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Michigan State Recap: Happy Birthday Mike Ekeler · Return to Glory - Nebraska

0:13
Speaker 1: The Turn to Glory podcast free tag the second episode
0:21
Speaker 1: in addition to the Husker Lab premiere or the Return
0:26
Speaker 1: to Glory Podcast. After defeeding Michigan State thirty eight twenty
0:29
Speaker 1: seven in a game that I've heard described as strange, odd, bizarre,
0:37
Speaker 1: unbelievable roller coaster, never doubt any other words that we.
0:43
Speaker 2: Want to throw in there, There were doubts, I said
0:48
Speaker 2: my description of the first half of the Frostiest game.
0:54
Speaker 2: At that point, we won, so you can't say that.
0:56
Speaker 2: But it was one of those games where it's just
0:59
Speaker 2: like it's going well but also terrible at the same time,
1:06
Speaker 2: and I feel like we're gonna lose it.
1:08
Speaker 3: That's That's back to back games where I've I mean
1:12
Speaker 3: this this one you won last night last where I've
1:14
Speaker 3: came out of the game just like a weird feeling.
1:15
Speaker 3: I don't know how to feel about it. It was the
1:18
Speaker 3: same of the Michigan game too. I don't know. I mean,
1:21
Speaker 3: there's good, really good stuff in the Mission State game
1:24
Speaker 3: and horrible stuff, so I don't know how you feel
1:27
Speaker 3: about it. It's I guess win's a win. Like we
1:30
Speaker 3: said at the beginning of the year, that's all.
1:31
Speaker 1: That's all. You want, but yeah, way you get a
1:34
Speaker 1: chance to listen to our other episode two. We were
1:37
Speaker 1: building out their return to Glory podcast Network with some
1:41
Speaker 1: with some different people. So our other episode has some
1:44
Speaker 1: good insights and takes from some older people. Well, just
1:49
Speaker 1: I'll leave it at that and and then we'll continue
1:51
Speaker 1: to do our regular shows here. I yeah, I think
1:58
Speaker 1: this game. For myself, I'm just relieved we won. Like
2:07
Speaker 1: that's I guess the summary of everything, because and I
2:11
Speaker 1: think Rule said it too in the post game. It
2:14
Speaker 1: felt like a game that in the past we have
2:18
Speaker 1: not found a way to win. Like things started going south,
2:22
Speaker 1: and instead of things continuing to go south, we actually responded.
2:28
Speaker 1: It started with the Jacry Barney wheel route that Dylan
2:32
Speaker 1: hit him on third and ten, and things kind of
2:35
Speaker 1: started going better from that point on. It just it
2:40
Speaker 1: just doesn't make sense a lot of times, the highs
2:45
Speaker 1: and lows, how things can go so poorly at times
2:49
Speaker 1: and then things can look so good at times. It's
2:52
Speaker 1: just one of those teams. I think that, like, that's
2:57
Speaker 1: who we are, that's who we are as a program
2:59
Speaker 1: right now out and we're trying to move that from
3:03
Speaker 1: less bad to more good. But we're still going to
3:05
Speaker 1: have some of that bad.
3:11
Speaker 2: And we didn't talk about the podcast because at that
3:14
Speaker 2: point I didn't realize how windy it was going to be.
3:19
Speaker 1: But you know, I don't know how much they talked
3:21
Speaker 1: about it on TV. Obviously at the game the Squirrels
3:25
Speaker 1: and it's very like where you're sitting, probably it matters
3:30
Speaker 1: or on the field, I don't know. It did not
3:31
Speaker 1: feel like it was that. I mean, it was windy,
3:34
Speaker 1: but it didn't feel like it was a as bad
3:38
Speaker 1: as people we're going to make it out to be.
3:40
Speaker 1: But I don't know what it was like.
3:41
Speaker 2: On the field. I mean on TV apparently they said
3:45
Speaker 2: it was thirty or four.
3:46
Speaker 1: Min know, we're in guests on the forecast was I don't,
3:50
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't. I don't know how much did
3:53
Speaker 1: affect it Probably did affect the game, I don't know.
3:55
Speaker 1: But I kept saying, we get the wind in the
3:57
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, we get the wind in the fourth quarter,
3:58
Speaker 1: We get the wind in the fourth quarter, which.
4:02
Speaker 2: I mean, you look at the two quarters we had
4:03
Speaker 2: the wind yep, yep.
4:07
Speaker 1: Yeah.
