Latest / Return to Glory - Nebraska / Episode 5.5: Husker Defense Preview -- Athleticism, Versatility, Flexibility
Transcript
- 0:00Hmm. The Turn of Glory Podcast, August fourteen, seventeen days away from
- 0:22opening kickoff in Minneapolis. I'm hunters are but nicky? Here Austin Rose,
- 0:28the Coda free tag here to do some defense pok. The black Shirts are
- 0:36maybe coming back? Maybe yeah they will. Yeah right. It sounds like
- 0:48Tony White wants to do something with it, but we really don't know what.
- 0:53But that tradition is still going to live on because when do they typically
- 1:00announced black Shirts? It is who knows. With where we've been at the
- 1:06last twenty years of a program, I think they just come out. We've
- 1:08done it mid season in the past few years, we've done that. Usually
- 1:12there's a couple of preseason guys, though, isn't there not just depends on
- 1:17the coaching staff. It just has been all over the board. You know
- 1:21it'll be there though there's no way they get rid of that. Well,
- 1:25the new tradition got started, Dak and I don't know if you've heard being
- 1:29a Boomer Sooner fan, but the single digit numbers that coach rule does where
- 1:34he awards, I guess it's it's player voted as your top ten players or
- 1:42nine players get single digit numbers a new tradition. Huh, I did not
- 1:47hear about that, and I believe four of them have gotten named so far.
- 1:53It's been Sims, Billy Camp, Luke Crimer, Isaac Gifford. I
- 1:57saw Ethan Piper got an honorary today because offensive lineman can't be single digit numbers.
- 2:02But very interesting. I don't get too caught up in it, because
- 2:08who cares like? I also don't know how that works. You know,
- 2:13if you're if you're trying to build a program and your best people get single
- 2:16digits, probably voted by the players, tired voted by the players, correct,
- 2:23So not necessarily the best players, but typically or your leaders are your
- 2:28best players when it comes to retiring numbers. Don't epe. Nope, no,
- 2:32no, I'm not talking about these guys. But if that's your program,
- 2:37and if you if tom Osborne had this, you can't retire numbers.
- 2:40We're not where tom Osborne was. We're not. No, no, I'm
- 2:44going to go about to retire numbers. I'm not. Yikes, you're making
- 2:49me think that. You're making it sound like I'm like, oh, these
- 2:51guys are nebras, gotta like Hall of famers. That's not what I'm saying.
- 2:53But if you're if it was Tom Osborne and you did it over twenty
- 2:57years, forty years, I'm just saying he run into a problem. Well,
- 3:01it would be the team isn't something you can do with the with the
- 3:07top elite program at college football. Honestly, right, That's what I'm trying
- 3:12to say. Where's best on that list? Oh honest couch, Yeah,
- 3:22we were. It was so funny, Austin because when we were going through
- 3:25the oppensive preview last week, We're like, he's got it figured out,
- 3:29he's here. Were good. We were so close three weeks, not even
- 3:37nineteen days. I thought we were gonna make it whatever, It's fine.
- 3:43Do you think Prost just had no discipline on these guys at all in that
- 3:46rule finally does and they just don't want to play for him or what's going
- 3:50on there? Well, it sounds he doesn't want to play football. It's
- 3:53not like he answered the transfer portal. He's just it sounds like he doesn't
- 3:57want to play football. And it doesn't surprise me because this is kind of
- 4:00the same spot we were at last year when the same thing happened and he
- 4:04just was missing, like not practicing, didn't play, We're like, where
- 4:09is he? What's going on? Frost was very very hush hush and all
- 4:13this stuff and didn't want anything getting out. So I'm guessing it's probably something
- 4:17very similar. They probably had to beg him to come back and play.
