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Omaha North’s Brandin Bryant Picks up Full Ride to Florida Atlantic

Will Cummings — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:37:39 +0000

Click Link for: Latest on Nebraska High School Football Class of 2012 Signing Day

Omaha North's Brandin Bryant earns way to the big show at Florida Atlantic.

Class of 2011 prospect Brandin Bryant, a 6-foot-2, 255 lbs. DE/LB who played at Omaha North High School, will sign a letter of intent to play for Carl Pelini at Florida Atlantic University.

Bryant played at Fort Scott Community College last season and said that he was recruited by FAU recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach Jeff Sims to play DE and OLB.

Bryant was not a high-profile recruit coming out of high school. In fact he was not selected to any of the all-state first or second teams. But to the discerning eye there was absolutely no doubt that if you watched him play – he was a bona fide division 1 talent.

Click here to view the article I wrote about Brandin for the release of his highlight video.

Bryant’s lack of recruitment and recognition came entirely from the fact that he didn’t’ always take things seriously – putting it politely. I mean to say that he likes to clown and joke around a lot is a huge understatement. And I can say that because I’ve known Brandin since he was about seven years old.

Consequently, Brandin constantly chided me about not putting him on the MHN Top 25 Prospect ranking and told me that he would get the last laugh and prove me and everyone else wrong! And so he has. But remember Brandin I did say that “the cream always raises to the top” and “someone is going to “lick this cream [you] up.”

We all just needed to see you take things just a little more seriously.

Now the Florida Atlantic University fans are about to get a taste of that “scrumdiddilyumptious” Nebraska bred cream.

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2012 Nebraska HS Walk-ons May be Pelini’s Best Class Yet

Will Cummings — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:20:59 +0000

No Letdown Here: Husker Football Program Continues to Collect the Best Talent in the State – Without Having to Pay a Dime for It!

Starting offensive linemen Spencer Long (left) and center Mike Caputo walked on from Nebraska high schools to play for the Huskers. Long graduated from Elkhorn HS in 2009 and Caputo from Millard North HS in 2007.

The allure of donning the white helmet embossed with that big red N and playing in front of eighty thousand plus screaming fans remains an intoxicating elixir. Even during the current hard economic times student athletes and their parent/guardians are willing to push aside – free – scholarship monies for the opportunity to – pay – for their education at Nebraska – just so long as they are able to wear that helmet.

Evidence of the power of “The Husker Pull” is the haul of outstanding Nebraska high school football players that Bo Pelini and his staff have managed to convince to walk-on at NU.

This may be Bo’s best Nebraska high school walk-on class yet with at least one of his catch, Dylan Utter, having in hand a D-1A offer from Army. In addition, several others in this class are holding D-1AA offers.

In my opinion the Nebraska high school walk-ons from the class of 2012 show more potential for successful development than any of Pelini’s previous walk-on classes. Impressive, considering that his previous walk-on classes feature players like Elkhorn’s Spencer Long (OL) and Trevor Roach (LB) who have already earned significant playing time.

**Nebraska HS Class of 2012**
**Preferred Husker Walk-ons**
Last Updated February 1, 2012 Ryker Fyfe, QB, 6-4, 195, Grand Island Dylan Utter, OL, 6-3, 300, Papillion-La Vista Sam Foltz, DB/P, 6-2, 190, Grand Island Trey Foster, DL, 6-3, 235, Lincoln Southeast Andy Janovich, LB, 6-1, 200, Gretna Graham Nabity, RB, 6-1, 200, Elkhorn Mitch McCann, LB/FB, 6-2, 225, Omaha Burke Brad Simpson, DB, 6-2, 205, Ralston Jordan Nelson, RB, 5-7, 175, Omaha Burke Carson Collins, RB, 5-10, 220, Omaha Burke Brandon Reilly, WR, 6-2, 180, Lincoln Southwest Ross Dzuris, TE, 6-4, 220, Plattsmouth Cole Chvatal, WR, 6-0, 180, Wahoo Bishop Neuman Garret Johns, OL, 6-2, 270, Auroa Jared Blum, TE/DE, 6-5, 235, Gretna Spencer Lindsay, K, 5-10-195, Kearney Taylor Hoffman, LB/FB, 6-1, 200, Oakland Craig

Click here to See Nebraska HS Football Class of 2012 Offer and Commitment List

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Do You Still Believe in Bo Pelini? Take the Poll

Will Cummings — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:01:53 +0000

Take the Poll: “Will Bo Pelini Ever Win a Big Ten Title at Nebraska?” Located at the bottom of this post.