4:07
Speaker 2: Something changed.
4:11
Speaker 3: I mean when it was fourteen, oh, it was like
4:14
Speaker 3: holy crackton rascling blowma and then then I feel like
4:16
Speaker 3: I'm Lincoln and I was turning on fourteen. It's like,
4:18
Speaker 3: what what just happened?
4:19
Speaker 2: I know, I had a brief mode of like, are
4:21
Speaker 2: we going to absolutely blow these people out? Like it
4:24
Speaker 2: was fourteen oh no time.
4:27
Speaker 1: And then when it was thirty eight twenty one, you're
4:29
Speaker 1: probably like, we're blowing this team out kind of yeah.
4:33
Speaker 2: But it didn't feel like it's like the thirty. I
4:35
Speaker 2: don't know about you guys. I feel like the the
4:38
Speaker 2: twenty they're twenty one stuck up happened real Quickick.
4:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was quick.
4:42
Speaker 3: It was like what theck?
4:43
Speaker 2: And somehow we scored, you know, twenty four. I felt
4:48
Speaker 2: equally as quick as like we almost scored forty points.
4:54
Speaker 2: But I don't feel like our offense played that well.
4:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the weird, weird takeaway.
5:00
Speaker 2: Because we didn't we didn't convert basically any of the
5:03
Speaker 2: short yard Like whenever we had a short field, we
5:06
Speaker 2: didn't really convert because we had the two interceptions on
5:09
Speaker 2: the other side of the fifty, and we had the
5:11
Speaker 2: long punt return of the other side of the fifty.
5:12
Speaker 2: I think all those I don't think any of those
5:16
Speaker 2: resulted in a touchdown, and then we also had the
5:21
Speaker 2: muffed punt or you know, Michigan's muf punt that recovered
5:24
Speaker 2: the resulted in a field goal.
5:27
Speaker 1: It did feel like, I mean you, the one everybody's
5:31
Speaker 1: gonna remember is after we go down and block the punt,
5:34
Speaker 1: we get a stop, and then Michigan State goes down
5:37
Speaker 1: and scores in their long drive, and then we can't
5:39
Speaker 1: score on two short fields at all, Like we get
5:42
Speaker 1: sacked three times in a row, and the game script
5:47
Speaker 1: is just.
5:49
Speaker 2: And we had a fourth and forty something at some point.
5:52
Speaker 1: Yes, welcome back to Illinois overtime game. What I want
5:58
Speaker 1: to like people were, I think frustrated and also happy
6:04
Speaker 1: that we won. I think, why this one feels different.
6:08
Speaker 1: In the Michigan game, we talked about how that one
6:10
Speaker 1: felt different. Why this one feels different? We actually won
6:14
Speaker 1: on big plays in the other team like messing up,
6:18
Speaker 1: like we won. How we've always lost right in games
6:23
Speaker 1: in the past, like Michigan State did some really stupid things.
6:27
Speaker 1: Our special teams may be our best unit of all
6:32
Speaker 1: three units. And we score a touchdown, almost two touchdowns,
6:42
Speaker 1: like we're winning on big plays. We have a sixty
6:44
Speaker 1: yard tunnel screen pass that has not been any part
6:53
Speaker 1: of the way we've won when we have won or
6:59
Speaker 1: lost the past however many years. So that's why it's
7:03
Speaker 1: so weird and we feel like man, but but in
7:06
Speaker 1: the bottom line is that's how teams. I mean, we've
7:08
Speaker 1: lost so many games that way. We finally won a
7:11
Speaker 1: game that way, where you just I haven't really seen
7:14
Speaker 1: the other side of it ever.
7:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was weird. And their backup quarterback. I had
7:24
Speaker 2: a moment of when the backup quarter at first win it.
7:27
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, geez, we're gonna get cooked by
7:30
Speaker 2: the back of like classic Nebraska fas, Like we prepped
7:33
Speaker 2: for this running quarterback, They're going to bring up this
7:35
Speaker 2: absolute stead passer. I mean, you did look good, you know.
7:42
Speaker 3: You know, let's be all three of the games that
7:45
Speaker 3: can't pow er five pounds this year have all felt weird,
7:48
Speaker 3: Like have you felt good at any of those games
7:50
Speaker 3: coming out of the same Michigan or Michigen state, Like
7:54
Speaker 3: like had a get rid of the game, Like, how
7:56
Speaker 3: how you're feeling this one?
