Friday Five: Alumni matches, Aussie punters and a six-goal soccer start

Fall sports season is officially in gear, and Nebraska fans are already spoiled for storylines. Seriously.

Nebraska takes the court ahead of the Red-White Scrimmage. (Photo by Erin Sorensen)

Fall sports season is officially in gear, and Nebraska fans are already spoiled for storylines. (I’m being serious when I say this too. It’s been quite the week for stories.)

Volleyball will get one more preseason look this weekend, this time against some very familiar faces. Football introduced its new punter to the world, soccer opened with a scoring outburst and we’ve got early bowl projections and a notable college apparel move with a Husker connection. 

Let’s dive in.

Old friends, new opponent

What started as a casual spring brainstorm turned into a first for Nebraska volleyball: an alumni exhibition match. The Red-White Scrimmage has long been the last preseason tune-up, but Dani Busboom Kelly and her staff wanted more live competition to break up fall camp.

That’s where assistant Kelly (Hunter) Natter came in: part recruiter, part event organizer, part cell phone MVP. She worked her contacts across multiple Husker eras, pulling together a roster that includes Jordan Larson, Kenzie Maloney Hoppes, Annika Albrecht Moulder, Ally Batenhorst, Lindsay Krause, Leyla Blackwell, Callie Schwarzenbach and Gina (Mancuso) Prososki.

For the current Huskers, it’s another opportunity to see a real opponent before the Aug. 22 season opener against No. 3 Pittsburgh.

“We’ll look at some potential lineups and be able to make changes within those lineups that we’d potentially make the following weekend,” Busboom Kelly said. “It’s an exhibition against another team that a lot of programs do this time of year. This is our version of that, except it’s against alumni, which makes it more fun for our fans.”

Harper Murray admitted she didn’t think the alumni match would actually happen when she first heard about it during beach season. Now she’s ready to see—and feel—what a consistent lineup looks like before the real games begin.

“You want to scrimmage because you want to see what lineups go well, who passes next to each other well, who can block together,” Murray said.

The match will follow a best-three-of-five format. Some alumni may hope it’s a quick night. As for Busboom Kelly? 

“I’m secretly hoping for a four-setter,” she said.

Meet Archie Wilson

Archie Wilson hasn’t played in a college football game yet, but he’s already a team favorite and now a viral story. The 19-year-old Australian punter has been in Lincoln for just two months, but Matt Rhule calls him “one of the coolest dudes around” and “the most interesting man in the world.”

Wilson punts with either foot, can run, can throw and, apparently, can sing. He “crushed” Billy Joel’s Piano Man at a team event earlier this month. On Tuesday, he charmed the media with a mix of humor and humility, then fought back tears talking about being half a world away from his family. The clip made national TV and has been shared all over social media.

“They know this is what’s best for me,” Wilson said of his parents and two younger brothers.

Special teams coordinator Mike Ekeler found Wilson through Prokick Australia, the same pipeline that produced NFL punters and former Iowa star Tory Taylor. Ekeler calls him a “weapon” and expects him to be a difference-maker in Nebraska’s new rugby-style punting scheme.

“Absolutely, positively, everything about (Wilson) was what I was looking for,” Ekeler said.

Nebraska’s special teams struggled in close games last season. Wilson, who opens his career Aug. 28 against Cincinnati at Arrowhead Stadium, plans to change that. 

“Ideally, I don’t have to punt much,” he said. “But if they do need me on the field, I’m really excited to go out there and kick some.”

An early bowl forecast

It’s mid-August, but CBSSports already has Nebraska penciled in for a New Year’s Eve bowl trip. Their latest projections send the Huskers to Tampa for the ReliaQuest Bowl to face South Carolina.

The Gamecocks, picked fifth in the SEC preseason poll, return first-team All-SEC quarterback LaNorris Sellers and are coming off a 9-4 season. They checked in at No. 13 in the AP preseason poll this week.

Nebraska holds a 3-1 edge in the all-time series, but South Carolina won the most recent meeting, a 30-13 decision in the 2012 Capital One Bowl. A December matchup in Florida would mark the Huskers’ second straight bowl trip after last year’s Pinstripe Bowl win over Boston College and a chance to level up the postseason stage.

Soccer starts with a statement

Nebraska soccer opened its season Thursday with its most lopsided win since 1996, a 6-0 rout of Southern Indiana at Barbara Hibner Stadium. Five different Huskers scored, led by Kayma Carpenter’s two-goal night that included the game-winner just 83 seconds in.

Nebraska outshot the Screaming Eagles 24-6, held an 11-4 edge in shots on goal, and dominated corner kicks 8-2. Sadie Sant racked up three assists, while Ella Rudney, Sadie Waite, Ellie Felt and Ava Makovicka all found the net.

Carpenter struck again less than a minute into the second half, Waite buried one in the bottom corner, and Felt and Makovicka capped the scoring. Goalkeeper Maddy Osborn got the win, with Cece Villa making three saves in relief.

Nebraska hosts Missouri State on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. CT, streaming on B1G+.

Adidas lands another big brand

Tennessee is heading back to Adidas after a decade with Nike, making the Vols the latest major program to leave Under Armour or Nike for the three stripes. Nebraska, which signed an 11-year, $128 million deal with Adidas in 2017, has been one of the brand’s flagship schools for years.

The Knoxville News reported that Tennessee will now be Adidas’ “flagship program,” similar to Oregon’s relationship with Nike, and that the deal will include exclusive NIL opportunities for Vol athletes on top of a $20.5 million annual revenue share.

With recent moves by Texas Tech (Under Armour to Adidas) and now Tennessee, the market is shifting and Nebraska’s contract has built-in “look-in” points that could allow for renegotiation before 2028. A Tennessee deal of this size may set the floor for what the Huskers can command next.

The final word before the weekend

Between volleyball’s alumni match, a punter with flair and soccer’s early fireworks, this week was a reminder that fall sports at Nebraska rarely ease into the schedule. The first regular-season matchups for football and volleyball are still days away but the storylines are already rolling. 

And in less than two weeks, they’ll start counting in the standings.