1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Do Nebraska Fans Deserve More than the Product they are Getting?:June 30th, 12:00pm

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

Do Nebraska Fans Deserve More than the Product they are Getting?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the heart of Lincoln America, a 93-7-a-ticket and the ticketfm.com. Here is your host, Derek Pearson, brought to by Canopy Street Market. Boom. Nice. Cariker will be back tomorrow on Wednesday. Carricker on Thursday. We'll be running replays on July 4th Friday.

Craig, what's up? Appreciate you. You're hitting us up on the starter hamans text line 402, 4, 6, 4, 6, 8, 5, 6, 8.5. Appreciate you guys being active in it for hour one. I'll ask you to be active in it in hour two as well. You can follow on all the live video streams, Facebook, YouTube X, hello channel 961, and the ticket app.

If you haven't downloaded it, do so so that we can go where you go. You get all the content. Simple deal. You should have it downloaded. And as we head into football season, please do, because we will have multiple, multiple things going on. And you'll be able to choose. And it'll be much easier on the app. I'm just letting you know, it'll be easier on the app as well.

You can follow on Amazon Prime as well. We have been talking, Jake Bakover is with me today, and we have been talking about standards. And I know that in sports, sometimes the offseason is to just ask for a Mount Rushmore. And I think that's too flawed. That's too Bush. That's too lowest common denominator. Who you root for is one thing. Why you root for them is a statement of standard.

Expectation, trust, right? Who are you giving your emotional value to? And often it's set into this thing that you have to say, why you root for a thing. And do, Bokhti, is it a fair question to say that you have, there has to be a level of trust for you to give your 100% emotional availability to a program organization, right?

Or does that not matter to you? Are you a loyalist in full? That it doesn't matter how good they are or how bad they are. You root for who you root for. What, what's that for you? you. Well, yeah, I think it depends on the folks. Like it, sometimes you don't have the most, like, again, I'm an Arizona Cardinals fan. I don't have the most trust in the owners, the Bidwells, to make the right moves to make Arizona Cardinals competitive. But, you know, then there's other

organizations, Boston Celtics, have the utmost trust in them to make, you know, put a competitive product out there. So sometimes that can depend on ownership. But I will say this, I think, and it's interesting. So kind of diverting for the question a little bit, but from Nebraska's side, I think there used to be a huge level of trust. Obviously, Tom Osborne, even Bill Byrne, the athletic director,

all that sort of stuff. And I think that trust has melted quite a bit over the years. And especially for me, now it's just kind of like, we'll see what kind of happens. I don't trust that everything's the best decision making over there. Not that it's the worst. Again,

they're moving up in the athletic department rankings. But as far as football goes, There's been a lot of bad decisions that I've seen over the last 20 years. That leads me not to trust that they're making the best decision on every next decision they make. I think it's, I think it's interesting, right? Because I went through it with the commanders. I was outlawed. Same with the nationals.

As a matter of fact, that if you, for me, I'm a standards guy. As a player, I was a standards guy that as a coach, I'm a standards guy. you have to be who you are all the time, or at least attempt to be. And nobody's ideal. Like nobody does it all the time. That's just not humanly possible. But you try to get to that as much as possible and then work from that. And when I saw that they weren't operating based on the standard, the production didn't matter.

It was how were you approaching trying to get your standard identified and kept? and I just wasn't buying in. New ownership comes in. They knocked down a lot of the nonsense that was there. They pulled a lot of the bad wiring, changed the plumbing, gave you more digital outlook, and you went, oh, okay,

this looks like a house that I could sleep in. This looks like a house that's safe for me. And I often wonder whether Husker fans feel like, it's the thing I heard. And Bach, tell me if I'm wrong, that you have to, as a fan, you want to root to the level that the organizational program

is working at. Like you want to feel like the Huskers are working at a level worthy of your emotion. Is that fair? Yeah, I mean, I think absolutely, especially like again, in the glory years, people would almost build their identity

around the program and say, well, this is a hardworking football team and it's a hard working state. Oh, boy. And so you'd really, And look at me, I've built my almost told my whole personality of it. I've worked covering the Huskers for 10 years, you know, plus. And so, yeah, I mean, a lot of people will directly connect themselves. But again, at times, as I said earlier, I've somewhat separated myself from that over the years because I don't feel like I'm a five and seven person.

Maybe. Maybe I feel a little better, though. Isn't that that, that may be one of the great, one of the great statements of all, right? that Husker fans cannot feel like, you know what, we're not five and seven fans. We're not five and seven people. You know, I'm not sure we're seven and six people. You don't show up in a seven and six kind of way. You aim for more than that.

Right. Yeah. But then you have to feel like, you know what, we're working towards being a nine win, 10 win. I'm a 10 win person. Like I think I deserve 10 win. I support, I invest, I show up in 10 win at 10 win level, maybe 11 win. We know that Nebraska football fans are a national championship blue blood group of individuals.

