A lot to clean up over the bye week. GBR!!!

The dude can flat out coach

Another big night for the Huskers who overcome a slow start to move to 15-0 and 6-0 in the Big Ten. Hit the link.

Anyone know why the Huskers haven’t offered him yet? The kid can flat out play. I see he’s visiting Kansas today, need to get him offered asap.

… simply for the amount off times our line jumps offsides on 3rd and short.

Absolutely inexcusable.

We have been through so many rebuilds that it's made our heads spin.

1. Callahan and Peterson were going to "rescue us from mediocrity". Crash and Burn, the team got some decent talent in the pipeline, but they couldn't play defense and the team was lost.

2. Osborne comes back and tries to right the ship back to the old days with Pelini. Pelini is the most successful coach we have had since Solich, but it was clear that his ceiling was 9-10 wins and 2nd to 4th place, with an occasional good bowl win. Better than we've had since, but not what we had grown accustomed to. That plus Pelini being a jerk led us down the road to destruction.

3. The "obvious" answer to Pelini was to bring on a coach who was NEVER particularly successful and was treating this as a retirement job. When Pelini's good players were gone (Armstrong, Lewis, Carter, Westerkamp, Gerry, Banderas, Valentine, Collins, etc.), it crashed and burned again, but this time was different than Callahan as this crash was bolstered by bad recruiting and a weak roster.

4. Frost was the savior, eh not. He was supposed to bring in a dynamic UCF offense and bring in top players with his "charisma". Complete disaster as from the first game against Colorado in 2018, it was clear that he and his whole staff were in way over their head and frankly lazy. Five years of probably the most frustrating football I have ever seen. Poor execution, poor S&C, and just really bad coaching, coaching that was outmatched by staffs at Troy and Georgia Southern. So bad that we were the only win for 2022 of a team that went 1-11.

Now we have Rhule, a coach who seems to have been hired for all of the right reasons, for reasons that would have disqualified the previous 4 coaches. He's proven that he's a good coach, as he has won before in college and was good enough to get an NFL job (and don't talk about being fired as Saban, Meyer, and even Andy Reid have been fired in the NFL).

This is year one, but this team needs to produce something that at least gives an indication that we're moving in the preverbial right direction. We're playing a team on Friday that's pretty crappy this year overall. A win is critical. A loss would be devestating and would signal to everyone that we're no better off now than at the first of October 2022. Sure, I know it's a bit unfair since Rhule has been dealt a bad hand, but this is a winable game, and for me, Rhule and staff need to show us on Friday that they can compete and beat Shriek and his staff. 3-3 moving to the 2nd half of the season would be a great sign for us and the future.

Right now, counting the current 26 commits for 2024, we have theoretically 101 to be on the roster after this season. There will almost certainly be 6-10 more, which means that about 25 more from the previous regime (and probably some from Rhule's first class who are still here) will have to leave. Rhule's roster conversion is more subtle and polite, but he's essentially doing the same thing that Prime did. He just hasn't been able to get his new players into the mix as fast.

Phalen Sanford. Played like a dude. 5th year junior and I wish he was a soph so he could stick around for longer. Good on yer, lad!

Nebraska must have done its community service all week to rack up some good karma. There's the old sports cliché "the ball just didn't bounce our way tonight."

Yeah, well, the Huskers couldn't say that on Friday night. There are 12 plays that come to mind in which Nebraska was either fortunate, a decision that was out of their control went in their favor or, literally, the ball bounced their way tonight.

So Meatchicken beat Minnesota by more than they just beat us by last week.

Does this suggest if we could go back and play Minnesota with HH starting at QB, we sneak out a win vs the result with Sims at the helm?

Just a thought. Of course this type of thought experimenting is nonsense, but some here believe HH is clearly the guy over Sims - regardless if one does or doesn't believe him to be a decent passer.

Fire away 🤪

Can hire Wyoming's offensive coordinator?

If we got 11 of us together, practice for a week, we could rush against the TCU defense… damn. Bad.

Wisconsin def. Illinois (25-22, 25-15, 25-12)
Indiana def. Maryland (25-18, 25-19, 25-20)
Purdue def. Iowa (25-16, 25-17, 25-23)
Nebraska def. Michigan (29-27, 25-17, 25-14)
Northwestern def. Michigan State (22-25, 25-16, 25-20, 24-26, 15-10)
Rutgers def. Minnesota (25-20, 25-22, 16-25, 25-14)
Penn State def. Ohio State (25-23, 23-25, 20-25, 25-21, 15-7)

Standings
1. Nebraska (15-0, 6-0)
1. Penn State (12-3, 6-0)
1. Wisconsin (15-0, 6-0)
4. Purdue (10-5, 4-2)
5. Indiana (13-6, 3-3)
5. Maryland (13-5, 3-3)
5. Michigan State (11-6, 3-3)
5. Ohio State (6-9, 3-3)
9. Illinois (7-9, 2-4)
9. Minnesota (6-8, 2-4)
9. Northwestern (8-8, 2-4)
12. Michigan (3-12, 1-5)
12. Rutgers (9-7, 1-5)
13. Iowa (8-10, 0-6)

Matches for Wednesday, October 11
Purdue at Indiana
Minnesota at Michigan

Matches for Friday, October 13
Michigan State at Nebraska (Nebraska Public Media / BTN+)
Illinois at Ohio State
Maryland at Northwestern
Penn State at Iowa
Rutgers at Wisconsin

Great game, love to see them lose. Mizzou game was really good too.

Can’t say how much I love that!!!

“Instead of jumping ahead to what we’re going to be,” Rhule said. “I just kind of hope they enjoy this ride.”

He’s acutely aware that the Huskers are far from perfect.

“It can be a little bit frustrating,” Rhule said. “But it’s a beautiful phase, watching young people do something, learning how to win and fight for each other.”


Along way to go but you’ve can certainly see glimpses of what he’s building. Wouldn’t focus so much on the negatives, bumbling offense, firing Satterfield, etc..and enjoy the little improvements (there are many) and the ride.

You can’t get there over night. We’re just in the bottom of the 2nd inning.

Jason Peter will be speaking at the Gretna Legion tonight at 7:00 for those that are interested.

Never thought I’d utter those words, but really enjoy their game.


Oh yeah…welcome to the P5 UCF






.

For those of us who think all the rest of our games are winnable, the Maryland game is going to be the hardest IMHO.

Drew Dober beat Rick Glenn’s ass. Omaha Nebraska stand up.