7:57
Speaker 1: I found this one I feel pretty good about. Like
8:00
Speaker 1: it was it was, it was bizarre, but I feel
8:02
Speaker 1: I got a good read on the game like it was.
8:04
Speaker 1: This game was black and white. It was either horrible
8:06
Speaker 1: or it was really good.
8:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, it definitely sounded like I don't at this. You'd
8:12
Speaker 2: let me know how it was actually at the stadium,
8:14
Speaker 2: but it sounds like the fans were starting to starting
8:18
Speaker 2: to turn there in the third quarter.
8:21
Speaker 1: But we can go there. I I have, I have,
8:24
Speaker 1: I I awesome. I'm gonna say it again. We have
8:28
Speaker 1: too many stupid We have too many fans in the stadium.
8:31
Speaker 1: We the the the people that are there to just
8:37
Speaker 1: sit there and and I can there's sometimes there's a
8:40
Speaker 1: right in real Senate too, there's a right to bitch.
8:43
Speaker 1: But we have so many like fans that don't care
8:45
Speaker 1: about the game that are there, that that they truly,
8:48
Speaker 1: they truly are just there to like I must say it,
8:53
Speaker 1: not not not cheer like people people around us. I
8:57
Speaker 1: don't know, I was. I even made a couple of
8:59
Speaker 1: outwardly can comments about it too, Like it just we
9:03
Speaker 1: have some we have some poor fans. And I'm not
9:06
Speaker 1: saying poor fans people that are pouting. I'm just saying
9:08
Speaker 1: people that are there that are just like aloof to
9:11
Speaker 1: everything that's going on and really don't care about the game.
9:14
Speaker 1: We have a lot of those fans that are at
9:16
Speaker 1: the game.
9:18
Speaker 2: I don't think all change with the limited number of tickets.
9:23
Speaker 1: I think I think it will because those fans will
9:24
Speaker 1: not come to the game. They won't be able to
9:28
Speaker 1: They're not gonna want to pay them pay the price
9:30
Speaker 1: because tickets will go up in price a little bit
9:32
Speaker 1: if you I'm not saying we're not gonna bulldoze twenty
9:36
Speaker 1: thousand seats off, but I just I just think we
9:38
Speaker 1: have too many. I'm not even gonna call them casual fans,
9:42
Speaker 1: like people that are there that don't cheer for the
9:47
Speaker 1: good and the bad, and they do that. They I
9:49
Speaker 1: want more of Cincinnati crowd. That's what I want. I
9:52
Speaker 1: want that kind of.
9:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're not.
9:55
Speaker 1: It's not a hostile. Memorial Stadium is not a hostile
9:59
Speaker 1: place to play anymore.
10:00
Speaker 2: It's not depends on who you are.
10:02
Speaker 1: It's not hostile. You can ask a Big Ten team.
10:05
Speaker 1: Memorial Stadium is not in the top five of the
10:07
Speaker 1: Big Ten. And there's some hostiles places in the Big Ten,
10:09
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, but we're not. We're not in
10:13
Speaker 1: the top I heard I saw something this week on
10:17
Speaker 1: I think it was a barstool maybe or someone that
10:20
Speaker 1: they went around said what are the most overrated places
10:24
Speaker 1: college football stadiums? And two of the six people said Nebraska.
10:31
Speaker 1: Like it just it's one of theo I just think
10:33
Speaker 1: we're at a point and yeah, winning cures all, but
10:36
Speaker 1: we're not. We're not a top ten team yet. I
10:38
Speaker 1: think maybe we'll get there, maybe things will change. But anyways,
10:41
Speaker 1: ramped again about the about the people at the game,
10:43
Speaker 1: and I just said it, Yeah, well was good this game.
10:49
Speaker 1: I will say that student sectually did a good job.
10:51
Speaker 3: I was talking last night and I totally agree with you. Now,
10:53
Speaker 3: come after going to the Michigan game about the fans,
10:55
Speaker 3: like I was making Northern defense, people turn around, give
10:57
Speaker 3: you dirty looks. It's like it's like, what are we
10:59
Speaker 3: doing here? Like or even if you like stand the
11:02
Speaker 3: whole game and they tell you sit down, it's like.
11:05
Speaker 2: You do it.
11:06
Speaker 1: It feels like you get punished for cheering half the time.
