Dixon Gone, Cooper Arrives

The big news on the opening day of practice was the announcement that Kevin Dixon, an experienced defensive tackle who was going to supply key depth to the line, was booted from the team. Two arrests, both of which ultimately ended up getting dismissed, seem to be the reason, though only those on the team know if there was more to the story or not. Is there more than meets the eye, or is Pelini simply making a statement that trouble, whether later dismissed or not, would not be tolerated? Either way, it hurts to lose a solid contributor like Dixon on the first day of camp. But what Bo says, goes.

The other development was Khiry Cooper's arrival to the team. Cooper, a wide receiver recruit who has been mulling over playing for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim or whatever they call themselves, reported yesterday and seems content to play football until August 15th, which is the deadline for him to be signed. Good for him that he's coming to camp no matter what. If he signs, he signs, but if not, it'll be to his advantage to be playing and learning the offense in the meantime.

Quote of the Day, Practice 1
Pelini on the common factors between his former championship teams
“Effort and attitude and a willingness to learn and an eagerness to understand not just what to do, but how to do it and why. A lot of getting turnovers is getting the right people at the right places at the right time and getting there with an attitude and a tremendous amount of effort. Getting a lot of people around the ball so you can take advantage of opportunities. We don’t talk about turnovers, we talk about takeaways – to have an attitude to go take the ball from the offense. That’s something that will always continue as long as I’m associated with this football team.”

Attitude. Effort. Takeaways. Think that it sounds a bit better than what we've seen the past few years from KC's units? I can't wait to see these guys play........one other interesting tidbit from the media circus yesterday: Larry Asante's goal for interceptions this year: 15.........by himself!

"We've been talking about it long enough. Let's get after it now."

And with that, Carl Pelini spoke the mindset of not only a team but an entire state. Though it has seemingly passed in the blink of an eye, the past 7 months have dragged by, a monotonous stream of slow summer news, everyone waiting counting the days until fall camp started. Well, the wait is over. All over the country, fans are shaking off the cobwebs in giddy anticipation of another season of college football. So many questions surround the upcoming season, not only for our Huskers but for teams nationwide.

Will our defensive back seven be ready to return the defense to Blackshirt status (or at least a level above mediocre?) How many touches will Roy Helu and Q take from Lucky? Will the Big 10 continue it's slide down the conference rankings, or are they already so lowly regarded that nobody cares? How will Pelini and Company do in recruiting with a full season of campus visits to work with? Does Chase Daniel have enough goobers in his nose to feed him for the duration of the season? And will Jimmy Clausen finally come out of the closet? So many things to think about, it boggles the mind...but in a good way. The Huskers, 8 years removed since their last CONFERENCE title, are beginning yet another "new era", and while we're all drinking the Kool-Aid, I think this flavor is going to leave a much more satisfying taste than the last one we had, which might as well have been named "Callahan-sucks-berrymuch". Or it could have been "Cool Cosgrove Collapse". And yea, both of those are reaches. But I couldn't think of a flavor that was funny without having to resort to profanity. But just think, with Pelini in charge, at least we can go with "BO-dacious Berryfying Blast" and other things like that. See, it's not just coaching he's a better fit for.

But as excited as we all are, it comes with the realization that only thing going on today and for the next four weeks is practice, which we will breathlessly dissect and analyze, only to begin anew once actual games start. Really, the only thing we can hope for is the rapid development of the younger guys, as well as the good Lord having mercy on our secondary and sparing their knees/patellas/etc; from any harm. That and that no renegade TV sets attack any femurs.

I'm going to make it my personal goal to do daily postings throughout camp (with this week being an exception, as I'll be punishing my liver from Wednesday through Sunday at the country music festival WeFest in Northern Minnesota). I've been somewhat (OK, extremely) lazy this summer when it comes to writing here, and I want to change that. Part of it is that we are woefully understaffed at work (taking away a lot of my writing time), and part of it stemmed from the fact that thanks to Pelini ratcheting up the discipline, there was relatively little in the way of off-the-field incidents, the hallmark of summer college football news. But those days are over now. Nationwide, there is a bevy of topics to discuss, whether it Tim Brewster getting paid 1 million dollars per win in Minnesota or Texas Tech making another futile attempt to overtake the Big 12 South (more on both of those in a later post). I have several topics I plan on writing about, but in the interest of better involving the 4 or 5 people who commonly read this column, I do accept ideas for topics......so if you want me to write about/make fun of any topic pertaining to college football, feel free to drop me a line at cfballer58@yahoo.com, I'd love to hear some potential ideas to make fall camp pass faster.