Nebraska Cornhusker head football coach Bo Pelini.

Now that the college football season is over and Bo Pelini has completed his fourth year as Cornhuskers head coach, It’s a fitting time to ask the question “will Bo Pelini ever win a Big Ten championship at Nebraska?”

The 2011/2012 season started full of high expectations for Nebraska with many of the pundits picking them to win the Big Ten title in their inaugural season. However, in their first Big Ten contest at Wisconsin things quickly went south, a 17-48 beatdown. A timely injury to Ohio State QB Braxton Miller and gutsy come-from-behind performance by Taylor Martinez allowed the Huskers to escape another tick in the loss column. Later on, Northwestern soundly defeated Nebraska in Lincoln and the Michigan Wolverines drilled them 46-17 at the Big House.

The Huskers finished the 2011/2012 campaign with a 9-4 record, which included the program’s second consecutive blowout bowl loss: This time a 13-30 drubbing at the Capital One Bowl to Steve Spurrier’s South Carolina Gamecocks.

Mind you, in only his second year as the Huskers head coach, Frank Solich led Nebraka to its last conference title by winning the 1999 Big 12 Championship Game. During his next season, in 2000, Solich guided the Huskers to the 2001 BCS championship game, but he was fired in 2003 even after posting a 9-3 regular season mark.

In stark contrast Pelini has yet to win a conference championship or to even guide the program to an appearance in a BCS bowl game.

The Huskers coaching staff has been in a state of constant flux for the past two seasons: gone are offensive coordinator Shawn Watson and defensive coordinator Carl Pelini, along with stalwart position coaches Marvin Sanders and Mike Ekeler.

In replacing his coordinators, Pelini has chosen to look inwards to his current staff rather than locking in more experienced and/or proven coaching talent.

Newly appointed offensive coordinator Tim Beck struggled this past season trying to figure things out. More than likely the yet to be tested defensive coordinator John Papuchis will encounter a similar fate. Further complicating matters for Papuchis is that he will head a defense that loses All-Americans Alfonzo Dennard (DB) and Lavonte David (LB) and all-conference DT Jared Crick, painting a bleak picture for any aspirations of a Big Ten championship next season.

The Top Dogs in the Big Ten Look More Imposing, now, Than Ever

Brady Hoke has brought the Michigan football program back, Bret Bielema’s Wisconsin teams have proven to be consistently strong, Mark Dantonio’s Michigan Spartans are for real and the Ohio State Buckeyes are now led by Urban Meyer.

Looking at the aforementioned conference big dogs versus the current state of affairs at Nebraska, the Huskers place in Big Ten hierarchy could easily be found mired somewhere among the middle of the rest of the pack for the foreseeable future.

I was wrong about the Huskers winning the Big Ten in 2011, maybe I’m wrong now. Nonetheless, in my opinion, the window of opportunity for Bo Pelini to win a conference title was his last two years in the Big 12 and his first year in the Big Ten. It may be awhile before another window opens.

What do you think?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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Nebraska Class of 2012 Football Recruiting Looking Up!

Will Cummings — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 03:02:51 +0000

Three more Nebraskans receive “official“ D-1 offers. I quote the word “official” because months ago Papillion-La Vista’s Dylan Utter emailed MHN to inform that Army had made him an offer this past summer. However, as time went on, I became suspicious since no other recruiting source had reported this supposed offer (click here to read the MHN article). Good to see that it was legitimate.

In addition to Utter, big TE prospect Matt Miller, Omaha Skutt Catholic, also picked up an offer from Army and Omaha North WR Terry Grigsby got a nod from Ohio’s Frank Solich.

