1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Nebraska Tennis Coach Peter Kobelt-Stepping Up for a Fallen Teammate: November 11th, 11:00am

Episode Date: November 11, 2025

Nebraska Tennis Coach Peter Kobelt-Stepping Up for a Fallen TeammateAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It is Tuesday. 11.03 in Lincoln. 52 degrees. With the high of 64. Bach, you dig that. You absolutely dig that. Oh, yeah. You absolutely dig the old school.

Time and weather. Top of the hour. because it's not cold. Don't update the cold. Got to check in. Hey, listen, I brought back some heat with me from L.A. because it was 80, it was 84 in L.A. when I left yesterday morning, came back.

It was 33. I, like, I need a refund. I need the weather refund. Give me a rebate because they're like, well, be careful. We send something for you tomorrow. So it should hit 60 plus today. So, bravo to that.

The starter hearing of text line is 402, 464, 5, 6, 8.5. You want to be a part of what we're doing. And you do. hit us up let's up and we will include you in the conversation you want to be a part of the conversation

you really appreciate it you can follow on all the live video streams Facebook YouTube X LL channel 961 and Amazon Prime if you're fancy if you're fancy Miss Jackson go ahead and jump over there

if when possible download the ticket app because it goes wherever you want to go like you can take us wherever you are not to worry about signal any of that stuff you get it you get us all day every day wherever you are and that's what you want so download the ticket app and then follow on all the all of the social medias i have to say it like an

old guy now the social medias i have to put the in front of it to give it that reverence like the distance you know what they say you know what the kids say the kids on the social media that is how our adult lives are being driven at the current moment uh So, yeah, that's what we're doing. Bach, before we introduce our fine, fine, fine guests, sir, if you don't mind, would you pay the bills, pay the bills? Yeah, 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 answers. Visit Hamilton.com for more info today. And once again, I have failed us all. I have failed us all because I promised myself, that I would get the Hamilton clips so that whenever we do that, we can just do the course from Hamilton all at the same time.

Like, they deserve that, and I have failed, so my apologies to us all. Do better, D.P., do better. Man, leadership. Bro. Oh, got to do better. Let's bring him in. He is the one, the only, the head coach.

Husker Meds, Tennis Peter Crowbell. Coach, what's good with you? Everything's good, man. Beautiful day down here at the studio. I'll be sure I'll send you a text next week and say to do the Hamilton yeah I got you thank you thank you like I was like what are we doing what do we do it deep get it together man this has been my morning so I've been on the road and whenever I'm on the road things all the loose ends right all the loose ends and then the time difference hits so I'm in California

and the weather hits because I was in shorts this weekend. It was 80. It was 84 in L.A. And I was spoiled rotten. And I got a report that it was snowing in Lincoln. And I laughed a little. I ha-haed out loud. Right? I ha-haed. And I knew I was just was going to come back and bite me. Never laugh at that. Never do that. And so this morning in the scramble and I don't normally I do laundry right when I get back. But I didn't do that yesterday because I wanted to come up here and get caught up. And coach, I dropped my debit card onto the floor at my house. And I saw it.

I didn't know that I dropped it until later. Then I saw it and went, oh, very cool thing that I found this because otherwise this would have been a really bad day. So I pick it up and in my head, I put it back where it belongs. Except when I got up this morning to go to teammates and go to Lincoln North Star. And I look, and I'm like, oh, no, it's not there. And then the emotional meltdown of trying to backtrack everything that you've done since you've seen that thing. Oh, yeah.

And then the process, okay, do I panic? Do I fully panic? Do I go back? Do I stop the card? Do I call the back? Do I do all of those things? And then I said, okay, it's a crunch for time. time because when I leave the school with 1030 to get back here 1045 but I have to now I have to

go home and I have to scrounge to the house and coach looking for a white debit card on a white carpet house is not easy no that's pretty good you're able to keep a white carpet clean though this part of the states you've met my wife right i have yeah yeah yeah you keep things that's fair enough that checks out that checks out like hey man i got the vacuum dude you do what you do so but then of course at the last place i look because you stop looking if you find it but I looked several places, finally found it, exhale, spread it up the street, got here in time to hang out with you.

So that's been my morning so far. How was L.A.? L.A. was gorgeous, gorgeous, I say. Great game. Great game, great crowd. The hotel that I was staying in was in Pasadena proper. All Husker fans. Crazy.

