Latest / Return to Glory - Nebraska / Episode 5.22: Sell the Team, Blow Up the Stadium -- Michigan Recap

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Episode 5.22: Sell the Team, Blow Up the Stadium -- Michigan Recap · Return to Glory - Nebraska

0:03
Return to Glory podcast Hunters are a pridiculing here with the go to free take
0:07
no offense to get this thought we were gonna get a quill from minute.
0:10
We did not Michigan. I don't even know if the pot a little,
0:18
we would not get shut out. Loud cheer for the late touchdown by Josh
0:24
Fleaks up the middle. That's all we're really happy for right now. Dak.
0:30
Yeah, I thought the game I might offense something like that. Your
0:34
defense didn't look anywhere near what I thought it would. Michigan just moved up
0:38
and down the field on you guys, and I think it was mostly their
0:41
offensive line they just dominated. I mean, yeah, I would absolutely agree
0:47
with that. And the one thought is what did we expect going in?
0:52
And I think from the offense, there's not much to say. That was
0:59
about as vanilla as we thought it would be. And I'm just glad we
1:03
didn't get shut out. Defensively, they ended up scoring. I think the
1:07
way they scored early on was the disappointing part. And hoping that our rush
1:12
defense stats were actually true and not false stats, but I'm not saying they
1:21
were completely false, but they did just run it down our throats. They
1:23
were the more physical team, they had the better skill player talent positions,
1:29
and it showed early on. Yeah, and JJ McCarthy looked a lat better
1:34
than I thought. I was saying, a leaky sucks. I still still
1:38
think he sucks. I think his wide receiver just made damn good catches.
1:42
But yeah, I don't your defense, yeah defense, than that looked great.
1:49
That's all I thought. I thought, they keep it a lot closer.
1:55
Let me go on my little rant here. We forgot to do it
1:57
last because I better do it my two minutes, a two minute drill of
2:00
ranting about Husker football, So might as well just get it going here.
2:07
So first off, we just thought big picture, let's dig in a little
2:13
bit deeper to just one specific play of this game. Our first drive,
2:17
Michigan goes down and scores. We get the fall. Second play, we
2:22
go five wide, the fall gets tipped up in the air off alignment,
2:29
Michigan right underneath it, picks it off. They go down to score agin
2:34
touchdown. Who's fault is that? And I'm asking this rhetorically, whose fault
2:38
is that interception? I thought about that during the game. Is it is
2:43
it? Harvard's fault for throwing the pass. He does store kind of side
2:46
arms. So maybe if the lineman's fault for not creating a gap for a
2:51
slant, was the slant ran too close to the lineman? Why are we
2:55
running the play to begin with? Is it the offensive coordinator's fault? Is
2:58
it the head coach's fault? But here's the deal, everyone, that play
3:04
happened so few times in a football game, college pro any I mean,
3:10
that play barely ever happens, but it happens to us against the number two
3:14
teams in the country. So not pointing fingers here to blame. But for
3:17
some reason, here we go another play that not saying we even had a
3:22
chance in that game apps into that play. No, we probably outcome would
3:24
remain the same. But it's stuff like that that cannot happen for us to
3:29
beat the rest of the teams in the Big Ten West. We were sloppy
3:32
once again. Anytime we had a little bit of sense of moving the ball,
3:38
there comes a false start, we drop a pass across the middle.
3:42
Defensively, we finally started to miss tackles for once, and I thought,
3:46
over the last four or five weeks, tackling has got worse each time.
3:51
So those are the things that we're going to need to fix when we play
3:54
the rest of the Big Ten West because they're not great. We've said that
3:58
over and over and Big Ten Western and great, but we're not either.
4:02
And with seven games left nur schedule, with some winnable games, they're still
4:06
we have to figure that crap out, all right, I think that's two
4:10
minutes close enough. Thoughts on the rant, Yeah, they looked they like
4:18
sloppy. I thought, I thought you're passing game did not look terrible.
4:25
You're moving the ball a little bit passing, which I thought coming in there
4:27
was zero shot you could pass the ball at all. I thought. I
4:30
thought Camp looked pretty good. Washington had that one long pass. So those
4:39
guys are just again the offensive side of the ball. Those those two that
4:42
you just mentioned, like they're they're what we expect, right, They're just
4:46
they're they're not elite players. They're solid receivers and are able to make a
4:54
catch and pick up a first down maybe potentially here or there. I thought
4:57
Harvard had hell, I don't know, some decent plays, decent throws.
