Latest / Return to Glory - Nebraska / Episode 22 | Ohio Preview

Transcript

Episode 22 | Ohio Preview · Return to Glory - Nebraska

0:03
Speaker 1: Go Big Red! The takes, the numbers, the chaos. Hunter, Austin, Dak.
0:10
Speaker 2: Talking Cornhusker football, basketball, and everything Nebraska sports.
0:14
Speaker 3: Welcome to the Return to Glory Podcast!
0:25
Speaker 1: Return to Glory Podcast. Hunter, Zarbonicki, Austin, Rose. It's September...
0:32
Speaker 1: A couple days away from opening kick against the Ohio Bobcats.
0:37
Speaker 1: We are live on YouTube every morning. The recordings and
0:42
Speaker 1: the audio will be on YouTube for replay and anywhere
0:47
Speaker 1: you can listen to podcasts. No Dak this morning. I'm
0:53
Speaker 1: just pretty sure he talked himself into being sick.
0:57
Speaker 3: Yeah.
0:58
Speaker 1: So he's missing preview number one of the year on
1:02
Speaker 1: the Ohio Bobcats.
1:04
Speaker 4: Oh, Dak. That's all right. We'll miss him.
1:08
Speaker 5: But I know he loves his action, too. So it's disappointing.
1:13
Speaker 5: Next time, I guess. Next time we play Ohio. There's
1:19
Speaker 5: a good chance he would have come on and previewed
1:21
Speaker 5: Ohio State anyways. You know, like, oh, man, big Ohio weekend.
1:25
Speaker 5: The Buckeyes are coming to town.
1:29
Speaker 1: So moving forward into game week, we're going to do
1:32
Speaker 1: a little longer episodes on Thursdays and Mondays. So Thursdays
1:40
Speaker 1: will be more of our deeper dive into the opposing team.
1:45
Speaker 1: And Mondays we will do our game recap every week.
1:53
Speaker 1: So today's a deeper dive, a look into Ohio. We
1:57
Speaker 1: have a couple other things we want to talk about.
2:00
Speaker 1: First being the depth chart that got released earlier this week.
2:07
Speaker 1: And we really didn't know if we were going to
2:11
Speaker 1: get a depth chart.
2:13
Speaker 4: Did we really get a depth chart? There's a lot
2:16
Speaker 4: of ores on that depth chart.
2:18
Speaker 1: That's what we're going to talk about right now. So
2:24
Speaker 1: what we're going to do, and I want to ask you,
2:28
Speaker 1: What's the biggest surprise here? Or maybe not surprise, but
2:31
Speaker 1: what stood out to you when you started looking at this?
2:35
Speaker 4: Well, the number of ores. That's hardly a depth turret.
2:39
Speaker 5: And I guess off cuff, my gut reaction was it's
2:44
Speaker 5: a little concerning. You know, rules coming out. He's like, oh,
2:48
Speaker 5: we're so deep this year. But when I see now,
2:51
Speaker 5: I will say, obviously, it's week one. We're playing in Ohio,
2:56
Speaker 5: so you might get a little bit, I don't want
2:59
Speaker 5: to say cute, but it's like, it just, it just
3:03
Speaker 5: indicates that.
3:04
Speaker 4: There's, they're not certain. And so no one's standing out.
3:14
Speaker 5: You kind of want to see some standouts. So I
3:18
Speaker 5: don't know. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm reading into it too much.
3:21
Speaker 5: And a lot of the oars are on the second
3:24
Speaker 5: string guys. So I could just be misinterpreting it, but boy.
3:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I'm going the route that you're overanalyzing it.
3:38
Speaker 1: I guess from what I just remember in the past,
3:40
Speaker 1: there's been quite a few ors, especially early on. Now,
3:46
Speaker 1: I also think these first three games, maybe some backups
3:50
Speaker 1: haven't been decided as much. But yeah, I think the
3:53
Speaker 1: only starting or that we got was the Vincent Shaver's
3:57
Speaker 1: Dexter Foster, and then Dwayne McDougal and Rex Guthrie at safety.
4:02
Speaker 1: I guess there's a corner battle with Victor Evans and
4:03
Speaker 1: Jeremiah Charles as well. There's a handful. The running backs,
4:09
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know. I'm not putting that in
4:12
Speaker 1: that category because I guess, I don't know. I expected
4:14
Speaker 1: there to be oars with the running backs, and people
4:18
Speaker 1: have been reading into, like, who's on top and who's
4:21
Speaker 1: second and who's third. Is it alphabetical order? I'm like,
4:23
Speaker 1: I don't know. We're going to see all three of them.
4:26
Speaker 1: I guess we'll see who gets the first carry. Maybe
4:28
Speaker 1: that's going to tell us something.
4:30
Speaker 5: The other surprise was Tree Babalade. I'm assuming we paid
4:38
Speaker 5: decent money for him in the offseason just to be
4:42
Speaker 5: the backup to gutter Petula. But I mean, I guess
4:48
Speaker 5: I understand that linemen get hurt. And so he's probably
4:52
Speaker 5: going to play a decent amount. But I did think
4:54
Speaker 5: that was interesting as well.
4:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, that also was the other thing to call out.
4:58
Speaker 1: I think that was when we were penciling in our
5:01
Speaker 1: starting offensive line. He was in there, right? Now, I
5:06
Speaker 1: guess that's a good thing that some guy that's been
5:13
Speaker 1: internal in Gunnar Gatula and has been developed here is,
5:18
Speaker 1: I mean, the clear, not an or, the clear number one.
5:22
Speaker 5: So....
5:25
Speaker 1: I guess. I thought that was interesting, too, because you're right.
5:28
Speaker 1: We paid money to go get Babalade, and he's not
5:32
Speaker 1: even the clear-cut number two. He's an or with Preston
5:35
Speaker 1: Tamuah at right tackle.
5:38
Speaker 5: I also think, actually looking at the depth chart, because
5:46
Speaker 5: I remember having this conversation a couple years ago, just like, man,
5:49
Speaker 5: we're such a young team. And now it's like, man,
5:53
Speaker 5: we're kind of old, like not in a good way,
5:55
Speaker 5: not like, oh, we're old, like the Clippers were in
5:59
Speaker 5: the NBA. It's like looking at our offensive line, it's
6:04
Speaker 5: fifth year, senior, fifth year, senior, senior, tight end, fifth year,
6:09
Speaker 5: wide receiver, senior, junior, junior, senior, running back is our
6:15
Speaker 5: youngest group.
6:16
Speaker 4: And then on defense, it's.
6:17
Speaker 5: Senior, sixth-year, junior, fifth-year, junior, senior, junior, senior, fifth-year, senior, senior.
6:25
Speaker 5: I mean, that's a lot of seniors in fifth years,
6:32
Speaker 5: which I think works out. I mean, Indiana, they were
6:37
Speaker 5: all seniors in fifth years and maybe a few juniors.
6:40
Speaker 5: A couple of years ago when our defense was really good,
6:43
Speaker 5: when we were surprised, basically– I don't remember what year.
6:47
Speaker 5: It wasn't Tony White's first year, but we were just old.
6:52
Speaker 5: It's like, oh, we should have known we were going
6:55
Speaker 5: to be good because we had a bunch of 24-year-olds
6:57
Speaker 5: playing for us.
6:59
Speaker 4: In college football, that matters. You're just bigger. You're stronger.
7:03
Speaker 4: You're older.
7:05
Speaker 1: What's interesting with having seniors, too, in college football in
7:08
Speaker 1: general now is there's going to be more and more
7:11
Speaker 1: of the seniors that are not guys that have been
7:13
Speaker 1: at your program all year. four or five years. And
7:19
Speaker 1: we say seniors now, what's funny is the new thing
7:22
Speaker 1: to look at is going to be the fifth, you know,
7:25
Speaker 1: because that's the fifth year that you can play. And
7:28
Speaker 1: it'll just be fascinating to see how many of those
7:30
Speaker 1: players play that out. You know, we have a handful
7:33
Speaker 1: of them on the roster this year already in their
7:37
Speaker 1: fifth year. And guys, you're not going to see that
7:39
Speaker 1: red shirt tag anymore. So yeah, the fifth years were
7:43
Speaker 1: a part of that before, but Now it's just, nope,
7:46
Speaker 1: five years. And, yeah, it's good to have experience, obviously.
7:54
Speaker 1: That's no secret. I think the next trend will be
7:59
Speaker 1: the guys' experience at major power football level versus not.
8:08
Speaker 1: I think that's probably something that's going to be talked
8:11
Speaker 1: about here in the future.
8:12
Speaker 4: So.
8:15
Speaker 1: The other thing I guess to note, Jacory Barney, our
8:20
Speaker 1: punt returner, and our kicker turners are Mosey and Nysiah Hunter,
8:27
Speaker 1: probably to start here. And so, you know, I'm not
8:32
Speaker 1: mentioning the long snapper. We're never mentioning the long snapper
8:34
Speaker 1: because we're not going to have to this year. And,
8:39
Speaker 1: you know, kicker being Kyle Cunanan or John Holt. There's
8:44
Speaker 1: an or there also for our place kicker as well.
8:51
Speaker 1: One other thing that I wanted to call out and note,
8:53
Speaker 1: are you surprised by the Lateef Danny Kalin or?
9:01
Speaker 5: No, I don't think Lateef's that good. I don't think
9:03
Speaker 5: Danny Kalin's that good. So it's like, why do we
9:06
Speaker 5: need to name who's second string if they're both okay?
9:09
Speaker 5: Danny Kalin's probably a better passer and Lateef's a little
9:11
Speaker 5: more physical, so it probably very game dependent on who
9:16
Speaker 5: you want to have your back, your listed backup, but
9:19
Speaker 5: does it really, you know, does it really matter?
