Sam Foltz #27

     I don't have much to say about Sam that hasn't already been said. Since his passing last weekend, it seems that everyone has come out to speak on what an amazing person and human being he was, as they  should. However, if Sam were still here I know for certain that he would be one of the first to say that we should not only honor someone to this degree only when they pass, but also while they are with us here on Earth. These are the moments in life when we truly think to speak about how special someone actually is in our lives. We shouldn't waste the opportunities that we have every day to express our admiration for our friends and family. We should show that appreciation every chance we get, because you never know when God will call you home.
     I did not get a chance to know Sam extremely well, but I was fortunate enough to run into him a lot around campus here at UNL. He was always one of my favorite individuals to run across because no matter what he was doing, he would always pause and give me a minute of his time. Our conversations were simple, asking how it's been going and if anything is new with football or life, nothing out of the ordinary of a normal acquaintance meeting. He would always finish with "Punters are People too!" But to me, it's the time that he took out, the time that anyone, not only a Husker football star takes out of their day to pause and ask how your life is going along with their own. People get too caught up in titles, work, business, school, sports, and everything else that we're expected to check off of our lists, they forget how important it is to have a conversation and pause for a minute or two. Sam knew how precious those pause-able moments were, and although nobody ever thinks to mention how important they are, he showed it by taking that time to talk. Everyone will talk about his football status and how incredible of a punter he was and was still going to be in the road ahead. But as someone from the outside of the football program, he was more than just an awesome punter. He was a student here, and he was a leader around campus because of his character and the example he set. Sam came and spoke at an event for Scarlet Guard this past January, which is an organization that I'm heavily involved in. He was part of the student panel and talked about the value of working hard and time management, both in and outside of the class room. He was never a huge figure walking around, but everyone still knew who he was. I appreciated Sam because of that example he set. In my mind, he truly was the epitome of a Husker. Not just a Husker football player, but a Husker. You could not have written his story any better, a walk-on from a small town in Nebraska, became one of the best punters in the nation while earning Honor Roll grades four times. But his character and the message that he sent to others is why we should remember him. Not just because he was our punter, but because he was truly a great person and a great Husker. Let Sam's passing motivate you to be the best version of yourself, because that's the only version of Sam I ever saw. That's who we all saw. Don't let the opportunities to show your appreciation for someone be wasted because you thought you could tell them later. You can change someone's whole day with a simple compliment. Sam knew that and he embodied that both on and off the field. I am deeply saddened by his passing, but I am excited to honor him and let others know how great of a person he was. #RIP27

#CollegeFootballKnowItAll
Alex Fernando

Satellite Camps

     Hey everyone, this post is going to focus on satellite camps within College Football and my opinions on the recent banning of them by the NCAA. This issue came to light last week after the NCAA ruled in favor of banning schools from holding camps outside of a 50-mile radius of their campus, despite numerous coaches from a variety of conferences supporting them. The ACC and SEC were the main advocates against the camps while the BIG 10 was its biggest supporter. I was very upset with this ruling because it hurts the student athletes tremendously. Satellite camps provided under-the-radar prospects, and those who may not have had the means to travel around the country to big name football camps, a chance to get noticed. The NCAA guidelines state that their top two focuses are to protect the student-athletes and to create a fair and equal balance across all Division I athletics. Banning these camps goes completely against those guidelines as it takes away countless opportunities from the majority of high school prospects that struggle to get noticed by large schools. Geographically, it's obvious that the southern region of the country has a lot more prospects since there is a higher population. A vast majority of those kids have offers from some of the smaller schools around them, but few get the offer from a Power 5 school that they're looking for. Many have the talent that other schools might be looking for, but won't get noticed because they don't have the means to travel to Ohio, or Michigan, or Nebraska, etc. Plus, for smaller schools, they have a tough time attracting anyone to camps at their campus to begin with. Urban Meyer talked about his days coaching Bowling Green and how being able to hold camps outside of their campus or attending camps like Ohio State's allowed him to recruit players that may not get an offer from the Buckeyes. 

     I think that this kind of decision by the NCAA really hurts the future of the game and specifically the student athletes that want to play in the future. DiCaprio Bootle, a member of the Huskers 2016 recruiting class is a friend of mine and talked about how he used the Huskers' satellite camp in Miami last summer to get noticed and get an offer. Prior to the camp on June 16th, 2015, Bootle had a handful of offers from smaller D-1 schools like Temple, South Alabama, FIU and others, but he knew he had the talent to play at a Power 5 school. Lots of kids do, but without these camps, they don't get the chance. Bootle didn't have the opportunity to travel across the country to any big camps, so he set out to prove himself at his opportunity for the Husker Coaches. He ran a 4.4 40 yard dash along with stellar performance in the drills. This earned him an offer from Coach Riley and staff. That satellite camp changed his life. DiCaprio was upset with the banning of the camps, and told me:

     "Satellite camps are a chance to get exposure from multiple different schools in your own home area. Banning the camps takes away that opportunity for those less fortunate who can't afford to take trips to the camps that are held on college campuses. It makes the chances of an athlete less sometimes."