5:02
It just we still we just like we've said, we lacked the elite playmaker,
5:08
and I don't I don't know that that's going to get any better.
5:11
Jeff Simms. We've said that maybe he's the one, but we had to
5:14
see him come back at play first and see if he can get in the
5:16
rhythm. We don't even know that that's going to happen. So the offense
5:21
right now, you have to use your coaching and be creative in order to
5:28
generate some points. And we talked about that last week a little bit.
5:31
We didn't see really any of that. Now. I will also say,
5:34
I don't know we had much of a chance to do any of that because
5:36
we never were at one point in control of that game with the time of
5:41
possession or anything. Not one time did we think, oh maybe we could
5:44
maybe we can hang around here. From the first drive it was like,
5:47
well here we go. Yeah, that was just a straight up ass will
5:54
him. That's all that game was. And you can just tell how different,
5:58
how much more talent they have compared to Nebraska. Are the fans them
6:03
at about return to mediocrity or what's going on there? Maybe we might be
6:10
I did see speaking of the talent and Michigan's talent and shout out to them,
6:14
they are probably dak would where would you have them right now when you're
6:17
college football rankings. Probably I might have number one. I mean some people
6:29
might. I think Georgia's looked not impressive, but they're still winning games and
6:33
finding a way to do it. But they're they're arguably, i mean for
6:36
sure, one of the top five teams, if not one of the top
6:40
three or two. So they are credit to them, a good football team
6:44
and they play very clean, sound, physical, tough football. We,
6:48
on the other hand, while yeah, we were maybe out talented there in
6:53
a game like this. I did see an interesting tweet from I think it
6:58
was the College Football Report here, and I'll read it at least the first
7:00
part of it. This is a national unbiased media outlet, and the quote
7:05
says, listen, I'm all in on the Matt rural train. I get
7:09
he needs some time, but Nebraska is still a top twenty team on the
7:12
talent composite rankings. I know that talent rankings aren't end all be all,
7:15
but you do have to do better than trailing forty five nothing and having a
7:18
team put third and fourth stringers in midway in the third. Teams like Washington
7:23
Duke, Maryland, Utah, Florida, stay Ole miss all have lower player
7:27
average talent ranking and are doing just fine. So I get that we are
7:31
very siloed in our opinions and we talk about talent all the time, and
7:35
I don't know what this talent metric is. I don't know the details of
7:39
it. But at the same time, maybe we aren't from a talent perspective,
7:46
we should This shouldn't be happening. I mean, Michigan literally was almost
7:49
they weren't rubbing it in. I mean, Portnoy tried to like back us
7:55
up and say he feels bad for us, like I get it, and
7:58
it was almost like doing the opposite of that, because he's kind of making
8:01
fun of us for how we act, which I thought was absolutely hilarious and
8:03
I love, but it is it. There's there's maybe something there, but
8:09
we're not even close to mediocre, and we just still boo about that when
8:15
he says it. But he's spot on. And what bart Moore says is
8:18
maybe sarcastic, but all of his stuff is so goddamn Drew Like, it's
8:22
so spot on. Yeah, he I think he was just I think you're
8:28
just fucking with the Husker fans honestly, like he was all that was just
8:31
sarcastic, like he was not he was sucking with us. So but by
8:35
also saying the truth right like ye, yes, he was like speaking exactly
8:41
what is happening. But it's the stuff that and I don't know if it
8:43
was planned or I mean that that's obviously those barstool guys what they do is
8:48
such a good job of but like that message and what he was saying is
8:50
speaking the truth that Husker fans, it's the elephant in the room that they
8:54
don't want to hear it just they're like, ah, shut up, like
8:56
no, but yeah, they know it's right. They know he's not wrong.
9:03
Yeah. Yeah, that whole that whole barstool show that was That was
9:07
the highland of the day. That a lot of fun to go to.
9:09
That was pretty cool. Big cat looks a lot batter in person. Not
9:13
not gonna lie there, you does. Yeah, it was pretty I know
9:18
you listened to this. I hope that it'll offend him. I'm sure.
