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Episode 5.1: Lift Weights, No Golf, Build an O-Line · Return to Glory - Nebraska

0:18
Welcome to the Returning Glory Podcast. I'm kind of Freekday music member. I'm
0:22
here talking about my favorite team, the Brass corn Askers. I live in
0:25
Breeth Husker football go big, Rid. I really thought you were going to
0:29
come in with the Sooners. I'm here talking about my favorite football team,
0:32
the Oklahoma Sooners. I'm are No, I'm actually a big Oklahoma fan.
0:39
Well, welcome back Return to Glory Podcast listeners. We are mixing it up
0:44
here for season five. Hunters are but Nicky Steele still here, Austin Roe
0:49
still here, and as you just heard from our newest member of the show,
0:54
the Code of Free Tag. And yeah, you are an am Braska
0:59
corn Husker fan, not an Oklahoma fan, as he said, No,
1:03
I'm really a big Oklahoma fan. I'm I mean, I watched Oscars,
1:06
but I'm not really fan at all. So you're right in on this Husker
1:11
podcast. Oh yeah, your family owns a tailgate and neither Austin or I
1:17
do, so you are a true fan. No, I M I don't
1:22
know. I'll go to the games, but and I'm watching, but I'm
1:26
not. I love, but I'm not a fan. I love watching Type
1:33
Train every offseason though, Are you a kool a drinker? Two? Oh
1:38
yeah, I'm drinking it. I like to think that we brought him in,
1:42
you know, in season five, kind of like last year for Frost,
1:46
is like to make him break season gottam bringing some new blood, new
1:49
offensive coordinator. Our contract might be expiring, so last resort we bring in
1:56
the Ringer. Well, I'm either going to burn it down or build it
2:00
upright. Well, we got a lot to talk about here since we have
2:07
been off air for the last few months, just a lot of offseason updates
2:12
with Husker football. The season's getting closer. Fall camp starts tomorrow already July
2:17
thirty first, and the first game is a month away. When Raska travels
2:23
to Minnesota, dak Are you still playing on going to that? Um?
2:28
No, I have a bachelor party now, so I can't. I wanted
2:32
to, but no, you're not a true fan of No. I was
2:38
gonna go, but we're leaving that that Thursday night for the Ozarks that I
2:40
can't. All right, Okay, So to start off the top here,
2:46
we don't really have an agenda for today besides just updating on everyone's thoughts and
2:53
since we last spoke at the end of season four. I was not drinking
2:58
the kool aid, Austin. I wasn't doing it, and you weren't getting
3:00
me to do it. We all knew it's going to happen. I'm still
3:06
not there. I'm not there, but but there's some sipping going on,
3:12
but it's in a very very different way. And the expectation setting conversation for
3:21
year one, year two, year three with this coaching staff, everything leads
3:27
back to that for me, and I think everyone has a very different opinion
3:31
on what's going to happen or what could happen. But for the most part,
3:35
Husk Nation is going to has a lot of patience right now. We
3:38
do, and I don't know that winning is going to matter as much as
3:45
it did for the previous coaching staff. So looking back at the I mean,
3:47
let's even go back all the way to hell, let's go to tom
3:51
Osborne. What was tom Osborne's expectations fall into Vanny Dac That's an easy one.
