Per the Omaha World-Herald's Tom Shatel Tuesday morning, ESPN offered Nebraska and Texas Thursday night, Oct. 14, for a showcase spot. NU, hosting the game at Memorial Stadium, was on board.

UT was not, citing, apparently, concerns over missing class.

Nebraska is now looking at moving the Oct. 2 Kansas State game back to Sept. 30. That would mean NU only had four days to prepare for the Wildcats, but, considering the Sept. 25 opponent is South Dakota State, you figure the Huskers could manage.

Of course, if Nebraska does opt for the Sept. 30 KSU/ESPN game, it's unlikely NU would try to replace SDSU as the Sept. 25 opponent, as had been rumored.

Maybe Texas will change its mind. Given that a Thursday night in Lincoln for UT would be nothing short of utter chaos in the Memorial Stadium stands, we somehow doubt it.

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Nebraska finished No. 14 in the AP poll released right after the BCS national title game.

That's NU's highest final poll rankings since 2001.

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Six strong takes for the New Year!

*Too many bowl thoughts to count. Well, that’s not true.

1. When asked which bowl team made the most dramatic statement of the year (through the New Year’s Day games) former Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione, who’s been working overtime as a bowl analyst for ESPN Radio, didn’t hesitate.

“Nebraska made an awesome statement,” he said Saturday on ESPN.

You wonder if Coach Fran enjoyed watching that two-back option play that he used ad nauseum while coaching the Aggies.

NU certainly outpaced its Big 12 mates, didn’t it? Oklahoma State and Missouri turned in embarrassing offensive performances, Oklahoma looked sloppy on defense and was fortunate Stanford’s starting quarterback was hurt, A&M predictably got out coached on special teams, and Iowa State barely nipped a Minnesota club that would have finished dead last in the Big 12.

Given the circumstances - we’ll touch on this later - Texas Tech managed distractions and handled Michigan State 41-31. But that game was no masterpiece, either.

Only Texas remains. If the Longhorns can figure out some way to run the ball, either with quarterback Colt McCoy or running back Tre Newton, they’ll keep Alabama within striking distance.

2. Ohio State has some serious defensive talent. Oregon’s offense has all the pieces - speed, athleticism, power, multiplicity - but the Buckeyes matched up, made plays, and forced a couple key turnovers. Don’t kid yourself: That’s the best game Jim Tressel’s crew has played in years. Recruiting counts. Even in the Big Ten.

3. If I’m LSU, I root for Michigan to fire Rich Rod and hire away Les Miles. And then? Dead aim on Bo Pelini and Will Muschamp, I’d suspect. But Miles, I’m sorry, isn’t for long in Baton Rouge. It took the Tigers far too long to figure out Penn State’s pedestrian defense in the mud. And they still can’t manahe the clock.

4. Cincy WKRP was quite possibly one second away from playing for the national title. The Sugar Bowl proved, to some extent, why it’s hard to run no-huddle spread in the SEC, although it appears Auburn will try: The defenses are too fast, the cornerbacks are too good. Cincinnati’s receivers were open most of the season. Not Friday night.

5. The triple option works, as Air Force and Navy proved in rather easy wins over more talented, no-huddle passing teams Houston and Missouri. It makes defenses do the right thing over and over, without much room for freelancing. And that’s hard for modern college defenders. It looks mundane, but it relies on the creativity of the quarterback - as opposed to the creativity of the offensive coordinator - and, I assure you, that’s not an easy ego diet for most assistant coaches to go on. Hubris is the leading obstacle to the use of the triple option - be it in the wingbone or wishbone - among teams that could really benefit from it.

6. The no-huddle is no longer useful like it was two years ago. Referees are getting wise to offenses trying to snap the ball before defenses have a chance to match personnel, and they’re also - finally! - starting to call false start penalties on offensive linemen who fidget around before the play like five-year-olds.

Look at Oklahoma State and Missouri. Neither did themselves any favors in their bowl games by hustling through plays, only to see them wasted by poor execution or, in the case of OSU, turnovers. Both teams seemed needlessly rushed - and for what reason? Their offenses needed to possess the ball to give their defenses a breather.

