Naturally, Huskers eat the best steaks in the world. That’s just how we roll.

Now there’s a way to take our grilling activities to the next level.

Click image to purchase.

More server maintenance tonight. Huskerzone.com will likely be unavailable for a good portion of overnight hours (Midnight-6:00 am CT) while the server is being physically moved from one datacenter to another.

My apologies for the inconvenience but it should speed some things up around here.

I’m going to be doing some server maintenance this weekend which will likely include some small amounts of downtime. If you can’t get the site or see some things that look amiss, you now know why.

Give it a few minutes and check back.

 According to Sean Callahan of HuskersIllustrated.com, an unconfirmed rumor has circulated on Orangebloods.com about who the next Strength and Conditioning coach will be at Nebraska.  James Dobson will be hired away from Iowa where he currently is an assistant S&C coach.

Anything is considered an upgrade from someone who makes 330 pound lineman run 5 miles for conditioning, but I was holding out hope, beings we are dippin’ in the past success category, that Boyd Eppley would take the reins one more time.  From what I have read on this guy, he does sound like a  good choice.  I am pleased with the youth movement on this staff and am excited to finally see them in action. 

[See James Dobson’s bio courtesy of Hawkeyesports.com]

According to The Sports Network, Steve Pederson is signing contracts again.

The Panthers are just 4-7 this season heading into Saturday’s annual “Backyard Brawl” game against West Virginia.

Despite compiling a 15-19 record in his tenure at his alma mater, Wannstedt has the support of newly-hired athletic director Steve Pederson, who served as the university’s athletic director for just over six years before a five-year stint in the same capacity at Nebraska.

“My relationship with Dave dates back to my initial arrival at Pitt 11 years ago,” Pederson said. “I know that he is passionately committed to the University of Pittsburgh and its football program. We are going to work very hard to do everything we can to help him and our program achieve at the highest levels.”

Does this sound familiar to anyone?  I don’t understand this guy’s affinity to losing coaches with NFL experience.  To the people of Pittsburgh, we have case loads of Pedi-Shine left.  Trust me, you will need it.

From the Pittsburgh Tribune Review:

The University of Pittsburgh hired Steve Pederson as athletic director for the second time today, a month-and-a-half after Pederson was fired by his alma mater, Nebraska.

“We are thrilled to be back in Pittsburgh,” Pederson said at a news conference. “Leaving here five years ago was the hardest professional decision we had ever made. Coming back was the easiest decision we had ever made.”

Good luck Steve… 

Coming Soon!  The Story of Frank the Fish.

I mentioned in passing last week that we have added Husker Brad as a new writer to the HuskerZone.com family. But we didn’t stop there.

Ed, who has been behind many of the comment threads as of late is also joining the team.

Both are obviously big Husker fans and have some differing viewpoints which will make for some interesting conversation.

Please join Bugeater and myself in welcoming them.

Despite all the hoopla in Lincoln today, the Nebraska Basketball faced off against Creighton in the Qwest Center in Omaha with Tom Osborne in attendance.

Nebraska stubbed their toe in the first half with 17 turnovers and went into the half down 27. The Huskers rebounded in the second half, outscoring Creighton by 15, but in the end it wasn’t enough as the Huskers fell 74-62 giving Doc Sadler his first loss against their in-state rivals.

Breaking Announcement:
In other news, the HuskerZone.com staff is expanding as we welcome Husker Brad to the table as our official basketball correspondent. He’s been quite active in our comments and has a passion for the roundball. Look for his commentary beginning in the next few days (as soon as I can get him up to speed on the publishing system) and be sure to give him his props.

Welcome Husker Brad.

A reminder for our regular readers and an introduction to new and future readers on a HuskerZone.com policy.

Given the state of affairs with Nebraska football, and personal opinions - positive or negative - I just wanted to remind everyone to keep things civil. Everything is fine thus far on the site and I commend all of our regular commenters and readers for keeping it so. Periodically, it needs to be mentioned and that is all this is.

I am also reiterating our (Bugeater and I) official stance regarding criticism directed at players based on recent events here and at other places around the country. Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State had a legitimate beef with a reporter regarding a story written about their quarterback. Husker fans at the game on Saturday had audible booing heard over the audio feed on both radio and pay-per-view tv. At Notre Dame, there was also booing and attacking of players on message boards.

To wit, the HuskerZone.com policy/stance on this is as follows:
1. First and foremost, we are fans. We run this site purely as an outreach of that; hence our tagline, By Husker Fans for Husker Fans. We do not have a corporate sponsor (although we would accept one), and all Bugeater and I get for our time is the small amount of change that comes in from the advertising.

2. We will never call out a specific player for shortcomings on the field. We may speak in generalities or give examples in specific plays, but we won’t hold a single player accountable in our blogging/reporting, nor will we personally attack an individual. It isn’t fair to the players, who are both students and athletes, and do not receive a paycheck for what they do.

3. This does not apply to praise. If an individual player warrants praise, we will do so publicly and give them the recognition they deserve.

4. For off-the field news matters, we will report as such, but will not offer negative commentary directed at the player.

5. Coaches do not get a free pass. They get a paycheck and thus, have earned both criticism and praise in the public arena.

6. University administration are also fair game.

7. We do not censor comments. We have automated systems which detect comment abuse and will delete and retroactively delete comments based on abuse patterns, automated systems which may hold new commenters in a queue before their comments are displayed, and we will delete comments that blatantly go against our policy stated above (in 4 years, I think we have deleted exactly 1 comment due to this).

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

ESPN.U is reporting that Husker AD Steve Pederson has agreed to a five-year extension of his current contract.

Our controversial head of athletics will receive a 16% pay hike, from $429,837 to $500,000 annually plus $50,000 for media appearances, up from $35,000. He will also maintain his opportunities for annual bonuses and pay hikes.

Not too shabby of a payday for stripping Husker Nation of its traditions and managing coaching changes with a complete lack of tact and professionalism. I wonder who is really to accountable for fan animosity toward the current program–Steve Pederson or Chancellor Harvey Perlman?