     Many coaches, including Nebraska's Coach Riley, were also upset with the banning of the camps. Mostly members from the BIG 10 and Big XII voiced their opinions against it, along with smaller schools. Coaches from the SEC and ACC however thought the ban was fitting. I'm interested to see where this rule goes over into the summer. The main reason the NCAA gave for banning the camps was that on the recruiting side, it would be difficult for them to make sure regulations were followed. I felt like that was more of a blanket statement without much to it because the NCAA is considering altering the rule of coaches' abilities to text recruits without regulations. This would open it up to be like basketball where coaches can openly text recruit as much as they want. If I were a kid in high school, I think that I would much rather have the opportunity to attend a camp from a far away school in a nearby area to prove myself than receive 50+ texts a day from different schools trying to contact me. I'm not a big fan of this ban, and I hope this ruling gets a second look. It's going to hurt the chances of a lot of great kids like DiCaprio that want their chance to prove they can play at the highest level.

#CollegeFootballKnowItAll

Alex Fernando

Spring Game Recap

     Hey everyone, I apologize that I have not made any posts this spring, I have been extremely busy with work and school. I hope you all enjoyed the Spring Game today, because I most certainly did! With my Sports Communication class, I was able to go on a special tour of all the media game day operations. I was able to go down onto the field, see the Husker Vision studio, up into the TV & Radio broadcasting booths, and was able to watch Coach Riley in his post-game press conference. I got a lot of great information to discuss in this post, and learned a lot from being behind the scenes.

     We'll start with my impressions from the Spring Game itself and what I learned about from Coach Riley's press conference. First off, we are going to be a very, very young team. Apart from Tommy, Ryker, Terrell Newby and our wideouts, this team has a very large amount of youth that will get significant playing time come this fall. My biggest concerns are with the Offensive and Defensive lines. The O-line clearly has a lot of work to do before we can make a run at any conference titles. A couple of injuries kept key players like Dylan Utter out, but Michael Decker stepped in well at Center. During his press conference, Coach Riley mentioned that OL Paul Thurston would most likely be leaving the team and looking to transfer. On the defensive side of the ball, Coach Riley notified us that both Greg McMullen and Kevin Williams would not be returning in the fall for the Huskers. McMullen is moving on to go to graduate school and Kevin is looking to transfer for his 6th year of eligibility. That's two more experienced players that will no longer be part of the Huskers' D-line next year. Kevin Maurice and Freedom Akinmoladun look to be the anchors of a very young group that will have a large number of redshirt freshmen and sophomores in the rotation. Ross Dzuris and Alex Davis should provide some more speed on the edge while the Davis twins and Mick Stolenberg clog up the middle. There's a lot of raw talent, but not a lot of experience, so the learning curve will be pretty steep.
     Moving to the rest of the defense, it looks like we finally have a healthy linebacker corps, so hopefully that will stay true throughout the fall of 2016. The Linebackers are another group that has a lot of youth, but due to the injuries last year, there's a good deal of experience to go around. I thought they played well today and stuck with their assignments. Wrapping up the QB seemed to be an issue on the scrambles, and the draw plays torched them over and over. Look for that to be a big focus this fall if the coaches want a strong run defense again.
     Finally, we look to the secondary. Easily the biggest question mark heading into this season, and the biggest concern. They weren't great today, and were often beat on the long ball again. Luckily, the QBs couldn't hit their wideouts in stride (main concern on offense apart from O-line). Listening to Coach Riley and Nate Gerry talk after the game, I could tell that the secondary was going to be a major focus over the summer and into the fall. The Huskers have a lot of young talent coming in, and in my opinion, the door for rotation in the secondary is wide open. Gerry and Kalu have a couple spots locked down, but I would say that the others are up for grabs. Look for a lot of competition this summer and into the fall.
     On the offensive side of the ball, our young receivers looked good, and the running backs ran strong. Newby and Ozigbo have definitely broken away from the pack and are my top two backs in the rotation. Coach Riley, Tommy, and Newby all said that the draw plays and the option would become a bigger part of the run game. We'll see how that progresses into the fall. Now to try and survive until August until football comes back.... ugh! Hopefully we can keep up with the great recruiting success throughout the summer!

#CollegeFootballKnowItAll
Alex Fernando