Latest / Return to Glory - Nebraska / Episode 23 | Ohio - The Day Before

Transcript

Episode 23 | Ohio - The Day Before · Return to Glory - Nebraska

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Go big red.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: The takes the numbers the chaos hunter austin deck talking
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: corn husker football basketball and everything nebraska sports.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: Welcome to the return to glory podcast.
• 0:21
  Speaker 4: Hey happy friday return to glory podcast hunter zarbernicki Here
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: with Dakota Freetag, who decided he felt better today to
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: join us to give us his Ohio preview.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I am back. Back? Back after a great night. Okay.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: Too big and a huge upset of the year, maybe,
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: last night in college football.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Rutgers losing to UMass. What an upset. Yeah.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I don't think anybody expected that.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, seriously, seriously, that probably will be the episode
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: of the year. Like not many times, not many times
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: three point favorite loses.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: About Colorado scoring at the end to take down Georgia
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: tech here to cap off our Thursday night football. I
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: will say it was just, it was, it was fun
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: to have football on. Um, and, Again, there's storylines coming
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: out of those games from not even good games that
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: were on Thursday.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you go on that schedule, you're like, you're thinking, oh,
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: this is going to be a crappy week, which this
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: kind of ties into Saturday. Everyone thinks there's not very
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: many good games that day. Stuff like Rutgers happens. It
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: usually turns out to be a good, when there's no
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: good games, there's some big upsets that happen.
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: So every Friday here on the podcast, sometimes it'll be
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: me or Maybe Austin or Dak will join. We might
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: have a guest on. The day before, we will be
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: going through some of our additional keys or things that
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: we're wanting to see, being a little more specific than
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: our Thursday full preview episode. So, as we all know,
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: we are one day out from the first game of
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: the 2026 season. And the offseason is finally over. Dak,
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: I'll ask you first. did we win an off season
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: national title this year?
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: Um, I, I think it's actually been a great off season.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: No noise is better than what it normally is. Like
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: everyone drinking the Kool-Aid all pumped up. This is, I
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: think this is going to bode well for it because
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: no one has at least a lot of Husker fans
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: thinking I'm talking to everyone.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: So down on this year, I think they're going to
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: surprise a lot of people. So, I think yes.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: So in your definition, yes. I guess the general definition
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: is the offensive natty title, is the Kool-Aid, is the hype,
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: the excitement, thinking that we're going to win way more
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: games than we think in general. And so, I mean,
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: my first thought and take on it is I don't
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: know that I would say to the general public, no,
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: we didn't. This might be the first time we didn't.
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: But to your point... I think that might be a
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: good thing. So tomorrow, we get to see what quarterback
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: Anthony Calandria looks like, our new defensive coordinator and defensive scheme.
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: So what we're going to do is talk about five
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: things in general. It doesn't have to be exactly five,
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: but things that we want to see specifically tomorrow when
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: we take the field against Ohio. And We went through Ohio,
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: what they got yesterday, the key things that their scheme,
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: we're not sure if they're going to get a 4-2-5
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: or a 3-3-5 look. They bring in a running quarterback.
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: They obviously beat Anthony Calandra in their last game of
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: the season. So, Dak, what's one thing that you're wanting
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: to see come game time tomorrow at 11 a.m.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: This offensive line just needs to dominate this D-line, especially
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: because that is one thing we heard a lot this
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: offseason is how great the O-line is.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Let's see it. I would.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: Prefer, okay, two or less sacks is a loss for
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: the game, I'd say, or two or more sacks is
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: a loss for the game for the offensive line, I think. Nope,
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: not very many sacks. Protect Anthony Calandria and get the
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: freaking run game going.
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: And I'll add to this too. I think against any
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: of these earlier opponents this year, and this is just
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: generally speaking for teams that play from a Power 5 conference, well,
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: not Rutgers, but you want to look dominant up front
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: relative to the other team. And yes, there are some
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: good teams. And I think Ohio is a decent MAAC
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: team as well. So this may not happen. But you're right.