Either way, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, yet another season of God's greatest game is upon us, and nationwide everyone's day is a bit brighter with the knowledge that in a matter of weeks, the beer will flow, the brats will cook, and the slightest of fall breezes will again stir the hearts and hopes of college football fans nationwide. Maybe, just maybe, this is our year.......

Just some Independence Day Thoughts

So I hope everyone's Independence Day celebrations went off with less police interference and more drunkenness than mine did. I say Independence Day because I think it's important to remember the true significance of the holiday, rather than just calling it the 4th of July and shooting off some fireworks. Maybe it's the history degree I earned, but I've always found the revolution and the formation of the United States to be one of the most interesting and history-altering events in the history of mankind, and I think that more people should think about the sacrifices (and gargantuan balls) it took to give the English the middle finger and decide we could do it our own way without their interference. Plus, we really just didn't want to pay taxes when we weren't being represented. But over 230 years later, here we are, the great melting pot experiment, chugging along (albeit with a faltering economy and a lack of a true national identity). But enough about that. Hope it was a good time for all of you, and hopefully your liver is in better shape than mine.

My holiday was marred by one cop and his day-altering decision to be a dick and not only give minors to kids with a BAC of .005, but take our six cases of beer and several bottles at 2:00 in the afternoon. Now, I understand that they don't want minors drinking. So fine, give them the ticket (even though that's about one sip of beer). But to take 15 people's alcohol supply on a sunny holiday? That's just un-American and a douche-tastic move of epic proportions. The other 3 boat cops with him were all apologizing to us quietly on the side, all the while the prohibition officer who apparently stole the Delorean and came to ruin our party was confiscating a couple hundred bucks worth of our beer. We even offered to pour all of it out right in front of them, but we know that wasn't an option, because it was pretty apparent that Turd Sandwich and his buddies were planning to dispose of it in their own mouths. I'd rather have seen all that golden brew be dumped into the lake than in the hands of a power-hungry jackass with a power trip that was obviously compensating for his low IQ and feelings of penile inadequacy. But hey, maybe I'm just bitter.

Other than that, I still had a good weekend. Any weekend you can spend in the company of good friends with a beer in hand is one to be cherished, because it's stuff like that that gets you through your weeks at work where you wonder why you keep plugging away with no end in sight. Life is about memories, and while there was one bad one this weekend, I made others that more than make up for it. Hope everyone had a good one, and (this never fails to sound cheesy, but I really do mean it when I write it) God Bless America.

Summer Update

Wow, there isn't much to write on here in the summer months, what with coach Pelini cracking down on the drunken shenanigans of our players. That's a good thing of course, as nobody likes to see anyone missing time because of spending time in the police blotter.....On the other hand, that leaves me with next-to-nothing to write about, whereas last year we had the Mo saga to talk about. So you're probably wondering what exciting escapades have been happening with me......No? Well tough sh*t, because I gotta write about something, and dammit you're going to have to suck it up and read it.

First off, summer actually only started about two days ago when we finally broke through the 70-degrees-and-breezy mark. Don't get me wrong, I usually love that weather. Plus, I'm sure there's people in Iowa and Illinois that would kill for it over the flooding they have been dealing with (more on that later).But it's really not conducive to fun boating trips, and it sure as hell doesn't heat up our lakes. We are finally hitting 80+ the next five days, and with it has come the patented Minnesota humidity, capable of killing small children, animals, and drunks who don't properly hydrate. Thus far, it's been the usual bar hopping and working, so it's been a lackluster summer. Next weekend I head down to my farm in Western Iowa to hang out with some family and pick up my brother, who is working there this week. Most people wouldn't get excited about a trip to Iowa, but you'd be surprised how much fun townie bars can be (something city folk will never understand), particularly when you run into people you haven't seen in five or six years.

I was excited to see Kevin Garnett and the Celtics win the title, like pretty much every other Minnesota resident. In doing so, the C's proved my previous post about Kobe Bryant, as he was for the most part ineffective for the entire series (he only had one good game), and they completely shut down his penetration (though someone telling him no hasn't stopped before, hey-oh!). All jokes aside, it was a fun series to watch, with several historic comebacks and a complete annihilation to clinch it. Unfortunately, with the end of basketball season, it means all we really have to do the next two months till camp and the Olympics start is watch baseball.......yeah, baseball.......ugh...

Getting back to the floods in Iowa, I just wanted to say that it's difficult to watch the suffering taking place in America's heartland. I lived in Iowa during the flood of '93, and I can vividly remember that you wanted to, you could have jet-skied from town to town, the valley was flooded that bad. So when I hear that this one is even worse, I can't help but feel sick for the farmers and townsfolk of those communities along the Mississippi. What is truly terrifying is that there appears to be no lull in the immediate future, as more rain and storms are forecast throughout the summer, and as bad as that is for Iowa, it spells trouble for Missouri and other states as well. Factor this disaster with our already-troubled economy, and it's looking like a tough year for a lot of people. My prayers go out to all of those affected, as corny as that sounds.

Hope everyone else's summer is going well. Hopefully nobody on the team will give me any reason to get on here again any time soon. After all, no news is good news, even if it makes for a slow and boring summer. GBR

Indy recap & other thoughts

So I know I promised that I'd try to take some pictures at Indy to give you guys an idea of what goes on there, but I didn't take a single photo the entire weekend. Not that it mattered, there wasn't much that would have stood out anyways, we were all too intoxicated to really walk around, and despite the large crowd on Sunday, it was somewhat quiet on the streets the night before. There were a few highlights though. My brother's friend tagged along for the trip, and in a drunken state, tried to hit on a fine-looking girl Saturday night, which led to this exchange:

Ben: "Hey, how's it going?"

Girl: "No!"

You know your prospects aren't good when a girl doesn't even let you make a pitch before shooting you down. How do you come back on that? "Wait, you haven't even heard my line yet, it's a good one!" Ben responded by just walking away dumbfounded, which made it even more classic.

As I predicted, Danica didn't win. And I don't think she ever will there, despite being on one of the best teams in the sport. What made it even funnier is that ALL THREE women in the race wrecked. But I wasn't surprised, that happens pretty much every year.

Some other thoughts:

-Sam Keller in the Arena League? Did these guys watch any of our games last year? The last thing you want in that game is a QB who stands in the pocket for 15 seconds, waiting for someone to get open when he should have thrown it after three steps....I just remember him getting hit as he threw nearly every time last year, and unfortunately for him, in the AFL, there's not going to be a tailback to check down to after every other option is closed off. He's going to get hit. A lot. What makes it almost comical is that on the article (like every other article ever written about him in the post-ASU era) is that it brings up his big game against LSU and his Sun Bowl MVP game against Purdue. At what point do people realize that those games were aberrations, not something you should count on? Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for his effort at NU, and I wish him nothing but the best of luck, but let's face it, he's not a great QB, particularly for a league that is predicated on getting rid of the ball in less than 2 seconds.

-Typical Minnesota: We get one perfectly sunny day (yesterday, on Sunday), followed by a week with rain forecast for every f***ing day. I know it gets old, me bitching about it, but seriously, I'll ask again: Why does anyone live here?

-Lakers vs. Celtics is going to be the first Finals that I will watch in it's entirety since.....well, probably the mid-90's.....I say Lakers in 6, though I'm hoping that I'm wrong, since I'm hoping for KG to get a ring. I will admit though, it is fascinating to watch Kobe Bryant now. He's playing near a level that Jordan was back in the early-to-mid 90's. I know that's borderline sacrilegious to say, given Jordan's stature in the game, but Kobe does what he wants, when he wants, just like MJ used to do. He can bring his team back from 20 point deficits by himself, or do it by dropping 10 or 12 assists if he needs to. He makes his teammates better, but at the same time knows instinctively when he needs to just put them on his back and carry them. He's a lot of fun to watch, and on the plus side, he somehow seems more likable now that he dropped that perfect McDonald's posterboy image that he used to have. I don't know how that makes sense, but it seems the more real and asshole-ish he is, the easier it is to admire his skill as a player. He used to be kind of fake in his early days, and now he's just being himself it seems. And he, and the Lakers, are better off because of it.

Let me make it clear: I'm not saying Kobe is as good as MJ. I'm saying that there are spurts where he plays like him.

-Fall camp can't get here soon enough. I need college football back, and soon.