- 4:20He did. He was decent, like, didn't blow any socks out of
- 4:25the water. Coming in this year, we thought, maybe, you know,
- 4:30could could do some good things, but his heart probably just isn't in
- 4:33it. Yeah, that's fair. It's probably gonna day left team then,
- 4:40right, Yeah, and hopefully he does well in life. We wish nothing
- 4:46but the best with a with a guy like that, you'd like to think
- 4:50that a new coaching staff, fresh look leaders, those guys can come in
- 4:57and change a frame of mind like that. Would hope that's what would happen,
- 5:02But bottom line, they couldn't. And it's not to put anybody to
- 5:06blame on anything. It's just the reality of the situation with him, and
- 5:11he probably could have helped us this year. Given our wide receiver depth that
- 5:15we went through last week, it looks like we might have some athletes,
- 5:17but he definitely would have been in the mix. There more playing time for
- 5:23Malachi, which isn't a bad thing, I guess Nope, second thing before
- 5:30we move on to the defense. I wanted to bring this up because I
- 5:35thought it was very interesting as we talked about Jeff Simms and his stat line
- 5:42dacked throughout his crazy stats that was factually corrected to only being seven games,
- 5:46but still not great for seven games. If Nebraska were to have a successful
- 5:54season, and you can define successful in your mind, that might mean six
- 6:00wins. For some people that might mean nine. But if Nebraska had a
- 6:02successful season, what does Jeff sims average numbers per game look like like?
- 6:09What are his stats looking like for us to have a successful season? How
- 6:12do you see that goal? Uh? And that might mean we run the
- 6:18triple option. That that might mean more running triple option, because that's what's
- 6:23working for us and that's what gets us the seven wins, and that's what
- 6:26a successful season looks like. But what does Jeff Sim's stats look like for
- 6:30us to have a successful ten to two twenty in the air, fifty to
- 6:38sixty on the ground, two and a half touchdowns total, you know,
- 6:46an interception, maybe two and a half touchdowns and one or point seven interceptions
- 6:51or turnovers again, Yeah, I think I think around two hundred passing and
- 6:56about I think he's got average about one hundred rushing. And the main thing
- 7:01is just take care of the ball. If he's throwing two or three picks
- 7:04a game, then you're screwed. But I think he does like two twenty
- 7:10and one hundred on the ground. I think that's about perfect. I was
- 7:15right in between you guys, I would say I'm leaning towards the hundred mark
- 7:18on the ground just because I feel like our offensive line is not going to
- 7:24be great, and so he's going to have to be creative back there and
- 7:27make some plays when things collapse. So that's why I'm saying that if we
- 7:31have a successful season, are running backs are running the ball a lot better.
- 7:36Jeff Simps doesn't have to run Okay, yep, I'm with you.
- 7:41It's not like he's gonna have to throw up for three hundred three fifty,
- 7:44which I think when Casey Thompson, we would have if we did the same
- 7:46exercise last year, we would have been saying Casey had to be in the
- 7:48upper two hundreds probably passing for us to have a seat. I don't think
- 7:53we're there, but at the same time, that makes you think, okay,
- 7:58well, then he's going to be running the ball lot. That may
- 8:01lead to injuries. You never know depending on how that goes. And Dak
- 8:07nailed. The other point is the turnover piece. He has to have like
- 8:11a two and a half to one ratio touchdown to interceptions, slash fumbles,
- 8:16whatever. It can't be one to one. If that's the case, it's
- 8:20not going to be well. And I think that's the concern with Sims is
- 8:24the interceptions and the fumbles. But he's a freaking, freaking nature. And
- 8:31Rule commented on that on the turnover piece. When was the last time Nebraska
- 8:37football had a positive turnover margin? Guest year, name the year. No,
- 8:46it was later than that, right, Yes, it's much later.
- 8:50I mean, if you want to think about turnover margin, half the teams
- 8:52are going over zero and half are going under in theory, not exactly,
- 8:58but it's kind of a Guest fourteen so it was Mike Riley's second year,
- 9:07which would have been twenty sixteen. Sixteen, okay with Taine Lee probably no,
- 9:15there's no way in hell that happened. Look up who our quarterback was
- 9:18when we were seven to zero. I remember we were seving Armstrong junior when
- 9:22we were heading to Madison. Yeah, that's Tommy Armstrong Junior. I'll look
- 9:26it up. But I mean in theory, guys, that that's something that
- 9:31should be about every other year. I mean, good teams are going to
- 9:35be over one, they should be anyways, but we have not had one
- 9:41since. You could argue our best season in the last seven eight years was
- 9:46that year. So that has to change, and I think rules making that
- 9:50a point that we have to protect the football. But if Sims is a
- 9:52turnover prone guy, how do you do that. That's a very tricky situation.