11:08
Speaker 1: Like it, and that's that's that's the environment. And second
11:11
Speaker 1: and third quarter is a little bit of it. But
11:14
Speaker 1: we we did. The way the game was going, you
11:18
Speaker 1: could feel the stadium go. I don't I don't know
11:24
Speaker 1: that rule is gonna get done here ever, and then
11:28
Speaker 1: things just flipped and everybody's like, Okay, we're fine again.
11:31
Speaker 1: And I feel like we're gonna have a lot of
11:32
Speaker 1: those moments this season. I'm from now until the end
11:36
Speaker 1: that which I guess there were booze. I don't know.
11:42
Speaker 2: I saw I saw Rules press conference, and I was like,
11:45
Speaker 2: I didn't hear boo booze on the TV.
11:48
Speaker 1: But I was, yeah, I was maybe there were some murders,
11:51
Speaker 1: and and Rule said it too, like fans have the right,
11:54
Speaker 1: they're paying money. And you made the comment of the alcohol.
11:57
Speaker 1: I also I'm going to away games in Nebraska games,
12:03
Speaker 1: not many people are drinking alcohol in the stadium compared
12:06
Speaker 1: to Await, which is just interesting to point out. It's
12:11
Speaker 1: not like it's.
12:13
Speaker 2: I mean, part of that is the age of the crowd.
12:17
Speaker 2: The other parts probably, I mean, it was, you know,
12:20
Speaker 2: one hundred degrees. It was it was very three pm.
12:24
Speaker 2: You know, it's not like it's like but it's one
12:25
Speaker 2: hundred reason three pm and you're just standing there. It's like, ash,
12:28
Speaker 2: I don't know if I want to that's water. Just
12:31
Speaker 2: give me some water. Let me spot it out bush light.
12:34
Speaker 1: Is the water?
12:35
Speaker 2: Eh, A little different.
12:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's I don't and I don't know how you
12:44
Speaker 3: change I guess small Vassi, But how you change it?
12:46
Speaker 3: It's those people that sit down the whole game, and man,
12:49
Speaker 3: are they the first to bitch once it goes south?
12:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, and yeah, you know my answer. How you fix that?
12:54
Speaker 1: You win games and you become a rated You become
12:57
Speaker 1: a rated team, you become a team that people are
12:59
Speaker 1: talking about.
13:00
Speaker 2: I think that they're less.
13:03
Speaker 1: That might not change tickets, you know, it might not
13:07
Speaker 1: change the the old crowd that I've talked about a lot,
13:10
Speaker 1: But what it will change is bring some of the middle,
13:13
Speaker 1: the middle tier up to the top.
13:16
Speaker 2: And yeah, your students sections invested. If the students, because
13:21
Speaker 2: that's the that's gonna be the rowdiest section. If they're
13:23
Speaker 2: the rowdiest, they're kind of the I would say for them,
13:27
Speaker 2: move them out of the damn corner.
13:28
Speaker 1: I know they've had them there forever, but get them
13:31
Speaker 1: either get them in the end zone or get them
13:32
Speaker 1: on the fifty yard line. I will They'll never be
13:34
Speaker 1: on the fifty yard line again, but get them somewhere where.
13:37
Speaker 1: It's a little bit like, I don't know, impactful, more
13:42
Speaker 1: impactful than.
13:45
Speaker 3: It feels like Nebraska is like one of the worst
13:47
Speaker 3: student sections is big tenants because of their location, Like
13:50
Speaker 3: I feel like they have no impact on the game.
13:52
Speaker 1: Really, yeah, I thought they did it. I thought this
13:55
Speaker 1: game was okay.
13:56
Speaker 2: I mean I unfortunately their end zone was in the
14:00
Speaker 2: the win riddle and zone that didn't see a lot
14:03
Speaker 2: of action.
14:05
Speaker 1: So all right, well let's get deeper into each of
14:07
Speaker 1: the positions here. Let's start. Here's what I did too.
14:12
Speaker 1: I said, you know, everybody's a little very frustrated about
14:16
Speaker 1: our offense and kind of confused on why that happened. Yeah,
14:23
Speaker 1: we won the game by ten. We were supposed to
14:25
Speaker 1: win the game by ten. Our offense probably would played
14:27
Speaker 1: below what we wanted to do, but I thought our
14:29
Speaker 1: defense played better than we were expecting wanting it to.
14:33
Speaker 1: And then our special teams once again kind of carrying
14:37
Speaker 1: the load here and making some big play. So let's
14:41
Speaker 1: let's start offense, and we'll start specifically offensive line. Elijah
14:45
Speaker 1: Pritchett gets to start at left tackle. Get two loud
14:49
Speaker 1: on the right side at tackle, the spot that we
14:52
Speaker 1: were wondering what was gonna happen coming off of bye week.