Is that still true? Oh, absolutely. And you can argue about the cellist, Drake. I like when we do that, it's the same thing. Like when Bo Polini freaked out about a few thousand people leaving the Ohio State game. Yeah. Okay, yeah, if you want to look at a few. empty seats or a few thousand people leaving,

don't mind that there's 76 to 80,000 people still there supporting. Still there battling away with you. Even though the product doesn't match. That part, the accountability part is so vital. It is so vital in these conversations to say, the program has to be accountable to the fan base in full. And you can say, listen, it's all about us, right? We've heard that.

Pay no attention to social media. Pay no attention to the fans. Hey, everything you have is based on that. Every single thing, all the dollars, all the revenue, all of that is based on this fan base, not being a five and seven fan base. A five and seven fan base looks like games at Northwestern. A five and seven fan base looks like the stadium in College Park,

on a rain, college park Maryland on a rainy Saturday in November. five and seven looks like Indiana every year before before Kurt got there right we we saw indiana we knew husker fans have been in the buildings of these five and seven fans you call Purdue Purdue we know what we know what five and seven fans look like and if you're not it then it becomes listen this is who we are And this is what the expectation and accountability has to match. It has to be, it has to be all of those. Like, it's fantastic.

The one thing I loved about high school coaching, it's kind of like being a stand-up comic. I got feedback immediately. I couldn't hide from it. I couldn't hide from the parents. I couldn't hide from the boosters, right? because the boosters as they come and hang their banners up on the fence before game, right? And, hey, get them tonight, coach.

Good job with the kids, coach. Hey, big opportunity tonight, coach. And then afterwards, when they're taking it down and you're standing there and you've got to face them or when you walk out in locker room, there is a level of accountability that happens on the immediate level, and especially when you're talking local accountability, that Husker fans, this is 2 million. strong, connected.

And they will tell you the most important thing the athletic department can do for us. Remember that conversation we were having an hour ago. The most important thing you can do to pay off and to show off for these two million Husker fans would be work to the standard. work to be a Husker and a Husker's not five and seven. A Husker's not five and seven. And you have to be careful in saying a Husker's seven and six because there would be some that would say that's good enough. But you don't walk into the building cheering at 46%.

right you're what you only tiered 46% of the plays 50% of the plays 57% of the place that's not who husker fans are that's not who and they've never been that even when this team when this program won very few games and for all the other programs it's still again a basketball program that has never won an NCAA tournament game PBA is a spot bro it is a spot those fans deserve an NCAA win. And mind you, they would never get it in the building. But it deserves it.

You imagine the Husker fan base, basketball fan base, on the day, on the night in which Nebraska wins an NCAA tournament. Vindication, validation, how about that? Because then the conversation changes about who Nebraska fans are. winning, winning, a national title of volleyball is a statement of who Nebraska fans are. It allows them to make the statement out loud. This is who we are. This is who we are.

Who we aren't, we are not five and seven. We are not, I'm not sure seven and six is good enough. But I can't say that for Husker fans. And Bach, that's why I asked you, are you a five and seven fans? No, I don't think so. And I think especially, you know, your basketball points there. Nebraska is like top 15 routinely in attendance every year and yet still doesn't have a win. So, I mean, Nebraska's in the incident of like tournament, Nebraska's fan base is the one thing that has held strong over all these years is the sellout streak.

Is and again, I don't like to get into a little bit. Okay, there's an empty seat here and there. Is is the fan base filling up that stadium, filling up pinnacle bank arena, you know, volleyball day? I mean, it's always, it's impressive. And I, and it's fun, too, because it, I should say it's interesting because it's not common for too many college programs. There's a lot of programs or just places, areas in the country where pro sports is it. And they look at you funny when you say, I follow college sports. They say, why?

You know, I don't get it. Why would you do that? And that's the kind of excitement. You're like, well, come, come see Lincoln. Come see the care factor that is here for this college sport and this college program. But it's just been harder to invite people as of late. Right.

Like it's the thing. Like you, you know how you respond to other fan bases when you meet them. Right? When you meet them immediately, Ohio State football fan, there's a certain level. Like, you kind of have to. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Uh, uh, Michigan fan. Right? And it's not exactly even how you feel in your house. It's when you go to their house as yourself. Like how do, how do you walk into the big house? Fully, fully, fully huskered up.

How is your chest out, chin up, smile on your face? or are you just kind of hoping to get through the crowd without taking a beat down? And knowing that you never want to feel that way. And you know how we feel on Game Day in Lincoln when other fans from other schools, especially in the Big Ten, show up here. Look, the out-of-conference fans that show up here in weeks one and two, think of how you think about that. Aw.

Right? Aw. Welcome to real football. Cool. Like, you imagine when Houston Christian shows up in Lincoln. If you see somebody wearing a Houston Christian logoed shirt or jacket or jersey on that game day, what are you going to think of that? Aw.

You want a beer? You need to drink? Hey, I've got a hamburger for you. When Michigan comes to the next week, different vibe. Different vibe. You got to have your hands ready when Michigan show up. Because Michigan walking in your crib like the crib belonged to them. And you can't like it.

