VB: "If you can't beat them..."
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She is a good player and Nebraska just lost one OH, who transferred to Texas. She missed some of the season because she had a baby, and apparently was pushed out because Cook didn’t like that. Nebraska has another OH in the portal.
But, Nebraska fans think she is going to Wisconsin.
But, Nebraska fans think she is going to Wisconsin.
Landfair would still have to compete with Batenhorst and Krause for the 2nd OH spot with Murray in Nebraska. She’s going to Wisconsin where she’s pretty much guaranteed to take TTA’s open spot as the other OH with Franklin. That Wisconsin team will be insane next year
Yes....plus All Americans Anna Smrek and Carter Booth. Not sure whether senior Devyn Robinson comes back...also an Honorable Mention AA.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Minnesota just has too far to climb in that conference.
Nebraska fans should be pissed if they take a transfer since they find the notion of building a champion that way so distasteful.
Nebraska fans should be pissed if they take a transfer since they find the notion of building a champion that way so distasteful.
Absolutely....and further proof of that is that All American Beason was putrid against Texas.....she should be sent packing back to Florida....what was Cook thinking?
Cook complains all the time about Texas and how Elliott builds teams through the portal even though he gets top HS talent every year. But, Nebraska has taken 1 or 2 portal players every year since it started. Now, that’s different than Texas starting 6 transfers two straight years, but it’s not exactly ignoring the portal either.
I don’t think Nebraska will take anyone from the portal this year though because they had no seniors on last year’s team and they have two freshmen coming in. So, they had to jettison two players to get down to the limit. They now have done that. Unless they lose another player, they don’t have room for a transfer. But, if a really top player wants to transfer there, I’m sure Cook will force someone else out.
I don’t think Nebraska will take anyone from the portal this year though because they had no seniors on last year’s team and they have two freshmen coming in. So, they had to jettison two players to get down to the limit. They now have done that. Unless they lose another player, they don’t have room for a transfer. But, if a really top player wants to transfer there, I’m sure Cook will force someone else out.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Elliot got another one. Reagan Rutherford (Opp.) from Kentucky as a grad transfer. Kind of crazy.
"Eat it, John Cook: Texas volleyball adds three high-profile transfers, including one from Nebraska"
pittdan77
Athletic Director
I would be interested to see what Texas is doing with NIL stuff or if it's just that attractive to play there. I mean, if you're at Baylor and grew up in Texas, yeah, Austin is probably where you would have wanted to be at in the first place.
Guaranteed that NIL is driving these top notch transfers to Texas.
After Kentucky won the National Championship, freshman Wildcat Maddie Skinner, was contacted by Texas Head Coach Elliott. Skinner politely told him that she was flattered but she had no intention of leaving Kentucky.
She left Kentucky for Texas...
I also recall reading a year ago that Texas volleyball's NIL deals had exceeded $100000 as 2022 drew to a close and they had just beaten Louisville in the national championship game. It's now a year later....can't imagine where they are now....definitely north of that for sure.
I also poked around the internet to see other examples.....BYU NIL collective inked a $500000 deal and Nebraska a $5 million deal over a 10 year period. These are just for volleyball.
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The one Nebraska transfer to Texas I don’t think had to do with NIL. The OH who had a child was effectively ostracized by Cook. I’m sure both of the other big name transfers are NIL based.
This almost is something Elliott is locked into now. When your roster has 8 transfers on it and 4 of them are graduating, you almost have to replace them with experienced transfers if you expect to maintain the quality. Even though he has two top 20 freshmen coming in, unlike Fisher who started two freshmen all year, I don’t think Elliott would do that. At least, he never has in the past. He had supposedly two of the top ten freshmen in the country this past year. He had to use the setter, who was great for them, but the other one only played mop up duty. Interesting that his third transfer portfolio pickup is another setter and she again was a top ten HS player. The article says that he might be considering adding a 6-2 to their game instead of the 5-1 Texas has played.
I’m wondering how Kentucky has let these three players get away. They won a national championship and now have lost three players to Texas and one to Florida in the last two years. You would think they have a pot of NIL money to keep them.
This almost is something Elliott is locked into now. When your roster has 8 transfers on it and 4 of them are graduating, you almost have to replace them with experienced transfers if you expect to maintain the quality. Even though he has two top 20 freshmen coming in, unlike Fisher who started two freshmen all year, I don’t think Elliott would do that. At least, he never has in the past. He had supposedly two of the top ten freshmen in the country this past year. He had to use the setter, who was great for them, but the other one only played mop up duty. Interesting that his third transfer portfolio pickup is another setter and she again was a top ten HS player. The article says that he might be considering adding a 6-2 to their game instead of the 5-1 Texas has played.
I’m wondering how Kentucky has let these three players get away. They won a national championship and now have lost three players to Texas and one to Florida in the last two years. You would think they have a pot of NIL money to keep them.
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pittdan77
Athletic Director
Cook did her dirty. I'm certain she was trying to stick it to him with the family picture being the announcement.
It is interesting. We all know that UT has the money. His roster is a little bloated at the moment so I imagine someone is leaving. No way he keeps six good pin hitters. I'm sure the talk of going to a 6-2 is part of trying to keep these girls. Does he have two setters that are that good?
I kind of recall there was a bit of an issue at Kentucky at some point last year. Not sure if that had something to do with it. How about Tennessee? They've had a ton of girls enter the portal.
Landfair ends up at Nebraska.....no way Cook keeps all of his OH's content with enough playing time.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Geez.
Not sure if you follow Abby Benton but she did a piece on the rampant tampering that's going on with the bigger schools. Apparently coaches are using club coaches and former club teammates to back channel players they're targeting. She's sort of expanding what Creighton's coach said at the convention a few weeks ago.
Coaches in all sports are using back channels to talk to players on other teams. That's not just a volleyball thing.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Agree. The argument is that it’s worse in VB because the community is pretty tight.
I'm not saying that isn't or can't be true, because I have no idea if it is or not. But I do have a hard time believing that the sports where the money involved is several orders of magnitude larger aren't that much worse. Because the stakes are that much higher.
That is what I’ve heard also. There are more avenues available to get word to a player because pretty much all the top ones played for club teams. So club coaches are a perfect conduit.
It’s hard to believe that the two Nebraska portal players announced their new teams one and two days, respectively, after entering the portal without there having been prior contact. And, Nebraska replaced both of them within 3 days.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Important to note that club directors/coaches love the attention and play up their best players. But I also know that sometimes, old club teammates end up seeking each other out in the portal.
And just to verify how it works, my daughter plays club and with TikTok and Instagram, these girls do form a network. They don't always know each other but they're very familiar with each other. And the girls in the same club get really close. Closer than they do to their school teammates. If they start young, they've been with the other girls for years and some clubs do have nine month long seasons.