9:21
Speaker 1: Probably not, man. I'm like, you say they're not very good. I, I'm,
9:27
Speaker 1: I actually have any position on, not any position, but
9:32
Speaker 1: I think our backup quarterback is probably one of the stronger,
9:35
Speaker 1: relatively speaking in the big 10 to, to a lot
9:38
Speaker 1: of teams.
9:40
Speaker 4: That could be true. I don't know the big 10s
9:42
Speaker 4: outlook on their back.
9:43
Speaker 1: I don't either. But we have two guys that have
9:46
Speaker 1: played and started power for schools.
9:51
Speaker 4: That's true. That's a good point.
9:53
Speaker 1: So, I mean, again, they're not obviously good enough to
9:55
Speaker 1: be starters, but I think that I'll say this of Calandria.
10:00
Speaker 1: gets hurt, I don't feel as bad as what, well,
10:05
Speaker 1: I'll say like last year when TJ Lateef came in,
10:09
Speaker 1: you know, from nothing. He's another year older. He's got
10:13
Speaker 1: another year of experience in offseason. Like, I feel better
10:16
Speaker 1: about it this year than before now. we don't want
10:18
Speaker 1: that to happen, obviously, but all right. So that's our
10:26
Speaker 1: depth chart and our conversation around that. The other thing
10:29
Speaker 1: that happened this week is, well, can.
10:33
Speaker 4: We mention our Lord and Savior punch Archer Archie Wilson
10:36
Speaker 4: real quick? That's it. That's how to get that in there.
10:39
Speaker 5: Yeah.
10:40
Speaker 1: No, no off season hype for Archie this year. And
10:42
Speaker 1: he got, he was a, yeah, he was a God last,
10:47
Speaker 1: last off season.
10:49
Speaker 4: So just thought we'd throw it in there. Anyways, continue.
10:53
Speaker 1: Matt Rule talked on Monday and gave us a press conference.
10:59
Speaker 1: It sounds like maybe the cadences of Rule's press conferences
11:02
Speaker 1: are going to be different this year. We'll have to
11:05
Speaker 1: see how it actually plays out. I heard maybe he's
11:06
Speaker 1: not coming on on Thursdays anymore. And so we heard
11:10
Speaker 1: from him on Monday. And when asked about evaluating an
11:15
Speaker 1: opener– He said the first few games, one are lost
11:18
Speaker 1: in four areas, special teams, blunders, penalties, turnovers, and bad tackling.
11:26
Speaker 1: I think that of those four things, I guess, what
11:31
Speaker 1: do you agree with, disagree with? Like, what are you
11:33
Speaker 1: looking for based off of what Rule said there?
11:36
Speaker 5: I mean, I am interested in special teams and how
11:41
Speaker 5: we carry over the energy posed to Mike Eckler. That's
11:46
Speaker 5: kind of one of the things I'm actually more interested in,
11:48
Speaker 5: oddly enough, just because tackling and, well, you know, we'll
11:55
Speaker 5: get to Ohio because they are a good, they are
11:58
Speaker 5: a good Mac team. You know, it's not, this isn't
12:01
Speaker 5: like your typical Houston Christian first games where it's like, okay,
12:06
Speaker 5: you know, do I need to look at our tackling
12:08
Speaker 5: because they're not going to, they don't, you know, those
12:12
Speaker 5: teams don't throw the ball very well and, You know,
12:14
Speaker 5: it's not big. So the biggest thing I'm more interested
12:17
Speaker 5: in is in special teams. I want to see, you know,
12:20
Speaker 5: what is our strategy on kickoff return? Are we going
12:21
Speaker 5: to be just as aggressive as we.
12:23
Speaker 4: Were last year?
12:23
Speaker 5: Have we, you know, obviously we lost Williams in that
12:28
Speaker 5: back there. So is Mosey going to have that same
12:31
Speaker 5: zip that we had, or is it going to, are
12:33
Speaker 5: we going to have.
12:33
Speaker 4: To step back?
12:36
Speaker 5: And is our Lord and Savior Archie Wilson going to
12:38
Speaker 5: come out and kick left footed?
12:39
Speaker 4: Or is he just going to kick right footed? I
12:42
Speaker 4: don't know.
12:47
Speaker 1: That should be a prop bet. Which foot will.
12:48
Speaker 4: Archie Wilson kick with?
12:53
Speaker 1: Hopefully we don't have to punt.
12:54
Speaker 5: Hopefully we don't have to punt. Which was the story
12:57
Speaker 5: last year, right? He only punted like once in his
13:00
Speaker 5: first four games.
13:03
Speaker 1: The other thing that Roel mentioned was preparing for uncertainty.
13:09
Speaker 1: Ohio's got five new receivers and yes, a brand new
13:12
Speaker 1: offensive line this year. And I chuckle at this because
13:18
Speaker 1: there's uncertainty on what they're going to run defensively, whether
13:22
Speaker 1: it be a three- or four-man front. And I laugh
13:26
Speaker 1: because of the Minnesota game, or was it the Minnesota game,
13:31
Speaker 1: that first one, that Frost said, was it Frost or
13:36
Speaker 1: was it even Rule? I think it was Frost that said,
13:41
Speaker 1: we were expecting a four-man front and they ran a
13:42
Speaker 1: three-man front and we weren't ready for it.
