Latest / Return to Glory - Nebraska / Episode 5.28: Crowd Surfing and Earning Your Paycheck -- Northwestern Recap

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Episode 5.28: Crowd Surfing and Earning Your Paycheck -- Northwestern Recap · Return to Glory - Nebraska

0:18
For turna Glory Podcast. What a weekend? Hunters are Nicky Austin Bros.
0:23
Dakota Free Tech. MAYN Have we ever felt so good on a Sunday?
0:28
Husker football winning seventeen to nine wins a win Husker volleyball, what a match
0:36
taking down the Badgers five sets? MAYN What a Saturday. It was a
0:42
good Saturday. I'll tell you one thing. For the rest of Huscar games,
0:50
the Husk games the rest of the year, they'd really putting a pop
0:53
up when you come when you go watch the game, it should say do
0:56
you do you actually want to watch this game? In the press? Yes,
0:58
three times before you can watch the game, just to make sure you
1:00
do. That's funny, dak We're just we're just getting used to playing Big
1:07
ten West football. The game everybody wants to watch that. Yeah, Nebraska
1:12
has that down right now. I don't care we won. We can enjoy
1:19
it. I get it. Northwestern is not a great football team and we
1:25
probably aren't neither, but we will take wins whenever we can get them.
1:29
No matter who you're playing. We can't control who lines up from us on
1:32
the other end. Let's enjoy some wins while we can get them. The
1:38
volleyball win was the opposite of playing a bad team in winnings. That was
1:42
just an all around awesome game, even though I guess stat wise and it
1:48
kind of felt like wiscontent kicked our ass two sets they won, and then
1:55
even the two sets that we won late, like it just felt like we
1:57
were never in control on the church up at the end, we just pulling
2:00
out of our ass. I mean, there was a brief moment except I
2:06
shouldn't say brief moment, except for it just kind of felt like we were
2:08
out playing them, but the score never really felt indicative of that. Yeah,
2:14
I agree, it was. It was, And it was also kind
2:16
of like, I don't want to say it was an anticlimactic because I mean
2:20
it was five cents thirteen fifteen, but the way it ended, it's just
2:25
like, wait, it's over. We won. It wasn't I get you
2:30
know. I didn't have that moment of like, oh my god, we
2:31
did it. It was like wait, what Well, I guess it depends
2:36
on where you were watching it it we I was watching it at the end
2:38
zone down there kind of by the Haymarket, and it was it was a
2:43
freaking blast. I mean I I saw the rail yard was awesome back where
2:50
you finished the game up at the rail yard. Yeah, you know,
2:53
the Bayball game was on. I did not watch much of it. Well,
2:57
okay, if you were there and the game was on towards the end,
3:00
you had to know what was happening. I mean, yeah, kind
3:05
of. You just have your back turn to the screen. Everybody is watching.
3:07
You just acted like going on. I was scouting some recruits to listen
3:12
to podcast, That's what I was doing. Good at a boy. All
3:17
right, Well, it was awesome, and I think going back to the
3:22
football game, it was another win like Illinois that I think people are that
3:29
was ugly when offense looked horrible, and thank god for our defense. You
3:35
know, we're just not a very good team, you know what. I
3:38
don't care. We won the game, and yeah, our defense played awesome
3:43
again and well Northwestern's offense is very good. No, no, they're not.
3:46
But again, win football games at this point and after you do so,
3:53
you never know what that's going to lead to down the road, especially
3:55
later on in the year. I will say, some of the miscues that
4:00
we had and continue to have, I don't think that we're going to be
4:06
able to continue to win game after a game. But you clean that stuff
4:10
up looking at the rest of our schedule, like we said, maybe we
4:15
should just be looking at Purdue, but we can win some games here.
4:18
Guys. The Big Ten West isn't good. And that's not our fault.
