Corn Fed Sports

Web design is tricky, but when you’re creating a workflow for a content management system, it’s even trickier. 

That’s why we’ve been taking our time with our new site rollout. But it’s here, and we’re pleased to announce all of the pages of our site and all of our new initiatives start NOW. This post will serve as our first of the new era of Tumblr for CFS, where we will provide you with updates and lessons learned along the way. 

First update: We have our web app and our new internship programs LIVE on our website. But don't take our word for it, just check it out instead, this is only the beginning...

To install our Web App, click here

Or, to find out about our internship program, click here

If you're one of the 600+ that has followed our @RealSkers account on Twitter, we won't blame you for asking the question that many have asked: 

"What exactly is the point of @RealSkers?" 

Good question. So far, we've used it for event coverage, adding a bit of humor to the #Husker Twittersphere and for honoring the efforts of ALL of the different Nebraska programs and student athletes. It's been a representation of our core message here at Corn Fed Sports, but now it's time for the next step. 

So with that, we're pleased to announce that our RealSkers brand will be transitioning into RealSkers Magazine in just 10 days time, as we work towards publishing our digital publication via the Apple Newstand and other digital platforms. 

That's right, the first ever Corn Fed Sports magazine. 

In-depth coverage, fun features and insights into ALL of the different Husker programs, but we're adding the flare of full-page spreads, stylized features and all of the other glam you'd expect from a fully functioning Husker magazine. 

Our first issue will be coming out Monday, July 14th, so stay tuned for more info as that day nears, but it's going to be a great day for the future of this project we call Corn Fed Sports. 

World Cup fever has officially set in. 

After John Brooks headed home a winner to give new soccer fans something to remember, we've seen a wave of Patriotism that allows non-soccer fans to see past the usual faults with the game and buy in to the 'footballing' spirit of the World Cup. 

Now, it's time to tap into that wave and put on a show for #Husker fans, and we're calling it the CornFederation Cup. 

Over the next few weeks, we're going to put together a field of Husker athletes [and perhaps a few of our followers ;)], and have our own FIFA based World Cup on the PS4, and bring you along at every step of the way to see how your favorite Huskers compete OFF the field. 

We're looking to have our official draw this Friday once we have the field filled out, with our bracket coming out today as World Cup fever sets in once again.. 

Are you ready for some (virtual) 'footbal'? 

Here's a Vine of Robin van Persie's flying header with him actually wearing a cape. https://t.co/RWKcn3PGBO

So we've had a lot of new features and tried a bunch of different concepts in our posts, but now it's time we start honing in on what we do best. 

In addition to our coverage, multimedia content, shows and other social media content, we are pleased to announce DAILY CONTENT features that you will be able to find on our website and social media platforms. 

Starting tomorrow, and everyday throughout the week from here on, we'll be posting the following: 

Freshly Popped - A daily collection of links, stories or any other content on the web that we feel #Husker fans will find of interest. Some of it will be our stuff, some of it will be thanks to the magic of the interwebs, but all of it will be good. 

Why We Love Sports Today - Sports are meant to inspire, and to be about more than just wins and losses. While some pride themselves on their ability to pick apart and overanalyze EVERYTHING about the world of sports, we instead choose to focus on what really matters: Inspiration. Everyday, we'll be sharing a link, or photo or even just a Tweet that shows why we love sports, and why it's all about much more than what happens between the lines. 

Tweet O' The Day - Sometimes a Tweet is worth a thousand words, and those Tweets deserve special attention. That's what Tweet O' The Day is all about, bringing you the must-see tweets and posts from the Twittersphere. 

Husker SnapShot - A completely visual take on telling stories, based in social media. We combine our photos with insight and analysis to tell stories one SnapShot at a time. 

Column by Austin Pistulka | Corn Fed Sports Follow Me: @pistol_1

If you think that the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is the best part of the collegiate sports year, take a seat, I’m about to blow your mind.

Everyone enjoys filling out a bracket and picking their favorite team (Nebraska) to win it all for kicks and giggles and then having another bracket where they try and get Warren Buffet’s billion dollars. 

I filled out my bracket too, but I’m even more excited about the best three days in all of college sports, at least from my perspective. Starting today and running through Saturday in Oklahoma City, OK, the NCAA Wrestling Championships are happening.  

Nationals are something completely different than the basketball tournament not just because of the different sports.  This last meet of the year is the showcase of the immortals.  

It’s the equivalent of Wrestlemania in the WWE or the Super Bowl in the NFL, but even then nationals are even better than those two beloved events.  