3:57
You can answer that one. So when it up when to win,
4:01
it up to win a title? Okay, we get the Soulich. You
4:05
mean expectations right there? You continue to what what Okay, Soulich was a
4:14
good coach and some you know, talk to some of the old timers,
4:15
they think we should have kept them. We didn't. And comes Bow,
4:20
Bow. What's Bow's expectations win conference titles? Yep, all right, Bow's
4:29
done nine ten win seasons. Mike Riley, what it was Mike Riley have
4:34
to do? It was a softer winning, but it was I just give
4:40
Callahan, guys, I just completely skipped over. I was like, I
4:43
don't mean to let it go, but I'm not. I'm not really sure
4:48
why they brought Mike Riley. And honestly, I don't know, well,
4:53
I no, nobody knew right, like who the guy was. We were
4:58
coming off U fan base at the time of Bow that and player like,
5:01
the players loved Bow and half of the fans loved Bow because we were we
5:06
were running nine or ten games consistently after Bill Callahan couldn't get us to a
5:11
Bowl game for a couple of years. So like it was tough for Mike
5:15
Riley to come in and then we bring in the Grandpa. I mean he
5:17
was saying hip hip parade to our team. Pates like they're too this players
5:21
what we were doing. And I don't think his offense really works in the
5:25
Big Tenny, he was running spread offen. That's that's an interesting take because
5:32
we gether bring Frost in spread off and you talked about Frost identity year scheme,
5:38
whatever that was. He took over Mike Riley where it was supposed to
5:41
be quote unquote easy because Mike Riley was such a bad coach, and we
5:46
got worse. We got worse. So we're we're at the boast bottom of
5:50
the bottom that we've been at as a Husker football program. And I mean
5:56
the history since before Davanney, right, not even I mean this Rebusker football.
6:00
And incomes Matt Rule year one, Austin. What I mean, what
6:05
are the expectations coming in for coach Rule? I mean just in this year
6:10
specifically. Well, it's funny because that was kind of the takeaway. We're
6:14
obviously going to talk about Big ten meta days, but everything has always been
6:17
this is a rebuilt. This is a rebuilt. This is a rebuilt.
6:19
This is gonna take time. So and I mean, even like, you
6:25
know, I don't know if it was McEwan I was reading today from the
6:28
World Harold, but he was like, yeah, this is a rebuilding.
6:30
But they have the attitude we can win, we can win while rebuilding,
6:33
but that this isn't a rebuild. And I think they've done a very good
6:36
job of setting the expectation of, Hey, we were a really shitty team
6:41
in the last couple of years. We have good players, but it's gonna
6:45
take time to fix the cultural damage. So I think everyone kind of understands.
6:48
We kind of we saw the writing on the wall for the whole last
6:53
season. We've had a whole year to be like, oh boy, this
6:56
is rougher than we thought. So I feel as a fan base, we're
7:00
all like, we're moving in the right direction, but we we expect to
7:04
be competitive but not win. I think that's where we're as a families.
7:09
That could be wrong, but that's kind of what I'm getting from everyone,
7:13
including the coaching staff. Dak, what do you think Huster football? We're
7:19
real it's just like his days back in Baylor and Temple. It's it's not
7:25
gonna come out of the gates hot. It's gonna take a little bit.
7:29
And I mean he might win four or five games per season, but you
7:31
gotta give him time. Well, you got as a as a non Husker
7:36
fan, is it's Rule a good coach like was that a good hire?
7:42
And um, if anybody can do it, can it be Rule. I
7:46
watched him a lot of Baylor, and he started out rough and then from
7:50
there he I liked. His defense is always always stout. His offenses were
7:57
up and down. So I don't he'll He'll bring a good defense of the
8:01
Huskers, that's for sure, But the offensive part, I don't know.
8:07
Yeah. I have a bunch of takes on Rule, especially following media days.
8:11
My thoughts on the expectation to summarize this kind of what you guys said.
8:15
What I think is interesting is Scott Frost, and he came in,
8:20
we ate up all of the talk on we're gonna make the Big ten adjust
8:24
to us. You know we're gonna do. We ate that up as a
8:28
fan base, and I just got to get my guys in this pat He
8:31
blamed the past coaching staff how many times Rule and this staff don't or whatever,
8:41
and if they don't want to be here, then get him out.
8:43
Rules is doing the opposite of that Rule has complimented the previous staff has complimented.
8:48
Coach Frost is not burning any bridges with that, And there Nick boss
8:54
said it great. I listened to his podcast um as I was prepping.
9:00
Rule is just very light with everything he does, Like the word is light.
