Nebraska gets its bowl practices underway today, using its new indoor practice facility. These would be the extra practices that didn't happen after last year's team wasn't eligible for a bowl game, extra practices that the elite football programs get almost every year to develop young players and sharpen everybody's work habits.

Mark Snyder of the Freep had a piece that will get just about everybody caught up with what the Huskers have been up to under their still new-ish coach.

While Carr can draw on Rose Bowl berths the past two years, Callahan is just starting to find a rhythm for the Big Red.
"The biggest challenge has been selling our system, style and philosophy of what we want to get accomplished," said Callahan, in his second year after replacing Frank Solich. "It's been a flip of culture in the way we do things, along the lines of practice scheduling and an emphasis on what we do in practice. Offensively, we made a dramatic change from option to a pro system, and there's quite a difference. I felt confident we've made strides."

A couple of good student columns up today:

DN: Robin Washut: Huskers have a lot to prove at Alamo Bowl

Nine years ago, this match-up would have been one for the ages. This season, it's little more than a consolation game for two teams with above-average records. ...

The Cornhuskers and Wolverines will enter the Alamo Bowl from two completely different spectrums. [Um: Spectrums? Are you sure?] ...

When it all comes down to it, the Huskers will have to compensate for one of Michigan's biggest advantages, which, conversely, has at times been one of Nebraska's biggest weaknesses. More often than not, the Wolverines simply don't make mistakes. They are the least-penalized team in college football -- being flagged for just 42 penalties for 333 yards this season -- and they have committed only 15 turnovers to rank 11th nationally.

TMD: Stephanie Wright: Public coaches' polls make for fun

And then there's Indiana's Terry Hoeppner, Arkansas's Houston Nutt and Northwestern's Randy Walker. Using a methodology only they can truly understand, those three coaches ranked the Wolverines 14th, 15th and 16th, respectively. ... Their ballots make one thing clear: If a decent team destroys your squad, you're probably going to inflate its ranking. As for Nutt ... his last name seems to say it all.

... And I guess [Troy State's Larry] Blakeney's placement of Nebraska at No. 24 indicates that his money is on the Cornhuskers come Dec. 28. His ranking exemplifies an additional norm of balloting: If you don't coach in one of the BCS conferences, you have permission to make your ballot a little off-the-wall.

A couple of other links to pass along:

Collegefootballnews.com ran through the beautifulness of each bowl matchup: "Nebraska’s passing game just started to hit its stride by the end of the year, while Michigan should be fully healthy and ready to show off all of its firepower. ... Nebraska, and head coach Bill Callahan, desperately needs a big win to show the program is headed in the right direction."

HawkeyeNation.com explains (in somewhat excrutiating, domino-filled detail) how Iowa got its fourth straight January bowl game and sent Michigan to Texas: "Michigan’s history may have done them in; they don’t travel well in years when they lose to Ohio State. Iowa travels well every year."

[Those last two via The Diag.]

This entry was posted in the following categories: Alamo Bowl 2005, Michigan, Michigan Football