News archive -- HuskerMax™

N E W S A R C H I V E

This is where most formerly fresh links reside, reverse chronologically, after they get bumped from the main page. (Postgame coverage of a particular game goes onto the appropriate game page instead, although some items inevitably get double-posted here.)

The date labels below are in some cases inexact, but they are intended to indicate when items first appeared on the main page.

February 2012

01 WED

• The NCAA imposes two years' probation for NU's textbooks violation.

• Fans in California: CFN's Founders' Day dinner is coming soon.

• Andrus Peat picks Stanford, but defensive tackles Vincent Valentine and Aaron Curry and wide receiver/athlete Alonzo Moore opt for the Huskers.

• It's Feb. 1 – time to Vote for Rex and get your spring game tickets.

• What figures to be an eventful signing day for Nebraska has arrived, with plenty riding on several players' announcements. More: Why it matters | The Cotton clan | Avery Moss’ persuader

January 2012

31 TUE

• Nebraska's chances of signing cornerbacks Devian Shelton and/or Raymond Ford appear to have taken a hit. | Announcement schedule

• Recruiting can inspire spontaneous tactics, some of which actually work.

• Greg McMullen said no to the Buckeyes early on and hasn't wavered.

• Check out the LJS's and OWH's recruit profiles. | Stars who got away

30 MON

• The Miami Dolphins hire former Husker Zac Taylor as an assistant coach.

• Ndamukong Suh discusses his reputation & Matt Slauson's allegation.

• Here are more details about spring game tickets, available Wednesday.

• Jimmy Williams, former Nebraka walk-on, All American and assistant coach, has joined the staff at Alabama Birmingham.

• Dirk Chatelain ranks a decade's worth of Husker recruiting classes.

• Tommie Frazier's latest Xs & Os looks at Nebraska recruiting and his own experience 20 years ago, when his early favorite was Colorado.

• The conference change is one reason Nebraska is loading up on linebackers. | More on Peat

• Will Shields is "Dad" to not one but two future college hoops players.

29 SUN

• New Jersey quarterback/athlete Devin Fuller commits to UCLA.

• Future Huskers Tommy Armstrong and Michael Rose are no strangers to success – and the work it takes to achieve it. | Key meeting

• This week in Husker history: Wyoming finally releases Devaney, two Huskers gain Hall of Fame status, Tommie Frazier commits, and the 1971 Huskers visit D.C. – and become part of the Nixon White House tapes. Details here.

• Brandon Reilly is part of a highly regarded walk-on class for the Huskers.

28 SAT

• John Papuchis says the conference move affects recruiting in subtle ways. | Nebraska “special” to Westerkamp | Saturday roundup

• Husker Dan shares some random thoughts as signing day nears.

• Imani Cross followed his heart in committing to far-away Nebraska.

• The entry deadline is Feb. 1 for the Nebraska Classic golf tournament.

• Recruiting flashback: Tyrone Hughes witnessed Barry Switzer's moves.

27 FRI

• It's down to NU, Stanford and USC for Andrus Peat. | Lambert waits

• Dirk Chatelain dives deeper into NU's startling fumble numbers.

• Mild weather is helping the East Stadium expansion stay on schedule.

• Running back Imani Cross from Georgia commits to NU. | 2012 list

• At Indiana, former NU assistant Mike Ekeler changes his recruiting pitch.

26 THU

• A report says it was a sex-assault allegation, not the Yale-Harvard game, that derailed ex-Husker Patrick Witt's pursuit of a Rhodes scholarship.

• Rutgers coach Greg Schiano's unexpected move to the NFL could affect Nebraska's recruiting in the home stretch. | Discuss

• Spring game tickets will go on sale Wednesday at 8 a.m. CST.

• Rex Burkhead's good works have him up for a national award that you can help him win, starting next week.

• Bo Pelini and other Husker coaches go to Tempe again to make one final push for Andrus Peat. | Valentine's thoughts | Roundup

• A hip-flexor problem knocks Alfonzo Dennard out of the Senior Bowl.

25 WED

• Big Ten plays reviewed on replay were reversed a third of the time in 2011.

• With the NFL in his sights, Marcel Jones isn't about to take it easy.

• Randy York's take: Joe Paterno was a fair-minded man.

24 TUE

• The four-way battle for the signature of offensive tackle Andrus Peat is rated the nation's second-best recruiting fray. | Roundup

• NU football nutritionist Josh Hingst takes a job with the NFL's Jaguars.