*Before the Mike Leach saga descends into legal soup, where it’s destined to go, it’s important to remember: Change is part and parcel of life. For everyone. For the TV announcer whose son just isn‘t as good as the dad. For kids who go from star to benchwarmer. For the coach who envisions himself beyond reproach. For the hypocritical athletic director who hires an irascible basketball coach - then lets that guy’s untested son go batpoop insane in his first year - but can’t manage an eccentric football coach. Change is hard, but, man, it’s worth it to maintain a thriving success story in the middle of nowhere. Right?

*When Bill Callahan gets a great offensive line, like the one he has with the New York Jets, he truly is a top-notch football coach. But the best cooks don’t need Kobe beef to cook a great steak.

*Was that former Nebraska defensive end Zach Potter catching a pass as a tight end for Jacksonville on Sunday? I believe it was. Kudos to Potter for making the switch to stay in the league. He has the athleticism and smarts to make it there. Now he has a position.

*What a fun 2010 it’s going to be in college basketball. Most of the big names - Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse, Duke, North Carolina - are in the thick of it, undefeated Purdue is a blue-collar fan’s dream team, the Big 12 and Big East are packed to the gills with competition, and then there’s Texas, which has throttled an impressive array of opponents - Carolina, Michigan State, Pittsburgh, USC - without much of a challenge from any of them.

Nebraska, at 11-3, is still in the thick of everything. Presuming NU beats Southeastern Louisiana Tuesday, it heads to conference play with two big wins (USC and Tulsa) and what appears to be one bad loss (at slumping Creighton). A 7-9 record in the Big 12 would put the Huskers close to the NCAA bubble. An 8-8 mark puts NU on the right side of it.

How do the Huskers pull that off? Beat Oklahoma, Baylor, Iowa State, Texas Tech and Missouri at home. Sweep Colorado. Then - find one more. Kansas State in Lincoln. At Texas A&M or Oklahoma State. Or a potential - albeit unlikely - sweep of Iowa State.

Kansas, now hitting its stride, looks like a tall order anywhere. Doc Sadler can coach the pants off of UT’s Rick Barnes, but the Longhorns have three jaw-droppingly good freshmen. Manhattan is a graveyard for Nebraska, and has been for 15 years.

Remember, too - Doc gets Christian Standhardinger come Big 12 season.

*We end with a question: Where, now, does Pelini rank among Big 12 head coaches? Mark Mangino is gone. Leach, too. Is Bo squarely third behind Mack Brown and Bob Stoops? And, if so - is his salary commensurate to that?

Here’s where we stand on salary issues. Where do you? Give Bo a raise? His assistants? The recruiting office?

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The memory is still strong. And keep it going. Buy the 2009 NU - OU DVD right here and own this memory forever. Click here to purchase.

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Nebraska’s back?

Not yet, NU head coach Bo Pelini said Monday at the Big 12 Media Days, in Irving, Texas.

While the Huskers certainly enjoyed improvement in 2008 with a 9-4 campaign that included a four-game winning streak to end the season, and while the Cornhuskers took big strides in shoring up the defense, Pelini repeated a mantra he wore out through much of last year: He’s still not satisfied.

And neither are his players.

“Our players don't feel Nebraska's back,” Pelini said to the assembled media. “Our expectations in the program are very, very high. I think (the team) is starting to feel the momentum from last season.”

In an interview with a Big 12 TV reporter, Preseason Defensive Player of the Year Ndamukong Suh agreed.

“Those wins were great to have, but now we have to carry that into fall camp,” Suh said. “And then we’ve got to move that forward into the fall season.”

The big questions for Pelini and Co. at Media Day? Zac Lee, the running backs, and that gooey “are you back, really, really back?” question.

Lee, not present for the event, got nothing but praise from his head coach, who called him a “natural leader.”

Pelini dropped one of his lines when speaking about his defense, which never quit last year, but still gave up a ton of big plays, especially in the first quarter of games: “We're not in the same galaxy of where we want to be."

