You’ve heard the saying a picture is worth a thousand words. Capturing the emotions of pride, hope, excitement, joy, nostalgia, loyalty, courage, and even pain is what Licensed Husker Artist Ashley Spitsnogle has mastered.

Today on Husker Talk, Ashley tells the story of how drawing horses and mermaids as a girl led to painting our Husker heroes. As a native, her passion for athletics was ingrained at a young age, sitting next to her Dad watching the Huskers play on TV every Saturday.

Her passion grew when she attended an art school in Florence Italy. This is where Ashley realized she would be happy to paint for the rest of her life.

Ashley’s mainstay as an artist is philanthropy:

• She illustrated the children’s book ‘Josh the Baby Otter’, which brings awareness to child safety around water.
• ‘The Last Tunnel Walk’ was a painting for Heartfelt Inc. which benefited grieving parents. Depicting Brook Berringer and Sam Foltz, two Husker football players who lost their lives to fatal accidents, as they walk the tunnel walk together toward a bright light.
• A painting of the legendary coach Tom Osborne and Brook Berringer for the TeamMates Mentoring program that The Osbornes began in 1991. As she said this painting depicts so many aspects of Husker football and mentorship.
• She even used her talent to shed light on the Nebraskan farmer at a critical moment in time. As they endured flooding and she saw the pain it caused, Ashley painted an unforgettable image titled “Healing the Heartland” depicting how others gathered around their neighbors to help by trucking in loads of hay.

I really enjoyed hearing her stories of hope and excitement for Husker Football as she spoke about her extraordinary Husker paintings.

Thursday, August 29th Ashley is hosting an art event with all 3 Heisman Trophy Winners in attendance. The event is at Main Street Studios & Art Gallery in Elkhorn, to attend, RSVP https://www.ashleyspitsnogle.com/ and please keep in mind this is not a memorabilia signing event.

Season 1 comes to close as we review the sweet tale of a golfer who knows greatness courts failure - and whose inner child needs a spanking.

Tin Cup came out in the summer of ‘96 and immediately shoved in next to Caddyshack for the title of Greatest Golf Movie Ever. I love Caddyshack, but I my vote goes to the Cup.

Kevin Costner’s hilarious portrayal of the goofy, loveable and self-destructive Roy McAvoy is one of his finest - and I’ll fight to the death defending that. The top-notch cast included Don Johnson, Cheech Marin, Rene Russo, a pack of “that guys” as his crew and many cameos from real-life pros and TV personalities of the time.

The script was both lyrical and hilarious and you don’t have to love golf to love this movie.

Tin Cup - join us.

Cardiologist Dr. Lou Kohl will join me tonight. Dr Kohl is my cardiologist, the man who saved my life just over nine years ago. On August 21st, 2015, I had a Widowmaker heart attack, and I was dead for over 20 minutes. I have a brain injury because of this experience.

I realize we all want to be talking about football.

I feel like I wouldn’t be doing my job as a survivor if I didn’t make other people aware of what it’s like to go through a heart attack and what it’s like to deal with heart problems. There is a massive amount of anxiety, anger and depression that comes with a heart attack.

There’s a good chance you or someone you love will deal with this during your lifetime.

• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups.1
• One person dies every 33 seconds from cardiovascular disease.1
• In 2022, 702,880 people died from heart disease. That’s the equivalent of 1 in every 5 deaths.12
• Heart disease cost about $252.2 billion from 2019 to 2020.2This includes the cost of health care services, medicines, and lost productivity due to death.

• In the United States, someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds.3
• Every year, about 805,000 people in the United States have a heart attack.3 Of these, 605,000 are a first heart attack, and 200,000 happen to be people who have already had a heart attack.3
• About 1 in 5 heart attacks are silent—the damage is done, but the person is not aware of it.

We will discuss, from my side, what it’s like to go through and survive a heart attack and from Dr. Kohl’s side, what people overlook at about heart attack - common misconceptions, etc.

here.

On the newest Five Heart Podcast, Greg, Minnie, and the finest group of truehearted Chatterfields will discuss all the current events of Husker Football.

We will discuss the takeaways from press conferences with players Micah Mazzcua, Mikai Gbayor, and Turner Corcoran. As well as Special Teams Coach Ed Foley and Head Coach Matt Rhules’ key points.

