Football vs. Iowa

Rodney Bennett Author

11/27/2023 Added

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Chancellor Rodney Bennett talks about Thanksgiving, rivalry games, economic impact, research impact and UNL's leadership in food and water security and roadside safety.

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[00:00:01.350]We're back here on Countdown to Kickoff.
[00:00:02.790]Today, the Huskers wrap up the regular season
[00:00:04.620]with the Iowa Hawkeyes in town for the Heroes Game,
[00:00:06.990]and as we do every week, a chance to sit down
[00:00:08.580]with a chancellor from the University of Nebraska Lincoln,
[00:00:11.040]Dr. Rodney Bennett.
[00:00:12.000]Great to see you.
[00:00:12.960]Happy Thanksgiving, I hope you had some food yesterday.
[00:00:16.620]Are you good?
[00:00:17.700]Greg, lemme tell you something.
[00:00:18.652]I'm so happy that we've made it to Thanksgiving.
[00:00:22.020]I'm so happy we had all the Thanksgiving fixins,
[00:00:25.950]but I have to tell you, the thing that I'm most excited
[00:00:28.282]and happy about is the nap that comes after lunch.
[00:00:32.280]No doubt.
[00:00:33.113]And I've been talking about this nap,
[00:00:34.191]and I know that there are listeners out there
[00:00:36.120]who are agree with me that the nap is a very important part
[00:00:39.859]of the Thanksgiving Day experience and tradition.
[00:00:43.370]So the nap was on point.
[00:00:46.380]Glad I was able to get the nap in,
[00:00:49.020]but also now ready for some Husker football.
[00:00:51.780]I've been known to fall into the food coma a little bit
[00:00:54.660]after some big meals around Thanksgiving.
[00:00:56.790]Big weekend for football.
[00:00:58.020]Usually, rivalries are going on,
[00:00:59.400]and that's what we have today.
[00:01:00.450]Our good friends from Iowa are here today.
[00:01:02.160]Good to see them, we welcome here to town,
[00:01:04.140]but rivalries are a big part of sports.
[00:01:06.060]It is, and I think so many people look forward
[00:01:08.247]to the Rivalry Weekend across the country.
[00:01:11.670]Obviously, I've been in several places in the southeast,
[00:01:14.490]and the rivalries there are just as strong
[00:01:16.421]and important as they are here in Nebraska.
[00:01:20.160]But one of the things that I always think about
[00:01:22.200]during Rivalry Weekend has to do
[00:01:24.417]with just the economic impact that these games have
[00:01:28.438]on the state and on the community,
[00:01:32.250]and when you think about Nebraska playing Iowa today
[00:01:35.436]and all the people who have driven here,
[00:01:38.430]either this morning or last night after their nap, (laughs)
[00:01:42.420]who perhaps will be here for the weekend,
[00:01:43.943]who are shopping at our stores,
[00:01:47.100]who are staying at our hotels, who are buying gas and ice
[00:01:49.852]from our convenience locations across the city.
[00:01:54.780]It's another example of the economic impact
[00:01:57.960]that the university brings to the community.
[00:02:00.780]I know that citizens appreciate that.
[00:02:03.480]I know that they value and recognize
[00:02:06.510]that there are lots of things that go on in our stadium,
[00:02:09.480]obviously the football game,
[00:02:11.940]but there are other contributories
[00:02:13.388]that sort of help a community grow and thrive,
[00:02:16.538]and Rivalry Weekend is right up there with them.
[00:02:20.190]The economic impact of Husker football
[00:02:22.410]fingers out across the entire community,
[00:02:24.360]and this may be a little trivia for you.
[00:02:26.340]Memorial Stadium on game days
[00:02:27.720]is the third largest city in the state of Nebraska.
[00:02:29.520]I've heard that, I've heard that said before.
[00:02:32.070]Research, we've talked about it in the past.
[00:02:33.990]Let's talk about how UNL research maybe impacts the lives
[00:02:36.671]of families and folks that are listening to us right now.
[00:02:39.267]Yeah, well, and especially when you think
[00:02:41.190]about coming on the heels of Thanksgiving,
[00:02:43.680]you know, one of the things that we take very seriously
[00:02:46.440]is making sure that Nebraskans,
[00:02:48.845]and people around the country, for that matter,
[00:02:51.990]have an appreciation for the safety and security
[00:02:55.017]of the food that they consumed yesterday
[00:02:58.590]and will consume over the course of the weekend.
[00:03:01.260]And so our researchers are working hard to make sure
[00:03:04.148]that as you prepare your meal,
[00:03:06.809]that it's being prepared in such a way
[00:03:09.021]and grown and produced and harvested in such a way
[00:03:13.500]where there's some comfort in knowing
[00:03:16.140]that there's food security.
[00:03:18.090]The other thing that we're very interested in here
[00:03:20.670]has to do with food deserts
[00:03:23.970]and just making sure that there's availability of food
[00:03:27.641]for people throughout our communities.
[00:03:30.270]As a parent, and I know other parents feel the same way,
[00:03:33.930]one of the things that we worry about the most
[00:03:36.240]is being able to feed our families.
[00:03:38.370]And when we were in the height of the pandemic