4:23
It's not our fault at all, Dak, Why do you think the Big
4:26
Ten West is so bad? Like what happened? It's never been never it's
4:33
never been I was gonna say it's never been good, but it's it's the
4:38
worst it's probably ever been. I just think I think they missed on a
4:42
lot of transfer quarterbacks, that's the main thing. And I think I would
4:47
just rough off on everybody, just play shitty offense. And they lost to
4:54
row the boat Row the boat Row the I don't know. I to me
5:01
that that this game was no not a pretty win, but it just you're
5:06
gonna have to grind these games out week after week, and I think Rule
5:10
knows that, and I think he coaches them like their NFL type games,
5:15
where you know, I don't care that we're blowing teams out, just find
5:20
a way to win, win the scoreboard. And that's how I felt that
5:24
whole game too, Like people have to remember how many close games we lost
5:28
in the ways that we lost. We don't. We didn't lose that game
5:31
again at the end because we gave up a long drive. I remember going
5:35
to Northwestern a few years ago and we had the game won just like that,
5:40
and Northwestern's offense hadn't done jack shit the whole game, and sure enough
5:44
their last drive, they drive down the field, they score, Like that's
5:48
just how these past years have gone, and it didn't happen. Didn't happen
5:51
this time? We won DAK. I know that's not not your You're not
5:58
used to being around teams like that. Your team's just win all the time,
6:00
right, yeah barely? Yeah, oh you barely. Yeah that was
6:09
sweating at the end of that one. But why why are Husker fans complaining
6:13
about a win? Do they remember how bad it's been? Like you,
6:15
you just want to get a win. It it's that balance between looking really
6:21
far back at the past and saying, you know, we're holding ourselves to
6:26
a higher standard because we're Nebraska football and these teams are so bad. Yeah,
6:30
I Illinois win. Illinois is bad. Illinois pretty much had Wisconsin the
6:35
whole game until the very end. Illinois also just went and beat Maryland,
6:40
so yeah, maybe Illinois not very good. But again, these are all
6:45
these teams in our schedule. So Northwestern, yeah they're not great, but
6:48
they beat Minnesota. Like I don't know, I guess I confuses me too
6:55
as Husker fans. I just think they they probably are just ingrained in their
6:58
old ways of Nope, we're better than this, and we should be winning
7:02
by more than this. Now that we're winning, you just we we we
7:04
skip past the winning phase of winning close games, fixing from from going from
7:10
losing. We're gonna skip over the winning close. We're gonna go straight to
7:14
the winning big. Not quite well, there's my positive. It's pretty hard
7:21
to win big when your offense can't score. That's the when you passed the
7:27
ball seventeen times. Yeah those were the other team. Yeah, I don't
7:34
know the offense. We can dive deeper into that before we get I want
7:39
to stay very high level here because I do want to jump play the negative
7:42
Nancy side. Something I didn't like. Austin probably knows what it's gonna be.
7:48
The whole crowd surfing in the locker room after the game. I couldn't.
7:55
I could have lived without seeing that, truele. And I think he
8:01
caught himself like three seconds in because he's like, put me down, put
8:05
me down. And I get it emotional when I to me though, all
8:11
that stuff in the locker room, that celebration. Save it for a big
8:16
upset or I mean, how winning a conference title or you know what I
8:22
mean, like celebrate the win. I'm not saying don't celebrate the win,
8:26
but man, it's one of those things, you know, similar storming the
8:31
field after beating a team, and then the team comes out the next week
8:33
and lays an egg like same type of stuff here, right like over celebrating,
8:39
getting too excited, being complacent of winning a football game and saying yep,
8:46
like that's awesome, We're on cloud nine, and then coming out the
8:48
next week and just pissing it down to your leg. I'm not saying that
8:52
will happen. And I think that rule probably can get us in a mental
8:56
headspace to say, Okay, now next week's are super Bowl. That's great.
9:01
If you can do that. That was just a little much for me.
9:03
I just don't I didn't like that. I didn't like it. I'll
9:07
give him a pass. I knew you would. I'm not not surprised by
9:11
that one bit. Yeah, you can sell. It's it's how you handle
9:18
it at you know, in the locker room right after. Yeah, I'm
9:20
not gonna get. But the counter, the counter to like the awesome side
9:26
to this is like, yep, like we just enjoy every win that we
9:31
can get right now, like we have we have to have the coaching staff.