14:55
Speaker 1: The offensive line, I thought, once again struggled pretty bad.
15:02
Speaker 1: Austin pulled up the PFF grades for us, and however
15:06
Speaker 1: they do it, I don't know. I still don't know
15:09
Speaker 1: what these numbers truly mean. They're a way of just
15:13
Speaker 1: I guess, ranking them against each other. But then they
15:16
Speaker 1: somehow can rank position different positions against each other, so
15:20
Speaker 1: I don't know how they do that. Even I like
15:21
Speaker 1: to look at them, like, Okay, well here's our seven
15:24
Speaker 1: offensive linemen that played. You know who raided the best,
15:27
Speaker 1: but this this ranked the entire offense, and six of
15:32
Speaker 1: our top eight were offensive linemen or five are top
15:36
Speaker 1: eight five I don't know.
15:40
Speaker 2: Five of the top six were five of the top
15:44
Speaker 2: seven were offensive lineman. Excuse me.
15:46
Speaker 1: I don't know how you put like positions against positions,
15:48
Speaker 1: but it has our offensive lineup to me that didn't
15:50
Speaker 1: feel that way by any means.
15:54
Speaker 3: Like I said, I'm on the podcast, all these numbers
15:55
Speaker 3: are croc of shit.
15:56
Speaker 1: I feel like I wouldn't say they're a croc of ship,
16:00
Speaker 1: but I think you got to know what you're looking at,
16:01
Speaker 1: and I don't think I really know what I'm looking
16:03
Speaker 1: at when you when you look at that you did,
16:04
Speaker 1: it's not that the gut check doesn't feel right. But
16:09
Speaker 1: that being said, I do think our offensive line had
16:13
Speaker 1: moments of good and awesome. As mentioned this in previous
16:19
Speaker 1: the first drive once again looks great. It was. I
16:23
Speaker 1: don't know if we're just so. I mean, obviously a
16:25
Speaker 1: lot of those players are scripted, but we looked fresh.
16:29
Speaker 1: It like we put together damn first good drive again
16:32
Speaker 1: and running the ball to looked pretty good. We had
16:36
Speaker 1: a couple of designed Dylan QB runs in there, which
16:41
Speaker 1: was new, a fresh little twist there, Like it's not
16:47
Speaker 1: all bad. But I just don't. I just I don't.
16:50
Speaker 1: I don't quite understand because I don't feel like we
16:53
Speaker 1: lost a lot from last year's OH line that it
16:58
Speaker 1: should be falling off this much, but it feels like
17:00
Speaker 1: it kind of is. So I don't. I don't. The
17:03
Speaker 1: offensive line is like, I don't. I don't know how
17:05
Speaker 1: to feel about it.
17:06
Speaker 2: Yet, they I thought, like I said, there was a stretcher.
17:14
Speaker 2: It seemed like they played horrible. I mean, they were
17:18
Speaker 2: just in the backfield the whole game. And then you know,
17:22
Speaker 2: the moment we start getting some momentum, justin Evans, has
17:24
Speaker 2: that really dumb? I don't know if you saw while
17:27
Speaker 2: you were there where he it was he was standing
17:31
Speaker 2: arguing with the defensive player. The referee was between them,
17:34
Speaker 2: and he hit the defensive player twice in the head.
17:37
Speaker 2: Nice with the referee between them. We got that fifteen
17:41
Speaker 2: yard penalty after like finally having some offensive movement, they
17:46
Speaker 2: killed the drive. It was. It was a real bonehead.
17:51
Speaker 2: I was like, what are we doing?
17:53
Speaker 1: So that kind of stuff we haven't say, we haven't done,
17:58
Speaker 1: I know, you know, and that's kind of stuff we've
18:01
Speaker 1: really nitpicked for reasons why we lose games in cost
18:05
Speaker 1: as drives. This game, this game we won, okay, and
18:09
Speaker 1: the coach Exat's in the same boat, but like that
18:11
Speaker 1: kind of stuff it can't happen, Like it cannot happen,
18:15
Speaker 1: especially when we have momentum and drives like it hurts.
18:21
Speaker 2: It was. Yeah, there were times where it's like, oh wow,
18:26
Speaker 2: we've got a lot of time to throw the ball,
18:28
Speaker 2: and then there were times there it just felt like
18:30
Speaker 2: they were either in the backfield or getting pressure up,
18:36
Speaker 2: you know, like pushing the line back most of the game.
