Friday Five: Ty Robinson almost ran 17 miles per hour
That's fast.
Welcome to the Friday Five, a series that has potential to become a weekly deal but also may not. It has yet to be determined.
However, the reason we are here today with this format is simply because I have too much going on in my head and no clear direction. That means we need a recap or a rundown of sorts to cover it all. Hence, the Friday Five.
If you like this series, let me know. If you don’t, keep it to yourself. I don’t have the capacity this week for criticism.
Let’s get to it.
So, Ty Robinson is fast.
Thursday marked the opening day of the 2025 NFL Combine in Indianapolis, and it turned out to be a pretty solid day for Nebraska defensive lineman Ty Robinson. More specifically, Robinson registered a 4.83u 40. Pretty impressive for someone listed at 6-foot-5 and 288 pounds.
Even more impressive? Robinson’s 40-yard dash time ranked him the fastest among the defensive tackles at the combine. He also finished third among the d-tackles with a 1.71 second 10-yard split time.
Robinson is one of four Nebraska players invited to participate in this year’s event, alongside wide receiver Isaiah Neyor, tight end Thomas Fidone and defensive back Tommi Hill. Robinson was the only Husker to compete Thursday, with defensive linemen and linebackers participating on the first day. Defensive backs and tight ends will compete Friday, quarterbacks, wide receivers and running backs on Saturday, and offensive lineman on Sunday.
Needless to say, Robinson made a strong case for himself on Thursday. The NFL Draft is scheduled for April 24-26 in Green Bay.
Maybe Pinnacle Bank Arena isn’t big enough?
Nebraska volleyball shared earlier this week that ticket sales would begin Thursday for the 2025 AVCA First Serve Showcase at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln Aug. 22-24.
The 2025 AVCA First Serve Showcase will feature 10 of the nation's top teams — Nebraska, Creighton, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Stanford, Florida, Kansas, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M and Minnesota. Eight of those 10 are set to play in Lincoln, with two matches scheduled each day on Aug. 22, Aug. 23 and Aug. 24 at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
What we knew was that a ticket presale event would begin Thursday at noon and end March 7. This specific presale was for three-day packages only. General public would then have access to tickets beginning Friday, March 14, ending April 11. Event organizers expected three-day packages and a limited number of two-day packages (Friday/Sunday for Nebraska fans) to be available at that point. If anything remained after, single-day tickets would be sold starting April 18.
Volleyball matches at PBA can hold just over 15,000 people, but apparently that wasn’t enough. Event organizers released a statement Thursday with an update on tickets sales:
“Due to an overwhelming demand for tickets to the AVCA First Serve in Lincoln, today's presale allotment of three-day tickets are sold out. The AVCA will make a follow-up announcement on Monday, March 3, regarding the next opportunity to purchase tickets.”
Ope.
It’ll be interesting to see what event organizers due now with demand and remaining tickets. Too late to move everything to Memorial Stadium?1
Speaking of Nebraska volleyball’s 2025 season . . .
The Big Ten announced the 2025 conference volleyball opponents on Thursday, and the biggest disappointment remains that Nebraska-Wisconsin is not a protected rivalry in the double-play group. Nebraska will only face Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State, home and away.
Nebraska will host Illinois, Iowa, Ohio State, Maryland, Northwestern, Washington and Oregon at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The Huskers will travel to Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Purdue, Rutgers, UCLA and USC.
One of the bigger takeaways is how tough Nebraska’s road opponents are. Five of the seven Nebraska is slotted to face on the road ended the 2024 season ranked: Penn State (1), Wisconsin (7), Minnesota (18), Purdue (9) and USC (24).
It certainly won’t be an easy first season for new head coach Dani Busboom Kelly, but a season in the Big Ten never is.
This could be cool.
Nebraska men’s basketball is planning to “Stripe the Vault” for the Huskers’ matchup with Minnesota on Saturday. It’s a cool concept, as long as it works out.
Nebraska put together a landing page on its website that allows fans attending to find their section and purchase gear in the corresponding color if needed. Students were told to check their emails for details on how those sections will be handled.
Something like this is always a bit of a gamble, because you’re ultimately relying on people to see and follow through on the instructions. Here’s hoping everyone does though, because it really could be a cool deal.
Defense, defense, defense.
Phil Snow, Nebraska’s new associate head coach, has plenty of experience as a defensive coach. He’s served in defensive roles with all kinds of teams, including a number of stops with coach Matt Rhule. That includes as Temple’s defensive coordinator and safeties coach from 2013-16, and Baylor’s defensive coordinator in 2017-19.2 He was also Rhule’s defensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers from 2020-22.
But don’t expect Snow to overstep with Nebraska’s defense. He was clear Wednesday that the defense is not his to call. That belongs to John Butler, who was elevated into the role of defensive coordinator for Nebraska last December.
“Coach Butler will call the defense,” Snow said. “But I will be involved in the game plan. It’s a collaborative thing, right? We all work together. But it will be Coach Butler’s defense, and we’re all working for him in that room.”
It works out too. Snow shared that Rhule previously tried to hire Snow in late 2022, but he wasn’t at a place to take on too big of a role.
“I just told him that at my age, I didn’t have the energy to go out and recruit and do the things that it took to be really successful, and I was really happy he hired (Tony) White as coordinator,” Snow said.
White has since departed for Florida State, as we all know, and now it’s Butler’s defense to operate. That likely means some changes here and there, which Snow mapped out on Wednesday.
“I think Tony did a fantastic job with that 3-3 package,” Snow said Wednesday. “I ran a 3-3 package at Baylor, it was different — different personnel. His is attacking. With all the different fronts — we didn’t play that many fronts here — but with all the movement it becomes a lot of different fronts. It’s really hard to block offensively. It’s a nightmare offensively, and Tony did a great job of adjusting and staying ahead of the offense every game.
“We’re going to employ all that stuff on first and second down; we’re going to hope to advance the third-down package so it’s a little bit more like the National Football League. We’ll advance the third-down package — coach Butler will.”
We are scheduled to hear from Butler on Tuesday, March 4 as Nebraska prepares for spring ball. It’ll be interesting to hear his side of things, especially now that we’ve heard a bit from Snow.
One last thing.
Today is the funeral of Greg Sharpe, the longtime voice of Nebraska football and baseball. I felt compelled to mention this because I’ve had people reach out to ask about memorials. The family has asked for memorials to be sent to the Nebraska Chapter of TeamMates Mentoring Program or to sports broadcasting scholarship funds at Kansas State University or the University of Nebraska.
Scholarship information:
The Greg Sharpe Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o The University of Nebraska Foundation
1010 Lincoln Mall, Suite 300
Lincoln, NE 68508
Make checks payable to the University of Nebraska Foundation or donate online here.
The Greg Sharpe Memorial Fund
Kansas State University Foundation
1800 Kimball Ave., Ste. 200
Manhattan, KS 66502
(Indicate fund M47492)
To make a gift online, go to www.ksufoundation.org/give/memorials
I’m kidding!
He added the role of safeties coach with Baylor in 2019.