We have reached the final quiet stretch before football fully takes over the calendar again. Nebraska football will be in Chicago next week, volleyball follows soon after and then the preseason starts to feel very real, very quickly.

For now, though, it was a quieter week across Nebraska Athletics. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a week without news, of course.

Tom Osborne received a historic honor, a former Husker announced his medical retirement from the NFL, Nebraska volleyball’s future continues to show up with USA Volleyball, track and field added another multi-event athlete and baseball has a 2027 trip to San Antonio on the schedule.

Let’s get to it.

Tom Osborne selected for Nebraska Hall of Fame

Tom Osborne is officially set to become the first living inductee into the Nebraska Hall of Fame.

The Nebraska Hall of Fame Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to select Osborne, a historic step made possible after the state legislature passed a law in April changing the previous requirement that a person had to be deceased at least 35 years before being considered.

Osborne, now 89, is already one of the most significant figures in Nebraska history. That is true because of football, of course, but not only because of football.

He coached Nebraska for 25 seasons, finishing with a 255-49-3 record and one of the best winning percentages in college football history. His 1994 and 1995 teams were consensus national champions, while his 1997 team shared the title with Michigan. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999.

Osborne’s coaching career is still the starting point for so much of how Nebraska football is discussed, but his connection to the state did not end when he retired after the 1997 season. He later served three terms in Congress representing Nebraska’s 3rd District from 2001-07. He and his wife, Nancy, also founded the Teammates youth mentoring program in 1991.

Gov. Jim Pillen summed up the moment.

“His love of Nebraska and the people in Nebraska, what he’s done for Nebraska, is just absolutely second to none,” Pillen said. “That we’re able to recognize him is a really, really special day.”

Travis Vokolek announces medical retirement from NFL

Former Nebraska tight end Travis Vokolek announced this week that he is medically retiring from the NFL because of a neck injury he suffered last season.

Vokolek, who played for the Arizona Cardinals, shared the news Wednesday night.

“After numerous visits with doctors and neurologists over the past couple of months, I have been advised to medically retire from the NFL due to a serious neck injury that I suffered this past season,” he wrote on Instagram. “I am extremely grateful and blessed to have been able to live out my childhood dream of playing football at the highest level for the past three years. Football has taught me many life lessons and given me unforgettable memories.”

Vokolek suffered the injury last October on a kickoff return against the Indianapolis Colts. He was immobilized on a stretcher and carted off the field after the play.

At the time, Vokolek had carved out a role with Arizona as the Cardinals’ third-string tight end and as a special teams contributor. He appeared in four of Arizona’s first five games last season.

Vokolek entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Baltimore Ravens in 2023 before later signing to Arizona’s active roster that December. His NFL career was not long, but getting there at all was still significant.

Vokolek’s college path was not exactly linear either. He began his career at Rutgers before transferring to Nebraska, where he became a reliable piece of the offense and eventually earned his shot at the next level.

While the ending is difficult—especially because it came from an injury—Vokolek still reached the NFL, played in regular-season games and lived out the thing so many players spend their entire careers chasing.

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Nebraska volleyball commits selected for USA Volleyball rosters

Nebraska volleyball’s future continues to be well represented with USA Volleyball.

Four Husker commits were selected for the U19 Continental Championship roster, while four were picked for the U23 Pan American Cup team.

All three of Nebraska’s 2028 commits are competing with the U19 team at the Continental Championship in San José, Costa Rica. Setter Josalyn Samuels, middle/opposite Megan Hodges and middle blocker Shayla Rautenberg all made the roster. Nebraska’s 2027 libero commit Hua Laikona is also one of the two liberos on the team.

The U23 roster includes Hodges and Rautenberg as well, along with 2027 middle blocker Kendall Omoruyi and 2027 libero commit Mallory Johnson. That event will be held in Managua, Nicaragua, from Aug. 30-Sept. 7.

The U19 team opened the Continental Championship with a sweep of Cuba on July 19, winning 25-16, 26-16, 25-10. The Husker commits were involved early too, combining for 11 points in the match.

Hodges finished with four kills, Rautenberg added two kills and Samuels had one. Samuels also recorded three aces, while Laikona added another ace.

It never guaranteed anything, but international experience matters. So does being selected for these rosters in the first place. Nebraska’s 2028 class has already received plenty of attention, and this is another reminder of why.

Nebraska track and field adds Kentucky transfer Julia Gunnell

Nebraska track and field added former Kentucky athlete Julia Gunnell to its 2026-27 roster this week.

Gunnell is a multi-event athlete from Fayetteville, Arkansas, and will have one year of eligibility remaining. She brings a strong résumé with her, especially in the heptathlon.

Her career-best heptathlon score of 5,646 points ranks second in Kentucky history. She also ranks sixth on Kentucky’s all-time performance list in the pentathlon with a score of 3,678, though her personal best in the event is 4,155 points.

Gunnell was an honorable mention USTFCCCA All-American and an Academic All-American in 2025. This past season, she scored 5,626 points in the heptathlon at the 2026 Outdoor SEC Championships to finish fifth. She followed that by setting her lifetime best with 5,646 points at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, where she placed 18th.

That gives Nebraska another experienced addition in the combined events, and one who has already competed in the SEC and at the NCAA Championships.

Nebraska baseball headed to 2027 Battle at the Ballpark

Nebraska baseball has a 2027 trip to San Antonio on the schedule.

The Huskers will be one of four teams in the Battle at the Ballpark at Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium from Feb. 26-28, 2027. Nebraska will be joined by Air Force, Army West Point and Notre Dame for the three-day event.

The tournament will be played at the home of the San Antonio Missions, the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. There will be two games per day, with each team playing the other three in a round-robin format.

It is still a long way off, obviously, but it gives Nebraska another early-season tournament setting in a warmer-weather location.

The opponent list is interesting too. Notre Dame is the headliner from a name-recognition standpoint, while Air Force and Army add something a little different to the weekend.

We do not need to overdo the analysis of a tournament—yet—but it’s still worth noting on the calendar.

Every power football program has its dark ages.1 You might accept this as anecdotally true just based on broad observations of the sport. Oklahoma had the ‘90s, when it lost more games than Mississippi State. Alabama and Notre Dame had the 2000s, when they won fewer games than Maryland. The 2010s for Texas weren’t as good as they were for Temple.

Nebraska has had a rough 21^st Century. No conference titles since 1999. No wins over a top 10 opponent since 2016, which was also the last year NU cracked the AP top 10. There have been 99 AP polls this decade, and the Huskers have appeared in three of them, never higher than 23^rd.

But you knew all that already. It’s recounted here because, during the low tide of college football summer, I’ve been wondering if this current Husker fade is something we haven’t seen before. If all great programs get a little lost at some point, have any of them gotten this lost.

And I still don’t know the answer to that question (yet) because I got distracted by something I found more interesting about Nebraska football’s recent past and its legacy.

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Coach Matt Rhule and Nebraska football are moving away from morning practices. That’s not new news, of course. Rhule made that change heading into the Huskers’ 2026 spring football practices.

“There’s a large part of us that likes morning practices, but this league is a lot different now,” Rhule said about the change at the time. “There was twice last year we went to the East Coast and played a Friday game after. That takes a toll on your body certainly that week, and the weeks after.”

Rhule presented the reasoning as more than just a preference. Would players rather sleep in? Sure, but Rhule always framed the move as something bigger.

How does Nebraska stay fresher at the end of the season?

That question has followed the program for a while, even if it has taken different forms. Finish. Depth. Development. November. Winning time. Those words have all been used around Nebraska football and for good reason too. The Huskers have had too many seasons where the final stretch felt heavier than it should have.

On Adam Breneman’s Next Up show, Rhule talked through why Nebraska made the move back to afternoon practices. He mentioned a conversation with Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire, who had also made a practice-time change. He mentioned Nebraska’s travel in the Big Ten. He mentioned late returns, short weeks and the physical toll that starts to add up.

“I was talking to my good friend Joey McGuire, and they had made the change to afternoon practices,” he said. “And just the travel in this league. We went to Maryland and played a 3:30 game. I got back at whatever time and played the following Friday at Minnesota and got whooped. Went to Penn State and played a night game, came back and played the following Friday morning and got whooped. It was like, there’s a lot to this league. There’s a lot more travel than we realized.

“So, how do we do a better job of being fresher at the end of the year while still also being good? Do we have to practice differently? Do we have to monitor things differently? So we moved to afternoon practices. In November, it can be 10 degrees in the morning. It can be 35 in the afternoon, and we’re gonna go outside.”

That is a lot packed into one answer.

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This is somehow easy to forget, but Nebraska offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen was a head coach for 13 years before he arrived in Lincoln. A well-regarded coordinator off of Mike Leach’s Air Raid tree, Holgorsen coached eight seasons at West Virginia and five at Houston before making the odd November jump from an analyst role at TCU to be the OC at Nebraska in 2024.

That’s a lot of experience at the top level of college football. Bob Devaney coached Nebraska for 11 seasons and was a head coach for 16 seasons when you include five years at Wyoming. Holgorsen’s experience in the top seat isn’t far off that. Another, non-football way to put it: Holgorsen was a head coach for as long as The Walking Dead was on TV (2010–22). The show debuted and ended a year earlier than Holgorsen’s run as a head coach, but clearly he is Daryl Dixon in this story—an outsider, a free spirit, a survivor due to forced practicality.