9:22
I'm sure he'll listen to this and take offense to that. Oh Mac Jones
9:26
just through another pick. God damn it, are you playing that one,
9:35
Bailey, Zappy even got coming in there, didn't he yep, zapped a
9:39
little bit of energy in the game. Oh yeah, that was good,
9:43
dad, that was that was really good. All right. Another topic quote
9:50
here that I thought was interesting and it relates to the big picture of Husker
9:54
football and where we're at. And after this game, I'll say it again,
10:00
what did we expect from this game? We didn't expect to win.
10:01
We had We knew we were going to lose this game for so long.
10:05
It was my least important game of the year. It doesn't really matter now
10:09
the way we lost. Maybe it does a little bit, So there's not
10:15
to me a whole lot to talk about play wise, play by play and
10:18
talk about big picture stuff. Our team is not in the same position as
10:31
Rules first year at Temple and Bailey. I'm making that statement because one thing
10:37
that I heard after this game was Rule never does it in year one,
10:43
and it takes him a year. Look at all of his first year failures
10:48
at his previous schools, like it takes him two or three years to rebuild.
10:52
If that's what you believe in that, it is totally fine. But
10:54
here's the deal. He said it himself back in April. This is this
11:01
quote Matt Rule in April, like April, middle of April. We are
11:07
we are where we were at those places other places in year two. We're
11:11
there right now. He is saying, he said this in April, that
11:16
we're not in year one like we were there. We have some pieces here
11:20
to be in year two and be moving forward. So he said to himself,
11:26
well, back backfired. O it backfired, whatever you want to call
11:30
it. That tells me. And when you talk about the patience level,
11:33
there's not much there from a lot of people, But that tells me.
11:37
These last seven games of the year, they they mean something. And Rules
11:43
set a statement down and said we're going to see what this team is made
11:46
of come Friday, which I liked because he said he's saying, all right,
11:52
Michigan game whatever. That was a very talented team. Without him saying
11:56
it, I think we all know that that's kind the team we want to
12:01
be. It a very run, heavy, physical, sound, very few
12:05
mistakes. All should start this pot up by complaining about the ref because Michigan
12:11
had zero penalties. God damn it. Refs hate us. They just screwed
12:13
us over. It wasn't for them. We would have been at least in
12:16
the game a little bit, right, Yep, yeah, they the whole
12:20
game. They just they's fucked you guys. That So all that being said,
12:30
these that that this is why these last games on our schedule are more
12:33
important than the first few, because it's going to be telling what rule can
12:39
do in a in a year long season with this coordinators that he brought on,
12:43
with this quarterback that he or his staff handpicked to come in and has
12:50
been hurt. We'll chock it up to injury whatever. Maybe we don't want
12:54
to see him. Some people don't. I don't know that either, But
12:56
Dak, you were wrong. Heinrich started, we did not beat Yeah.
13:01
Back when I said that, I didn't think you'd be starting that game,
13:05
like, you know what, He's probably gonna start, so I'll be good
13:07
here. And then I drank your goddamn kool aid going in still on Saturday,
13:13
I said, yeah, they're gonna win this game. Boy, not
13:16
even close the first drive, Like you guys said, you guys be able
13:20
to tell it was gonna be blow out. First drive. You could just
13:22
tell right away this is not gonna be good. But what do you think?
13:26
So our defense comes out with this, you know, top five rushing
13:31
statistical defense in the country, and Michigan put together. I don't know the
13:35
exact number of plays, but it was a ten to fourteen play seventy five
13:39
yard drive straight down for a touchdown, and a lot of those were on
13:43
for six yard gruns, seven yard runs, a dumped down for five yards,
13:46
and then the miraculous catch on the back of a helmet to cap off
13:50
the drive. Like after that drive, like you said, it was like
13:56
oh shit, like, yep, we're not We're not going to be in
13:58
the state. Yeah, and they made that was that third down on that
14:05
touchdown or was it that second down when they he made that catch, But
14:09
I think that huh what I just said, you said that anyway, that
14:16
was a hell of a catch. That's okay. So yeah, they even
14:24
even after that though, like that second drive, that pick that pickie through,
14:31
you knew that that had had a lot to do with their line too,
14:35
because they were up in his face and they they put their hands up
14:39
and tipped it and that's they're just bigger and stronger. That's basically what happened
14:43
the whole game. Yes, and then we had our second drive there was
14:48
fourteen nothing. We actually put together a few decent plays, a couple of
14:52
completions across the middle. We get down, it's fourth and one. We
14:54
go heavy set, but we're in the shotgun. Hab gets that, follows
15:00
it up and can't get a yard jumps which rules said he shouldn't have jumped,
15:07
and we and we don't get the first down. We should have been
15:09
under center. There's no question on that. Like you said, you hate
15:11
it it. I still don't understand why everybody doesn't do that. The the
15:16
Eagles just but pushed. I just don't understand why teams don't do that.
