By Zac Ellis

The biggest star of college football’s spring practice was Jack Hoffman, the seven-year-old Nebraska fan battling pediatric brain cancer. The Cornhuskers inserted Hoffman into their spring game on April 6, engineering a play for the youngster to run in a 69-yard touchdown. The video of Hoffman’s play (above) currently has more than seven million views on YouTube.

But the ride isn’t over for Hoffman just yet. HuskerInsider.com reports that Hoffman and his parents, Andy and Brianna Hoffman, accepted an invitation to visit the White House and meet President Barack Obama. The family was set to visit with the president on Monday.

Hoffman befriended former Husker running back Rex Burkhead last year while battling brain cancer, and the Nebraska player helped spearhead the “Team Jack” program, which raised awareness of the disease to help find a cure. Burkhead was drafted by the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals over the weekend.

Michigan led the nation last season by averaging 112,252 fans per home game. (Scott W. Grau/Icon SMI)

By Zac Ellis

Michigan’s home-field advantage was the best in college football in 2012, according to at least one list of rankings. Michigan Stadium, also known as “The Big House,” topped StadiumJourney.com’s rundown of the best college stadiums from last season. The Wolverines led the nation in average attendance with an astounding 112,252 fans per game while finishing 6-0 and outscoring visiting opponents 231-96 at home.

The outlet determined its rankings based on several factors, including a team’s win/loss record, average attendance, attendance as a percentage of capacity and points scored/allowed at home. Florida’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium finished second, while Ohio State’s Ohio Stadium, Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium and South Carolina’s Williams-Brice Stadium rounded out the top five.

You can find the complete rankings here, but here is the rest of the top 10:

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Upper Deck will release a Jack Hoffman ‘Star Rookie’ trading card. (Upper Deck)

By Zac Ellis

Spring football just keeps getting better for young Jack Hoffman, the seven-year-old Nebraska fan battling brain cancer who scored a touchdown in the Cornhuskers’ spring game earlier this month. Upper Deck announced on Tuesday that it will release a special “Star Rookie” trading card in honor of Hoffman, on which he is listed as Nebraska running back No. 22.

“Jack is the type of inspirational athlete who absolutely deserves an Upper Deck rookie card,” Chris Carlin, Upper Deck’s sports marketing manager, said on the company’s Facebook page. “Upper Deck does not want to risk Jack’s amateur status with the NCAA so the card we created will not be part of a mainstream trading card release. Jack had a larger than life moment on the field that day for Nebraska which is why Upper Deck is creating a limited number of promotional blow-up rookie cards for Jack to sign and use for charitable purposes. Upper Deck is proud to play a small role increasing awareness in Jack’s cause and we are excited to be a part of ‘Team Jack!’”

Upper Deck will release information on the bidding process for Hoffman’s cards at a later date.

Nebraska welcomed Hoffman into its program in 2011, not long after he was diagnosed with pediatric brain cancer. Running back Rex Burkhead befriended the youngster, eventually spearheading a “Team Jack” campaign which raises money to fight Hoffman’s condition.

Braylon Heard, who rushed for 348 yards last season, is leaving Nebraska for Kentucky. (Eric Francis/Getty Images)

By Zac Ellis

Nebraska running back Braylon Heard is transferring to Kentucky, ESPN’s Joe Schad reports. Heard rushed for 348 yards last season with the Huskers after rushing for 113 yards during his freshman campaign.

Heard was rumored to be considering a transfer closer to his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, where he starred at Cardinal Mooney High. That happens to be the same high school new Kentucky coach Mark Stoops attended. Heard reportedly also considered transferring to Pittsburgh.

Nebraska’s apparent depth at running back might have played into Heard’s decision to land with another program. The Huskers lost standout running back Rex Burkhead, but they return Ameer Abdullah, who will only be a junior this fall after leading Nebraska with 226 carries and 1,137 rushing yards last season. Coach Bo Pelini also has two running backs in his 2013 signing class in Terrell Newby and Adam Taylor.

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Rex Burkhead (22) befriended Jack Hoffman and welcomed him to the Nebraska family. (Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

By Zac Ellis

People are still taking about young Jack Hoffman, the seven-year-old cancer patient and Nebraska fan who ran for a 69-yard touchdown in the Huskers’ spring game last Saturday. USA Today‘s Laken Litman has a great account of Hoffman’s journey to becoming Nebraska’s inspiration. Hoffman has been battling brain cancer for nearly two years, and last year he befriended Huskers tailback Rex Burkhead, who became the youngster’s biggest fan and helped incorporate Hoffman into the Nebraska family. (Hoffman was wearing a miniature Burkhead jersey when he scored his touchdown.)