So, here’s one of the biggest questions facing Nebraska in 2026: Is this the year we see vintage Holgorsen? He was hired for his track record and expertise. NU needed that in November of 2024, but if it had simply waited to make a coordinator change until the end of that season, would it have gone with someone from the Next Big Thing bucket, like what it did with Rob Aurich at DC this offseason?

Only Matt Rhule can say for sure, and he doesn’t have to because he made that decision what is now, technically, years ago (even though it’s only about 19 months old). But that’s old and context-rich enough to wonder if 2026 is the year we see some vintage Holgorsen?

When trying to make a broad comparison across multiple years, I prefer to keep the numbers similarly broad, so let’s look at yards per point. It’s a simple measure, exactly as described, that gives you an idea of how good an offense is at converting yards into points. A lower number is better and the best offenses in college football will turn about every first down—10 yards—into a point.

Holgorsen’s career high as a head coach came in 2021 when Houston averaged a point for every 11.8 yards gained, third nationally that season. In the Big Ten era Nebraska has only reached that level once, averaging the same 11.8 yards per point (6^th) in 2014, which got the head coach fired. The Huskers haven’t finished in the top 40 nationally in this measure since. Over his 13 seasons as a head coach, Holgorsen’s offense was better than Nebraska’s in yards per point nine times.

And that in a nutshell is the justification for the Holgorsen hire. Forget the Air Raid and forget Leach for the moment and the real upside to Rhule’s unconventional November 2024 hire was simple to understand—Holgorsen had a better track record of converting yards into points than whoever was calling plays in Lincoln most of the time between 2011 and 2023.

For all we may have felt or remember about 2025, Holgorsen’s first full season on the headset at Nebraska produced some encouraging results. The 2024 offense, helmed by Holgorsen for the last four games, averaged 15.6 yards per point (95^th). In 2025, the offense needed 2 fewer yards to produce a point, ranking 45^th nationally, which was Nebraska’s best ranking in this measure in a decade. After driving someone else’s car at the end of 2024, Holgorsen rebuilt his own last offseason and got noticeably better gas mileage.

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That’s obviously good, but how much better can it get? The 13.6 yards per point NU averaged in 2025 was already the fourth best at Nebraska in the Big Ten era. Is there room for more?

Maybe, which is why this is part of our annual Unknowables1 series. As a head coach Holgorsen piloted five offenses that came in under 13 yards per point. Nebraska had one over the same stretch (2011–23). Last season, six Big Ten offenses hit that threshold, including Iowa, which is useful for illustrating the point—this is all about the conversion rate. The Hawkeyes ranked second in the Big Ten in yards per point, but 15^th in yards per play. It looked like the same Iowa offense you’re used to, but it was scoring at basically the same rate as national champion Indiana.

Nebraska ranked ninth in the Big Ten in yards per point and eighth in yards per play. It was decent with a slightly unfavorable exchange rate.

Can the addition of a mobile quarterback change that? Can an improved offensive line? Nebraska’s not going to get a better season from its cadre of running backs than what it got from Emmett Johnson a year ago, so that’s not it, but the other two options aren’t out of the question.

The idea for this series always meant this column had to end in a perhaps unsatisfying “I don’t know,” but I do think quarterback Anthony Colandrea’s ability to improvise could be worth an extra touchdown or three in the red zone over the course of a season. I do think the combination of talent on hand and coaching could make this the most enticing o-line Nebraska’s had since it joined the Big Ten.

That’s something. Maybe.

Media Days are here. Well, not yet for the Big Ten Conference. But soon.

We already knew Justin Evans, Andrew Marshall and Luke Lindenmeyer will represent Nebraska football at Big Ten Media Days later this month. This week, we found out the volleyball plan too.

That leads this week’s Friday Five, along with more academic honors, a challenging rifle schedule and a Husker golfer earning a Korn Ferry Tour opportunity.

Let’s get to it.

Andi Jackson and Bergen Reilly will represent Nebraska at Big Ten Volleyball Media Day

Nebraska volleyball will send seniors Andi Jackson and Bergen Reilly to Big Ten Volleyball Media Day on Aug. 3 in Chicago. They will join coach Dani Busboom Kelly for the fifth annual event.

Jackson is coming off a junior season in which she was named AVCA Middle Blocker of the Year and earned first-team All-America honors for the second straight year. She averaged 2.74 kills per set and led the nation with a .467 hitting percentage, the third-best single-season mark in Nebraska history.

She was even better in conference play, hitting .559 to break the Big Ten record for hitting percentage in league matches. The previous mark had stood since 2008.

Reilly’s junior season was just as decorated. She was a first-team All-American, AVCA Setter of the Year, Big Ten Player of the Year and Big Ten Setter of the Year.

That last honor came with some history. Reilly became only the second player in Big Ten history to be named Setter of the Year three times. She also became Nebraska’s second Big Ten Player of the Year.

Her numbers were strong across the board: 10.47 assists, 2.70 digs, 73 kills, 67 blocks and 19 aces. She also guided Nebraska to a school-record .351 hitting percentage.

The biggest story in Chicago will be how Nebraska builds on Busboom Kelly’s first season leading the program. But sending Jackson and Reilly gives Nebraska two players who can speak for the standard already in place.

Axelina Johansson and Jana Lowka earn Academic All-America honors

Nebraska track and field standouts Axelina Johansson and Jana Lowka were named Academic All-Americans by College Sports Communicators this week.

Johansson earned first-team honors for the third straight season. She is now the first athlete in Nebraska history to become a four-time CSC Academic All-American after also earning second-team recognition in 2023.

At this point, Johansson’s résumé almost sounds made up. She won NCAA indoor and outdoor shot put titles this season, broke the indoor collegiate record and the outdoor championship meet record, owns the indoor and outdoor school records and holds the Swedish national record. She was also a seven-time first-team All-American, the Honda Award winner for track and field, the USTFCCCA Women’s National Field Athlete of the Year, a World Championships bronze medalist, a six-time NCAA medalist and a finalist for The Bowerman.

Academically, Johansson carries a 3.96 GPA in graduate school after earning her degree in journalism and mass communications. She also received an NCAA postgraduate scholarship and was named Nebraska’s Outstanding Female Student-Athlete of the Year.

Lowka earned second-team Academic All-America honors after finishing her Nebraska career with a strong senior season. The javelin thrower from Frankfurt, Germany, won Big Ten silver with a throw of 54.07 meters and finished ninth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

She carries a 4.0 GPA in biological sciences and was named a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar earlier this week.

With the selections, Nebraska now has 383 Academic All-Americans, which ranks second in Division I and leads the Big Ten. The Huskers have had at least one Academic All-American for 51 consecutive years.

Academic honors keep coming for Nebraska

The academic awards were not limited to track and field this week.

Nebraska men’s basketball received an NABC Team Academic Excellence Award, which goes to programs with a team GPA of 3.0 or better. It is the third time in the last four years that the Huskers have earned the honor.

Seven players also made the NABC Honors Court: Rienk Mast, Sam Hoiberg, Henry Burt, Cale Jacobsen, Connor Essegian, Berke Buyuktuncel and Pryce Sandfort.

Mast earned the honor for the fifth time in his career. Hoiberg, Burt and Jacobsen were recognized for the third straight year.

That continues a strong academic stretch for the program. Nebraska set a school record with eight Academic All-Americans, while Hoiberg was named a first-team CSC Academic All-American.

Women’s golf also had four players named WGCA All-America Scholars: Lauren Thiele, Hannah Kono, Kaleigh Babineaux and Ailis Tribolet.

The criteria for that honor is not light. Players must have at least a 3.50 cumulative GPA, remain amateur and compete in at least half of their team’s scheduled rounds.

Kono, a physics major, produced three top-10 finishes and a 73.13 stroke average last season. Thiele graduated in May and posted a 73.94 stroke average. Babineaux and Tribolet both earned the honor as freshmen while playing significant roles for Nebraska.

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Nebraska rifle announces challenging 2026-27 schedule

Nebraska rifle announced its 2026-27 schedule this week and its full of challenges. The Huskers will face six of the seven teams that qualified for the 2026 NCAA Championships. That includes 2025 NCAA champion West Virginia, runner-up TCU and third-place finisher Ole Miss.

Nebraska opens the season at home against Akron on Sept. 26, then heads to Ohio State on Oct. 3. The Huskers will also face Ole Miss and Memphis on the road before hosting Kentucky and Alaska-Fairbanks in late October.

The fall schedule includes a trip to the WVU Fall Classic, where Nebraska will face West Virginia, TCU and Kentucky.

The spring portion includes home matches against UTEP and road competition at Air Force. Nebraska will also host the Patriot Rifle Conference Championships on Feb. 5-6 and an NCAA qualifier against Ohio State on Feb. 20.

The NCAA Championships are set for March 12-13 at Georgia Southern.

Nebraska returns seven shooters for Richard Clark’s third season: Charlie Mick, Grace Corbett, Maddy Moyer, Alivia Perkins, Hannah Gallagher, Katlyn Sullivan and Carley Seabrooke. Freshmen Kenly Downey and Makenzie Larson will join the roster.

The Huskers finished fifth nationally last season, so the schedule fits where the program wants to be. If Nebraska wants to stay in that NCAA conversation, it will have plenty of chances to prove it.

