Maybe the average guy in Boise, Idaho didn’t jump out of bed and refuse coffee this morning because he’s already too wired about the Polynesian Bowl being on tonight. Maybe that isn’t happening.
But around here, three Huskers making an appearance in the all-star game certainly is something to catch our attention. We’ll contribute with a little more in here about that and Dylan Raiola as we Mash into the weekend.
But first, let’s talk about another favorite subject of Nebraskans: the weather.
On the surface, it seems a bad deal when you’re welcoming early enrollees from the southern states with temperatures hitting below zero and have the emergency notice on your phone buzzing about snow squalls. Snow squalls! But that’s just on the surface.
I’ve always been a proponent of Nebraska leaning fully into the winter weather in recruiting.
And new Husker linebacker Willis McGahee IV, whose father played in Buffalo, speaking on the subject is a perfect example of why.
“That was one thing before that my parents were saying. ‘You go to the NFL, you get drafted by the Green Bay Packers, what you going to say: You don’t want to go?'” McGahee told me a few weeks back. “You might as well just get used to it now so then when you’re in the NFL you’re already good.”
As new Huskers were moving in last week, including a few from the Miami area, Kansas City was playing a playoff game in those same temperatures and Buffalo was trying to get fans to help shovel snow out of the stadium.
Besides, as McGahee knows from all his visits to Lincoln, the weather here gives you a lot of quality days to balance it out.
Not to mention, the recent bitter cold has been felt throughout the map of America, including SEC country, which had famed weather guy Jim Cantore hanging out last week in Oxford, Mississippi, on a 15-degree day there.
I like what Matt Rhule said about the weather on early signing day too.
“Those guys that flipped today, like, they came in last weekend. It was 26 degrees,” Rhule said of some of those Miami recruits. “There’s no tricks. There’s no gimmicks. I’m like, ‘Hey, walk around now, brother. This is what it feels like.’ But they recognize real and they recognize what’s transparent and they’re coming for the real reasons.”
And playoff weather is often really cold. Embrace it.
Although, just so we’re all clear on it, to any reporters thinking of asking Tampa Bay coach Todd Bowles about how he gets his team ready for the bitter cold of playing in Detroit (as one did this week) – yeah, no, don’t.
Please, don’t.
It’s Polynesian Bowl time.
Dylan Raiola, Carter Nelson and Preston Taumua have all made good impressions during the practice week prior to Friday night’s game (8 p.m. CT on NFL Network).
All the Husker signees have received some good reviews from our 247Sports crew on the scene in Hawaii.
Nelson hit the ground running upon arrival and received kudos during both of the initial days of workout. From Greg Biggins of 247Sports, “Carter Nelson had another good day catching the ball and has some of the most natural hands out here. He never fights the ball and is able to secure the football and get up the field as quick as anyone. He’s a great story coming from an 8-man football program but has shown he can compete with anyone and is deserving of his lofty top-100 status in the Top247.”
Earlier in the week Biggins noted the connection between Raiola and Nelson, saying Nelson was a “favorite target” of the QB and the tight end had no trouble getting open and showing off reliable hands.
And Taumua, if you didn’t know his story this fall, has accomplished a lot just to be there after a knee injury that the O-lineman was able to work past as quickly as can be hoped.
He’s still regaining his form, according to our crew on the ground, but he appeared to be in line for some first-team reps at left guard tonight.
Everyone probably by now saw the clip of him throwing a football 72 yards.
“Raiola looks the part and had a very good day throwing the football. He has arguably the strongest arm in the country and won the long ball competition with a 72-yard throw. Saying that, he’s so much more than just a big arm,” Biggins wrote as this week began. “He has an effortless release and the ball jumps out of his hand with little windup or effort. He throws with touch and timing and was accurate down the field. Frame wise, he has such a strong lower body and physically looks ready to step in and compete at the college level right now. He’s a smart, heady player with an advanced feel for the position.”
