Fans Favor Osborne, Burroughs, Chamberlain

The new Fan Poll on Huskers.com is hardly scientific, but it is fun, and fans are responding.<?xml:namespace prefix="o"?>

 

After week one on a fully redesigned Huskers.com website, the Fan Poll has shown us that:

• You’re thrilled that Tom Osborne has decided to continue indefinitely as athletic director.
• You think that Jordan Burroughs had the spring’s best individual Husker performance.
• Your favorite CWS-related performance of all time involved pitcher Joba Chamberlain.
• You want additional features on NU student-athletes more than additional videos.

Getting the strongest response was the Fan Poll following Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman’s announcement that Osborne “feels comfortable” serving as <?xml:namespace prefix="st1"?>Nebraska’s athletic director on an ongoing basis.

 

More than 1,700 votes were cast when Huskers.com asked this question: When I learned that Tom Osborne has decided to stay indefinitely as Nebraska’s athletic director, I was . . .

 

“Thrilled because we need Tom Osborne to get us back where we belong,” responded 1,079 Husker fans. Another 495 preferred this answer: “Not surprised at all because the job is tailor-made for him.”

 

Burroughs, Nebraska’s first-ever unbeaten wrestler, collected more than 65 percent of the votes on a question that asked what Husker athlete had the best performance of the spring season. He had 344 more votes than second-place finisher Nicholas Gordon, who won the NCAA indoor long jump title.

 

Before Burroughs finished 35-0 last March in St. Louis, Nebraska’s best individual, single-season wrestling record was a 36-1 mark posted first by Bill Scheer in 1984 and then duplicated nine years later by Matt Lindland.

 

When it came to the Huskers’ all-time favorite College World Series-related moment, Joba Chamberlain was the clear-cut favorite with his 2005 CWS pitching performance in the Huskers’ 5-3 win over Arizona State.

 

Just a sophomore at the time, Chamberlain had transferred to Nebraska from Division II Nebraska-Kearney.

 

Another Chamberlain performance before that memorable CWS win probably should have been included in the Fan Poll. Chamberlain, after all, struck out 13 in an 8-inning effort in a 3-1 win over Miami in the 2005 Super Regional.

 

In the first poll on the redesigned site, fans were asked what they most wanted to see in addition to breaking news and results on Huskers.com.

 

Their No. 1 choice was more stories on Nebraska student-athletes. Thirty-seven votes behind that choice was seeing more videos on Huskers.com.