Dennis Claridge

Claridge, quarterback under Devaney, dies at 76 - Huskers.com - Nebraska Athletics Official Web Site

Dennis Claridge, who quarterbacked the Nebraska Cornhuskers to a 13-7 Orange Bowl victory over Auburn following the 1963 season under second-year coach Bob Devaney, died Tuesday after a 3-year battle with bladder cancer. He was 76.

I was going to add something to this... but decided against it. All I know is that I’m thankful that Bob Devaney and Dennis Claridge got together and decided to win at football. Without that, where would the state of Nebraska be?

Randy York has a nice bit over at Huskers.com about him. Read it. Look at that comment about the Gotham Bowl not having enough watches to go around.

Dennis Claridge, Epitome of Humility, Dies at 76 - Huskers.com - Nebraska Athletics Official Web Site

For me, there is one simple way to describe the late Dennis Claridge, who became a fabled Nebraska quarterback in the early 1960s. Claridge enabled and elevated Bob Devaney to make an immediate impact on the Huskers and in the process become a legendary college football coach.

Claridge’s intelligence, leadership and overall spirit personified the wisdom of the late C.S. Lewis, who insisted that humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is simply thinking of yourself less.

Nebraska Baseball

I suspect that most of you have already checked out on baseball season. That’s too bad. I look to Nebraska baseball to carry us at least until through May before we have to officially declare the off-season. I have not entirely given up hope on Nebraska making the Big Ten tournament.

Nebraska swept Nevada last weekend. Nevada leads the Mountain West Conference, has an overall record of 22-19 and a RPI of 83. In other words, it was a sweep over a decent team.

Did the Nebraska sweep over Nevada give you any confidence for the remainder of the baseball season?

Maryland is up next. If Nebraska can win that series, they would move up a notch in the standings... I’m getting my hopes up too much aren’t I?

Offseason Goal: The Perfect Chicken Dry Rub

Over the past few years, Corn Nation has done quite a few articles on smoking. I’m probably going to do some more. I’d like to say that I have become fairly decent at smoking.. food, that is.

It’s difficult, if not impossible to do smoking in a Minnesota winter. I have an electric smoker. It doesn’t keep up very well when the outdoor temperature gets below 20. You can do it, but you have to be very careful about opening and closing the smoker. I’ve done it enough that I would say each time you open the smoker in below 30 temperature, you lose about 20-30 minutes in cooking time.

Now that the weather has warmed, the smoking season is on. Thank God.

I use an electric smoker because I am lazy. It’s easy. It’s much more difficult to screw up chunks of meat in electric smoker than it is in a wood smoker. My family is quite satisfied with the smoked food that I produce. So if you happen to be one of those people who is religious about using wood with charcoal, take your religion and spew it somewhere else.

I don’t partake in any kind of barbecuing or smoking contests. It’s not in the plans. If I did that, I would have to deal with people. I don’t have the energy to deal with people is much as I used to. “Get off my lawn” isn’t just a cliche, although I don’t have to yell it at people because nobody comes ‘round my house no more.

This is a website for Husker fans and lazy cooks, particularly those who would rather focus on having a couple cold adult beverages than on the technicalities of keeping charcoal at a constant temperature.

I did a full article on smoking chicken legs back in August, 2016. I included the whole spiel about why I choose to smoke legs rather than wings or thighs. And I talked about rubs, including a recipe for a rub I was using at the time.

I use a dry rub on just about everything. I make my own dry rubs, I do not buy them at the store. Most store-bought rubs start with a main ingredient of salt. Salt is cheap. Everyone loves salt. Go to the grocery store and look at the ingredients in the food you’re eating and you will find a massive amount of sodium in damned-near everything.

Go to a fast food place, say, McDonalds, and you will love the salt on those fries. You will love the salt so much you’ll probably add more salt.

Another ingredient we love? Sugar.

The household is on a low-no-sugar kick. We did a no-sugar diet a few months ago and everyone lost a lot of weight. Everyone lost their craving for sweets as well. If you go back and look at that 2016 article, you’ll see the rub I was using had a fair amount of sugar and salt. I have since moved to a different recipe:

• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon thyme - Not ground!
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 2 tablespoons cayenne - used chipotle instead
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 tablespoon black pepper

These are fairly common ingredients. Note the low salt and no sugar content.