15:22
That should be illegal. They changed that rule a few years ago to make
15:26
it legal. No, that's definitely be illegal. I hate the Eagle anyway.
15:33
It just it does doesn't make sense to me. But whatever, that
15:35
was our sense of like, okay, maybe we can keep it close,
15:37
but then no, and then obviously it's twenty one nothing late first quarter and
15:41
fans started to leave and the stadium emptied out. I don't blame in any
15:48
of any of the fans for leaving. I really don't. In a game
15:52
like that, like here's here's I guess moving to that piece of it here.
16:00
There's a lot of talk from Thursday. We did our last pot on
16:03
Wednesday, so Thursday on we got all the stadium renovation. So stuff that
16:08
got announced was the capacity is getting reduced ten to fifteen thousand, the South
16:14
Stadium is becoming like the student life. The North Stadium is getting renovated.
16:18
You gonna merge in with the new training facility. There's gonna be seatbacks on
16:23
basically all of the state all of the seats, but the North Stadium full
16:30
concourse, you're gonna be able to walk through the whole thing stadium all around
16:33
it. I don't know, probably missing a few things, but anyways,
16:37
biggest thing is a capacity. What are your thoughts on reducing the stadium's capacity
16:41
by ten to fifteen thousand. I don't know. I don't know if I
16:49
like that. That's a lot of fifteen thousand people can make a lot of
16:53
noise. That's a lot of noise you're losing. What does what does oh
16:56
you do? What's their path? It's like low nineties, Okay, so
17:03
it's it's it's like Memorial Stadium. Actually the same name too, so the
17:07
same place. But yeah, I don't usually in renovate you do it to
17:14
add seats, not take away seats. So I don't I've never heard that
17:18
before. But and you know what the worst part is about this renovation there,
17:22
take away the troughs. It's it's gonna take forever to piss. Those
17:27
are the best you can do. You can do two one of dudes right
17:30
next to each other's pissing, having a good time. Now now you gotta
17:33
wait in line, do solo? Have you got some good ideas for some
17:37
watches? Some what some watches? Watches? Yeah? Like like what have
17:45
you got some good ideas and watches in those troughs? Oh? No,
17:49
no, no, I if you're pitched shy, they're not fun. But
17:56
it's it's amazing. You can just go up there, you can pee.
17:59
Get out there now now now I'm probably gonna pick my pants. I don't
18:03
have time to wait. You've never done that before. Nope, Well,
18:11
I think the stadium. Here's my thoughts on the renovations. There clearly is
18:15
a hidden message and it will never get said that it's to help maintain the
18:21
sellout streak if things don't go well. And we've been saying it here for
18:25
a few years now, Like as the average age of Memorial Stadium gets older,
18:30
or I shouldn't say that the crowd, but the donors specifically the ones
18:34
that are paying a lot of money to go to the games. As I
18:37
gets older, the younger generation that they're not gonna they're not gonna be paying
18:41
a whole bunch of extra money to go to these games and continue what the
18:47
older generation is doing. So they're lowering the capacity. I think to help
18:52
that, and that's never going to get said, but that it's a very
18:55
large reason behind it. Now. I will say this with our fans night
19:00
kind of realize this and talking with people, but over the last few games
19:04
going to them and even the last couple of years too, here's what's funny.