Caden Mickelson earns Pinnacle Bank Championship exemption

Nebraska golfer Caden Mickelson earned a Korn Ferry Tour opportunity this weekend. Mickelson won the Indian Creek Invitational after shooting 67 on Saturday and 68 on Sunday, finishing 9-under over 36 holes. The win gives him an exemption into the Pinnacle Bank Championship at Indian Creek in August.

The sophomore-to-be from Kansas City won by two shots over Omaha native Will Mullin. Trevor Gutschewski, who won the event and sponsor’s exemption in 2024, finished third.

Two future Huskers were right behind them. Zack Erstad and Gavin Gerch tied for fourth at 2-under.

Mickelson gives Nebraska its second straight Indian Creek Invitational winner after Rudy Sautron won the title in 2025.

The Pinnacle Bank Championship begins Aug. 6 and runs through Aug. 9.

Five FBS quarterbacks gained more than 4,000 total yards in 2025. It was a strange year—nine quarterbacks reached this number in 2023 and 2024, 10 in 2022—and last season’s 4K Club included some strange stories.

Drew Mestemaker led the nation with 4,468 total yards. He was a 0-star recruit who walked on and started his career as the fifth-string QB at North Texas. Trinidad Chambliss (4,464) was second, a backup option Lane Kiffin plucked from Division II Ferris State who led Ole Miss to the CFP semifinals. Third was Diego Pavia (4,401), a known entity entering 2025 but a player who received just two D-2 scholarship offers1 out of high school and worked his way up through junior college and New Mexico State to become a Heisman finalist at Vanderbilt. Byrum Brown was fifth (4,166). He also topped 4,000 yards in 2023 for South Florida, one of just five FBS schools to offer him a scholarship, none of them from a power conference.

And the fifth member of the 4K Club was Anthony Colandrea (4,108), Nebraska’s big transfer swing at quarterback for 2026. He was an off-and-on starter over two years at Virginia, throwing nearly as many interceptions (20) as touchdowns (26), before finding his groove at UNLV under the tutelage of QB whisperer Dan Mullen. Colandrea threw for 3.459 yards and rushed for 649 yards, accounting for 33 combined touchdowns while cutting his interceptions to nine, earning Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year.

There’s a lot to like about Colandrea’s upside in Lincoln and some things that give pause. The fact that he’s coming from the Mountain West to the Big Ten just isn’t one of them for me.

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Nebraska baseball was always going to lose Ty Horn and Carson Jasa. We knew that as MLB Draft weekend approached.

Both had pitched their way into professional baseball and both heard their names called in the third round Saturday. Horn went No. 94 overall to the Cincinnati Reds. Jasa followed four picks later at No. 98 to the Chicago Cubs. That part was expected, or close enough to it.

The bigger question was how much more the draft would take from a Nebraska roster trying to build from a 43-win season, a Lincoln Regional and the program’s third straight NCAA Tournament appearance. In that sense, the weekend was more favorable than it could have been.

Nebraska lost its two co-aces. It may still have to wait on one transfer decision. Dylan Carey and Mac Moyer are moving on as undrafted free agents. But the Huskers also kept several important pieces out of the draft—most notably J’Shawn Unger—and appear to have avoided any major incoming-class damage.

That is not the same as saying Nebraska came through untouched, of course. It did not.

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What do you think of Florida this year? Without doing any instant research, you probably know enough of the broad strokes here to form an opinion. The Gators hit the reset button after 2025, new head coach, new QB, another new chance to get it right. Coach John Sumrall is Florida’s fifth since Urban Meyer retired before the 2011 season.

Somehow, Nebraska’s only had four over that same stretch.

What do you think of Florida this year compared to Nebraska, presumably no instant research needed? I ask because ESPN’s Football Power Index would make the Gators about a 5-point favorite on a neutral field. Your gut reaction?

Mine: It’s not crazy, but it feels a little too decisive. Give Florida—which, again, is starting over—a 3-point edge over Nebraska, which is also a mystery but less so entering Matt Rhule’s fourth season, and that seems reasonable. FPI would also give a slight edge to Missouri, South Carolina, Auburn and Vanderbilt over NU on a neutral field.

None of which is to say these initial ratings are wrong1 or bad.2 If anything, to make an Election Night comparison, the July release of FPI is mostly just a county voting exactly like everyone expected. Nebraska was 30^th in these first rankings, putting it ninth in the Big Ten. The wins projection is 6.7. This is a consensus on NU we could see coming in February—middle of the league, between six and seven wins.

But I chose Florida as my example to nitpick because it is of the conference where “it just means more.” As someone who uses systems like FPI all the time in the offseason and often hurries to their defense, I am starting to wonder if they can’t help but over index on the SEC.

I don’t doubt that the SEC is a better football conference top to bottom than the Big Ten right now. To its credit, the Big Ten has three straight national titles, showing that its best are among the best in college football right now. It’s more the mushy middle where the SEC gains ground.

Relevant Example No. 1: There are six SEC teams in the top 12 of the 2026 FPI ratings. The Big Ten has three. There are 12 SEC teams in the top 25, the Big Ten has seven.

Relevant Example No. 2: Last year there were six SEC teams in the top 12 of the preseason 2025 FPI ratings. The Big Ten had three. There were 12 SEC teams in the top 25, the Big Ten had seven.

How’s that for symmetry?3

The SEC finished 2025 with 10 teams in the FPI top 25, a net loss of two from the preseason. The Big Ten finished with eight, a net gain of one. Similar story in 2024 when the SEC went from 11 preseason FPI top 25 teams to 10 while the Big Ten gained one, going from five to six.

Unfortunately, that’s as far back as I’m willing to go given the current conference alignments didn’t exist earlier. And I’ll be the first to admit, this information alone doesn’t make for a slam-dunk case that rating systems consistently overvalue the SEC over the Big Ten.

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Maybe, however, it is at least a first draft of a compelling opening argument in such a case. If the 2026 season plays out like the previous two, I’ll probably look at the 2027 preseason FPI and think, “OK, swap out one SEC team for one Big Ten team,” which is kind of a fun game to play. You can do it yourself. What if not South Carolina (23^rd), but Nebraska (30^th)? Or Washington (26^th) and not Auburn (22^nd)? Or get wild and ask why not Northwestern (60^th) and not Texas A&M (11^th)?

Of course, the big question is why this seems to be happening. While I don’t know all the specifics of all the rating systems out there, I have a pretty good idea the culprit is recruiting. It is a part of the game that is practically, if not perfectly, quantified. We all use the team recruiting rankings as at least a guide to understanding old fashioned talent acquisition. Based mostly on geography and population, the SEC is always going to have an edge over the Big Ten there.

But does that inherent edge carry the same weight it did five years ago. I think we’re seeing evidence it may not. There are more on ramps to building a roster these days, and we’re still figuring out how to assess those.

This is all probably to the Big Ten’s advantage overall, or maybe that’s just me being too subjective. When I was deep into following horse racing, I loved a stalking horse. Give me the option with a better price who was built to sit a couple of paces off the favorites. If that horse got the right trip, they’d reel in a couple of those favorites more often than not.

That feels like the Big Ten to me at this moment in the sport, even after back-to-back-to-back national titles. It has heavyweights, but as a whole it is not the heaviest and that’s just fine for the conference.

Still need Nebraska to go get Florida, though. And maybe Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Auburn and Missouri in the process.

Not long after publishing Tuesday’s newsletter, which focused on Nebraska women’s athletics, the Huskers made one more pretty significant announcement.

Rhonda Revelle received a contract extension through the 2031 season after leading Nebraska softball back to the Women’s College World Series and a school-record 52 wins.

That leads this week’s Friday Five, along with a pair of Big Ten sportsmanship honors, another Futures Game selection, a major academic award for Asher Cohen and four former Huskers heading to NBA Summer League.

Let’s get to it.

Rhonda Revelle signs extension through 2031

Nebraska announced Wednesday that Revelle has signed a contract extension through the 2031 season. Anyone surprised?

Nebraska went 52-8 in 2026, won both the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles and returned to the Women’s College World Series for the first time since 2013. The 52 wins set a school record.

Revelle is already the winningest coach in Nebraska athletics history and her 34th season became one of the best of her career.

“As we said when we had the privilege of naming the field at Bowlin Stadium in her honor, Rhonda Revelle is Nebraska Softball,” athletic director Troy Dannen said in a statement. “Rhonda is not only a great leader of our softball program, but she is a world-class individual who elevates our entire athletic department in many ways. The trajectory of our program is at an all-time high coming off a record-breaking season and we are excited for the years ahead under the leadership of Rhonda and her outstanding staff.”

The announcement also included several staff changes following Lori Sippel’s retirement.

Revelle will take on a larger role with Nebraska’s pitchers. Diane Miller has been promoted to associate head coach, while Mandie Nocita moves into an assistant coaching role. Olivia Ferrell and Jordy Frahm will also serve as assistants.

Hannah Coor and Hannah Camenzind have been added as graduate assistants, while Lauren Camenzind will be a graduate manager.

“I love Nebraska and am grateful to Troy and our administration for entrusting me to continue to lead the Red Team,” Revelle said. “I am passionate and energetic to continue our quest for excellence. We are blessed to have assembled the staff we have. They are talented, smart, hardworking and all in on Nebraska Softball. We are excited to get our team on the field and build something special together.”