Instead of one champion, there are ten.  Ten men who worked harder than all the rest are crowned national champion.  These are the guys who wake up with a drive in their soul that is unmatched.  Hours of time on the mat and on the treadmill have gotten them to this one moment, and they know that there is nothing greater.  

Wrestling is an individual sport and each individual has a story.  That is what makes the NCAA Wrestling Championships so great.  It’s not about a team or a group of guys who banded together.  It’s all about the will and determination of one man fighting against the odds to be better than all the rest. 

It’s the heart and soul being poured out right in front of you on the mat. 

There are no lucky winners in wrestling.  In basketball, teams can win because of a lucky shot made or a lucky bounce, but in wrestling there is no getting lucky. Wrestling is the ultimate in getting the most out of an athlete. 

In what other sport can a man be put through the proverbial ringer with no one to blame but himself? Only wrestling. 

Wrestling is the epitome of what the human body can be pushed to. They are modern day gladiators who have given up Thanksgiving, girlfriends and social lives because all they want is the glory of being better than everyone else.  So have a seat and open up ESPN to see exactly what I’m talking about.  You won’t be disappointed.

We're sorry. 

And not the fake sorry like the naked BP guy from South Park either; I want to take this opportunity to personally offer my apology to fans who have been confused about what's been going on with Corn Fed Sports over these past few months. 

Sure, we continue to grow our Twitter numbers, offer 24/7 coverage of certain teams and events and continue to introduce new ways of using multimedia coverage to keep fans updated on everything Huskers, but for the die-hard CFS followers, we're sure you've noticed something. 

We've been playing around with our broadcast offerings, offering new starts, new social media strategies and other tactics, and even redesigned huge chunks of our website, and I'm sure some of you have been wondering: What's going on? 

Let's just call it 'beta testing'.

See, for the past two years since we started this ride, we've been dedicated to offering Husker fans new and innovative ways to interact with all Nebraska sports, and we've had a lot of fun and success in doing that. But now, with the downsizing of other student media operations and the shift towards digital, we see an opportunity to offer the UNL and Husker community a better option for wall-to-wall coverage, and so we've been tinkering.  Tinkering with how we do game stories, tinkering with how we do photo galleries, even tinkering with our own staff and how we are structured as an organization. We even tinkered with our motto of "100 percent digital", and are ready to unveil "Corn Fed Squared", a twice-a-week newsletter that we plan on printing this fall (it's on Twitter, our plan of twice-a-week came out first). 

So like other outlets, we're waiting until the next school year to make our changes, right? 

Nope. 

Starting with tomorrow's baseball game, Wednesday's softball and the NCAA tournament action for BOTH Nebraska basketball teams, we're going to show you what the future looks like. Then comes spring football, and both College World Series (yes, both), and by this summer, we're going to show you what the future of on-campus sports coverage looks like. 

Not next year, now. And it's not like we haven't already been getting ready for this, either. 

We've toyed with our Twitter accounts, we've revamped our plans for platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, and we're ready to bring you content, coverage and a place for Husker news like anywhere else on the web. 

Oh yeah, and one last thing, if you're trying to buy Ameer4Heisman.com or AmeerForHeisman.com, sorry, we've already got it. But more on that coming later ;). 

We'll be releasing more information tomorrow, so stay tuned, but buckle up. 

It's going to be one hell of a ride. 

- Pat Radigan

It was a big weekend for the Nebraska softball team to say the least, but in a single moment on Saturday night there was a glimpse of where the Husker softball program is going.

I'm certainly not an expert on the world of college softball, but I've seen enough to know that big time teams come up with rallies and walk-offs like it's their job. Just ask the Huskers, they saw it when Oklahoma came from behind last month, and got a dose of the same medicine in last year's WCWS.

Yet even with a history of heartbreak, it was the Huskers who refused to go down. It was the Huskers who put a runner on base to keep hope alive. And it was the Huskers, and senior Taylor Edwards, who downed a top-10 team with a single swing of her bat and a towering homer over the left field fence.

The tides are turning for the Husker program, and the WCWS is not just an aspiration anymore, it's an expectation. As the home slate nears, take some time to check out coach Rhonda Revelle and crew, you won't be disappointed.

This year is looking to be even more of a thrill ride than 2013.

- Pat Radigan

PROLOGUE – Blood and Spiders

The Start of Something Special By Brian Hall

You guys, they did it. 

They actually did it. I’m nearly speechless. Less than two hours ago, Nebrasketball (probably) erased 16 years of history that we’d rather forget, and Tim Miles and his boys are going into the Big Ten tournament with a first round bye, and the first legitimate shot at an NCAA Tournament bid in a long, long time. 