9:35
You want your players to learn to love that feeling of winning. Yes,
9:39
you know, if you if every time you win, you don't treat
9:41
it as anything. It's like, you know, this kind of feels the
9:45
same as a loss. It's like, well, it's important to recognize that
9:48
it feels good to win. Yep. And the thing with rule too.
9:52
Then by doing that again, celebrating it, do whatever you want. But
9:56
the crowd surfing, it shifts the focus to the players to him a little
10:01
bit. Not that it doesn't intentionally, but it does it. And I
10:05
get it. That's your leader of your program and things are moving in the
10:09
right direction. But it does. That's where the eyes went. That's where
10:13
the story went. The headline in the in the journal start or what was
10:16
it? Something about surfing your way to victory. It's like, okay,
10:20
okay, whatever, dack, you're laughing, I don't really I saw that
10:28
today too, and I was kind of, I guess on your side a
10:31
little bit. I was thinking, what the hell they beat Northwestern? And
10:35
I was like, I mean, I guess, I guess you can celebrate.
10:45
I don't know, I don't know. I'm gonna say here. I
10:48
thought it a little bit too much too for beating Northwestern. Beating Northwestern,
10:52
right, but also even if we were to beat like I'll say this,
10:56
it wouldn't never happen probably right now, but Michigan, I guess crowds are
11:00
because it's the upset. But at the same time, like what are your
11:01
goals? Right what you want to make sure that your focus is still on
11:07
the future and what you have left on your schedule, And then yeah,
11:09
if you're bull game, you want a fucking CrowdSurf like go right ahead,
11:13
like great, great job, and we'll win another offseason Natty's title like we
11:18
do every year going into next year. But right now, I was like,
11:22
it might be a little much. That was that was my again,
11:24
another little red flag through out there. But again, win's a win,
11:28
Win's a win. Not going to complain about that. You made some kicks
11:35
too, Yeah, what what was that? Was that a fifty yard or
11:41
is that a little bit less? I believe? I think so that's a
11:48
decent, deeply long kick. So yeah, that was good. And I
11:52
thought play the game or pretty damn close to it was Buschini's punt in the
11:56
fourth quarter that went, and that to me just flipped the entire field in
12:03
the whole fourth quarter. I'm like, do not beat ourselves, right,
12:07
make them vetus, make them drive the ball down the field. The Vetas
12:11
get a first down or two and punt it. And I think the coaching
12:15
staff and the players had that same mindset because Northwestern's offense was not doing jack
12:20
shit. They weren't, and they had two big plays, thank god for
12:26
I can't remember. Omar Brown I think was one of them, and Hartzog
12:28
was the other one that chased them down from behind. Like those are two
12:35
huge touchdown saving tackles, and then our defense said, yep, we're still
12:39
here, we'll step up, we'll get a stop. Very impressive performance,
12:43
especially considering their first three drives they started all on our side of the field.
12:52
Yeah, and short fields. Our defense looked really like, again,
12:56
Northwestern's offense doesn't do anything, but you're right, like when our defense almost
13:01
fucked up, they closed out on those Those were really good tackles. I
13:05
mean they just chased him down and straight up got him. And then to
13:09
start the game in the first five minutes to have three drives basically on our
13:11
side of the field and yield only three points, like, that's pretty good.
13:16
You can't ask for much more. Being there was was Sims ever warming
13:24
up on the sidelines. Yep. Yeah, I bet my brother after a
13:28
second pick, I bet him a drink at the bar. They're gonna throw
13:31
Sims in. Did not, but but I thought I thought for sure after
13:37
that second pick he was coming in. Yeah, And I would say that
13:41
was that There was. There was rumblings, right, I think throughout the
13:45
stadium, and I think this probably was a time that the Husker fans maybe
13:50
we're saying, can we give Sims another shot? I wouldn't be opposed to
13:56
it. But at the same time, here's a deal. Heinerker has won
14:00
four of his five games to start. He's four and one as a starter.