Callin Hake and Rienk Mast earn Big Ten honors

Callin Hake and Rienk Mast were selected as Nebraska’s Outstanding Sportsmanship Award winners for the 2025-26 season. Each Big Ten school chooses one male and one female winner from its larger group of sportsmanship honorees.

Hake becomes the first Nebraska student-athlete to win the award twice across all sports. She also earned the honor in 2024-25.

The women’s basketball senior averaged 7.2 points, 3.6 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1.3 steals last season. She also drew a school-record 33 charges, which feels like an especially appropriate stat for a sportsmanship award winner.

Her impact went well beyond the court. Hake served two terms as president of Nebraska’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and chaired the Big Ten Student-Athlete Issues Commission in 2025-26.

Mast helped Nebraska men’s basketball win 28 games and reach the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history. He averaged 13.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists while earning All-Big Ten recognition for the second time. He was also a two-time Academic All-Big Ten selection and received the Sam Foltz 27 Hero Leadership Award for his community work.

Max Anderson added to Futures Game

Former Nebraska All-American Max Anderson will play in the 2026 MLB All-Star Futures Game.

Anderson was added to the American League roster for the July 12 game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. The game will air on NBC at 11 a.m. CT.

The former second-round pick is having a strong season at Triple-A Toledo in the Detroit Tigers organization. Anderson is hitting .303 with a .349 on-base percentage and a .502 slugging percentage. He also has 13 doubles, nine home runs and 32 RBIs.

Anderson becomes the sixth former Husker selected for the Futures Game. The previous five are Brice Matthews, Spencer Schwellenbach, Joba Chamberlain, Alex Gordon and Jamal Strong. All eventually reached the major leagues.

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Asher Cohen named Academic All-America Team Member of the Year

Asher Cohen added one more major honor to an already decorated senior year. Cohen was named the College Sports Communicators Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for Division I Men’s At-Large.

He graduated with a 3.97 GPA in biological sciences and earned his third career Academic All-America selection. He was also one of 42 recipients of the NCAA Winter Postgraduate Scholarship.

The academic recognition followed a championship season in the gym. Cohen won the NCAA title on rings after also winning the event at the Big Ten Championships. He finished his Nebraska career with 10 individual titles, including eight on rings and two on parallel bars. He was named Nebraska’s Most Outstanding Male Athlete and the College Gymnastics Association Specialist of the Year.

Cohen plans to continue training with the goal of earning a place on the U.S. National Team while also pursuing graduate school.

Four former Huskers head to NBA Summer League

Nebraska will have four former players competing in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

Rienk Mast will play for the Indiana Pacers, Sam Hoiberg will join the Phoenix Suns, Josiah Allick will suit up for the Charlotte Hornets and Brice Williams will return with the Detroit Pistons.

It is the second straight summer Nebraska has had four Summer League participants.

Mast and Hoiberg will make their professional debuts after helping Nebraska reach the Sweet 16 last season.

Hoiberg finished his career with one of the more memorable paths in recent program history, going from walk-on to Big Ten All-Defensive Team selection. He set Nebraska’s single-season assist-to-turnover ratio record and finished with 70 steals as a senior.

Mast averaged 13.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists last season. His Nebraska career included two All-Big Ten selections and a triple-double against FIU.

Allick will play in Summer League for the first time after helping the Greensboro Swarm win a G League championship. He averaged 6.6 points and 5.7 rebounds while shooting 68% from the field.

Williams is back for a second summer with Detroit after averaging 14.0 points for the Motor City Cruise. He shot 42.4% from 3-point range in his first professional season.

Each team will play at least five games between July 9 and July 19.

Summer League does not guarantee anything but it gives all four another chance to make an impression. For Mast and Hoiberg, it is the first step. For Allick and Williams, it is another one.

And for Nebraska fans, it provides something to keep up on during the slow college sports stretch of July.

We’re in the quietest couple of weeks of the quietest Nebraska football offseason I can remember. That’s by design, I think, based on the official record of what has and hasn’t happened since Matt Rhule turned his hat back around after the Las Vegas Bowl and NU turned the page to 2026.

In the quiet-by-design column: Access to spring football was reduced from what it had been in previous seasons.1 Rhule’s not podcasting right now. I expect Nebraska’s presence at Big Ten Media Days in a couple of weeks to be muted, too. The Huskers are taking center Justin Evans, tight end Luke Lindenmeyer and cornerback Andrew Marshall, all fine choices, but I suspect most of the non-Nebraska attendees won’t know who these players are.2

Even Phil Steele views 2026 NU with a shrug, which is unusual. As I cataloged last summer around this time, Steele’s systems have been kind to the Husker program of the past 20 years. Since 2006, Nebraska has made an appearance on one of Steele’s four predictive lists 29 times and 27 of those appearances projected an upward trend. This year the Huskers don’t appear on any. They’re not a “Surprise Team” nor “Most Improved.” You can’t point to close losses or turnovers as potential clues improvement is imminent.

Right now, this team just sort of exists in the vast middle of power-conference football where it’s hard to pick them out. That seems to be the preference right now of a fan base haunted by past hype, and credit to Rhule for reading the room and taking some steps to keep it this way.

But as the season starts to feel closer, I have started to wonder: How long can the Huskers stay under the radar?

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We have officially reached the part of summer when Nebraska Athletics feels like it has hit pause.

Of course, it never really does.

Plenty has happened across Nebraska women’s sports recently. Three volleyball players are headed to international competition, the Huskers’ 2028 recruiting class earned the No. 1 spot in an early ranking and women’s basketball added both a 2027 commitment and a transfer who can help right away. Flag football, still nearly two years from its first season, also added another player to a roster that is slowly starting to take shape.

Let’s get into it.

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Nebraska had a little bit of past, present and future this week.

Football announced its 2026 Hall of Fame class, volleyball added a familiar performance voice for Dani Busboom Kelly, baseball rewarded Will Bolt and his staff after a major season and men’s golf added another in-state newcomer with a familiar last name.

There’s also some early-morning international basketball, for those who like their former Huskers with their coffee.

Let’s get to it.

Nebraska announces 2026 Football Hall of Fame class

Nebraska’s 2026 Football Hall of Fame class includes defensive back Charles Fryar, offensive lineman Jim Scott, fullback Cory Schlesinger, I-back Cory Ross, linebacker Lavonte David and the late punter Sam Foltz.

Joe Planansky, a two-time All-America tight end at Chadron State, will be inducted as the state college honoree.1 Frank Solich will receive the Hall’s Legend Award, while longtime Nebraska radio voice Kent Pavelka will receive the Lyell Bremser Special Merit Award.

The class will be inducted Sept. 4, and recognized the next day at Memorial Stadium when Nebraska opens the 2026 season against Ohio.

There is a lot of Nebraska history in the group. David joins after retiring from a 14-year NFL career with Tampa Bay, where he became a three-time All-Pro and Super Bowl champion. At Nebraska, he had 285 tackles in two seasons, including a school-record 152 in 2010.

Schlesinger will forever be tied to the two touchdowns he scored in Nebraska’s 24-17 Orange Bowl win over Miami, which gave the Huskers their first national title since 1971. He went on to play 12 NFL seasons with the Detroit Lions.

Foltz was the Big Ten Punter of the Year in 2015 and one of the best specialists in Nebraska history before he tragicalled passed away before his senior season.

Fryar, Scott and Ross round out the Husker class across three different eras. Fryar was an All-Big Eight defensive back in the late 1980s, Scott helped anchor the offensive line for back-to-back Big Eight title teams and Ross remains one of Nebraska’s most versatile running backs.

Volleyball adds Sean Smith to performance role

Busboom Kelly added another piece to her first Nebraska staff this week, hiring Sean Smith as director of volleyball player performance and development. Smith will oversee strength and conditioning while also helping lead individual player development plans for the Huskers.

He previously worked with Busboom Kelly at Louisville from 2018 to 2023, overseeing strength and conditioning for volleyball while also working with the Cardinals’ track and field and softball programs.

“I want to thank Troy Dannen for approving this innovative new position in our volleyball program,” Busboom Kelly said in a statement. “Sean is the ideal fit for our program. His extensive strength and conditioning expertise, combined with his passion for maximizing athlete potential, will drive results. We can’t wait to see him wearing scarlet and cream! GBR!”

Smith’s background also includes time with Hintsa Performance and the Arrow McLaren IndyCar team, where he worked with drivers, pit crew and staff on strength and conditioning, performance psychology, nutrition and sports medicine coordination. He also worked in professional hockey with the San Diego Gulls of the American Hockey League.

Nebraska extends Will Bolt through 2032

Athletic director Troy Dannen announced Wednesday that Bolt has signed a contract extension through the 2032 season. Assistants Rob Childress, Lance Harvell and Mike Sirianni also received extensions through 2028.

The move comes after Nebraska went 43-17 in 2026, reached the 40-win mark for the 20th time in program history and hosted a regional for the first time since 2008. The Huskers also made a third straight NCAA regional appearance, their first such streak since 2008.

“Will and his staff have done an outstanding job of continuing to elevate the level of success in our baseball program,” Dannen said. “Making three consecutive NCAA appearances and earning the opportunity to host a regional for the first time in almost two decades reflects the culture, development, and leadership of our entire baseball staff. We are excited to extend Will and his assistant coaches as we continue building momentum and pursuing championships at Nebraska.”