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: If our offensive line is supposed to be better, and
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: this is the best offensive line that we've had under
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: Coach Rule, then we should see that tomorrow. And on
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: the flip side, the thing that I'm watching, just staying
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: with the line of scrimmage, the defensive line has been
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: the biggest concern or question mark of the offseason and
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: what we have there. So I'm curious on that side
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: is what does our push look like and pressure, specifically
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: on passing plays, from our defensive line. And that, to me,
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: is the number one thing that I'm watching and wanting
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: to see, obviously, is a good pass rush and I'm
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: not going to call it a dominant defensive line because
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: I don't think we're expecting a dominant defensive line, but
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: I think we want to see some success against Ohio Again,
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: who's a decent Mac team. We want to see that
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: we're better than them up front, and they're not getting four, five,
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: six yards a carry every time they try to run
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: the ball.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's so both lines, I would say, actually.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: You want both lines to kind of dominate. Again, the
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: D-line doesn't have as much hype like you just said,
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: but you also don't want this running quarterback to have
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: like 200 rushing yards on you. Control that guy. Make
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: him throw the ball. Again, there's a lot of unknown
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: with Ohio. That team that played Flander last year is
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: a totally different team. But do not let this running
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: quarterback get hit. And here's another big point for tomorrow.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: I said this in my tailgate pod. Do not let
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: this team have any help at all. Like, come out
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: early and get on top of them. That's a big
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: thing with these, I'd say, lesser teams, max schools, whatever.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: Do not let this team get any hope at all.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: That's what Rutgers did last night.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: They let.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: UMass get some hope, and that's when these teams start
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: to believe they can win these games.
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that would be nice, I will say, and if
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: that happened, it's obviously a good thing. Sometimes these early games,
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: it's just weird how they start. Like, Illinois last night,
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: I don't know if you saw kind of the score.
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: I wasn't watching it much, but I had it on,
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: and it was a 14-6 game in Illinois, 14-13 maybe,
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: and they scored right before half to go up eight,
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: and then they pulled away in the second half and
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: won handily. Minnesota, on the other hand, did exactly what
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: you said and just dominated from the get-go. So obviously
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: it depends on your opponent. Some opponents are better than others.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: I get that. But some of these games might start
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: off slower, right? And I think that's going to give
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: you a little bit of unease if that happens tomorrow morning.
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: But at the same time, there's still a chance to
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: feel good about it by the end of the game.
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: But if you do give them hope, you might not
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: get to that point. So I agree, making a statement
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: early would be big. I want you to elaborate here.
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: You mentioned this wacky-dacky Wednesday about the running back game.
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: and what you're looking for there. So tell me, tell
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: me what you think there.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: I think again, they might not have a true number one.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: What I've been hearing all year is they are all
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: off season.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: They kind of don't know the number one is I,
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: I prefer.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: To have a guy that's dead says you're number one.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: And then the other guys can bring in for a
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: good pass game on third down, good blocking, whatever you
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: have good blocking running back. I would, I'd like for
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: them to figure out in these first three games who
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: their true number one is, who's going to be their
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: bell cow running back.
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Austin and I talked a little bit about this yesterday.
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: I think it's a nice-to-have thing, right? I truly don't
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: think that you need to, but if you have somebody
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: that's a dominant, like go Emmitt Johnson last year.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Emmitt is what I was thinking, yeah.
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: It's nice. I don't think it's something that is required
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: to have a successful year I don't think it's a very,
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: it's not the most important position because I do think
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: you can play a committee and stay fresh and have
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: all these guys look good. Now, what we don't want
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: to get stuck in is they're all average 4, 5
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: out of 10, and we don't have any playmakers at
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: the running back, and then we can't run the ball
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: with our running backs because none of them are good. So,
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: you're right. One of them to stick out. The fact
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: that all three of them are still listed as oars
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: probably tells us that no one has stuck out that much.
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: We'll see who gets the first carry. Who's your guess
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: on the first carry tomorrow?
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Nelson.