- 9:56It might be tough to bench the guy. I mean bringing in Heinrich
- 10:00Harberg Jubba, like, is that situation any better? I don't know.
- 10:07It wasn't Tommy are Strong juniors senior season, which last year Casey he didn't
- 10:15really throw that many picks, did he He was decent, he was fine,
- 10:18and we had our fumbled troubles here and there, and you have to
- 10:22fumble. That's what I remember. I think on the flip side, and
- 10:26this is got his the perfect transition to the defense. One problem we've had
- 10:30with our defense is we have not been able to force any turnovers, and
- 10:33that comes from a number of reasons. We haven't been able to get much
- 10:35pressure on the quarterback over the last five to seven years, I mean at
- 10:39all. And then our secondary, I think it has been solid, but
- 10:43we haven't had the the go get or playmakers back there. So well,
- 10:48when you aren't getting pressure, you can have a decent secondary. But if
- 10:52you're not getting pressure, they have all day. The receivers have all day
- 10:56to carve up your d backs, doesn't matter how good they are. You
- 11:01know, that's tough to keep up with. For I remember talking about that
- 11:03last year how hard it was. It's like, well, when the quarterback
- 11:05has four to five seconds to throw the ball, it doesn't matter how tight
- 11:09you play a guy, Eventually someone's gonna get loose. And that's going to
- 11:15continue, I think to be an issue as we go through our roster here
- 11:20with our defensive line. We have some guys I think up there, but
- 11:24I think getting pressure on the quarterback is going to be a very key thing
- 11:30to have a successful season here in the Big Ten. The three three five,
- 11:37let's dive right into it. Tony White coming from Syracuse bringing in the
- 11:41three three five we saw it, taste of it in the spring game.
- 11:46There are a handful of teams that run it across the country, but something
- 11:50we are not used to for sure as a fan base and watching. So,
- 11:56Dak, what do you know about the three five defense? I have
- 12:01some bad PTSD from it. Last year of the Vikings, this new guy
- 12:07came in. He's like, we're around three three three five and they had
- 12:09by far the worst defense in the league, just terrible. So I don't
- 12:15like it. How does it work? What do you know about it?
- 12:20Like, how does it work? Three linemen, three linebackers in five secondary?
- 12:26Nailed it? I don't. I don't like the three linemen at all.
- 12:33It's supposed to be a little more flexible, so you know, you
- 12:37can move one of your linebackers up on the line, so usually have a
- 12:39couple of heavier linebackers that you can put the four on either side, move
- 12:45a dB up. It's supposed to be From what my understanding was it it
- 12:50emphasizes athleticism oversize, which is the more versatile players do better than the three
- 12:58three fives because you're quicker and you can adjust more and you can fit in
- 13:01more positions. You've hit the key words I have written down. I just
- 13:07did a Google search three three five defense. I opened up three or four
- 13:11different tabs or pages of the coaching one on one playbook Athleticism, Flexibility,
- 13:18versatility, multiple, faster, confusion, pressure. Those are the words that
- 13:26came to mind when I heard the three three five. But having big,
- 13:30bulky strong dudes was not one of them, right, which is good sweet.
- 13:35We haven't had those in all while our superior strength training and conditioning program
- 13:45under oh Frosty or Daddy, Yeah, do you do you think it's gonna
- 13:52work in the Big ten though? With all the teams that run the ball.