9:03
He's just calm, he's he's positive, he's uplifting. As we talked
9:07
before, he's a preacher. He knows how to do well with words and
9:11
manage everybody stops so that okay, like we might not be the big,
9:16
raw rock guy in the tough football, gritty coach that Bopolini was or some
9:20
of these other like big time coaches, but he's also got a very just
9:26
light genuine genuine is a great word for it. Personality and the culmination of
9:31
Mike Riley's Scott Frossll. You know, he got the nice soft part of
9:35
Mike Riley, but the actual football proof on the fields of Frost and when
9:41
it comes to winning. I did. I loved and this is me not
9:46
drinking kool a. But this is what I love about all this. He
9:48
is very he just he doesn't avoid the question, but he frames it in
9:54
a way that it's about respect for Nebraska football. It's about build and having
10:01
making people fear us again. We're not there yet, but we need to
10:03
get there, but we have to start by going day by day and he's,
10:07
like I said, it's on the written on the side of the stadium,
10:11
Like he knows how to take that and divert the question, but still
10:15
get it out there. And some people might say, oh, that's just
10:18
good football coach speak, but he's doing it to a fan base that by
10:22
our nature, we just soak it up and just eat it everything that goes
10:26
on. So from an expectation standpoint, no, I don't think we have
10:31
to win seven or eight games in year on. We don't. And like
10:37
Dak you said it, we need to give him time. I agree,
10:41
But what does that time mean? Like what if what if let's go down
10:45
this road, if we are still five and seven in year three. Like
10:50
we did the same thing with Frost. We did the same thing where we
10:52
said we need to give Fross time because we were so blinded by what he
10:56
was saying to everybody. So we got two or three years and down the
10:58
road, everybody's like, we need to give him time, need to give
11:01
him longer time. Well, clearly that was not the solution, and we
11:03
got rid of him in our minds longer than he needed to be here.
11:07
So like, what is that timeline to see progress, and progress can be
11:13
defined as a lot of different things. But what's that timeline here for coach
11:16
rule and staff. I would think after three years you better be winning seven
11:22
eight games at least. I think that's a very reasonable you say, you
11:30
know, kind of what we were a four win team last year, three
11:33
win team before that. You don't expect us to be worse probably than the
11:37
three or four win team just because you have a couple of cupcakes on the
11:41
schedule and you think you should be able to sneak one out against another big
11:46
ten opponent that's not great, you know, like a Maryland or maybe Northwestern.
11:52
This year we'll see about that. So you know, if in three
11:56
years we're can improve by five games, I think that's a pretty reasonable.
12:03
We've talked you can't go out and lose to Georgia Southern and barely squeaked by
12:07
teams like South Alabama without I think yes, And we have two of those
12:11
again this year. We're gonna eventually do a schedule breakdown and we'll talk about
12:18
our easiest games. Well, it's funny, like no game's easy anymore because
12:22
we are a three win football team. So yeah, Northern Illinois, like
12:26
should be an easy game, but we lost to Georgia Southern last year,
12:30
didn't no one the Illinois beat him a couple of years ago, And yes
12:33
we got beat by then, However many years ago that was so it's it's
12:37
it's kind of funny looking at that. But then but then I don't I
12:43
don't have expectations to make a Bowl game. I mean, that'd be great
12:46
if we did that. I think people would be ecstatic. But guys,
12:50
look at our schedule this year. Look how I'm gonna say the word again,
12:54
softer easy, And I just saw Vegas lines come out and take it
12:58
for what it's worth, because Vegas does inflate Husker games because they know Husker
13:01
fans are dumb and they're gonna bed on them. But Vegas lines come out
13:07
for every game. If you go by wins and losses, we're seven and
13:09
five according to our schedule, Like people have us favored in seven of the
13:13
games, and I don't think any of those games are less than six point
13:16
spreads. And then what'd you say the over runder was? I think they
13:22
under is six or six and a half. Okay, and Vegas, So
13:26
if you go game by game like we're two and a half point dogs to
13:28
Iowa, we're I think four and a half or five and a half to
13:31
Wisconsin. Like those are games that our big spreads. But our closest spread
13:37
that we're supposed to win is like Maryland by six, So you go by
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that. I mean, our schedule is easy. We should we should we
13:43
Why why are we sitting here talking about maybe going five and seven or four
13:48
and eight when you look at our schedule. That's why I think. I
13:52
think Rule has done a very good job of saying expectation of Hey, we
13:54
think we're gonna be really good in three four years, but we can win
14:01
now. And there's a good chance we will win now because we have the
14:03
talent. But that should be the expectation of what we will be. But
14:09
it's a possible, it's a very possible outcome because of who we are.