19:08
You talk about noise and crowd noise, Dak, I want to,
19:12
I like, seriously think about this. The students section makes noise and regardless
19:18
of how much football or non football that the student section knows, they're gonna
19:23
be loud, they're gonna be crazy. Now you gotta find a way to
19:26
keep them there the whole game, I think, I mean the game like
19:30
this maybe but alcohol, I thinks one, but keeping you know, filling
19:33
the student section up and we haven't usually had a problem with that. Last
19:37
year there were a couple of games we didn't get it filled. But once
19:40
you get them there, then you gotta keep them there. They're gonna be
19:41
loud, they're gonna be crazy. It's gonna help the noise in the atmosphere.
19:47
The second piece of that when it comes to stadium noise and environment is
19:52
the other eighty seventy five to eighty percent of the stadium that's not students.
19:56
Here's my just natural observation of the people that go to the games. You
20:03
have really old people that have been fans for a long time that still go.
20:08
They're not making any noise, all right. You have the kool aid
20:15
drinker fans that are just get drunk and are they're just a party if it,
20:22
don't really care about the game, but they're just so passionate Husker fans
20:25
because they call them that, but they just go all out. You have
20:27
those people. You have people that are like just there to bring their kids
20:33
and family and don't know Jack's shit about football. And I would say that
20:37
fills up half the stadiument. I mean people that legit don't they don't have
20:41
a goddamn clue what a fair catch on a punt means. They don't know
20:45
what that is like that that fills half the stadium, it really does.
20:48
And those people are cheering, they are they are blindly cheering for games they
20:52
are Then I would say there's about twenty percent of the stadium And I would
20:56
put myself into this category that we understand football enough. We're not experts,
21:02
we don't know everything about it, but we understand it enough. We also
21:04
know that Husker football is not very good. We go to games like this,
21:08
We go to games like Northern Illinois and Lawtech where there's no reason to
21:12
cheer. I have no reason to start yelling at the top of my lungs
21:17
and supporting the team. And does that make me a bad fan? Maybe?
21:19
But I would say twenty percent of the people in the stadium are the
21:23
ones that have been just so disappointed and are just defeated from Husker football.
21:29
To where do we go to the games? Yeah? But why do we
21:32
go to Well, I guess just to still support and be around and see
21:34
the atmosphere. But we're not the ones cheering. The ones that are cheering
21:38
are the ones that know nothing about football. So I guess if you want
21:42
to here's the problem. When you go to a game like that, half
21:47
the stadiums filled with just people yelling because they don't know what else to do
21:51
and they don't know anything about football. That's not the fans you want yelling.
21:53
You want to produce a product on the field and also produce a stadium
21:57
environment that get that twenty percent, make that twenty percent, you're fifty percent,
22:02
you're seventy percent. Make people like me want to cheer. And that's
22:06
not gonna come by all these bells and whistles at the game. You gotta
22:08
produce something on the field for people like me to go. All right,
22:11
I want to screen on a fucking third and six because I really want to
22:14
get a stop right now. I'm like, all right, great now.
22:17
Two years ago Michigan, that was one of the more fun games I had
22:21
in twenty twenty one, fun and funder and should have one, not those
22:26
that that game was fun. So there are some games like that, but
22:29
but generally speaking this year so far, all three games, I can't say
22:33
I'd be hell at one time like there has not been a reason to do
22:36
that. And yeah, maybe that makes me a bad fan. Maybe I
22:40
shouldn't be going to the games. I don't know, but if you're one
22:44
of the fans that don't go to the games at all, then I don't
22:45
want to be hearing it from you because you're not even going to them.
22:48
So going to the games better than not going to the game in my mind,
22:52
if you're gonna be a fan. But the people that are cheering at
22:56
the games and making the noise art, like I said, they're the idiots.