14:05
Okay, and I get it, he's not the best quarterback and I
14:09
think everybody knows that, Like he misses throws often. His decision making I
14:13
think we thought was really good. I would say it's pretty good, but
14:16
it's not maybe as good as we thought it was. But he's winning games
14:22
and leading the team. I think he's more of He has more command right
14:26
now of the offense and control than Jeffson's would if he would have came it.
14:30
That's my two cents on that. Yeah, I don't think you I
14:37
see what you're saying with the second pick. I was kind of presidency him
14:39
at all either. But when you're rolling, you just don't mess with it
14:45
it. Yeah, rollings in sensitive word or if it's it's one of those
14:50
things that you say, if it's not broke, then don't fix it.
14:56
But it maybe is kind of broke, like maybe but we're still winning,
15:01
so maybe it's not like it's time. It's a fine line of when do
15:07
you do try something even though we are winning. And the thing with Harburg
15:11
is he's starting to turn it over now, So that was what was keeping
15:15
him in the game over Simms was not turning the ball over because we all
15:20
know Jeff Simms loves to do that. But now he kind of is.
15:24
But then you could argue maybe the passes were dropped or one of them was
15:30
and not his fault. I don't know. I don't know. Our offense
15:35
is just in a very dole place right now, just not not in a
15:41
good place. But we're still winning games thanks to our defense. Are you
15:48
gonna lose camp for the year two? Or what do he get hurt with?
15:52
We might? I read it was bad and I missed that part of
15:56
the game. I didn't. I don't. I don't think it's good.
15:58
And I heard some thing that if he's out, that means we've lost our
16:02
four top receivers. Think about that, and I guess that's probably counting them
16:08
as our receivers. Well, no, because we lost Garcia Castaneda, we
16:15
lost Marcus Washington, we lost I'm forgetting the fourth. I can't remember.
16:30
There's definitely four though. Ah. So, yeah, it's been tough.
16:36
It's been tough. But again, would do we use our receivers much?
16:40
No? But also shout out what a route and brow from Heiner Harberg to
16:47
Malachi Coleman across the perfect perfect I heard the crab nuts from Alachai. Yes,
16:56
it was awesome to see it. Was what we needed at that point
17:00
in the game too. I was I was impressed. It was sweet,
17:07
it was cool. You made up more than half of our passing yards for
17:12
the day one play. One play. And so there's another play that happened
17:22
in the let's see they are coming towards us. It would have been I
17:26
think the third quarter where we had a very well designed I think we ran
17:32
a back out of the backfield or looped someone on a wheel route and had
17:36
him wide open, and Harbor just under threw it by like five yards,
17:40
and I think it was on first down. And then we continued to pass
17:42
it the next two plays because a second and ten, third and ten,
17:45
and we punted, and I thought, hit my mind on throwing the ball
17:52
in first down. Now we need to go back to the first play of
17:55
the game at some point. But I get what we try to do sometimes,
18:02
right, Like, if you're so predictable, it's easy to scout and
18:07
you're gonna stop stop us from running it on verse and ten. But at
18:11
the same time, like we don't have the players, receivers or the quarterback
18:17
to consistently make an open throw when guys are open, and if the guys
18:21
are open, it's not a guaranteed catch. So at the same time,
18:25
yeah, it's great if you have a first and ten past play call and
18:29
you complete it, but the chances of that happening probably aren't very high right
18:32
now. So let's just stick to running the ball maybe and just using it
18:37
on truly play action type situations second and short, you know, third and
18:42
four, those kind of plays. I just cross my mind. I'm like,
18:48
man, that was that was a good play call, as a well
18:49
designed play, but we don't even have We don't have the players right now
18:53
to make that throw and catch. So then do you call the play based
18:57
on what we have. It's like our coordinators are still calling an offense that
19:02
we have, like an average offense, right but we clearly do not at
19:07
all. It's hard makes it hard to call an offense when we don't have
19:15
any parts, you know. I don't want to talk about talent, but
19:19
our all lines average guys. Our all line is very average, if not
19:22
below. I think they've proven to be better than previous couple of years,
19:26
but it's average. Our quarterback is below average, both of them. Our
19:32
running backs are all hurt. The one we have I think is fine.