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: I'll go– I don't think it'll be Jamal Rule just
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: because he's a freshman. I think– I'll go Mosey just
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: because he's listed at the top, even though it's an or.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Rule would be the one that I don't think
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: is going to play as much at all or at
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: all this year.
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: At all?
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Not much.
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: Bro, he's listed as an or with the other two.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I don't think– okay, now I was thinking of someone else.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: Who am I thinking of that was lower that I
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: was surprised?
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: The fourth ring back on knives.
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: That's what I was thinking of.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: That's, that's the guy's kind of surprise was not up
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: there with an or, but.
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: I quit knives and he just has, and who knows
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: what his body looks like. He's more of a bigger build.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: They ruled it say in his press conference that there's
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: a package for him or a spot, which I'm guessing
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: is going to be goal line type of stuff.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: So yeah, short, short yardage.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: I think he's going to play. Like, I don't think
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: he's not going to play.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: No, but here's the thing they say about quarterbacks is,
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: if you have two or three, do you even have one?
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: So, if you have three running backs, do you even
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: have one? That's good. Who knows? We'll find that out.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Maybe they all suck.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: Maybe they're all decent, good running backs. We'll find out.
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah. That's what I say with, I mean, quarterbacks is
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: very different than running backs. Like, look at your NFL
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: teams now, too. Like, I just, I just think that
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: the era of having a dominant running back and that's
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: how your, how your team has to be built is,
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: is over. Again, it's not, they're nice to have, right? It's,
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: it's a privilege to get it, but I don't think
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: you need to have a dominant one for your offense
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: to be good. Your offensive lines are way more important.
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: Your quarterback's way more important. If those things are good,
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: your running backs are going to look good. Like, They
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: just naturally are if you have a good offensive line.
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: I think the same way with receivers, too, right? Like,
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: having a dominant receiver is nice. Like, you're going to
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: take it, and you prefer to have one if you
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: have it. But I just think your core, where you
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: want your best players to be, is offensive line quarterback.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think a wide receiver is probably more important
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: than– than having a running back because you want a
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: guy that you can go to when you're in.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Trouble for the wide receiver part.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: Now, I guess that'll be another interesting thing coming in
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: this game. Who is kind of Calandria's go-to guy? Is
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: it Hunter or is it Barney? Or is it Lindemeyer?
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: That'll be another interesting thing to figure out.
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think this game, too, what you're going
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: to see, I mean, hopefully what you're going to see
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: with a game that we take care of business by
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: the spread definition is a lot of guys impacting the
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: game in their own way. Um, and it's not, and
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: we don't have to go to desperation mode of, all right,
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: we gotta go, we gotta go to this one guy
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: cause we gotta win the game. And you hope that
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: we're able to, you know, spread out, I'm gonna call
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: it spread out the touches, which I think by the
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: way is really dumb. Um, for coaches to consider because
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: spreading out your touch is the best way to win
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: the game. I guess maybe you could argue it is,
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: but coaches, I mean, Frost did this a lot too, right?
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: He's like, we have a lot of guys that we
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: need to get the ball to, like to keep them happy.
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: Like you're good. Is that you're trying to keep them happy? Like, no,
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: you're trying to win the game. So if you have
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: a stud, go to your stud every time. So anyways, I, I,
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: I think that's a coach thing, but obviously the game is,
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: in hand, then you can do that. Uh, you know,
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: if you want to relate to basketball, right? Like you
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: want your best player having the ball in their hands,
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: majority of the time or all the time in close games. If,
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: if you're up 25, yeah, you, you can, you want
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: your reserves and other people to get, to get some
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: scores and get some, um, enjoyment and some time. So
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: that's the difference there. I think with who's playing Yeah. One,
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: I mean, this is more a big picture thing. And, and,
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: and I think too, that it, this is my biggest
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: thing and it's probably a lot of people's biggest thing
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: and kind of cliche, but just looking mature and crisp
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: and sharp in, in a fourth year under Matt rule. I, I,
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: I just think that's very important in a game like
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: this and it's going to help you win the game,
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: obviously too. So the, the, We don't need any stupid
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: things that you're like, what the hell was that? We
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: shouldn't be figuring anything out, especially on the offensive end
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: now with Coach Holgerson. Defensively, maybe you give him a
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: little bit of leeway because it's a new system. But, like,
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: you want things to be clean, no wasted timeouts unless
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: you need them. You know, busted assignments, blown coverages, stupid penalties, like,
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: We can't have any of that, and I don't expect to.