I could fill pages and pages with words of praise for what this team has accomplished. I could write for hours about how Nebrasketball shocked the world of college basketball, and how over the last month the Huskers went from a nice little story to a roaring lion demanding the attention it deserved. Or how Tim Miles went from that goofy yet loveable guy in glasses, to that goofy yet loveable guy in glasses who should be the obvious choice for Big Ten coach of the year (Miles doesn’t change regardless of his program, and that’s one of his many great qualities). 

And lastly, I could talk about how on #NoSitSunday, the greatest fans in the country turned up, refused to sit down, and screamed like hell for nearly two hours, and at the end of it all, ran on to the court to embrace the team that had made the last few weeks something to remember for a very long time. 

But as I watched Tim Miles address his team in the locker room, one thing became evident; Tim Miles isn’t done, and neither is his team. They’re hungry for more, starving for a chance to further prove that they belong high above the cellar that everyone put them in at the beginning of the season. They’re out to prove that they can hang with one of the best college basketball conferences in the country, a conference full of “blood and spiders” and any team beating any other team, and that these types of performances will be the expectation rather than the rule. 

And so now we shift our focus to the postseason, the Big Ten tournament and whatever lies beyond, starting with today’s preview of the #B1Gtourney draw and what it means for the Huskers. Check us out on Twitter at @CornFedSports, or mosey on over to www.cornfedsports.com. 

The Nebraska women's basketball team is taking on Iowa today in the Big Ten tournament semifinals in a rematch of a game the Huskers won earlier this year in Iowa City. However, as tournament time sinks in and upsets start popping up, it's not so much about who you're playing rather than taking care of your side of the court. 

As the Huskers look to advance to tomorrow's final, we had a chance to catchup with Nebraska's Hailie Sample, and ask her about our three keys to today's matchup with the Hawekeyes in Indianapolis... 

Nebraska's ability to get Jordan Hooper open looks could be seen as a key to any NU game, but with the familiarity between the B1G Player of the Year and teams like Iowa, it's Hooper's ability to adapt to changing defenses that will dictate how Nebraska's offense functions as a unit.  According to Sample, the attention Hooper is receiving is nothing new to Nebraska's No 2 scorer and rebounder in school history, and Hooper's ability to play through pressure opens up opportunities for other players across the court.  Sample: "I think it's really big for us, because obviously people are going to try to do anything they can to Jordan to not let her be a scorer and not let her be effective," she said. "I think that since she's been such a good scorer for so many years she's learned to play through it. So I think we all just try and find ways to contribute, and play hard, and things will fall into place." 

  If you watch the Huskers on a regular basis, you probably have noticed the space teams are willing to give Sample and other Huskers as they compress on Hooper and pack the lane. While Sample isn't going to start pulling up from 3-point range anytime soon, the Husker junior was able to contribute (and subsequently help open up the Gopher defense), thanks to offensive rebound and interior passing in the win over Minnesota.  Yet no matter what happens on offense, Sample said it comes down to staying locked in on her favorite end of the court despite what teams try and do to limit Nebraska offensively.  "It's fun and it's kinda exciting (to score), but offense doesn't really get me that excited. I like offense, I mean who doesn't, but I really get jacked to play defense so it doesn't bother me (when teams sag off)." 

  Nebraska is known for its pressure defense, but in the last month of the year the Huskers were able to find success in shutting down opponent's No. 1 offensive option. In a win over Penn State, Nebraska held Maggie Lucas scoreless in the first half, while Rachel Banham worked her way to just 4-of-12 shooting and 12 points in NU's win over the Gophers.  Sample said the team takes pride in limiting team's top scorers, and if Nebraska wants to keep marching on in Indy, the Huskers will need to keep the defense cranked all the way up. 

   Ok, so now that we’ve let Mr. Dixon have his say, it’s time to set the record straight: Husker fans will, and SHOULD, throw the ‘Horns Down’ now and forever.

  And it doesn’t matter if Texas cares, or if OU or Texas A&M are the ‘traditional’ rivals of the Longhorns, all that matters is what it means for Nebraska fans.

  All that matters are recent developments like the one second that stands between Bo and a conference title, and the formation of the Longhorn Network and Nebraska’s subsequent move to the Big Ten. It’s no secret the balance of power in the Big 12 bounced back and forth between Memorial Stadium in Lincoln and the ‘heart of Texas’ in Austin.