13:44
Speaker 4: That was definitely Frost. There's no way Rule said that.
13:47
Speaker 1: I didn't think Rule said that.
13:49
Speaker 5: That's too dumb of a thing to say. Rule's way
13:52
Speaker 5: better at the mic than that.
13:55
Speaker 1: So there's that interesting piece coming out there. And, you know,
13:58
Speaker 1: obviously you got to play that or know that uncertainty
14:02
Speaker 1: is coming in the game one. There's no film as well.
14:08
Speaker 1: And then the other thing you talked about were the captains.
14:09
Speaker 1: And I don't know, for me, The external facing captains
14:14
Speaker 1: is not that important. They're doing game captains and season captains.
14:19
Speaker 1: I guess I agree with that approach. It's, you know,
14:23
Speaker 1: earning the right to be a captain for a game
14:25
Speaker 1: like that. You kind of keep guys hungry for that.
14:29
Speaker 1: I think he's done that, you know, his.
14:31
Speaker 4: Entire life he's been here.
14:34
Speaker 1: I just feel like the importance of captains, I don't know,
14:36
Speaker 1: for me, everywhere has been a little bit less and less.
14:39
Speaker 1: external facing. Now, internal facing, it's important to obviously have
14:42
Speaker 1: leaders and captains within your program and to know who
14:45
Speaker 1: those are. But when it comes to actually who walks
14:48
Speaker 1: out there, I don't care.
14:53
Speaker 4: Oh, no.
14:55
Speaker 5: They have not given out black shirts yet.
14:57
Speaker 4: They have not given out single digits yet. Correct?
15:01
Speaker 5: I haven't missed that. So that's going to come In
15:07
Speaker 5: the next day or so, I'd assume. Unless he's not
15:12
Speaker 5: doing that this year.
15:14
Speaker 1: I think the single-digit jerseys are coming, too.
15:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, I haven't done that.
15:21
Speaker 1: Maybe they already came. I don't know.
15:23
Speaker 4: I haven't seen it. I looked for it yesterday.
15:26
Speaker 1: Alright, who in the hell is Ohio?
15:33
Speaker 4: The Solich Bowl, baby.
15:35
Speaker 1: This is the First time we've ever met, believe it
15:38
Speaker 1: or not, between Nebraska and Ohio. And you mentioned the
15:41
Speaker 1: connection of Frank Solich. Frank Solich spent 41 seasons. I
15:46
Speaker 1: didn't know it was this many. As a player, assistant,
15:49
Speaker 1: or head coach at Nebraska. That's pretty significant. 58 wins
15:54
Speaker 1: as a head coach here at Nebraska and won a
15:58
Speaker 1: couple of championships. The Big 12 Championship in 99 and
16:02
Speaker 1: then played in the 2001 National Championship games. And then
16:06
Speaker 1: he went to Ohio, and Ohio, he was very, very,
16:10
Speaker 1: very successful there. Won 115 games there, went to 11 bowls,
16:16
Speaker 1: produced the first five bowl victories in program history. He
16:18
Speaker 1: kind of built Ohio up from what they were. And
16:25
Speaker 1: it sounds like he will be part of the coin
16:28
Speaker 1: flip on Saturday.
16:31
Speaker 4: I don't like it. It gives me.
16:34
Speaker 5: You know, I thought we shook off the Solich curse
16:38
Speaker 5: last year, but I feel like we're just, we're tempting fate.
16:42
Speaker 4: Hey, we shouldn't have fired you. We know it.
16:46
Speaker 5: This is the, this is, this is your, you know,
16:48
Speaker 5: we were the X and this is, this is the
16:50
Speaker 5: girl you ended up with, but you still loved us.
16:54
Speaker 5: And yeah, it's, I'm not going to say it's cruel
16:57
Speaker 5: because I'm sure Frank's, he's all in because he probably
17:00
Speaker 5: loves Ohio.
17:02
Speaker 4: I don't know. It gives me some feelings that I
17:06
Speaker 4: don't like.
17:08
Speaker 1: I wish Frank would have stayed our head coach.
17:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. We shouldn't have fired him.
17:13
Speaker 4: He knows we shouldn't have fired him.
17:14
Speaker 5: And now we're not rubbing his face, but it's like, hey,
17:21
Speaker 5: you know, like I said, we dumped you.
17:24
Speaker 4: And we've had a rough go of it.
17:27
Speaker 5: And we just want to get back together in front
17:31
Speaker 5: of your ex-girlfriend.