- 13:58So that is that is, that is the bill. That good job,
- 14:05and there's a lot of concern there. I have frozen cons I will
- 14:13say, I'm willing to give it a try here for a little bit because
- 14:18of how multiple and how different you can you can do with it, And
- 14:24teams aren't going to be ready to face it the Big Ten because they haven't
- 14:28seen it. The concern, I think for sure, are the teams that
- 14:31are going to line it up at you and just pounded down your throat Minnesota
- 14:35Game one that very well could happen, and teams could just be hitting seven
- 14:39eight, nine plus yards of carry against it if you're not hitting the correct
- 14:43assignments and hitting the blitzes correctly on the rushes. However, I do think
- 14:48there's a higher upside to being able to create pressure and create confusion with some
- 14:56of the different blitz packages. And I even saw in the spring game how
- 14:58we are moved people around pre snap a lot. So it might be a
- 15:03little more complicated, but I think it's a high risk, high reward defense
- 15:07here in the Big Ten. It's going to be different. It's going to
- 15:11create something that teams aren't you preparing for, which is kind of what I
- 15:15like with the state of our program now. I also think it matches our
- 15:20talent base. Like you mentioned, we don't have the big dudes, but
- 15:24it is good. Probably Ty Robinson's good. Yes, there's gonna be There's
- 15:30gonna be some bruns that there are just gonna be massive holes that trains could
- 15:33go through. It's gonna happen. And that's what's scary is that we're kind
- 15:39of relying on the take, you know, getting two turnovers a game.
- 15:45Otherwise they are going to run it down our throat. But Wisconsin's moving away
- 15:50from it. Supposedly that works to our benefit. Minnesota's smaller up front.
- 16:02They're still gonna be big and they're still gonna run it, but they're looking
- 16:06a little different. Michigan that don't even about that game. That's gonna be
- 16:11wrong. I like that as different. I do like that as different.
- 16:18I think that hopefully it'll be a little more fun if we can get some
- 16:22turnovers, because in the past it's just like, all right, six yards
- 16:26of carry, five yards of carry, easy dumped down, slant across the
- 16:30middle, twenty yard corner touchdown. It's like, Okay, I just want
- 16:36to get freaking pressure. I want to see some sacks. Somehow. We
- 16:38had two people get drafted. They both got drafted, right, I know,
- 16:42Oshan Mathis did did h Garrett Nelson get drafted? He signed undrafted pre
- 16:48agent last year? Nobody got a sack. He did get a sack in
- 16:52the preseason game. I saw that something. We had both those guys and
- 16:56we had no pressure. How is that that makes no sense? Those are
- 17:00perfect guys though, of the athletic talent, yes, that we had,
- 17:06but we weren't able to scheme anything up for them to get to the quarterback.
- 17:11And I don't know about the design of what we were running under Frost
- 17:15or if this three three five is going to allow any of these guys.
- 17:19But I don't even I wouldn't even say we have two guys at that level
- 17:26on this year's depth chart right now, would you? And I mean Luke
- 17:33Luke Rhymers the only one that I would say, maybe he could live up
- 17:36to Garrett Nelson on the defensive side of the ball with the year another year
- 17:38of experience here, but up front, no, there's nothing there. And
- 17:44Nick Henrick with the captain last year, I think he's gonna be players.
- 17:48I don't. I don't think it's like they don't want to be like man
- 17:52that guys are gonna suck. But I agree we probably don't have that top
- 17:56end talent we had last year, top end talent last year for our like
- 18:03our top end talent last year is not equal to our top end talent this
- 18:07year. I'm not saying we are top end talent. Come on, Hunter,
- 18:08you are just you're making me sound like I think the husk. You're
- 18:11making me sound like a kool Aid drinker. Oh absolutely, we're getting closed.
- 18:15I gotta give you a gut check it every year now and then Yeah,
- 18:18I'm not trying to sound like that, You're just you're like, well,
- 18:22Austin said the other day that just Simms is a Heisman candidate. It's
- 18:25like, no, I did not say that, that's what you're making it
- 18:30sound like. Dak What with the Vikings did you see from that three three
- 18:36five that just made it look like absolute dot shit? I saw in the
- 18:42preseason game, or not preseason, the playoff game. I saw Daniel Jones
- 18:47light us up, and if he's lighting me up, that's not good news.