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: I don't think that's– anybody's expecting that. But we'll see
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: how that plays out too.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I've always thought this week one you
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: can have a couple false starts, stuff like that, because
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: week one.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Is kind of like a preseason game. You just don't
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: want to look– have that, like, repeat.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: Like, once or twice this game is not that big
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: a deal, but just the whole game long if that
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: keeps happening, then that's– kind of showing what the season's
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: going to be like.
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: Uh one other another thing that i think is important
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: to mention here and it kind of goes along with
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: this because it's part of that game is special teams
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: and just specifically you know if we if we're kicking
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: a 35 to 40 yard field goal make it right
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: like i yeah well i should start i shouldn't have
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: to say this but it's in recent history not last
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: year but Get the snap down, get the hold down,
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: and make it. You know, don't have a shanked punt.
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: And Archie, for the most part, didn't, but he did
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: have some. So, again, just looking what it should look
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: like on special teams. You know, nothing big. Here's the deal.
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: Once you start making some of these, like, stupid mistakes,
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: then you start thinking about it.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: And then.
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: in big games, they start to become pressure and more
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: pressure moments because, oh crap, against Ohio, we bobbled a snap.
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: Let's not do that again. And then guess what? Now
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: the snap's slow and then a kick gets blocked against
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: Michigan State on the road. Like, just make it a clean,
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: crisp special teams. And if we have a breakout return
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: or something that we get past midfield in return, that's awesome.
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: And we will take that in a heartbeat. But, Make
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: it clean, make it crisp. Especially now, I mean, you
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: wouldn't talk about, I don't call it pressure, but with
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: Eckler gone, after his one year coming in and putting
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: the band-aid on the special teams, you know, if we're
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: going to rip that band-aid off, that scar wound, it
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: better be healed by this new system or structure or whatever. And,
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: you know, we have a co-special team coordinators now, so
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: I think there's a little bit of pressure there, like,
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: Keep things looking the way it should there on that side.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Of the ball.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, special teams can affect the game more than people think,
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: especially in the frost.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: It was just a mess. You have a bad punt.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: That can give teams easily good 20, 30 yards more
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: field position and bad snaps, bad punts. The mistakes in
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: special teams are critical. You get down and miss a
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: 30-yard kick, that's huge. that's points on the board right there.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: You cannot do that. And that's, that's kind of where
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: I think killed frost a lot was his special teams. Now,
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: last year it was, it was massive out.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: I would say solid.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: They were like you said, towards the end of the year, though,
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: Archie did have some bad punts. Now I, do you
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: agree with me that you trust the kicker they have?
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I, this, this coming, I mean, it's been, it's
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: been a little bit since we had this, I trust
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: this guy going out there.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: He's going to make the kicks. Um, Now, I guess
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: we'll see what happens.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: He could, with kicking, it doesn't take long for a
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: kicker to go off the end and they start missing kicks,
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: it's over. So hopefully he just stays on the board.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: And I'm not saying he has to make every 50-yard
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: kick out there. Make, like you said, your 30, 40-yard kicks.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: Make the ones you're supposed to make.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: And you got to keep in mind, too, there's two
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: kickers listed as place kickers in Kyle Cunanan and John Hull.
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: So we have, I mean, two different guys that have
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: kicked before. You know, they're not new names. And then
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: obviously punting is Archie Wilson. It's been, it's been just
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: a quiet, like special teams off season. They just, we
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: haven't heard much versus last year where it was the
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: talking point going in to the year.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah. That's, that's how I do with the coach last
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: year coming in.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: And he proved he backed up his hype. Unlike somebody
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: rule so far, that special teams coach backed up the hype. Now, hopefully,
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: all the new staff and stuff is not going to
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: affect the special teams.