On the team’s overall strength, Pelini said depth remains a weakness – especially on the defensive line – but that enough “resources” are in place to beat any team on the schedule.

“How that equates to wins and losses, we'll see," he said.

And the moment he will be satisfied?

“When we’re playing for a national championship,” he said.

Notes:

*Jaivorio Burkes is no longer on the team, Pelini said. No further explanation. Don’t need any, really. Burkes wasn’t healthy enough to play, and Nebraska probably isn’t the best place for a guy who wants to play, but can’t, and is 1,000 miles from home.

*Pelini confirmed that linebacker Matt Holt will likely redshirt this fall with a shoulder injury.

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This time, it's Kansas City Star's Missouri beat writer Mike DeArmond, who declares, in his first official blog:

"Those people picking Nebraska to win the Big 12 North are abso-tooting-lutely nuts."

and

"The only reason I can see anyone picking Nebraska to win the North over either Kansas or Missouri this fall is they think Tom Osborne is recruiting and coaching the Cornhuskers instead of recruiting and being the athletic director and boss to Bo Pelini."

and

Here’s where I shake my head in wonder at anyone picking Nebraska over Missouri but over Kansas as well.

The Cornhuskers have an inexperienced quarterback, lost just as much as Missouri on offense, don’t have a running back of the caliber of MU’s Derrick Washington. Shouting The Blackshirts Are Back! seems based more on t he hope that Bo Pelini is a defensive genius rather than a first-year college head coach that was simply better than Bill Callahan.

He goes on to make fun of some Nebraska from London.

His rationale for picking Kansas tends to be the same rationale used by many: The return of Todd Reesing, Kerry Meier and Dez Briscoe.

Reesing we get. Great QB. Better leader.

But two wide receivers, however talented they might be, have never, not ever won a championship by themselves. They are, after all, receivers. Someone has to throw the ball to them. And that someone, Reesing, has to have enough time to do it.

In other words, pooh-poohing a weak offensive line that gave up 31 sacks as it was last year doesn't reflect well on your analytical abilities.

As for Nebraska v. Missouri, we'll see. But Mizzou has an awful lot to replace on both sides of the ball, plus the best kicker in school history, plus their return guy.

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Nebraska's not where he wants to be, maybe he's referring to stuff like this.

That's a listing of all major college football programs over the last five years. In that time, 2004-2008, NU was surpassed in record five Big 12 teams: Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Missouri and Kansas.

But most sobering is that record against AP top 25 teams during that span: 1-16. Or maybe it's the 39% winning percentage on the road. Or maybe it's the 13-24 record against teams that also have winning records.

Translation: Throughout the Callahan era and in the beginning of the Pelini era, Nebraska nearly struck out against the top quarter of college football and struggled mightily on the road.

Why did it happen? We've hashed and rehashed all of that. What's important now is doing something about it. Recruiting, winning big games on the road, and showing up vs. OU this fall...all of them will matter.

Other conclusions drawn from the stats list:

*We've said this before, but Texas has surpassed Oklahoma as the Big 12's premier program. In fundraising. In recruiting. And on the field. UT getting jobbed out of the national championship game in 2008 doesn't change that. The Longhorns are 13-4 against AP Top 25 in the last five years. OU is 12-11. The Horns win 86% of their road games. OU only wins 76%. UT is 32-7 against teams with winning records. Oklahoma is 29-12.

When does the media catch up to this reality? When does ESPN? Texas is the better program. About this there can be little debate.

*Mike Leach has built remarkably consistent program at Texas Tech in every area but one: Road wins.

*Virginia Tech is one of the nation's best programs, and has been since 1999. The Hokies come in fifth on the total list here, with numbers quite comparable to Oklahoma. Again, some Nebraska fans don't want to hear that - they hold up OU as some supernatural force when, in fact, the Huskers should have taken the Sooners in 2005 and arguably 2006 - but it's not hard to argue that Nebraska's best opponent in 2009 will be in Blackburg, not Norman.

