Latest / Return to Glory - Nebraska / Episode 38 | LIVE from Michigan State

Transcript

Episode 38 | LIVE from Michigan State · Return to Glory - Nebraska

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome back. Return to Glory podcast.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Hunter Zabernicki in East Lansing in the hotel room or
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: the hoder, as old Arnie Cerny likes to call it.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: He's here with me in the room. JBR! We're going
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: to get some Arnie Cerny takes here as well. Nebraska's 3-0.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Big Ten plays here. We're out of Lincoln.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Literally. Literally. And Saturday here in East Landing is going
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: to feel like the first real test of the season.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Before the football season, though, we need to have a
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: little bit of an internal investigation. I'm joined here, not
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: on video, but across the table here by the greatest
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Husker fan to ever live, Arnie Surdy.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: And this man has worn green for three straight days
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: during Michigan State Week. Three days!
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Yes!
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: You know, once maybe is an accident, twice is suspicious.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: But three times, you're getting an application here to the
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Spartan Stadium parking pass.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: What are you doing? Well, first of all, they're all
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: running shirts.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Quit calling them green for supporting the flipping Spartans. I
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: don't like the Spartans. I'll never like the Spartans. Green
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: is just a great color for me. So, stop that.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: I'm going to be wearing green tomorrow when I go
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: for a run again. So, what? What do you do?
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Move on.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: And you're– And you're wearing blue shorts right now today.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: That's great.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: They're great.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Blue.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Great.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: You know it.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: All right, let's move on.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: We've handled our first three games, obviously beating Ohio, Bowling Green,
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: North Dakota. Everything's looked good. I think that's real progress.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: And now we play Pat Fitzgerald. First year, Michigan State,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: the Spartans. Last two trips here to East Lansing have
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: not ended well. Three point losses each. It's not about
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: protecting a pretty record Saturday. It's about finding out who
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: we are, what we're made of. Right now, Michigan State's
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: 2-1 under Pat Fitzgerald. They beat Toledo 30-20. Eastern Michigan 35-7.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Been lost last week to Notre Dame 27-10. Fitzgerald, as
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: we know, has been a good coach in the Big
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Ten before at Northwestern. Right home two Big Ten West titles.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Made it to the a big 10 championship game. I
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: think one of his last years, and now he's got
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: a massive rebuild here at Michigan state. Arnie, I got
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: to ask you the first three games. Have you, are you,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: has it earned your trust with the program? And then
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: second part, how scared are you of Pat Fitzgerald?
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: Well, first of all, I think that the first three
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: games we've played up to our potential. I think we've, um,
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: haven't shown any major, major glaring weaknesses. I think the
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: biggest thing is this, that past Fitzgerald is a guy
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: that knows how to win, but he also knows how
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: not to lose big. I guarantee you that he will
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: not be absolutely, totally frustrated with like a 24 to 10,
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: 24 to seven loss situation. on Saturday. He won't worry
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: about that. He will worry about his team getting better.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Plain and simple. One thing I have to ask, what's
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: Toledo's record right now? They only beat them 20-10. I'm
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: just wondering how that might be more of a telltale
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: than the Notre Dame game. The Notre Dame game, again,
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: Notre Dame had what? 370-plus drives to make their touchdowns.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: His team's not going to turn the ball over. If
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: they don't turn it over, that is what allows them
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: to have the other team to make long drives. That's
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: what makes it tough on us.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: That Michigan State Notre Dame game, it's tricky. It was 27-10.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: I think it was 17-10 at halftime.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: And, yeah, the scoreboard, obviously, they didn't let it get
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: out of hand. They covered the spread, kept it close.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: But yardage-wise, the yardage was 395 to 167. And Notre Dame,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: for that point, dominated Michigan State.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: But you're right.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: I'm sure he's not going to let games get out
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: of hand. Like, that's just what he does.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: Totally agree with that.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: And so, I don't know, like, does a staying close
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: mean that You know, they're moving in the right direction maybe.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: We don't know. Notre Dame obviously is a top-five team,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: one of the favorites, I think maybe the favorite right
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: now to win it all. But to me, that's just
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: the way he's going to play. And there's not a
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: whole lot you can do to stop it. And I'm
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: going to call Dak out. Dak said, don't play to
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: their style. Don't play down to them. He said the
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: word he used yesterday in his preview was, you know what?
