1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - CFB Storylines: May 11th, 12:00pm

Episode Date: May 11, 2026

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It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the heart of Lincoln America, a 93-7-the-ticket and the ticketfm.com. Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation. Here is your host, Derek Pearson. On one-on-one with D.P. on 93-7, the ticket once again, Adam Kerker out. Today, should be back tomorrow. D.P. will be out for the next few days. So I got myself, Jake Bockerman, and Austin Oberman, in here, ready to talk some sports.

with you. Of course, DP was out there live watching Nebraska softball win the Big Ten tournament. That was a big part of this past week. And of course, a seven to two victory over UCLA now earned a number one seed, not the number one seed in the NCAA softball tournament. In fact, got the four seed. The Huskers will play South Dakota in the Lincoln Regional. The Amy Williams Bowl. Yeah, there you go. And Amy Williams will likely be there, of course, with her daughter playing. and it's on the softball team as well. Louisville and Grand Canyon will also be playing in Lincoln, Louisville, I think somewhere ranked, I think 24th, somewhere around there near the bottom of the, yeah, so that will at least be a little bit of a challenge there at Bowling Stadium, but should be exciting once again this weekend, the Lincoln Regional will take place. If you're wondering, you're thinking, well, it wasn't Nebraska number two, weren't they even number one at one point in the in the polls here recently? There's first of well, there's several different polls. So it was one of them. But yeah, they were.

But it didn't play out that way. In fact, the SEC is dominant. Once again, of course, Oklahoma has been kind of the, I think you could go, yeah, I mean, you called them the most dominant softball team

was the last, what, five years or so. Decade plus. Yeah, decade plus, the dynasty, if you will. The SEC got 12 of its 15 teams into the field and had, and received six,

the top eight in Division I softball championship, including Alabama at number one, Texas at number two. And then, of course, Nebraska gets in there down the line. UCLA also, I mean, those are the only two big 10 teams that are in the top there. So anybody outside the SEC, in fact, of those top eight seats to be Nebraska and UCLA.

So a little bit of representation for the Big Ten, but I think that's fair enough. Of course, we're used to kind of the football arguments and all that sort of stuff. And, well, the SEC is overrated in this. Again, they've been pretty good at softball. So that has been the case moving forward there. So again, good luck to the Husker women softball team as they chase the crown

and look to get to a college world series would be their first one since 2013. Of course, we're just, what, a pitch away last year. So it's going to be going to be the expectation to get there now. Going to be one heck of a ride. ought to be. This is a team that has lived up to lofty expectations from Husker fans and maybe even exceeded them nationally. Nebraska put a lot of eggs in this basket for this year and pretty much everything came together. I mean, you think about the Jordy Fromm factor. If he's not player of the year this year, we riot. And then we'll really be talking about Nebraska bias, I would think.

The Alexis Jensen effect, the lineup bouncing back from a little bit of a slow start, but Nebraska is still finding ways to knock off. you know, number one team a couple times early on in the season. Nebraska really just having its way with the Big Ten conference. You know, get in line behind us. This is our conference this year. And this is a year that to this point has been pretty magical. You know, even beyond dream season, seems like pretty much everything that could go right for Nebraska has gone right. And, you know, I don't think you can say championship or bust.

I think you can say women's college world series or bust, certainly for this team. And then, you know, just the nature of these sports, they're just so fixed. in any given game and any small sample size. So I think it's a big success for Nebraska. If it's able to really hold cert at this point, make it to the women's college world series, and then, yeah, it's softball, yeah, it's, you know, batball sport. But I think Nebraska, you know, ought to be 500,

at least in the women's college world series. They've played pretty much 500 against, you know, those top teams that would be ranked ahead of them in the RPI or maybe favored over them in a neutral side in terms of experience. So if you're Nebraska, you get a pretty solid, pretty salty regional. Okay, get battle tested. Hopefully welcome, you know, eastern Illinois or Princeton to Lincoln. But if not, it's Oklahoma State or Stanford, which are going to be good fun, fun challenges,

you presume for the Oscars. Yeah, yeah, it should be. And again, at 46 and 6 for the Oscars, too. I always like doing the historical stuff. Might be in the single-digit losses, finishing the single-digit losses for the first time since 1985 when the softball team was actually the runner-up and nationally. So a heck of a team there. And then as I was kind of talking about softball as well in the SEC's dominance there,

keep in mind, Oklahoma was not in the SEC a majority of this time. But since 2012, teams that are currently in the SEC, and to include Oklahoma, have won every title except for 2019 and 2018, when 2019, UCLA won in 2018, Florida State. So other than it's it's been the Oklahoma's, the Alabama's, the Florida's, and then this most recent year, Texas is of the world. So yes, maybe a little bit SEC bias, but maybe they've earned it in this sport, but just this sport.