  Beyond that, Texas vs. Nebraska is a representation of the ‘big boys’ of college sports. While Nebraska falls short of the Longhorns in overall revenue, when you look at what the Huskers are doing in terms of facilities, expanding the ENTIRE athletic department and focusing on reshaping the landscape of the major women’s sports, you start to see the parallels.

Yes, Texas has it’s own network and a media environment unlike anywhere else in the NCAA, but what UT represents in terms of flare and exposure, the Huskers counter with top-tier practice facilities for basketball, softball, baseball and now tennis and soccer as Nebraska looks to develop its institutional brand.

  And that, my friends, is why this rivalry exists, no matter what the Longhorns think. In fact, who could be a better rival for humble, hard-working Nebraskans than an “Evil Empire” that doesn’t even acknowledge the Cornhuskers as a threat?

  If you’re asking yourself why you must throw the “Horns Down”, or if you’re trying to figure out why it is that Texas’ fans stayed around to cheer for San Diego last night, that fact is why. Because Nebraska represents what Texas isn’t, and because the Huskers are catching up in being an athletic powerhouse, instead of just a settling for being a ‘football school’. 

  Nebraska’s development as a women’s sports hub threatens the stranglehold schools like Texas, Ohio State and other universities with enrollment totals that dwarf the 25k in LNK, and they’re taking notice.

  So as you take in tonight’s volleyball match, and check out the palace that is Devaney, remember, throw the “Horns Down” whenever you’d like, and celebrate the fact that Nebraska, yes the Cornhuskers, is a program on the rise. Not just in volleyball, or basketball but in embodying that the future of college sports isn’t measured in pure revenue or television reach, but it’s about passion, a fan base that believes in it’s university and an investment in ALL of its student athletes.

  Oh yeah, and free ‘Bevo’ steaks at Misty’s if the Huskers win*.

  -       Pat Radigan

@cornfedBOSSman

  P.S. If you’re one of the types that thinks any sort of negative cheering is bad, I’m sorry, but there’s got to be some sort of gamesmanship in college sports. For the same reason that Texas has 12 cheerleaders and a mascot on the trip, or that the band and the team ‘Throw the Horns’ at any available opportunity, I believe it’s good natured fun to turn the Longhorns hand sign against them.  If we don’t, we may soon degenerate into a society of ‘participation trophy’ competitors, and no one wants that.

You know, I had something actually quite special planned for this week’s BTS. It was a subject I had wanted to write about since day one, but was really unsure how to go about doing so. It was a story of love and loss, the mightiest of victories by an underdog, and then a quick and painful fall back into mediocrity. The crazy part about it, was that it all sat about four seconds away from being an incredibly plausible scenario for the rest of the Huskers football season. But then, lo and behold Ron Kellogg III pulled the miracle of miracles out of nowhere, and connected on that faithful Hail Mary to Jordan wild-wild-Westerkamp, and wouldn’t you know the Miracle in Memorial was born, saving the Husker’s season, probably a couple of coaching jobs, and possibly several livers in the greater metro area of Nebraska. 

So now, instead of another week of griping about what doesn’t work, what our team really needs to do to win, and swearing that the guy repeatedly posting “dicks” on the Big Red online message boards could actually be a better coach than Bo Pelini, we get to bask in the glow of a (potential) season-saving miracle.

Damn it feels good to be on the winning side of these things every now and again.

But of course, this now means my well thought out and researched topic that I slaved and lost sleep over now gets tucked away at the bottom of the pile…for now. While I could still write about it, it all just seems silly to bring down the collective euphoria of this last weekend by bringing up the fact that our team hasn’t shown us much in big moments (seriously, Northwestern really isn’t that good you guys). Also, I’d really rather not end every comparison of my story to the Husker season with, “But thanks to that Hail Mary play this is all moot now”.

No, why kick a fan base that finally got something to celebrate about, after being down for so long. Seriously, until Saturday we’ve just been on a collective downhill slope since the Big Ten title game last season in terms of fan and program perception, and now with something everyone can be happy about for once, it’d be nice just to revel in it for a while.

So I’ll bite the bullet and change gears for the greater good of everyone. Am I hero? Well no, because I’m neither Ron Kellogg III nor Jordan Westerkamp, but you can thank me nonetheless. And thanks to them, this year's Husker squad will have another chance to change the stigma by holding its own destiny. 

What does this all mean for my column, that's supposed to be based on my adventures in London? It means you get a full immersion experience this week. O

Once Husker soccer's semifinal matchup has run its course, look for the newest BTS in the prelude to the opening night for #Nebrasketball in Pinnacle Bank Arena. It's going to be a busy day, but you won't want to miss what we have in store. 

- Brian Hall