19:36
Our receivers are all hurt and they were average below average to begin with,
19:38
so what look what we're dealing with here? Seriously, I totally agree,
19:44
and and also not to mention we're on our backup quarterback like that's a that's
19:52
a tough take for any Power five team to do, Like top five receivers,
19:57
top two running backs, and you're starting to be well, I guess
20:00
now Heindrich's probably technically are starting TV because Sims is healthy. But Dac,
20:07
I know your answer. What's our offense? What should we be running?
20:11
Triple option? Right? You need to be There's a play out there and
20:18
it will work. It will work every time, the three quarterback triple option,
20:22
and they won't run it, but that's the play call. Try it
20:26
one time. If you're listening to her field, I know you are our
20:33
boy Marcus. Yeah I did not remember his first name, but yeah did
20:38
uh? Did you also hear that like the Malachi touchdown was the option pass
20:48
g belly option pass or whatever? And that apparently what I heard was that
20:52
Tom Osborne came to practice to help put the play in interesting. Huh pretty
20:59
neat? Well, he's looking rough. There was a news like interview with
21:04
him, and he is looking terrible. Tom. Oh god, he looks
21:11
awful. He's not a young fella anymore. He doesn't look young and spry.
21:19
We'll just say that. Yeah, And the other the other thing that
21:22
I thought was cool was that. And I haven't watched went back and watched
21:29
it yet, but they said that rule pointed or looked up to the press
21:33
box where Tom was sitting after the touchdown, so pretty neat. I thought,
21:41
Tom still got it. Still got a couple of fans there, All
21:45
right, Okay, we I gotta go back rewind here to the opening part
21:52
of the game, and let's get my little fan rants in here about our
21:56
lovely fans. Guys. Here, here's the deal, I really do.
22:00
I try very very hard to not let stupid people influence the excitement the joy
22:10
of being a Husker football fan talking about it with you, but sometimes can
22:15
just get very hard to do. So here's how. Here's how my game
22:19
started. Get in the stadium about twenty minutes before. Have had a few
22:27
drinks in me, but you know, it's whatever, all right. I
22:33
want I want to stand the whole game, or not the whole game,
22:36
but I want I want to stand. I want to cheer, right,
22:37
I want to be a part of the game. I actually got pretty good
22:41
seats. I'm three rows behind the goalpost this game, like right behind the
22:45
north goal post, three rows up very close. And opening kickoff, we
22:52
get the ball very first play, I'm standing up on offense, Me and
23:00
the guy I'm sitting with. No one really else in our sections really standing,
23:04
but I'm fired up. First play the game. Right before the play
23:07
happens, the guys behind me, two old guys, go, are you
23:11
really gonna stand for nothing? The whole game? It really said, that
23:18
was quote, are you really gonna stand for nothing? The whole game?
23:22
And I'm lucky I didn't hear him very clear right away, because I would
23:25
have turned around and snapped at him, like for nothing? What what are
23:29
we here watching? What? What? What? What are We're watching a
23:33
football game? For nothing? And then sure enough, first play of the
23:37
game we throw a pick that sat me down right away. Ye, you're
23:42
right, but the point and Husker fans again, that mindset it just and
23:52
there they were two grumpy old men to hear him the whole game. Oh
23:57
that was stupid, Oh my god, what was that? What kind of
24:00
throw was that? Like just the whole game, just grumbling and being grumpy
24:04
and they could be better. That stuff just drives me nuts and gas lesson
24:11
learned. I guess I don't know, but Oscar fans still just are grumpy
24:15
old people that don't really know what they're talking about, don't want to cheer.