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: Okay, next little segment here. Dak, I'm going to give
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: you– you're going to get 20 seconds. Well, you can think,
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: but one player on offense, one player on defense, and
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: then one wild card player. You can only pick one
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: that if you're at the game or you're watching on
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: TV that you're watching– and specifically watching, and you can't
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: pick Calandra.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. I was going to say that. That's
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: a cop-out. I'm not going to do that.
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: So, we'll alternate. You go offense first, then I'll go offense.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Offense?
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: I've been harping this guy all year, Pritchett. I want
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: to see this guy, first off, this is, go alone,
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: dumb mistakes.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: You know what, him?
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: No false starts at all this game. Let's see you
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: not false start. I think he is a great blocker.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: He just minimizes those dumb mistakes. So let's see him
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: go out there. If you have a good tackle, it's
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: huge that you can trust him because your quarterback, if
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: the quarterback doesn't trust the tackle, you can tell they
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: get a little dicey in the pocket. So let's go
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: out there and see this. Go out there, block, no
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: dumb mistakes. Don't kill drives. Because last year, Game one,
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: he killed a drive against Cincinnati there on three-yard line.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: He jumps.
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: I'm going the other– I'm staying offensive line, but I'm
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: going the other side with Gunnar Gertula, who beat out
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: Trey Babalade, who we paid a lot of money for,
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: and not even an or on the depth chart. Like,
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: Gunnar is the starter. So, I mean, I'm watching him. Like,
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: I want to see, okay, like, you earned this spot.
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: Let's see what happens. And it's good. So, Dak, you're
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: telling me when a snap gets had, you're going to
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: be watching. You've specifically got your eyes on Elijah Pritchett. Yes.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Actually, yes.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: Good.
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: I do. I think watching the offensive line is a big,
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: big telltale sign here in game one.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: Defensive player.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: Honestly, though, I'm going to say the whole offensive line.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: I'm going to keep my eyes on them. Let's just
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: say that. So defensive player. Van Poppel, that guy, he's
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: had a lot of hype. Last year, I thought, was
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: a down year for him. And he's supposed to, he's, God,
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: I don't know if I'd call him like the main
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: key of the defense, but he's supposed to be this
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: guy that's supposed to run this defense.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Let's see you get some pressure. Last year, he didn't,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: I'd say almost nothing.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: Let's see you actually get some pressure, move the offensive line,
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: stop their runs, fill the freaking gaps.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Let's, Again, with the hype. Let's see it. That's great.
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: You're picking a backup to watch.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Van Poppel?
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you read the depth chart this week?
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Van Poppel's listed as a second-string defensive tackle.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Oh, good.
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: Going into this week. That tells me that Owen Stoudemire
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: and Jasheer Whittington both earned their spot. Like I said,
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: there's a lot of oars on this depth chart. and
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: Austin mentioned that yesterday, but like where there's not an,
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: or you, you got to believe that they earned their spot.
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: So great job, Dak, doing your research. Appreciate it. Um,
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: I'm going to go. Owen Shambless as kind of our
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: lead there. I, I think he's just someone I haven't
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: ever seen play. I, I guess in my mind, I
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: have him like a Levante David esque type of player. Um,
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: I don't know that he actually is, but, he's the quarterback,
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: the middle linebacker of this defense. And I guess I
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: don't even know if he's a middle linebacker. They're probably
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: going to move him around a little bit in that
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: second level. So I'll kind of have my eye on
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: him specifically as an individual player. I will say I'll
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: be watching the defensive line a lot too. But if
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: I'm watching one guy, I'm just kind of watching him,
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: how he's leading this new defense under Rob Arch. I'm
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: going to give.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Me one wild card. Can I go two players here?
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: No.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, I'll go. I'll go on Isaiah Hunter.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: I think he's going to prove that he's their real
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: number one, true number one. That's going to be Kalandria's
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: go-to guy. I am so high on that guy, especially
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: third downs. We'll see who he goes to there, like
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: third and fives, whatever. who he decides he wants to
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: go to, especially if he's under pressure. I don't know
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: how much pressure he's going to be in this game,
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: but that's who I'm going to be watching a lot, too.