*Oklahoma State may arrive this year, but, overall, not just yet. The Pokes lag behind Nebraska in overall wins and are just 3-16 vs. the top 25.

*Baylor just may surpass Iowa State in 2009, making the Cyclones the consistently worst program in the Big 12 over the last five years.

*Tyrone Willingham may have been unjustly fired from Notre Dame, but he turned Washington into one of the worst programs in America.

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Texas Tech at Nebraska, Oct. 17: The line might be even by the time this game is played, but, for now, Nebraska is the presumed favorite. But the Red Raiders have been consistently efficient against NU defenses – whether Bo Pelini called the plays or not – and that includes 2008, when Nebraska’s extraordinary ball-control kept it in the game vs. Tech, but still wasn’t enough. Fact: Tech only ran 43 plays in last year’s game. It averaged 8.79 yards per play. In other words: Watch out.

Missouri at Oklahoma State, Oct. 17: Playing a hunch here. If Mizzou sticks to the running game, and challenges OSU’s defensive line, it can keep up in track meet in Stillwater. The Tigers got suckered into too many passes (52) in last year’s 28-23 loss. The teams that best challenge OSU don’t abandon the run.

Kansas at Colorado, Oct. 17: Kansas has the better team, but it’s the mountains, it’s one of CU’s few winnable games, and, every year, it seems like the Buffaloes catch somebody gasping for breath up there. Truth be told, even though KU’s on a three-game winning streak in this series, each of them have been quite competitive.

Baylor at Iowa State, Oct. 17: ISU is the league’s worst team, but Baylor isn’t so much better that the Cys couldn’t catch the Bears looking ahead to a brutal four-game stretch of Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Missouri and Texas. BU has nice individual pieces on defense, but it remains to be seen if it can function as a whole.

Texas at Oklahoma State, Oct. 31: The Pokes haven’t beaten UT since 1997, and have blown two giant leads (in 2004 and 2006) in the interim. Here’s OSU’s chance to exorcise some pain against what should be an undefeated Longhorn team. Expect the Cowboys to pour a lot – maybe too much – into winning it. Expect a ton of points, too.

Nebraska at Baylor, Oct. 31: The one you’ve already worried about five times, and for good reason. Baylor’s half-empty stadium is always a weird place to play, BU quarterback Robert Griffin is the real deal and the Bears competed better than most expected in Lincoln last year. It’s a long way to Waco. Long, boring way. Missouri made the jaunt last year, and barely came out alive.

Oklahoma at Nebraska, Nov. 7: Even if OU drops a game to Texas (and we expect that) Memorial Stadium will be an electric zoo on that first Saturday in November. And the Huskers will pour more energy and creativity into that game than any on the 2009 schedule. This is NU’s “we’re back” game, the launching pad for 2010. We’ll see if Nebraska’s clear for takeoff.

Kansas at Kansas State, Nov. 7: It’s still a rivalry, it’s in Bill Snyder’s house and the Wildcats have enough special teams weapons to make this game. KU plays Oklahoma and Texas Tech before this game, and Nebraska, Texas and Missouri after it. You wonder how much will be in KU’s tank. And, KSU’s pretty good at home in this decade: 45-18.

Oklahoma at Texas Tech, Nov. 21: OU hasn’t won in Lubbock since 2003, so matter what tricked up Schooner the Sooners roll in there, expect a tough game at Jones Stadium. In this decade Tech is 47-10 at home. Hard to mess with those numbers.

Texas at Texas A&M, Nov. 26: We reserve the right to rescind this pick later, if the Aggies are limping home with 3 or 4 wins and getting ready to give Mike Sherman the heave ho. But, if A&M is within striking distance of a bowl – and we think, with games vs. Iowa State, Colorado and Kansas State, it just might be – then it’ll be the same fevered rivalry it usually is. Remember that Texas – even when it has a lot to play for – struggles in College Station. A thoroughly average team, with a freshman quarterback no less, took Texas’ national title squad to the fourth quarter in 2005.

