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Flakes: Christian Peter, Terran Petteway, Weeding, & You Can Be Featured In Our Greatest Fan Interview Series

Flakes is pondering survival of fittest, and weeding. Not weed. Weeding. This is Nebraska, not Colorado.

By ranchbabe
David McGee

It is weeding season here on the ranch. Why do the weeds grow faster than the vegetables? Or the grass?

You may, or may not, know that I have three sons. Two of them are teenagers. It takes a huge garden to feed these human food disposal units. Large garden = many weeds. Hubby has also been scouting for thistles in the pasture and deploying the human food disposal units with machetes to chop them out. Yep, three boys with machetes.....nothing could possibly go wrong, could it?

I guess you could say that Ranchdude and I have a parenting style best described as "survival of the fittest".

If you have been reading CN articles the past couple weeks, you probably noticed it is "weeding" season for Husker football too. This phenomenon occurs every offseason to some degree, but it seems more pronounced (or at least gets more attention) when there is a new coaching staff.

Five scholarship Huskers have departed or were dismissed; Tolbert, Santos and Alexander were the first. They were followed by Stanton and Irons. Then, there was a big decommitment from a native son. The Huskers now have two scholarships available for the upcoming season and have whiffed on the number one 2016 prospect in the "Visit Nice" state.

Time to panic?

Hardly. Our own Brian Towle tells us that Husker recruiting is undergoing a renaissance. The new staff has earned a great deal of latitude and good will with their level of effort and openness in the recruiting process. They seem to "get" what Nebraska is and what it means to the people of this state.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B. If you have not already listened to the Cobcast interview with Christian Peter, do it now. One small nugget from that interview shows how Riley's staff has embraced "Nebraska" (start at 36:00 when CP begins to talk about the coaching).

[36:40] You know, it seems like this new coaching staff is something special. I think it's the first time...that Coach McBride told me...that they had all the old coaches, the guys who experienced those national championships, who had success, they invited 'em back. And they simply said 'What did you guys do? What did you do that made you so special,  that made you so great? And the old coaches they told them. And the new guys, they listened.

Check out the cobcast for more.

They listened. That phrase resonates with me deeply. In my day job (University Extension) our number one priority is to listen and find out what is needed.  It can be hard to listen. Current social media and society in general seems hell-bent on screaming and yelling and making sure others hear (rather than listening). My job is to help people sort through the noise and figure out what is worth listening to. It is much harder than it sounds.

Fall camp is only 6-ish weeks away. Will Husker football grow and thrive after the summer weeding or will the machete cut too deep? Stay tuned....

On to Flakes...

OK Preps Extra: Nebraska Huskers making football recruiting imprints in Oklahoma
It looks like the land thieves have noticed the gloves are off when it comes to recruiting in the Sooner State...

Mark Banker Q&A: Embracing a big challenge : Latest Husker News
Nebraska defensive coordinator discusses big expectations, defensive personnel, rotating big men, and a players' prank that told him a lot.

Former Husker Pushes Serbia to Olympics - KLKNTV.com
Budapest, Hungary - Former Husker Danielle Page scored 12 points and pulled down a game-high eight rebounds while adding two assists to power Serbia to a 76-68 upset of top-seeded France in front o...

‘She’d Be Hella Proud’ "
Now, together in his office with his player, Miles took a deep breath: "Terran, your mother passed away." Joetta Petteway had died at 53, the same age her mother had died of cancer. Miles saw a broken young man. He knew that Joetta had meant everything to him. They stayed in the office for a couple of hours. They didn’t talk much. Terran couldn’t. Miles squeezed his shoulder and tried to provide any small measure of solace. None came.

Ummm, I got something in my eye. Dust?

Report: Atlanta Hawks add Nebraska swingman Terran Petteway to Summer League roster - Peachtree Hoops
The Hawks have reportedly bolstered their roster for Las Vegas Summer League with the addition of former Nebraska swingman Terran Petteway.

Recruitniks wither - "Worst" recruiting class ever at Nebraska became national champions

I had to share another nugget from the Christian Peter interview by the Cobcast guys.

[25:29]  Christian: I can remember, that class of '91.....you know, the majority of us were ruled academically ineligible. You know, we were all Prop 48's, but I remember that recruiting class was labelled as, you know, the worst recruiting class of all time.

Ryan: What?

Christian: You know, that is what I had heard. You didn't hear that?

Ryan: No, I never heard that. That's...I was also eleven. [Laughter]

Christian: That's what I heard. And we were labelled the worst ever. And I remember us taking that to heart. You know we felt like we had something to prove. We had a chip on our shoulder. We had that nastiness. We had that attitude. .....You know, we had that label of not being able to win that big one, you know, going undefeated in the Big 8 and then going out to a bowl game and gettin' beat up by a Florida school. And, uh, we all took that to heart; you know, we wanted to change it. And...I think the change started in '93...

You have to listen to the rest to hear how Christian thinks a crushing defeat strengthened the resolve of Husker players to win a national championship. Seriously. LISTEN NOW.

Calling the CN Community - Ranchbabe Wants to Interview You

We are going to unveil a series profiling the CN writers so you can get to know all of us better. The flipside is, we also want to get to know all of you better. If you are willing to answer a few questions from Jill (a.k.a Ranchbabe) mention it in the comments or look at my profile and send me an email. We will feature community member articles (you get to pick which questions you answer and do not have to reveal your superhero identity) for as long as we have volunteers. We all know the Huskers have the greatest fans in college football. Let's get to know some of them.

Regardless if you comment often or only lurk occasionally, you are invited to join the definitive series on the greatest fans in college football. Do it now. Or, I'll have Cobcast Ryan send Christian Peter after you. Don't be like Warren Sapp and sit on the sideline sucking air. Get in the game!

Edit: Below added 10:23 a.m.

The Husker sports network has a new home

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