• Condolences to family and friends of Jim Irwin, who has died at 77. The former Packers play-by-play man was recently interviewed by HuskerMax.

• Lavonte David appears to be off to a good start at Senior Bowl practices.

• Athlon Sports pegs Nebraska at No. 17 in its early rankings for 2012.

• Offensive tackle Corey Whitaker becomes the 13th known pledge to Nebraska's recruiting class of 2012. | Roundup | Bourque to visit

• Saturday's Legends Radio Show guests will be Neil Smith and Jack Pierce, the Huskers' chief off-campus recruiter from 1985 to 1992.

• Commitment isn't just a hollow word to linebacker recruit Michael Rose.

• Ndamukong Suh's old-school ways land him on ESPN's "Any Era" team.

23 MON

• NU gets its first 2013 commitment: Louisiana defensive back Tre'vell Dixon.

• All-state QB Ryker Fyfe of Grand Island opts to walk on at Nebraska.

• Tommie Frazier’s Xs & Os: Final thoughts on the 2011 season.

• More on the passing of Joe Paterno: The last emperor | Osborne reflects | Long history with NU | Collection of commentary | Chatelain

• LeRoy Alexander discusses his Nebraska commitment and says he has some work to do on his ACT score.

• Coach Roz calls on fans to demand more in terms of character.

22 SUN

• Joe Paterno dies at age 85 after a two-month fight with cancer. | Osborne's & Pelini's thoughts | Dodd commentary | 1950 in Lincoln

• This week in Husker history: One Hall of Fame coach replaces another, boosters pass the hat for Tom Osborne, Johnny Mitchell breaks precedent by bolting for the NFL, and more.

• Ohio athlete LeRoy Alexander becomes commitment No. 12 for 2012.

• Steve Sipple says the NU brand needs a boost after a difficult decade.

21 SAT

• Collins Okafor and Lester Ward won't return for their final season of eligibility after graduating in the spring. | 2012 roster

• Former Husker running backs coach Randy Jordan lands at his alma mater, North Carolina. | NU assistants

20 FRI

• Bo Pelini is part of a full-court press for Andrus Peat. More from the recruiting front: Rose the salesman | Weekend visitors | Walk-on list

• Phil Steele's tabulation of 2012 returning starters provides food for thought.

• Big Red Network analyzes spending on coaches and concludes that NU is well-placed among its Big Ten and national contemporaries.

• As signing day nears, SI.com's Andy Staples breaks down high-profile decommitments since 2007, a few involving NU.

• An offseason to-do list for each Big Ten team: Legends, Leaders

• John Papuchis gets a 50% raise with his move up to defensive coordinator.

19 THU

• Rex Burkhead makes ESPN.com's list of most-improved league players.

• Winter conditioning is a chance for players to improve their athleticism and for a new group of veterans to take ownership of the team.

• Saturday's Legends Radio Show guests: Ty Steinkuhler & Zack Bowman.

• A company led by former Huskers Kris Brown & Zach Wiegert is opening a dozen new Dunkin' Donuts restaurants in Omaha and Sioux City.

18 WED

• Roger Craig says there's nothing in all of football that compares to Nebraska's game-day atmosphere.

• Athlon handicaps the 2012 Big Ten races and has NU third in its division.

• The Omaha Sports Hall of Fame will induct Lyell Bremser in April.

• Recruiting tidbits from the OWH: Vincent Valentine and Ryker Fyfe

• Craig Bohl says a playoff system is a "significantly better" way.

• Four Huskers receive invitations to next month's NFL Combine.

17 TUE

• Former Husker Roger Craig says he isn't haunted by the fumble 21 years ago that might have cost him a fourth Super Bowl ring.

• Husker Dan presents a comparison of the first four years of the Pelini, Callahan, Solich, Osborne and Devaney eras.

• An Athletic Dept. video recaps the top moments from the 2011 season.

• Al Eveland is remembered for his love for the Huskers and fishing.

• NU is No. 14 in the pre-spring Top 25 of Sporting News' Matt Hayes.

• Shooter Auctions donates $1,300 to Husker Dan's Army & Husker Salute.

• Listen to Harvey Perlman's take on whether the momentum toward creating a playoff is reality of just talk. | Chatelain's rebuttal

• A look at why cornerback is so important in this recruiting class.

• Keoni Bush-Loo, a Hawaii tight end, will visit Lincoln later this month.

• The Novak brothers are proud of the two recipients of the trophy that bears their father's name, Mike Caputo & and Terrence Moore.

• Former Husker kicker Al Eveland dies at age 58 after battling cancer.