- 18:51Basically made him a hundred million dollars off it. So now, to
- 18:56be fair, the Vikings, they're kind of aging up there. They're not
- 18:59young and fast as they once were. No, and they couldn't get pressure
- 19:04to begin with. So having three down linemen they were just had people just
- 19:08lift them apart, ran all over room. It was I hated it,
- 19:15and thank god the guy got fired. Yeah. Now, I will say
- 19:22in the past rules like his his Baylor teams, it was his defense that
- 19:26carried the teams more than the offense, which I don't know if he ran
- 19:30three three five there don't And that's what I say I don't think he ran
- 19:33three three five. No, I don't. I said, don't know if
- 19:40that's concerning or not. I haven't decided yet from my understanding of it.
- 19:45And this is more notes I have on it. It's vulnerable the teams that
- 19:48can run on the edge and throw it in the seams, but it usually
- 19:53has good coverage in the back end because you do have five vs. In
- 20:00So the stuff I'm reading about is like, this maybe fits more towards like
- 20:03an acc Big ten or Big twelve type offenses, but maybe the Big ten's
- 20:10going that way, but we are going to see the teams that pounded at
- 20:12us. That's where it gets really concerning. I think it's gonna fit Colorado
- 20:17really nicely. I really do, from from a style standpoint, But Minnesota
- 20:23Game one scares the shit out of me because they're gonna do all of that
- 20:29running on the edge with their quarterback. They're gonna move their offensive line like
- 20:33crazy. They got a bunch of three hundred plus pound guys up front that
- 20:37could just bury us. So that's where there's a give and take with this
- 20:42scheme for the three three five. I just don't think it sets up well
- 20:47for the Big ten with big running backs, big offensive lines. This year's
- 20:52Big Ten, not next year's Big I was gonna say, the argument is
- 20:55that, like your Wisconsin's moving away from that. Ohio State has moved away
- 20:59from that over the US coming in. They aren't running that, So your
- 21:06argument is that it's moving away from that. Now. Iowa was sure as
- 21:10hell ain't changing what they do with Brian Ferris, but I think it's fired
- 21:15this year. Who the hell knows what the new guys gonna do. So
- 21:18the argument is that maybe they're moving away from it, that that's the that's
- 21:22the hope we can we can suck in here. But we'll see. Let's
- 21:27get into some of the players and personnel here. So just like the offense,
- 21:32we'll go through the transfer portal and guys that are leaving and then the
- 21:37key pieces here that are coming in. So guys leaving Julia Martin, Jaden
- 21:44Gould too deepensive basketball going to Syracuse, Holy Gates going to New Mexico.
- 21:49Stephen Wynn who played quite a few snaps up front with the old Miss Braxton
- 21:56Clark, which I didn't even know he was still on the roster, but
- 21:59it seems like he didn't play much last year. He's in the portal beside
- 22:03Newsom is in the portal. Jalen Weaver portal. Ernest Houseman leaves and goes
- 22:11to Michigan. That was the big one of Miles Farmer and Miles Farmer now
- 22:18reportedly probably going back east, but he was seen at a soccer game.
- 22:29But yeah, going to Syracuse probably with those other d backs. That's where
- 22:32Travis Fisher's now at. Who is the one that recruited these guys into for
- 22:37us? So those are the guys leaving from the portal. Guys coming in
- 22:40MJ. Sherman and defensive end from Georgia, Corey Collier from Florida, defensive
- 22:48back, linebacker, chief boarders. Gotta love that name Florida and then even
- 22:55to tackle a why to Judy who we expect to get some minutes coming in
- 22:59from Texas, A and M. Did we win or lose on the defensive
- 23:03side of the ball. I'm gonna say we've probably won because realistically we probably
- 23:12had two starters transfer out, maybe three, and I'm gonna guess we had
- 23:19four transfer and oh no, never Onne Princeville. Princeville is a freshman,
- 23:26isn't he? He's not a transfer. Hmm, I'm gonna calling that even
- 23:32I think we probably had three come in and three go out for starters.
