Tag: Nebraska

Shedeur Sanders’ immaturity on full display at end of Colorado’s blowout loss

Shedeur Sanders is showing some serious red flags with his behavior after the Nebraska loss.

As ugly as Colorado’s 28-10 loss was the University of Nebraska on Saturday, the behavior of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders was worse. Sanders’ sense of entitlement and lack of maturity were on full display at the end of the game and in the postgame press conference and every NFL team needs to be wary of this behavior when the 2025 NFL draft rolls around.

First up we have the end of the game when Sanders had been replaced in the starting lineup and with two minutes left to play, decided to jog off the field and to the lockers rather than stay out with teammates and shake hands with the Cornhuskers after the game.

But as immature as that might have seemed, what he did after the game at the postgame press conference might have been worse. Sanders threw his offensive line under the bus for not doing a good enough job protecting him.

Someone should remind Sanders that he’s not going to get those guy’s best effort if he’s calling them out publicly. The Buffaloes have a lot of football left to play but it’s clear Sanders puts himself above his teammates.

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Shedeur Sanders & Travis Hunter knocked down to reality after brutal Nebraska loss

The Cornhuskers blew out the Buffalos on Saturday.

It was a shining performance from the superstar Colorado duo in quarterback Sheduer Sanders and dual-threat Travis Hunter in the opening week of the season as both players looked every bit of the first-round pick they are touted as. Heading into week 2 more of the same kind of production was expected of the duo, but unfortunately, they ran into a buzzsaw that was the Nebraska Cornhuskers defense.

While both players ended up with a respectable stat line, it was hard to watch Sanders in particular get mauled by the opposing defensive line. Despite a Nebraska player nailing him just about every other play, Sanders still was able to pull through a respectable performance with over 240 passing yards and a touchdown. There were moments in the game that Sanders did look clearly flustered, however, such as his opening quarter pick 6, where he put a ball out for grabs that clearly should not have been thrown.

As for Hunter, while he was clearly still the top target within the offense, he was much more contained compared to the week before and failed to come down with a score. Hunter was visually frustrated with the Nebraska defense and the play of his own offense, and even a solid performance from the superstar could not save the day.

Both players are still set to be first-round selections come draft day, but when it comes to the quarterback race in particular, if Sanders wants to be the first one off the board he will need to clean up his play when it comes to tight games like this one.

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Two Notre Dame assistants meet with top-rated 2026 recruit in Indiana

Will the Irish ultimately land his services?

[autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] came to Notre Dame with the promise of recruiting heavily within the state of Indiana. Recent recruiting activity by the Irish suggests they’re living up to that promise.

The top-rated Indiana recruit in the 2025 class, Jalen Haralson, will make his official visit to Notre Dame over the coming weekend. But even if the Irish don’t win his services, they have a backup plan.

Almost a year ago, the Irish made an offer to South Bend native Steven Reynolds III, who goes to Washington and is the top-rated Indiana recruit in the 2026 class according to 247Sports and On3. Perhaps because of the proximity, the Irish sent a pair of staffers to follow up with him Thursday:

https://twitter.com/jakeweingarten/status/1831807542244340168

Naturally, Reynolds has offers from multiple schools. Those include Michigan State, Nebraska, Purdue and IUPUI. The Irish need to take every advantage they can in their effort to land him. Hopefully in the end, Reynolds’ South Bend roots will win out.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on X: @gfclark89

Patrick Mahomes praises Big Ten freshman quarterback for first time since Graham Mertz’s debut

Remember the last time Patrick Mahomes was excited about a Big Ten West quarterback?

Two-time NFL MVP and three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes is back commenting about Big Ten football.

Badgers fans remember Oct. 23, 2020, Wisconsin’s season-opener against Illinois. Then-freshman Graham Mertz completed 20/21 passes for 248 yards and five touchdowns in the contest as the Badgers rolled to a 45-7 victory.

Related: Big Ten Power Rankings after Week 1: Our first look at the expanded conference

The game dominated headlines because it opened the 2020 Big Ten season. It also did so because Wisconsin appeared to have finally found a difference-making quarterback.

Mahomes was famously tuned in that night, posting ‘That man @GrahamMertz5 going crazy tonight!’ on X.

Badgers fans know how the story continued. Mertz mostly struggled throughout his Wisconsin career, then transferred to Florida ahead of the 2023 season.

We’ll see if things are different this time around, as Mahomes is back to praising another freshman quarterback in the Big Ten: Nebraska five-star true freshman Dylan Raiola.

https://twitter.com/DraftKings/status/1830017930580430944

Raiola excelled in his first collegiate action against UTEP on Saturday, completing 19/28 passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns. After Nebraska’s struggles at the position last year, the upgrade to Raiola makes him look like Mahomes on the field.

That, and Raiola actually does look like the NFL legend.

Raiola’s play will be something to monitor for Badgers fans as the Luke Fickell and Matt Rhule eras at their respective programs are inevitably linked. Wisconsin has not lost to Nebraska since 2012, but that streak could end this season if the two teams continue on their divergent trajectories.