Sold out hotel, all Husker fans, took over the lobby both the night before the morning of the day of and then the night after like the hotel lobby afterwards was just it was a Husker party you thought you were in downtown like you were just it was just there um great crowd it's the Rose Bowl sure um all the patronry and all the history and then oh yeah uh stopped by there's a building is this magnificent building. It looks like the governor's house car, frankly. But it's the official home of the Rose Bowl

and the Rose Bowl parade. It's this big palatial building on Orange Grove Road in Pasadena. And it's where, so when you think of the parade, there's like a grandstand. There's like a bleacher section.

And normally the bleachers aren't there, but they put them up November 1st. And so the bleachers where the Grand Marshal waves to people and right, right, right, right. And where all the floats go by. Those bleachers are now up. And so now I was like a little kid. I'm just, you can't like not drive by there and think of the parade. And you go, okay, this is cool.

And then I stayed, buddy of mine is the president of the Chargers alumni. And of course, the Steelers were in town Sunday night. so that was fantastic dan fowd and troy palomalo like both stealers and charges were there uh snoop was there like it was it was that's cool it was hollywood in full right that's cool uh and then uh i had a little incident yesterday on the plane that i shared with the folks of staying next to uh a family and not knowing who the family was until i got off the plane and then i realized uh one of my favorite tv shows is ray donovan well that's who it was that's who the guy was next. No way. The whole flight

leave scriber was sitting next to me on the plane. I didn't recognize. And I'm helping him the whole time and I never just looked at him. So he probably appreciates that. Well, he really did because I didn't want to eyeball him. Like, you don't want to do that on plane anyway, right?

But he had his young child and they were throwing fits. You know, I'm just like the dad in me. He's like, let me help. Let me help this guy. Right. And then it was the end of the flight. And then right he got up to say thank you for the help is when I heard his voice. And that's when I, wait a minute, that's the voice of HBO's NFL hard knocks.

And I, my head almost spun. It's like, wait a minute. Wait a minute. I know who you are. And then it's like, oh, no, that's also Ray Donovan. He kills people for fun. Right. so thank goodness i was nice to him that's just the way of life right like you know uh do you

do you have these random engagements with people like famous people you ever very rarely what's what's your one who was the famous person you met where you just thought like it wasn't planned i uh the i was in the airport actually just recently in frankfort no in munich germany flying back from a recruiting trip and the Serbian national basketball team was there and Nikola Yokic was standing in line right next to me and I was like all right I'm going to get a picture with this guy so I get I check in that he checks him we're walking to the security area and I walk up and I have my phone ready the camera's ready to go and I'm like hey uh Nicola you mind if we take a quick picture he's like no no I'm sorry man no pictures I'm sorry and he kept

walking i was like you got me kidding me i was ready i was ready but yeah he he was big he's way bigger than me too i don't know if you know i always i say i'm six seven if you're taller to me my ego is one inch taller than you but right i don't think it's one inch taller than him oh man no it sometimes big time i don't think i've ever the only guy whoever big time me the only person who ever big time me was a pro wrestler and he big time me but he was right like he was right sure because

I forgot to say please and then he was like he kept waiting like he's just eyeballing me and then finally I could hear my uncle in the back of my head

remember to say please right and I was like oh my bad please can we do you mind and he was like sure like I was like oh you were teaching me

oh oh then you And I've seen the guy several times since, and he always kind of looks at me like, remember to say, please. He's never forgotten, and he never lets me forget. A great sports weekend for the Huskers coach. I want to ask you this. Yep. What happened with Nebraska football when you have a position of importance and a team leader who is injured.

and then you as a coach have to rely on several things. One, you have to trust your preparedness, that you've trained everybody at the same level and that the next person to step up is prepared. The moment is not too big. Sure. Right? And then you have to figure out,

well, can I just put them out there as is or do I need to protect them in some sort of way? So I'll ask you, let's say for the sake of it, knock on wood, that it never happens, but that your number one gets injured. Do you move everybody else up? Do you change it? Do you just place somebody in the place so you don't lose the rest of the team kind of place, chemistry, responsibility?

How do you handle it? Well, yeah, that's the hardest part with tennis. If you lose your number one, then everyone has to slide down. you can't take your first guy off the bench and put them in at number one. So basically the whole team gets one spot weaker, if that makes sense. Yep. So the guy playing six goes to five, the guy playing three goes the two, the guy playing, you know, goes two to one. So, but I think that it's a testament to coach rule and the program that he's running and, you know, the foundation that he's built over

the last three years. I think when you lose your best player, I mean, you can argue Emmett Johnson too but i think losing dylan's kind of the he was the face of the program i think it kind of just jolts the program a little bit you're like holy cow like you know this this actually can happen and i think the culture that coach rules uh built um the guys really rallied um around um our new our new quarterback and and i think they all wanted to take care of them and play well for them and I think you just really, that next week of practice, all the guys in the team really know that they got to come in and do their best for T.J.

And they got to practice their best. They got to, you know, take care of their bodies better. I think it kind of maybe snaps you back into reality a little bit quicker. And you're like, okay, like we got to focus this week. This is a huge game. Like, you know, we got to go out there and handle business still. So everything was just heightened, I think, this week. And I think that's why they went out there and they won.

So as a coach, isn't that? reaffirming to know that your next guy up was ready well that's what's all about you know you preach it you talk about it every coach talks about it you know it you know it's not anything you know uh new you know every coach preaches it but not every coach is able to get their guys to actually do it so knowing that they've got a legit number two guy that is able to come in and start when you throw two incompletions the whole game um yeah we're still mad about those too still I mean, come on. I mean, come on.

The nerve. It's not just a testament to coach rule, but his whole staff. You know, it takes the whole staff to get that guy ready to go with quarterback coach, the offensive coordinator, the offensive line coach. Everyone's got to gel with a, you know, with a different quarterback. You know, him and Dylan are different quarterbacks too. So we'll see. Maybe the offense gels better for the time being with TJ back there.

I don't know. It certainly looked really good. So we'll see, obviously, this week. We have a bye week, but the, going to Penn State, that's going to be a test for sure on the road. Crazy environment, some dudes, they got some dudes on the defensive side and the offensive side there. So I think it'll be a pretty good test, but they got time to prepare for it and, you know, seven wins now, which is huge for the program, huge from the whole athletic department, honestly.

You know, they really carried a flag for us and it's great to see him doing well. Through all of that, coach, that. You said a thing that you rally for, which is almost counterintuitive to the normal message. The normal message is trust the process, be involved, committed to the process in full all the time. Sure. And then to say, well, you've got to step it up now because you've got to protect your little brother. You've got to protect the new kid. But that's part of human nature is to say that the freshman needs us.

So I would imagine that if your newest roster member or person in the lineup, player in the lineup, is a freshman that, in fact, the veterans are going to rally harder for the freshman. They are going to be louder and cheering because it may be necessary, right? That's a fair statement that, yeah, you need to step up and be there for the freshman. For sure. And I think they all felt like they could step up for them because I think from what it sounds like TJ's been doing everything the right way since he's got here.

I mean, Coach Rule said he got here in January. He was there for the bowl game. So he's been here for almost the whole year now. And he's been working through things, working with Dillon. Dylan's obviously been helping him too. So I think that's a pretty cool relationship there. But the guys knew that, okay, like, T.J.'s done things the right way. So we actually have a legit chance to go out there and win on Saturday as opposed to,

oh, like, crap, like. is TJ ready to go? So I think it works both ways. I think that's why you always stick to the process. I think that's why you always give your best every day and demand your best from everyone on your team every day because you just don't know when it's going to be your time. You really just don't.

And that's the trick of coaching is getting your guys to buy in every day, you know, regardless. So it's definitely a coaching point and something that I'm going to talk to the guys about is like, look, it doesn't matter what position you play on this team. It doesn't matter what your name is or what, you know, what position honestly like you just you have to be you know if you're not in you have to be ready to go and you have to be working towards it every day because when it is your time you know you got to be able to step in and do your job and help the team yeah there's no ramp up

there's no ramp up there's no ramp up that's for sure you know and through that you mentioned emitt johnson and in this day in an age of transfer portal and always having an option and always being considerate, that sometimes coaches miss on identifying an elite talent. And sometimes it's just time, right? Sometimes it's time and place that you see something in somebody that, well, you could be one of the best running backs in the Big Ten. And you could say it, and it almost seems vacant, right, a little empty. But it could be actually what you mean.

Sure. And then to get them to excel to the point, where your athlete actually starts to become the greatest version of themselves, that's got to be, for Coach Rule, that's got to be a moment, right? A surreal moment, almost, that when your, when your guy actually actualizes all the things that you've been whispering to them the whole time. For sure. For sure.

Right, that when your players, like if all of a sudden, you're number of, one decided he was going to go on a heater and get into the top top 10 in the country you you wouldn't be surprised you would just it can't be expected though right so I think that's why coach rule is such a great coach he's been able to get a bunch of guys here that haven't truly maybe believed 100% without doing it yet like that's that's the trick to coaching is you know and we're kind of in the same situation with tennis. Like we're doing better, but we haven't done anything really that amazing yet.

We haven't won a conference title. We haven't won a championship. There's still a lot of things that we have to do. And I think my number one job is to get them to somehow believe that they can do it. So now I would watch out. Emmett Johnson is going to continue to explode here. Like that's my opinion because now, you know, Coach Ruhl's been in his ear saying, hey, you're the guy, you're it.

you know they haven't been rotating anybody back there like you're the you're the real deal like and now he's starting to see it himself now i think you have a a wrecking ball back there and hopefully we can keep him healthy obviously you never know in football but you know if he can if he can stay healthy i i think he's in for i think he has a chance to be in in new york uh you know at the end of the year uh at the heisman trophy award ceremony you know who knows if if that'll happen or if it will enter or not, but I think you got a dude with a lot of confidence that's been instilled for a long time from coach rolling his staff. And now it's, now he's starting to do it. And I watch out. That's what I would say. I mean, that you're generally the best running back in the country

gets invited, right? There may be should be, right? I mean, generally, he's the best running back right now, I think, right? Right. Like that's the thing. And I think Husker fans, I mean, Bach, I'll bring you in here because I'll ask you, as Husker fans, are we surprised? Can we say that we're not surprised by Emmett's season and his place in the game? It'd be tough to say. I mean, I don't think a whole lot of people came in with the expectation to be a Heisman candidate. A lot of people have been asking for him to get more playing time over the last

couple of years. So probably somewhere in the middle there. Yeah, it's just interesting times to watch. One, when the downtrodden and often criticized offensive line has a night like that with no sacks and the positive running game, again, the great coaching reaffirmation that you figured it out, as much as people talked about the offensive line play, they had a night. And for the coach, it's got to be, it's got to drive you a little bit insane to have people question your your skill set and the work you put in. Because you know how much hard work is being put in at practice. For sure. For sure.

And I think, you know, like I said, it's tough because, you know, Coach Ruhl is taking a program that hasn't won a lot in the last, you know, 10, 20 years. So all it takes is one guy to kind of get the, you know, one spark to get the fire, you know, the fire going. So, you know, all the guys should be looking at Emmett. And, you know, there's other guys that are doing greater than team, too. But they start that you say, okay, Emmett's bought in. He's doing everything the right way.

He's listening to the coaches. And boom, now look at him. All I got to do is do the same as him. And then the next guy does it. The next guy does it. The next guy does it. And then you got half your team, you know, ready to go. And then you got a team.

So it's, so that's why I said at the beginning. I was like, look, it's year three for Coach Rule. This is usually when it happens. Like, it's going to happen. I don't know if it's going to be this year or next year or the year after. But there's just, like, I know, like I can. And for me, I can see it, I can see it in a coach, and I can see that coach rules for real and whether it was going to happen, you know, at the beginning of the season or at the end of

the season, like it's going to happen. It's just a matter of time. So I'm so glad you said that because it, it's calming to have another, another coach, appear, say, as I look across the bow, there's somebody that is doing a good thing, a good way. Yeah. And I mean, you saw what, and I think with Coach Roy, it's very securing to see that his boss also. Troy is doubling down on him too. Like Troy, Troy sees it as well.

He sees the same thing that we all see inside the athletic department. Like they're getting better and this is, you know, they're, it's just like a stock. It's starting to go up and then all of a sudden, boom, takes off. You just don't know when it's going to happen. You just don't know in. And I think that might have been that might have been a spark on Saturday. Well, you know, we'll see. It sounds like we got to get healthy a little bit.

And that's what this biweek will do. And then gear up for a hell of a game and stay college. It's going to be there. Peter Cobalt, Oscar tennis head coach. We'll go to break when we come back. You know, again, when you get a coach in the building, you want to ask him, you know, you want to pull back the curtain a little bit and ask him things that, quite frankly as fans we don't always get access to that sort of brain and i'm appreciative

coach that you come in and share this stuff with folks so let me say it publicly that the fact you'll come in and give some insight to how coaches this level work some of the things you have to deal with and it's necessary to hear these voices it's to hear from you and have you break it down for folks makes us all smart so thank you for we for doing this we'll come back more with coach um i'm going to put them on spot when it comes to the buckeye culture i need to know some things so we'll get that from coach cobalt when we come back download our app by searching 93.7 the ticket in your app store you're listening to one-on-one with dp on 937 the ticket and the ticket fm dot com