- 23:37I'm I'm gonna say it to win, because you can't get worse than last
- 23:40year. So let's let's play a game here. Guess guess the twenty two
- 23:45opponent. They had six on forty two yards on yet their quarterback went thirty
- 23:48seven, fifty six or four or nine yards Boomer Sooner, Nope, no
- 24:00way, it was Oklahoma George Southern qb oh no, yep, Ding ding
- 24:07Ding? What was his name? So I can't get worse. You can't
- 24:11give up almost seven yards door to Southern and get me worse. I will
- 24:18say our defense did get better as the year went on, because you're right,
- 24:22it couldn't have gotten worse than that game. All right, let's go
- 24:27through our projected depth chart here, and I think there's a lot of question
- 24:33mark still as there should be new defense, new names, freshman coming in.
- 24:38We're pretty young across the board. I would say our strength here is
- 24:41the linebacker position. But with the three three five, there's gonna be a
- 24:45lot of opportunities to bring in a couple of bigger guys. Walk those linebackers
- 24:48down have a five man front. We saw some of that in the spring
- 24:52game. Some of these safeties could come up and play the linebacker spot.
- 24:57In my mind, there's gonna be people shifting all over the place to hit
- 25:03on that confusion piece that we saw. So you're not always going to see
- 25:07this like three of down linement, three linebackers and five safeties is gonna look
- 25:11very different than the traditional defenses. So up front in the middle, we're
- 25:18probably going to see a lot of Ty Robinson. We could see him out
- 25:21on the edge, Nash Hutchmaker, hutch Mocker, I'm not sure how do
- 25:26you pronounce his last name. He's gonna be in the mix there as well.
- 25:30A j Rawlins sophomore. We could expect to see plan some Linelia Judy
- 25:37the transfer from Texas A and M MJ. Sherman. Maybe we'll be back
- 25:42at linebacker, but could see him down on the line as well. And
- 25:45then Austin the freshman. Give her a shot. Princeville na Uman Millen,
- 25:55what a name. I think I nailed it. There's no way that guy's
- 25:57not a star. Princeville, Come on, Princeville. Our defense does have
- 26:03some pretty dope names, Princeville Chief, Maverick Riley Van Poppel, come on,
- 26:10sign me up, Blaze, Gunnerson Blaze, another one I have written
- 26:15down. Cameron Lennart another freshman. So a lot of guys right now that
- 26:21we've heard that guess what, a lot of positive things about him in camp.
- 26:27So who knows where everyone's gonna end up up front there, But those
- 26:33are the guys that expect to be hearing their name called in the fall.
- 26:37Moving back to that second tier of linebackers, Luke Rhimer, who we anticipate
- 26:41to be the key captain him and Nick Henrich there in the middle calling out
- 26:48the shots. They probably are even Malcolm Hearts are We'll see Yep heart Zog
- 26:57back there. MJ shr mentioned Sheep Borders, There's a John Bullock, Javin
- 27:02right, Jamari Butler, maybe Garrett Snodger Ass potentially some different names thrown out
- 27:08there in the middle. And then the secondary Isaac Gifford stock Up. I
- 27:15would say from things we've been hearing, he was one of the guys that
- 27:18got a single digit jersey. I think the potential has always been there with
- 27:22him, but maybe he's really taken the next step. Four He's gonna be
- 27:26playing that rover spot that can be transitioned down to a linebacker pretty easy.
- 27:33And then the corners, I can't read that. Malcolm hartzocks for sure one
- 27:40of them. Newsome, That's what that says, Omar Brown, Tommy Hill
- 27:47coming back to the defense, skype of the ball, Dak. We have
- 27:51a guy that started on the defense, went to offense, and now he's
- 27:53back to the defense. And if that didn't spell national team jip on know
- 28:00what does? What do you think Bross sold Tommy hill On to be hey,
- 28:07man, you gotta come here, we're gonna play and then he played
- 28:11one year at corner and like, now you gotta be a wide receiver.