18:41
Speaker 2: And that's maybe that's just what I'm remembering because I
18:44
Speaker 2: had such a miserable time for you know, half of
18:47
Speaker 2: the game, if not more. I mean the offense wasn't
18:49
Speaker 2: even out on the like the offense wasn't out on
18:52
Speaker 2: the field for thirty minutes after their first drive.
18:57
Speaker 3: Here's here's the bad part about it, too, is Mission
19:00
Speaker 3: State was supposed to be like a pretty bad defense,
19:03
Speaker 3: and it did feel like they were. Especially d line
19:06
Speaker 3: was just dominating Nebraska for most of that game.
19:10
Speaker 2: But again, we still scored thirty eight. Now that's seven
19:13
Speaker 2: special teams.
19:14
Speaker 3: But and again how they scored thirty eight. Still we
19:19
Speaker 3: still don't know that guy. That feels weird.
19:21
Speaker 1: But the big boys, guys, big boys.
19:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's and have big plays when we were close,
19:28
Speaker 2: Like all of our big plays happened on our side
19:30
Speaker 2: of the field, not when, like I said, the short fields,
19:33
Speaker 2: when we were giving short fields are offensive line fell apart.
19:36
Speaker 2: It's like, ogs, we're gonna get sacked here four times
19:39
Speaker 2: every time we're on the other side of the fifty.
19:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're almost doing like he used to be when
19:46
Speaker 3: they go back to Bassy Bell. No, no, no, it's
19:48
Speaker 3: because of the quarterback play. Now, it's because the on line.
19:50
Speaker 3: It's like, oh god, here we go. It's it feels
19:52
Speaker 3: like it feels like we're alla has someone in his face.
19:56
Speaker 3: Especially this game, eight out ten times it goes back
19:59
Speaker 3: to pass.
20:00
Speaker 1: I would say too, we're talking about the offensive line.
20:04
Speaker 1: I don't think that's a general general agreements there. Like
20:09
Speaker 1: some people think it's all Royal's fall still, Like that's true.
20:13
Speaker 1: That that definitely the casual fan that doesn't really understand
20:18
Speaker 1: what's happening in football, Like they still think Dylan's not
20:24
Speaker 1: very good, and and Dylan's good. Now he made some
20:30
Speaker 1: mistakes still, but here here, here's here's what I think people,
20:38
Speaker 1: and probably myself included at times. I don't know why,
20:42
Speaker 1: and and and maybe at Nebraska it probably is because
20:47
Speaker 1: it's still your expectations are a lot higher. I think
20:50
Speaker 1: there's a lot of expectations of people in the team
20:53
Speaker 1: and everything just to be perfect, like things have to
20:56
Speaker 1: be perfect or we get all pissy and upset and
20:59
Speaker 1: we can't accept a few mistakes. Now, I get it,
21:02
Speaker 1: those mistakes sometimes cost us games. And when your margin
21:05
Speaker 1: for error the past several years it's so so small,
21:12
Speaker 1: it makes those mistakes a lot more noticeable. We still
21:18
Speaker 1: make those mistakes, but now we kind of are winning,
21:20
Speaker 1: So it's they're getting overshadowed maybe a little bit. But
21:24
Speaker 1: for example, we're going to talk about Dylan here. Dylan's
21:28
Speaker 1: not perfect. There's very few quarterbacks in the country. Well,
21:34
Speaker 1: there's no quarterback in the country that's perfect, arch Manning.
21:41
Speaker 1: Dylan had an okay game, Like if you degrade rate
21:46
Speaker 1: his game out of a ten, like what I would
21:47
Speaker 1: say probably for him is probably a five. Yeah, Like
21:52
Speaker 1: it wasn't like he played his best one. I don't
21:54
Speaker 1: think he also sucked his interception knowed. I mean it
22:00
Speaker 1: was I was a bad pass over. Everything about it
22:04
Speaker 1: was just bad. But again, he's he's He's also dealing
22:10
Speaker 1: with pressure and duress a lot too, which is frustrating
22:15
Speaker 1: for him, I'm sure. But I also saw some stuff
22:18
Speaker 1: last night that Dylan maybe took more the hurries and
22:23
Speaker 1: the pressures were on him more than the offensive line
22:26
Speaker 1: because he maybe had time. So it's a given. It's
22:30
Speaker 1: a give and take. Again, it's nobody specific, it's nobody's fault.