Litman’s story is worth the read, and if you haven’t seen Hoffman’s highlight, be sure to check out the video here.

By Zac Ellis

With spring practice in full swing, here’s a glance at some of the nation’s most noteworthy recent developments:

• Nebraska: The feel-good story of the week came out of Nebraska’s spring game. Seven-year-old cancer patient Jack Hoffman, a lifelong Huskers fan, took a handoff from quarterback Taylor Martinez in the waning moments of the scrimmage and scampered 69 yards to the end zone (video above). Huskers players mobbed Hoffman as more than 60,000 fans cheered for the youngster, who befriended running back Rex Burkhead last year while battling brain cancer. What was Hoffman thinking as he took the field? In his words: “Scoring a touchdown.”

• Florida: The Gators limped into their spring game on Saturday with a banged-up group of offensive linemen. The unit was so injury depleted (four linemen were out), in fact, that Will Muschamp changed the format from a traditional spring game to an open practice with scrimmage-type situations. But some good news came out of Gainesville: Quarterback Jeff Driskel, who is aiming to improve his decision-making in his second year as the starter, showed significant signs of development.

• Florida State: Following the departure of E.J. Manuel, the Seminoles’ quarterback situation features plenty of new faces. And while it’s looking like Clint Trickett has the slight edge to become the Seminoles’ man under center, Jacob Coker and Jameis Winston are giving Trickett a run for his money. Still, Trickett is showing the experience that comes with having played in Jimbo Fisher’s system the longest.

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For those of you unfamiliar with Bo Pelini, he makes this face a lot. (AP)

“What I watched was a mentally weak football team, a bad football team, especially on the defensive side of the football,” Husker coach Bo Pelini said. “Call it what it is. We have a long, long, long way to go.”

Bo Pelini is not talking about Nebraska’s performance in the Capital One Bowl here, but rather the Huskers’ showing at this weekend’s spring practice. As you might imagine, Pelini had some additional thoughts to share with the Journal Star:

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Will the Hawkeyes break their seven-point streak in the 2013 Hy-Vee Heroes Game? Probably not, right? (AP)

Huskers and Hawkeyes of anti-shopping bents, rejoice and get ready to deploy the perfect excuse to skip the post-Thanksgiving family outing to the Galleria and do all your early Christmas shopping online. The Hy-Vee Heroes Game, a renewed annual football clash between Nebraska and Iowa, will continue to be staged on Black Friday for the rest of recorded time, or until the next round of conference realignment separates the two schools, whichever comes first.

The contest took place on the Friday after Thanksgiving in each of the past two seasons, but it had previously been scheduled as a Saturday game in 2013. The Cornhuskers have won each of the past two games in the resurrected series, by respectable Big Ten margins of 20-7 and 13-7, but no matter which squad triumphs in 2013, the work of the novelty T-shirt makers is already done. Who you got: BLACKSHIRTS FRIDAY or BLACK (AND GOLD) FRIDAY?

Seriously, what is it about Lil’ Red? Get seven people in your home or office to watch this video and your dreams will be safe tonight. Maybe?

In the dystopian future of the Big East, BBVA Compass Bowl trophies will be a highly valued currency. (AP)

• “Group of five” still just sounds so ominous. Jeremy Fowler reports on the coalescing system the Big East, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt are working on to distribute playoff revenue from the new postseason system:

In this proposed system, more than half the group’s roughly $86-million playoff pot would be distributed among the Big East, Mountain West, Mid-American Conference, Conference USA and Sun Belt as guaranteed base shares, according to a source with direct knowledge of the discussions. The source expects those shares to be evenly split, but added discussions are ongoing. The second tier pays out based on a conference’s body of work — the top conference gets the highest amount, then “X” amount for the next-rated conference, and on down. The third tier pays a kicker to the conference with the highest-ranked team, which is guaranteed an access bowl bid or, if among the top-four teams in the country, a semifinal berth in the playoff.

• Harbros’ early broing days. Check out Dan Wetzel’s tale of relatively wee Harbaughs recruiting youngsters to their dad’s team at Western Kentucky, including an appearance by one Willie Taggart.

• Exactly how you would’ve guessed. Former Miami Hurricanes make up the biggest slice of Super Bowl roster pie charts, but two of the next five teams on that list are … Marshall and Utah? Marshall and Utah! Go ThunderUtes!

• From the no-jokes department. Compelling story via OTL on UCLA researchers and evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in living football players.

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