1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Nebraska Men's Tennis coach Peter Kobelt is here: February 3rd, 2026, 11:00am

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

With a 6-0 start to the season, Nebraska HC Peter Kobelt is here. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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. 1105, Lincoln, Nebraska. 30 degrees, we're going to linger in that 30 to 35. I'll take it.

I need to get above, I need to get above 40 so it melts whatever's left of them. this snow ice, right? Black ice 1 D.P. Zero. Take the loss, learn from it. Keep it moved. Dog got it. 402, 464, 5, 6,86, 8, 5. You want to be a part of what we're doing.

And you do. Please hit us up. So what up our weekly conversation. And we're looking forward to that. You can follow on all the live video streams, Facebook, YouTube, X, Allo Channel 961. Two questions. Two questions. First, Bach, kind sir. How the heck are you? Hey, doing pretty good. Like you said, a little bit warmer today and throughout the week. So not too bad. I've missed the black guys. So I'm doing well so far.

Yeah. Well, you have to say that slower. You have to say that slow. I didn't know if you miss the black guys. I don't know if you missed the black guys or the black eyes. I wasn't sure. They're not sure. And sometimes you got to ask the other question. And kind, sir, second question, if you would please, will you? Pay the bills. Yes, today's show is sponsored by Hamilton Telecommunications, bringing you the latest quality technology and communication services since 1901, whether it's residential or business. Hamilton has the answer. Visit Hamilton.com for more info today. Thank you, kind, sir. It is with absolute joy that I get to welcome in for our weekly conversation. You know, folks, put some flowers. We're due. Give flowers when necessary. But there is still

an undefeated Huskers athletic department team, rolling around Lincoln, Nebraska. There's an undefeated squad that plays down at the Dill and Tennis Center. He is the head coach, Huskers Tennis. He is also Peter Cobalt. My friend, what's happening with you? What's up, D.P. Thanks for the nice little intro.

I got to say, you got the all red jumpsuit, jumpsuit on today. You're looking good. Granibles for grownups, bro. Top to bottom, Nebraska gear. Where the stuff, listen, I thanked Henry. When I found out, Henry's like, he's like, I'm size 14. I was like, you are my best friend.

I said, you and coach, y'all don't understand what y'all are doing for me. Y'all are doing things for me to know that like the brotherhood of the size 14. Because it's the stuff that you can't get in stores. And it's like, okay, when you find a connection, it, it's, I don't know, man. It's like sugar. It opens up your soul. Right. Once you know where.

There's someone else out there like me. What you know. Once you know where you can go to get to get something good, you go, okay, very cool. Speaking of something good, Coach, if you're thinking about it for the weekend, ice forward, Super Bowl parties,

craving something warm, sweet, unforgettable, insomnia cookies has you covered, whether you're hosting a party, planning an event, getting ready for the holidays. Maybe you want to treat your team. Insomnia cookies delivers fresh break goodness right where you need it. Treat your yes to warm,

multi-classics, deluxe cookies, and even ice cream cookies. sandwich. Perfect for office celebrations, birthday surprises. You name it. Order ahead and get it delivered. Make your next event a little sweeter with insomnia cookies located downtown Lake at 16th in Q. And with that kind, sir. What you, this is between just you and us. It's whatever. If you decide to share it with your team, fine. If you decide to just put it in the coach's office, fine. Nut Bach. We wash our hands of it. whatever he chooses, if he wants his kids to just have a treat, right? They worked hard, you know. Now, if they didn't, if they didn't have a good practice. We worked hard this morning.

I usually do. I got to be careful with these cookies, though, DP. The guys, the guys get on me all the time. We go on the road and they all got to eat cleaning every now and then I'll sneak a cookie. Those pop belly cookies. And I haven't had an insomnia. for a while, but I already know how good those things are. Oh, it's, it's,

see, this is, this is that, I can distance myself. I put them on the table and what happens. We're sitting in between us. He's pushing them back. He does not, fuck, he does not know. I will destroy them. I will destroy them. I'm in my, uh, uh, uh, refit phase.