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: I'm going to say it.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: We're going to air it out.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: Absolutely not.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: I agree.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: We're going to run. We're going to do exactly what
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: we have been doing in almost every game so far.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: We're very, very balanced in the, it'll be like 200, 200,
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: 200 passing, 200 running. That's what our goal is going
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: to be. We're going to do that. And again, I
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: think Fitzgerald does that. And I would do it too,
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: especially if I was a new coach at a new school,
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: I would just simply say, I'm not going to get
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: my butt blown out. Yep. I am going to keep
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: every game reasonable. A bad game for him is going
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: to be like a 28 point game. That's going to
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: be a bad game. Not a, not a 20 point game,
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: a 28 point game. He'll, if it's like 35 to seven,
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: he'll be frustrated as hell. Then he'd be frustrated.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: And I mean, if we do that, that'd be obviously
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: very impressive.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I just, I don't think we were talking about it
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: last night at the bar.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Like, Rule doesn't want to play that way. Rule wants
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: to play old school Big Ten football.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: And he's kind of grown into that identity of running
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: the ball and call it ugly, not easy to watch football.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: But that's what the identity is to win games here
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: in the Big Ten. And so I fully expect that's
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: what Saturday is going to be.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: Well, and I also think that if you really think,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: I mean, the only difference if you take like in
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: my mind, old school Nebraska to the new school, especially
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: with everybody's passing a lot more now is just simply this.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: A lot of ours right now is we get a
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: lot of eight and 10 yard passes, which is just
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: in my mind, that's just a running play. They're just
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: doing real, you know, short passes and let the receivers
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: do what they can. Receiver screens, things like that. And
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: then after we've run, run, run, all of a sudden
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: then we'll hit a 30-yard pass. That's Nebraska back in
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: the 70s, 80s, and 90s. That's just what it is.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: It's pound, pound, pound, pound, pound, and then we hit
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: the big pass. I think we are, in a lot
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: of respects, back to that again. And I don't think,
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: you know, again, you know, what Dak was talking about
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: was what
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: .
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: ugly it's going to look
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: but that's the style i think that the the identity
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: that that we need to stick to and play to
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: to win to win games it's not then what it
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: comes down to is who's not going to beat themselves
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: and who's got the better players if you can make
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: it on an equal playing field kind of a mucky
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: dirty game well if you have a little bit of
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: better players and we were talking about that last night
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: like i do i think that our our line of
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: scrimmage is what We think.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: It may be a little bit better. We have a
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: little bit better skill guys.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: And so if you put all things equal, then that talent,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: you can actually exploit that. But if you're out there
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: trying to do something crazy, then you can bring styles
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: of play into it and game management.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Well, if you're smart about that, I think we're getting there.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Then, yeah, you're going to just end up winning by
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: three versus losing by three like we have recently.
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, and we heard somebody yesterday calling the– Michigan-Iowa game,
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: a slobber knocker game. That just tells me that's a
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: game where the defensives are really great and the offenses
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: aren't very special. Well, I don't think we're going to
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: get in a slobber knocker game at all this year
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: because we have a good enough offense. We can run,
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: we can pass, we can do what we need to do.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: We averaged 22.5 or something like that in Big Ten
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: play last year. I think we're going to be upper
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: 20s at least, 28, 29 points a game. I really
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: believe we're going to do that, and that's going to
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: win you two more games, three more games maybe.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: I hope you're right.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: I texted a friend that went to Michigan State and
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: worked in Omaha with me for a while, and now
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: he's back here, but I just asked him what his
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: thoughts were. He said he doesn't know much about us,
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: but he said the talk around Michigan State is that
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: their their defense is pretty damn good and what he
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: thinks and and that that's the strength and that you
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: know they're not thrilled about their quarterback they're not thrilled
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: about some of the things offensively yet that they're doing
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: which I mean coming from a big rebuild that maybe
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: is a little bit as expected but their defense they
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: feel pretty good about and so yeah you talk about
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: our offense versus their defense like well I don't know
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: like I think that You want to think that our offense,
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: from what we've showed, is evolved and now we're at strength.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: But I'm anticipating some adversity for the first time this year.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: We really haven't had much adversity at all this year
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: on that side. I'm anticipating that. And then when we
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: do that, this goes back to– The question, like, what
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: are we going to fall back on?