The recent offers bring the total number of – known – D-1A offered players in the class of 2012 to eight. Not bad. But there’s still more time for more!

Click here to see the latest class of 2012 recruiting updates.

Pictured at left: Omaha North’s Terry Grigsby Catches a Big One – a D-1A offer that is.

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MHN Needs Your Help

Will Cummings — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:40:35 +0000

In response to my ‘Goodbye World’ post on November 27, 2011

During the past four years, I’ve immensely enjoyed covering Nebraska’s top high school athletes through the myHitNews.com blog. However, due to current obligations as well as the development of future projects – at the present time – my free time is very limited. Therefore, I made a decision late last month to shutdown the site.

In hindsight, considering the wealth of information, articles, videos and images collected on MHN and the abundance of Google and other search engine hits for this information, I would be doing a disservice to many of the athletes, coaches, administrators and past contributors that have been featured in some shape or fashion on this site.

As a result I have decided not to shutdown MHN.

Yet to keep things fresh I need your help.

I need contributing authors who are willing to write occasional, weekly, and/or daily articles. Even onetime contributors are welcomed as long as you have a good take.

Pick your sport, pick your subject.

I would love to feature more high school sports especially girls.

If you are a good writer and want your own myHitNews sub domain to cover your sport or blog I can set it up free of charge with no monthly fees ever. If you want to spin-off into your own domain I can set you up with that, too. Of course, I’ll have to charge for that service.

You got pictures or a video you want the world to see? Send it. All contributions are welcomed.

Thanks for those that sent the kind words and encouragement.

Now please help keep MHN fresh.

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Goodbye World!

Will Cummings — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:07:36 +0000

This is the last post from myHitNews.com.

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Oh, I Was So Wrong: Nebraska Cornhuskers Go Backwards in 2011

Will Cummings — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 22:45:07 +0000

Alright, I was wrong when I first predicted – over a year ago – that the Huskers would win the Big Ten in their first year of conference play. Unfortunately, the Huskers have taken several steps backwards this season – from a good team to barely an average squad.

Bo Pelini’s star has fallen and the Blackshirts, well, the only black to their game this year resides underneath their swollen eyes from the pummeling delivered by opposing offenses.

The ballyhooed talent possessed by the trio of true freshmen running backs never materialized and a Husker offense built almost exclusively around the skills sets of Taylor Martinez and Rex Bulkhead were easy pickings for d-coordinators that had a modicum of talent around them to execute their game plans.

After a 7-24 loss to Northwestern at home and being clobbered 45-17 inside the Big House at Michigan, the Husker football program once again finds itself searching for answers.

Tom Osborne and Bo Pelini better not waste a single moment to come up with the right answers. NU needs to find solutions fast or the mighty Huskers may soon be headed on their way to becoming only the third best college football program in the region – behind Paul Rhoads’ exciting dragon-slaying Iowa State Cyclones and Kirk Ferentz’s steady NFL-player-producing Iowa Hawkeyes.

Nebraska vs. Iowa

The Huskers are already in danger of falling into the middle of the Big Ten football pecking order. They finish the regular season next Friday against border rival Iowa.

In my opinion, the 7-4 Hawkeyes are a better team than the 8-3 Huskers.

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Penn State: Joe Paterno, Administrators and University Deserve Worst

Will Cummings — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 01:45:40 +0000

Penn State Allows Monster to Remain on the Loose for Over a Decade

: Gerald “Jerry” Sandusky: Former college football coach and alleged pedophile used Penn State facilities and his charity organization for underprivileged kids to lure his victims.

After reading the Jerry Sandusky Grand Jury report, I do not have a shred of sympathy or empathy for any Penn State, coach or administrator who became aware of Sandusky’s unseemly conduct (the records show at least as early as 1996) yet allowed this vile pedophile to continue to have unfettered access to their facilities.

There is no doubt in my mind that the ugliest set of allegations in the history of college athletics will end up revealing an institution so caught up in protecting its image and football program that it was willing to allow a monster to continue to prey upon young boys.