Um, normally I work opposite that going into spring. I'll refit and get a little healthier and try to do some things but Becky has been real as a matter of fact I think she hired a chef to cook clean

that's what it's the only what like it's just listen if you don't put in front of me if you don't put it in front of me clean I'm gonna go a different direction I'm gonna go convenient I can feel you there right like it's the thing

and then to get the fire mall walks in which is which is the other thing and then resistance and flexibility and even that with a bad hip today. The hip and back today are, it is a civil war and they are not agreeing. They are not

trying to compromise. They are not trying to compromise. Concer are quite the week for Husker tennis. Quite the week that you go, one of the, and I know they're all tests. They're all exams.

But this is a big test. And you don't want to make them any bigger, but going on the road to love it. What was in the head? What are the, what are you trying to control, right? Because there are things that it's a little different going on the road. So you don't know how your people are going to react. You don't know what the building's going to be like. And you don't know what the crowd's going to be like or how your players are going to accept it.

Talk to me about loving. Yeah. First, first time going on the road. It's never easy, especially to another powerful program, Texas Tech, just like they are in most sports. All right. I have a lot of resources down there. they're able to offer a lot of things to their student athletes and their coach has done a great job and put together a great team. So we knew it was going to be tough. But a few things for tennis

specifically. We weren't sure if the match was going to be indoors or outdoors. There's an ITA rule that if the weather's 50 degrees or above for two out of the three hours, it has to be outside. So that's what it was looking like. But when we landed in Lubbock, there was six inches of snow on the ground on Wednesday night. So we weren't sure what was going to happen if everything was going to work out. We ended up playing outside. Also down in Lubbock, there's about 3,000 feet of altitude, which makes a difference on how the ball flies through the air and you've got to change your tension in the strings.

And it takes a second to get used to that. And then a little bit also with the breathing. But, yeah, there was a lot of things that went into play. And we kind of told our guys, like, this is college tennis. It's not easy. This is why we practice hard every day in the fall. and why I like to yell and scream a little bit and try and inject some chaos in the practice because it prepares us for these moments where you're probably not going to play your best

and you still have to try and have a great process and come out come out on the other side with a wind and we were fortunate enough to be able to do that so outdoor courts in Lubbock covered are the courts covered so the day we landed they were not covered they they had snow on them in the ground screw actually had to shovel it off the next morning from the courts. So it was, it was, yeah, I mean, so we ended up practicing indoors that morning, indoors at the club that they play at, which are, the courts are extremely fast. So we were getting used to those. And then in the afternoon, we went outside and the courts were cleared and dry.

And then those courts were very slow. So we weren't sure the next day for going to be playing on super fast, indoor hard courts or super slow outdoor hard courts. You know, so it was just, you know, we, the guys embraced it. They knew, okay, like, we can handle both, both the instances, and we were able to come out with a win, a very fortunate one, but a win, so. Do you change what you wear shoe-wise, gear-wise, depending on, like, degrees, cold, close to 55, 50 rather than, you know, 75?

sure yeah i mean they all have the you know the the tight gear or whatever what it's the thermal yeah thermal stuff yeah um so some of them like to wear that underneath their their match uniforms some of them don't um reach guys a little bit different but if it's around that 50 degree mark it's pretty chilly out there yeah you were out there for the u s em yes yes i was once the sun goes down it really yeah really feels colder than it uh this was a night match right yeah we we've played the last hour of the match under the lights down there too which we hadn't done yet either this year. So there was a lot of things that you try and prepare for that you can't always prepare for. You might be able to prepare for it a little bit in the fall, but now it was months ago.

So, I mean, that's the character of the guys and the team, and I'm really proud of how they handled everything. Well, and it starts, it doesn't start ideal. So you don't get the doubles point. And then you have to get to work. And you had to come from behind. Like, I'm tracking it. there were some first set losses for folks who ended up coming back and sweeping the sets two and three. Those conversations had to be fantastic. Yeah, I mean, we were down, we were down almost the entire match. I mean, we were down three to two, and we had three, we had two, two, three set matches that we had to come, come through in. One of them was a freshman who was first time on the road, dealing with everything, Yeri, Lassela, who's been playing three and four for us.

He's been doing great. He was just named co-freshment of the week last year in the Big Ten conference. And then our senior, our captain, Leo, had to come back from down multiple breaks in the third set to come back and win at number two singles. And, yeah, it was an amazing moment. And I'm really proud of a down five, four and a third, right? Down five, four in the third. Yeah. So, I mean, extremely proud of both of those guys.

