Lincolnite: Lincoln's Online Community

NU to city: You have 18 months

February 10, 2009 at 5:39pm By: D.M.B. Posted in D.M.B. Sports Report

At least that’s the vibe I got from this article published in the LJS about NU’s initial plans for a practice gyms.  NU has outlined a fall ‘10 start date and a fall ‘11 finish date.  When the downtown arena stalled a couple of months ago there were rumblings that NU might go ahead with their own plan and stick with the Devaney.  A 16 million dollar price tag has been put on the project (which seems like a drop in the bucket compared to some of the football projects we’ve done) and also put that on top of the 10 to 20 million that would be needed to renovate Devaney.

I think this puts the ball squarely in the city’s court (if you will). In our talks about the arena yesterday, Mr. Wilson and I agreed that Lincoln can not build an arena without NU as the major tenant. Or at least it would be a VERY bad idea.  Who knows, maybe the city could make it work but I highly doubt it.

I wonder how close NU could back out of their own project if the city finally gets the arena project rolling?  NU’s marketing company, IMG says they’re really interested in the arena and only mildly interested in NU’s project.  After yesterday’s story about how well they work together and the financial stability that it provides NU, maybe NU should hold out and wait for the arena.  Maybe financially in the long run it would make more sense to play in a new arena.

I think we’re in for an interesting summer when it comes to arena talks.

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Signing Day

February 4, 2009 at 9:03pm By: D.M.B. Posted in D.M.B. Sports Report

I’m not a huge fan of the day (I believe its over hyped) but there is always fervor over National Letter of Intent signing day.  But getting good people into the program is necessary.

Here is a list of the recruits and preferred walk-ons. (essentially what Nebraska does with the preferred walk-on title is they will target Nebraska’s 2nd tier talent and offer them the preferred walk-on status to keep them from going to smaller D1 programs or Division 2)

Nebraska addresses some needs with a top notch QB recruit (Cody Green), he’s already on campus and will be in the mix to start next year (that’s right…start).  Rex Burkhead is a running back from Plano, TX which is one of the most popular football locations in Texas and comes in with some unreal stats (3500 yards and 57 TD’s in his Jr. & Sr. year in HS)  The defense looks solid across the board headlined by Jason Ankrah.

As for the local kids, Cole Pensick is the lone Lincoln scholarship recruit.  The 6-1, 259 Lincoln Northeast product is one of the best defensive players in the state.  C.J. Zimmerer is the only other Nebraska scholarship kid from Omaha Gross HS.

As for the walk-ons, Lincoln is represented by Tyson Clark from Lincoln East and Devin Paulsen from Lincoln Christian.

Discuss

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