Nebraska is just two weeks away from the start of spring. We set that stage for that and more in today’s Rundown.

Nebraska is just two weeks away from the start of spring practice. We set that stage for that and more in today’s Weekly Rundown column.

You have to feel pretty good about these things right now:

Alcohol at Husker sporting events: Step 1 happened on Friday. The Nebraska Board of Regents voted unanimously to allow alcohol inside Pinnacle Bank Arena for the Big Ten Wrestling Tournament in March.

What is Step 2? Possibly alcohol at Haymarket Park by this season for Husker baseball? Then maybe alcohol sales in PBA for men’s and women’s basketball in 2022-23?

Obviously, the big question remains around Husker football. I think it’s safe to say Haymarket Park and Pinnacle Bank Arena will have alcohol sales at Husker events before we see it in Memorial Stadium.

A lot of it could also be tied to down the road once Athletic Director Trev Alberts announces the future plans for the stadium and what kind of new amenities might be added.

This was a big hurdle, though, and really going back all the way to last summer with the hosting of the Garth Brooks concert. That event at least gave the Athletic Department a starting point. That was the Bar Rescue “stress test” on how the stadium could handle 90,000 fans and over 125,000 25 oz tallboy beer cans sold over the course of a few hours. We learned that night the stadium has a long way to go in order to get up to speed for that level.

WR’s coach Mickey Joseph: I had the opportunity to host the St. Michael’s Husker Night in Lincoln this past Thursday with featured speaker Mickey Joseph.

It was the first time I spent extensive time around Joseph, but after seeing him in action and breaking down the recruiting class film with him, I was amazed by his engaging personality and love for Nebraska. The sold-out crowd of over 400 people broke out in applause multiple times for Joseph as he shared his thoughts on Nebraska.

If you haven’t gone before, I highly encourage you to attend the St. Michael’s Husker Night. I’ve done well over a hundred events like this over the last 15 years, and it has become the biggest and the one that delivers the most content to the fans. With Joseph doing the recruiting class film breakdown with me, it also reminded me of what the great recruiting diners in Omaha used to be when over 1,000 people attended. I think Joseph was absolutely amazed to see over 400 people in attendance coming off a 3-9 season.

WR transfer Trey Palmer: Two words describe LSU wide receiver transfer Trey Palmer – speed and swagger.

Joseph shared with me the other night they actually clocked Palmer at 10.31 seconds in the 100-meter dash. Another interesting nugget about Palmer is he was one heck of a baseball player as a shortstop. In high school, the Los Angeles Dodgers highly considered signing him, according to Joseph.

Zac Taylor: He’s one of the most accomplished Nebraska football players on offense in the last 20 years. He’s the school’s last conference offensive player of the year, and what he accomplished this football season as the Bengals head coach was special.

I’ve never met a person that’s had a bad thing to say about Taylor. Credit the Bengals for believing in Taylor and sticking with him. He came up short in the Super Bowl, but his name is now on the map forever. This is just the start for Taylor and Joe Burrow.

These were my surprises of the week:

Friday night at Rutgers: Schedule changes are always a possibility within the Big Ten. When you see Nebraska playing on the road in September or October at venues like Illinois, Maryland, Indiana or Rutgers, you almost have to assume there’s a chance the game could be moved to Fright a night.

In all honesty, I don’t a lot of Husker fans have a problem with playing at Rutgers on a Friday night. It will give a lot of people an extended weekend potentially in New York City.

The entire staff at the Omaha and Lincoln coaches meetings: Nebraska head coach Scott Frost and his entire coaching staff attended the Omaha Metro Coaches Association meeting this past week and they will be at the Lincoln Coaches meeting as well.

It’s clear Frost is trying to get out more in front of the local coaches, but most importantly, he is getting his five new assistant coach hires out in front of them as well.

Added size in the secondary: When you see guys like safeties DeShon Singleton and Javier Morton and cornerback Tommi Hill in person, it’s clear recruiting size in the back end was a priority for Travis Fisher.

I am hearing great things right now about the potential of both Hill and Singleton this spring.

Questions still surround these things:

A Memorial Stadium reseat: HuskerOnline’s Steve Rosen wrote a very interesting article talking about Memorial Stadium’s seat-grandfathering system that really no other stadium in college football does other than Nebraska.

You get the sense Athletic Director Trev Alberts is looking at changing this system, which in turn would lower donations across the board and allow more new blood access to better seats at Memorial Stadium with lower seat donations in a more uniform system.

This topic is met with great debate, as those that have been locked in as early as the 1960s with little to no donation want to keep it that way. Where on the flip side, younger fans that don’t have the luxury of family tickets must pay several thousand dollars more for those exact same seats. The new system would create level donations for all ticket holders, which is in line with the rest of the conference. There is no winning answer here for Alberts, but you get the sense NU is leaning towards going in the direction of what every other stadium in the country does vs. their current system.

Nebraska’s new-look offense: We are two weeks away from the start of spring practice. What will Mark Whipple’s new-look Husker offense look like? I have the feeling we are going to see much more of a controlled passing game built in that can give the offense more balance.

Moving forward, this has my attention:

Vanderbilt OL Tyler Steen: Nebraska remains in the market for a transfer portal offensive lineman. The leading candidate today is Vanderbilt left tackle Tyler Steen, who has been a three-year starter and who’s logged 2,216 snaps from 2019 to 2021.

If NU can land Steen, it might give new offensive line coach Donovan Raiola the flexibility to move someone like Turner Corcoran possibly to center. The bottom line is the best five will play and that will be Raiola’s job to navigate through in the coming months.

TCU pass rusher Ochaun Mathis: Nebraska still remains in the hunt for TCU pass rusher Ochaun Mathis in the transfer portal. He is expected to name his top five any time. Will the Huskers crack the list?

2023 Creighton Prep OL Sam Sledge: When you talk about “most logical next commits,” 2023 Omaha Creighton Prep offensive lineman Sam Sledge is who I’m watching.

Everything about him just makes sense. He’s an in-state legacy player whom Raiola has handpicked as his guy. I personally was surprised Sledge wasn’t offered last summer by Greg Austin after The Pipeline camp. He is the quintessential Nebraska offensive lineman. The combination of him and Gunnar Gottula would really get things going on the offensive line after only signing one high school player a year ago.

Aug. 27, 2022: The next football game of significance that will be played in the world features Nebraska vs. Northwestern in Dublin, Ireland.

It’s hard to believe the next time anywhere we’ll see a ball kicked off at the NCAA or NFL level will be in Aviva Stadium.

Sean Callahan can be reached at sean@huskeronline.com and he can be heard each day at 6:45 am and 5:05 pm on Big Red Radio 1110 KFAB in Omaha during the football season. He can also be seen on KETV Channel 7 in Omaha during the fall and each week he appears on NET’s Big Red Wrap-Tuesday’s at 7 pm.