McKewon's HE Mailbag: Harper Murray, Bishop Gorman and grass in Memorial Stadium (2024)

Sam McKewon will be providing exclusive mailbags to HuskerExtra throughout the summer, culled from questions on social media and the HE text chat system.

The first mailbag covers NU volleyball's chances at a national title in 2024, Matt Rhule's affinity for grass fields and whether Nebraska baseball can win a NCAA regional.

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Can the volleyball team make a deep run for a championship with all the Harper Murray distractions?

What is Harper Murray's status with the NU volleyball team?

First question: Yes, of course. Husker football used to have far more off-the-field issues— more serious issues— and won national titles. And while Murray had an excellent freshman year, Nebraska has more talent — and depth of talent— than all but one or two teams in the nation. The Huskers can in theory roll out three seniors — Lindsay Krause, Minnesota transfer Taylor Landfair and opposite hitter Merritt Beason — at outside hitter and leave Murray to battle Skyler Pierce as a fourth attacker.

Murray might be more talented than all of them. But ask Lexi Sun how competitive it can be in NU’s outside hitter room when, in 2021, she fell behind then-freshmen Krause and Ally Batenhorst. Ask Batenhorst, who started to play over Sun in 2021, then got shelved early in 2023 for Murray, returning to a more prominent role only after Krause’s injuries.

So Nebraska does not necessarily need Murray to win a national title. (It almost didn’t need Krause, although the title match loss to Texas may have underlined how much she was missed.) And perhaps NU’s sheer excellence at a premier position is the best motivator for Murray. It might also take the pressure off Murray, too, to work through her off-the-court issues without immediate pressure because NU “needs” her.

Second question: When coach John Cook said Murray’s disciplinary status was “out of my control” he’s saying that he doesn’t determine alone Murray’s discipline, The AD office may well weigh in. Such was the case during the Shawn Eichorst and Trev Alberts AD eras. (Perhaps that was true when Bill Moos was there, too, but his and Scott Frost’s handling of the Maurice Washington situation — Washington was suspended for one half in the 2019 season before he was eventually sentenced to 30 days in jail and two years probation eight months later — would suggest the coach had a larger say.)

In Murray’s case — she’s charged with a DUI, possessing a fake ID and not following officers' commands – Cook may not have the full, final say.

What happened to the Las Vegas Bishop Gorman pipeline? Also I know Ohio State leads for David Sanders but did we do much to close the gap?

Nebraska never had much of a pipeline to the prep powerhouse, although Nick Gates committed to NU in the 2014 class and had a strong three-year career. Tyjon Lindsey spent a sip of soda at Gorman, but NU landed him out of the “Calibraska” movement. Jordan Ober was a long snapper there. In the 2024 class, offensive tackle Xander Ruggeroli signed with Nebraska, but that’s no guarantee that any of the three blue-chip linemen in the 2025 class will pick the Huskers.

There’s no permanent Gorman pipeline to anywhere. In the 2024 class, Gorman guys signed with Miami (Fla.), Michigan, Kansas State, UNLV, Holy Cross, Nebraska, Hawaii and Iowa State.

As for Sanders, the five-star tackle from Charlotte (N.C.) Providence Day School, Nebraska closed the gap by getting the visit in the first place. Georgia, Clemson, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina round out the top six. The Buckeyes get last crack with a June 21 official visit, and if Sanders makes it to that visit, he’ll probably pick Ryan Day’s program.

NU’s better bet is to finish first in the “if David Sanders transfers, where does he go?” sweepstakes. Nebraska can win that battle. Impressions like a great official visit can last.

D1 Baseball has Nebraska baseball in Winston Salem with Wake Forest as the host. NU is vs. TCU as a 2 seed. To me that’s a winnable regional. Your thoughts?

First, D1 Baseball updated its projections Wednesday and put NU in a different spot. We'll get to that in a second, but we'll address the question as is first.

A team wins a regional when it gets an elite opening night start — Brett Sears can provide that — and the pitching staff has enough depth for five games in a hostile atmosphere, which is almost a given if you’re not the team hosting the regional.

The Huskers have pitching depth, but unless they tear through a three-game series at Michigan State and the Big Ten Tournament, it’s hard to see NU beating TCU once or twice and Wake Forest twice.

Now, let’s say Nebraska sweeps MSU and wins the Big Ten soiree, and heads to Oklahoma, Oklahoma State or UC Santa Barbara for a regional. Nebraska can win a regional like that, and D1 Baseball currently projects NU to the Norman Regional, playing Northeastern in the first game. Winnable regional. NU has been to Stillwater enough to navigate that space, and UCSB might have nine people at the park.

In the next 10 years, will Memorial Stadium have a natural grass playing surface?

Rhule has hinted at a preference for natural grass — found at Iowa State, Purdue, Michigan State and Penn State, among other northern climate schools— but grass can be a real mucky mess in bad weather, and if you’re playing six high school championship games in Memorial Stadium just days before the Black Friday tilt vs. Iowa, what kind of playing surface might you get for the Iowa game?

I prefer grass. It looks better. It’s easier on players’ joints. And it probably favors the kind of slug-it-out football Nebraska wants to play.

But you know what happens when NU gets done with a Friday Night Lights camp on the FieldTurf? Not much. People walk off of it, and and they more or less walk back onto to it the next day. That’s why schools got FieldTurf.

After several weeks of camps, a grass field can’t just be…left there. And Nebraska would have to be committed to maintaining a perfect playing surface for the seven Saturdays a year that Rhule and Co. trot onto it for a game.

Because Rhule is admittedly a details guy. He’ll want an elite grass field. A change of this logistical magnitude deserves a lawn right out of your grandpa’s subdivision or, if you prefer a Husker-related example, the Aviva Stadium field in Dublin that barely saw any foot traffic for most of the week.