22:32
Speaker 1: It's everybody's fault when when it comes down to having
22:37
Speaker 1: pressure and time to throw in the pocket. So that's
22:40
Speaker 1: my take on Dylan this game. Like he's still not mobile,
22:46
Speaker 1: but I do like that we are trying to make
22:50
Speaker 1: that at least a threat, and.
22:52
Speaker 2: He's mobile enough to get five yards.
22:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I like that. That's kind of maybe a
22:57
Speaker 1: thought now on the game plan that it's okay if
22:59
Speaker 1: Dylan takes a hit or two. I don't we don't
23:02
Speaker 1: want him taking twelve hits a game.
23:04
Speaker 2: But I mean there were five sacks, so he got
23:07
Speaker 2: five hits right there.
23:08
Speaker 1: Yes, But here here's the other is I don't. I
23:13
Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe this is Dylan goes down really easy.
23:21
Speaker 1: I know we've probably coached to duck out of contact
23:24
Speaker 1: a little bit. I just feel like he does it
23:27
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit of an extreme, like it when
23:31
Speaker 1: he gets sacked. I feel like he someone's barely gets
23:32
Speaker 1: touched and goes down.
23:34
Speaker 2: I don't know if I feel the same way. I
23:37
Speaker 2: feel like when he gets sacked, it's like, oh, that dude's.
23:39
Speaker 1: On him, Like yeah, but he likes Still.
23:42
Speaker 2: He's getting he's bouncing around the he's bouncing around the
23:44
Speaker 2: pocket quite a bit.
23:45
Speaker 1: But he still goes down really easy. Like I don't know, Drake.
23:49
Speaker 1: Drake May last night had a pretty awesome pass on
23:53
Speaker 1: the last drive. I'm not saying don't should do this,
23:55
Speaker 1: but where he rolled out and he likes stiff armed
23:58
Speaker 1: one of the big d d that we're trying to
24:00
Speaker 1: tackle them, and through past this Stefon Diggs in their
24:03
Speaker 1: last drive, like Dylan just goes down on first contact
24:07
Speaker 1: a lot, which most quarterbacks kind of do. But that's
24:13
Speaker 1: my thought on Dylan.
24:14
Speaker 2: I'd say my one comment this is probably his worst
24:17
Speaker 2: body language game. There was like you on TV is
24:21
Speaker 2: like you could tell he was visibly frustrated.
24:23
Speaker 1: Interesting, he was not.
24:28
Speaker 2: It just he didn't seem and I this is just
24:31
Speaker 2: what it looked like, but you know, he didn't seem
24:33
Speaker 2: like he just felt very frustrated. It wasn't like super
24:36
Speaker 2: like hey man, we gotta like, come on, guys, we
24:38
Speaker 2: gotta we gotta fix this as very much like a
24:40
Speaker 2: you know, head down.
24:44
Speaker 1: Firstly may be seen as that of Dylan, Like that's
24:46
Speaker 1: not it was noticeable.
24:48
Speaker 2: I thought on TV, like, oh man, he seems upset,
24:52
Speaker 2: like that nothing's going right, and that's when I started
24:56
Speaker 2: a panic. I was like, oh no, like I haven't
24:58
Speaker 2: seen this, and the game's already started to spiral and
25:02
Speaker 2: it's kind of in the third quarters, like oh boy,
25:05
Speaker 2: this is gonna get messy. I mean it was.
25:09
Speaker 3: It was for sure his worst game of the season
25:11
Speaker 3: so far. And I'm not saying he played horrible like
25:13
Speaker 3: you guys said. It was at least he didn't have
25:17
Speaker 3: the plays that lost the game for Nebraska like he.
25:24
Speaker 1: I know.
25:25
Speaker 3: It's a weird feeling with him too.
25:28
Speaker 2: I felt like.
25:30
Speaker 3: He wasn't even close to the person the position that
25:35
Speaker 3: you camplain about the most come out of that game.
25:39
Speaker 3: He played Alright, I would say, yeah.
25:42
Speaker 1: Well, said Dak yep Uh the receivers, running backs, I mean, em,
25:54
Speaker 1: it had an okay game again, it had a NEMA game.
25:58
Speaker 1: Uh scored three touchdowns are big play in isaiahah unders.
