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Episode 42 | Maryland Preview · Return to Glory - Nebraska

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Go Big Red!
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: The takes, the numbers, the chaos.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Hunter, Austin, Dak.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: Talking Cornhusker football, basketball, and everything Nebraska sports.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Return to Glory Podcast! Return to Glory Podcast.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Hunter Zarbonicki and Austin Rose here Thursday. evening, night, whatever
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: you want to call it. We're live on YouTube here tonight.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Our schedule's got a little bit off, but that's okay.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: We're going when we can. I'm getting over a little
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: bit of a cold here before Saturday. Probably fighting off
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: that lack of sleep from the travel and the partying
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: from the Michigan State game.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Plus, you know, it's that season. It's finally cold out.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Now you can have a cold and be cold at
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: the same time. Plus, it's rainy and wet. This is
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: just when you get sick. That's how it works.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: And we've gotten a crap ton of rain here.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: The last, I don't know, 48 hours, I guess you
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: can say. And so, yeah, I mean, we have been
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: getting through the conditions, and I think it's from some hurricane,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: but we're still floating. As long as we can get
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: to the game, I'll take a boat if I have to.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I was in Lincoln today.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: I drove over 180, drove over Salt Creek. It looked
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: like a freaking river. It was to the brim with water.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Well, Austin, we are 4-0. We finally have a Big
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Ten road win here to start the season. First time
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: being 4-0 in quite some time. And Maryland just got
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: run up. off the field by UCLA 54 to three
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: at home. And I know what the temptation may seem
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: like for this game, for a lot of Husker fans,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: that this is a layup. This is a gimme, uh,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: ready for Indiana.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: That's exactly what it is. Trap game, big news come in.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: The curse of Gus Johnson is upon us, uh.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: To Indiana.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: And this just made, it just made it feel like
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: a trap game. You just, What are the odds Indiana,
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: or what are the odds Maryland gets those four interceptions
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: two games in a row?
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: They looked horrible against UCLA.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: You know that they're going to play with a little
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: bit of a fire in their step to kind of
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: recover from last.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Year, and then we might. I don't know.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: I don't think we'll be doing it, but you could,
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: like I said, beside I'm looking at that prepping for Indiana,
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: big televised game at home.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a big situational spot as the betters like
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: to call it. It's, it's a, you called it the
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: trap game, whatever you want to call it. It's, it's
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: coming off. I mean, I wouldn't say Michigan state, you know,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: is the biggest program whenever, but it might be the
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: biggest win in the, in the rule era. If you
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: go back and start looking at some of the wins,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: you know, Colorado, but I mean, it's up there. So like, yeah,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: you want to talk about, you want to talk about narratives.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: This is it. And then the other piece that we
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: didn't have going into last week is We have a
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: little bit of injury bug here. It looks like Jamal
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Rule's listed as doubtful. We have a Corey Barney questionable status.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Maryland's also got some guys on the injury part, a
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: running back, Harry Dalton III's out. But there's just a
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: few more question marks going into this game. I would
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: say if I had to describe Maryland in one sentence
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: on what to expect, they're going to be a high-volume
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: passing team where Malik Washington's going to throw to his targets.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: They're going to have an active pass rush. and they're
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: going to be a desperate team here to prove that
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: that 54-3 blowout loss is not who they are and
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: what they're made of now has the team lost coach
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Mike Loxley and or has Mike Loxley lost the team
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: and is there any fight there left I don't know
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: uh that's what we're going to see you know as
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: a Husker fan you're going to say I hope not
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: but you can't be thinking that at all as a player,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: as a coach, you have to come in thinking that
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: they're going to give you their best shot. They're desperate
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: to come back and fight for their coach, for their
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: program and go on and get a big road win
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: in Lincoln. Yeah.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: You know, and you could say from Maryland's perspective, this
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: is their trap game. If they didn't get blown out
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: last week, you might be saying the same thing because
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: then they're at Ohio state the week after us. Yeah. Yeah.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: I thought Mike Loxley was going to get fired this week,
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: and this is going to be that classic team wins
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: after coaches fired situation.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: But I.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Like you said, we're going to see, but I would
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: guess that the locker room with Mike Loxley, it seems
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: like it's kind of running its course a little bit.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Maryland might be looking for a new coach this year.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: Malik, like you said, that high-volume passing, Malik Washington, surprised
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: that he stayed at Maryland. I don't know how much
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: they're paying him to be there, but Good for him
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: for sticking it out, I guess.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: I don't remember exactly what the Big Ten record stat was.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: It wasn't very good. We went out there last year
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: and won that road game. And just talking to a
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: few fans, they were not thrilled with the whole situation.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: And we thought maybe after this game that maybe we'd
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: see him get fired, but he's not. It sounds like
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: he's coaching. This is our fifth meeting between the two teams.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: We are ahead three to one, but the visiting team
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: has won the last three. When Maryland came into Lincoln