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"This program is very important to the state. One thing that tends to unify those 93 counties out there is athletics. The football program particularly. It's provided an identity to the state. It's part of the psyche." – Tom Osborne

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(see also: The Troubling Gap Between Texas...and Everyone Else)

Smaller is better: Athletic director Tom Osborne may not enjoy doing it, but he needs to ask whether golf and tennis programs, which ate up more than $2 million in expenses compared to a little over $100,000 in revenue, are truly necessary, especially when fan support is scant and the men’s golf team conducts its home meets in Nebraska City.

A no-spin zone on baseball: Osborne needs to closely watch Nebraska’s baseball program over the next year and assess whether Mike Anderson has the coaching skill and recruiting acumen to lead NU into the next decade. Not whether he did or didn’t make the grade five years ago.

Volleyball bucks: Osborne needs to consider whether Nebraska’s volleyball team should make the full-time leap from the NU Coliseum to the Bob Devaney Sports Center, where the Huskers can draw twice as many season-ticket holders and the sport can pay for itself. The Coliseum can still be used once or twice a year, for specific big matches, and Osborne can institute a tiered season ticket system for those coveted seats.

Grapplers: He needs to promote the Nebraska wrestling team smarter and harder, especially considering Omaha’s Qwest Center is hosting the 2010 NCAA Championships. NU’s squad has an outside shot at the national title next year, and a solid first semester schedule. Bo Pelini’s a good friend of wrestling coach Mark Manning; maybe it’s time for a TV ad.

Tough questions: He needs to ask, now that Nebraska has a terrific coaching staff, whether the operational side of the football program is being run as efficiently as it could be. Osborne is respected enough to make hard inquiries and necessary adjustments.

Help hoops: He has to figure out some way, any way, to get 10,000 Husker basketball fans inside Devaney before Kansas comes to town. The men’s basketball team was ninth in the Big 12 for revenue while the women’s team was 11th. If that means a better schedule for men and free tickets for the women, so be it. People have to see the product before they buy the product.

To that end, Osborne has wisely vowed to resolve the arena issue within the next year, whether it’s full-speed ahead on some Haymarket palace, or a revamp of Devaney. Wisely, Osborne won’t allow the athletic department to get dragged into city politics and the mercurial nature of Lincoln voters. Lincoln will do what it does, and considering the city can’t devise a way to get across town in 15 minutes, the arena may end up being a long shot. Good to see Osborne has a contingency plan at Devaney. Now, if he can just get some reasonable parking around it.

Spend football donor dollars wisely: Not blow them on baubles and trinkets, like ribbon boards inside Memorial Stadium. Enough of that stuff. The stadium experience is fine. It’s a football game, not a light show. Dump the media guides if you have to do it. Reporters know how to go online, and Huskers.com is a fine Web site anyhow. Spend it on people – coaches, administrators, down-the-line support staffers. Nebraska can’t afford to lose talent over a thousand here or there. In other words: Do what it takes to retain offensive coordinator Shawn Watson.

Beat Texas – and the rest of the Big 12 - where the Longhorns haven’t thought to fight: Osborne’s ahead of the game there with his student life complex initiative, which can be turned into one of Bo Pelini’s best recruiting tools when it is completed.

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See also: A Conversation with Phil Steele

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“The fans used to think Oklahoma was the enemy. They actually made us better.” -- Tom Osborne.

Rivals are not always rivals, but challenges and opportunities. This is something to consider as we go through the early stages of Bo Pelini's head coaching career. We will be better if the coaches learn from their wins and losses.


"Early in my coaching career we lost five straight times to Oklahoma which did not go over very well in Nebraska. But I can say each time we lost we learned a lot, we became a better team. We lost seven straight bowl games at one point and I think each one of those losses was very instructional. So sometimes losing can be the most important thing that happens to you. It depends on how you react to it."

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A person on one end of the spectrum could call it a newspaper stunt. A person on the opposite end? A call for accountability.

