Spring Game Diary

Hello Husker nation, we're coming to you from my house, for the re-do of the Spring Game running diary. Last time it didnt work so well, but now that I get to see the whole thing and actually hear the commentary, it should be better.

GREAT opening sequence. They did the whole tradition-resurgence thing with a bunch of old clips, good stuff. We're welcomed to the telecast by a;lsdkf and former Husker wideout Matt Davidson, who looks way too much like Doogie Howser for me to take him seriously.

1st Quarter

14:50--Grixby gets NAILED.......is it bad that I took waaaaay too much satisfaction in that?

The announcing team just used the word "vanilla" about 78 times to describe the types of packages we'll see today. So just so your sure, expect some vanilla plays today.

Just saw one of the coaches wearing one of those letterman-style jackets on the sideline. Those look sweet, but doesn't it just seem like it'd be way too official looking for a casual fan to wear? Like, hey do you play for Nebraska? Oh, you just spent 300 on that jacket? OK, just making sure.

13:45-- And just like, that Murtha goes down with what is an apparent knee injury. Thanks to the fact that I'm watching this the day after it happened, we know the injured appendage is his ankle.

13:19--Keller to Mo Purify for about 20. I was initially worried about Mo when I heard he went all Kristi Alley on us and gained a bunch of weight, but he looks good today.

That is the best we could do for cheerleaders? They just panned by them, and I can't say I'm impressed........maybe they can do the splits really good or something.....

12:30/12:15--Thenarse shows a great deal of aggression flying up and making two consecutive tackles. Compare that to Shanle, who probably would have been standing 20 yards back with this thumb up his ass.

11:14--TOUCHDOWN NEBRASKA, nice little crossing route over the middle. They had Peterson go on a little three yard out route, and that froze the linebacker to spring Nunn free. All around good times.

I cant forgive Keller for wearing that ridiculous read headband. He looks like Jimmy Clausen with that thing. And as some of you may know, I'm not a big fan of Jimmy Clausen.

11:10--Franz Hardy takes the kickoff and gets about 12 yards. For a guy as fast as him, you'd think you'd hear more, but after his monster KU game last year we didn't get much more from him.

11:00--And now Beau Davis comes out to lead the backups. His first pass looks great if you look past the fact that it was overthrown and into double coverage.

Davidson just said that the defense would be running a vanilla, base package. We got it Matt, thanks.

10:45--The give to Culbert nets five yards. I'm excited to see what he can do, although I wouldn't have minded seeing him at safety either. Good athletes are a plus no matter where they are.

10:30-- Suh gets instant penetration and whips Culbert to the ground. This guy is gonna kill people. Hopefully Potter can step up his game as well.

9:20-- I looked up to see a ball falling straight to the ground. I thought I had missed a punt, but it turns out it was just one of Davis' passes. I get the feeling he isnt going to be getting much playing time this year.

9:08-- Ganz complete to Glenn in the flats for what looks to be seven yards, until he carries three guys an additional seven. I miss seeing bulldozing running backs, hopefully he gets some rest so his foot finally has the chance to heal up.

8:00--Swift shows hands of stone on a drop. I am huge Swift backer, but apparently he hasn't been doing too well in spring ball. According to our announcers, that still counts as a completion somehow because of spring game rules.......which I think makes about as much sense as a velvet painting of a whale and dolphin gettin it on. Hope you enjoyed the Talledega Nights reference.

7:45--Johnson snuffs out an attempted screen pass right away. Nice read by him noticing that he got through the line just a liiiitle too easily.


7:00-- Glenn shows some nice open field moves, and then bounces off three potential tacklers before running out of bounds for a seven yard gain. I for one am hoping that we get to hear another Texas A&M "Lets fucking go!" quote from him today.

6:30--Ganz to Glenn in the flats, has to be taken down by three guys. This is fun. Put this guy in when we are five yards away, there's no way we're not scoring.

4:50--TOUCHDOWN NEBRASKA, Ganz gets in on a ten yard scramble after he ran out of passing options. He even does the Playstation-esque dive for the pylon. It looks like he's trying to set up a celebration, but the cameras mercifully cut away. Nice play and all, but does it ever cross his mind that if he wasn't wearing that green jersey, he might not have made it? Just thought I'd throw it out there.

Does it irritate anybody else that IBM keeps showing these "special" commercials with their growing red box but never show us what the hell is under there?

The question is, what moves you? That's the NFL commercial they just showed. Did they think about the fact that if people were up moving around, they might not be watching their games? You know what moves me? A beer. Back in a few.....

