Now that we've segued rather brusquely into the bowl season – which itself is the doorstep to the offseason, if you ask me – we'll be busting out these Monday columns, as usual, with a twist: Instead of five players we loved, we'll give you six strong takes on news in and around Husker sports. Don't worry – heavy dose of the pigskin, still. And we'll have a special bowl review, too.

One with the Monday fun!

*The Heisman vote is a total bummer, of course; Ndamukong Suh should have won, and he had zero business finishing fourth behind, of all people, Texas' Colt McCoy. Clearly, a good chunk chunk of the voters didn't bother waiting until championship week. How thoughtful of them.

You know what else is a sham? Votes equally apportioned by region. Not only does that ignore the population quotient – the West Region has far more people in it than most of the geographical subsections – it hands 145 votes to the Northeast Region, which is, essentially, New England.

Want to guess how many Division I programs are in the entire region? Five. Army, Syracuse, Buffalo, Connecticut and Boston College. Even if one assumes that a good chunk of the votes go to ESPN (located in Bristol, Connecticut) you're still awarding votes to a region where baseball and college basketball reign supreme. How often – if ever again – will that region have a player in the Heisman running?

One-sixth of the Heisman race should not be decided by a region with no dog in the fight.

*Before pigskin pundits automatically hand the defense from Suh to fellow defensive tackle Jared Crick, may we gently suggest that the real heir apparent to Suh's excellence, in least in 2010, is cornerback Prince Amukamara. Surprised? Don't be. At 6-foot-1, Amukamara is the perfect size for boundary corner, and his first-team All-Big 12 selection was well-earned. Not only does he have the superior physical tools for his position – much like Suh had – Amukamara is surrounded by talent in what could be the nation's best secondary next year.

Not that Crick won't be excellent. I just think Amukamara is more symbolic of the defense's strength in 2010.

*Head coach Bo Pelini needs to use the bowl preparation as a laboratory for new players and ideas on offense. He doesn't necessarily need to unveil them in the bowl game. But he should use the time between now and, oh, Dec. 27 as a training ground for 2010. Open up the toolbox. Look hard at using the Wildcat – either with Rex Burkhead or Taylor Martinez or Roy Helu – for a power running game.

*Enough of this panic and nonsense over losing Tyler Gabbert to Missouri. Yes – it stinks because Nebraska wasted so much time on the kid. But, other than that: Develop what you have. Martinez didn't fall off the back of a produce truck. Ron Kellogg III quietly had a nice year on the scout team. Cody Green darn well better be ready to take over in 2010, given his experiences this year. Zac Lee? Had his chance in games. He practices too much better than he plays in games. Pelini, of course, always wants his guys to practice well. But he'll also reserve his final judgment for when “the bullets are flying.”

*Didn't write much about volleyball this year – but watched enough of it. John Cook squeezed as much juice out of this 2009 team as he could. In 2010, with another stellar recruiting class (and Penn State in slight rebuilding mode) NU can make a harder run at the national title. The key, to me? Turning the offense over to outside hitter Hannah Werth. Build it around one of the better athletes in Husker history, and get Lindsey Licht and Tara Mueller to fill supporting roles behind her. Make Werth a captain, too, for that matter. Will Cook, used to relying on quiet giants like Sarah Pavan, pull the trigger on the shorter, ultra-competitive Werth? If he wants to win the national title, he will.

*The Nebraska men's basketball team will round into shape as a defensive stalwart by the Big 12 season. The question is: Will the offense come around? It's not looking terrific so far. Against USC, Oregon State. Saint Louis and Creighton – the four strongest teams on NU's schedule thus far – the Huskers have averaged 51 points, and possessions have, once, again, ticked down to the end of the shot clock, with little ball movement on dribble penetration in sight. The Big 12 is just too grueling for NU to play like that. It's twice as tough this year as it was last, as Iowa State, Texas Tech and Kansas State – heck, even Colorado – are much stronger.

Permanent Link to this Blog Post

Please enable Javascript, or download the podcast here.

Join Husker Locker today - it's free!

See also: Big 12 Postseason Awards, 10 Unforgettable NU-UT Moments, Big 12 Rankings, Bowl Watch, Onward to DFW, Huskers Giving Back and A Dangerous Qwest

Permanent Link to this Blog Post

Please enable Javascript, or download the podcast here.