Either way, the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, in an investigative series entitled “Secrecy 101” chose to request, from all of the 119 Division schools in football a whole slew of documents, including the following:

*Team flight manifests. A record of all students and non-students aboard flight to athletic events.

*Complimentary ticket lists. A record of whomever a student-athlete chose to give their allotment of free tickets, if they chose to give them out at all.

*Summer Job forms. A list of where athletes took summer jobs, with whom and how much they’ll earn.

*All NCAA violation records.

The request was a way of testing each school as to how it interprets a federal law protecting the "educational record" of students.

Two schools, notably Texas A&M, provided mostly unedited records for all four requests. Most private schools did nothing, as they are not state institutions and thus not required to produce any documents.

Nebraska? Here arehttp://www.di...7689939997767 the Huskers’ results. The athletic department produced the team flight logs, but, claiming student privacy laws, did not disclose any information on the final three categories.

In the course of the series, the Dispatch consulted the U.S. Department of Education, which advised that flight manifests and ticket lists were not private educational records, while NCAA violations probably were, and summer job placements could be. The Dispatch also interviewed the original author of the student privacy law, former Sen. James L. Buckley, who said most academic institutions were using the shield rule improperly, and withholding more than they had a right to.

In the Big 12, A&M – home to former NU athletic director Bill Byrne – provided the most “open book,” if you will. Kansas, Kansas State and Texas, according to the Dispatch, either “ignored the request or wanted too much money to comply.” The money for copying the documents, we presume. Baylor, a private school, didn’t have to provide documents, and did not. Nebraska, along with the five other Big 12 schools, were somewhere in the middle.

Pittsburgh, now home of former NU athletic director Steve Pederson, provided nothing, citing, across the board, student privacy.

The Dispatch editor explained the paper’s query, and series, in an editorial, beginning with this problem:

“Two 20-year-olds illegally park their cars on the Ohio State University campus.

One is an OSU student, the other attends Columbus State

Both get tickets from an OSU campus police officer.

You can see the Columbus State student's ticket if you want, but the OSU student's ticket is off-limits.”

The hypothetical begs, of course, the question: Why would anyone want, need or care to know which student did or didn’t get a parking ticket, and whether or not they paid for it…unless that student were minor athletic celebrity known as a college football or basketball player?

The difference between the two students is negligible, unless it’s an athlete. Then it would be of some public interest. And worth protecting if you’re a university’s athletic department.

Let us know what you think of the series, and Nebraska’s response to it. Is a stunt? A clever gambit? Should schools turn over info just for the sake of being tossed in the trash bin once the Dispatch realized it was all there? Are summer jobs any business of the local reader unless there’s something untoward after the fact about the jobs? What about complimentary tickets? Should the reader know, or even get to know, if a player has a girlfriend he gives the tickets to? A cousin? On the flip side of the coin: Does an open book policy encourage accountability to such a degree that nobody messes up?

Discuss in our comments section.

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Nice little piece this mornin in Corn Nation, vis a vis the Wall Street Journal regarding the experience (or lack thereof) of offensive lines in the Big 12.

The theory: The more experienced a team's line, the better that team's offense will be.

Generally, we agree with that axiom, unless the experience returning on the offensive line wasn't all that good during the previous. That might go for every position, of course.

At any rate, in terms of combined starts, Texas leads the Big 12 with 91. Oklahoma State has 86. Nebraska is somewhere in the middle with 61, but that includes seven starts from Jaivorio Burkes, and he's not likely to play next year.

Oklahoma, as most Husker fans know, is near the bottom, with 29.

In last? Kansas. With 26.

Now let it be said that Jayhawk quarterback Todd Reesing cancels out a lot of that inexperience with his own seasoning and scrambling skills. Let it also be said that, in KU zone-read scheme, linemen aren't necessarily charged to do quite as much, or learn quite as quickly, as they are in a West Coast Offense. Plus, the running back in a zone-read scheme - in this case, Jake Sharp - has the freedom to choose the holes with the most running potential.

Finally - by the time Kansas plays Nebraska, in November, experience simply won't be an issue. Not for KU's line. And not for NU quarterback Zac Lee.