Ganz and Keller have identical passing numbers thus far........So much for someone taking a lead in that QB battle.

3:15--Incomplete pass intended for Hardy. Ruud is slow to make a move on the ball and fails to even get a hand on it. That should have been an interception for sure. I dont know if he just didnt get the read or if he is that slow. I'm going to go with the latter. Everyone in the stadium saw where the ball was going right away, but Ruud didn't from ten yards away?

3:00--Keller pumps right, throws left and completes it to Peterson for a big gain. Nice job floating it over the backer, and nice adjustment by Petersen to slow up a bit and wait for it. And Swift just LEVELED Koehler on a downfield block. It's even better in slow motion. I love seeing recievers blindside guys, although being on the recieving side sucks, which Koehler can attest to considering he's lying on the ground injured. That block actually took out both Koehler and Thenarse.

Nice little Keller clip of his ASU days.....even a Keller-Koetter embrace at the end of it.....I'm sure that's probly pretty similar to what happened when Carpenter got the starting job. Nice little hug.

3:30--Lucky shows some nice open field moves in getting a 23 yard gain down to the four, then punches it in on the following play. He's looking like the feature back we've all been hoping for. Then again, this isn't USC we're playing against.

3:00--Murtha and Keller are chumming it up on the sidelines.....as the announcer points out, it's always good to see the QB getting involved with guys on the sidelines, even if he's wearing a red headband that makes him look like a tool. Seriously, if you wanna look like a moron, why not just go all the way and get a skull cap?

1:38--Davis leaves some white receiver hanging out to dry, and is promptly nailed by Bryan Wilson. The reciever looks like your prototype white receiver, meaning he's slow and doesnt have much of a vertical. A good indicator that he's a backup: he doesnt even have his name on the back of his jersey. That said, Nebraska has a bevy of talented white wideouts. Swift, Peterson...........ok, I guess it isnt a bevy. Why are we throwing passes to this kid instead of Will Henry?

1:26--Sure enough, the next play's pass is intended for Henry. Oft-maligned Andre Jones gets the interception on a tipped ball equaling his total from the last year's entire season. What bothers me is that Henry was busy looking for a flag when the ball was still in the air. Wait for the whistle kid.

1:18--Ganz completes a 28 yard gain to Swifty. Nice job by Swift going up and getting the ball and at the same time shielding the defender from it with his body. That's always a skill that seems to be underrated when it comes to recievers. I think if Ganz was really on the ball, he woulda looked even more outside and seen Nunn with a couple of steps and a for-sure touchdown. Then again, I'm not sure that Ganz has the arm for that throw.

Davidson just mentioned that we were 58th in turnover margin last year. You gotta be in the top 25 in that category to really be a contender in my opinion.

0:37--Ganz complete to Swift for a touchdown over the middle. The linebackers had vacated the area going after the slot recievers. Might not be a lot of style to this offense at times, but you can't argue when it puts points on the board. Hopefully it works against USC like it works against guys who don't even get names on the back of their jerseys, which is the case with the Husker backups. Ganz just celebrated by doing the now-infamous macarena dance, which would have been pretty stylish if it was 1995.......wait, nevermind it's horrible no matter what year it's done in.

:22-- Just had an uncomfortably long closeup of an ugly gap-toothed 8 year old. Am I an asshole for saying a kid is ugly? Maybe. But maybe the NFL should try to find better looking people to zoom in on. It's like they are trying to give our entire fanbase a bad rep.

Clayton Sievers closes the quarter with a sack of Witt, and its 28-0 with the starters in the lead. Considering that we know the final score is 38-0, I'm predicting it's going to be a quiet three quarters

The NFL's obligatory "NFL United Way Man of the Year" commercial, showing the guys building houses and reading to kids.......I didn't see the clip of Pacman Jones giving strippers a college education by making it rain....isn't that a contribution of some kind?

14:40--Witt rifles one over the middle for a 10 yard gain. That kid has a cannon. He should replace the "N" eyestrips with ones with his area code on it. I've always wanted some western Iowa kid to do this. "Yea, I'm 'reppin Soldier, Iowa baby, 712!"

Callahan has joined the booth, which would be interesting to hear but unfortunately the audio keeps going in and out.

13:40-- I dont know who it was, but the return man just did the fair catch, got scared by oncoming defenders, and then let it bounce another 30 yards. This killed us last year against Texas when Nunn did the same thing and let the ball go down to the one. Our special teams coach better get these guys to pull their heads out of their asses.