Some nice compliments there.
Raiola also received strong feedback from Jahmal Banks, the new Husker receiver who transferred from Wake Forest. Banks has been around the college game for several years but said the QB stuck out for being “beyond his age” when the receiver got a chance to catch passes from him on Banks’ visit to Lincoln.
It’s not as though an 18-year-old QB was THE reason Banks ultimately decided upon Nebraska, but it was one of the things that intrigued him in his decision. That says quite a bit.
“Just the way he warms up, he gets depth quickly, his arm strength, how tight of a spiral it is,” Banks said. “His attention to detail. Just very intentional with his work and his ethic.”
Banks could tell how much Raiola repeats the little things each day.
“I bet he’s repped it a lot. A lot more than most my age.”
Hype Train letting you off at your stop now.
But quotes are quotes and I give you quotes and those are the quotes.
We all know how important Saturday’s game is for the Husker men’s basketball team, but it should be a special day regardless.
The 1993-94 Big Eight Tournament championship team, including the squad’s coach Danny Nee, will be honored on alumni weekend as the current Nebraska team tries to end a two-game losing skid and beat a stout Northwestern squad (1:15 tip time on BTN and the Husker Radio Network) in the process.
I assume there will be many like me at PBA lifted by the wave of nostalgia in seeing Nee and that crew step on the court together again.
I was 13 years old and followed that particular Husker hoops team closely all year. A week before the tournament Nebraska outplayed Missouri in Columbia and lost 80-78 and I didn’t even have to look up the score because that’s how fresh that game still is in my mind. Eric Piatkowski had a 3-pointer that swirled around the hoop and out as time expired. “I thought it was goaltending on somebody,” said Missouri’s Melvin Booker of how close that shot was.
The Missouri win completed a 14-0 regular season in Big Eight play. But …. but!
Those following the Husker team might have suspected something big was about to happen in Kansas City the following week. The NU squad had won three in a row prior to almost taking out Missouri in its home arena. Piatkowski was on fire. Guys knew their roles.
It felt like one of those conference tournament weekends where the team needed maybe one win to lock up an NCAA Tournament bid without sweating it out, though. As Kent Pavelka would say, “Got it!”
Nebraska obliterated Oklahoma 105-88 in the quarterfinals at Kemper Arena. And then, leaving no doubt as to its belonging in the NCAA Tournament, Nebraska outplayed Missouri again and this time got the win 98-91 on a Saturday afternoon.
Honestly, it would have been more surprising to this then young onlooker if they lost in the championship game to Oklahoma State and Bryant “Big Country” Reeves. (It’s still sweet whenever I see a Big Country Vancouver Grizzlies jersey, by the way).
Danny’s boys owned the game, 77-68, and Husker fans made themselves known in a way we didn’t get to see a lot at those Big Eight Tournaments.
I’m not going to lie. That team, which earned a No. 6 seed in the Big Dance after that weekend of work, getting knocked off 90-80 to a tough Penn squad in the first round was maybe the biggest disappointment of my Husker hoops watching youth. It’s because they were as hot as any Nebraska team I’ve seen to end a season and it was easy to believe if they played as they had in KC the Huskers would win at least a couple games in the NCAA Tournament.
Not the weekend for spending many words on what didn’t happen, though. What did still stands tall and will have the faithful standing when recognized on Saturday.
Husker head coach Fred Hoiberg said there would be a dinner and a chance to hear Nee speak on Friday.
“So we probably won’t get out of there until about midnight when you open up the floor for him,” Hoiberg joked.
On a serious note, Hoiberg has had the chance to talk with Nee at various times throughout this weekend, and in fact was recruited hard by the former Husker coach before Hoiberg started to stay home at Iowa State.
“He’s meant a lot to this program. Some of the best seasons obviously in the history of the program,” Hoiberg said. “He’s going to get a great ovation. He deserves it.”