The lurid and explicit details that the Grand Jury obtained from victims, under oath, on how Sandusky would go about seducing these young boys into performing sex acts, shows him to be a diabolical despicable human being who used his connections to Penn State and his Second Mile program for disadvantage youths to snare gullible underprivileged preadolescent and adolescent boys into his web of unrestrained lust.

The most demonstrative proof of Penn State’s culpability in all this and its obvious attempts to sweep this matter under the carpet can be found on page 12 of the Grand Jury report.

On page 12, the Grand Jury provides its conclusion regarding Victim 2 – the most infamous case of the 8 cases they investigated. Victim 2 is the 2002 shower incident where a, then, 28-year-old football graduate assistant, Mike McQueary, testified that he allegedly saw a, then, 58-year-old Sandusky in a Penn State shower stall performing anal sex on a boy he believed to be about 10 years old.

The evidence to just how seriously Penn State took this allegation of child rape is highlighted below in yellow, on page 12 of the Grand Jury report:

Victim 2: Jerry Sandusky Grand Jury Excerpts (Page 12, 13)

The Grand Jury concludes that the sexual assault of a minor male in 2002 should havebeen reported to the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare and/or a law enforcementagency such as the University Police or the Pennsylvania State Police. The University, by itssenior staff, Gary Schultz, Senior Vice President for Finance and Business and Tim Curley,Athletic Director, was notified by two different Penn State employees of the alleged sexualexploitation of that youth. Pennsylvania’s mandatory reporting statute for suspected child abuseis located at 23 Pa.C.S. §6311 (Child Protective Services Law) and provides that when a staffmember reports abuse, pursuant to statute, the person in charge of the school or institution hasthe responsibility and legal obligation to report or cause such a report to be made by telephoneand in writing within 48 hours to the Department of Public Welfare of the Commonwealth ofPennsylvania. An oral report should have been made to Centre County Children and YouthServices but none was made. Nor was there any attempt to investigate, to identify Victim 2 or toprotect that child or any others from similar conduct, except as related to preventing its reoccurrenceon University property. The failure to report is a violation of the law which wasgraded a summary offense in 2002, pursuant to 23 Pa.C.S. §6319²The Grand Jury finds that Tim Curley made a materially false statement under oath in anofficial proceeding on January 12,2011, when he testified before the 30th Statewide InvestigatingGrand Jury, relating to the 2002 incident, that he was not told by the graduate assistant thatSandusky was engaged in sexual conduct or anal sex with a boy in the Lasch Building showers.Furthermore, the Grand jury finds that Gary Schultz made a materially false statement

under oath in an official proceeding on January 12, 2011, when he testified before the 30rd

Statewide Investigating Grand Jury, relating to the 2002 incident that the allegations made by the

2 The grading of the failure to report offense was upgraded from a summary offense to a misdemeanor of the third

degree in 2006, effective May 29, 2007.

graduate assistant were “not that serious” and that he and Curley “had no indication that a crime

had occurred.”

…

That’s right! Not only did Penn State officials fail to report this alleged incident to the proper authorities – they NEVER even attempted to find out the identity of the alleged victim.

Instead of reporting the alleged sexual assault of a minor to the police and/or to child services, Penn State officials have allowed Sandusky to maintain an office on its campus and to even be a de facto recruiter for their football team up until the Grand Jury Report released last week.

Penn State administrators knew they had a monster-of-the-worst-kind amongst them, but they made absolutely no effort to put his ass behind bars!

Phony Penn State PR Won’t Save It

In my opinion much of the support for the victims of child abuses that we saw on display at Saturday’s Penn State vs. Nebraska game was a PR orchestrated attempt of damage control by the University, similar to the University’s firing of Head Football Coach Joe Paterno and University President Graham Spanier.

Nope. Penn State you can’t’ hide from this! It’s right there in black and white. You didn’t even bother to find the alleged victim – a 10-year-old minor – of a sexual assault that occurred on your campus. A crime reportedly committed by a former Penn State employee who still has an office and access to your facilities. Furthermore, the Grand Jury also believes that two of your employees lied to them, under oath, regarding this incident.