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: What are we going to do?
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Or are we going to try to start saying, well,
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: they're giving us this, and now you're going back to
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: the Frost-Riley days, and, well, the defense has given us this,
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: and we've got to take it, yes, to an extent,
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: but you've got to stick to what we're good at,
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: and that's going to be running the football.
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: Well, and that's exactly, to me, the North Dakota game,
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: there was some adversity in one respect. They, for a while,
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: were absolutely dominating the line of scrimmage, especially their defensive line.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: Their defensive line was, we were only getting two to
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: three yards, especially on first down. But we stuck with it,
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: stuck with it, stuck with it, stuck with it. The
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: opening play of the third quarter, 55-yard run by rule.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: You're going to find seams, and that's the other piece
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: of it. Most of our adversity we've had so far
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: has been in the first half. We have always, so
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: far in three games, we've shown a response at halftime.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: We show that they've made adjustments. That rule, 55-yard run,
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: that just wasn't him. Somebody on the offense, I don't
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: know if it was the line coach, who it was,
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: but somebody saw something that we could do to start
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: off the second half with a splash, and we did.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: Michigan State is led by their linebacker, Jordan Hall. He
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: missed week two and then returned last week at 13 tackles.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: He's one of their key guys.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: And then you mentioned their defensive line, Eli Conan and
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: Rule called out Kenny Soares, two defensive linemen that have
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: made an impact so far this year. And yeah, I mean,
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: you talked about Rule and some of the impact he'll
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: have running the ball. What I'm curious too is, With Calandria,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: we've seen a lot of really good so far. I
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: think it came out he's number one in PFF grade,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: however that gets calculated.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: He's, I think, impressed everybody, especially his arm.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: I think the offseason– going from Raiola to now calling
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: up Klandreau with his legs. We really haven't seen his
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: legs too much yet. We saw one that got called back.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: And is that by design? Is the coaching staff trying
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: to keep that under wraps? Are we going to break
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: out more design runs?
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: Or.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: As we know, on broken plays, that's where a lot
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: of times you see mobility from quarterbacks. I'm curious to
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: see what his legs are going to look like. Against
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: a defensive front for Michigan State, it's pretty solid, and
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: you might expect there to be a little more pressure
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: than we've seen. What are his legs going to do
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: and impact this game?
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: I think that's the big thing. I read an article
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: where they just talked about, yeah, he has not done
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: much with his legs. Are they saving, like you're saying?
