I have to admit to being impressed with the amount of information the Husker’s Athletic Department makes available. All the direct communications from coaches and players is impressive. I suppose it is in part a reasonable response to loyal and rabid fans who hunger and demand such information, but it is still impressive that the Athletic Department was smart enough to go along with it and make sure the football program is on the same page.

How rabid? Well, how many programs have commemorative coins of a 2nd year coach?

Husker pride.

The Athletic Department even provides daily press releases on practices in preparation of the games.

It makes things a little trickier for the local media, though. The fans can choose to bypass them as gatekeepers of information and get closer to the source. This has forced some more creativity in how to repackage the content.

This multi-page release from the Husker athletic department is not just a full transcript of Coach Callahan’s press conference.

On Pittsburgh’s defense
“I think they’re just playing basic coverage, sound coverage. I don’t know that it’s anything that is out of the realm or that’s different in that respect. I think everyone is playing the same type of coverage. You’re going to rotate and try to disrupt them. You’re going to try to do things of that nature that most people do when you play those types of coverage, when you cloud coverage or you play tight ball press with help over the top. That’s a double team in a sense, but it’s basic structure in football coaching.”

It also has player comments, like from Sophomore Linebacker Corey McKeon:

On facing Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko
“I would never actually say I’m anxious to face Palko. He’s a tough guy, a tough kid. Coach (Kevin) Cosgrove always raves about him. He’s a good football player. Good football players make mistakes, too. He’s going to play well against us. Great players arise against great defenses like ours. I know a lot of players are aching to get at the Blackshirts right now, so you just can’t say, ‘well, he’s going to be throwing a lot of picks.’ We’ve got to make him throw a lot of picks.”

On getting pressure on Palko
“I know our defensive line got after him big time last year. He took a lot of hits from us, and we hope we’re going to deliver more and see if he can take anymore this year. Our D-line is really anticipating this game. They had a big game against him last year and they expect this year to be no different.”

Given the hits Palko has already had this season, I hope he has his insurance updated. That is unless the O-line pins this on the bulletin board and shows some major pride this week.

McKeon, by the way, has already earned a reputation as a media favorite for quotes.

One of the things the local media is doing is being more transparent. In their online stuff, they basically do a breakdown on parts of the press conference, providing more background for the basis of the questions and facts.

“When you can rotate those big fellas, it really helps you get more positive, quality play. Those guys don’t wear down.” — Bill Callahan

We mentioned in the preseason how more depth in the defensive line will help, and Callahan has been pleased with the early-season results.

No longer are Le Kevin Smith and Titus Adams playing 60-some snaps each game. Ola Dagunduro, Barry Cryer and Ndamukong Suh are rotating inside. On the edge, Ty Steinkuhler and Barry Turner are providing depth for Jay Moore, Adam Carriker and Wali Muhammad.

And the backups aren’t just in for a play or two late in the game, either. Dagunduro and Cryer were playing the second series against Wake Forest. Quality depth is indeed paying dividends.

Nebraska is expecting Pitt to throw more. The most inexperienced and perceived weakest part of the Nebraska Defense is in their secondary. What this means, for Pitt, most likely is a lot of pressure coming off the line to keep Palko from getting set and disrupting the play up front.

And Domers think jealousy is the reason they are so disliked? No, it has to do with this.

The votes are in and tabulated for the BlogPoll this week. JFC can rest easy knowing that his Sun Devils were ranked #18. You can see how individual bloggers voted by going here.

B.B. asked about the coverage maps for the ABC 3:30 game this weekend. I didn’t link to the coverage map the first week, because the damn thing wasn’t working. It is now (PDF)

Because of Pitt’s horrible start, ABC moved a couple more games into the 3:30 regional coverage. Earlier it had just been Pitt-Nebraska and OSU-SDSU

Almost all of the East Coast (except for Pennsylvania) and Southeast will get the Miami-Clemson game. The Great Lakes region will get the Ohio St.-San Diego St. game — as will San Diego, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. The West and Southwest have UCLA-Oklahoma. The Plains states, Louisville, the Western half of New York and PA have the Pitt-Nebraska game.

Looks like I’m springing for GamePlan this weekend.

UPDATE: In response to some e-mails, here’s the link to info on ESPN’s GamePlan.

A little late start on this, but I hope to make it up. Arguably, this is a more intriguing match-up of parallel storylines than even the Weis-Wannstedt stuff. The difference is that Nebraska has a year’s head start.

Fellow blogpoller Struggling Joe is a Cornhusker. He and I are going to be exchanging e-mails the rest of the week talking about the game and such. He has a post of some of my answers to his questions. If any of you know why there were so many Homer Simpson themed signs in the background of College GameDay in Pittsburgh, let him know.

Here are his answers to a couple of my initial questions.

With that in mind, what is the state of Husker Nation regarding the team, expectations, feelings towards Callahan (not to mention AD Steve Pedersen)?

Well I believe the state of Husker Nation is still in the honeymoon period with Bill Callahan for sure. I think that last year was written off as a “transition” year and that no one really minded the 5-6 record as much as if Tom Osbourne or Frank Solich were to muster up a 5-6 record.