- 28:14Like did he even look at this guy? Like did he play snap last
- 28:18year? M I think so he didn't play much, I don't think on
- 28:23offense, but there was potential that he would. Didn't he return some kicks?
- 28:30Yep? He did. He was back there on attorney kicks. Yeah,
- 28:33because he was the one that like if we were like seven yards deep
- 28:36in the end, sooy still profits out? Yeah, Like, Tommy Hill,
- 28:40what do you do? This is the only time I get to play,
- 28:42man, let me run. He's just a jack of all trades.
- 28:48I will say this about our secondary We have the most experience probably there from
- 28:53last year's team with the names that we just mentioned, which I mean,
- 29:00I think I'm probably going to be the youngest one to get real playing time
- 29:03and keep all out and as a true freshman last year did so those guys.
- 29:07It's gonna give us the opportunity to put four or five of them out
- 29:11on the field at a time, which I think it's going to work to
- 29:15our advantage. Now we don't need five of those out in the field against
- 29:19your run heavy teams. There's that's not the ideal way to attack that.
- 29:23So there's that balance there. But I do think our strength probably is at
- 29:27the back end more so than our front. But who knows which is good
- 29:33for it is but maybe not been nice to keep would have been nice to
- 29:37keep Miles Farmer, It would that would have helped a lot. And I
- 29:45think Ernest Housman getting to our back to the portal, I think those two
- 29:49are pretty big losses. He was a guy that had a lot of potential
- 29:52here and really would have been nice to keep him mh But it didn't happen,
- 30:00did not happen. So early thoughts, defense or offense, Which team
- 30:15is better? Are going to look better here in the fall, I believe.
- 30:19I heard I Think the World. Harold was saying that the defense was
- 30:22looking better than the offense for some of their writers, which yeah, I
- 30:29agree, Dak Oh boy gosh. I would think it had to be offense
- 30:37because you're coming in with the whole new system on defense, and well,
- 30:42I guess offense you are too, but new coaches. I think all that
- 30:51Dack finished his thought. He's he's thinking real hard, deep in thought.
- 30:56I would think your offense, that'd be better. You're bringing back your own
- 31:00backs. You're wilt well that mine, you know, I take the all
- 31:03back. The receiver's gone too. I don't know. They might just both
- 31:07suck. Our offensive line though, that's one thing I think defense, because
- 31:15our offensive line is not going to be better and our defensive least has.
- 31:18Like I think our secondary is actually pretty good. Like I think when I
- 31:22look at like, I feel good about most of those players that aren't on
- 31:26the front line. It last year the boat. The lines are what sucks
- 31:33for you is so if one of them can improve that, that'll help you
- 31:37a lot. And I bet you the defensive line is a better shot because
- 31:41the offensive line is bringing back almost everybody and they suck. Well. Hopefully
- 31:47one being better than the other will then make the other better by challenging in
- 31:51practice the problem that they're both so bad and they're going against bad on the
- 31:56other side, then neither team is really getting better. And I have a
- 32:00feeling that's what we might see here in a couple of weeks. I probably
- 32:07don't disagree. And you know, I think this goes back to last year.
- 32:10We talked about just physically, we just need to get bigger, because
- 32:14we just looked small compared to I mean, when we went up against Georgia
- 32:17Southern, it's like, man, we're getting man handled by freaking Georgia Southern.
- 32:21We're screwed. And as the year went on, we did better.
- 32:24But I think it's really gonna be who put on the most pounds of this
- 32:28offseason. I don't know who that's gonna be. Buzz's frost throwing games at
- 32:35the beginning of the year because Northwestern and Georgia Southern, let ye up,
- 32:40it was Ireland. It's all that beer, man. The guinness was flowing,
- 32:46so we laugh and we you know, we joke about some of these
- 32:51really bad games. We can't forget though last year, like what we be
- 32:55We beat Iowa, and yeah, we are concerned about these big, strong
- 33:02teams that just run the football. They're one of them. Wisconsin was another
- 33:06last year that we did everything we could to lose that game. Michigan.