You know, Leo, Leo's been with me for now for four years. He's the only guy that's been with me the entire time I've been here. So I think we have a great relationship. I was on the court with him the entire match. He was actually serving for the match in the second set. He was up a set in a break, serving for it, up 4015, had three match points, lost those, lost the set. And then it went down into the third and was able to regroup.

So I think that just speaks to the testament of him and the guys and the team. And we preached the process and the results are going to play out the way they play out. But we got to keep improving. And we want to be playing our best tennis in May. Hopefully, you know, making the NCAA tournament again, then we can't be so worried about a result right now. We have to make sure that we're improving and working on the things that are going to make us better

in the upcoming weeks and months. How do you manage that, right? That you, again, first big road trip, power four. You get that done, eyes locked in to end vision. How do you keep control of that so that you don't get too far out over your skis? Yeah, I think it starts with me. I think they read the energy of me. If I'm out there walking around nervous, you know, they miss a ball,

you're yelling underneath my breath a little bit. Like they can see that and feel that. So I'm trying to be like, hey, man, like, if you doing everything you're supposed to be doing, I can handle a miss or a mistake or a loss. But if you're not doing the process, right, I got to let you know. if you're playing a score, if you're playing to win or not to lose, those are things that are going to inhibit you from reaching your best level, whether it's today or in the future matches.

So for us, our goal is just to be the best team that we can be and overachieve each and every year. And I think that the guys are starting to see the evolution first of me as a coach. I'll admit, I wasn't necessarily like that last year. And it's going to take time for them to really still continue to, trust that I'm making those changes. And then I think once I, once they see me fully commit and they understand, yeah, if they lose a match, when we do lose a match, if we do lose a match, that, you know, it's no big deal. If everything's gone the way we, we want it to go in terms of following the process and competing out there with the right energy, then I think that's when

we're going to start to make even some bigger jumps still. And I think the team still has some, some significant jumps still to make. You mentioned Texas Tech and the resources. And, In this level of tennis, what does the additional resource allow? Like, what does it allow that some other programs don't have? Well, I mean, it's hard to know exactly what everyone's doing or what everyone has. It's all kind of underneath the, you know, everyone's protecting their information still. So it's not public like it kind of used to be. So just scholarship-wise, I mean, we're doing things here scholarship-wise to move with the times,

which is great. and then there's also the rev share and the NIL stuff that obviously people know from football and other sports down there. They're pretty well off with those resources. They will spend the money. So it's, yeah, they're, you know, just from recruiting and things like that, you hear things. And it sounds like they're able to dance in those waters a little bit too. But, you know, that's great.

You know, those are the rules and those are the things that they can do. So if I was the coach there, I'd be doing the same thing. So how do you manage that here that end season? Because you still have to recruit. Yeah. Like you still have to recruit. You still have to, one, I mean, you get some idea about who's moving, who's not happy, who fits, who might not fit.

But you still got to manage that all while keeping this group on schedule and on time. For sure. So I think what we're selling is very specific in niche. First, you're going to get coaching staff. and a head coach that is going to give you more time, more effort, more of everything than just about anyone else in the country, if not everyone else in the country. I think that's a really important piece. We're recruiting very select people and guys to the program. We're not just going for a great star ranking or tennis player. We're being very conscious of who we bring in

and if they're going to fit with our mold, we want to have eight, nine, ten guys that are very like-minded and similar. And because I know if we get those people in, they'll buy into what we're coaching, how the energy piece, everything that goes inside of coaching, that whole entire bucket, I believe that if we get the right guys in here,

they'll all buy into it and everything will run smoother. You'll get more out of practice. You'll get more out of the guys. You'll be able to adjust and make it changes and do things. think that's how you win, you know, right now. We didn't have the best fall on paper, but, you know, we're beating so many teams right now that had better falls than us. And I think it's because, you know, we have the guys that have bought in.

So what we're trying to do this spring. And so that's the direction we're trying to go right now. I think it's, you know, we're doing a decent job of it so far. But I've got to do better. Our staff's got to do better. Our players got to do better. We know that going forward. You mentioned the offseason and Husker fans, if they're fans of Husker sports and Husker athletics,

a lot of the offseason conversation, it drives hard here. I can say that there's more attention paid to offseason here than most places in the country. And you can get caught up in the momentum, like the natural conversation, or you can say, quite frankly, this is who we are and this is what we need to work on. for you in this space, how do you handle those conversations that you have with boosters, fans of the program, otherwise? What do they want to know about your program and how they can help? What's the best way for Husker fans, boosters, and otherwise who see what you're doing?