14:13
I think it's kind of what he's been trying to lay the groundwork for,
14:18
which is smart. If I'm bad, this is why I said could happen.
14:22
If we're good, this is what I thought we're gonna happen. You
14:24
know, the very first thing you need to work on is the offensive line,
14:28
though that that was what was downfall last year. Who that's officially hired.
14:39
Well, Basie had no time at all, No, and Adrian got
14:43
this should be out of him for four years. And my thought with building
14:48
a program Nebraska, building it back up wherever we're at. He comes in
14:54
in Austin your spot on with how he's level setting the whole playing field for
15:00
the fan base too. Yeah, if we don't win games, here's why.
15:05
But if we do like, we can do it like, it's not
15:07
out of the question. So what needs to happen then is he needs to
15:15
get people bought in. He mentioned that he said the number one most important
15:18
thing is buy in and that goes any sport, any coach, any organization
15:22
business. You need your employees to buy into what you're doing. Now the
15:28
fans need to come second, and if the players don't follow suit, then
15:35
it's not gonna result in wins and you're never gonna get the fans. So
15:37
number one has to be getting the players to buy in to what we're doing
15:43
and knowing that we might not win games because we might just not have the
15:46
talent yet we might not especially on the offensive line, and we know we
15:50
don't do so rule has to get that piece fixed first, and it has
15:56
to happen quick because if you for three years don't get to the seven or
16:00
eight wins, I don't care how good of a job you're doing or how
16:03
you think it's going, the fans are going to start losing faith and trusted
16:07
it. And while I do think we're going to be patient, the reality
16:12
is it's still Husker football and people are gonna say move on, I'm going
16:15
to we'll we want of the first ones to jump ship if we can't win,
16:19
because in this business, you gotta win games. You have to win
16:22
football games, and we have no reason right now in this year to not
16:26
win make a bull game. We should have no excuses gonna how easy our
16:30
schedule is now. I say that laughing because we are one of the worst
16:33
teams in the Big Ten right now. So and we know that's where we're
16:37
at talent wise. But hopefully we see signs of improvement and expectation levels go
16:45
up after this year and a little bit up after the next year. But
16:48
we're not going to jump ship and get so unreasonable like we did with all
16:52
of our other coaches and say, oh we're the greatest, We're not that
16:56
way now. I'm sure a lot of Husker nations. They probably still will
17:00
be because that's what we do. But we're best at well it's not like
17:07
Big ten West is the wrecking ball of the conference either though, No,
17:11
it's Wisconsin's got a new coach, ORDU has a new code and our Western's
17:17
got their own issues, so it has kind of got their own issues going
17:21
in the in the divisions are going away like they're gonna be. And you
17:25
think our schedule is easy this year, but near after that it's brutal.
17:29
So there's a chance we go seven and five this year and then jump back
17:33
to four and eight because of our schedule, and the people that are smart
17:37
enough to figure that out are going to realize that. But again, how
17:41
do you measure that from an expectation level setting in your mind and the fan
17:45
bases mind players mind? How are the players going to respond to that?
17:48
Because it's tough, It's gonna be tough, but we we It's just the
17:52
reality of the conference in this big shifting landscape, and unfortunately we are at
17:56
the very bottom of the barrel right now in all these moving parts are going
18:00
on. I hope it works out, but I I'm a little scared.
18:06
I guess that we're just so far behind it's almost going to be impossible to
18:11
catch back up to where the college football landscape is going now. I don't
18:15
think we're ever going to get left behind because of our just history and the
18:19
support and financially that we have. But who knows in twenty twenty five,
18:23
thirty years who's gonna be the big time donors if we're still bad? Dak,
18:29
you're not donating money and know that. Nope, I'm not. But
18:33
but look at this way, at least not Iowa. They're stuck in the
18:34
mud. Okay, So Dak, let me ask you that. Then,
18:38
would you rather be Iowa? Nebraska? Nobska, no doubt, because Iowa
18:45
they will never fire that coach and they and they're the same team every year.
