Everybody here wanted something more

The reality of bowl games today, a punchy volleyball tournament and too much Nebraska-adjacent news from Florida.

Courtesy Nebraska Athletics

You should know this before you continue reading: I’m not a big believer in bowl games.

They’re great, to be clear. I’ll watch as many as I can. In certain situations, they’re even important contextually. Having not made a bowl since 2016, Nebraska is in one of those certain situations.

I don’t think there are too many bowls because I assign no weight to bowl games that don’t help determine the national champion. I felt this way long before opts out were a thing, much less the transfer portal. There was always just something about having to ride a roller coaster or have a photo op with an orca and getting a free PlayStation and getting three weeks to prepare that made bowl games feel fairly divorced from the reality of what it took to win games in the regular season.

So, I view most of these games as holiday bonuses that show up on a weekday at noon for devoted football fans, and that has made them pretty great. Not putting any stock in what happens in a bowl game is the key to enjoying them all.

That said, Nebraska’s Dec. 28 matchup with Boston College (11 a.m. CT) in the Pinstripe Bowl has the potential to be comparatively good. The Huskers have had a flood of players enter the transfer portal amid coaching changes and the looming 105-man roster cap, but they’re also in the unique position—given the seven-season bowl drought—of having some veterans who would otherwise be obvious opt-out candidates potentially playing. You can expect Nebraska to be invested in this game.

Boston College is coming off a 7-5 season in its first year under head coach Bill O’Brien. The Eagles haven’t been hit too hard by transfers so far, and why would they? Things are trending up in Chestnut Hill. You can expect Boston College to be invested in this game, and ultimately that’s the makings of a good bowl game regardless of time, date and setting—two teams who actually care about the thing.

And it should be a pretty good game. Geographically, Matt Rhule gets to return to the city he lived much of his young life and Nebraska returns to the city of Bob Devaney’s first bowl win, a 36-34 Gotham Bowl victory over Miami. On the BC side, having lived in Boston¹ for a decade and having a completely irrational attachment to the city because it’s where my life shifted from what it was to what it is, I can tell you with authority that Bostonians’ favorite city is New York and their favorite place in their favorite city is Yankee Stadium. Eagle fans might flock there.

On a more serious football note—and we’ll have a real breakdown of this game closer to kickoff—Boston College is tough and on more of a free-roll than Nebraska. The early line had the Huskers -3.5, but FPI would project the Huskers (41st) by just 1.5 over the Eagles (48th). McIllece Sports would favor Boston College (33rd) by 6.5 over Nebraska (52nd).²

A Little Loose

The NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament is annually one of the chalkiest big-field events you’ll find, but this year’s tournament has offered a bit of craziness. Regional 5-seed BYU didn’t just get bounced in the first round, it was swept by Loyola Chicago in the Louisville bracket. Six-seed Florida beat 3-seed Kansas to make the third round in that group, and 1-seed Louisville came really close to not making it to Louisville for the championship rounds. The Cardinals needed a 22-20 fifth-set win over Northern Iowa to make it out of the first weekend. The Panthers had four straight service errors with the set tied in the fifth.

Two-seed SMU—which beat Pittsburgh and Nebraska this season, the top two overall seeds in the tournament—was beaten in the second round by 7-seed Missouri³ in the Pittsburgh bracket. The Penn State bracket saw mild upsets in 7-seed Florida State losing to unseeded Mississippi in the first round and 5-seed Marquette knocking off 4-seed Utah in the second.

Courtesy Nebraska Athletics

In Nebraska’s bracket, the Huskers made quick work of Florida A&M and 8-seed Miami to earn a spot in and hosting honors for the next round. The Huskers will face 5-seed Dayton, which beat 4-seed Baylor in Waco. The other two teams visiting Lincoln are familiar foe Wisconsin, the 2-seed in this bracket, which will face 6-seed Texas A&M. The Aggies beat 3-seed Arizona State in one of the more surprising results so far.

Wisconsin and Texas A&M play at 6 p.m. CT at the Devaney Center Friday night with Huskers-Flyers set to start 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first match.

Will this mark Trev Alberts return to Lincoln? We shall see.

Florida Corner

For the first time in the history of this Nebraska newsletter, we have enough items for a Florida-only⁴ section, and that’s excluding volleyball’s two wins over teams from that state.

• How much has college football changed in recent years? Well, UCF’s head coach, Gus Malzahn, resigned to become Florida State’s offensive coordinator. It’s a slightly lower rent version of Chip Kelly’s move last offseason, but still unique. The Knights, long considered one of the sneaky good jobs in the sport, responded by hiring a sub-.500 coach with one winning season. Yes, Scott Frost is leading the UCF program again. If nothing else, it’s fascinating because you could convince me almost anything is possible here. I could see Frost reigniting his career, turning UCF into a Big 12 heavyweight and never needing to look for another job. I could also see a more Nebraska-like outcome, so I turn it over to you…

• If Florida State recovers from its wild swing from 13-1 in 2023 to 2-10 in 2024, does Matt Rhule get at least partial credit? In addition to snagging defensive coordinator Tony White and defensive line coach Terrence Knighton, the Seminoles also added former Husker defensive backs coach Evan Cooper. He was an essential part of Nebraska’s operation, particularly in recruiting and talent evaluation, and now the Huskers will have to go against him for Florida prospects. The garnet-and-gold suddenly feel pretty scarlet, and that’s before we even know how many former Huskers might suit up for FSU in 2025.

• Speaking of, Nebraska lost another defender⁵ to the portal with defensive back Dwight Bootle II—from Miami—announcing his departure Sunday. The younger brother of Dicaprio Bootle, Dwight was close to playing serious snaps as a true freshman in 2023 before an injury ended that bid. He was not a factor in the secondary in 2024.

1. I lived most of my time in Boston just a couple of blocks away from BC and I would bike by the Eagles’ stadium a couple of times a week on my way to work. Coming from Nebraska, I was always shocked at how it never felt like college football was happening there. Not even on game days.

2. Musical accompaniment for the headline by the one and only.

3. It was a good two rounds for the SEC, which is normally an also-ran when it comes to volleyball.

4. Bonus musical accompaniment for this post courtesy of the one and only business partner I have in this, Erin. I didn’t have the guts to title this section “And my friends all smell like weed or little babies,” but I would like to acknowledge that’s a good line. And acknowledge the end of The Eras Tour.

5. Not Florida, but defensive lineman Brodie Tagaloa is also transferring. The tight end signee in the 2022 class switched to defensive line upon Rhule’s arrival, suffered an injury in 2023 and appeared in one game this season.