24:19
But I was ready to stand the whole game, and then thanks to
24:22
our first play, that sat me down pretty quick. Yeah, enduring games
24:27
as far as seeding goes. Okay, I heard this from a friend that
24:33
just attended a Notre Dame game not too long ago, and I loved it
24:37
now that it was a USC game, so little, bigger game, but
24:41
I liked hearing it. And I heard kse State does this too. Why
24:45
don't fans stand the whole game and then sit during the timeouts? It's a
24:53
long time to stand, well it is, but the think about all of
24:57
our fans too, Like when timeouts everyone goes. And then these two old
25:02
guys were complaining about it too. Ah, these damn TV timeouts for one
25:04
all the time, Oh my god, another one, Oh we gotta sit
25:08
here for two minutes, and like that that's all they do. Intead you
25:14
actually enjoy it. Because you're getting a break. You know, you're getting
25:17
to sit, and you know you get to look at the entertainment and enjoy
25:19
it, and then you get a stand back up. But you're actually looking
25:22
forward to the timeouts because you get to sit and rest your legs and then
25:26
you stand right back up. Now, again, we weren't playing a top
25:29
whatever team, but why not, like you're here to cheer on your team,
25:33
especially if you're that close to the field, like stand up and cheer.
25:41
Yeah, I'm pretty pro being able to stand in your seats. I
25:42
understand there is the dilemma of when you stand that forces the people behind you
25:47
and not to see. Well, when everybody should stand, then everyone needs
25:51
It's either everyone needs to stay and everyone needs to sit. And the other
25:53
funny thing you remember noticed Sunday in the basketball game. If that works so
25:57
well and that was the reason why we know we want is a big thing,
26:00
like, then why are we doing it every game? If we're truly
26:03
trying to help the team win and that matters, right, making it a
26:07
big deal of standing in a basketball game? Like, then why aren't we
26:10
doing it every game? If we're the best fans in America? Yeah,
26:15
I mean you told me it was no sit Saturday. I figured you,
26:17
I didn't know you're sitting behind or have two old people, but I figured
26:19
you can get called out pretty click. Yeh. It didn't take long.
26:22
And you know what, if we were on defense, I probably wouldn't have
26:26
sat down, or if we were on offense driving like, I probably would
26:30
have tried stand. But then yeah, once that happened, I'm like Jesus
26:33
Christ, Like first play of the game and I'm like, all right,
26:36
here we go, here we go. Right, the first five minutes of
26:41
the game was it was a pretty rough, pretty your rough exhibition of football.
26:48
Going back to that first play too, I would say your your first
26:55
drive is pretty scripted, right, A lot of a lot of times for
26:59
us, I think we're very much to a t because that was about our
27:02
only drives that would actually work in the game. Who's play who? Who's
27:08
Who's making the call there on first down, opening play of the game against
27:14
Northwestern to throw that pass? The play in general some no brain you know,
27:21
is it? Is it rule? Is it sadder field? Is it?
27:26
I assume it's probably not a player suggesting to do it, but maybe
27:32
it's got to be a mix. It just makes zero sense. Like the
27:37
only thought I can think is that we thought we were actually better than Northwestern
27:41
and we wanted to try to show teams that we are a threat to pass
27:44
the ball, and you know we we actually can throw the ball, which
27:48
we've shown that we can't. And that was the reason why it was all
27:52
right, let's show let's show them what we got here, and then first
27:55
play yep, pick lovely. It was such a bad such a bad play.
28:02
It was even like the pick. It wasn't like a forced pick either.
28:04
It's just like a well that's the under thrown ball. Mm hm.
28:10
Tell me. His throws look like it's forty min hour wins every time he
28:12
throws it like you don't know where that ball is going. It's just kidding.
28:18
I love his deep throws, though they are wild. He could be
28:22
sometimes ten yards off on those deep throws. His launches a thing. I
28:29
mean he's got he's got a rocket arm. Yeah, Okay. One positive
28:34
thing on the offense that I gotta I gotta point out here. Guys haven't
28:38
been very positive about it, not much too. But we talked a few
28:42
weeks ago about rewarding a returner to glory as a new segment on our podcast.