But is it something to chew on during the summer? Sure.

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Greg Paulus decided to go home after all.

Weeks after speculation had the former Duke point guard returning to his high school stomping grounds to play one season of quarterback for Syracuse, Paulus officially announced he would indeed be playing for the Orange in 2009.

Paulus will be studying broadcasting at the Newhouse School, considered one of the better broadcasting schools in America.

"Syracuse has a lot of great things about it," Paulus said. "You grow up in a culture and realize there's a lot of great things out there. My gut and my heart were telling that was the best place for me."

Paulus had take a two-day visit to Nebraska nearly two weeks ago, and seemingly had the Cornhuskers as a finalist.

I had a great visit there," Paulus said. "Nebraska is a place where there’s so much tradition. They have great people there. I had a great conversation with Coach Pelini and spent a lot of time with the guys, and Coach Watson. But my heart and my gut told me Syracuse was the best place for me."

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The event came and went without much fanfare, at least when it comes the hype, hope and optimism that tends to surround college recruiting.

Nebraska’s basketball team signed three junior college transfers – Lance Jeter, Quincy Hankins and Myles Holley – on Wednesday, and NU head coach Doc Sadler, eschewing the typical press conference, instead issued a general statement.

“Lance, Quincy and Myles are excited to join our program and we’re definitely excited to have them,” Sadler said. “Each of them will bring something to the table that we need next year at their positions. Just as important, they’ll have some experience and maturity both on and off the court. We’ll still be a young team next year, but we feel like they will be able to help us right from the start.”

It’s not Sadler’s style to gush over guys who have yet to produce as Cornhuskers. He’s not much of gusher, period, unless it’s about his team’s effort. He also may not be finished recruiting; depending on whether German import Christian Standhardinger decides to turn pro in Europe – and that itself may be dependent on whether the NCAA makes him eligible for the 2009 season – Sadler could theoretically be signing one more player later this summer, and transitioning oft-injured Chris Balham to a medical exemption.

But Nebraska hoop heads shouldn’t let this week pass without acknowledging that Doc’s most recent class, combined with fall signees and yet-to-play 2008 recruits Brian Diaz and Christopher Niemann, are the guys who will define Sadler’s tenure at NU.

After wringing about as much as he could out of the Huskers in his first three seasons, leading them to two NIT appearances, Sadler enters the next two campaigns with a squad full of his guys, a roster of his molding.

Doc wanted size to consistently compete with the upper half of the Big 12 Conference, and to finish off teams like Texas A&M. Now he’s got it. Niemann, Diaz and Hankins should all be above-average rebounders. Holley, at 6-foot-5, has the reputation for being a leaper. If Standhardinger actually arrives in Lincoln, he could be the best of the bunch.

Doc wanted a big, physical point guard to the run the show, and especially needs a point guard of any kind after Cookie Miller left the team. Jeter fits the bill. He needs to lose weight, yes, but Jeter shouldn’t be outmuscled by anyone. And, from high school through junior college, he was a winner, which counts for something. Point guards, like quarterbacks, are better once they get used to closing out games.

Doc wanted guys who can create their own shots and get points. He’s got them. Holley, by all accounts, is an effective scorer inside the arc. Eshaunte Jones, who sat out last year with an injury, is a terrific shooter, if his off-to-the-side practice sessions were much of an indication. And Sadler’s pretty high on incoming recruit Rayes Gallegos, a 6-2 off-guard who changes directions and gets off the floor pretty quickly. And, of course, there’s the enigmatic sophomore Toney McCray.

No, it’s not Kansas talent. Or Texas talent, although Sadler outcoaches Rick Barnes anyway. But it’s NCAA Tournament talent. Gallegos and Diaz should be regarded as sleepers. Medical situations prevented Holley and McCray from being hotter commodities out of high school. Jones and Hankins weren’t academically ready. Niemann and Standhardinger are from Germany, scared teams off because of potential eligibility issues.

Credit Doc for talking to the right people and turning over the right stones. A lot of BCS schools wouldn’t have made the effort.