We got to see the 2nd episode of Chasing 3, Fall Camp, which gave us superfans another taste of the intense Husker training camp.

Single-digit uniforms were voted on and given by the players, so who was added? Were there any surprises? Is there anyone we thought should have received a number that didn’t?

Lastly, our favorite (especially Minnie’s) 5-Star Freshman Quarterback has been named the starter against UTEP. This in and of itself is reason enough to celebrate! Or is it? Will Greg try to rain on the parade?

Looking forward to a fun night. Please join us!

Today I got to live out a Husker fan’s dream and “throw the bones” with one of the most iconic blackshirts of this century, Adam Carriker.

As a former player and representative of his brand Carriker Chronicles in the media, Adam offers a unique and thorough perspective on our beloved Husker team;

• Unlocking athletic potential as a multi-sport athlete.
• How difficult is it to switch positions as a player?
• Defined success for the Husker football season.

No stranger to adversity, Adam recounted the bleak reviews he received when he arrived in Lincoln. He also shared how at one point, he thought playing football at Nebraska was too lofty of a goal. So, what changed?

• His mindset, he used the naysayers to get fired up!
• He learned to lean on his strengths as a player
• Dedication, Adam managed to add roughly 50 pounds of muscle by his senior year

With this tremendous attitude, his dream of becoming a blackshirt and representing the elite level at Nebraska came to fruition.

I hope you thoroughly enjoy this interview as it reminds me of this quote:

“It is not the honor that you take with you, but the heritage you leave behind.” -Branch Rickey

The movie based on the book which let you know Texas is batsh*t crazy about its football. Like really crazy.

Last week, we kicked off a 2-week Texas High School Football run with Varsity Blues which, while not based on the FNL book, didn’t try very hard to hide the fact the writers and director definitely read it.

While changing a few things around for dramatic effect, this movie stayed pretty true to the real story. It let you in minds of these people and definitely let you know how over the top Odessa was/is about their football while still being a top-notch sports film and making cheer for these kids whose only responsibility is winning state for the entire city.

No pressure at all.

Tonight, Connor Hayden from Corn Crazed joins me as it is time to prepare for the 2024 Nebraska football season.

I have been overwhelmed with a “get this done” regular work schedule and it has been difficult to keep up with everything that our beloved Huskers have in store for 2024.

Perhaps, if you’re the same as me, where you’re just getting back in things, and you’re getting back into college football, and maybe you didn’t spend the entire off-season looking reading every bit of Husker content that you could - this is the show for you.

Because maybe we can go through what’s about to happen to our beloved Huskers and talk about this Nebraska football team, what are its strengths, what are its weaknesses, what does the schedule look like, what does the new Big Ten offer, what does the entire season offer.

We’re going to have a 12-team college playoff, we’re going to have an 18-team Big Ten. There’s NIL. There’s the open-ended transfer portal. This year will change college football forever.

Connor has put together preview videos for this season. He’s done depth chart videos, he’s done a prediction video, He built a custom Nebraska football helmet.

He has bold predictions.

Let’s talk!

Recently, I interviewed one of my favorite Husker football fans, YouTuber Wilson Dittman of Wilson Dittman Sports.

Wilson’s enthusiasm, research, and dedication to our beloved Cornhuskers are why his channel has exploded over the last 9 months. He tells us that once he decided to commit to his channel, he made a video that garnered over 10,000 views in one night. Quite impressive, when you consider the Huskers haven’t played an opponent in football since the end of November.

Success, as Wilson puts it, is something that only comes from hard work. He also defines what success will look like this football season. Spoiler alert: it isn’t just making a bowl game.

• Will our Huskers be in the mix for the B1G title game?
• How important are “moral victories” in recruiting?
• What will game planning and clock management look like this year?

Wilson reminds us, that it’s not just players who develop but coaches as well. Baby steps as a program is the only way to have sustained success.

It doesn’t hurt to have some competitive advantages for a winning season, as Wilson outlines:

• favorable game schedule this year
• the 3-3-5 defensive scheme and its flexibility
• Veteran players=success in CFB
• depth in positions

We have plenty to be excited about for the upcoming season. I hope you enjoy the video. GO BIG RED!