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: in 2023, they forced five turnovers, if you remember that game,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: and won 13-10 on a field goal as time expired.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: And then last year, we won by three out there
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: in a high-scoring game. And then in 2019, if you
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: remember in Frost's early tenure there, we had that 54-7
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: blowout win in College Park. So again, it's not really
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: some long rivalry. There's not really any bad blood, but
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: The last two recent games have been very close for
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: very different reasons. And we're looking to continue off this
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: 4-0 start, which is our best start since opening 7-0
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: in 2016.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that'll be interesting to see. We talked about
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: the significance of the Michigan State win. What from Michigan
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: State carries over? Like I said, Jamal rules out.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Well, not out. He's doubtful.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: And then jacori is also injured which didn't really have
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: a major didn't seem to have a big impact on
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: the michigan state game i guess i didn't really feel
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: like we missed their presence maybe jamal rule a little
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: bit in the run game but everything seemed to be
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: going all right so i don't know maybe we'll be
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: fine without them maybe that will carry over maybe jacori
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: and jamal rule will both play and it won't it
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: won't matter but um It's a big 10 game. These
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: are the kind of big 10 games I want to
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: start the season. The Maryland's that are struggling and the
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: Michigan State's with the new head coach and injuries. You
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: look at Maryland's season so far. They opened the year
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: against Hampton 62-0 then at UConn and then they lost
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: to Virginia Tech and then UCLA.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: They're on a two-game losing streak. I I don't, what
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: is the line for this game?
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: I guess I, I feel like it's probably decently favoring us.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: The spread's 14 and a half right now. And I
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: think the, the question is, you know, what, what is
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: this Maryland team telling us? And especially last week, like,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: what does that actually tell us? And I mean, not
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: just tell us, but after my episode on Tuesday that
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I discussed, you know, the different lenses and views that
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Husker fans and Husker media and Husker players and Husker coaches,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: like what, what all of them, have in mind, like what,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: what's the takeaway from that game? I think if you
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: didn't watch the game and you don't know, and you
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: see the score, you, you, yeah, you're just assuming it was,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: it was an ass whooping. Uh, it, it was, but
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: there were also two pick sixes Malik Washington through throw
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: four picks. They couldn't get anything going on the ground. Um,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: before UCLA though, they've averaged 280 passing yards a game
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: and it, they, they've showed explosivity. They have the leading, um,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Leading receptions per game in the nation. We'll get to
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: him in a second. So, like, as we go and
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: dive into the offense and defense here, I just want
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: to keep in mind, like, that game, yeah, it was
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: a blowout, but I think as a coaching staff, you
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: got to take it with a grain of salt and
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: just expect that this game's going to be a grind
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: and a battle like everything else. The 14 and a
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: half line, I don't know if your reaction to that
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: was a lot or enough.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: That seems high. Yeah.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know what I would have thought after that,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: but it was 12 and a half and it immediately
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: jumped to 14 and a half.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: So I don't think I would have gone double digits. I,
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: but part of it is also, we also don't know
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: how good UCLA is. UCLA did kill him last week,
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: but they're four and oh, they, they put up 52
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: against Purdue as well. So UCLA might actually be a good,
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: a good offense. And Maryland just had a really bad
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: game protecting the ball. And it reflected if those four
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: drives don't result in turnovers, maybe you're, you're looking at
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: the score a little differently and saying, well, maybe UCLA's
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: offense is just really good. And, I was thinking it
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: was going to be like an eight and a half
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: point spread, but maybe that's just the Nebraska pessimism in me.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: And we are better than that, but I don't know.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: So when you start talking about offense here, and I've
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: listened to a handful of Dana Holgerson's press conference. and
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: I listened to his full one this week, yesterday, and
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: I gotta say this, like, if you haven't listened to him,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: I enjoy listening to him almost more than Rule a
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: little bit. He is straightforward. He shoots you to the point,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: he's blunt, tells you how he saw it. He doesn't
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: flatter any narrative. He, he, he even got to the
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: point where he's like, there was some good because he
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: was so like nitpicky and, and, and calling everything out
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: in the press conference. You know, he talked about Calandra
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: being too quick to leave the pocket, took too many hits.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: He also then praised him for that touchdown passes as
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: a result of the film work and the extra work
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: they put together and called that throw and catch to
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Gilmer exceptional. So like, I do think, like, when you
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: talk about Dana and then you talk about this offense
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: and who's going to be available this week and the
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: different players, like, we don't know, but I'm becoming more
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: and more trustworthy in the system itself. And he even
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: mentioned that, too. They asked him the impact if Rule
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: and Jacory can't go, and he basically just said, Rule, like,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: kind of thinks the running backs is plug and play. Like,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: they all carry a little bit different skill set, but
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: for the most part, he doesn't even know who's out
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: there half the time, he said. But he said Ja'Cory,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: you know, his backup, Quinn Clark, that comes in there,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: you know, got a little bit of a different skill set, right?