I swapped ground chipotle for cayenne this time because I have to feed a 7-year old, and I thought I’d tone down the spice a bit. She reported that it was still too spicy, so next time I will make a batch for her without either cayenne or chipotle and we’ll see how that goes.

Around two hours in a smoker at 225 degrees. Easy.

I also smoked Mac N Cheese. Back in 2013, our Salt Creek dude did an article on Smokehouse Mac N Cheese in which he used Velveeta and cooked it in the oven, the sinner. I do not use Velveeta, but my Mac N Cheese bit is for another article.

As is my quest for the perfect pork ribs rub. And smoked kale salad. And the perfect energy smoothie. This upcoming weekend I think I’ll try smoking some hamburgers. I’ve never done that before.

It’s a long offseason.

News

Nebraska 'won' spring football. But does that really mean anything? - StarTribune.com
Husker Nation hopes Frost can take the program back a long time, too — back to the 1990s, when Nebraska won three national championships in four years under Hall of Fame coach Tom Osborne.

2018 NFL Draft: 6 huge mistakes that teams may come to regret - SBNation.com
Retired NFL lineman Geoff Schwartz wonders what the heck these teams were thinking on draft weekend.

3 Reasons For Optimism: Offense - Black Shoe Diaries
No Saquon? No Gesicki? No DaeSean? No Problem!

Potluck: What Big Ten fan tradition would you retire? //B1G 2018, Minnesota Preview - Off Tackle Empire
Plus, we talk dessert.

When Good New Traditions Go Bad // B1G 2018 - Off Tackle Empire
It’s rare, but every once in a while it’s possible to create a new tradition thats fun and somewhat spontaneous (even if it is sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota) and creative. ...

Which Nittany Lion Was Drafted Into The Best Situation? - Black Shoe Diaries
Which ex-Nittany Lion football player is best setup for success as a rookie in 2018?

Purdue Football: Charles Allen Opting Out - Hammer and Rails

Well, this was a surprise.

Purdue loses a recruit who decides he is done playing football.

MSU: Nassar abused 25 student-athletes, but 'no NCAA rules violations'

"I trust that you will see that the University is in no way attempting to sidestep the issues facing it, and that if the University had any reason to believe the criminal conduct of Nassar also implicated NCAA rules violations, the University would accept responsibility in that area as well," Glazier wrote in the letter, which MSU released on Wednesday.

You have to wonder how Michigan State will survive as a university.

Ohio State coach Urban Meyer's new focus: Mental health | SI.com
Mental health reemerged this winter as a key issue in college football following the death of Washington State starting quarterback Tyler Hilinski from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Hilinski seemed to be on the cusp of living the life he had long devoted himself to attaining, but instead he left family and friends searching for answers in vain.

Where do college football players come from? - Football Study Hall
The most blue-chippers come from the South. But the region doesn’t produce pros at the same rate.

Switching on defense - Football Study Hall
To "switch" on defense is a new favorite tactic in the NBA but an established best practice on the football field. The only problem is that college defenses are struggling to hold up against the mismatches that occur.

Should Illini Fans Be Concerned About The Offseason Departures? - BT Powerhouse

Additionally, Illinois also saw multiple players transfer in Michael Finke, Te’Jon Lucas, and Mark Smith. All three played at least 40 percent of the team’s minutes last season, including Lucas, who played 20 or more minutes in each of the team’s final six games. Notably, Smith was also rated as a top 100 prospect in the 2017 recruiting class and Illinois’ top recruit.

I am linking to this as an example to show you that other basketball programs go through important transfers. There is not a “Tim Miles” problem with transfers. Transfers occur all over the college basketball landscape. Failure to recognize that.. well, either you’re only looking for a reason to complain or you are too damned lazy to look around at the rest of the world beyond Nebraska.

Then There’s This

It Took 17 Years: Freelancers Receive $9 Million in Copyright Suit - The New York Times

The New York Times and Lexis/Nexis are among the companies that are compensating writers for the digital use of their printed articles.

17 YEARS!!!!!!