28:56
What these players are gonna be the guys that maybe are the most known
29:02
players in the field. They may not ever go down, you know,
29:03
ten years down the road, you may not remember these players very much,
29:07
but they're guys that help you win games like this that hopefully get us returning
29:12
back to mediocrity. I mean, get us back to glory. And when
29:17
we get there, we want to make sure we don't forget these guys for
29:22
what they did on beating a Northwestern team that you know what, Northwestern wasn't
29:26
very good, but if we would have lost this game, all hell would
29:30
have broke loose again. So their turner to glory. First one ever,
29:36
I already gave you a hint is on offense. But Emmett Johnson. Emmitt
29:42
Johnson, he's the one. Huh, here's the thing coming into the year.
29:48
Think about it. This guy was true freshman. He probably had five
29:56
percent chance of ever seeing the field with the guys that were ahead of probably
30:00
had no chance. Right obviously, injuries happened. Anthony Grant still can't figure
30:07
out how to hang on to the ball, and sure enough on the big
30:11
screen before the game starting the running back Emmett Johnson, and he comes in.
30:19
You know what, I don't even know what a stat line. I
30:22
think he probably had like seventy to eighty yards or something like that. I
30:25
don't know. I don't think he scored, but he had some run for
30:27
I'm like, you know what, Props to this guy for making stuff happen.
30:33
He's shifty. There are about three or four times and he made guys
30:36
with miss and got two or three or four more yards. Now, I
30:38
do think Anthony Grant maybe is still the better running back and athlete, like
30:41
he's still the Big ten running back. But Emma Johnson as a freshman coming
30:45
in, stepping in when he had no reason to believe he's gonna be playing
30:49
or starting in week eight, goes out there put together a solid game.
30:56
I think maybe there was a fumble on in exchange again at some point that
31:00
we can't seem to stop doing. But I gotta get a big shout out
31:03
to Emma Johnson. Very impressed. Kudos to you, first returner to glory
31:10
on podcast shoot the Gamins off. God damn, what was I gonna say?
31:19
I can't all? Yeah, your guy's favorite player. Gotta pick yesterday.
31:30
That's your guys, boy all around. That's who you thought it was
31:34
gonna be. Yeah, you know he thought it was gonna be Tommy Hill.
31:37
I did. I. I was like, there's one good thing about
31:42
having a bad offense is when you make a rule before the game you're gonna
31:45
shotgun a beer after every score. You don't gotta worry about getting too drunk
31:49
doing that. Dak, you had a pretty sober night, Is that what
31:55
you're saying. No, I didn't, but I definitely wasn't from the shotguns.
32:02
All right, Well, we haven't spent much time talking about our defense.
32:06
We better do that because our defense, guys, is the reason,
32:10
the main reason we were winning a lot of these games. We had eight
32:15
sacks eight of them and more tackles for loss. It's not like it's coming
32:22
from one or two guys either. It is coming from all over the place.
32:29
It is very scheme related. And god damn it, Tony White is
32:35
doing one fucking hell of a job. I mean, he's doing incredible with
32:39
this defense. Dak had so many doubts with all three, three, five.
32:45
You've been dead wrong on that one. Yep, hand up, I
32:51
was wrong. I don't know who the defensive coordinator was liking last year.
32:54
That guy just must not know shit about the three because Tony white Man.
33:01
It's been fun to watch. And I mean, it's guys all over the
33:05
place. There's some guy that came in and got a sack that I've never
33:07
even heard of this week. I can't think of his name now right because
33:12
I don't know who it is. But we're we're getting guys all over the
33:17
place, young guys, guys coming off injuries, guys that have been around,
33:22
Like so many guys are playing on defense, and it makes it fun
33:24
to watch because you don't know what you're gonna see week after week. And
33:30
it is when when they when they made those two big plays, like no
33:35
part of my mind is they're gonna go in and score, Like I just
33:37
thought, our defense is gonna rally up and get a stop, and that's
33:39
what they did. And yeah, Northwestern's offense is very poor, but so
33:46
well a lot of these teams that we play coming up, So shout out
33:51
to the defense, Austin. He thoughts, Uh, you're definitely right to
33:55
the best part of our team. I actually enjoyed watching us on defense.