22:59
They're the ones literally don't know anything about football. So what the stadium
23:03
is gonna be doing, hopefully, I hope it's hopefully cutting back those fans
23:10
and people like myself and others that are still gonna pay money to go to
23:15
the games, hopefully make that personage a hire proportion and therefore draw whatever success
23:23
we can get out of the football team to make the stadium still loud and
23:30
an environment that's still intimidating to play at. Now, seventy thousands still gonna
23:33
be fluenty to have a loud stadium. If it's below that, like fifty
23:37
thousand, then maybe not. But anyways, that's been my whole thought about
23:41
the stadium stuff since Thursday, because it is I think there's a lot of
23:45
a lot of talk around it because there wasn't a whole lot to talk about
23:48
this football game. And that's just my opinions on it. How fast is
23:53
that students section clear out on Saturday? Very fast? Yeah? Well,
24:00
the thing is you're making these fans. These fans paid this money, like
24:06
you said about stopping coming, they paid this money. And how long do
24:08
you think you're entertained to that game? Ten minutes? Yeah, if you
24:14
were at all, because you saw the ton of walk, you saw everything
24:17
already, you're not there to see that, right. But yeah, so
24:22
let's say fifteen twenty minutes at max you were entertained and he paid fifty dollars
24:27
probably a ticket average, I'd say, maybe more so. Yeah, and
24:33
if you go up your first time, you're like, fuck that, I
24:34
ain't going back to that. And again, the entertainment that you're talking about
24:41
that comes from a lot of different things. And Trev said it when you
24:45
talked about the stadium, and maybe it was Trev, maybe it was somebody
24:49
else. It needs to be more like a carnival or Taylor Swift concert.
24:52
Every game like that is what entertains that fifty percent of the stadium that I
24:59
was talking about that knows nothing about football. They want to see all of
25:02
that extra crap. But for the fans that are actually going to donate the
25:06
money to get good seats year after year, those are going to be your
25:10
football die hards that want to see a product on the field win fucking football
25:14
games. That is what's going to get you the money. So, yeah,
25:18
you can make all these fireworks shows and light shows at the end of
25:21
the third quarter, which have been very good, don't get me wrong,
25:23
but those that stuff needs to be a byproduct of what's on the football field.
25:29
And I would love if Austin was on this because we've got into this
25:33
before about this topic. But you need to produce and win games on the
25:38
field. That's what matters, and we're not doing that still yet so far.
25:45
With rule maybe we can, but we haven't yet. Yeah, it's
25:51
gonna you might still make a bowl game this year, I don't know,
25:56
but it's not going to be your most stellar sickness season ever if you do,
26:02
like you play a live sheep teams left, So I wouldn't say it's
26:03
gonna be a great year. Maybe next year's a year though, you know,
26:07
the off season they'll be saying it. They wrass me back. Oh,
26:11
we'll be the national chance once again. Yeah season, So Dak,
26:18
let me ask you this. You're not an Oscar fan, You're an o
26:22
You fan. You got a big Ou Texas game coming up. You just
26:26
had to mention that we will be having a special guest coming on Wednesday to
26:32
do a little preview of the red River red River rivalry. But you're shoot
26:38
out shoot out, you can't call it that anymore. I won't hold you
26:45
back. What if we aren't winning games in Nebraska this year? So right
26:52
now we're two and three. You want to talk about level setting expectations.
26:56
We'll do that again after we get halfway through the season. But we're two
26:59
and three. We know the games that have happened so far. We also
27:02
know what the rest of the teams in our schedule have done so far,
27:06
which has been below what we've expected. We need to win football games.
27:11
That is a true statement. Like for anything to go in the right direction,
27:15
we need to win games. That's very tough and look good doing it.
27:21
I would even say we don't need to need to look good, we
27:22
just need to win. At this point. Yeah, I mean, I
27:26
guess Northern Illinois and law Tech. Like the people were saying, how maybe
27:32
we didn't they weren't good to wins. Our wins will win at this point,
27:34
I think against Illinois, which the line came out, we're three three
27:38
four point dogs. See I'm I'm worried about but being Oklahoma, I want
27:47
them to look good to win. You guys just need wins, like we're
27:49
saying. Yeah. So we keep saying all this time, even with Frost
27:56
back, you know, we need to win games. We need to find
28:00
the way to win games. We need to win games. Yeah we do.
28:03
We can say that all we want, like we do. First question
28:07
is how how do we do it? How we you can? You can
28:11
find a billion reasons. Everybody's got their own opinion on how to win games.
28:15
All right after when you fire Frost, Okay, we need to hire
28:18
a good coach. That's the first step to the how Okay, we've hired
28:21
a rule, wasn't he a good coach? Hire? I don't know.
28:23
We're still figuring that out. So to win football games. These last seven
28:29
games in our schedule, we will see how good this staff is of adjusting
28:33
and getting better throughout the course of the season. Our offense right now has
28:40
not looked any different from the first game. It's not been good. Our
28:45
defense started off strong. I think we led it, led the inca and
28:52
sacks through two games maybe three games, and last two games we've gotten zero.