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: More vertical threat down the field versus size and short yardage. So,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: like you said, there'll be some adjusting, you know, the
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: game plan if Ja'Cory can't go. all that being said
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: for our offense, my big takeaway this week is like,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: you got to feel like you can trust Dana and
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: what he's trying to do with a quarterback like Ant that,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: that is, is meshing well with him and learning the
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: offense very quickly in the style that Dana likes to play.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I was thinking about this today and maybe this
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: isn't for the Maryland preview, but you know, if someone
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: asks both offensive and defensive, you're like, what does Nebraska
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: do really well?
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: On offense.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: And I, I, I feel like it's, it's pretty well balanced,
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: you know, kind of like you say, it's not quite
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: plug and play, but I feel like skillset wise, our
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: floor is really high this year and our ceiling, maybe
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: we don't have, you know, we don't have probably, you know,
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: NFL talent on the outsides, you know, maybe, maybe, but they're,
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: they're very good. The floor, the ceiling, the floor is
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: just very hyper. I feel like everyone that comes in
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: and we just feel very deep. So Offensively, yeah, we
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: obviously don't want to see those hits on Anthony Coindra,
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: but I think we're going to be able to move
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: the ball. I think I'm interested to see are we
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: going to keep doing what we've been doing all year
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: where we're spreading the ball out more between basically Hunter
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: and Gilmore, and I guess Barney is not.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Going to be playing.
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: But running back room-wise, I don't know if we really–
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: Jamal Rule has had the most yards, but he hasn't
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: been– out carrying people by a large volume by any means.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: So I don't think it's going to be a huge
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: step off there.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: And I mean, just other guys are going to get
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: more opportunities, right? You saw Jen and tone come in
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: and that series and how that happened is as he
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: was the second string, third down back, um, got his
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: opportunity and then they were in tempos and that's how
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: he scored the touchdown because they went hurry up right
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: after that. So it is one of those things that
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: speaks to depth that speaks to experience. Um, And I
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: think that all pays off in the end, especially in
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Big Ten play. When Maryland's got the ball, expect Malik
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Washington to air it out. He did it last year.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: He's going to be one of those guys that gets, unfortunately,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: for Maryland, gets picked up in the transfer portal, gets
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: paid probably pretty decent. Yeah, he had four picks last week,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: and it kind of spiraled downhill for him, but this
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: guy's got an arm and he's able, he's able to
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: run too. He's, he's an athletic mobile quarterback, but he
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: prefers to pass it. I would say first got a
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: very strong arm. He's thrown for over a thousand yards
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: already this year. He's got six touchdowns, four interceptions. All
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: interceptions were last week. So, I mean, against Virginia tech
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the week before, which Virginia tech's proven to be a
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: pretty solid team this year, 359 yards and three touchdowns.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: And against UConn, he threw for 347. So like, that
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: just tells you that's their style. They're going to want
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: to play with different than what we were expecting going
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: into the last, well, last couple of weeks, um, against
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Michigan state and North Dakota. This is going to be
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: a more, more testing our secondary and our pass rush
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: on the side of the ball.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: That's what I was thinking. This is kind of our
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: first test in the secondary.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: So we can kind of see what, what that looks
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: like after having a really good performance last year at
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: the secondary level, but also losing quite a bit of talent.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: Um, he's going to air it out.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: The receivers that you're looking to see, Chris Dunn, who
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: already has 35 catches on the air for 312 yards,
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: which is a crazy, like that is his target is
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: Chris Dunn Jr.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Oh, sorry. Not done. Duh.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Um, unless, unless my notes were wrong.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: Duh.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: No, Chris Dunn's a basketball player, right? Yeah. He's a
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: for a while.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: Um, Chris Durer, who already has over 300 yards through
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: four games, 35 receptions. So we're just going to see
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: it air out. Chris Durer is going to be very involved.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: There's probably going to be a couple of shots. I
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: know at some point in this game, we're going to
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: give up. We're going to give up a big play
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: and it's going to feel gross, but there's going to
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: be a completion for 44 yards that gets them in
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: the red zone or a touchdown and you're going to
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: feel sick. But I think that's just going to be
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: a product of the volume. You look at, again, he
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: has four turnovers, and is that a product of him
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: trying to force it, or is that a product of
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: him making mistakes?
