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It's a huge opportunity. An opportunity to show we turned a corner. An opportunity to take a step closer to bowl eligibility. An opportunity to show that we're not a home pushover like we have been in the past few years.

It's a huge opportunity. An opportunity to show we turned a corner. An opportunity to take a step closer to bowl eligibility. An opportunity to show that we're not a home pushover like we have been in the past few years.

Exactly - someone find Lakes a Kipper Nichols jersey to wear, tape NEBRASKA over the top of the ILLINOIS on the front & he'll be golden.

Looks like he channeled my Christmas cookies. Now I just need some red hots and silver bb's.

Call me crazy, but I'm starting to believe in Gregg. A few examples: 1. How he handled Weston's off-field issues was perfect. Sent him home for a window to send a message. But then when he brought him back to the team there was no residual punishment. No sitting the bench in the doghouse for an indefinite period of time. Weston received his punishment, and now is forgiven. We move on. 2. Playing Musah through the middle is a bold move that makes Gregg look like a genius. Musah is one of the speedy up-and-comers in La Liga playing out wide. Logic would say that he and Arriola are the same type of player in our 4-3-3, and they should share playing time at the right winger position. Gregg playing Musah where he has is really a pretty bold move, because if it didn't work out he'd look like an idiot. But Musah has been great every time he's played, and kudos to GB for trusting him as a #10. 3. Riding the hot hand in goal with Turner. It would be easy to roll out Steffen whenever he's available. Turner has played perfectly as our keeper, and was rewarded with the #1 jersey last night. 4. A well-thought out strategy to get 3 points against an inferior foe, while playing without our two best creators. No Pulisic, no Reyna, no problem. Dest and Robinson were given the green light to get forward and attack. Aaronson was given a heavier workload out wide. We switched the field with long, aggressive passes the whole night. Quality in the final third could have been better, but not for lack of game plan. And don't forget the two "yellow" cards that resulted from the team constantly looking for the aggressive through ball. That was a really well designed match last night by Gregg and his staff. 5. Buy-in from the young players. Gregg and these kids are growing up together. Obviously winning helps a lot, but this looks like a TEAM. That isn't always the case. 6. Identifying young talent and getting it. This was the main argument for keeping Klinsmann around despite continued disappointing results. He expanded the talent pool by going out and getting commitments from dual-nationals. That wasn't supposed to be Berhalter's strength. And yet, the two 18 year old wunderkinds on the pitch had the option to play for Mexico (Pepi) and England/Ghana/Italy (Musah), but committed to the USA instead.

Canada gets their first result in Mexico since 1980, and really they should have won. Mexico is looking really pedestrian right now.

I’d said this elsewhere but the coaches usually take at least one project player each cycle. These are guys they can work with at the end of the bench that aren’t going to need minutes right away. If they hit that’s great, if not they move on and we take a chance on the next guy. Previously Fred always liked having sit out guys because you can only play 8-10 on a regular rotation. Now that players can play right away you need guys at the end of the bench that aren’t going to necessarily need or have earned the minutes yet. I think that’s what you will see going forward with those 3-5 spots are guys that can do one thing really well or guys that have the tools but need some fine tuning.

So.... Webster Mcgowens x 2 Verge Mayan Walker Lakes Seems about right

Probably not a great comparison but I wonder if they see him filling out some and being a Melvin Ejim type player for us. Decent outside shot, athletic, good motor and not afraid to attack the basket. With his frame I don’t think he will be 180 for long when he hits a college S&C program.

If Fred and Matt flew out to watch him work out and offered on the spot, they saw something they really liked. I trust Fred’s ability to assess players completely. Welcome to the family Denim!