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: Mine's Jamal Rule when he's in. This freshman we saw
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: at the spring game as, I guess, the breakout person
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: that everybody talked about. I want to see it again.
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: Whether it be a breakaway run or some explosiveness, maybe
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: call it broken tackles, whatever that is, as his freshman
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: running back coming in. So I'll be watching him specifically
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: when he comes in. That'll be the guy when he
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: gets subbed in, I'll hit whoever's next to me and say, hey,
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: Jamal rules in, Jamal rules in. So I'm curious to
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: see how his carries go this game. Last thing here,
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: not really score predictions, but I want you to quickly...
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: go through and is, is, is going to be all you.
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: So start with an a, if he had to give
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: the grade an a, what did that, what did that
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: game look like?
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: A is come out and dominate early. Don't, I've been
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: saying this all week. Do not let this team get
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: any help at all. Um, Don't even let it be like, oh,
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: Ohio could win this game. So an A, I think,
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: into the first quarter, if you're up, I think 21
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: plus is an A.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: You're out there, dominate. If you.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: Give your backups in by the whole fourth quarter, that
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: is an A right there.
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: All right. Then what is your definition of a B?
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: That is.
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: That's keeping it a little close to half. You're only
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: up Let's say 10 points at half. But then the
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: second half, you come out and dominate. If by halftime,
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: you're like, ooh, this is getting a little dicey, that's
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: a B right there. But the second half, you absolutely dominate.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: How about a C?
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: A C is you keep it close through the whole
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: three quarters now. 10 points, I'm keeping it. If you
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: go in the fourth quarter, be like, okay, we got
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: to actually– take this serious here or else ohio's gonna
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: freaking win this game and see and then you're you're
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: seeing a lot of uh mistakes on the o-line d-line
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: too i think that.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Is a c.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: A d uh you you win the game by seven
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: or less that i think that is a d like
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: like you're like oh crap we are on the same.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Level as ohio and an f They lose. There you go.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: That's the easiest. So I just saw this.
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: If they do lose, it's going to be a daytime game,
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: so they won't do this. Rutgers had a hell of
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: a fireworks show after that game last night.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: I'm not kidding.
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: I don't. Well, yeah, because it's a day game. I
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: think it's the Bowling Green game. We have our light
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: show at the end of the game.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Zone show, yeah.
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: Let's not lose to Bowling Green.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: And, I mean, you've got to call that off, right?
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: It was like a 10-minute fireworks show there.
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: All right. Well, we will have a tailgate pod posted
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: tomorrow morning where each one of us, Dak, Austin, and
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: I will have a quick individual video. The purpose of
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: it is to make it fun. I'm not sure if
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: the other two made theirs fun yet. I haven't done
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: mine yet. So we'll have something posted in the morning
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: for you to listen to to get you hyped up.
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: on your way to Lincoln for the game.
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: Did you see the honor coin flip guy is.
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: If you would have joined yesterday morning, you would have
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: been part of that conversation.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: Frank Solich.
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: No, we'll be back on Monday to do our, our
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: recap pod. Hopefully with all three of us, as long
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: as Dak is feeling good Monday morning and not, On
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: his second day of his hangover.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: Go Big Red.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Go Big Red.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: The headlines change, but the mission stays. From Memorial Stadium
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: to PBA days. Football Saturdays, basketball nights.
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: Every story chasing red eyes. and white. Recruiting buzz, big
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: time commits.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Camp battles, coaching hits. Transfer moves and rising stars. The
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: road to glory's never far. This is Return to Glory
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: Where every headline tells the story Big Red pride every
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: season Husker Nation's got a reason From touchdowns, dunks, and
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: championship dreams We'll be back with the latest from every
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: team Until next time, keep the faith, keep believing Because
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: the Return to Glory is just beginning.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Go Big Red!
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: See you next episode!