17:36
Speaker 1: Ohio finished 9-4 last year. They beat UNLV 17-10 in
17:41
Speaker 1: the Frisco Bowl. We mentioned that same team that was
17:48
Speaker 1: quarterbacked by Calandria. Calandria's most recent loss was against these
17:52
Speaker 1: Ohio Bobcats. Rule called his last four seasons elite. Ohio
17:58
Speaker 1: played Rutgers last season and They were down 17-7, came back,
18:04
Speaker 1: tied the game at 31, then lost on a field goal.
18:10
Speaker 1: The new head coach is John Hauser. He was the
18:13
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator last year. His first official head coach game
18:18
Speaker 1: came in that bowl win against UNLV.
18:25
Speaker 5: They held UNLV to 10 points, and they beat West
18:28
Speaker 5: Virginia last year.
18:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the Calandria showing in the bowl game was not, stat-wise,
18:38
Speaker 1: was not, I guess, what Husker fans hoped for what
18:41
Speaker 1: we're getting. So, yes, that's an important thing to call out.
18:46
Speaker 1: The good news, I'll say it again, I think I've
18:48
Speaker 1: said it every episode this week, is that Calandria is
18:51
Speaker 1: not going to take them lightly. And if he's the
18:54
Speaker 1: true leader in the locker room with a lot of
18:56
Speaker 1: these guys, I think that's a very... It's a very
18:59
Speaker 1: good thing. There's not much negative you can take away
19:02
Speaker 1: from that heading into Saturday.
19:07
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, they were a good team last year. They
19:11
Speaker 5: do have a new head coach, and they had a
19:14
Speaker 5: lot of turnover from last year.
19:16
Speaker 4: Looking at the.
19:17
Speaker 5: Players, their starting quarterback left, their MAAC leading rusher left,
19:23
Speaker 5: their lead receiver left for California, their second leading receiver
19:27
Speaker 5: is gone. Tight ends, starting tight ends gone. They lost
19:31
Speaker 5: a couple offensive linemen. So, I mean, they did lose
19:35
Speaker 5: a lot of production on offense. Not a ton on defense,
19:38
Speaker 5: which makes kind of sense because their defensive coordinator is
19:42
Speaker 5: now their head coach. So there's probably a lot of
19:44
Speaker 5: those guys that want to stick around for that. But
19:47
Speaker 5: they did lose a couple starters.
19:48
Speaker 4: On defense, too. Offensively, it's going to be a new look.
19:55
Speaker 1: The quarterback for Ohio is Nick Paulos.
19:59
Speaker 4: I'm going to go with Paulos.
20:03
Speaker 1: The offensive coordinator is Scott Isfording. It's an interesting name.
20:09
Speaker 1: He was the offensive coordinator last year, so you get
20:12
Speaker 1: an idea of what he's trying to do. But now
20:16
Speaker 1: this new quarterback here, he's a runner. And his offense
20:22
Speaker 1: is built around RPOs, formations, personnel changes, and obviously without
20:27
Speaker 1: knowing these new receivers. And then bringing in a brand
20:31
Speaker 1: new offensive line, it's going to be a little bit
20:33
Speaker 1: difficult to fully rely on last year's film. So the
20:36
Speaker 1: big question here, I guess, is how are we going
20:38
Speaker 1: to adjust and, I guess, identify what they're trying to
20:43
Speaker 1: do offensively. And, you know, can we make our adjustments
20:50
Speaker 1: and hold Ohio, I'll say it, under 20 points this game?
20:56
Speaker 1: I think that that's very reasonable and a want checkbox
21:01
Speaker 1: from a lot of fans.
21:06
Speaker 4: Well, I think they want to run the ball a lot.
21:10
Speaker 5: So knowing that, you know, it's just how, how are
21:14
Speaker 5: we scheming our secondary and how aggressive, how aggressive do
21:18
Speaker 5: we want to be?
21:19
Speaker 4: You know, are we, are we going to be.
21:20
Speaker 5: Playing it relatively safe and trying to hold them to two,
21:25
Speaker 5: three yard, you know, putting them in third and three,
21:28
Speaker 5: third and four situations where they have to make the
21:31
Speaker 5: decision to run and pass.
21:32
Speaker 4: And maybe their passing is.
21:33
Speaker 5: Not, passing game is not that great, but they said
21:37
Speaker 5: they're the quarterback six foot six, the Duke would basically
21:40
Speaker 5: just stretch across the line for third and short. So
21:43
Speaker 5: I think you have to kind of keep it, keep
21:46
Speaker 5: it a little bit further back. And again, not knowing
21:52
Speaker 5: how explosive they're, it doesn't seem like their offense was
21:55
Speaker 5: explosive last year. Looking at their record, they did, you know,
22:01
Speaker 5: put up some points against some lesser opponents, but.
22:07
Speaker 1: Well, the good news is, too, we have a brand-new
22:10
Speaker 1: defensive scheme that we're bringing in a new coach as well.
22:13
Speaker 5: I also don't know. That's the other thing that makes
22:15
Speaker 5: the question tough to answer. It's like, I don't even
22:17
Speaker 5: know what we're going to do. How do we adjust
22:19
Speaker 5: if I don't even know, you know? I don't know
22:22
Speaker 5: what's going to happen.
22:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we've got two elements of surprises coming here
22:27
Speaker 1: with the Ohio offense and Nebraska defense. On the other
22:29
Speaker 1: side of the ball, Ohio's generally played a 4-2-5 hybrid
22:33
Speaker 1: game Maddox has a 3-3-5 background. Their new defensive coordinator.
22:41
Speaker 1: So we're a little bit unsure, I guess, what we're
22:44
Speaker 1: going to see there. We'll see what the script, we'll
22:47
Speaker 1: call it the script of Dana for the first drive
22:50
Speaker 1: looks like.
22:52
Speaker 4: First drive usually looks good.
22:53
Speaker 1: My big thing on offense is what is our offensive
23:00
Speaker 1: line going to look like against it? Again, a formidable Maddox.
23:04
Speaker 1: can our offensive line get movement and prevent pressure from
23:09
Speaker 1: Calandri having to immediately get out of the pocket and run?
23:12
Speaker 1: That's my big watch here, regardless of what front they're in.
23:18
Speaker 1: How's our offensive line going to perform against this Ohio defense?
23:24
Speaker 5: Our defensive line is actually decently large this year, so
23:31
Speaker 5: I think that's going to be a benefit to us.
23:34
Speaker 4: I still have our depth chart open here. Yeah.
23:39
Speaker 5: Like we've got, we've got some decent size on the
23:43
Speaker 5: defensive end and our offensive line is pretty big too.
23:46
Speaker 4: So that's going to help us when it comes to
23:48
Speaker 4: when we're facing matchup.
23:49
Speaker 5: Wise, moving the ball and being able to move the
23:52
Speaker 5: line and control the line of scrimmage. I think we'll,
23:57
Speaker 5: I don't want to be confident, but I think we'll
24:00
Speaker 5: be okay. Like the, I think it's going to be competitive.
24:03
Speaker 5: I don't think it's going to be as competitive as
24:07
Speaker 5: Cincinnati last year, but I do think that 20-point line,
24:12
Speaker 5: I think that's doable, but I think it's totally plausible
24:14
Speaker 5: that they get 14 points, 17 points, and we're.
24:21
Speaker 4: A little bit of a game in the first quarter,
24:23
Speaker 4: first half.
24:27
Speaker 1: You clearly didn't... Okay, I flipped to the other side
24:29
Speaker 1: of the ball, so.
24:31
Speaker 5: You talked about being able to get pressure, our defense
24:35
Speaker 5: being able to get pressure on our offensive line.
24:37
Speaker 1: No, our offensive line preventing pressure.
24:41
Speaker 4: Oh, I thought you said the other way around.
24:43
Speaker 1: So I guess from our offensive side of things, like
24:46
Speaker 1: I said, I'll be curious in our offensive line. The
24:49
Speaker 1: other thing that obviously I think we want to see,
24:51
Speaker 1: so Dak mentioned yesterday, he and his wacky-dacky Wednesday, and
24:56
Speaker 1: I wanted to debate this with him, was we have
24:58
Speaker 1: to identify a running back one saturday and it hopefully
25:03
Speaker 1: is clear that we know who our running back is
25:07
Speaker 1: and i i just gave him three thumbs downs after
25:11
Speaker 1: that and completely disagree with that uh i think i
25:15
Speaker 1: know what he's trying to say and that we want
25:17
Speaker 1: someone to break out eventually but i don't think it
25:21
Speaker 1: has to be this saturday um i also think that
25:24
Speaker 1: all three of these guys right now like they're all
25:26
Speaker 1: going to get a shot and if they don't none
25:28
Speaker 1: of them break out like it's still going to promote competition,
25:31
Speaker 1: which is okay. Uh, I think that all three of
25:34
Speaker 1: these running backs probably have in their own way. And
25:39
Speaker 1: I say three, there's a fourth one in Quentin knives
25:41
Speaker 1: who there's going to be a package for him. I'm
25:42
Speaker 1: guessing a short yardage. So like, I also don't think
25:46
Speaker 1: there needs to be an RB one in today's world
25:49
Speaker 1: of football at any level. You can play a running
25:51
Speaker 1: back by committee as long as your offensive line is good.
25:58
Speaker 5: Um, No, I, I probably agree with that to an extent.
26:02
Speaker 5: I do think it helps when you have like the
26:06
Speaker 5: reason that oftentimes it looks better to not have a
26:09
Speaker 5: committee because that means they have a guy who's like,
26:11
Speaker 5: actually like last year, Emma Johnson was like, I don't
26:13
Speaker 5: want a committee. I want this guy to have the
26:15
Speaker 5: ball every time. So ideally I don't want a committee
26:19
Speaker 5: because that means we have one guy who's like, I
26:21
Speaker 5: don't want to give the ball to other people.
26:22
Speaker 4: I want to just give it to this guy. Yeah.
26:24
Speaker 1: But because he's that good.