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: I think it's going to be– it's mostly going to–
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: I believe it's mostly going to be broken points. It's
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: going to be when you're playing the better teams and
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: they shut down your receivers and he's going through two
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: or three reads and he's going, hell, I got to
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: get out of here. I got to go. And he's
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: going to go.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: And Joe Rossi, the defensive coordinator, familiar with him.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: He was the defensive coordinator at Minnesota for all those
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: years that Minnesota kind of owned us and then– been
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: here now michigan state for two years and one of
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: his key signature things is is pressing on the outside
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: he's he's going to get up in our face play
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: a lot of man press uh and and that that
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: sometimes we'll see how our receivers are he's mentioned getting
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: open you know can can barney hunter gilmer can they
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: get off the line and get an open round if
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: they can you know that's going to open up some
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: opportunities downfield but if they can't you're right that's where
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: they're probably going to try to get some pressure. And then,
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: and then you're talking about that run game. So it's
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: a fascinating, I guess, matchup for me on that side
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: of the ball and to watch early on to see
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: how that goes.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: Well, and that's, you really think about it too, though,
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: our defense, especially with Marshall and people like that, they
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: do press coverage. So they go, they're going against.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: That in practice.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: And anytime you have a great secondary going up against
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: a really good that is again, where they talk about
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: iron meeting iron and all that kind of stuff. They're
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: going to, they go through that. I think literally every day,
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: every week in practice. So they're going to be ready
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: for press coverage. I think we're, we're in great shape.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: I think we're going to get a long pass, at
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: least one long pass tomorrow.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Uh, when Michigan state's got the ball, it's going to
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: go to their run game. As we know, uh, Cam
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Edwards transfer from UConn, uh, rushed for over 1200 yards
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: last season. Uh, Through three games so far, he's had
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: almost 300 yards, three touchdowns. He's had a very solid season.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Then their quarterback is one that came in last year,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: played a little bit in a backup role.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Alessio Milijovic.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I can't say that name.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: The other thing that my friend said to you is
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: he's not a very complicated quarterback. He takes a simple read.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: He can't scan the field very well. Um, he's, he's,
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: he's not going to improvise much on that side. So,
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: you know, you know, with that being said, you want
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: to try to exploit that. I think if we can
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: force a turnover, that'd be great, but we haven't really
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: shown to do a whole lot of that yet. We've
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: had a couple of interceptions. Um, what I, what I
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: think what's going to come down to is upfront defensively
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: defensive line. Can we not let them get going early
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: on one, but then second part, what kind of to
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: reverse what you said earlier, um, Can we not get
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: worn down?
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Do we have enough depth that when the.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: Second half, Michigan State can't have a 13-play, you know,
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: 78-yard drive for a touchdown and not get worn out?
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: Because I think that's obviously what they want to do.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: That's what these Big Ten teams want to do. And
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: it's worked against us. Do we have enough depth? Do
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: we have enough pieces up front to say, nope, like,
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: we're going to still hold our own?
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Early on, I think we will. But as the game
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: goes on, what's that going to look like?
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: The big thing is, the North Dakota game gave me hope,
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: especially on defense, as far as the way they ran everything.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: And because North Dakota is going to do well at
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: an FCS level and they kept the pressure on and
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: we did it with four guys. He did not have
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: to bliss much. We did a little because some of
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: our sacks, uh, are, uh, what was it? Trying to
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: think who it was, had the sack.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: It was, um, Ben Popple had one.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: We had our nickel.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Yep, and came untouched.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: But he came untouched. And stuff like that. We have
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: to be creative when we do want to blitz. But yeah,
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: Ben Popple and I don't even know those new transfer names.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: They each had a sack. Five sacks? That was so encouraging.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: If we can continue that, how much will they pass?