Memorial Day Weekend Potpurri

Memorial day weekend is a special time of year for me. In addition to an important and overlooked holiday (more on that at the end), this weekend also is when all the men in my family pile into an RV and head for Indianapolis, where we take in the Indy 500 and all the drunken festivities that come with it. I'll be honest, the race is pretty damn boring. I mean, for all the hoopla, it's cars driving in circles. But you don't go for just the race, you go for the spectacle of it all, the pomp and circumstance, the EVENT. It's not a race, it's a three-day tailgate with 300,000 other people.

The highlight is Saturday night, when everyone has officially gotten into town and you take to the streets with your coolers of beer and let the night take you where it may. You see your fair share of not-in-their-prime boobs, and drink way more than your fair share of Coors Light, but maybe that's what makes the aforementioned breast-eses even passable. Either way, it makes for a great weekend trip, and it's one that I have failed to adequately capture on film during my previous 16 trips. That is something I plan on remedying this year, and I'll try my best to properly document the fun and post it on webshots so those of you who read the blog can look at them and get an idea of what I am talking about.

Some thoughts on various topics before I get out of here:

-Danica Patrick is not going to win the Indy 500. I even made a sign saying she can't, which I will bring to the race with me. Yea, she won the race in Japan, but that was mainly due to the fact that the three or four guys in front of her had to pit on the last 5 laps. I still don't think she can win a race of this magnitude, despite the media's infatuation with her. I'm not sexist, I just think it's unfair that the better drivers on the circuit don't get the respect they deserve. Of course, if she does win, I'll be showered in beer and food as I try to run out of the track with my anti-Danica sign........so for my sake, she HAS to lose.

- So when I was running the other day at the health club, NFL Live came on. At first, I was psyched......"Oh, good, there's going to be some football stuff on, that'll make this run tolerable at least"........but for the next half hour, all I got was analysis of Jason Taylor and Bill Parcells' relationship (which was supplemented by heavy doses of "highlights" of Taylor's run on Dancing with the Stars), followed by more Spygate news......which brings me to my next question: At what point do we just come to the conclusion that maybe we don't need an NFL show in May? If this is all they have to talk about, isn't it time to call it off until fall camp? I watch NFL Live to hear about actual news, not see some giant doing the tango while his relationship with the front office is discussed. Totally pointless, and unfortunately, NFL coverage is only going to become more and more saturated with crap like this. People have an insatiable appetite for any football news, but can't we agree that this doesn't qualify?

-I wish someone at the 'ol Alma Mater had sat me down and really explained to me just how utterly useless a history degree is. I mean, I knew it wasn't the most attractive BA, but I had no idea that it literally had no applicable use in the work force....unless of course, you want to sell insurance.....to be completely honest, I'd like to wipe my ass with it and mail it back to them. So I am presently looking at either grad school or an officer program with the Marines....if anybody has any suggestions, feel free to let me know.

- You know what is one of my favorite parts of the spring and summer in the Midwest? The annual tradition of the DOT blocking off entire roads...........and then not doing anything to them. It's especially fun when they funnel it down to one lane, and then you look at all those closed-down lanes with absolutely no construction being done. Right now, in my own neighborhood, they've completely gutted nearly ever road, only to leave them that way. I don't mind driving on gravel, but it's especially frustrating when I have to follow all these city folk who drive about 5 miles an hour because they don't want the rocks to scratch their 1992 Dodge Stratus.

- Listening to the radio all day, I am often subjected to some really crap-tastic fare that today's youth considers music. Lately it has become somewhat of a passion of mine to try and spread music such as Creedence, Zepplin, and Skynyrd to my friends and those younger than me. Sure enough, most everyone that hears it and gives them a chance is converted, and one by one, we'll show the younger generation what real music is. Because you know what it isn't? Talentless, studio-manufactured skidmarks like T-Pain (if you're over 30, just look him up on YouTube. You'll see why you should be concerned about what your kids call music). And I'm not capping on the entire rap or hip-hop genre. Some artists still put out real quality stuff (Kanye, T.I.), but now there are so many dime-a-dozen pieces of s*it like Soulja Boy that it sickens me. If you try to explain to an 18 year-old how good someone like Dr. Dre or Tupac was, they just stare at you blankly. I don't understand how you can claim to be a fan of something and not understand it's beginnings and best artists. It'd be like saying you're a basketball fan without having watched Jordan.