Yeah, the basketball 14 teams in the tournament thing was a little fraudulent, as we saw year over year. And the football thing was deserved to a point. Yeah, for a lot of time. You know, because I don't want to call the SEC's football run fraudulent. Was there some cheating involved here? Seems like it when the playing field gets, it's hard to say leveled,

but you know, and when all sorts of schools say, oh, we can open up the checkbooks in broad daylight, how quickly the SEC's advantages disappeared, not saying that's everything, saying that's at least a little bit of it. But if we're going to say the SEC's run was fraudulent,

then we open ourselves up to saying, well, Nebraska's 90s run was fraudulent. You weren't able to sustain into the next era. So were you really as good as we think you were. Yeah, you were as good as we thought you were. Those SEC teams were legit. They were deserving champions. Did we like it?

No. Did we hate all the talking and the crowing that the SEC schools and fans and commissioners and personalities did? Absolutely. It was horrible to listen to. Do I love it now that the Big Ten's winning? No, not necessarily. You know, a couple odious schools there in that mix with Michigan and Ohio State. But that's part of the fun, Bocke, is bridging eras, which maybe Nebraska softball is in for,

depending on, you know, how much longer Ron Ravel thinks she's going. going. But no, the SEC's been good at baseball. The SEC's been good at softball in the mark of a true program, a flexible program, a dynamic program is one that when the rules change, your record doesn't. You know, okay, this is the game we're playing. Yeah, we're ready to go. We can do it. And it's hard because you get these behemoths sometimes that just got so good at gaming a system, you know, playing by this set of rules that I'm sure the SEC will quote unquote bounce back. There's still enough talent, enough good coaching that SEC football is not done forever, except for maybe Georgia, right? I mean, Georgia, what a joke of a program, right, Terrell Farley. But other than that,

you know, there are so few programs that with any dexterity navigate one era of rules to the next, it's hard to do, especially when there's uncertainty around it. You've been so set in your ways for a while. But, no, I don't think the SEC was fraudulent in football like I could do, maybe in basketball in terms of the postseason appearance numbers. But even that year, Florida won the title. So I'm trying to even argue with that. Yeah, yeah, that is true. Certainly, some news to pass along from the SEC area of, which used to be Big

8 area, which is Missouri, running back of Martin Hardy. Unfortunately, it was shot at a concert in Mississippi. For an ESPN source, there's optimism that Hardy will play football again. How quickly can return and the impact isn't known. But he is alert today and moving around. Of course, that's the bigger. concern is not the football side of things, but of course, that is how we know him. And he was fantastic.

His first year at Missouri last year, by the way, from Mississippi, might have been one of the reasons that he was down there. But last year was second among FBS player was 1,649 yards Russian. Of course, Husker fans might know the name or have been kind of following along the name among the Emmett Johnson argument for running back number one across the country. But, I mean, you talk about a guy that. that, you know, pretty much free season, All-American, a lot of,

expectation for him to, to repeat that performance there in Missouri. And so you just hope, you know, college football, they've got a few stars coming in this upcoming year. But he's one of them. And so you just hope that he's able to get back out there. Of course, more importantly, is his health in general, but on the football field, he's a heck of a running back. Yeah, I mean, top five running back in the country this year,

by a lot of metrics. that Missouri program is in an interesting spot right now. Is there a next step in them you would think you would be on the shoulders of Ahmad Hardy? Hopefully, you know, he's able to recover by fall practice. We still don't know the full extent of the injuries or anything. And so you hope that he's able to pull through, be able to be his best. You hope that, you know, SEC fans are understanding about it. And there's not a situation like we saw Finkelbank Arena in the basketball floor.

Again, that's a little bit different of a story. but same sort of thing. But that's a heck of a talent for college football. Always a tragedy when something like this happens seems, you know, just senseless. What's the point? No matter who it is, you know, and it gets attention because it's a college football superstar that should have his whole football career ahead of him. And whenever a career gets derailed, it should break your heart in some ways.

But especially for something like this that seemed so easily preventable. Yeah, yeah. So best of luck to him in his recovery, certainly. and hopefully see them out there on the field. Again, scored 16 touchdowns. I averaged 6.4 yards per carry last year as the SEC newcomer of the year. Also in college football news,

how about RJ Day committing to Northwestern, the son of Ryan Day? Not good enough to get the Ohio State to offer maybe at this point, but of course, Chip Kelly out there at Northwestern might have been able to help bring him in there. Certainly could get interesting down the line. if RJ Day ever starts for Northwestern, particularly against his dad. Do you like the idea of a sitting Big Ten head coach taking campus visits and, you know,

facilities visits and, you know, sitting in with coaches? I don't. That's a little skeevy. But hey, good for RJ Day. I would send him to maybe to New Hampshire. No dad's alma mater. Yeah. As opposed to Northwestern. But that's a step up, you know.