As a Husker football fan, you cannot like that feeling. So what you want is the program to fight for you so that you don't have to feel that one. Because they just got here. you've been here your whole life. Those 105 just got here. Some of them haven't been here. There's a portion that have, and not even all the coaching staff has been here.

So they don't understand how Bach feels unless Bach tells him in full, and then all the blocks tell him, hey man, that ain't cool. Because that's not who we are. And I'll root for you like crazy. I'll be the best friend you ever saw if you give me that. and I think it's important. I think it's so important, right?

Old Day says Nebraska fans are 10-win people. But if you said that now, I'm still believing Nebraska fans are blue blood and elite in every way and fashion other than holding people accountable for that. Because I wouldn't trade being a Nebraska fan with Michigan, Ohio. wouldn't. I understand it, but there aren't 10 other sports programs. You can say LSU.

Okay, I get it. Okay. Hey, I understand being down on the bayou on a sad, look, cool colors, cool tiger, right? Like, great stadium. Oh, okay, I understand that. If you want to put that in the conversation, cool. being a fighting Irish fan, I get the mystique and the decades of excellence and the representation, right? The Fighting Irish traveled beyond South Bend, Indiana, and made South Bend, Indiana, this small town in the middle of the country that has, we can't even tell you what their number one product is other than the Fighting Irish. So that's what's happened for Lincoln, and that's what Lincoln deserves. but how many other places are ideal or on that level, I would much rather, I said this,

I would much rather be at a full Memorial Stadium during a Big Ten game, a meaningful Big Ten game, than being at the horseshoe. I would. And I have a bunch of family that's Buckeye fans. I get it. But I wouldn't say that,

I just understand that being a Buckeye fan, has a little more cash-day now than being a Husker fan. Washington Husky's fans. It's a great game day experience. Would I trade it? No. USC for all of the pomp and circumstance, all the pageantry, right?

All the celebrities and all the... Bach? You've been in the building, right? You've been in that building. Game day in Lincoln for... a productive good Husker football team. You wouldn't trade it. No.

Wouldn't trade it. So the expectation is this, that you hold people to the standards and then you root for the standards and then when the standard isn't met, you say so. Let me ask you this because it does, I mean, I like the whole conversation. It's definitely, you know, especially over the last 10 years,

trying, you know, we need to raise up and play well. But let's not forget, too, this is a program that's fired two nine-win coaches over that time period. So that standard at one time was so high that it was like, not even this is good enough. And that might have ultimately hurt Nebraska maybe in the long run than rather than help them because now they've found themselves. Now, yeah, I always argue too. It's not the firing of the previous coach. It's the next move you make, right? but you made the wrong hire afterwards, but that standard may have heard Nebraska over the year.

Yeah, you are 100%. Now, and of course, the hot news, as we're talking to Nebraska football, is that Nebraska gets, beats out Baylor and Mississippi State for three-star offensive linemen, Leon Nollie Jr., Noel Jr. And that's a big win. That's a big win because you're competing. I mean, but that also shows. shares, tells you the space that you're in.

That's one thing that recruit, I will give recruiting credit for, is that recruiting will help you identify where you stand amongst others and then what level are you competing at. So if you tell me that Nebraska football is now competing it on the level in recruits with Baylor and Mississippi State, that seems appropriate to me. I don't think it's ideal, but I think it's appropriate because Baylor has money. Baylor has had some success, but they've also had some failures and problems. Mississippi State is a cool place to play on game night.

Cowbells and all, right, keys in the tank and all that whole shebang. But it's still not Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, Penn State. Fair? Oh, absolutely. Fair. Fair, fair, fair. So great news. Again, Nebraska, can I say that the young man that they got over the weekend, the wide receiver

gave me more of the warm and fuzzies than anybody not Dylan Ryle. That receiver gave me more of the warm and fuzzies, watching him, watching his film, and then reading what other coaches, coaches who had coached against him said about him. It gave me more of the warm and fuzzies. But then, again, from somewhere else, it just lets you know that Nebraska was competing with Power 4,

big-time successful Power 4 programs and getting this star receiver. And he's a star receiver on the high school level. But it's a sign that steps are being taken. Recruiting is being done. The work is being put in. But it helps you get eyes on where Nebraska is, where it was, where it is, and where you want it to be. The GPS is real.

The GPS, I use it. I don't use it enough. The GPS is a truth teller. where does Nebraska want to be? Bach, where do you want Nebraska football to be? Playing competitively for the conference, playing to get into the playoffs. Right?

Yeah. So then from where you are, from where you were to where you are, how you got here, gives you an understanding of how you're going to move forward, and then from here to where you want to go, competitive competing for Big Ten titles, getting into college playoffs,

how are they going to get there? And whether it be development, recruiting, standard, talent, coaching. Whatever it's going to be, that's what needs to be in the GPS. And that's why we have these discussions. We'll sort of break. We'll come back.

I'll ask Bach for his all-time Huskers. The most important, the five most important Husker athletes of all time. Bach, you ready? I'm getting ready. We'll have it when we come back.