Head coach Matt Rhule met with the media on Wednesday in Lincoln inside the Hawks Championship Center to discuss Nebraska’s 2025 recruiting class that officially became Husker football players on the first day of the early signing period.

But before Rhule talked about the future of his program, he wanted to clear the air about something in the past: handshakes.

Or more more accurately, the lack of handshakes in Iowa City that Hawkeye players said motivated them.

During the coin toss just before kickoff in last week’s Black Friday rivalry game against Iowa, the Husker captains for the tilt — Elliott Brown, Emmett Johnson, DeShon Singleton and MJ Sherman — refused to shake the hands of Iowa’s captains.

“That’s not what we want to do. That’s not the right way to handle it,” said Rhule, who noted he didn’t know the captains didn’t shake the hands of Iowa’s players until well after the game.

When Nebraska’s players entered Kinnick Stadium for the first time a few hours before kickoff, the players made their way to the 50-yard line for their usual pregame prayer. However, there were armed police officers standing on the 50-yard line, keeping them from doing so.

The Nebraska players and coaches instead kept walking and prayed in one of the end zones.

“I do want to say, we showed up at the game and, really, for 12 years now, we show up to an away game and we always kind of go to the 50-yard line,” Rhule said. “Some guys will say a prayer for safety. Some guys will just break it down. Never really had any problems. We had a problem last year at Colorado for a few minutes. We had a problem this year at USC. But for the most part, we kind of go and do it.”

Rhule believes the presence of police officers had something to do with his players not shaking hands.

“When we came out to walk to the end zone, there were seven armed state troopers standing on the logo. And I think our players felt some type of way about police in pregame,” Rhule said. “They felt that. Wasn’t maybe channeled the right way. We’ve got great guys. We’ve got great leadership. Not the right decision, not what we wanted.”

Rivalry week in college football produced multiple fights between teams, including in the contests between Michigan-Ohio State, Florida-Florida State and North Carolina-North Carolina State, among others.

Knowing what happened in other rivalry games, Rhule was proud of how the Huskers and Hawkeyes handled business.

“I think when you watch that game, credit to both teams, it was between the lines,” Rhule said. “No unsportsmanlike fouls, no trash talking, no taunting. And watching college football, even after the game, I think both teams handled themselves in a way that a lot of people, lot of games, didn’t. So we’ll grow from that. We’ll learn from that.”

If you have a pulse, I am sure you have either seen, heard or read a political ad this past year. With the plethora of TV, radio, newspaper and social media entities paid to run them, they would be pretty hard to miss.

With all the ads I have seen in the past 36 years, the most memorable ad for me is one I saw back in 1988. When the camera came on, you see the back of a man sitting at what appears to be the counter of a coffee shop somewhere in Nebraska. As the camera moves around toward his front, the announcer is talking about the fact that it has been 20 years since state senators in Nebraska have received any form of pay raise.

The voiceover tells you that in 1968, senators’ pay was raised from $200 to $400 per month. In 1988, the announcer says, there is a proposal on the ballot to raise senators’ pay to $1,000 per month. As the camera gets closer to the front, you start to recognize Coach Bob Devaney, who had been in Nebraska about 25 years by then and won two national championships. Devaney looks straight at the camera and says in a very serious tone:

“If I had been here 20 years and never got a pay raise, I would go back to Wyoming.”

The proposal passed.

It has now been 36 years since we last raised the compensation level for members of the Unicameral. We do still want and need a citizen legislature, but too many citizens simply cannot even consider putting themselves forward to seek election.

If you have a salaried job, you will have to consider the time that you will be away from work and may not get paid. If you own a business, you will need to consider the time you will not be available and perhaps need to hire another person to perform your duties. If you are a professional, you need to realize that you will not be getting as many billable hours and plan accordingly.

Many people are working longer now, and even some retired people do consulting after they have left the full-time workforce. These people also need to realize that they will not be able to bring in the extra income they were planning on.

The responsibilities of being a state senator have also changed and require more time than they did back in 1988. With all the additional forms of communication, constituents demand more information on legislative activity even when the Legislature is not in session. What new roads will be funded, what education funding will be on the agenda, what senior programs could be re-evaluated, what about health care, ag issues, taxes, etc. There are also more interim studies requested and hearings being held around the state.

The big issue, of course, will be how much to raise the current pay level, and there will be as many different suggestions as there are people who take a proposal seriously. I will start that discussion, but you also need to remember that state senators in Nebraska do not receive any health insurance, retirement fund contribution or other benefits that most working people get.

Instead of trying to come up with a number … what if the governor appointed a committee of people from around the state each census year who could set legislative pay at no more than 15% of what the average county judge makes in Nebraska?

It is still not a full-time job, and the pay should not be at a level that would allow someone to live comfortably on a senator’s pay alone. Senators should still have a connection to the workforce unless they are retired and have already fulfilled a career in the workforce.

I believe this or other credible proposals would allow more people to at least consider offering themselves and their time and talents to the legislative process, which will make important decisions about our state’s future growth and prosperity.

A Nebraska woman is sharing her secret to living a long life.

Marian Fitzwater celebrated her 100th birthday on Nov. 30, surrounded by five generations of her family.

The surprise festivities kicked off at Ridgewood Senior Living in Bennington, Neb., where her family played a slideshow of her life, allowing her to relive her most significant moments.

“Very emotional. Yeah, it really was,” Fitzwater told local news station KETV of the slideshow.

Some of the big moments in Fitzwater’s life include working at the Glenn L. Martin Bomber Plant, an aircraft manufacturing facility, at 18 during World War II, owning a Sears store and delivering Meals on Wheels, where she met her husband.

“He would not let us get engaged or married until he came home from the war, so we had to wait and that was the longest wait I’d ever spent in my life,” Fitzwater said of her husband. The couple went on to have three children.

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Described as the “anchor of the family” by her youngest son, Phillip Fitzwater, the great-grandmother told KETV that she takes life “day by day” and tries to simply “be happy.”

“To be open and to be positive, to be accepting about your life and to be happy about what your life is,” Phillip echoed his mother’s sentiments.

“My motto in life is: ‘I tried,’ ” Fitzwater said, laughing. “I just want to try new things and I’m not afraid to try new things, so I just do ’em.”

And try things she has — the matriarch kept busy well into her 90s by kayaking, doing yoga and even riding in a helicopter, according to KETV.

“My health has been good, my memory’s so-so — it’s not bad,” she said. “And I count my many blessings every day.”