For now, it’s cool to see Patrick Mahomes dialed into (former) Big Ten West football.

Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion. 

Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes praises college football quarterback’s highlight play

Kansas City #Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes praises #Nebraska QB Dylan Raiola’s highlight play | @EdEastonJr

The defending Super Bowl MVP, Patrick Mahomes, is only a few days away from leading the Kansas City Chiefs back into battle to kick off the new season.

Mahomes was tuned into week one of the college football season and noticed a big play from a player who modeled his game after him. Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola’s touchdown pass against UTEP caught plenty of attention on social media as the Chiefs star reposted on his X account on Saturday with the affectionate ‘Lil cuzzo!!’ nickname.

https://twitter.com/patrickmahomes/status/1829987580042985512?s=46&t=QpctjHHttQhTm1N8jEj6Zw

Raiola went viral in July for showing up to Cornhuskers’ camp looking like his idol, Mahomes. Every detail, down to the sunglasses and facial hair, and everyone was surprised by his commitment to the look. Former Chiefs star Tyreek Hill even responded to the post via his X account, with Mahomes labeling the young quarterback his ‘lil cuzzo.’

https://twitter.com/cheetah/status/1818703526672875651

Nebraska’s season is underway, and the young quarterback hopes to achieve the same level of success as his Super Bowl-winning idol. The freshman threw for over 200 yards and two touchdown passes in the Cornhuskers’ rout of the Miners.

College football writers think more of Nebraska than of Wisconsin entering 2024 season

Thoughts on this comparison?

The 2024 preseason AP Poll Top 25 was released on Monday. The Wisconsin Badgers are on the outside looking in, down in the receiving votes category.

It will be the first time Wisconsin enters the season unranked since 2016 and the third time since 2007.

Related: Ranking all 18 Big Ten football teams in championship tiers entering 2024 season

Five of the Badgers’ 2024 opponents are ranked entering the year. Oregon is at No. 3 overall, Alabama is No. 5, Penn State is No. 8, USC is No. 23 and Iowa is No. 25.

One other opponent is in the receiving votes category: the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Nebraska’s vote total of 16 edges Wisconsin’s (15 votes) by one. Those votes come from ballots that had the teams ranked, with 25 points awarded for a first-place vote, 24 for a second-place vote and so on.

Digging deeper, the AP voters collectively think more of Nebraska entering 2024 than they do Wisconsin. That is a strong statement after the Cornhuskers’ 5-7 debut season under Matt Rhule in 2023.

Whether justified or not, the slotting creates an interesting comparison between the two programs that should be interesting to watch as the season unfolds.

Both are in the midst of transition under new leadership — Nebraska with Rhule and Wisconsin with Luke Fickell. Nebraska has not defeated Wisconsin since 2012, including the Badgers’ 24-17 overtime win in 2023. But the context surrounding each program has changed significantly since Rhule and Fickell were hired entering the 2023 season.

More than anything, Rhule appears to have Nebraska ready to return to prominence after years of high expectations and disappointing results. Five-star true freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola will have a lot to say about whether that happens in 2024.

Any pair of coaches hired during the same offseason will inevitably be compared. That is especially the case with two programs that play an annual rivalry game, and are each battling for the same position in the conference’s standing.

The AP voters are projecting the power to begin to shift during the 2024 season.

Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion. 

Saints waive undrafted free agent guard Nouri Nouili

The New Orleans Saints have made their corresponding move to the Chandler Brewer signing, waiving rookie guard Nouri Nouili:

The New Orleans Saints signed offensive lineman Chandler Brewer on Friday to bolster their depth after injuries to Shane Lemieux and Justin Herron. A corresponding roster move came Saturday in their decision to waive undrafted free agent guard Nouri Nouili out of Nebraska, according to the Times-Picayune | Advocate’s Luke Johnson.

Nouili signed with the large wave of undrafted rookies back in April and received the standard three-year contract, worth on average $945,000 a year, though he received only $5,000 guaranteed. This deal will ultimately have little to no effect on the Saints salary cap moving forwards. Nouili received the second-lowest number of guaranteed money of the undrafted free agent class for the Saints, ahead of only Trajan Jeffcoat.

Ultimately the Saints decided to go with the offensive lineman with a couple of years of experience over Nouili, as they desperately could use help there between injuries and lack of quality depth in general. Neither player may end up making the roster regardless once injuries clear up, but it ‘s good to have camp bodies with NFL level experience if anything.

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The best public-access and private golf courses in Nebraska, ranked

Our hundreds of raters weigh in on the best public-access and private courses in Nebraska.

Looking to play the best golf courses in Nebraska? Welcome to our annual Golfweek’s Best ranking of public-access and private courses.

Following are the rankings for both types of courses, as judged by our nationwide network of raters. The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce all our Golfweek’s Best course rankings.

The courses on the first list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time – no membership required.

KEY: (m) modern, built in 1960 or after; (c) classic, built before 1960. For courses with a number preceding the (m) or (c), that is where the course ranks on Golfweek’s Best lists for top 200 modern and classic courses in the U.S.