You're undefeated. Like, let's say what that is. And then to say that they want to know, because I think a lot of times they just don't know how to help plus your tennis. Yeah. So I think the first and easiest way to help is just to come out and watch the matches. Come out and cheer us on on match day. Like we have a huge match on Saturday. Like, that's a great opportunity. It's always free. Everything's free when you come there. The parking emissions, you know, if you want some food, you have to buy it. But, but come out and watch and just see for yourself how amazing. I think college tennis is an underrated, underrated sport. You can really

feel and see all the momentum, how it all changes. And then, And, you know, if you want to, if you really like what you see and you want to get involved, come out, we'll invite you out to a practice. We'll show you, we'll show you the facility. It's an amazing facility. We'll introduce you to the guys. You know, we want there to be a family vibe. You know, I think what's unique with tennis is it's a smaller community.

It's a strong community, but it's a smaller one. And it's a great opportunity for donors or sponsors or alumni or whomever to come in and really, be a part of a program and feel like you're actually a part of something. And then, yeah, I mean, the way things are now, like if there's, if there's a want to to help out financially, whether it's, you know, with our excellence fund or NIL or with some other things that we're trying to do at the university, like those are things that are always going to help. But I think there has to be a level of trust between those, the people and the program and me, myself as the head coach and understanding like, hey, like, they're actually building something really special here,

and you can start to see it evolve from last season and now into this season. And it's something that I think we can get behind. And if you do, you can make a huge impact. You know, a little bit of money goes a long way for men's tennis. That is a statement of truth. I find it interesting that in winning the offseason, and you said that that, That's important. What is your mantra for off-season work that leads you to success today?

What are the three things you have to say to your guys when there are no matches to get the payoff? Because practice now, there's a payoff, right? You can see it. Off-season, my coaching group likes to call it the improvement season. I hate calling it off-season. It's the improvement season. I like that. Right?

So what are the three things you say to your folks? that would show up in Lubbock, Texas, in form for you to figure out a way to win. Yeah, I mean, so first it starts with just how we work. You came out to a practice earlier this year. There's a lot of running around moving. It's real intense. No one's standing still. We're out there for two, two and a half, three hours, you know, any given day.

I'm really tough on the guys, really demanding. We put them through a lot of, you know, crap, a lot of stuff. We try and, you know, throw different things at them to see if they can handle them. And I think all that, you know, in the moment doesn't necessarily make you better in the moment. But over time, as you work through it, you know, I sit down with Leo. I'm like, Leo, man, you know, would you rather be here or back in the fall with me yelling and screaming up? And he goes back in his mind, you know, those little things are like, okay, like I'm ready for this. I'm prepared for it.

There's no way this guy on the other side's gone through this stuff. Like, I'm not, he's not as tough as I am. He's not as fit as I am. He hasn't gone through all the mental hurdles and gymnastics. And so I think it just gives you a sense of calmness in those big moments where, you know, whatever happens, like I've done everything that I can and I've prepared the best I can. And so for me, that's what the fall is all about.

The falls are off season and we challenge them every day. We say it's a random Tuesday, who's going to show up on just some random Tuesday in October? You know, when nobody, you know, when there's no match, to win there's no you know trophy to hold up like but you got to come out there and give your best so for me that's what the fall is all about i think you can go out there and and win some of these fall events and i think that's great and i think that's also a testament of a great program but i think for us building that for me the fundamentals are are creating that culture and that toughness in the fall first and then the tennis has to come second and i don't know if everyone always gets that in

order but that's just my personal approach in my opinion to it all Peter Cobalt, Husker, men's tennis head coach in studio, as he does on Tuesdays. It's an old thing that my grandfather used to say that a pear tree grows pairs, a champion grows champion. Tough coaches grow tough players and tough squad. It is, you cannot, you cannot farmers understand this. You cannot grow what you do not play. I just, you can get caught up in the other stuff.

but if you don't understand the foundation of how the leadership works, the result cannot be what fans want or expect it. I'm just going to point that. A big weekend, a big win in Lubbock. When we come back, we'll talk about Air Force and the win that followed because that's a different set of rules and a different set of foundation, how you adjust to a big win on the road in Lubbock to come home and handle your business against the most disciplined program you're going to face all year.

Right? We'll talk about that. Peter Carbell, by DP. We'll be right back.