So good on, good on the younger day for for that. I wonder if there's anything Ryan Day took away from these visits, if there's anything he didn't already know about Northwestern or what he may or may not have learned on his visit. I assume he was there, right? He took a picture. Yeah, that's just going to be interesting altogether. Remember, Aidan Child's not going to Northwestern along with Chip Kelly. Just an interesting collection of folks down there.

Nebraska doesn't play in Northwestern this year, so it might have to wait to see there. But do you think that Chip Kelly, I mean, that was just one of the weird offseason moves. I don't think anybody saw coming. Chip Kelly to Northwestern. It was so weird. People talked about it for like a few days. I just don't understand it. But certainly could be interesting.

Did your view of Aden Childs just dissipate and drop out of nowhere after that game against Nebraska? I always have to tell people that was probably the worst Aden Child's looked in his career, to be fair, but that's your only look at him. It's so funny that as soon as a quarterback sucks against Nebraska, oh, he sucked all along. He was never good. I mean, look at this scrub. Why would we ever talk about? about him. That's a dude with pedigree that has some good football in his background. And I know it's not fun to do. I know it's not easy to do all the time.

We can give Nebraska football a little credit for making his life miserable. You know, maybe you say, hey, good job to Nebraska's defense that made a pretty talented guy look like he had no idea what he was doing. And Jay Foreman maintains that Childs was playing hurt in some way. Maybe got his bell rung early in that one and tried to fight through it. Michigan State didn't go. to the backup and that one until it was too late is is jays position on that which could be but there's talent in aton child absolutely is you know is he going to be a superstar probably too late at this point but he can be a you know solid big 10 starting quarterback and give Nebraska credit for

slowing him down yeah yeah and again i think that nebraska's whatever credit they would have received last year for the secondary which did a good job and in several especially early on that season aden childs was part of that seems to have been lost a little bit with you know, obviously cutting coach Butler. A lot of people kind of put that in his, you know, kind of in his pockets. And that's why the defensive secondary was so good. Hopefully a little bit of that still is in,

is in, on campus and still around in Nebraska's secondary. Of course, you still have the same secondary coach. So, you know, maybe that played a big part into it. But yeah, Aidan Childs said in Northwest will be interesting. Now, RJ Day won't come in to compete right away. But maybe down the line could be another northwestern quarterback

and could give us some some interesting storylines going into that. Again, bounce around a little bit, but I want to keep it in football because I also saw here within the last hour now in the NFL former Nebraska running back. Amir Abdullah signing with the Jaguyers. A lot of the response from

just people in general as well, he's still playing. Yes, he is still playing and make it to now year 2026 if they all goes well. Of course, started in the league in 2015 back with Detroit. So more than a decade in the league certainly is tough to do as a running back,

but played last year a little bit with the Colts. So you got to see a little bit of them. He did indeed, which by the way, Kenny Willhide, if you're listening, you said you're going to get me in Amir Abdullah Coltschers. Hey, I'm still still waiting. So let me put you on front street for that one. Amir has a chance to really break into this

lineup, dare I say. The running back room, right in a no ETN. He's gone. The running back room is Amir Abdullah, LeQuint Allen Jr., DJ Dallas, Chris Rodriguez, Jr. Jamari Taylor and Bayshul Tutin. There's an opportunity there.

I know they got Tutin last two years ago from Virginia Tech. Rodriguez was really good at Kentucky back in the day. But I mean, I think there's a legit role out there for Amir Abdullah to go get beyond just the normal. Hey, this is a good dude to have in your locker room kind of role that he's played the last few years with spot duty on the field.

Yeah, that'd be awesome to see him out there. Like you said, I mean, that's a full room. So there's going to be a competition, of course, to make the team. But as far as like open up, you know, possibilities, that's a heck of a place to play. And I know because he came on with Risham before. I mean, he's been on the airways a few times.

But I remember he's getting more picky and choosy about where he wants to go. You know, maybe if he could play in the sun a little bit. So this would be good for him and, you know, from a, from a former Husker to kind of a newer Husker that turned A&M Aggie, Nate Borgantor, of course, going to be on that team as well. so maybe a little bit more recent for Oscar fans to tune in to some Jacksonville Jaguars games. Let's go ahead and take one break after this. I got one more story here before we go to it,

and that's because it is happening today. There was talk about Indiana visiting the White House, of course. That's a tradition to do if you win the college football championship. Fernando Mendoza not planning to attend today because he cannot miss the first Las Vegas Raiders organized team activities. said a couple weeks ago and he's talking about it. If it's on the first day of OTAs, I'm at the bottom of the totem pole here. I got to prove myself, I can't miss practice.