26:26
Speaker 4: Correct. But it can work.
26:28
Speaker 1: And I, I, To me, that's not an important, like,
26:31
Speaker 1: this goes back to our conversation. Having a stud running back,
26:35
Speaker 1: to me, is very nice to have. Obviously, if you
26:37
Speaker 1: could get everything you wanted exactly, you're going to get
26:40
Speaker 1: the best player every position. To me, a running back,
26:42
Speaker 1: number one, is not, like, super important. I think the
26:48
Speaker 1: offensive line, obviously the quarterback is very important. Offensive line
26:51
Speaker 1: is very important on offense. I think the running backs
26:54
Speaker 1: and receivers, right, like, they're nice to have things, and
26:57
Speaker 1: if you can get them, you'll take them. And if
26:59
Speaker 1: you can develop them, that's even better, which is what
27:01
Speaker 1: happened with Emmett. So that's where my head's at on
27:06
Speaker 1: that side of the ball. Anything else to add?
27:08
Speaker 4: No.
27:15
Speaker 1: Okay. Uh, last little segment here for our Ohio preview. One, uh, one, one,
27:21
Speaker 1: we're going to save our score predictions for our Saturday
27:25
Speaker 1: morning episode. Uh, Big picture, I guess, give me one
27:33
Speaker 1: or two things. What do we need to see and
27:38
Speaker 1: what do you want to see come Saturday in our game?
27:45
Speaker 5: So I thought about this because I knew you were
27:47
Speaker 5: going to ask it. And I'm torn because obviously I
27:51
Speaker 5: want to see what Calandria is capable of. But if
27:55
Speaker 5: we come out and we basically run what our first
27:59
Speaker 5: drive was, last year against Utah in the bowl game
28:04
Speaker 5: where it's just, yeah, we're just going to run it
28:05
Speaker 5: every time because we can. And you can't do anything
28:08
Speaker 5: about it. Boy, that'd be pretty cool to see. So
28:10
Speaker 5: I kind of want to see what this new look,
28:13
Speaker 5: Jeep Wade, four new starters, three new starter offensive line.
28:21
Speaker 4: That's really what I want to see.
28:22
Speaker 5: I want to see them come out and absolutely just
28:26
Speaker 5: dominate a team that In theory, you know, if our
28:31
Speaker 5: offensive line is serious in the Big Ten, we should
28:33
Speaker 5: be able to hold our own. And so we should
28:35
Speaker 5: be able to dominate a MAAC team's what was a
28:40
Speaker 5: pretty good defense last year and a defensive-minded head coach.
28:45
Speaker 4: I really want to see that battle unfold, personally.
28:51
Speaker 1: That would be nice, just running it down their throats.
28:55
Speaker 5: Just be like, we're better than you, we're bigger than you,
28:58
Speaker 5: we're more athletic. We don't need to get creative. We're
29:02
Speaker 5: just going to win this game controlling the clock and
29:07
Speaker 5: getting three or four yards to carry.
29:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I got two things that kind of relate
29:12
Speaker 1: to each other. One's the canned answer of just being crisp,
29:15
Speaker 1: being clean in these first few games. I think that
29:19
Speaker 1: comes the penalties, it comes the turnovers. Yes, obviously, if
29:24
Speaker 1: you dominate somebody, that's going to help do that. There
29:27
Speaker 1: are going to be mistakes, obviously. I just don't want
29:30
Speaker 1: them to be your catastrophic type of mistakes from penalties,
29:36
Speaker 1: busted coverages. you know, don't want to see any of that. Now,
29:41
Speaker 1: could some happen? Potentially, yes. We should be better than Ohio,
29:47
Speaker 1: but again, we mentioned they're not a pushover MAAC team. Like,
29:50
Speaker 1: Dak's prediction, I think, was, I don't even, he said
29:53
Speaker 1: it's going to be a blowout. He's saying a 40, 50,
29:56
Speaker 1: I don't even know what he was talking about yesterday.
30:00
Speaker 1: Never do. That's why it's Wacky Dacky Wednesday. But I
30:05
Speaker 1: truly think that this game could get dicey for a while.
30:12
Speaker 1: Hopefully not dicey for the whole thing if it's not
30:16
Speaker 1: crisp and clean from what we want to do. Now,
30:19
Speaker 1: if we have the better players and we think we
30:21
Speaker 1: do and it comes out where we are crisp and clean,
30:27
Speaker 1: then we should take care of business. Um, the number
30:29
Speaker 1: of staff that I like when I say what would
30:32
Speaker 1: be really nice to have, but you know what? I
30:34
Speaker 1: think really good teams would do this in a game
30:36
Speaker 1: like this is when the turnover margin, I'm going to
30:39
Speaker 1: say by two, not just win it, but win it
30:42
Speaker 1: by two. And what that implies is forcing turnovers, right?
