Friday Sips, Gameday Eve

One day from now I will be losing my mind with you plebes in the gamethread. Here are your final sips of the offseason:

• Inside NU wraps up the last week of practice. Read about the work coaches are doing with scheduling to deal with the string of night games NU plays in the first half of the season. Also, coach Fitz shares his thoughts on slap-dick practices. Slap-dick. Twice.

• Some guy from the Mercury News has Cal predictions. He expects Cal to beat the 'Cats and lose to Colorado in an overall 4-8 campaign. That is not likely.

• Oregon, Texas, and Florida are national empires of fandom. Northwestern not so much :( Also, LOL at most of Arkansas rootin' for LSU. Wipe up them tears Biels.

• Kafka to Ebert for a 13 yard score. Jaguars are also wild cats, so this feels right. Props to announcers for taking forever to figure out who Ebert was, and being completely oblivious to the fact that the guys played together in college.

• Read up on Cal's final week of preseason practice. The article tries to keep a positive outlook, but the Bears have a massive question mark for a defense. Also, check that video of Cal QB Jared Goff who I think resembles Matt Saracen. Let's hope he plays like Saracen from the first half of season 1.

• The Rose Bowl win against Cal was the real deal. Hail to Purple provides slam-dunk evidence that NU's winning score was called correctly on the field. Deal with it hippies.

• One wise Corn Nation writer picks the 'Cats to go far. The gesture is acknowledged and appreciated, but Nebraska still has a disturbingly inferior 'N'.

• Fellow B1Gsters Indiana and Minnesota won yesterday. Read about Gophers here, and Hoosiers here. I find myself in the demented position of not minding that we don't play Indiana.

Heard on #BTNLive that @KainColter_2 and @Trav_E10 can hoop a little bit and might want to walk on. #BeatCal and we'll talk!

— NU Men's Basketball (@NUMensBball) August 28, 2013