Join Husker Locker today - it's free!

Permanent Link to this Blog Post

Please enable Javascript, or download the podcast here.

Join Husker Locker today - it's free!

Permanent Link to this Blog Post

Please enable Javascript, or download the podcast here.

Join Husker Locker today - it's free!

Permanent Link to this Blog Post

Kia Kaha. Among the Maori in New Zealand, it means “forever strong.”

That’s the motto of Nebraska’s 2009 volleyball team, head coach John Cook announced Wednesday, a squad that will be one of his youngest – as many as five freshmen may contend for playing time – and almost certainly his most athletic.

“We’ve always been coined as the ‘big girls,’” Cook said. “Slow, big, dominant at the net. This is going to be a different feel. This is going to be a team that plays fast.”

How fast? Cook described the first handful of fall practices as volleyball played at “hyperspeed” with “ESPN-highlight plays” made by a multitude of Huskers already. He likened NU’s new style to men’s volleyball, and the Brazil women’s national team.

“We need to make this gym bigger because they can get to wherever that ball is,” Cook said.

Cook also said his players could stand toe-to-toe with Nebraska’s football team athletically.

Eight Huskers were in the “2000-point club” for their scores on four performance drills – 10-yard dash, vertical jump, pro agility run and approach jump. Last year at this time, Cook said, there weren’t any players at that mark.

Safe to say that some of those five freshmen – Paige Hubl, Gina Mancuso, Megan Pendergast, Hayley Thramer and Hannah Werth – were part of that list. Cook called them “gym rats.” None were late for a workout or a meeting this summer.

“This freshman class is legit,” Cook said. “…The game of volleyball doesn’t know how old you are.”

Two of NU’s better teams – in 2000 and 2005 – used freshmen as a key part of their runs. The catalyst in 2000, Laura Pilakowski, is now Nebraska’s strength and conditioning guru. In 2005, the boost was provided by Jordan Larson.

“All of them,” answered senior middle blocker Kori Cooper when asked which freshmen could play a role in 2009. All-American outside hitter Tara Mueller – NU’s best returning offensive weapon – said it will be a matter of which of them make plays during fall camp and finds the best rhythm.

One of them is likely to be Hannah Werth, the Springfield, Ill., native who enrolled last spring and got plenty of swings during NU’s spring exhibition season. Werth had one of the team’s highest vertical jumps and broke the school record for the 10-yard dash at 1.57 seconds.

Werth, one of the most highly touted outside hitter recruits in recent memory, already knows the expectations of knowledgeable Husker fans.

“That’s why I came to Nebraska,” Werth said. “Because of how high the expectations are. I’ve always been surrounded by great players, so knowing I have to live up to those expectations? It’s a great feeling.”

Werth will initially back up Mueller, a junior from Scottsdale, Ariz., whom Cook said became a “great leader” over the summer with junior libero Kayla Banwarth, setter Sydney Anderson and senior middle blocker Kori Cooper. Mueller will have to fill some of the leadership gap left behind by Larson, Amanda Gates and Rachel Schwartz, the catalysts behind that thrilling 2008 run.

Their defense - and Larson’s vicious jump serve – will be tough to replace as well, although Mueller is confident Nebraska was on its way.

“We don’t have that solid jump server out there,” Mueller said. “But we have a bunch of tough float serves. And we push each other in practice. We’re really low in errors so far. We have not missed that many. Our serving is already at a high level.”

Avoiding errors in this faster offense, Cook said, would be crucial in 2009.

“How close to the wall can we go into the turn without hitting the wall?” he said.

Much of the responsibility will fall on Anderson, the calm junior setter who stepped into a dicey situation last year and earned an All-America spot. Anderson worked through the summer getting used to shorter, quicker outside hitters in an effort to produce a fast-set, fast-kill offense like Penn State, which tore through every team not named Nebraska in 2008.

“It just takes time,” she said. “It’s not gonna come in one day. It’ll happen over time….I don’t think we looked at (Penn State) and said ‘we wanna be like them,’ but it’s a great offense and if we can run it be successful at it, then that will help us in the long run.”

Permanent Link to this Blog Post