Monday, August 31, 2009

August 31, 2009

I've returned from a nice weekend, while I was working hard on homework I realized that this week marks the FINAL COUNTDOWN to the 2009 season...I'm excited...I can't wait...and I'm sure many of you guys can't wait either.

THE HOT LIST:

1. Husker Volleyball Breakdown
2. Big 12 Preview: Baylor
3. Coaching Longevity....who's job is really safe...

1. There's not much on the home front on Husker Football over the weekend so we'll dive into a different topic to start out today...Husker Volleyball opened the 2009 season playing in the annual AVCA Volleyball tournament in the Qwest Center. It wasn't a banner start for the volleyball team as they were surprisingly swept...yes swept...by #8 Michigan on Friday night. On Saturday night Nebraska bounced back and gutted out a 5 set win over #11 Minnesota to end the tournament 1-1. This week Nebraska returns to the Colleseum to play Creighton where a W would give them the longest home winning streak ever by a women's team at 88 games. I expect them to beat up on Creighton but when it comes to playing better teams in the country this team will have grow in big chunks if it thinks it'll be ready to hang with the good teams. After watching them play 2 games on TV over the weekend I'm convinced that our #3 ranking is very generous and overrated. I love Husker sports don't get me wrong but looking at the crop of talent that this team has lead me to believe that they will be deserving of a #3 ranking...just not right now. The team looked out of sync, out of focused, confused, and down right played sloppy at times. This team needs to learn how to put a team away when they have the momentum....not allow the team to come back and force a 5th set....i.e. Minnesota on Saturday. Girls made bad sets, bad spikes, and serve the ball horribly...Nebraska lead the tournament in service errors. Not a category that John Cook wants to look at the next morning...they are young...talented...but have a long long long ways to go to being the great Nebraska teams of years past.....I guess we can honestly say that we really miss Jordan Larson this season....they'll be good but not great this year....

2. Big 12 preview continues this week as we'll dive into the 3 teams that Nebraska plays this season with a quick wrap up later this week of the 3 teams I'm not breaking down completely. Baylor comes into this year with the highest aspirations from their bowl season in 1994. They are the longest team in the Big 12 to not make a bowl game. This season will depend heavily on the play of Robert Griffin the stellar sophomore QB whose athleticism is something Baylor has never had at the QB position. Art Briles has done a masterful job in just 1 season breathing excitement back into a program that was the laughing stock of the Big 12 for many seasons. If they allow Griffin to run and throw like he did last season they will be a dangerous team to play. This team returns eight starters on defense and offense including the top 4 tacklers from last season...the top RB Finley...and the top 2 WR from last season in Wright and Gettis....no matter how you look at it this is the sleeper team in the Big 12 South this season...The schedule gets going right out of the gate with playing Wake Forest on the road this Saturday followed by UConn at home, Northwestern State, and Kent State....they should be 3-1 with loss to UConn...Randy's team are always well coached and ready for the challenge of taking on Baylor....The Big 12 season starts with games at Oklahoma (loss), at Iowa State (win), Oklahoma State (loss), and Nebraska (loss)....the last four games are at Missouri (win), Texas (loss), at A&M (win) and Texas Tech (win).....
2009 Season Prediction: 7-5 and going to a bowl game for the first time since 1994 with having a good chance to win their first bowl game since 1992. It'll be a banner year for Baylor but they must win games against Wake Forest, Missouri, and Texas Tech to have a chance at the postseason if they falter in any one of those 3...they'll stay home as a 6-6 team probably won't make a bowl game out of the Big 12 as I anticipate around 7 teams being bowl eligible this season with Baylor possibly being 8 if they get to 6 wins....they won't beat the Skers but will definitely be a fun team to watch in 2009.

3. A great blog post today came out from Tim Griffin on ESPN.com about ranking the coaches who have the best chance at keeping their jobs for a long period of time. Longevity rankings as Tim Griffin put it....Who do you think made the top of the list??? Stoops, Pelini, Brown, Leach, Mangino? Actually it was Mike Gundy at OSU who Griffin feels has the best longevity at the school he's at....Bo Pelini came in 3rd behind Bob Stoops....I think that was pretty accurate because Bo has told us numerous times that he feels at home at his dream job...I hope he stays for a long time but Tim Griffin did get me thinking if he'd leave for opportunities to coach at Penn State, Norte Dame, or his alma mater Ohio State....that'd be interesting to see as I think he'll be very successful at Nebraska and quickly become a hot coach that'll be wanted by many top programs. Fourth was KU's Mangino...not surprising as I think he'll stay there till his health causes him to retire...Pinkel was 5th which is way to high because if he has a few bad seasons after the success they have had the past 2 seasons the fans in Columbia will be calling for a change at the top.....It was very interesting to see Mack Brown fall to 8th but Griffin feels that with Muschamp in the waiting that he'd consider hanging it up if he won a BCS championship title...hmmmm could we see a change after this season...I don't think soo not this quick...Brown is in the prime of his coaching career and I feel he'll be at Texas for at least 5 more years.....a few years longer than what Tim thinks....not surprising that the bottoms were Dan Hawkins at 11 and Sherman at 12...those guys have to win this season to save their jobs....at A&M 4-8 seasons are just unacceptable and when you announce that you'll win 10 games that Dan did last off season, even though he denies it, you better own up to what you say and if they miss another bowl game this season...I'd have to think that they'll be some more turnover of coaches in the Big 12....it's finally good to see that Nebraska has a coach that the fans feel will stick around for awhile....security is a nice feeling and finally the Nebraska program has that...security....


Coming back again Wednesday...till then...get yourselves ready for Saturday!!!!!
Skocz Out.

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