18:48
They can't score, they their defense is always all right. But what
18:53
do you what are the average maybe seventeen pointy years somewhere around that lay Yeah,
19:02
But but but what what's Iowa's expectations? Every year? Seven night wins?
19:08
Yeah? And I mean what's their goal? They want to win a
19:11
conference title? Right? Yeah? I mean they've been around that talk about
19:15
every year I mean, where have we been. I still think I'd rather
19:23
be Nebraska because at least you have hope and you know, like you can
19:27
have look in the future and have the hope. Iowa just knows what's gonna
19:30
happen every year right now, agreed. And that is where from a patient
19:34
standpoint, by firing a coach and bring a new one in, you reset
19:40
the hope level. You reset it and you say, Okay, here we
19:41
go. We're gonna try this again. We've done that now four or five
19:45
times in the last fifteen years. So we're resetting it. We're giving us
19:48
new of Iowa's done the opposite approach and kept the same coach. And so
19:52
for the people that want to say we should have kept Bow, well,
19:56
we were at a place where Iowa is now or we won nine or two
20:00
games every single year, and we chose the fireboat. But those same people
20:03
are that we should have kept Bow. I don't. I don't have a
20:06
strong take on that because I like Bow. I was a big Bow fan.
20:08
But it did it got stale. We got stale where we were as
20:11
a program of what we were doing, and instead of doing what I was
20:15
doing and keeping that same coach around now Bow and parents are two very different
20:21
style of coaches, but we got rid of it. We got rid of
20:23
them and started over, and we've gone down ever since. I will say,
20:30
I'm looking. You know, we're talking about our expectations for winning is
20:33
and now this year it's an easier schedule, and they're like, yeah,
20:37
we should expect to do better going forward. Five schedules pretty fricking tough.
20:41
Oh yeah, I mean Cincinnati, Michigan, UCLA, USC, Ohio's state.
20:49
Yeah yeah, year three, I mean it's set up to where we
20:56
could even if we have the better best team of these last these next three
21:00
years, in your three, we could have the worst record because of the
21:03
schedule. We could only win six games that year and just because we're playing
21:07
freaking powerhouses. So in a weird way, this is the year to actually
21:11
take advantage of Wisconsin, maybe changing styles Northwestern, Like you said, who
21:15
the hell knows we're there? At Iowa, We've had Iowa's number and been
21:18
competing with them every year. Like this maybe our year, laugh it off,
21:22
produces got a new coach, like, let's take advantage of the guys.
21:26
Let's let's drink the kool aid and win eight nine games. Maybe they
21:33
need to listen to what kirk parents said the other day. Funny is a
21:37
winning, winning formula. I think iowa disgusting. Oh okay, I want
21:48
to jump in and talk more about rule. We've talked about them a little
21:51
bit here, and I guess I just want to get deeper into what what
21:59
you think of how he's handling the situation. And I will start it off
22:03
by saying, I don't think anybody I've talked to has said really anything negative
22:11
about him, and I don't think that's because we're drinking the kool laid.
22:14
I just think he genuinely knows how to talk and handle the situation appropriately to
22:19
where he doesn't he's not causing any controversy in a situation that's I mean,
22:26
it messed up. We were in a really weird, messed up situation with
22:30
where we're at as a program. So he's done a phenomenal job of that
22:37
I've been. The point to that is we also were that way with Frost.
22:42
I'm not gonna say we were that way with Mike Riley because we didn't
22:45
know who the fuck the guy was, but we were. We were eating
22:48
up Frost the way he framed everything. We're eating up rule again because of
22:52
the way he's framing things, we ate up bo when he all these coaches
22:56
were like, Okay, we're Husker fans, we're drinking it. But is
22:59
it truly like is are we right? Where? Rule? Is that genuine?