28:56
So as we go throughout the year, we have to continue to be
29:00
creative. I think now teams are getting filmed on our defense those blitz packages
29:04
in the first couple of games that maybe we're working and being creative. We
29:08
haven't seen that work. So we have to continue to adjust, figure out
29:14
how we can be even more creative. And on offense, we got it.
29:18
We have to be creative in the style that we're playing. That that's
29:21
not saying go five wide and throw up. That's saying when we're running the
29:25
ball and when we're trying to do that, we know what we got,
29:29
we know the car, the hand we got dealt. How do we be
29:30
creative in moving the ball And that might mean scoring fourteen or seventeen points like
29:37
that might be all we have to do to be Illinois and Purdue in Michigan
29:41
State and Iowa, like Iowa's QB went down, like yeah, I'd sign
29:48
my towards dco he might have. So again, all these games, like,
29:52
we have to find a way to win. Now, how's the how's
29:55
the answer or how is the question we want to answer? Here's the question
29:59
I want oppose you, dak or what do we do if we can't win?
30:03
What do we do? That's tough question. I don't Oh, you
30:15
you've done everything you can do to try to win your fire coaches. You
30:18
can't get fireing coaches, so so you can't do that. I don't know.
30:25
Maybe maybe sell the team, bow up the stadium and just well not
30:30
not sell the team because they're not they're not owned. But anyway, yeah,
30:37
blow stadium up, called good allyball school. That is that? That's
30:41
that was kind of my thought was like, Okay, if we don't win
30:45
this year in a year that the Big ten West slots and say what you
30:49
want year one of rule go all the way full circle back to that.
30:53
But Rule said, we're in year two, and we said that apparently we
30:59
do have talent according to this talent composite rankings to win these games, and
31:03
we are going to see what we're made of. But if we don't win,
31:08
can we fire a rule? You know? It's I know we're like
31:14
overreacting to getting beat by Michigan here, but I do want people to think
31:18
about this as we get down the second half of our season. What do
31:22
we do if we can't win with Rule? Like, what do we do?
31:25
Do we wait around three more years? Do we do we just still
31:29
trust that it might work out? Like maybe maybe that's probably the safe answer,
31:33
I guess, But there's not a whole lot we can do right now.
31:37
I mean, we're just still not winning games. And the one thing
31:41
that the staff needs to do that they quote unquote to me, they promised,
31:45
like I take it as a promise or they're bound by it. Rule
31:48
talks about clean football, He talks about being sharp, he talks about not
31:52
turning the ball over. Those things. I love when he said it,
31:56
But right now we have not seen that on the field. We've seen the
31:59
op said of that. So saying those things is one thing as a staff,
32:04
you better now deliver on that. And I'm talking about a lot of
32:07
that stuff. I said, my ranch, it's your false start, it's
32:09
your drop pass, it's it's your mistackles, misalignments, it's all of those
32:15
things that add up and cost you games in the Big ten West. We
32:22
had another snap today that will snap three feet to the left, Harvard couldn't
32:25
quite catch it. We lose eight yards in the play because we just can't
32:30
snap ball and do an exchange. Like, those things are what we need
32:32
fixed. Don't tell me that as anything can do with talent. That is
32:36
just like being sharp and crisp and practicing the right way, that's how those
32:39
things get fixed. Yeah, am I wrong on that? Like to me,
32:45
those things don't require talent to do. Having a false start, Like
32:50
if you are in Division one football, if you're playing college football, if
32:52
you were good enough to come out of high school, that means you were
32:54
probably a better player on your team in high school. You should not be
32:58
fucking false starting on a crucial third or four the fourth down when we need
33:02
TUI should not be happening on a well disciplined football team. Yeah, I
33:07
know that's exactly right, because those what kills you in most games is the
33:14
penalties and turnovers, just dumb, dumb super stuff. That's how you lose
33:16
games. It doesn't matter how talented you are, Like you're saying, it's
33:22
more important to be a smart football team than is talented. I think especially
33:27
at this point where we're at it. We don't. We don't have to
33:30
come out and just tear down walls and be world beaters of athletes out there.