- 33:10We did everything we could. I mean Michigan, we were in it for
- 33:14three quarters those three games right there. Though your defense didn't play terrible.
- 33:19No, so I mean form athletic seas. We're gonna finish top of the
- 33:29Big ten. Yeah, we got tread or last year. We're gonna build
- 33:31up on it this year. I'm trying to leave us in a positive mild
- 33:35here, like, yeah, we lost some players and we just said we
- 33:38might. We probably won the offensive portal, we maybe win even on the
- 33:43defensive portal. We have some freshmen playing. It's not like we had a
- 33:45bunch of guys get drafted and go pro. Right, I will say,
- 33:52you know, you look at how many people are returning, and most of
- 33:57these guys are junior seniors, so they've been on the teams that we haven't
- 34:02had any really bad blowouts in a lot like you know, our losses have
- 34:07all been heartbreaking, but we're we haven't gotten steamrolled a lot with these guys,
- 34:12so I mean they're good enough to keep us in games. That's the
- 34:15kool Aid Drinker thought. There is from a talent standpoint, we aren't missing
- 34:19much. We actually we actually are. We we are not too far away
- 34:23from a talent standpoint with the guys that Frost had here. The problem was
- 34:29that the culture and the extracurricular stuff that went on, that was the issue,
- 34:35and that Rule is going to be the guy to come in and take
- 34:38care of that and snip it all and hopefully then those games that we were
- 34:44losing I think I heard we were in the last twenty three games one score
- 34:49games. We're four nineteen in one score games. So the whole the hope
- 34:55is that rule is gonna snip that stuff, and that four nineteen is gonna
- 34:59be closer to five or better, and it can be quicker than we thought.
- 35:02That's the that's the kool Aid Drinker thought. Now, the flip side
- 35:07of that is he's coming. This is gonna be a bye week. We're
- 35:10gonna stream roll Nebraska. And then we were sneaky competitive, Yeah, and
- 35:15they go Dack. They really haven't. They really haven't gotten blown out in
- 35:20the last two years except for one game, but all the other game has
- 35:24been closed. But we've we've lost some bad teams that we've should have blown
- 35:29out. Also true, we've we had the issue of where we played to
- 35:32our up to the talent of our opponents. We've had that issue. And
- 35:37I would say teams that are missing that extracurricular culture piece usually played down to
- 35:43your opponents. I mean, I think that happens a lot. And then
- 35:45unfortunately, when you get the dog fight with Georgia Southern, guess what do
- 35:50you get scared? You're not very mentally tough, and you end up losing.
- 35:53That's what happens. Hey, if you guys need some pointers how to
- 35:58watch bad defense, I'm well seasoned now on it, so I'll help you.
- 36:01Yeah, Oklahoma, yikes, how does going to be real quick?
- 36:07That terrible? It's they say it's gonna be good, It's gonna be terrible.
- 36:14It always is. Brett Venibles does, Yeah, you know what,
- 36:21I thought it was gonna be great. And then we played K State look
- 36:24terrible, TCU let us up and then just downhill after that, Nebraska made
- 36:30it looked good though. Yeah, we're good at that. Quick shout out
- 36:37here before we go to the podcast itself. I was just looking at stats
- 36:43the other day. We are officially an international podcast. So thanks to our
- 36:49listener from Germany as looking one of us. We none of us have been
- 36:52to Germany. We have not gone to Germany. Someone else using a VPN
- 36:59in their home, probably to bounce it through germanys and they can watch the
- 37:01German sitcom. Also, our Alaska listener that we have, we did find
- 37:08out we have an Alaskan listener, so shout out the addresses. I'll send
- 37:13you a present back. I'll give you a Return to Glory podcast. Yett
- 37:19yep. This is an autographs photo of him holding said him. Well,
- 37:24we haven't on X. You can find us at Glory return on X formerly
- 37:31known as this Twitter X the artists formerly known as Twitter. It's got a
- 37:37nice ring to it, and we'll be back here in the next few days.
- 37:44Get back on our normal routine here with our episode schedule. Go be
- 37:50great, GBR Bloomer sooner