23:03
And he's doing everything the way you should be doing it. I mean,
23:07
I feel like he's not He's not telling us what he's gonna do two
23:14
opponents. He's telling us what he's trying to do with his team, which
23:18
is again contrasting style from Frost. Bross was like I'm gonna go on there.
23:22
We're gonna destroy these people, and rules like, yeah, we're gonna
23:26
go and we've got a plan. You know, we're not trying to recruit
23:30
people to Nebraska. We're trying to you know, he's got the whole spield
23:34
down where he's and he has done the best job of keeping Nebraska recruiting in
23:41
the states. As also stats on that like he he is getting guys in
23:45
Nebraska to stay here in the short time that he's been here, which I
23:48
think makes a lot of Husker fans happy. He throws in the Osborne and
23:52
Solish line. He throws in the full back line. You know, he
23:55
throws in all this stuff like whether he's doing a purpose or not. He's
23:57
floating it in there fans as he's good at the fans service while also kind
24:03
of giving out what he actually wants to happen. But he'll be like,
24:04
yeah, like we're gonna run the ball. We might have to do a
24:07
little spread offense to run the ball, you know, to oopen of space,
24:11
but it's to run the ball. You know. It's like, you
24:15
know, everyone's like, oh, we want to we want to just pound
24:18
the ball. I want to pound the rock. And he's like, well,
24:19
we might not be able to do that, but we're gonna try.
24:23
But by doing it this way, you know, like he's saying the fan
24:26
service while also saying this is what I actually want to do. Yeah,
24:33
there was there was one thing I really liked from his media media conference and
24:36
one thing I did not like, which which every media day conference just to
24:41
hype train who robbed That's all it is. But there's one I really liked.
24:45
I say, he's trying your recruiting state because you cannot lose your top
24:48
talent. If you're the only D one program in the state, you gotta
24:52
get every top talent recruit you have in such a small state too, And
24:57
you know, like it was like text, It is just like an it's
25:00
not a big deal. But I think people realize too that Nebraska, we
25:03
don't have the biggest, fastest, strongest guys, but what we have is
25:08
that blue collar we have the mentality. And we talk about this and the
25:15
like with Frost. I remember talking about this, we need those players to
25:18
push, push the studs that we get from Florida and Texas, Like we
25:22
need those guys to like say no, we're gonna challenge and if you slack
25:26
off and you start being a dumbass, like we're gonna take your spot because
25:29
we're hard. Nos, we're gonna work harder than you, even though we
25:32
might not be physically gifted. So I think that's a good balance to keep
25:37
your top guys performing at the level you need to keep them performing at.
25:41
There's talent in this day. They just got to coach it up. Yeah,
25:45
and how do they do that? Dak what's the form of the coaching
25:48
Nebraska football players. Well, you know, first thing you need to do
25:56
is have him gone the weight room, not do Mike Rewley did and just
25:57
cut the whole weight program. I would maybe start with that. Okay,
26:03
Step one, weight room, I like it. That's a good one.
26:06
Step two maybe actually care about your program and not go to the golf course
26:08
every night and get get sucked up nice. So that step two good?
26:15
No golfing could Trevor Albers here, get you on the staff sounds. I
26:22
gotta figure it out and get step three. I'm getting up into line that
26:26
maybe could be better than a high school team. Oh shit, that that
26:34
was no joke. The worst sippensive line I've probably ever seen. That's Daxs
26:40
formula to the winning football team there waiting from no golf and getting no line
26:48
and run the ball, run the ball. Oh boy. Um, here
26:55
here's my hesitation with the rule. Guys, here's my hesitation. And Cooper
27:00
Weeks, listener of our show, he told me this this weekend and I
27:07
I really liked it because I have this do this. There's a bachelor party.
27:14
So it was a bachelor party. But it was on the way down.