Nebraska’s 43 wins were its most since 2005. The Huskers also set a school record with 23 conference victories.

Bolt now has 213 wins in seven seasons at Nebraska, sixth most in program history. He has also been part of 10 of Nebraska’s 20 NCAA Tournament appearances as either a player or coach.

“I want to thank Athletic Director Troy Dannen and Deputy Athletic Director Dennis Leblanc for their continued trust in our program,” Bolt said. “We’ve built strong momentum here, and I’m thankful for our coaching staff’s commitment, our players’ work ethic, and the unwavering support from Husker Nation.”

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Zack Erstad signs with Nebraska men’s golf

Nebraska men’s golf added another in-state player this week with the signing of Lincoln East standout Zack Erstad.

Erstad helped Lincoln East win back-to-back Class A team titles in 2025 and 2026. He was the Class A individual runner-up this spring, the 2025 Nebraska Junior PGA Champion and a Nebraska Super-State selection.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity for Zack to be a Husker,” Nebraska head coach Judd Cornell said. “He’s proven he belongs on this level and will make a huge impact on our program. I am really excited about him.”

The last name probably sounds a bit familiar. Erstad is the oldest son of Darin Erstad, the former Nebraska baseball standout, No. 1 overall MLB Draft pick, World Series champion and later Nebraska baseball coach.

Zack also had a strong run in U.S. Open qualifying this spring, finishing fourth at a local qualifier in Omaha and advancing to a top-25 finish at a qualifier in Florida.

He joins Gavin Gerch as the second son of a former Husker baseball player to sign with Nebraska men’s golf in recent weeks. Gerch’s father, Andy, was on the College World Series all-tournament team in 2005.

Former Huskers return to international basketball

Three former Nebraska men’s basketball players will be in action this weekend during FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers.

Tai Webster will play for New Zealand for the first time since the 2019 FIBA World Cup. Jack McVeigh is back with Australia and Keisei Tominaga returns for Japan.

Friday’s schedule is not exactly friendly for Nebraska sleep patterns. New Zealand hosts the Philippines at 2 a.m. CT, Australia faces Guam at 5:30 a.m. and Japan plays at China at 6:30 a.m.2 The teams play again Monday.

Webster was a three-year starter at Nebraska and finished with 1,116 career points. He has played professionally since 2017 and brings plenty of national team experience back to New Zealand.

McVeigh helped Australia win the 2025 Asian Cup and earned a spot on the All-Star Five after averaging 13.5 points per game. He also helped Australia reach the quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics.

Tominaga has been part of Japan’s senior national team since 2022. He averaged 11.4 points during the 2023 FIBA World Cup, helping Japan qualify for the Paris Olympics, then averaged 16.8 points at the 2025 Asian Cup. This past season, he led Japanese players in the B1 League at 19.5 points per game and was named the league’s Most Impressive Player.

That is a lot of Husker basketball happening very early in the morning. No judgment if you choose the box score route.

It’s possible you don’t remember how good Alex Henery was. You remember his 57-yard kick against Colorado in 2008, of course. Trailing 31-30 and facing fourth-and-25 from the CU 40, Nebraska has no choice but to try to make a kick no Husker has made before. This is not a leisurely September swing against San Jose State. No, it’s a rivalry game and it’s already after 5 p.m. on this day near the end of November. This is a prayer uttered into the cold, dark night.

Except it isn’t. You didn’t have to pray a lot on Henery’s kicks. I say it’s possible you don’t remember how good he was because I didn’t remember until I had occasion1 to dig through his Husker résumé. And now I’m on a mission.

There are two kickers in the College Football Hall of Fame. Kevin Butler was the first, inducted in 2001. A home-state hero, Butler kicked at Georgia from 1981 to 1984, making 77-of-98 field goals. He left the college game with the NCAA record for accuracy beyond 50 yards, making 52.4% of those attempts.

Jason Hanson is the second kicker in the Hall. He too stayed home for college, attending Washington State from 1988 to 1991, where he made 62-of-95 field goal attempts. Hanson departed Pullman as the NCAA’s career leader in makes beyond 40 and 50 yards.2

Butler and Hanson were both consensus first-team All-Americans—a requirement for consideration for the Hall of Fame—but neither won the Lou Groza Award as it didn’t exist until 1991.

Henery didn’t win that award either, which is a wrong we can only right by pushing for him to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. As you’ll see, his résumé more than stacks up.

Here’s the basic case you can make for Henery’s inclusion—he’s still the most accurate kicker in the history of FBS football. Henery made 68-of-76 field goals (89.5%) over four years in Lincoln. That’s still the NCAA record entering the 2026 season. As our first basic spot check, let’s compare that to Butler and Hanson while knowing that not all field goal attempts are created equal.

Now let’s dig a little deeper. Henery scored 204 points on 76 field goal attempts, an average of 2.68 points per attempt. A kicker who never missed could only average 3 points per attempt, which is obvious but important to note. Whether it was a 17-yard field goal or a 57-yarder, Henery delivered almost 90% of the points available3 no matter what. Here that is against our two current Hall of Famers.

Next, we establish a baseline for measurement using College Football Data’s Points Added Above Replacement (PAAR), which uses actual makes and misses from 2016 to present to produce an expected point value for a kick based only on distance. Henery’s 76 field goal attempts had an expected value of 164.5 points. He produced 204, meaning he was 24% better than expected.

One of the things I was most looking forward to doing this summer4 was compiling every college field goal Butler and Hanson ever attempted. It’s here I admit that I tried and failed. I started down that path by finding the official stat sheet from Butler’s first game5 in 1981. When I saw that the sheet included the handwriting of whoever the official scorer was that day, two realities became obvious: a) either I’m never going to find all of these kicks, or b) it’s going to take me a month. So, I regret to inform you6 that I do not have the career PAAR for Butler or Hanson.

But I think we can still use the data we have to ballpark this in a compelling way.

Let’s stop to actually think about kickers for a second. Should accuracy be the most important trait? It’s hard to argue against this, but, if we’re being honest, making a 30-yard field goal isn’t that exciting. Or, as I’ve put it previously:

The craft itself is underappreciated by default. Teams settle for field goals, that’s the saying. They don’t settle for field goal attempts. The 3 is assumed because drive negotiations started at 7. But, fine, 3.

Long kicks, however, are exciting. Based on the brief biographical sketches previously you might assume Butler and Hanson had a leg (ahem) up on Henery in terms of sheer power. And maybe they did, but here’s what I can tell you for certain.

The average length of an actual Henery field goal attempt at Nebraska was 36.5 yards. On those kicks, he averaged 2.68 points per attempt. Returning to PAAR, our baseline which includes all FBS kicks since 2016, you would expect a return of 2.68 points on a 26-yard field goal.

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To put it another way, based on actual points produced, Henery made every field goal attempt as certain as one snapped from the 9-yard line, where FBS kickers have made 89% of their kicks since 2016. This despite the actual average distance of a Henery field goal at Nebraska being basically a 37-yarder. This walk-on from Omaha Burke could basically gobble up 11 yards all by himself, and if you think about what this means—one fewer first down needed, or one more added—it feels like a superpower. If Nebraska had a running back worth 11 yards a touch, it wouldn’t lose unless that back was prone to fumbling.

Butler averaged 2.35 points per field goal attempt, a rate that equates to his average attempt being from 35 yards out. Could that have been his actual career average? Certainly possible. That’s not far off Henery’s number and Butler was really good, which I learned as a child thanks to my stellar record playing with Chicago in Tecmo Bowl.

Hanson was also obviously very good, but his HOF comparison with Henery’s case largely comes down to leg over accuracy. Hanson averaged 1.95 points per attempt, which would’ve been what you’d expect if the average distance of his field goals was 42 yards. Is that possible? Maybe, but it seems unlikely. We know that 63% of Hanson’s makes were from 40-plus yards, so it’s possible Washington State wasn’t afraid to throw him out there on drives that stalled outside the red zone while also not needing him a lot once in the red zone.7

Point is Henery’s Nebraska numbers more than stack up. He was more accurate than either Butler or Hanson. Maybe both had an ability to kick the ball farther, though we should note that Henery was 6-of-11 on attempts of 50-plus yards (52.3%).8 That’s a tenth of a percentage point behind the NCAA record Butler set when he left Georgia following the 1984 season. Henery destroys Hanson when it comes to accuracy.

To be considered for the College Football Hall of Fame a player must meet the following criteria:

• Be a first-team All-American by a major selector. ✅

• Be out of the college game for 10 seasons. ✅

• Be a decent citizen. ✅

• Have played in the last 50 years. ✅

• Be nominated by the current AD, head football coach or SID.❓

I don’t know if Nebraska has nominated Alex Henery for the College Football Hall of Fame. If you’ve been persuaded it should, feel free to spread the word.

The mission has begun, and now you’re part of it.

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You could say that Nebraska men’s basketball is in a strange, new spot. Last season gave the Huskers 28 wins, a Sweet 16 appearance and the kind of postseason run the program had spent decades chasing. That changes the offseason a bit.

Coach Fred Hoiberg does not have to sell belief in the same way anymore because there is recent evidence now.There is also a different challenge moving forward. One historic season does not automatically become a repeatable standard. That was the useful part of Monday’s first summer media availability.