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: I didn't watch the whole game. I watched the highlights.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: But he's still a second-year quarterback, right?
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: This is only his sophomore year. He's not a junior,
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: is he?
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Correct.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: So he's still learning.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: So it's very possible that if we can get pressure
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: on him in the backfield that we can still– create
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: those turnovers just like UCLA did.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah. You mentioned Derby and their big time target, and
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: he's leading the nation right now in receptions per game.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: The other guy that caught a lot of passes on
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: us last year is, is tight end Dorian Fleming. He's
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: also a guy that is expected to get a lot
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: of volume. So I, I think what will be interested,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: interesting coming off a six sack game and then a
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: five sack game in the last two games is what
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: the strategy is going to be up front versus secondary. Obviously,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: the more that you blitz and you bring more pressure,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: the less guys you have in coverage. If you hit
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: home with the pressure and the blitz and you force
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: either the ball to get out quick or obviously get
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: a sack, you're going to prevent a lot of big
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: plays from happening. However, if they pick up the blitz
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: combo and you give Malik Washington some time, That's going
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: to give you more vulnerability down the field and big
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: play potential there. You know, on the flip side, you
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: don't bring pressure. Say you just bring a standard three-
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: or four-man rush, and you have more guys in coverage
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: to where maybe you can get some coverage interceptions. But
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: you also are probably going to give him more time
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: if you can't get home or any pressure either to
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: be able to scan the field. So there's like– it's
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: just a give and take in football and how you
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: can– what's the game plan and strategy coming in? And
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: what are you getting after? One's more aggressive. One's more conservative.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: There's probably a time and place for both. But last week,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: you know, against a team that can run the ball
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: very well, it wasn't a great passing team. We got
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: home six times for six sacks and forced two interceptions.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: So we'll see. I'm curious. I'm very curious against a
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: passing team what our strategy will be. We haven't seen
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: it yet with new D.C. Rob Arch.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: I like the idea of us.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: Coming at him quick at the beginning, you know, a
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: lot of blitzes early on, and then later in the
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: game after you kind of, like, have hit home a
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: couple times on the blitzes, maybe making him feel phantom pressure,
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: but again, similar to the offense, I was thinking to myself, like,
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: what are we good at on defense? You know, we've
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: had really good success, you know, getting pressure the last
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: couple games.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: First couple games, not so much, but the latter two,
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: we've done pretty decently at the line, but I just...
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: Is our offensive line really good?
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: Is that just a product of the teams we're playing?
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Is it a product of the scheme?