Nebraska, of course, isn’t a lot of BCS schools.

While Barry Collier didn’t fully appreciate that in his first couple seasons, Sadler did from the jump, and has made few bones about taking risks, when necessary, to cobble together a team that doesn’t fade in the Big 12, or falter against lesser foes in the non-conference slate.

Well, Doc’s done cobbled it, as one might say. Now, he got to coach it.

Consider me intrigued to see how Sadler creates and maintains basketball chemistry among guys with such disparate backgrounds and playing experiences. It’s not just where they’re from – and they’re from all over, from New York to Utah to California to Puerto Rico to Germany to Washington D.C. – but who and how they’ve played the game for last two years, if they’ve played much at all.

He must find “dirty work” replacements for Paul Velander and Ade Dagunduro and an “energy” replacement for Miller, whose joy for the game rubbed off on his teammates. He must decide whether senior Ryan Anderson – presuming Anderson takes his name out of the NBA Draft – stays at a power forward spot, or moves back to his role two years ago. And I predict that Sadler will be having “the talk” with McCray, and determining whether McCray’s ready to make the leap forward his talent suggests.

A sculpture in process. But fine clay is there.

I had an interesting conversation recently with a Husker hoop head, who compared Sadler’s early years to that Kansas football coach Mark Mangino.

Like Sadler followed Danny Nee and Barry Collier, Mangino followed the reasonably successful Glen Mason – who, like Nee at NU, was looking for a way out of KU, and eventually found one – and amiable failure Terry Allen.

Like Mangino learned under one old master (Bill Snyder) and one young one (Bob Stoops), Sadler served as understudy to Eddie Sutton and Billy Gillispie.

Like Mangino, Sadler recruits players other Big 12 schools don’t want and coaches them up.

Like Mangino, Sadler often outcoaches his Big 12 counterparts.

Like Mangino, Sadler has a blue collar “I’m-gonna-earn-this” style about him.

Like Mangino, Sadler finally convinced NU’s athletic department to raise money for the kind of facilities needed to compete in a BCS conference.

What Mangino had, the fan said, that Sadler doesn’t, is a program-transforming talent like Todd Reesing. But maybe Sadler has that player among his crop now.

It was a compelling argument, really.

“With one difference,” I said.

Sadler’s not competing in the Big 12 North Mangino entered in 2002, with Nebraska in decline, Kansas State nearing it and Colorado on the verge of total disaster with a recruiting scandal. Football stunk in the Big 12 North for a good five years. That’s no secret.

Sadler coaches 100 miles from supernova Kansas, which, unlike NU’s football program, never lost its death grip on the division when Roy Williams left for North Carolina. Sadler coaches against awakening power Missouri and Kansas State assistant Dalonte Hill, who is paid gobs of money to draw some of the nation’s best prep talent to KSU for one or two years.

Mangino, as it turned out, got to build his program slowly while the Big 12 North, collectively, sat asleep at the wheel.

Sadler has no luxury.

And yet – now is the time. Athletic director Tom Osborne is making the commitment in NU basketball. The practice facility has a $10 million starting gift. And either the new arena’s getting built in the Haymarket in the next five years, or the Bob Devaney Sports Center is getting a major facelift. Osborne appreciates that Nebraska can either choose to join teams like Missouri, Kansas State, Texas A&M and Baylor as yearly contenders for the NCAA Tournament, or join Colorado in the perennial cellar.

The next two years are crucial. These are Doc’s guys, and they’ll play his style.

If he successfully integrates their styles and personalities, and develops a go-to guy for that last shot, NU is nationally relevant again for the first time since the early 1990s. And Sadler, who works so hard and handles so much of the day-to-day and game coaching, becomes a guy Nebraska will have to pay handsomely to keep.

But if these guys don’t fit Sadler’s system or he can’t adjust to them, well, they arrived on his watch.

We’ll see if it makes for good basketball.

Either way, it’s going to be good drama.

See also: Rock Bottom for Nebraska baseball?[/b]

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