Hoiberg and his team aren’t deciding the full rotation in June. They’re not pretending every transfer is perfectly comfortable and every role is perfectly solved. What the Huskers are doing is trying to move from celebration to construction.

“We want to get right back to work, so we can feel the same thing a year from now,” he told the media on Monday. “Hopefully this puts us in a spot where we can compete for championships.”

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The 2026 World Cup wrapped up group play Saturday night. This cut the newly expanded 48-team field to . . . 32. Maybe call it more of a trim. After two weeks of multiple matches a day, 16 teams had to go home.

Sorry, South Korea, 25^th1 (Iowa) in the FIFA World Rankings entering the tournament. You ended up in a select group, being sent home, but now President Lee Jae Myung has promised a review of the entire program. International soccer is great.

I’m definitely not complaining about the firehose of sport the past couple of weeks. When I’ve realized it’s time for lunch this June, I’ve also realized there’s probably soccer on. My phone tells me I should go to bed. But there’s world-class soccer available.

It reminds me of fall Saturdays, but this is every day for six weeks. Maybe this is why I’ve spent a lot of time watching the World Cup and thinking about college football. It is our closest American equivalent—tribal and sometimes blatantly corrupt, but the games, man. They’re good.

So, this is my attempt at a tricky, trendy, crossover column. I know, I know, soccer can, I guess,2 still be somewhat contentious in America. Just let me try it. This is about two different sports, but all of the world’s football, including ours.

Here’s the college football stuff the World Cup has me thinking about.

Expanded Cup/CFP

The college football powers that be and television partners will continue to debate the size of the College Football Playoff for the foreseeable future. FIFA’s over that bridge now, expanding the Cup to 48 teams for this 2026 tournament.

Through the first week of matches, I felt this was a worthwhile expansion. Curaçao (82^nd, Stanford) became the smallest nation to qualify for the Cup, thanks to the expansion. It was then promptly smoked 7-1 by Germany (10^th, Clemson)in its opener but responded with a valiant draw against Ecuador (23^rd, Indiana) before being eliminated. Cape Verde (67^th, Maryland), the third-smallest nation to ever qualify, “won” with a 0-0 draw against Spain (2^nd, Alabama) drew with its next two opponents and snuck into the knockout rounds. I realize three-draws-and-advance isn’t really beating any soccer hater’s charges, but I promise you each of those ties was thrilling in context.

That’s maybe the biggest difference between soccer and college football. The former is so much better at appreciating context. The latter tends to treat it like a plague, preferring a “regular season that matters.”

I’m generally in favor of a 24-team College Football Playoff, if some sort of rationale can win out over self-interest.3 I like more access and love more football.

But watching the expanded World Cup has made me question myself.

Carlos Quieroz is coaching in his fifth Cup and has led Ghana (73^rd, UNLV) to the knockout stage. He said the expanded field is turning the tournament into a “vulgar, ordinary competition,” noting that seven of 10 nations from South America qualified.

Gotta say, it’s a compelling rebuke. I need to watch the knockout rounds before deciding how this does or doesn’t make feel about a bigger College Football Playoff.

So far, I shade to the compelling stories it has produced being worth it.

Menschenfänger

Covering Nebraska football for the past 15 years means thinking a lot about coaching changes. Every time the Huskers have made one, there’s a percentage of people who really value a coach with ties to the program, someone who understands the place. I’ve always understood that point of view but felt it was too limiting. If the only person who can succeed is someone who’s been in Lincoln before, that leaves a lot of good coaches on the cutting room floor.

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But the most interesting fact I read in the lead up to the World Cup was this one: No foreign-born manager has ever won the tournament. There have only been 22 Cup champions, so a small sample size, but still interesting.

Or maybe it’s just a reflection of supply and demand. The coaching pool for, say, Haiti isn’t quite as deep as France’s, which is why Haiti had a French manager.

I’m in the middle of a (so far) great book by Jonathan Harding, titled Mensch. It’s about why German soccer coaches have been so in demand in world football. Early on Harding writes:

I learnt that, just like many parts of work and society, it’s about being a Menschenfänger. This is a brilliant German word that highlights the beautiful logic of the language. Literally translated it means ‘people catcher,’ and while also a word for a pole weapon, the modern meaning is far less sinister. It means you have to be someone that people believe in.

I need to get deeper into the book to find out why this quality may or may not be particularly strong with German coaches, but I’m already asking the obvious question leading up to Matt Rhule’s pivotal fourth season: Is he a people catcher? I think it might be one of the things you can say with confidence about him to this point, but the results at Nebraska haven’t completely followed.

Was Scott Frost a Menschenfänger? He certainly was up to the point his Nebraska teams started playing games.

Which World Cup team is Nebraska?

About a decade ago I answered this question for myself with Argentina. Like Nebraska, Argentina had great history, but not the greatest, winning the World Cup in 1978 and 1986 with three runner-up finishes. That felt about equivalent. Then Lionel Messi and the Rest of ‘Em won it in 2022, a jolt of modern success that doesn’t marry with Nebraska’s 21^st Century.

You could go with England. It has one title, but it was a long time ago (1966) and two top-four finishes. Yet, fan interest and media coverage is intense. You could argue for Uruguay, which has five top-fours over two periods of distinct success, or maybe even, on the generous end, France with its seven top-four placements, all since 1958.

For now, I’m sticking with England. This year’s squad (4^th, Penn State) won its group and will face the Democratic Republic of Congo (46^th, North Carolina State) July 1 in Atlanta.

If this very short, non-expert argument has you ready to consider England as our summer Nebraska football equivalent, there’s some potentially good news. The Three Lions might have a manager predisposed to being a Menschenfänger in Thomas Tuchel. The bad news might be that he is German and not English.

Feels a lot like football season.

Nebraska athletics had a pretty good week for résumé updates.

The department recorded its best Directors’ Cup point total of the Big Ten era, Axelina Johansson added another national award to a career already full of them and Jillian Martin received recognition for everything she accomplished on the lanes, in the classroom and around the community.

There was also some next-step news for Rienk Mast and Sam Hoiberg, plus a first look at who will represent Nebraska football at Big Ten Media Days next month.

Let’s get to it.

Nebraska finishes 17th in the Directors’ Cup

Nebraska finished 17th in the final 2025-26 Learfield Directors’ Cup standings, matching its best placement since finishing 13th in 2000-01. The Huskers scored 929 points, their highest total since joining the Big Ten Conference. It is also Nebraska’s third straight top-25 finish and the fourth consecutive year the department has improved in the standings.

The final jump came after strong spring performances. Baseball earned points for reaching the NCAA Tournament, while the men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams combined for 183.75 points after both finished in the top 10 nationally.

Nine Nebraska programs finished in the top 10 during the year. Wrestling placed third, men’s gymnastics was fourth, and volleyball, softball, rifle and bowling all finished fifth. Women’s outdoor track and field tied for eighth, while men’s basketball and men’s outdoor track and field both placed ninth.

That is a much broader list than Nebraska has produced in some recent years, which is probably the bigger takeaway. A strong Directors’ Cup isn’t made possible by one or two successful teams. Instead, it requires enough programs to contribute across the entire calendar.

Nebraska was one of eight Big Ten programs in the top 25, joining UCLA, USC, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon and Wisconsin. The Big Ten and SEC combined to occupy 17 of the top 25 spots.

Axelina Johansson wins the Honda Award

Axelina Johansson is the first Nebraska athlete to win the Honda Award for track and field.

Johansson joins softball winner Jordy Frahm as a finalist for the 2026 Honda Cup and Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year. The award will be presented July 27 on CBS Sports Network.

“I want to start off by (thanking) the CWSA voters for selecting me for this award,” Johansson said in a statement. “There are so many amazing women in this sport, so being named the best female college athlete in track and field is such an honor and feels absolutely amazing. I could not have done it without the team around, so I truly want to thank Nebraska and all the resources they have provided me during these past five years, my family, teammates, friends and coach St. Clair for believing in me.”

The honor follows a senior season in which Johansson won both the indoor and outdoor NCAA shot put titles. She set the indoor collegiate record at 19.72 meters and won the outdoor championship with a meet-record throw of 19.92 meters. Johansson also produced the second-farthest outdoor throw in NCAA history while winning the Big Ten title at 19.97 meters.

She finished her Nebraska career with four NCAA championships, six Big Ten titles and eight All-America honors. The USTFCCCA also named her the National Women’s Field Athlete of the Year.

“Winning the Honda Award is an incredible honor and a testament to Axelina’s hard work and dedication,” coach Justin St. Clair said. “Her perseverance, resilience, and commitment to excellence have made this achievement possible. We couldn’t be prouder of Axelina, this recognition is so well deserved, and we are thrilled to celebrate her success.”

Johansson was also named one of 10 women’s semifinalists for The Bowerman, the top individual honor in collegiate track and field. She is only the second Nebraska woman to reach the semifinalist stage, joining 2024 selection Rhema Otabor. Three finalists will be announced June 29.

Jillian Martin earns Conference USA Scholar-Athlete honor

Jillian Martin’s latest recognition accounts for more than what she accomplished as a bowler. Martin was named the 2025-26 Conference USA Scholar-Athlete Award winner for bowling. The honor considers athletic achievement, academic performance and community service.

