This is repost of the blog post, for posterity sake...

As you may recall from last week's Mt. Huskmore feature, we asked readers to give four more potential finalists in our competition. Before we unveil them, let's look at who's already in the Mt. Huskmore bracket:

We've reserved one spot for "coaches" - four landmark trailblazers at NU. These four coaches will square off against one another, and whoever emerges from the quadrant goes on Husker Locker's Mt. Huskmore. The coaches are:

Tom Osborne - football
Francis Allen - men's gymnastics
Bob Devaney - football
Terry Pettit - volleyball

We've decided, because of many requests, to spice up this category and nominate two more coaches to participate. As such, Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne are both getting first round byes. The two coaches we're adding are current NU volleyball coach John Cook and track and field coach Gary Pepin.

Next we decided, to have a special spot on Mt. Huskmore just for one Nebraska quarterback. That's right - one, to symbolize the iconic nature of the position. Each of these QBs will square off against each other, with one emerging as the winner:

Tommie Frazier
Jerry Tagge
Turner Gill
Eric Crouch

This category hasn't changed. Just these four.

The final 2 spots will be determined in an open competition with remaining Husker athletes. A couple, not surprisingly, are football players. Several are not. They are:

Merlene Ottey - track and field
Penny Heyns - swimming
Sarah Pavan - volleyball
Jim Hartung - men's gymnastics
Alex Gordon - baseball
Mike Rozier - football
Johnny Rodgers - football
Tom Novak - football

And now four of the above athletes will get first-round byes as we input our wild cards. The athletes getting first-round byes are: Merlene Ottey, Johnny Rodgers, Sarah Pavan and Penny Heyns.

Which leaves us with our four wild cards. Thanks for all of your thoughts and suggestions:

Dave Rimington - football
Eric Piatkowski - basketball
Grant Wistrom - football
Ali Viola - softball

So here's how the first "wild-card" round sets up for Mt. Huskmore. We'll begin selecting these next week.

COACHES

Gary Pepin vs. Terry Pettit
John Cook vs. Francis Allen

ATHLETES

Mike Rozier vs. Alex Gordon
Eric Piatkowski vs. Grant Wistrom
Tom Novak vs. Dave Rimington
Ali Viola vs. Jim Hartung

Mike Rozier gets the edge over Alex Gordon since he is the #2 Heisman winner. Grant Wistrom is my choice since he excelled in the classroom, college football, Lombardi winner and pro football level. Dave Rimington because he is a Lombardi winner, 2 time Outland Trophy and is heavily involved with outside charities. Jim Hartung for gymnastics.

Mike Rozier, Eric Piatkowski,Tom Novak and Jim Hartung are my choices.

My pics would be from this weeks wild card would have to be;

- Terry Pettit
- John Cook
- Mike Rozier
- Grant Wistrom
- Dave Rimington
- Ali Viola

Good Luck to all!

My first week picks are:

John Cook - Volleyball - did one of the hardest things to do in coaching which is take an excellent program to even greater heights. He has put Women's Volleyball on the map.

Gary Pepin - Track & Field - Almost 500 All-American atheletes; more than 60 Big 8 and Big XII Conference Titles; more than 50 individual National Champions; numerous coaching honors

Mike Rozier - Football - the face of Nebraska Football in the early '80's; all-time leading rusher; Heisman Trophy winner

Grant Wistrom - Football - 3 National Championships; 2-Time 1st Team All-American; Lombardi Award winner; 1st Round NFL pick; 9-year NFL career; founded the Grant Wistrom Foundation

Tom Novak - Football - He was the only four-time All-Conference selection in Nebraska football history; he played fullback and center and was nicknamed "Train Wreck" for his hard hits; he was elected to the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 1974; his #60 is the only Cornhusker number permanently retired by the school; he died on Nov. 1, 1998

Ali Viola - Softball - Nebraska's first three-time All-American; ranks among the greatest offensive players in NCAA history; her 53 career home runs rank fifth in NCAA history; her .760 career slugging percentage ranks sixth; capped her career in 1998 with a 22-homer performance en route to a second conference player-of-the-year award; owns many career NU records, including batting average, home runs, RBIs, total bases and slugging percentage; owns the top three single-season marks in total bases and RBIs; set the single-season records for hits, home runs, slugging percentage, and walks; smashed a homer in her final at bat at the 1998 WCWS