You got to love that level of the way that he's viewing coming in. First pick the draft, usually not the bottom of the totem pole, however. But I appreciate that mindset. Yeah. You know, this is still Fernando Mendoza from Cal. This is still Fernando Mendoza, the, you know, zero star recruit.

And I can really appreciate that mindset. And there's a line to walk, right? Because I think Fernando Mendoza, doesn't lack for confidence. I don't think that's what this is. I think this is a legitimate, you know, hey, I got to grind this out. You know, the world isn't promised to me sort of thing. I think this is Fernando Mendoza doing right by that locker room. Yeah, the Raiders have been pretty bad recently, but that doesn't mean he walks in there necessarily as the savior. I think he recognizes the challenge ahead of him. I don't think he's dismissive of all this time at Indiana,

but I think he's onto the next thing where he climbed his way to the top of the college football world, not just in winning the national championship, but in winning the Heisman. And so I think you would talk to him and say, okay, yeah, what's next? You know, can I be rookie of the year, offensive player of the year, MVP, potentially down the line as well. And I think that's just a great kind of sign of respect for the opportunity in front of him to say, yeah, it's not diminishing anything that I or we accomplished Indiana, but this is my team.

Now, this is my situation now. and even if it's a, you know, one day trip there and back or two day trip there and back, it's at the start of mini camp of, you know, practice of the offseason stuff. And so if he's going to be the face of the program, the leader for the program, I got a lot of respect for him for being there and taking that mantle on his shoulders, you know, full go from the get-go. Well, it's kind of strange, too, because I always kind of figured, you know, it's like after you win the championship or something, say, we're going to Disneyland.

You know, I'm going to say, we're going to Disneyland in four months when we can get to it. This is a little bit later. I just got to figure the White House visits were quick enough, but you got to be able to schedule it and get everybody, you know, on the, like, I get it. But it still seems a little bit late. I'll have to ask, you know, Terell, I know wasn't able to get to go to the White House, but I have to ask some of the other guys that have been through that. And there's not many than thankful that we've got access to a few of them.

But yeah, it seems kind of late too, especially the college football calendar, the NFL calendar, of course, is just kind of full season. yet you'd have to kind of like step out of of of your goals and kind of go back to that so that is that is certainly interesting um finita mendoza of course became the fourth quarterback since 1967 to win the championship heisman trophy and be drafted in the same year the only other is joe borough james winston and cam newton you see uh NFL level of success any comparisons there joe borough james wins or cam newton cam was underrated joe borough still tbdd jose James Winston, what a career that guy's had.

Yeah. I think if you have a James Winston NFL career as the floor, you're doing pretty well for yourself. I don't want us to forget how good Joe Burrow and Cam Newton were at their peak in different ways. Ken Mendoza, the cop I saw thrown around a lot that I like, can he be Jared Gough with some legs with more mobility? Maybe. I mean, even that is that worthy of number one overall pick might not seem like it,

but you got to remember how many number one overall picks do less than that as well. So I think if you hit the Jared Gough outcome, you're doing pretty well for yourself, especially having been drafted to that franchise in this moment. Yeah, yeah. That seems to be, of course, in every one of those teams when they're drafted, you're thinking, oh boy,

especially, I mean, we're talking about the Bengals and Panthers. I mean, these teams have been through this before, but, you know, that is where you face right now. It's like, yeah, but then you have to kind of a vision of world where the Raiders are winning, and that's hard to see right now. So we'll see if they can turn it around.

It should be exciting one way or the other. I don't quite seem as like, you know, I can't miss prospect. I mean, obviously, number one, you know, for the, I don't have any problem with that. But, you know, we come around with these guys, like, well, this is a once in a generation prospect. I don't quite see it that way. But certainly, certainly can change the narrative on that as well. Is there a can't miss prospect in this last draft class for you?

I don't think so. I'm with you. Yeah. A lot of good ones. Yeah. But I don't know if there's anyone that you would label just quite, that start printing the gold jacket yeah except for jeremiah love obviously for my cardinals

that's why they reached on him yeah absolutely which by the way he said he's not touching any of that money which is funny to see he said guys I came in the world of nil i'm doing fine i can live the way i need to and i don't have to touch that money so it is it is big money for a rookie running back that's for certain but um it's just strange to see

not necessarily the the game life changing money that even if the bigger contracts of course it's still it is i know he's kind of just kind of putting that off, but that's just a different quote than I've seen before. So that's, that's interesting. Let's go ahead and take a quick break. We'll be back with more on one-on-one, 93-7 to take it.