Martin is one of seven bowlers in Nebraska history to earn four All-America awards, and all four were first-team selections. She was the 2025 NTCA Bowler of the Year, represented Team USA and won three Professional Women’s Bowling Association events.

Her latest professional victory came earlier this month at the U.S. Women’s Open, where she climbed from the fourth seed to win four consecutive matches and capture her second major title.

Martin also graduated this spring with a degree in biological sciences. She was a three-time CSC Academic All-District selection, a finalist for Nebraska Female Student-Athlete of the Year and a 2026 Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award winner. She also earned a place on the Tom Osborne Citizenship Team four times.

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Rienk Mast and Sam Hoiberg get NBA opportunities

Rienk Mast and Sam Hoiberg will both continue their basketball careers with NBA organizations. Mast is joining the Indiana Pacers after helping Nebraska win a school-record 28 games and reach the Sweet 16 for the first time.

The 6-foot-10 forward averaged 13.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists last season. He reached double figures 24 times and recorded five 20-point games. His season also included a triple-double against FIU with 18 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Mast finished his college career with 1,849 points, 1,094 rebounds and 351 assists across his time at Bradley and Nebraska.

Hoiberg will join the Phoenix Suns after completing one of the more unusual career arcs in recent program history. He arrived as a walk-on and left as an honorable-mention All-Big Ten selection and a member of the conference’s All-Defensive Team. As a senior, Hoiberg averaged career highs of 9.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.0 steals.

He also set Nebraska’s single-season assist-to-turnover ratio record at 3.75-to-1, which ranked ninth nationally. His 70 steals were the most by a Husker in 25 years, and he finished seventh in school history with 162 career steals.

Nebraska selects its Big Ten Media Days representatives

Justin Evans, Luke Lindenmeyer and Andrew Marshall will join coach Matt Rhule at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago on July 30. The group gives Nebraska one representative from each major area of the roster.

Evans is the veteran of the offensive line, with 31 career starts and experience at both guard and center. He started every game at center last season and helped clear the way for first-team All-American running back Emmett Johnson.

Lindenmeyer is coming off his best season at Nebraska. The tight end started all 13 games and caught 29 passes for 312 yards and two touchdowns, earning honorable-mention All-Big Ten recognition. He also remains one of Nebraska’s more dependable blockers on the perimeter.

Marshall represents the defense after making an immediate impact in his first year following a transfer from Idaho. He started all 13 games at cornerback, recording 45 tackles, four tackles for loss, one interception and four pass breakups. Nebraska finished third nationally in pass defense last season and Marshall earned honorable-mention All-Big Ten honors.

Media Days can sometimes become a parade of quarterbacks, so Nebraska’s selections stand out in contrast. That said, all three are experienced players whose value has come through consistency, versatility and a lot of snaps. That probably says something about who Rhule trusts to represent the program as the 2026 season gets closer.

We are not at kickoff yet, but the summer calendar is moving.

Nebraska is 2-10 in November under Matt Rhule. You already knew that and, of course, know that’s not good. But here’s a new wrinkle for 2026: What if we make the regular season’s final act more complicated?

That doesn’t have to mean worse than the three previous Novembers, it’s just trickier with three road games, the lone home game against maybe the best team in the country and two Friday games just for a dusting of extra chaos.

This being a series focused on schedule sequencing that aims to offer a view of a reasonable baseline for the season, I went through the archives to pull up what we could’ve expected from NU over previous final acts. We know the Huskers went 2-10, what “should” they have gone based on summer projections?1

Probably 4-8. Our house recipe2 for preseason projections shows 1.2 expected November wins in 2023, 1.5 in 2024 and 1.7 in 2025. That comes to 4.4 expected wins, so, depending on how generous you’re feeling, you could argue for a 5-7 expectation over the past three seasons. Either way, Rhule & Co. are a couple of games off pace.

Nothing changes for Nebraska football until it starts doing some things you simply wouldn’t project. That’s true for the whole season, but it could come under intense focus this November.

Let’s take a look at Act III, which in my mind looks a bit like a demolition derby.

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A lot happened Saturday in Lincoln. The Huskers hosted the second annual Battle of the Boneyard, ran a full day of seven-on-seven and lineman competition, brought prospects from around the country to Lincoln and unveiled new uniforms inside the Hawks Championship Center.

Nebraska left the weekend with somewhere between 15 and 20 new offers, most of them going to players in the 2028 and 2029 classes. Then the 2027 class added two more commitments in the days that followed, first from defensive back Brennan Drummond and then from in-state offensive lineman Barrett Kitrell.

That is a pretty good snapshot of where Nebraska is right now, but there’s more to discuss. Let’s dive in.

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Apologies in advance—I’m a uniform guy. When Nebraska’s alternate era began in 2012, I’d write impassioned breakdowns of every detail every year, why I thought things worked, why I thought they didn’t.

In more recent years, I’ve made a conscious effort to hide my uniform obsession some. I realized it was pretty obnoxious, offering so much detail when the majority of people seem to fall in a “I don’t care, just win” category. I also got an external push in that direction by simply getting older while alternate uniforms exploded. Good design quickly became less important than new design.

But when Nebraska unveiled the first major overhaul of its base uniforms since 2002,1 I knew I was coming out of retirement. As I wrote this on Sunday, I considered it a Father’s Day gift to myself.

Sorry about that. Here we go. Overlong obnoxiousness uploading…

The Untouchables

My base position on Nebraska football uniforms is the helmet logo is untouchable. Play with the colors if you must, but the football-N stays in the picture. For most of NU’s alternates to this point, that’s been standard practice, and I felt like a rational person.

For me, the sans serif, football-N isn’t just a personal preference—though I do prefer it over the iron-N—I have a reason. It’s easier if I just show you. See if you see what I see.

Among power conference schools, Nebraska’s skinny, boring, Netflix-esque N—Franklin Gothic, condensed, I think—is actually singular. The sport is stuffed with boring block letters, stylized school logos and mascots. Maybe the best way to picture this is in reverse. Take a classic block-letter helmet—say, Missouri—and make it like Nebraska’s.

Maybe you think that looks terrible. Maybe you think Nebraska’s helmet looks terrible. Point is, the football-N doesn’t look like anything else. Isn’t that worth something? Swap in the iron-N on the Husker helmets and they just become part of pack.

I spent most of 2026 worried this was exactly what Nebraska was going to do based on one sentence around the 48-minute mark from Matt Rhule’s final podcast of “Season 1.”

“There’s rumors out there that there might be the same iconic uniform, but sort of a refresh,” Rhule said in an interview with equipment manager Jay Terry.

Pretty sly, right? First, these obviously weren’t “rumors” to Rhule, not just stuff he heard while out and about in Lincoln. Second, it was preparation for what was to come with the uniform unveil Saturday. Clever placement, deep in the last episode after NU had just been rocked by Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Because I can only control my uni mania, not cure it, I became convinced this meant a switch to the iron-N on the helmets. NU had already obliterated the football-N in basically all other branding, and we were about to lose the only territory left.

But the helmet didn’t change with the uniform revamp, so there are still some things we hold dear. It was even called out specifically near the end of the press release about the new uniforms: “The iconic Nebraska helmet will not change, and the helmet stick N will also remain on the front of the pants.”

Thank you. I needed that.

My other untouchable with the uniforms is perhaps even more esoteric. About 20 years ago I noticed that blue-blood football programs tend to have at least one visual thing in common—single-color, block numbers. Think glorious gold on cardinal, maize on magnificent blue, white on burnt orange. If you’ve got a good color contrast, you don’t need an outline. Those are for the nouveau riche. Boise State and Oregon have outlines, and it works for them. If you are nouveau riche, do it. Don’t dress up like old money, be yourself.

If you need a refresher on the difference an outline can make, revisit the Huskers’ 2023 alternates. The blue outline was a nice nod2 to a moment from the past, but it took the jerseys from Nebraska to New England Patriots retro.

Luckily, the single-color numbers are still here, too. Block numbers? Not so much, but I can budge on that.

The Numbers

Nebraska’s uniform history is pretty deep with non-block numerals. There were the swirly, serifed numbers of the early Bob Devaney era, revived to great effect for a 2009 throwback. The numbers on the back of the Husker helmets have always been sans serif. The 2018 alternates used sans serif numbers on the uniforms that were based on the old Memorial Stadium clock, which was maybe the best thing about that kit.

Even without all of that, you could just argue that if the sans serif helmet is a must-have, similarly designed numbers provide better unity. Looking at the press images, it’ll take a little getting used to after so many years of block numerals, but I suspect I’ll come to like these better. And they’re still single-color.

TV numbers will also appear on the sleeves, which is a good use of jersey real estate.

Finally, there are a couple of practically invisible details in these new numbers. From the press release:

Embracing Nebraska’s agricultural heritage, the jersey number font draws inspiration from the numbers engraved on a steel anvil,3 and incorporates interior lines inspired by the crop rows that stretch across the state’s landscape, connecting the game-day uniform to the land that defines Nebraska.

I like the crop rows thing, even if it has already served its primary function by being just a detail in a press release. I’ve watched too much TV my whole life, and I’ve probably still spent more time looking at crop rows because it takes a long time to drive anywhere in Nebraska and the place is covered in crops.