The above informatin is all the information that any rational person needs to know to realize how miserably Penn State failed in its responsibility to protect children.

It also appears obvious from the Grand Jury Indictment that Penn State administrators and Joe Paterno knew – years before the 2002 incident – that they harbored a serial child molester on their campus.

Penn State deserves the maximum penalties, fines, court sentences, victim awards and whatever else that can be levied against it.

As for Joe Paterno, the football coach with most wins in division 1A history, so what!

Joe Pa those wins are meaningless, now!

Everything you worked so hard to build at Penn State will be forever stained by your decision to pass the buck and then sit silently by, while you watched the child molester, Sandusky, come in and out of Penn State facilities for all the years since 2002.

The Sandusky Grand Jury Indictment is just the tip of a big, dirty, crippling iceberg steered into by the powers that be at Penn State.

A MUST READ

Complete Jerry Sandusky Grand Jury Report PDF

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myHitNews.com is Undergoing an Update

Will Cummings — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:36:11 +0000

THIS SITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

It will be a couple of days before I get things in order.

Sorry For the Inconvenience.

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An Open Letter to Dirk Chatelain: Oh No You Didn’t!

Will Cummings — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:26:10 +0000

This is an open letter to Omaha World-Herald Staff Writer Dirk Chatelain in response to his October 12^tharticle ‘Chatelain: Revisiting critiques of quarterback Martinez,’ where he apologizes to Nebraska QB Taylor Martinez for the negative things he wrote about him last week, prior to the Ohio State game (link to article).

Oh no you didn’t. Man, they got to you! So bad so sad, but that’s the price for being a corporate writer.

Dirk, nothing you said in that article necessitated an apology on your part. And when you threw in the “too harsh for a 21-year old line” you completely lost me.

The YOUNG MAN is a college QB playing BIG-TIME football. He is a public figure and fair game. That’s the price high profile athletes pay. It’s brutal but it’s reality! And Martinez and Bo know it.

Moreover, what you wrote in your column last week was pale in comparison to what many corporate journalist from around the country have written about Martinez – not to mention what has spewed from the mouths of the talking heads on television and radio and of course from a blogger like me.

Oh, and let us not forget the strong chorus of boos that rained down from Memorial Stadium last week at the end of the first half. Most of them were directed squarely at Mr. Martinez. That’s reality!

Credit Martinez for having the fortitude to withstand all the pressure and negativity from the Wisconsin loss and then come out swinging 10-10 at the start of the game. Credit Martinez for having to endure being booed by his own fans on his home turf and then come out swinging again in the second half like Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

That kind of hell sometimes makes great men! And that’s why people in the media should never refrain from the kind of deep probing honest criticism like you provide. Maybe – just maybe – it was those words you wrote in your column that stung Martinez so deep inside his soul that it brought out the best in him last Saturday!

Nevertheless, when I saw all those negative comments posted to your original article I figured that the powers that be would yank your chain.

Please don’t let it be so. Because you are too good at getting to the marrow of the bone and sucking out all its precious nutrients.

Those are precisecly the kind of writers that make things happen. See what I mean.

Bo Pelini is not going to stop being who he is so why should you.

Post Script: I found the opinions Dirk expressed in his article ‘Chatelain: Chips are down for Pelini, Martinez’ to be deftly profound and brilliantly laid out (as usual). Therefore, immediately after reading the column which would later prompt Bo Pelini to vehemently chastise Chatelain during the Ohio State postgame presser, I took a moment to send him the email that appears below. I knew his words would cut to the bone – Intelligently delivered raw truth sometimes has a way of doing that:

Dirk Chatelain:

Man, I love reading your stuff. You’re hands down the best sports writer on a very strong staff at the Omaha World- Herald.

‘Chatelain: Chips are down for Pelini, Martinez’ is another epic piece of work.

Sincerely,

Will Cummings

‘Chatelain: Revisiting critiques of quarterback Martinez,’

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