27:18
Okay, so it was in Missouri. Though, I mean, how
27:22
many drinks down would this talk? Oh it was only a couple. It
27:26
wasn't too many likes we just target. So Rule has like I We've just
27:33
talked about, like he's doing all the right things. We're all happy and
27:37
the way that everything's going. Is he nasty enough? Okay? Is he
27:47
willing? You know? There's there's a line obviously, and we're gonna get
27:49
to this in a second. All these coaches are getting charged or found doing
27:53
stuff wrong against the rules? Okay, not there's a line that can't be
27:57
crossed, right, But to be successful, and I do believe there's any
28:03
level as a coach or as a leader, you have to be willing to
28:06
push that line to get the most success out of your team, and you
28:11
might have to cross it, but you do like if some let's say,
28:15
some guys in trouble, you know, did something stupid over the weekend,
28:18
Like are you going to play him the next week? Why? Or why
28:22
not see him? Tom Wager? Yep, Bob Boom? Do you do
28:32
that? I don't know all the situations or backgrounds to that. But is
28:34
Rule nasty enough or are we being too blinded by it? And I'm gonna
28:38
say this now and this could be a really bad take over the next five
28:42
years of this tans out, But do we have another Mike Riley, not
28:45
quite to that level, but just another very nice guy that's coming in.
28:49
And he's the opposite of Frost. Frost was a cocky, arrogant asshole.
28:55
Mike Riley was the opposite the old grandpa. Do we have another just family,
29:00
nice, squishy, easy talk about the word light? Do we have
29:03
one of those guys here? We don't know that. We're not gonna know
29:07
that until we start seeing it progress. But that's the hesitation here, is
29:11
do we He's not? He is not the raw, rob mean, tough
29:15
nosed football coach, and that's evident because those are the kind of guys the
29:19
NFL needs. Rules personality does not work in the NFL. I think that
29:26
he's more framed to coach these eighteen to twenty year olds. Now, he's
29:30
a developer, not a motivator. But Dak mentioned the Temple and the Baylor
29:38
situations. Okay, that was however many years ago. This generation is a
29:44
little bit different. They're still kids, but it's a little bit different.
29:47
So can his personality is is it gonna mesh to be able to turn this
29:52
thing around? I mean, that's what it really all comes down to,
29:55
is buying go back to that word buying, buy into what he's doing.
29:59
And I think he's got a plan. I see more identity and philosophy with
30:03
Matt Rule right now than Frost ever showed. And we haven't even played a
30:07
game yet. Can he get them to buy into that? And then is
30:11
whatever that philosophy is is it does it work? And those are the questions.
30:17
I don't know, because there's part of me that's like, maybe not
30:19
nasty enough. Maybe he is just just just this nice guy. I don't
30:22
know. The only things like I would say to maybe qualms of those you
30:29
know, like you kind of hearing some of his interviews where he's like,
30:32
yeah, they only let us use pads eight practices, like how am I
30:36
supposed to? You know? And the spring game he's like, we're gonna
30:37
actually tackle. So it's got a background. He's a linebacker Penn State backup
30:45
linebacker deep on the church um. So there's just something subtle things like that
30:52
of his maybe not necessarily nastiness, but work ethic as far as like,
30:56
hey, we want to be physical and practice because we're gonna be physical on
30:59
the field. That's kind of one of the things he said, and especially
31:02
like around offensive line play. He's kind of alluded to that as well,
31:06
and I'm sure and also think part of it is the coaching staff that he's
31:10
assembled. I think the old line guys are probably nastier than him. Could
31:17
be wrong. Well, at least at least he knows how to rebuild a
31:21
program from the dumps up, because because Baylor was as low as you could
31:25
get, because he was after Art Brons, wasn't he he took over a
31:30
very messy situation. Yeah, so he knows how to rebuild from all the
31:33
mess is going on, that's all. I guess that's a bright spot.
31:37
Yeah, he's trying to create unity and he's successfully done that at his past
31:45
to collegiate schools. Nebraska's a different beast though, But I think from what
31:49
it sounds like, he did his research. He knew what he was getting
31:53
himself into when he took the job. He's talked about how it with his
31:57
kids. They went and watched like videos of our national championship games and the
32:04
games against Oklahoma and Colorado and all those rivalries, like this is what Nebraska
32:08
football means if I'm taking this job. So I think he is level setting
32:13
himself, Like, Okay, this is going to be the next beast here
32:15
in Austin. We talked about this last year. Is he the type of
32:20
coach that has the extra drive at eleven o'clock at night to work for an
32:23
extra hour or two or is he going to go to bed? Does he
32:25
have that motivation to go the extra step? And I think he does.