34:00
I'm still trying to think of who our defensive coordinator was last year. He
34:02
got fired halfway through the year, didn't he Or was that two years ago?
34:07
I try to forget those things, but yeah it was no. He
34:14
took over for him after he got firedand chinz yes, chins. There we
34:19
go. Well that guy, that guy was never good. Well that's funny
34:22
because I don't want to get too far up, but at one point we
34:25
did think he was good because we had a really good defense and a bad
34:30
offense. But no, I totally agree Tony White's done a hell of a
34:34
job. I think our players are actually really good, and it's fun to
34:38
watch us on defense because I think when our offense was in a bad position,
34:42
I wasn't really worried. Like it's like it's a short field that kind
34:45
of sucks, but I'm not too worried about it. I wish we would
34:51
have spent probably more time talking about our defense because I feel like the narrative
34:54
in this could just be with the Haskers, but even at any level,
34:58
I feel like the narrative all when you have a good offense, it looks
35:02
really good. When you have a bad offense, it's so easy to criticize
35:06
right on the flip side with your defense. If your defense is playing well,
35:10
it's really easy just to come and say, well, their offensive shitty.
35:14
Northwestern's offensive shitty. Illinois doesn't have an offense. Versus when you're playing
35:19
when your defense does poor, you don't really I mean you can see,
35:22
okay, our defense sucks, but a lot of times you say, oh
35:24
no, well they had a good offense. Right. So defense does not
35:30
get enough credit for when they're playing well, because what does ultimately a good
35:32
defense do They make another team's offense look bad? And whether you want to
35:37
say that the offense is bad or they made them look bad, it's what
35:40
the defense did and what it continues to do. Take out the Michigan game.
35:45
But all these other teams have not looked good against our defense. And
35:51
I think Perdue's offense has been in the past a little more explosive and dynamic.
35:55
But we expect high things from them, I think moving forward here the
36:01
next few weeks, because they are the strength of our team, and the
36:06
good news is our offense is allowing him to rest a little bit. I
36:08
will say that yep, well, besides started the game. Reason we think,
36:15
I said, the only reason we think will be Bowl eligible by the
36:16
end of the year. Is because of our defense. No one's like our
36:19
offense is going to get us two more games. Our defense can keep us
36:22
in the games, and then Big ten West, Yeah it will they.
36:29
I wonder how long Tony wut would be here though. You think you think
36:31
he's got a pro offer coming his way. I don't know. I mean,
36:37
I hope not. I think I mean, yeah, if it's kind
36:43
of similar to Illinois situation last year, right, who's head coach who's previous
36:49
d season? Now the head coach at Purdue, Like you have a really
36:52
strong defense and prove that you can coach, then yeah, you might get
36:57
called up to a bigger program as either a head coach or like you said,
37:01
at NFL DC or something. So I hope not, because what he's
37:06
doing here has been phenomenal in the short time that he's had with some very
37:10
young players to keep in mind, so it has been a lot of scheme
37:16
related praise there to it. You know, we have some players, I
37:22
think too, but I think he's doing a great job of working with what
37:24
we have and getting the most out of it. Defens there's some people who
37:31
don't earn their paycheck, kind of like Sadderfield. Tony White definitely's earning his
37:37
paycheck this year. Yeah, and Tam right, Dak love the hat?
37:44
All right? Anything else before you go? Got after volleyball number I mean
37:51
we've only briefly talked. They out up number one. We should have a
37:55
whole podcast dedicated to it. You probably shouldn't have. Yeah, I was
38:00
jacked up. Yeah, you didn't watch the game. Honestly, I had
38:06
to check this morning and see what the final was. I didn't know.
38:10
I didn't know you were at the fucking I didn't stay for the whole game.
38:15
I left, all right, We will be back Wednesday preview the Purdue
38:22
boiler Makers go big red giv R. We were sooner. I love that
38:27
burnt orange. Dude st