Callahan: "We'll see what they can do now with their backs against the wall a bit." Hey Bill, I have an idea. Find a guy who can consistently catch a punt and we wouldnt have to worry about it.

12:43--Keller completes to Peterson for a 20 yard gain. Nice velocity on that throw. He's not allowing any safetys to break on any floating throws, which is something I worried about with Taylor the past couple years. That was a laser beam.

11:30--Sketchy throw by Keller but a GREAT catch by Purify. Slightly underthrown, Mo stops, jumps in front of Murillo, and down to the 1.

Bill tells us that Keller was the scout team player of the year. Really? Dear God I hope so, if the guy is going to be our starting QB he better be pretty good on the scout team.

10:45--Thenarse tackles Glenn in the backfield for a six yard loss. Where is Asante? I want to see that guy getting in there.

10:30--Touchdown Cody Glenn, followed by a really lame scripted touchdown celebration that was partly ripped off from Terrell Owens. If your going to take the time to put together a celebration, at least have it be good. He didn't even use any profanity. What a shame. What's funny is that Glenn and the other black guys didn't do a bad job, but then Peterson got into it and did the white guy "I'm a dorky white guy" fake camera pose, which registered a solid 85 on Bill Simmon's Unintentional Comedy Scale.

In other good news, it looks like USC is getting Mitch Mustain from Arkansas after he had a falling-out with Nutt........as if the Trojans didn't have enough options.

The difference between division 1 football and D3 football (which I played): when we ran stretch on offense, it was simply "stretch left". When NU runs it, it is a 17 phrase sentence. Wow.

Right now Callahan is running us through some plays and terminology, which is actually a lot of fun. His last play took about two minutes to set up. The problem is that it took about 5 seconds to fall to pieces thanks to the fact that Beau Davis is playing QB.

Callahan: "zebra personnel....play 52....this is what we call 200 jet lion.....this is double slants on both sides..."

And that was the most simple one I heard him say the entire time.

What is really fun is that they have a split-screen thing going right now showing the booth and the field, and the guy to the right of Callahan (not Davidson) looks as confused as I do after 19 beers and somebody is trying to explain Christian theology to me. (That's how I prepared for the test by the way)

Really not a lot going on in the game right now other than Lucky breaking off 6 yard gain after 6 yard gain.

Callahan tips us off that they are gonna try to hold the linebacker on this next passing play....and it works to perfection!.....except Ganz throws it a bit too high, and to *gasp* everyone's surprise, Nunn drops it. That was six points right there...as long as Nunn doesnt do it against Texas.....

A seemingly terrified Greg Sharpe (who is the announcer opposite Davidson) chips in with his first comment in 20 minutes: "Um, Nunn seems to have the ability to go vertical." Thanks for being here Greg, let me know if you ever announce a real game that doesnt involve a MAC team! He follows with this nugget (the Huskers are at 4th and 23): "This is a situation you never want to be in, haha!"......followed by a three second delay and the courteousy laugh by Callahan. That was painful.

4:31-- Ganz throws to the endzone, but doesnt put enough air under it and it's overthrown. I know they might have had similar numbers, but a starting QB has to make that throw. That is the second pass this drive that should have been six points that Ganz helped screw up.

3:40-- Ganz somewhat redeems himself with a nicely placed throw to the endzone, down and away from the defender. Almost was a touchdown, but then again, almost doesn't count.



Now they've got the NFL commercial where the Bears fan and Vikings fan go against each other to see who can have the most pointless crap in their yard. Let me say this.......if your 45 years old and you have an officially licensed couch of your favorite team, my guess is you probably dont have a wife and kids like these guys do. I love the Huskers, and I have a ton of crap with the logo on it, but a couch? Really? Do they give awards for biggest loser at these guy's annual fantasy draft?

3:30-- The network completely makes up for the earlier ugly kid by showing a cute toddler in a Husker hat. Awwwww.

3:15-- Sharpe says that Watson thinks Witt is going to be "really good." This is what announcers talk about during a 38-0 ass kicking where there is no competition.

2:22--Davidson asks, "How can Nebraska beat those big time teams, the USCs, the Texas, Auburn, that type of opponent?" He talks about special teams. And that did play a small factor in the Texas game. But if I were him I might suggest recruiting defensive backs who can cover somebody. That seemed to be a slam dunk that Matt just missed there.

I understand why they made this into a recruiting event, but at what point does "having fun" become way too nonchalant? I want to see some competition, and this is just painful to watch. I've seen high school games between 1-8 teams that had more fire than this.

And with that, I'm going to call it a night and head out with my friends. Looking forward to some real games come September.