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: It's hard to say.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: One other thing to note to Michigan state likes to
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: use their tight ends. And then down on the goal line, uh,
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: last week, they, they brought in and they're not even
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: really goal line. They were on the 15 year old
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: and I brought in camp venture, uh, backup quarterback. That's
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: got more legs. So if that guy comes in, I
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: think you're going to expect maybe some quarterback run because
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Millie Holovich is not a runner. Uh, but the backup
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: quarterback is going to come in, you know, it's, it's
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: going to be think run. Um, moving on to special
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: teams here and kind of the intangible part of the
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: game that I think, I mean, you can talk offense, defense.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: I think what we've talked about is good chances going
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: to happen. You just, it's kind of a predictable game
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: in my mind from how the script's going to go,
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: where the unpredictability comes from is going to be the
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: special teams. And the difference in the game, I think
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: could come down to just some of the penalties, mistakes,
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: but special teams, if you can make a big play,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: blocking a kick, returning a kick, doing something there is
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: going to be big. LeVar Woods is the special teams
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: coordinator at Michigan State.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Very good background.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. And they've been struggling on special teams. And I
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: think a lot of that is just simply he has
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: brought in new ideas and they're still adjusting to that.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: I think it's still early enough that they're not going
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: to be having that perfect with him. I think they're
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: still going to struggle. I read an article this week
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: about Archie and there's, you know, people are a little
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: down on his punting. He still is average right at
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: 40 yards a punt. He just, he's only had six
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: punts in three games. Think about that. The punting is
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: going to go up considerably now that we're in the
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: big 10. So We have to see when he starts
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: getting three to four punts a game, which is going
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: to happen in the Big Ten, what happens then. Because
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: our kickoffs are good. We have to stop. blocking in
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: the back, holding and all that stuff on special teams.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: And those things, I mean, I would say are definitely negatives.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't necessarily call them catastrophic, but like you can have,
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: you're going to have mistakes.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: We talked about that. There's going to be mistakes.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Like, but you can't have catastrophic things that can change
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: that literally can impact, go to seven or 10 points
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: in the game. We were prior member in 2021, the
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: Jaden Reed punt that we punted to the wrong side
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: of the field to cover. And I mean, literally went
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: untouched last year. One of the big parts of our
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: win was us blocking a kick and, and returning that
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: against Michigan state.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Like that was a big part of that game.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: So again, these, these, these big, big plays, if you
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: can get one of those and then not give one
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: of those up, it's, it's, it's a big part of
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: the game. But, but they don't always happen, right? They're
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: unique because they don't have, they don't, they're catastrophic.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: They don't happen often. We'll see something like that happens on,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: on Saturday.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: And if it does, I think the team that is
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: on the positive side of that has a good chance
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: of winning the game.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: Oh, without a doubt. The biggest thing for us is
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: we have to keep being aggressive. I think that, We
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: have to try to recover fumbles. We have to create interceptions.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: We cannot sit there and let people pass it at us,
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: run without making it threatening. We have to threaten them
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: instead of them threatening us. Because every aggressor is going
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: to win, plain and simple.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: All right, last thing, predictions. I'm going to take Nebraska
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: to cover the spread. I'm going to.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Take us winning 27 to 17. I think that, I
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: just think that things that we've seen, I.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Think there's going to be some adversity this week, a
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: lot too, but I think that our belief in what
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: we do, and I think we actually have some veterans
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: and experience, especially at quarterback that that's going to help
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: us in year four under Matt rule versus year one
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: under Fitzgerald. But I don't think we should expect Michigan
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: state to, beat themselves because they're near one. That's not
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: going to happen because Fitzgerald is a very well-disciplined.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: His teams don't do that. So it's going to be
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Back-and-forth game early on, I think, and I don't expect
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: us even to be ahead by that much, if at all,
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: at halftime. But I think the third and fourth quarter,
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: I'm going to take our depth. I'm going to take
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: our talent, our experience. If we don't beat ourselves, which
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: I'm going to say we're not going to, we'll win.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: We'll outscore them. 17-3 or something like that in the
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: second half and win 27-17.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: So I think the game, if I had to call it,
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: it would be like 10-3 at half would be up
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: and then like 31-10 to finish. Okay.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: And that would be a blowout.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: I don't know if it is a blowout, but it's
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: going to make a game that could be close a
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: little less close.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: So last thing I'd ask you, We win this week, 31-10,
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: like you just said.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Next week?
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: Maryland.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: Win that game?
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: You mean Indiana?
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: That's probably not going to happen, but.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Well, you're going to say we're winning that.
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: Do we have a chance?
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: At Oregon? Chance. Oh, not a chance.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: No.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: Well, if we're still 6-1, then we keep going. If
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: we're 11-1, what are we going to?
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: Playoffs.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Where?
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: The playoffs.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, we're going to playoffs.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: Playoffs.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: We're the Huskers. All right, sir. Thanks. Go Big Red.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: We'll get after it tomorrow.
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: Dang right.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: You can cuss in the pod. Okay.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: Have a nice day, people.