The Weekly Rundown: That championship feeling

We hit on Nebraska’s Big Ten Baseball championship and more as we kick things off on Monday with our Weekly Rundown.

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

The Dave Horn blueprint: In 1999 Dave Van Horn showed everyone how it can be done at Nebraska, and he’s still doing it today at Arkansas, where he has the Razorbacks ranked No. 1 in the country.

One of Van Horn’s prized pupils in Will Bolt has taken what he learned both as a player and coach and has the Huskers playing their best baseball arguably since 2008. Van Horn got the most out of his guys and, most importantly, got them to believe. Bolt has done that same thing, and this team plays a style of baseball Husker fans are proud of. Wrapping up the Big Ten title on Sunday was a nice surprise.

Massive crowds at Haymarket Park this weekend: I know it’s Memorial Day weekend, graduation party time and wedding season, but I expect huge crowds at Haymarket Park for all three Michigan games. The noon game on Friday will be interesting, as it’s the start of a holiday weekend. NU will allow 8,095 tickets to be sold per game, which is about 92 to 93 percent capacity. They will still leave a four-row buffer on the seats surrounding the field. Tickets go on sale Tuesday at 10 am for season ticket holders and 1 pm for the general public.

Ireland in 2022: This was a long time coming. The bottom line is John Anthony and the organizers of the Aer Lingus Classic want Nebraska. Northwestern is also tired of having 25,000 Husker fans invade Evanston every year. I’ve got news for you, though, it will be the same set-up in Dublin in 2022, just across the pond. A lot of NU fans will make this trip.

A Garth Brooks sellout: I called for it in my 3-2-1 column and it wasn’t even close. Garth Brooks sold 83,000 tickets in less than 90 minutes on Friday. This will be quite possibly the largest gathering in the United State since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

These were my surprises of the week:

NU’s 2019 running back class: Nebraska signed Dedrick Mills, Ronald Thompkins and Rahmir Johnson in their 2019 running back class. They got some production from Mills over two seasons, Thompkins just went in the transfer portal, and Johnson appears to be towards the back of the line in the running back race right now.

What’s interesting about that cycle is NU chose to take Thompkins’s commit on June 15, 2018. Husker legacy and current Heisman candidate Breece Hall committed to Iowa State on June 28, 2018. The way that all played out, the tea leaves read the Huskers took the Thompkins commit, which led Hall to Iowa State. In June of 2018 Scott Frost had a lot of buzz going, while Matt Campbell at ISU was on the rise, but not at the where he’s at today.

That will always be one of those “what if” moments. What if NU pushed for Hall’s commit instead of Thompkins?

9-1 since being swept vs. Rutgers: Nebraska fans have been used to being disappointed the last several years. After the home sweep vs. Rutgers, I’m not sure anybody could’ve predicted we’d see the Huskers go 9-1 since that stretch.

Rob Childress being pushed out at Texas A&M: I fully understand Rob Childress had a down season in 2021, but before that, he made 13 consecutive regionals. It’s pretty remarkable that type of run doesn’t buy you one rebuilding year. It also is a snap shot of the pressure within the SEC.

Questions still surround these things:

Ticket renewal numbers: We should get a pretty good idea this week about the future of the Nebraska sellout streak. Season ticket renewals are due by today. After that, we’ll know how many seats turned over from the 2019 season – the last year NU sold season tickets.

Big Ten baseball NCAA regional spots: The NCAA already gave us a potential taste of what selection Monday might look like for Big Ten baseball. Only three Big Ten softball teams made the NCAA tournament, and league champion Michigan got a horrible draw. Will Big Ten baseball face a similar fate? Getting three in the field seems like a safe bet, four is the best-case scenario.

Will Jaren Kanak consider Nebraska still?: We all knew Hays (Kan.) product Jaren Kanak had big-time potential, but nobody could’ve predicted he would add Oklahoma, Alabama and Georgia offers in a 24-hour span. The bottom line is, guys like Nick Saban find 10.37 speed. That will get anybody’s attention.

Now the question is will he make his way back to Lincoln for a visit, or did this past week change that?

Moving forward, this has my attention:

The future of NIL: A few things this past week really had me thinking about the future of name, image and likeness.

Adrian Martinez launching his podcast was the first real domino we’ve seen fall with a Nebraska football player. He’s building up an audience and a brand, which will pave the way to future revenue opportunities once NIL is fully passed by the NCAA.

Even Husker volleyball player Lexi Sun coming back for another season grabs my attention. She has 75,300 Instagram followers and nearly 13,000 Twitter followers. She potentially has as much to gain on NIL as any Husker student-athlete. She has the largest Instagram following at NU, and another year here will strengthen her brand that much more.

A Bud Crawford fight in Memorial Stadium: We saw what the Garth Brooks concert did this past week in ticket sales. How about a Bud Crawford title fight in Memorial Stadium next summer? That would be an incredible scene seeing him come out of the tunnel.

State track standouts: The state track meet in Omaha wrapped up this past Saturday. As a football guy, these were a few people that caught my attention:

–LB Devon Jackson: The Omaha Burke standout won the all-class gold in the 100 and 200 with times of 10.57 and and 21.63 seconds. In comparison, Ahman Green ran 10.61 his senior year in high school.

-RB L.J. Richardson: The Bellevue West running back ran 10.88 seconds. You have to think he’s going to play himself into an FBS offer sooner, rather than later.

-QB Cooper Hausmann: He ran 10.94 and 22.53 seconds in the 100/200 this weekend, along with clearing 6-foot-4 in the high jump. That type of athletic ability will get the attention of any coach.

-OL Aidan Betz: The 2023 offensive lineman from Elkhorn threw 51-5 in the shot put.

-OL Gage Griffith: The Aurora prospect won the Class B shot put with a mark of 55-8 1/4.