16 MON

• Carl Nicks makes the Pro Football Weekly/Professional Football Writers of America All-NFL team, and Roy Helu makes the All-Rookie squad.

• Tommie Frazier's latest Xs & Os takes a look at the loss in Orlando.

• NU is looking for a way to honor Frank Solich at Memorial Stadium.

• This week in Husker history: In 1972, Bob Devaney announced he'd coach just one more year, and he tapped Tom Osborne as his successor. But they aren't the only Hall of Fame coaches in the news as we look back in stretches of five to 75 years.

• From the recruiting trail: A junior quarterback, J.T Barrett, gets an NU offer, and three defensive backs comment on their weekend visits. | 2012 list

15 SUN

• A poor turnover margin – especially in big games – separates the Huskers from the nation's elite, Dirk Chatelain writes.

• Tom Osborne sees the "plus-one" as a possible minus for the players.

• The NCAA's Division I board of directors rejects scholarship cuts and delays action on $2,000-a-year athlete stipends.

• Southern Cal tops Sam McKewon's offseason Top 25.

14 SAT

• It might be NU's turn for a pregame acknowledgment from Carl Nicks.

• Despite its bowl ban, Ohio State will get its slice of Big Ten bowl money.

• Jared Crick sees the team as on the verge of major accomplishments. More notes & quotes from the Outland banquet: 1, 2

13 FRI

• Nebraska's Harvey Perlman and Jo Potuto are in the thick of things as the NCAA considers major changes at its meeting in Indianapolis.

• Michigan announces that Denard Robinson will return for his senior year.

• Tom Osborne doesn't think the new wave of uniform design suits NU well.

• Fifty years after Bob Devaney's arrival, Husker fans still demand the best.

• Mike Caputo has praise for his coaches as he talks about the incident that almost spoiled the ending to his storybook Nebraska career.

• Fans in California: CFN's Founders' Day dinner is less than a month away.

• Frank Solich is back in town as he joins Lincoln Southeast's Hall of Fame.

• Several Husker seniors are honored at the Outland banquet in Omaha.

• Former Husker Patrick Kabongo is cut by the Edmonton Eskimos. | Bio

12 THU

• Frank the Tank sorts out the forces at play in the BCS talks. | Discuss

• Ex-NU assistant Kevin Steele is out as Clemson's defensive coordinator.

• Mohammed Seisay aims to be the next Husker juco success story.

• Austin Cassidy & Marcel Jones are on the East-West Shrine Game roster.

• There's good news in Boston for 6-year-old Jack Hoffman.

• NRG Media, HuskerMax's marketing partner, promotes Andy Ruback to market manager in Omaha.

11 WED

• Jon Nyatawa examines NU's third-down efficiency on both sides of the ball.

• A four-star California DB decides to make a Nebraska visit.

• Husker Dan takes a look back at the bowl game and ahead to 2012.

• Dirk Chatelain: NU's hopes of a top-10 finish in 2012 ride on the defense.

• Nebraska has been on both ends of lopsided national title games.

• From the OWH, a few updates from the recruiting trail. | Peat still pondering

10 TUE

• Longtime Packers radio man Jim Irwin shares some NU-related nuggets as he discusses his career and the current state of sports broadcasting.

• The Dallas Cowboys hire Bill Callahan as offensive line coach.

• Vince Gibson, whose 1968 Kansas State team dealt the Huskers their only home shutout in the last 50 seasons, dies at age 78.

• Iowa tailbback Marcus Coker parts ways with the Hawkeyes. | Discuss

• NU is 14th, 13th, 18th and 24th in some way-too-early Top 25s for 2012.

• The Huskers finish No. 24 in the final polls. | McKewon's AP ballot

• There are BCS changes brewing that Jim Delany may be unable to stop.

• Kenny Bell is listed as one of five on-the-rise Big Ten offensive players.

09 MON

• Jordan Westerkamp follows his heart and sticks with his NU commitment.

• Six-year-old Jack Hoffman is returning to Boston, where an MRI will determine the success of his October surgery for brain cancer. Rex Burkhead and other Team Jack members are pulling for him.

• After a knee injury, Eric Crouch says he's finished with football.

• The Playmakers mentoring program will honor Calvin Jones' work.

• Lavonte David and Alfonzo Dennard get Senior Bowl invitations.

• Catch up on the weekend's recruiting developments.

• Should Nebraska join the gridiron fashion trend that Oregon started?

• Sam McKewon sees room for hope & growth four years into the Pelini era.

