Corn Feed for the Monday, July 7th

• Normally strong Nebraska sports have taken a downturn recently.
• Profile on Kicker Jake Wesch
• Corn Nation asks: What is the proper response for the tired ‘what does the ‘N’ on Nebraska’s helmets stand for‘ joke?
• Sipple heads caution with a proposed Nebraska Hall of Fame.
• Must read: Football 365 interview with Dr Tom Osborne:

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Q:What would you consider to be the lowest point in your career?

OSBORNE: Maybe the Lawrence (Phillips) situation, because we took a lot of pride in doing things the right way here. The NCAA rules of graduation, our players, being consistent in terms of how we enforce discipline. Obviously what Lawrence did was not right, and yet we were labeled as win-at-all-costs, that type of thing. Yet we just disciplined Lawrence in accordance with our discipline policy and code and we thought we did it fairly. So it was a difficult time because we had a great team in 1995, we had great players, undefeated and nobody came close to us that whole year. (It was) painful.
Q: What was the No. 1 thing that separated Pelini from the rest of the coaching candidates during the interview process? What did he have the other candidates didn’t seem to have?

OSBORNE: We needed a lot of help on defense, and I didn’t know of anybody that had better defensive coaching credentials. The other thing he had going for him is [that] he had coached here in 2003 for one year, and had turned our defense around in that year into one of the top defenses in the country from a rather average defense in 2002. So I knew that he understood and could motivate players and communicate with players and (get them) to play with intensity and passion. The other thing that was in Bo’s favor was I was able to talk to a lot of players who played for him in 2003 and a lot of assistant coaches who worked with him on defense. And in his last month, he was named interim coach when (Frank) Solich was fired, so Bo coached the bowl game for about five weeks, [and] he acted as the head coach. All of the comments I got from the former players and former coaches, all of whom I knew well and trusted, were very positive. So I was able to get more information on him. In most other people, you would get information on simply by interviewing them. So that was the main decision on Bo.

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• College Football News looks at must-win games for the Big 12 North Teams. Nebraska’s outlook:

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Nebraska
Big Win: Virginia Tech
Must Win: Kansas State

Last year’s team could score on anybody and be scored on by anybody. In the last three games of the season, a total of 335 points were scored. Thus, enter in Sir Bo Pellini. Tom Osborne’s last hand-picked successor didn’t quite pan out the Husker-faithful had hoped. Lincoln eagerly waits for the revival of the conventional defensive ‘blackshirt’ mentality that is brought to the table by the former LSU defensive coordinator.

Virginia Tech comes into Memorial Stadium for a non-conference game that should prove to be explosive, if anything. The performance will be indicative of the outlook for the rest of the season as the new look defense will take on a solid, but not especially overwhelming Hokie squad. Winning this game would be a big step towards overhauling the team and bringing some relief to the Big Red Nation.

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The Huskers will have some competition from unlikely places, and Kansas State is a program that’s not about to willingly backtrack in the North. Ron Prince added a bevy of junior college talent that should shore up defensive issues. Although Nebraska won last year’s game by 42 points, losing to this team on the round would be a serious setback.

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• Spencer Hall assess for damaged college football properties (including Nebraska) and their chances for them to be ‘flipped.’ Final assessment: