1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Nebraska Volleyball Heads to Dallas for a Chance at $1 Million: August 26th, 12:00pm

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

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It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation on 93-7 the ticket. Jake Fawin. Along with one-on-one today, as D.P. is headed down to watch some volleyball, the rest of volleyball, getting things going here. Thursday will be a busy day, hopefully playing a double-header and bringing a million bucks home down there from Dallas. So it should be a lot of fun. Again, DP will be down there, follow along our social media to see. what we've got going out there. Harrison, love your shirt. You got a hoibor,

hay, hoieball shirt on today, and a good old Nebraska basketball. How are you doing today? I'm doing fantastic. Yeah, if I remember correctly, I think it was a ticket listener that brought these shirts. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah, so forgive me for not remembering who exactly it was, but they brought in some T-shirts. But yeah, you mentioned DP going down there, down to Texas, AT&T Stadium, Jerry's World for Spike Under the Lights, which is going to be a really cool deal. It's interesting talking to Jalen Reyes yesterday, like the logistics on how that stuff's going to work. They don't really know yet. They're finding out a lot today.

He told me they'll figure out a lot, obviously today. But as far as like what it's going to look like, the total capacity, whether they're going to open up the field, if they're going to allow, you know, I think it's like 80,000 for NFL games. You can go up to 90, 100,000 if you open up the field. Well, that's going to look like they announced Julia Cole, former volleyball players,

going to be like the halftime show as well down there for about 15 minutes. But there's a lot of curiosity about what that's all going to entail down there. So hopefully we hear from DP tomorrow, you know, I don't think he's the biggest fan of the concert selections, what he told me. So he might step out and call in during that time. So we'll get to hear a lot about it. But yeah, really, really unique situation. And you mentioned it when you're playing for a million dollars, not a bad deal to kick things off exhibition-wise.

Yeah, very cool. I mean, just to see the growth, obviously, of volleyball in Nebraska leading the charge. And so as these events are coming out, and we've noticed on the schedule, Nebraska's often involved in them. And so it's going to be a very fun kind of start to the year. and this is all off of a season in which you went undefeated. Now the schedule's just loaded. Not that it wasn't last year. It's always going to be tough to get through any big 10 schedule, let alone.

But man, I mean, might it help this year? I remember last year you think about the pressure. And I don't think it helped too much, but might it help maybe to drop one, hopefully not in the million dollar showcase. Don't get me wrong. But at some point early in the season, they relieved the pressure of going undefeated. Maybe, but we saw them able to get that done last.

last year going into the tournament. I don't think that had as much to do with, you know, just playing for the national championship playing in the tournament. You know, there can only be one winner. Yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't always like getting into the idea of like, well, it'd be great if we just would have lost one earlier. To me, that sounds like you're, you're kind of playing scared. And I never saw the volleyball team like, quote unquote, played scared when they played Texas A&M ultimately in that loss, you know, it's just unfortunately a bad day. But I don't think if they would have lost like at some point early in August, or, you know, September that the season would have been magically different or anything like that.

So, you know, when it comes to that, I think it's good to test themselves early. They're good enough program. If they load up the schedule early, they're going to get, you know, even if it happened to drop one or a few, they'll get enough wins throughout the Big Ten regular season to still be in that dance, you know, when they get to the NCAA championship time. So, you know, I think it's good to test yourself early in volleyball. It's not like college football where you only have so many games to play. And that one loss really hurts you.

So I like it, test yourselves early. They got the Texas matchup early as well, which sounds like that's going to be a yearly thing, which I think is another great idea, not only kind of bring that rivalry back, but just a really great opponent. I think Texas is number two preseason when I was taking a look at it. So it's really cool. And, you know, you just talk about the opportunity that they have. They got an MLB stadium.

First time ever that they're going to be a woman's team is going to be playing at Jerry's World down there in AT&T. So you got NFL MLB, you get the WMBA court as well. And you have an NHL arena. I mean, they're touching all of the big venues out there. And it's interesting how they go about this. And again, through some of the conversation to have with Jalen, like, they get asked to do a lot of things. They have to turn a lot of stuff down.

Wow. So we could have the full Harlem Globetrotters volleyball season if we really wanted to, but they obviously want to have games at home at the Bob. You know, obviously for our own fan base. But yeah, it's interesting how they kind of parse through this stuff. And they don't ultimately get to say all the time either. I want to say the Wrigley Field was like, hey, we're doing this. You're involved. Put it on your schedule.

So it's not always like, we're in Nebraska, we're going to pick all these locations. Some of them, they will say yes, but they do have to turn some of these down. Because I'm not kidding. It sounds a little bit like a joke, but they really could just do the full globechotter season where they play on all these crazy venues. But, you know, the SEC versus Big Ten Challenge, like that was one that was like, hey, you're doing this, which makes sense because that's those two conferences, make an agreement there. But yeah, I mean, it's just really cool. We'll get to see what the wild ride it is because you go from Florida down there, AT&T, and then it's a quick turnaround. you go to Las Vegas, you play UNLV, Texas,

and then you get a little bit of a breather, and then you're out there at Wrigley Field. I mean, it's bang, bang, bang, early exhibition season. And then interesting about the Wrigley Field game, that counts on the record. So, you know, if it's bad weather, you get used to it because that one matters.

Like, there's no cop out for that game. So it'll be really, really interesting. And I haven't seen anything about an indoor venue. You know, I thought that was official, but I don't know if that's an official riding anywhere. 402, 465, 5. The text line knows, feel free to shout it out. But I don't know if they have, I would hope so,

but I haven't seen a paper. If there's another indoor venue they can move to if there's bad weather out there. I mean, the game has to happen at some point. And that's not one. You can just like, hey, we'll circle this one and come back later and try it again. Like, you're going to have to get that game in on that date. So just really fascinating to see how this is all going to play out.

Obviously, incredibly exciting. But a lot of question marks on the logistics on how this is all going to look. Well, and it's just going to be a lot, you know, in this next before Nebraska. Nebraska football obviously starts in 10 days. Yeah. You see Jake Sorensen's tweet. Uh, yeah. So, I mean, we see the cones out here.

It's crazy. 10 days away. Yeah. The construction is insane right now. Well, hopefully that's, uh, people can find their way around the city. Yeah. Especially with the new students. I saw two cars going the wrong way on one way yesterday.

Oh, no. You know, we're working through it. So hopefully that's not too much of, uh, you know, a problem for people to get through. When I was wondering too, but Troy Danin said on his radio parents the other nights, it's like, yeah, there'll be construction, get used to it.

So it's like, all right, well, this is going to be interesting. But yeah, hopefully, hopefully everybody can work around. And it really is, get used to it. Obviously, as we know, they're going to do the stadium renovation next year.

So it is Nebraska football under construction. I think the O Street thing's going to take like a year-long process is what we've been told. And obviously, you know, they're doing sections of it at a time. It'll wants to get more out of the downtown and start working in further areas.

It'll get a little bit better. Yeah, just buckle in. I think it's the only advice I could give you. But it's crazy because we got so the Husker football team 10 days away. That Missouri game, if you look at it from here, it's like, you got a while to get there. That's the day afterwards. So it's like between then and now, you're already have, you know, hopefully what a million dollars, you know, played at AT&T Stadium, beat two top 25 teams, hopefully go down to the players there

showcase in Las Vegas, beat the number two team in the nation. then you got South Dakota State and DePaul in between there before you get to the Missouri, but it's all going to happen pretty quickly. You can point off the text line, though, Corey and Lincoln says their non-con was every bit of stuff last year's with Pitt, Kentucky, Louisville, and Stanford. It was. Nebraska has not been ducking non-con opponents for years, obviously. So it is, it always is going to be difficult.

I think this year it's just more, you know, part of it they had the, you know, obviously always traveling around, but, you know, had the tournament here at Pinnacle Bank Arena. I think a big part of this one is just kind of the constant travel. And I don't know, again, I don't think, I think every time we talk about any more pressure on Nebraska volleyball, I think that always the kind of standard return is there's always pressure playing Nebraska volleyball that like it's inherent. So it's like, you know, for a Nebraska football team at their heyday,

there's always going to be pressure to win. It doesn't matter the circumstance. So there is going to be pressure there. But the other thing is just exciting. Again, as volleyball grows and Nebraska's on the forefront of it is the national TV opportunity, which, you know, you just, you didn't see all that much outside of BTN a few years ago. And now you're talking, you know, the spikes in the light is going to be on TNT. The players air showcase is going to be on FS1 and Fox.

Obviously the game at Wrigley against Missouri on Fox. And they've got, you know, several other ones down the line that are going to be on BTN. But, you know, it's primarily kind of front loaded here with a lot of Nebraska volleyball on television set. Yeah, it was funny on serving volley yesterday. know, we had a crowbay, one of the texts was chimed in and says like, where, you know, basically, where the heck is Nebraska volleyball and Big Ten Plus? You know, I might just cancel my subscription until the baseball season starts.

And I'm like, well, the good news, bad news, the good news. Like, if you want to do that, you're fine because they'll be on Fox, you know, they'll be on like all these major networks to where, you know, it's a great opportunity for nationally televised games, not only for Nebraska, but, you know, the volleyball as a whole, the amount of publicity that those guys are going going to get is going to be, you know, I think historic on what we, seen so far, which is crazy to say because it feels like this team's making historic, you know, steps every single season. But this is going to be interesting to see the following that kind

of accumulates with this team with all the national television for how big of a brand it is already. You know, I know Danny Busboom, Kelly, Jalen Ray is down there recruiting wise. That's going to be nice to be out there on those big stages, you know, not only on national television, but the uniqueness of all those events that they're going to be playing in as well. So, you know, it's, you just got to go out there and win now, which is the tough part for. Danny Busboom Kelly, although she's handled it incredibly well. I always try to use the comparison. It's kind of like when DeBore had to go follow Saving out there in Alabama.

That's a tough ask. You know, rarely do we ever see someone else step into a legend shoes and fit them and just keep the ball rolling. And it helps with some of the senior players, obviously like Andy Jackson, Harper Murray, all those guys. But Danny Busbym Kelly went in there, you know, year one, I understand she had a great roster, but still to keep that all connected and you lose just, you know, the one game at the very end of the season, that takes you out. But otherwise you dominate, you sweep everybody,

just about everybody in the Big Ten. I think you had a close one with Creighton at one point earlier in the year. But her ability just kind of step in there and like no real hitch in the program's production whatsoever. It's, you know, it's, I think it's fair,

but it's also unfair. It's like year two. And it's like, hey, go when it's the national championship. It's time. And, you know, I think she's totally capable of it.

I think she took that job understanding. That's what the expectation is going to be. But, man, just after year one, incredibly. well productive season. She's already kind of lived up to what the expectations were. Now year two, I'll be really curious to see how this program continues to hum along here.

Now that, you know, I think year two, the biggest thing is now just everybody knows each other a little bit better. And the players, the coaches, and you got a little bit, not everything has to be communicated as much. I think the trust was always there. But now you're just getting that familiarity. Yeah, absolutely. And again, with some of those players that you mentioned, you know, specifically Bergen, Riley, Andy Jackson, and Harper Murray, I mean, these, these are three of the top, maybe five, maybe at least 10 players across the country. So, I mean, you've got a heck of a roster,

obviously that she inherited, but it was, it is always going to be tough to move that along. And it kind of reminds me, too, like a Ryan Day certainly taking over for Urban Meyer, where it's like you go year and year, and he started to have the Michigan problem. So hopefully there's no Michigan problem for Nebraska or whatever that might be.

I think it'll be the Texas problem potentially. Yeah, maybe. I mean, over the years, Wisconsin's kind of been a thorny side. Who knows. But, you know, Nebraska's taking care of that recently. But it's just, it's amazing because I don't expect her to have after two years five losses, right? She hasn't lost to a big 10 team yet. So, you know, and Ryan Day kind of just carried that on at Ohio State too.

So it is interesting to see, you know, how that, how this plays out. The season is excited, exciting and underway here tomorrow again for Nebraska volleyball spikes under the light from Jerry's World, AT&T Stadium. So that will be very cool. For Nebraska volleyball, it is interesting, though, too, because also with the 5 for 5 rule, we've heard, you know, maybe Nebraska can kind of bring back

this core group of seniors and obviously, you know, going to give you more opportunities to do with your roster spot. And that's all a decision for at the end of the year. So, you know, you don't jump ahead of that. But I've also seen people like box these, you know, kind of box it in here for Nebraska of,

hey, if you don't win a title with this group, then it's a failure or something like that. at some point. I don't always love that. I do understand it, right? I mean, it's similar to, you know, the Celtics, you know, always kind of come out saying, we don't hang Eastern Conference Finals, banners. I don't know. There's a lot of banners that Bob Devaney because of how well they've done, but it's, you know, elite eights aren't celebrated here, right? I mean, you have final fours national championships. That's what Husker volleyball is going for and shooting for. But I just don't know if I

like that sort of sentiment around it either. And again, it is, it's inherently there, right? I mean, that's, that's the ultimate goal when you're one of those teams. It's not like, you know, Nebraska football where it's like, hey, let's, let's make the playoffs one day. Nebraska volleyball is expected to be the forefront of the playoffs, right? I mean, so it's, you know, it's kind of back to those Ohio State football expectations. But what are your thoughts when you hear that sort of thing? We certainly losing one game, even if it's in tournament time. That's not a failure of a season.

No, I take a little bit of the Yonis-Lad de Koupo approach. I can't remember which season was, but one of the reporters, you know, asked him, you know, after a tough playoff loss. Like, do you look at this season as a failure? And it was kind of not verbatim here, but it was essentially like a what? Like, why would this be a failure? Like, you know, there's a lot of great things in this.

Only one team gets to win it. Are you telling me every other team is a big failure this year? I mean, that's just not the case whatsoever. Like, yes, the ultimate goal is to go win a national championship. But, you know, after last year, like, if you want to say it's a failure, I encourage, you know, you know, go say that to Danny Bustraum, Kelly. Any of those leaders to be like, yeah, hey, this was a failure this year.

Like it's just, it sounds preposterous. When you really think about telling that to their face, it's like, no, I understand what the end goal is, but listen, only one team gets the hoist,

the trophy at the very end there. And there's small wins along the way. That's why, you know, when it comes to really any sport, I just try to enjoy the games as they come along here. All the,

you know, with basketball, I understand the different stratosphere, but because Nebraska basketball didn't win the championship last year, obviously they were nowhere near towards the face. favorites. But, you know, I just think just because you're one of the favorites, it doesn't

eradicate the quote unquote, it was a failure of a season. You know what I mean? Like, I don't like having that kind of approach to it. I think it's incredibly disingenuous and a little bit disrespectful for all the work that the athletes, coaches put in to just slap a failure, you know, at the end of the season, if they don't hoist the trophy at the end. Yeah, yeah, I completely agree. And it is interesting. Obviously, Nebraska has been in positions to fight for championship. In fact, but, but, you know, haven't brought it home since 2017. I'll tell you what, there's been some special players, special moments and some excitement along the way. They have lost, what, three, as far as runner up since then, in 2018, 2021 and 2023.

So we all know they've been so close. Yeah, lost. I've been losing the champion on their way. Yeah. So it is, it is, it is, it is going to be a wild ride, a lot of fun for Nebraska volleyball. And, and Harrison, you'll be one of our main men on the call on the, on the, uh, Yeah, I won't be calling the games. Not calling the games, no, no, but on the post, it keeps it going to the game. Yeah, there we go. Yeah, it'll be a lot of fun. We'll have Mandy Munson in there as well. And I know Jalen Reyes said, obviously, with time permitting him, he'll call in for some of those shows as well, which would be cool to hear him. He'll give some of his direct thoughts from those matches. But yeah, I mean, it's going to be a lot

of fun. Tomorrow will be, we'll just kind of combine the two and one, hopefully, right? Obviously, if they lose the first one, we'll just dive straight into it because that'll be the wrap up for those guys. But if they win, the first one, you know, we'll wait for the second game, then the Julia Cole concerts, wrap up, and then that third match, and then we'll have the post-match show there. But no, it's going to be a lot of fun. And you're really starting to see the interest level growing within that sport. And it's not just the baskets, it's everywhere. But, you know, I think rightfully, so you look around, you got pro leagues popping up everywhere. By the way, did SGL. No pro players. I'm finding their

way back to college volleyball. That is not the same problem that the college football world's having. But, yeah, I mean, it's just the amount of growth of the sports seeing it in such a small time window is incredible. Nebraska does deserve a lot of credit for, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say what that Memorial Stadium match did. Like it really opened up people's eyes. I think people are like, yeah,

we get it, Nebraska likes volleyball. And then the Memorial Stadium cell is like, holy smokes, Nebraska really, really likes volleyball. And then we have, you know, love volleyball Nebraska, obviously, another pro league. And then you saw other universities, kind of look at Nebraska and say, we might be missing out on something

if we don't fully support this athletic program. So you're starting to see a lot of that happen. And I think Nebraska gets a ton of credit for kind of putting it, you know, on people's paper with that Memorial Stadium game. But then following it up with all these extra events that they're doing now. And it's allowed not just Nebraska, but down there in Jerry's World, you know, you'll have Florida, you'll have SMU, you'll have Penn State. Like all these programs are getting a huge spotlight on him.

And if, you know, we would have said five years ago, like, hey, volleyball is going to be playing in Wrigley Field and Jerry's world. like for how great the program was, we still might have not truly believe that. So again, I'm always amazed. I don't, I still don't know what the ceiling is going to be for the potential growth of this program. But I mean,

it's just a fun ride. We'll be here to cover it with you guys for all those post match shows. And now, you know, at the home games, we'll be there covering as well. So, you know, just buckle. And it's going to be a really long season.

But I think we're a season with a lot of fun opportunities in the middle of it. That's a good point, too. You know, who would have known five years ago, but now you think about five years in the future. where this is going to go from here. It's going to be incredible. Once again, Nebraska starting off.

Spikes on the lights with Florida tomorrow. And hopefully we'll play two games there and bring home a million dollars. Let's go ahead and take quick break. We'll be back with more. I want to jump back in time. It is 2026, 10 days away from Nebraska football. But I want to go back and look at the 1926 season 100 years ago. There's actually some interesting storylines in there.

So we'll talk about that coming to next year on 937 the ticket. Download our app by searching 93 points. the ticket in your app store. You're listening to one-on-one with DP on 93-7 the ticket and the ticketfm.com.