* indicates new or returning to the rankings

Best public-access courses in Nebraska

The Dunes Course at the Prairie Club in Nebraska (Courtesy of the Prairie Club)

1. Landmand
Homer (T40m)

2. Prairie Club (Dunes Course)
Valentine (94m)

3. Wild Horse
Gothenburg (113m)
Book your tee time at Wild Horse today

4. Prairie Club (Pines Course)
Valentine (m)

5. Bayside
Brule (m)
Book your tee time at Bayside today

Best private courses in Nebraska

Sand Hills
Sand Hills Golf Club in Nebraska (David Cannon/Getty Images)

1. Sand Hills
Mullen (1m)

2. CapRock Ranch
Valentine (15m)

3. Dismal River Club (Red)
Mullen (51m) • p.98

4. Omaha CC
Omaha (T122c)

5. Lost Rail*
Gretna (T147m)

Big Ten primer — Nebraska’s greatest football moment

Three moments stand above all others in Nebraska football history.

Big Ten media days are upon us. The festivities begin in Indianapolis on July 23. USC will be there. It’s time for the Trojans to get to know their Big Ten neighbors, even the ones which only recently moved into the neighborhood. Nebraska has not been a longtime Big Ten school, so the program’s greatest football moments naturally occurred long before Big Ten membership existed.

Nebraska was an elite college football program from the early 1960s through the 2002 Rose Bowl against Miami, a period of roughly 40 years. In that 40-year period, which moment was the biggest?

There are three candidates. One is the 1994 national championship victory over Miami in the 1995 Orange Bowl. That moment carries emotional weight in Nebraska because coach Tom Osborne, after more than 20 years of trying, finally won his first national championship. That might be the most meaningful moment in Nebraska football history.

The 1996 Fiesta Bowl win over Florida confirmed the 1995 Huskers as the greatest college football team in modern times. Only 2001 Miami rivals Nebraska in terms of juggernaut-level talent. Anyone who saw that 1995 NU team knows it is one of the greatest teams ever assembled.

Yet, the greatest moment — both profoundly satisfying within the Nebraska family yet resonant and important on a national scale — might be the 1971 Thanksgiving game against the Oklahoma Sooners. In a back-and-forth classic, the Huskers had the final say, winning 35-31 against their storied rival on the prairie. The game is still talked about more than 50 years later. It was called a “Game of the Century,” as were a select few other college football games of the era. This one lived up to the billing more than any other.

Having defeated Oklahoma in an epic battle, the 1972 Orange Bowl was comparatively easy for NU. Nebraska crushed Bear Bryant’s Alabama team 38-6 to complete a 13-0 season and win the national title. The 1971 Huskers were back-to-back champions. A program which was irrelevant 10 years earlier had truly become a colossus under patriarch Bob Devaney, who then handed the reins to Osborne to continue Nebraska’s long reign as a college football power.

You can’t really go wrong choosing any of those options, but we’ll take 1971, if only because that moment established Nebraska football at an elite level. Osborne’s successes might have been more spectacular, but they stood on the shoulders of what Bob Devaney started in Lincoln.

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Countdown to Kickoff: Nouri Nouili is the Saints Player of Day 63

Countdown to Kickoff: Nouri Nouili is the New Orleans Saints Player of Day 63. How can the rookie guard make an impact an in 2024?

We’re down to 63 days until the New Orleans Saints kick off their 2024 regular season with the Carolina Panthers, which makes rookie offensive lineman Nouri Nouili, the current owner of the No. 63 jersey, our Saints Player of the Day.

But what’s his story? And how can he help the team in 2024? What are realistic expectations for him? Let’s dig in.

  • Name (Age): Nouri Nouili (23)
  • Position: Offensive guard
  • Height, weight: 6-foot-4, 315 pounds
  • Relative Athletic Score: 8.58
  • 2024 salary cap hit: $796,666
  • College: Nebraska
  • Drafted: Undrafted in 2024 (New Orleans Saints)
  • NFL experience: Rookie

A foreign exchange student from Frankfurt, Germany, Nouili played on both the offensive and defensive lines in high school before continuing his education at the next level. Nouili’s college career began at Colorado State before he transferred to Nebraska, where he started two years at both guard spots. He logged almost twice as many snaps on the left side (919) as the right (514) while also seeing limited action outside at tackle.

He was rock-solid in pass protection — Pro Football Focus charting found that Nouili allowed just four sacks on 776 career snaps in pass pro. He also drew only six penalties on nearly 1,500 career reps as a blocker. The question is whether he’ll be able to adapt to the zone-heavy scheme Klint Kubiak is installing on running plays. Nebraska used zone on 36.9% of their rushing attempts last season.

With the top of the depth chart nearly set, Nouili must stand apart from other young players who have taken a similar path to the NFL as undrafted free agents; guys like Mark Evans II (who spent most of last season on the practice squad) as well as Sincere Haynesworth and Kyle Hergel.

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