The last thing I wanted to say before I sign off for the weekend: Thank a veteran. They deserve both our respect and thanks for the sacrifices they made to make this country great. I'm not going to make some long impassioned plea. Just do the right thing, and say thanks.

Potpourri

Well, now that we've settled into the dead period between spring ball and fall camp (also known as "pray there are no arrests or freak TV moving injuries" time), it's gotten pretty quiet around the Husker blogosphere. For those of you desperate for continued Husker coverage, I suggest clicking on the other blog links to the right, as you'll find that unlike me, many other Husker blogs continue to crank out quality stuff. DXP continues to impress with it's statistical analysis, as well as their new project of naming the best Huskers in history for every uniform number. I would have love to have done that, but unfortunately, my memory only goes back about 14 years, so with the exception of the role players of the early-to-mid 90's and the obvious stars, I don't think my list would have been nearly as good as theirs.

A few things I wanted to weigh in on:

-The whole Eight Belles Kentucky Derby saga. Look, I don't deny that it's unfortunate. It's too bad to lose such a beautiful animal, and I have no doubt that the trainer cared about it much like I do my dog. But as for the whole outcry from PETA and others? Hey, it's a f**king horse, OK? Can we please try to remind ourselves of that? There are 100,000 people likely dead in Myanmar, there are probably 50,000 more in China because of the recent earthquake, and these people are bitching because a horse broke it's ankles and had to get sent to the glue factory? There are bigger issues going on in the world right now, how 'bout we focus on that? The same sh*t happened with Barbaro a couple of years ago, and we had to sit there and watch while Sportscenter devoted hours of coverage to the doomed horse's attempted recovery, before it finally succumbed and had to be put down, all while there were more relevant and real sports that could have been talked about. Surely I can't be the only one who thinks that PETA needs to stop bitching and moaning about it, right?

- Spygate is over, OK? They cheated, they got caught, fined, and embarrassed. Despite the scrutiny, they nearly had a perfect season, which would have been great, because then we never would have to hear about the '72 Dolphins every time someone started the season 5-0 again. Either way, to hear Specter call for an independent investigation is ridiculous. The guy needs to find some real problems he could work towards solving. As Ted Kennedy (someone I loathe usually) said to the Boston Globe :

"With the war in Iraq raging on, gasoline prices closing in on $4 a gallon, and Americans losing their homes at record rates to foreclosure, the United States Senate should be focusing on the real problems that Americans are struggling with."

Damn straight. I'm so sick of hearing about this, it even surpasses the Eight Belles thing. I'm tired of watching NFL Live devote an entire half-hour every day to Matt Walsh (who is really just an attention whore, if you ask me) and Spygate when they could be talking about position battles and personnel decisions throughout the league. You know, football stuff. Let's just let this thing die so we can stop talking about it for the first time in 9 months.

-If you like the Spurs, you apparently support soccer on hardwood. Every time I see these d-bags flop whenever someone breathes on them, it sickens me to think that these guys are so respected by the public as a team who "plays the right way". Really? Tim Duncan whines more than my 6 year-old cousin, and if I have to see that bug-eye look with his arms up in frustration every time he thinks he's fouled (which apparently every time someone someone comes within 5 feet), I'm going to vomit. I really, REALLY hate the Spurs. If I played for the Hornets, I'd lower my shoulder and give them a real reason to fall down. If they are going to fake it every time, why not make it real and earn my foul?
-----One more note about this series: If you haven't watched Chris Paul this postseason, you are missing out. Best point guard I've ever watched. I'm serious when I say that I think I could average 10 points a game in the NBA if I played with him. He's that damn good.

-Can NOBODY in the state of Minnesota drive? I can't adequately describe how irritating it is when people tailgate and then blow by me when I'm already going 10 miles over the speed limit. What makes it even more hilarious is when they slingshot around me, cutting me off to gain ONE F**KING CAR SPACE on me. Really, what did that save you on your commute, 4 seconds? At what point do these assholes realize that even if you drive like a complete douchebag, you're probably only going to get to work approximately 2 minutes before I do?

-Not surprised at all by the O.J. Mayo situation. Hell, if there was a way I could have wagered on him taking money before the college basketball season started, I would have.

Back nest week with some more Potpourri, as well as preview of the Indy 500, which I go to every year.