The reason why such a grace period was given to the new regime is the quality of athlete that they’re bringing in there. When’s the last time the Huskers recruited a top 5 class? I think you’d have to go back to the early to mid-nineties to find one of those. Regardless of who took over, a change had to be made. As much as I love the option, and believe me nothing gets me more excited than to watch a perfectly executed option play, it was on the way out for two reasons. 1) You can’t run the option against the really good teams anymore because they have too much speed and 2) kids were starting to see that being in the option offense wasn’t going to get them to the NFL. So even though the Husker program was putting up a 9-3 record in Frank Solich’s last year, it wasn’t going anywhere. They could beat up on the Baylor’s of the world but when they got matched up with Texas or Oklahoma the running game was bein nullified because of the speed and the lack of a threat of a passing game. So they needed to modernize and that’s why Billy is at the controls. So like Wannstedt, kids see him as knowing what it takes to get to the “big show.” Or being someone that knows how to get them there.

In saying this however, I think they may be some initial disappointment in how the offense has looked in the first two games. Especially in the run game, where Husker fans expect to dominate. This hasn’t happened so far and I can maybe see the boo birds coming out in the next game or two if it doesn’t shape up. The one thing that can delay that negative reaction though is the blackshirt defense as it has seemed to regain the swagger that it had two years ago. And thank God, cause they have carried them through the first two games. And I think the expectations for the rest of the season have been raised a bit. As you know, the match-up with Pitt isn’t looking as daunting as it once was. Mizzou all of a sudden just become a lot more beatable as did Colorado when they struggled with CSU. I still think the Huskers will win at least 7 games this season minimum.

Also, how are feelings to the 2-toned field?

I totally DIG it! When I first heard of the two-toned field going in Memorial Stadium and how it would resemble Oregon’s field, I kinda had mixed feelings on it. But then I saw some pics over at huskers.com on top of seeing it for the first time on TV last weekend in the Wake Forest game. I think it looks really good. This may be because I absolutely cannot stand astroturf, which the Huskers had forever. So yeah, I think the new field looks great.

Adam Graessle is on the Ray Guy Award Watch List. The award is presented by the Greater Augusta Sports Council. No shock that he was one of the 40 players on the list. Graessle is an outstanding punter. Brendan Carney of Syracuse was the only other Big East player put on the list.

Starting running back Rashad Jennings has some sort of shoulder injury — the extent is not known.

This is interesting.

Freshman tight end John Pelusi got some playing time against Ohio. However, sophomore Darrell Strong remains Mr. Invisible. “We talked about Darrell getting involved, but it hasn’t happened,” Wannstedt said. “We’ve got plays in (the game plan) with him every week. Pelusi might be our second- or third-best blocker. Steve Buches can do it all, he’s a smart guy. Darrell is more of a receiver.”

I only saw Strong in for one play against ND, and a pass was attempted to him. Given the struggles of the O-line, it can’t be too surprising that Strong is not getting in there. The line needs as much help as possible and a TE that isn’t particularly enthusiastic about blocking is not going to get out there much.

Clint Session wasn’t expected to play on Friday. In fact, he didn’t get on the bus with the team when they left.

“As soon as they left, I just knew in my heart that I needed to be there,” Session said. “I felt like I came to Pitt to help this team win and I was letting the team down. I remember when coach Harris used to talk about being hurt and being injured and really my knee was just a matter of pain and being sore.

“The kind of guy I am, if there is a possibility I can play, I’m playing so I knew what I had to do.”

So he essentially decided to drive to Athens and convince the coaches to let him play. The problem was, the team was staying Parkersburg, WV.

“I went on Mapquest and looked up directions to Athens, Ohio,” he said. “I figured I’d just get there and then find the team. It just so happened there was a manager who I ran into and he told me they were staying at the Holiday Inn. I had no idea which one so I just headed out towards Athens.

“I’m sort of lost on this highway but I saw an exit sign that said Athens and got off and it just so happened when I looked up on this hill, there was a sign for a Holiday Inn and it had ‘Welcome Pittsburgh Panthers’ on a big sign hanging out front, so I figured that was the right place.[“]

I think that was the same approach taken in college to find a couple of the strip joints in McKees Rocks — except without the “Welcome Pitt” sign.

H.B. Blades is happy to have Session by his side again, and his groin seems good enough.

“Blades is better,” coach Dave Wannstedt said. “We expect him to play this weekend.”

The Panthers need Blades to be on top of his game against Nebraska, which tries to confuse defenses with a lot of shifting and motion. Blades said getting linebacker Clint Session and defensive tackle Thomas Smith back up to full speed also is key.

“I’ve been playing beside Clint since high school all-star games, so having him back there is something I’m used to,” Blades said. “Thomas Smith was a major bonus. He makes plays in the backfield and takes pressure off the linebackers.

“All the guys, just the whole rotation system and everything, can start flowing and everything can get back to normal.”

As soon as we determine what normal is.

Freshman offensive lineman C.J. Davis saw his first action of the year in the Ohio game.

Apparently strong consideration had been given to redshirting Davis, but when several players went down during the game, that got tossed out the window. Now, the plan is to start working him into the game more and not waste the year. The O-line is probably going to need all the help it can get with Nebraska.

In their opener against Maine, the Cornhuskers tied school records with 11 sacks and 18 tackles for loss. They tacked on five sacks last week against Wake Forest.

The Blackshirts have three returning starters — tackles Kevin Smith (6-2, 305 pounds) and Titus Adams (6-3, 300) and end Adam Carriker (6-6, 280) — on their defensive line. Three true freshman also have gotten playing time as third-stringers.

“Their two d-tackles are pretty big,” Davis said. “I don’t think they move as much as Notre Dame or Ohio’s fronts did, though. But they’re definitely big, so we’ll have to get low and try to move them.”

Final note, Pitt verbal commit Dorin Dickerson along with top CB recruit Darrin Walls were selected to play in the Army All-American High School Bowl. Seriously, is there any way we can stick Dickerson in some isolation chamber until February?