The 2008 Husker Thread

[knapplc]

Well, Husker Fans, it's time to kick off our own thread. Excitement is running high in the program with the advent of the Bo Pelini era. Bogasms abound across the state, a sense of hope and expectation sweeps the land, and the return to the brand of Husker Football we all grew up with seems at hand. 80,000 fans are poised to fill Memorial Stadium for the Spring Game (I’ll be there), and they expect to see a far better team than the product put on the field in recent seasons.

But excitement doesn’t end there. The Men’s Basketball team seems poised to take the next step in its building phase, as Doc Sadler has his players buying into a system that featured wins over four NCAA teams this season past. An NIT trip this year could pave the way to an NCAA trip next season, and – dare we hope – our first NCAA win in program history.

The Women’s BB team under Connie Yori is showing continued signs of improvement by winning their first-round NCAA game. They may play in front of sparse crowds and get next to no recognition, but don’t be surprised if this team rips off a bunch of wins next season, and goes a few games into the Big Dance.

As we speak, the Baseball team sits alone atop the Big XII, two games in front of Texas A&M, with a top ten national ranking and a devastating pitching staff. After a season-opening series loss at Stanford, the Huskers have won every series since, including a 14-game winning streak after that Stanford series. Hitting still needs to come around, but this is a team to be reckoned with, and with this pitching staff, anchored by Johnny Dorn and Thad Webber, with Jason Jennings coming out of the pen (at the moment), this could be a wonderful rebound season for a team that underachieved the past two years.

Finally, my favorite Husker squad (after the Football team), the women’s Volleyball team is entering 2008 with more questions than answers. But just because we have no setter, we lost the best player to perhaps ever play women’s volleyball (Sarah Pavan) and we lost an All-Conference middle blocker (Tracey Stalls), that doesn’t mean Coach Cook’s 2008 squad will be mailing it in. The Coliseum will be rocking once again, and we’ll be assured of another NCAA berth. Time will tell how good this team will be, but I can guarantee you they’ll be tougher than 90% of the rest of the nation.

[stomperrob]

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[knapplc]

Dude, you do realize we've already read all of these articles, right? There's no need to post them in here, especially not the whole freakin' article.

[stomperrob]

Dude, you do realize we've already read all of these articles, right? There's no need to post them in here, especially not the whole freakin' article.

Actually, no I didn't realize realize that all Husker fans read these articles. With the Wolverines thread, fans are spread out across North America, so not everyone gets to read the articles in the local Detroit papers, so I post the pertinent articles (and generally the feedback I get there confirms that not everyone has seen the articles I've posted) . I read a lotta online papers most days so I post articles I think others will find interesting. The reason I post the whole article is because some people hate to have to click on links all time to have to read something (plus sometimes the links don't work or become outdated too quickly with some newspapers).
Now that I have been duly enlightened, I shall not darken your doorstep again!

[knapplc]

The reason I post the whole article is because some people hate to have to click on links all time to have to read something (plus sometimes the links don't work or become outdated too quickly with some newspapers).

I take it you haven't seen the numerous requests by Madison, Menyak and the Mod crews not to post full articles over the past several months? There are copyright issues that could cause the Cafe trouble. They've asked us to post links, and at most one or two pertinent paragraphs of an article. I'm pretty sure I remember seeing threads you've posted articles in where they've asked you specifically to do this from now on, and that was a couple of months ago.

[knapplc]

the JournalStar is reporting that General Admission tickets for the Spring Game are sold out, with the exception of less than 1,000 obstructed-view seats under the East and West stadium overhangs.

Looks like a sellout, Husker fans. I'll be there.

[knapplc]

I don't have much time to post so I won't go into details, but I just went to the Spring Game and, Husker Fans - there is reason to hope. We won't be competing for anything more grand than a Big XII title - this team isn't that good - but we will be competing all season long, and we will have a far, far better defense than in recent years. It almost couldn't get any worse, and it almost had to get better, but I think this team will far more resemble the 2003 Blackshirts than anything the last administration put on the field. Think swarming, think multiple guys hitting RBs & WRs, think very few solo tackles. Think turnovers, too - there was a nice pick by Murillo and several balls poked out from RBs.

The offense was fine despite only combining for 38 points, but I think this far more showed the improvement in the defense than weaknesses on offense. The RBs were all running very, very well. Tough runs, like when Castille blasted through Ricky Thenarse for an 8-yard run, even though the contact occurred about two yards into the carry. It was a really good run. Helu looked good, and Lucky was fine, despite having only a few yards. The WRs were good, but there were some dropped passes. Ganz, Witt, Lee and even Cody Spano looked good, with Ganz looking better than anyone.

It's going to be OK. Winning season, bowl game, a chance for the Big XII North title and who knows what could happen in the Big XII Championship (if we make it).

Overall, Husker Nation should be smiling again.

[HskrPwr13]

Yep, I'm smilin' knapp. Just wanted to let you know that someone else is still out here paying attention. I expect no less that 8-4 next year. What the D lacks, the O should make up for, and then some.

[knapplc]

So we have game one in the books. Blackshirts have yet to be handed out, but the defense is already improved over last year. What's more, there is a strong sense of responsibility among the players and coaches for what happens on the field, far different than what we've seen in recent years.

Anyone watch the game, or the highlights? There was a lot to be impressed with, especially the play of Cody Glenn and Joe Ganz. There's obviously still a lot of work to be done, though. The secondary had flashes of brilliance, but they gave up a LOT of yards through the air, and are clearly still a work in progress.

I have high hopes for this team. We'll see how the season plays out, but I think it's a certainty that we'll make a bowl this year, and with a couple of lucky bounces, maybe even a good bowl. The Big XII North title may be out of reach this year, but it doesn't seem like it'll be too long before we're contenders again.

Lots of positives. We're heading in the right direction, it seems. Bring on San Jose State.

[HskrPwr13]

Agreed. Would like to know what happened to Ganz the last qrtr. He seemed to lack all focus at that point for some reason. I could nit-pick further, but as you said, were really not competing for any titles this year. I expect to roll through the non-con, even if VT decides to play Taylor. As long as we go 4-4- in conference I should be satisfied.