33:37
Not yet. I think in the future if we can start winning some
33:42
close games. All these other Big ten West teams, that's how they've won
33:45
six games every year and got got go to Bowl games, you know,
33:49
every other year six seven wins. Sometimes they're at four or five. You
33:52
know, they float around that all these teams that were we keep mentioning over
33:55
and over. That's what those teams do. That's how they win these games.
33:59
We obviously have not done that. We haven't been to a bowl game
34:01
in however many years. We can't. We have to get to that point
34:04
first, to where we're just playing clean, smart, disciplined football and not
34:09
lose, like not lose the game instead of the flip side winning the game
34:15
like we are losing games. So the first step is to beat some of
34:19
these teams. And it starts Friday, it does. It starts Friday of
34:23
the team that is not very talented from what their scores have shown. I
34:28
know nothing about them yet, but they don't look like they've been doing anything
34:31
miraculous out there against these other teams they played against and put together a clean
34:36
football game and get a win against a team that's better than Northern Illinois and
34:39
Low Tech, but probably another Minnesota like team very similar. Find The good
34:49
part is that the West the West is the last year of it. So
34:52
there you go. I think I think it's two years from now or something
34:55
like that. In the year USC, UCLA, Michigan and Ohio State.
35:00
I think he's like your four or five last games. Yeah, you gotta
35:05
get it now, you gotta get it this year. It's it's for that
35:07
year's sake. We have to show something this year because that year maybe we
35:14
can compete in those games. But you're not gonna be favored to win in
35:16
those games unless something for those schools just miraculously kills them. Like we're not
35:24
gonna be in those games. So with that schedule, if they don't make
35:29
a ball game, that team still might be pretty good. That's that.
35:31
That's probably of the worst schedules I've ever saw, and it's brutal. And
35:36
if if that's gonna be your your measuring stick for coach rule in year three,
35:40
against that schedule, then you better be at least competing in those games,
35:45
because it might be tough to get to a ball game if not,
35:46
you know, with that being your schedule. So that year three's a lot
35:51
of times I think people's all right, what do we got here for a
35:54
coach that you hired long term? If you go this year and you win
35:59
four games this year, three or four games, that's probably not gonna look
36:04
good when you get to that time. Now, if you get to six
36:06
game, six wins, and then year three you only get six wins or
36:08
five wins because of the tough schedule, it looks probably a little bit better.
36:13
But that's why these these seven games matter so much now. And then
36:16
next year's schedule you can look at that and go, okay, like it's
36:20
not bad. It's not. It's probably a little more difficult than this year,
36:23
but it's definitely nothing like two years from now. So for that,
36:28
for rural sake, I think he knows that. That's probably why he's making
36:31
this Friday a big game, like he knows it's now or never already in
36:36
game six of his ten year at Nebraska, because year three is not gonna
36:39
be good, even if we are back to a bowl win type caliber team
36:44
at six wins, those games are gonna be a bitch. We're probably not
36:46
gonna win. So now is the time to show that we can win close
36:50
games against less than average Power five schools, which we are one right now.
36:55
So let's find a way to be better than the bottom quarter and start
37:00
moving up a little bit in that sense. Yeah, it'll be You said
37:08
Nebraska is not favored this week? No, well, okay, well that's
37:14
I'm yep. Some money's going there to me. Illinois in Nebraska on a
37:21
neutral site right now? Who who the fuck knows? Who's gonna like?
37:27
Who do you want to bet on? I don't know, Like both teams.
37:29
I think I think Nebraska is better Illinois. Illinois's getting those points though,
37:34
because they're at home. In my mind, Yeah, that's well,
37:36
that's so it's basically even because it isn't it? Three points usually correct,
37:39
That's what it's about. Usually three points as a home point advantage there,
37:44
That's what I'm saying. You put them on a neutral field, It's like,
37:45
who the hell do you want to bet on this game? I don't
37:47
know. Yeah, they's got their doors blowing off Saturday. If I produce,
37:52
I don't this. This is a big game. Like you said,
37:57
you gotta win this. It's huge. We all talk more about it on
38:00
Wednesday. Your birth thoughts about Brett Biela mus fighting, Ah and I.
38:06
Until then, go big Read Boomber senor I love that burnt orange dude,