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: I haven't figured it out yet, so I kind of
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: want to see if this is the game where you'll
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: be like, okay, these dudes are dudes.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: This is what's working. I feel like I need one
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: more game to really understand what we excel at.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: I don't know if you feel the same way, but
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: I think we're going to match up pretty well against Maryland.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I will say this. As far as just Again,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: big picture, take a step back. A game like last
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: week and this week, games that were somehow a 14.5
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: point favorite in this week, right? You want to see
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: who we are? Well, if who we are is just
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: winning these games, however you do that, like that is
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: all that matters. And so, yes, if you win comfortably,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: you feel better about yourself. But you see, it's funny,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: you just think back to that 13-10 loss in 2023.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: and you kind of remember the mistakes that were made.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Even think about last year, that game on the road,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: and some of the reasons why that game was close.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: And Dylan Rayola had a couple of interceptions in that game.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: We gave up a couple of big plays on defense. Like,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: you just remember those things that when you're playing, I'm
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: calling them second half tier of the big 10 these
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: games right if you want to be better than them
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: you got to just win the game however that's possible
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: and I think that you want to believe right now
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: that we are and yeah we haven't played anybody and
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: I heard someone say we have like the 11th easiest
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: schedule that anybody's played so far in the country like
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: that's that's all great I we're 4-0 like Keep winning,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: and if we get tested and battle tested, and if
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: it's this week, if it's next week, if it's six
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: weeks from now, find a way to win by one
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: and get out of there. Like, that's what matters, and
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: learn from your mistakes. Learn from what didn't go well.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: That was why another reason why I loved Dana's press
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: conference this week was, I mean, the first six minutes
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: of it was critiques and criticisms, and, like, it wasn't
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: like he came out and said, our offense is flying,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: our offense is, clicking on all cylinders, right? Like they're
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: learning and, and, and getting better from, from each game,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: which I think is very, very important. And, and, and
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: I guess the other metric, the thing to look at
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: is right now, ESPN FBI has a number 14. We're
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: not ranked yet. I'm glad we're not ranked yet. Keep
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: us not ranked.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: We'll be ranked before.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Target off of us.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: But if we win this game, we're going to be
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: ranked 25 against Indiana.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: I agree. I think we will be next week. If
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: we win this game, just because it's, indiana but like
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: i don't i the rankings and all that all the
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: numbers and analytics and stuff is good for the media
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: and good for the fans and the playoff committee when
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: they get there to look at all that stuff it
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: right now it's still so early on and you're four
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: games in just just keep grinding away keep getting better
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: every day in practice and find a way to win
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: the game saturday.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah we're gonna get more comfortable in what we're.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: Doing but teams are also gonna get more tape on
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: us so they're gonna get more comfortable with what we're
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: doing as well so You know some of those things
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: that have been working in the past, might not work
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: so as well, the further on the season we go
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: because people know we're doing it so. You know, maybe
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: calendria does have more design runs I don't feel like
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: we've done a ton of design for Andrea runs. At
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: this point, you know a lot of them feel like
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: choices that he's made read options that he's pointed down
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: and running, but we haven't done a ton of just
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: straight up quarterback run so maybe maybe that's something we use,
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: I have no idea.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: No.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: I think we have a good floor. I think it's
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: going to be a competitive game. I think we're going
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: to win it. And I'm not worried.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: It's weird.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: I'm not worried, but I'm also not confident. It doesn't
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: make any sense. I'm in my field. I just don't
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: know what's going on, Hunter. I don't know what's going on.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: It's a situational spot, I think, is a cause of
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: a lot of that. My last point here as we
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: head into Saturday is you know, calling this a trap
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: game and, and maybe being a little nervous, but confident, right?
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: It's about trap games, about habits and your identity and what, what,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: what you have built. And if you do those things
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: and your habits correctly, the score is going to take
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: care of itself because you have better players. You, your
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: system's better. You're coaching your executions all better. And so
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: whatever the points, whatever the outcome of the game is,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: who cares, right? Your habits are going to win out and,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: you're going to be fine and win the game. Here's
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: what I think. And so far what we've seen through
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: these four games that I've really appreciated. And I, as more,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: the more that I watch college football and NFL for
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: that matter, the team that makes the least catastrophic mistakes
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: wins games a lot of times, or you're going to
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: be in every game. I mean, regardless of as long
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: as you're not a division three team playing Indiana, but like,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: If you don't make catastrophic mistakes, and I get sometimes
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: catastrophic things and mistakes are a cause of not having
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: good players, but the things I'm talking about are on offense,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: not turning the ball over. Those are almost all the
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: time catastrophic. Penalties, not all penalties to me are catastrophic.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: The catastrophic ones are the ones that are unnecessarily The
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: guy's 15 yards downfield and you decide to block somebody
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: in the back. The guy's five yards out of bounds
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: and you decide to drill him. You have the guy
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: tackle and you have a targeting penalty that gives him
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: an automatic first down. Those are like the catastrophic ones.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Not that I'm playing tough on defense L and I
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: got called for a hold outside because I was playing hard,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: but you know what I mean? So like defensively, those
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: to me are the definitions of like catastrophic, um, penalties
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: or offensively fumbles and, and, and penalties defensively, it's your
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: blown coverages, right? It's, it's your, it's your, I wouldn't
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: even say one missed tackle, but it's, it's a, it's
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: a missed tackle when you're the only guy there. Um,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: and like those, I mean, there's not many on even,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: and obviously stupid penalties too.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: Third down conversion, blown third down stands or, you know.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Well, and even, even third down stands, like, uh, to me,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: and this is maybe a little more conservative, don't make
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: any catastrophic mistakes. And, and I mean, this is kind
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: of what, how is the Iowa plays like what the
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: other team, if the other team has eight drives of
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: 13 plays each time and puts up 40, you know, well,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: they're not going to get that many cause there won't
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: be much time in the game. But if the other
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: team does that six times in a row, like props
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: to them, but you're going to be in the game. Like,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: as long as you don't turn it over on offense,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: you're going to be right there. So like, Just don't
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: give up big plays. And this is a little bit
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: probably related to this explosive metric that, you know, Rule
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: has mentioned a couple of times throughout the season so far.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: If you just limit those and don't have any of
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: your own, right, you're going to be in every game
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: and probably you're going to win a lot of them.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: And you go back and look at how the season's gone, right?
