Nebraska Cornhuskers volleyball sends a statement to open the season
If you were watching the Nebraska Cornhuskers volleyball match on Tuesday night and started having flashbacks to the early 1990s Nebraska football program, don't feel bad. You weren't alone.
The Huskers of the late Tom Osborne era were the most dominant in the history of the program. They were one of the most dominant programs in the entire sport. And it's feeling like maybe, when everything is said and done, we'll be saying that about this era of John Cook volleyball as well.
As I watched a Nebraska Cornhuskers team that had to wade through an offseason of death threats and legal problems, of heightened emotions and the disappointment of getting to the National Title Game and then losing, it reminded me a lot of the beginning of Osborne's big run.
Nebraska Cornhuskers volleyball dominates Kentucky after slow start
When the match began, the Huskers were not playing their best. They looked a bit hesitant. It looked a team that was maybe still suffering from an offseason hangover. After all, as good as NU has been, they generally start the season against schedule fodder in order to find their footing.
They didn't do that tonight. And it looked like the strategy of starting off against one of the best teams in the country might backfire.
And then, like the Husker football programs of old, this Huskers team seemed to realize just how good they are. They came back from being down 7-4 in the first set to win it 25-21. They got off to a 11-6 run in the second set and then struggled again.
You could compare that second set stumble to the Missouri Tigers in the season they won their final national title. Of course, the problem with that comparison is that NU wasn't really ever in the same kind of trouble.
After they did indeed drop the second set, they basically cruised to the match win, taking the third set 25-15 and the fourth 25-20.
When was all said and done, the Nebraska Cornhuskers had rather impressively beaten down a Kentucky Wildcats team led by a former Huskers assistant who was ranked 9th in the country. In the process it sure seems like John Cook and company sent a message that the rest of the sport should heed.