[00:03:40.770]and there was a shortage of baby formula,
[00:03:43.530]I think a lot of people realized
[00:03:44.887]who perhaps had not thought about it,
[00:03:47.130]when you're unable to meet your family's most basic needs
[00:03:51.690]of food availability, of food security,
[00:03:55.110]of the sort of the things
[00:03:56.858]that are very basic to our existence,
[00:03:58.950]it really makes a big difference in how we live our lives.
[00:04:02.340]So here at the university,
[00:04:03.750]we are equally focused on research that allows our citizens
[00:04:09.600]to have confidence in their food source,
[00:04:12.882]to have confidence in the water,
[00:04:15.570]to have food available, to have water available.
[00:04:19.020]We're doing research that helps alleviate
[00:04:22.350]food insecurities around the world
[00:04:25.440]and really just sort of thinking about this very basic need
[00:04:29.790]in ways that perhaps we have not thought about it before.
[00:04:32.640]Fantastic.
[00:04:33.473]Again, we're visiting Chancellor Bennett here
[00:04:34.830]on Countdown to Kickoff.
[00:04:36.900]You mentioned people traveling to the game.
[00:04:38.520]Thanksgiving Weekend's a big travel weekend for everybody,
[00:04:41.880]and I know here at UNL,
[00:04:43.560]we're doing some pretty good research
[00:04:44.880]to make highways safer for folks.
[00:04:46.248]Yeah. Yeah, we really are.
[00:04:47.940]Many of our listeners know
[00:04:49.140]about the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility,
[00:04:54.743]but they may not know that it's here in Nebraska
[00:04:57.660]through our Nebraska engineering
[00:05:00.090]that the Midwest guardrail system,
[00:05:03.240]which is the most widely used roadside barrier
[00:05:06.540]in the country, is a product of our research here at UNL.
[00:05:12.000]Nebraska faculty every day are hard at work
[00:05:15.270]to continually find ways to improve highway safety
[00:05:19.500]by making the roadside less hazardous for drivers,
[00:05:22.355]and when it comes to designing, developing,
[00:05:25.451]and even crash testing roadside hardware,
[00:05:30.210]we do all of that right here at the university.
[00:05:33.300]And we know that people who have taken to the roads
[00:05:35.533]to visit friends and family over the Thanksgiving weekend
[00:05:39.990]are happy that that work is being done here in Nebraska.
[00:05:44.190]So I hope that everyone driving home
[00:05:45.780]from Memorial Stadium today feels some Husker pride
[00:05:50.520]in the work that our researchers do
[00:05:52.440]to make the highways and byways safer for Nebraskans,
[00:05:56.324]wherever they may travel.
[00:05:58.260]Chance, we know all these games close,
[00:06:00.600]come down to the end of the game.
[00:06:01.890]We're kind of coming down to the end of the semester here,
[00:06:04.170]and I know the students are maybe recharging their batteries
[00:06:06.489]here this week, but when they get back,
[00:06:08.550]it's a bit of a race to the finish line of finals weekend.
[00:06:10.950]Well, it's a race to the finish line,
[00:06:12.570]and we encourage them
[00:06:13.710]to obviously enjoy their Thanksgiving break.
[00:06:16.260]You know, go home and get some
[00:06:17.550]of mom and daddy's good cooking, a good night's sleep,
[00:06:20.700]get caught up on their laundry,
[00:06:22.110]set aside some time to review those final notes for exams
[00:06:26.340]that will be forthcoming.
[00:06:28.620]We really want our students to have a positive experience
[00:06:32.097]at the University of Nebraska System
[00:06:35.322]and at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.
[00:06:38.700]Here in Lincoln, we have really started talking more
[00:06:41.249]about the university being your university for life,
[00:06:45.960]and you're gonna hear me talk more about that going forward.
[00:06:49.075]You know, sort of in some ways,
[00:06:52.500]for those of us who have children
[00:06:54.600]who bought the crib for life,
[00:06:56.490]you know, you start out with a little bassinet or the crib
[00:06:58.781]and then it turns into like, nine different things
[00:07:02.070]over the course of 10 or 12 years.
[00:07:04.800]We want our students to see this university
[00:07:08.580]as an integral part of their life,
[00:07:11.100]and so doing well on exams this semester,
[00:07:14.880]getting some rest over Christmas and the winter break,
[00:07:17.760]coming back for the spring semester,
[00:07:20.100]and progressing towards graduation on time
[00:07:23.100]is a very important part of student success for UNL.
[00:07:26.730]Very well put.
[00:07:27.563]Always good to see you.
[00:07:28.410]Enjoy the game today.
[00:07:29.580]Happy belated Thanksgiving, you and your family,
[00:07:31.560]and let's go get a win and get bowl eligible today.
[00:07:33.743]But thank you, Greg,
[00:07:35.400]and happy Thanksgiving weekend to you as well.
[00:07:37.680]Chancellor Bennett with us here on Countdown to Kickoff.
[00:07:39.870]Matt Coatney's back with a blitz, coming up next.

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Football vs. Iowa

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