• Steve Sipple isn't buying the notion of a split title if Alabama wins tonight.

• The OWH takes a position-by-position look at the 2012 team.

08 SUN

• Dirk Chatelain's 12 big questions for 2012 start with Nebraska's defense.

• Nebraska is striving for a fruitful final push in recruiting. | 2012 list

• Tom Shatel has heard an earful from restless natives in Husker Nation.

• Can NU benefit from the recent coaching shakeups involving several 2012 opponents?

07 SAT

• Will Shields is a pro Hall of Fame finalist in his first year of eligibility.

• Ex-Husker player & assistant Craig Bohl, whose North Dakota State team is playing for a national title, has found a home at the FCS level. | Victory

• The 2011 defense was resilient, John Papuchis says. | 2012 prospectus

• Nebraska has two first-rounders in this 2012 NFL draft projection.

06 FRI

• Fifty years ago this weekend, Nebraska officially made its move to hire Bob Devaney as head football coach. Go here to read some of the news accounts of the hire that turned around the Cornhusker program.

• Congrats to ex-Husker Carl Nicks, an All-Pro selection at offensive guard.

• Bill O'Brien of the NFL's Patriots reportedly accepts the Penn State job.

• The LJS looks at the two-deep for the offense heading into next season.

• Mike Minter and three others with NU connectons join Turner Gill's staff at Liberty.

• The shortfall in bowl ticket sales won't directly cost the Huskers.

05 THU

• Wisconsin's Heisman finalist, Montee Ball, will return for his senior season.

• Husker Dan comments on the Huskers' unraveling in the Capital One Bowl.

• Quanzell Lambert, a top prospect at linebacker, opts for Rutgers. | More

• Former Husker Barron Miles takes a new coaching position in the CFL – and his dyslexia is seen as both an obstacle and a gift. | Bio

• The 2012 offensive line will need younger players to step up.

• Sam McKewon says the offseason should be a look-in-the-mirror moment.

04 WED

• Will more experience mean greater consistency for the 2012 offense?

• The bowl loss leaves one dad with a new perspective on football.

• Lavonte David thanks his teammates after a remarkable two-year run.

• The bowl game is likely to stoke fan debates for months.

03 TUE

• DE Avery Moss & LB Jared Afalava announce they're NU-bound. | 2012 list

• NU is back in the picture for safety prospect LaDarrell McNeil, and linebacker Quanzell Lambert will announce his choice Thursday.

• Big Red Network looks at how Nebraska's cupboard is stocked for 2012.

02 MON

• It was a rough outing for Big Ten teams in the league's Jan. 2nd bowls.

• South Carolina 30, Nebraska 13. Big plays, miscues and missed opportunities doom the Huskers in Orlando. Get all the stats, coverage and multimedia on the game page. | Commentary: Stryker, Bishop

• South Carolina's defense poses a rigorous challenge for Tim Beck and Taylor Martinez in today's finale for the 2011 Huskers. Get more from the papers in Omaha (1, 2, 3, 4), Lincoln (1, 2, 3, 4), Grand Island (1, 2, 3), Charleston (1, 2), Columbia (1, 2), Anderson, Greenville and Orlando, and the Associated Press. | Commentary: Shatel, Sapakoff, Dickson

• South Carolina fans still have good memories of their Lincoln visit in 1987.

• Future Husker: Thomas Brown, linebacker from California.

01 SUN

• Scenes from Sunday's pep rally in Orlando: 1, 2, 3

• Niles Paul made special teams his niche in his first NFL season.

• ESPN.com offers up keys to the game for Nebraska and South Carolina.

• A New York Times writer sizes up the state of the program.

• Watch as Bo Pelini & Steve Spurrier meet the press. | What they said: 1, 2, 3

• The OWH looks at how the SEC has become the king of college football.

• Rex Burkhead's quest for perfection begins with his relentless training.

• Yoshi Hardrick has grown up fast in his two seasons. | NU notes: 1, 2, 3

• Seventy-one years after playing in Nebraska's first bowl game, Forrest Behm still follows the Huskers. | 18 Big Red bowl tidbits | Every NU bowl

• Steve Sipple sees John Papuchis as a rising star. | Connected coordinators

• Getting fired from his NFL job worked out well for South Carolina's new defensive coordinator, Lorenzo Ward. | SC notes: 1, 2

• Forty years ago tonight, Bob Devaney's 1971 Huskers put an exclamation point on their remarkable championship season by dismantling Bear Bryant's Crimson Tide in the Orange Bowl, 38-6. Read all about the game here. | DVD