32:34
I think just looking at in state of recruits just I mean in that first
32:38
spring, I think that kind of shows that he's he's putting the time in.
32:43
I mean he was not. It's very easy to do that now to
32:46
start it is. Let's see in a couple of years what happens and when
32:52
push comes to shove again, look at these contracts these coaches are getting there,
32:55
just insane when push comes of, is he going to keep battling or
33:02
is his paycheck gonna be enough? I hope, I hope is not the
33:06
case. I don't think that's the case with him. But just some things
33:08
to think about here as we're all on the hype train and drinking up the
33:13
kool aid. But we got a football coach and we're in a good position.
33:17
We're not in any troubles other Big ten schools. I can't no I
33:23
know Dax got some things about PJ. Fleck. He's got here before we
33:29
get going, So Dak, the floor is yours. PJ. Fleck gave
33:31
me that. I can understand that people are mad about that. I think
33:39
all the okay, from what I read, he made play okay, he
33:43
made players do that good stuff and they got rewarded. I could see people
33:47
being mad about rewarding if not taking drug task. I could see that.
33:52
Really. I mean, okay, that that might be a little bad.
33:58
But but for like, given punishments is like making a run more and stuff.
34:05
So many coaches do that in society, in society getting soft on everyone,
34:10
and it's going to continue to happen. Unfortunately. The whole Fitzgerald thing
34:17
was interesting. Yeah, that was way worse. It was worse, and
34:22
I think we're obviously hearing more and more went on. But I still don't
34:28
know that Fitzgerald had a whole intricral part in any of that. I think,
34:32
yeah, he's a leader of the football team. The stuff that was
34:35
happening was not right, But you wonder how much of that stuff really goes
34:39
on. I mean in other programs too. I'm not saying to that extent
34:45
but and yep him like it's it's just interesting all of these different things popping
34:57
up. Um that is no more than society everything for people who don't know.
35:07
Basically, it's not all hazing, but Northwestern is definitely hazing, and
35:14
correct thisisoda is kind of hazing. And the hardball was lying during an interview
35:20
or an inter kind of interview, a investigation into recruiting. Yeah, I
35:28
actually don't even know the details. Once once I heard yeah he's missing this
35:31
first four games and saw who they were, I'm like, great game fives
35:35
against Nebraska, lovely. Yeah, there you go. So I that was
35:40
also the other point to all of this crossing the line stuff is yeah,
35:46
lines are probably crossed a lot of the situations, but are they in some
35:50
of them? Like what are what's what's rule gonna do to or has to
35:55
do to be a little mean, be a little nasty to move forward and
36:00
maybe you don't have to, maybe you don't have to could be wrong on
36:02
that, but like he's a dak like bj Fleck, like really are we
36:07
are? We really gonna make a big deal about that? Like lapses that
36:12
is the quintessential football punishment. Yeah, already though people don't like him.
36:17
That's that's the main thing. A lot of people don't like him, so
36:21
so they were just ready to go after him. Oh and people didn't like
36:23
him because of his obviously his unique demeanor. But he was winning football games
36:30
at Minnesota, and he continues to be better in Nebraska every year, second
36:36
along tenured Big Ten head coach. I think. So it's crazy enough that
36:39
sounds but yeah, because he came in twenty seventeen, probably farrens and than
36:45
him, and I know Farns is like twenty plus. Oh, James Franklin's
36:50
up there too, I think. So anyways, more to come, good
36:55
stuff, episode one, season five. We will be bad two times a
37:00
week here as we were last year. Talk some more Husker football and maybe
37:05
we'll get into Oklahoma sooner. Preview here for you too. I'll have one
37:08
ready. Oh boy, all right, see you Wednesday, go back read
37:14
GiB Her nothing dack no GBR Boomer sooner I'll send GPR