30:49
Speaker 1: You got to at least force two to do that,
30:51
Speaker 1: but then not have any, um, you know, two Oh,
30:54
Speaker 1: and if we happen to have one, then let's force three,
30:56
Speaker 1: let's get three, you know, three, one, I don't think
30:59
Speaker 1: it'll probably get to 4-2, but maybe it could. Win
31:01
Speaker 1: the turnover margin by two against a team like this,
31:04
Speaker 1: and I think, to me, that's going to show a
31:07
Speaker 1: lot of positive signs moving forward for both sides of
31:10
Speaker 1: the ball.
31:11
Speaker 5: Yeah, some forced fumbles would be great to see. I
31:14
Speaker 5: know we've seen interceptions, but it'd be nice to see that, hey,
31:17
Speaker 5: we're physically pushing people to turn the ball over.
31:21
Speaker 4: It would be cool. If I remember correctly....
31:26
Speaker 5: I don't have it up right now, but I think
31:27
Speaker 5: the implied score is, you know, us 35 and Ohio
31:32
Speaker 5: 12 or something like that is based off the over-under
31:35
Speaker 5: and the spread. So that's not a blowout. They could,
31:42
Speaker 5: you know, easily a couple turnovers go the wrong way
31:45
Speaker 5: and all of a sudden it's 21 to 28.
31:48
Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess....
31:57
Speaker 5: The first game, I'm more interested in what we're doing
32:00
Speaker 5: more so than how we're handling Ohio and what they're doing. Obviously,
32:04
Speaker 5: I am interested in what does our defense look like?
32:07
Speaker 5: How aggressive are we? I just have no idea. I'm
32:12
Speaker 5: assuming we have the same offensive system in our textbook
32:18
Speaker 5: of plays, but we have a new quarterback that has
32:22
Speaker 5: different skill sets than our last quarter. It feels like
32:25
Speaker 5: it's going to be a whole new team than last
32:29
Speaker 5: year so i have no idea what to expect on
32:31
Speaker 5: what we want to run it'll be i'm excited to
32:36
Speaker 5: see i don't i genuinely don't know what we're gonna
32:38
Speaker 5: look like.
32:39
Speaker 1: It's kind of how our basketball team's been the past
32:41
Speaker 1: few years too first few games you just figure out
32:43
Speaker 1: who you got it you're like yeah i i think
32:47
Speaker 1: to that point people i think are saying that this
32:51
Speaker 1: year more than you just got to get used to that.
32:54
Speaker 1: It's that is, that is going to be college football.
32:56
Speaker 1: We're not the only fan base saying that every fan
32:58
Speaker 1: base is saying that for the most part. Well, I
33:02
Speaker 1: want to see what we got. We don't know who
33:03
Speaker 1: these players are. We've never heard these names before. We
33:06
Speaker 1: don't know who this is like that. That is, that's
33:10
Speaker 1: just part of it. So, I mean, there's nothing good
33:11
Speaker 1: or bad about that, but it, it's just a different
33:16
Speaker 1: era of college sports where you're going to see new
33:20
Speaker 1: guys in these first few games, And that's all the
33:22
Speaker 1: more reason that I really think scheduling-wise it's important to
33:26
Speaker 1: get three, I'm going to call them winnable games. And again,
33:29
Speaker 1: I'll probably hate myself for saying that if things don't
33:33
Speaker 1: go the way we think they will. But just to
33:36
Speaker 1: figure out what you got, what pieces need to get
33:41
Speaker 1: put in what spots. So that's the fun part about
33:46
Speaker 1: this first game here is you're right, there's a lot
33:49
Speaker 1: of things to watch for. on our end, but you know, just, just,
33:53
Speaker 1: just little, little things to keep your eye on. Not
33:58
Speaker 1: so much watching Ohio and how we're going to stop
34:00
Speaker 1: the certain things. Now we might, we're going to need
34:03
Speaker 1: to do that maybe to win, but just all these
34:06
Speaker 1: things we talked about and see how they come out
34:09
Speaker 1: on Saturday. And that's what makes first game. So exciting.
34:15
Speaker 4: Does it feel like Husker season yet?
34:18
Speaker 1: It does. I've worn red every day this week.
34:21
Speaker 5: Can you feel it? I've worn red almost every day
34:25
Speaker 5: this week. I had to look a little nicer for.
34:26
Speaker 4: Work, so I didn't wear.
34:28
Speaker 1: No red polo?
34:29
Speaker 4: I didn't wear a red polo. I don't have a...
34:31
Speaker 4: I have a Husker polo, but I need it a
34:32
Speaker 4: little nicer than a Husker polo.
34:37
Speaker 1: All right. Well, one more episode tomorrow, and then Tailgate
34:42
Speaker 1: Preview Pod Saturday morning for the 11 a.m.
34:46
Speaker 4: Kick.
34:48
Speaker 1: Go Big Red!
34:50
Speaker 5: TBR!
34:52
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35:00
Speaker 1: Every story chasing red and white.
35:02
Speaker 3: Recruiting buzz, big time commits. Camp battles, coaching hits. Transfer
35:08
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35:14
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35:18
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35:24
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35:29
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