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Like we've been in the red zone 17 times. We
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: scored a touchdown on 14 of them and the field
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: goal on two of them. So we're 16-17 in the
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: red zone. I mean, as I'm watching the Pittsburgh-Cleveland game,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: there's a strip sack and a fumble because the left
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: tackle missed a block. That's a catastrophic mistake. Those kind
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: of things change the narrative of a game. And just
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: don't do that. And I think that's why I'm so
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: encouraged so far is that we're sticking to that narrative
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: a lot. And again, maybe that's a product of not
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: playing anybody that's tested that yet. And maybe Maryland will
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: this week, but I still think looking ahead to the
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: rest of our schedule to each team that we play,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: there's no one that if we don't have catastrophic mistakes,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: that's going to beat us by 40. There's no, there's
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: no one that good, that much better than his player
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: for player wise.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: No, no, I agree.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: And we haven't, I, and we haven't had a catastrophic,
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: any really anything happened so far this year.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Not that I can think of. We had, we had the, no,
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: I can't really think of anything.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: The first defensive play of the year, first play.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: Of the year was catastrophic. Yep. You're right.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: That was catastrophic. Like the other catastrophic play that happened,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: but didn't because we got a hold on it was
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: the block punt. You know, that's any, anything special teams
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: that happens, whether it be a, I'm going to say
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: like 30 or 40 or 50 plus yard return or
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: anything that gets blocked. Those are catastrophic. But yeah, we haven't,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: we haven't had many of those. And then on the
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: flip side, whether you can say that we forced some
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: of these or we, we, the other team just made mistakes.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: We've had a lot on the, on the flip side.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: And that's why these games have kind of gone the
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: way they have.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: Right. So yeah, I feel good. I don't feel good,
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: but I feel good.
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: Like I said, it just, it feels like a trap game.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: I can just tell. I can feel it in my bones.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: That's why when you said 12 and a half spread
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: like that, that can't, that can't be. Can't be. But
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: so far, Vegas has been pretty good.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: All right. Well, we'll have tailgate pods for you this week. Again,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: do a quick little solo pod, put them together for
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: you Saturday morning. And we'll see how this game goes. Again,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: just keep things grinding, keep getting better every day, and
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: win Saturday. Oh, and volleyball won tonight. Beat Penn State.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Swept them. Shocker.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: There you go. Take that, Midnight Lions.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: I don't even follow it anymore because I just know
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: they're going to sweep them.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: It's hard to follow him. By the time you tune
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: into the game, it's already over.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: All righty. Go Big Red.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: JBR. Headlines change, but the mission stays. From Memorial Stadium
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: to PBA days. Football Saturdays, basketball nights.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Every story chasing red and white.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: Recruiting buzz, big time commits. Camp battles, coaching hits.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Transfer moves and rising stars. The road to glory's never far.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: This is Return to Glory Where every headline tells a story.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: Big Red pride every season Husker Nation's.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: Got a reason From touchdown.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Dunks and championship dreams We'll be back with the latest
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: from every team Until next time, keep the faith, keep
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: believing Because the Return to Glory is just beginning.
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: Go Big Red!
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: See you next episode!