The Stripes

UCLA changed football fashion forever in 1949 when it debuted a white-gold-white triple stripe encircling the shoulder, a motif that would become so popular that it basically screams FOOTBALL at this point. Nebraska had its UCLA Stripe era in the early 1970s, and those teams won some things, so there’s some heritage here.

Problem is, a classic UCLA Stripe has never worked on modern jersey templates. Not for UCLA. Not for Ole Miss. And now, not for Nebraska. You have to cut the stripe off awkwardly at chest level, and it just never looks right. The abrupt end forces you to wonder, “Hey, what happened to that stripe?” If the new TV numbers were a good use of real estate—because stripes4 don’t fit or, thus, look right there either—a UCLA Stripe is always a bad one. It’s not the stripe’s fault. It’s über traditional, but modern jerseys just aren’t. Resisting this fact is futile

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All of this is 10,000 times worse on the pants, where NU’s traditional stripe runs from calf to mid-thigh where, sadly, it died like two uncapped chisel-tip markers standing up. What justification5 could there be for this decision? Does it look better than, y’know, regular football pants?

Is it meant to be a very literal, very visual break with tradition? That probably wasn’t the intent, but it’s what these silly pants will represent to me for the length of their tenure. I can get behind the concept of “wrong design,” but this only seems like design for design’s sake.

Overall, I don’t hate this update to the uniforms. The shoulder stripes will continue to bother me, and I’ll seethe every Saturday at the pants, but my two untouchables remained untouched. That plain, boring helmet is still Nebraska’s plain, boring helmet, which is beautiful.

That only leaves one question: Why change the uniform at all?

You knew the answer to that before you read it in a press release, but here it is anyway:

“Recruiting is undeniably the lifeblood of competitive success, and young kids want to wear something sleek, modern, fast, and fashionable. These updates will give a cutting edge to the iconic Nebraska brand. We are proud of the final product and excited for the 2026 season,” Haven Fields, Deputy AD/Chief Operating Officer of Husker Athletics said.

Ahh, yes, it’s “the kids” justification. I don’t doubt there’s a kernel of truth there. I don’t think coaches around the country are lying when they say players ask about uniforms on official visits. I’m sure they do. But how strong is this truth? How much should it guide decision making?

I don’t know better than anyone else “knows.” We do know that Michigan, Texas, Alabama, USC, Penn State, LSU, Iowa, Kansas State, to name a few,6 have put out pretty good football teams year after year in this modern era. If I’m to buy the recruiting justification wholesale—or, worse, parrot that justification the next time I’m on the radio—I must then assume all those schools just listed don’t care about the kids and win anyway.

And what do you do with that? I don’t have a good answer there either, but I do know what you don’t do—never cut the stripes.

It never looks right.

Nebraska football will host Red Sea Rising on Saturday, which includes the second annual Battle of the Boneyard 7-on-7 Tournament and a special announcement to close the evening. The championship rounds begin inside Memorial Stadium around 7 p.m., with gates opening at 6. Tickets are free, the first 500 fans get an Adidas t-shirt and, for mid-June, it is not a bad reason to be back around the stadium.1

That is not the only thing happening though. Nebraska announced its 2026 Athletics Hall of Fame class, women’s basketball released a nonconference schedule with some real tests, Jillian Martin won another major bowling title, Axelina Johansson landed as a Honda Award finalist and the track and field teams closed the NCAA Outdoor Championships with two top-10 finishes.

Let’s get to it.

Nebraska announces its 2026 Hall of Fame class

Nebraska’s 2026 Athletics Hall of Fame class has a little bit of everything. The group includes Matt Hopper from baseball, Cassandra Leuthold from bowling, Dean Steinkuhler from football, Taylor Edwards from softball, Amber Holmquist from volleyball, Ineta Radevica from women’s track and field and former volleyball coach John Cook.

That is six former student-athletes and one coach, with Cook becoming the seventh head coach selected for the Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame.

The numbers are pretty strong across the board. The six student-athletes combined for 21 All-America honors, three individual NCAA titles and seven team national championships. Cook, of course, led Nebraska volleyball from 2000 to 2024 and finished his Husker coaching career with a 722-103 record, 14 conference titles and four national championships.

“When you look at the list of accomplishments for the members of this year’s Hall of Fame class, it is a reminder of how extraordinary it is to be selected for the Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame,” Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen said in a statement. “The individual accolades and team success the class achieved not only added to the rich history of Husker athletics, but these distinguished individuals serve as an inspiration for our current student-athletes and coaches. We look forward to welcoming each of them back to Lincoln and celebrating their legendary careers.”

The class will be inducted Friday, Oct. 2, then recognized the next day during Nebraska’s football game against Maryland.

Nebraska women’s basketball builds a challenging nonconference schedule

Nebraska women’s basketball’s nonconference schedule is officially set and it should give the Huskers a pretty good sense of where they stand before Big Ten play settles in.

The home highlight is Texas A&M on Dec. 12 at Pinnacle Bank Arena. The Aggies last saw Nebraska in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, when the Huskers won 61-59 in Corvallis. Texas A&M will be making its first trip to Lincoln since 2010, when No. 4 Nebraska beat No. 12 A&M.

Nebraska opens the regular season Nov. 2 against San Jose State in a mid-day game tied to the annual Sizemore Life Skills Sportsmanship Pep Rally. Western Illinois follows on Nov. 7 after winning the Ohio Valley Conference and reaching the NCAA Tournament last season. North Carolina A&T closes the opening three-game home stretch.

The first road test is technically a neutral-site one, but it will still have some regional weight. Nebraska will face Kansas at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls on Nov. 14. That will be the 87th meeting between the old conference rivals, and it gives the Huskers another game in South Dakota as Ashlyn Koupal begins her Nebraska career.

Nebraska also has a first-time matchup with Mount Saint Mary’s, its annual road game at Creighton, home dates with Kansas City, Omaha and North Dakota, and a Dec. 20 game against Cal at Chase Center in San Francisco.

There is enough balance here to like. Nebraska gets manageable home games, a rivalry game with Creighton, a former Big 12 opponent in Kansas, an SEC opponent in Texas A&M and an ACC opponent in Cal. It won’t be easy, but it has a lot of potential to set the Huskers up for success.

Jillian Martin wins the U.S. Women’s Open

Nebraska bowling has another major professional moment to celebrate. Jillian Martin won the 2026 Go Bowling U.S. Women’s Open on Tuesday, climbing the stepladder from the No. 4 seed and winning four straight matches to claim the title.

Martin entered the finals with a 12-12 record, then beat Jordan Snodgrass, Diana Zavjalova, Dasha Kovalova and Li Jane Sin to finish 16-12. Over 60 games, she totaled 12,773 pins and averaged 206.87.

The win came with the eagle trophy, the green jacket and a $60,000 prize.

It is Martin’s fourth Professional Women’s Bowling Association Tour title and her second major, joining her 2024 United States Bowling Congress Queens championship.

Nebraska bowling has never exactly lacked high-end talent, but Martin continues to build a résumé that is becoming harder and harder to gloss over. Winning four matches in one night at a major is not just about talent. It takes stamina, accuracy and the ability to handle pressure as every round gets a little bigger. Martin had all of it Tuesday.

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Axelina Johansson is a Honda Award finalist

Axelina Johansson’s Nebraska career already had a pretty strong closing statement, but she added another national honor this week. Johansson was named one of four finalists for the 2026 Honda Sport Award for track and field, joining Georgia’s Adaejah Hodge and Dejanea Oakley and Arkansas’ Sanu Jallow-Lockhart.

The honor comes after Johansson capped her senior season with the 2026 NCAA outdoor shot put title. She won it with a meet-record throw, after already producing the second-best mark in NCAA history to win the Big Ten title. That is a pretty good postseason.

Johansson finishes her Nebraska career as a four-time NCAA champion, eight-time All-American and six-time Big Ten champion. She was also a two-time Big Ten Field Athlete of the Year and three-time USTFCCCA Midwest Region Field Athlete of the Year.

The Honda Sport Award winner for track and field will be announced this week. The winner becomes a finalist for Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and the 2026 Honda Cup, which will be presented July 27.

Nebraska already saw Jordy Frahm win the Honda Award for softball this year. Johansson now has a chance to add another Husker name to the list.

Nebraska track and field finishes strong in Eugene

Nebraska track and field wrapped up the NCAA Outdoor Championships with both teams in the top 10.

The women tied for eighth with 27 points, a major jump from last year’s 26th-place finish. The men finished ninth with 28 points, their best outdoor finish since 2003.

On the women’s side, Karsyn Leeling and Ela Velepec both cleared lifetime bests in the high jump, tying for fourth at 1.90 meters. That mark is tied for second in school history. Velepec cleared two personal bests along the way, while Leeling improved on the mark she had set earlier this season.

Kelsie Belquist added a fifth-place finish in the women’s 400-meter hurdles, earning first-team All-America honors in her first year competing in the event. She had already set the school record earlier this season at the NCAA West First Rounds.

For the men, Aleksandr Gerasimov cleared 2.16 meters in the high jump and finished 12th in his first outdoor nationals appearance, earning second-team All-America honors. Amelia Flynt closed her career with honorable mention All-America recognition in the discus after finishing 21st.

Nebraska had individual stars but the team finishes are the larger point. Top-10 national finishes on both sides are not small things, especially with the women making that kind of year-over-year jump and the men reaching their best finish in more than two decades.