26:07
Speaker 2: Like a team, I mean rule mentioned it. He's like
26:10
Speaker 2: you got to feed the hot hand and he was
26:13
Speaker 2: like untackleable.
26:16
Speaker 1: We looked like maybe we had better athletes talent on
26:23
Speaker 1: the skilled players, or at least comparable if not better,
26:26
Speaker 1: and that helped us a lot with these big plays,
26:29
Speaker 1: which yeah, I mean that goes back to recruiting and
26:33
Speaker 1: building a roster, and we probably don't have that against Michigan,
26:38
Speaker 1: but against Michigan State and some of these teams coming up,
26:41
Speaker 1: we probably will have some better athletes and skilled players.
26:44
Speaker 1: So that hopefully will help us win games. And that's
26:48
Speaker 1: again a program building thing that I think is a
26:51
Speaker 1: good sign that that we're seeing. And it's also favored
26:55
Speaker 1: to our schedule a little bit too, and we have
26:58
Speaker 1: to go out and show that we are better than
27:00
Speaker 1: a Michigan State team at home, and we did that.
27:03
Speaker 1: So these skilled players I think are they're they're not.
27:07
Speaker 1: They're not even trophy type guys. Guys. You know, maybe
27:11
Speaker 1: a couple of them will play in the NFL, but
27:13
Speaker 1: they're there's some talent there, which is good. That helps
27:17
Speaker 1: when your offensive line maybe isn't stellar.
27:23
Speaker 2: Again, I look at the you know, we had what
27:28
Speaker 2: how many touchdowns for four offensive touchdowns? No, we had
27:34
Speaker 2: that more than that, right, we had the.
27:37
Speaker 1: Three EMTs in the in the one Isaiah.
27:41
Speaker 2: It's just there's just this. It was a sneaky four touchdowns.
27:45
Speaker 2: You look at everyone's stats and you're like, none of
27:48
Speaker 2: these really seem to add up to really decent offense.
27:51
Speaker 2: The thirty eight points, I just don't know where it
27:52
Speaker 2: came from.
27:53
Speaker 1: It justice is so much short field and there's a
27:58
Speaker 1: there's a reason why, but I'm not going to say
28:00
Speaker 1: that yet. It's a lot of short field and it
28:03
Speaker 1: obviously scoring on special teams helps. So I do think
28:09
Speaker 1: that's it's just a new way of winning. And I
28:16
Speaker 1: think we need to appreciate that we had big plays
28:19
Speaker 1: and we capitalize on other teams. We didn't capitalize all
28:23
Speaker 1: the time making mistakes like Aiden Childs is two interceptions
28:26
Speaker 1: that he threw that we made plays on, but they
28:31
Speaker 1: were also kind of gifts a little bit too. We
28:33
Speaker 1: didn't really do anything with And that's the part that
28:37
Speaker 1: you do something with those couple of possessions.
28:39
Speaker 2: This game is forty five, Yeah, I mean we had
28:43
Speaker 2: sixteen interceptions and twelve of those went to the three
28:48
Speaker 2: two to three players. You went to Isaiah, Jacory and
28:53
Speaker 2: Emitt who had nineteen of our however, mean twenty thirty
28:58
Speaker 2: thirty three, forty three offensive possessions. You know, it still
29:05
Speaker 2: was a very evant Johnson heavy game. But they said
29:12
Speaker 2: Isaiah stood out as kind of the one player that
29:17
Speaker 2: you know, had some juice when we needed something.
29:22
Speaker 1: Dak, what was our what was our surprise that Dana
29:25
Speaker 1: and Rule kept saying there's a twist or something coming
29:27
Speaker 1: in this what? What what was that in this game?
29:31
Speaker 3: I still I still don't know, La I I don't
29:37
Speaker 3: know what they were talking about with that.
29:38
Speaker 1: My thought was Rola running the ball was.
29:42
Speaker 3: Like I I never I was looking actually for that,
29:44
Speaker 3: and I never was like, Wow, this is just totally
29:47
Speaker 3: different than what has been the first three games. So
29:49
Speaker 3: I don't know what they mean by that. I think
29:51
Speaker 3: it was all smoking mers. I don't think that there
29:52
Speaker 3: was really anything special they were going to do different.
29:55
Speaker 1: I think they wanted to run Roola maybe a little
29:58
Speaker 1: bit more potentially too then we I think that I
30:00
Speaker 1: think that was a twist I design.
30:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, that could run. That could have been it. Is
30:06
Speaker 3: there anybody from the preseason hype or like talk that
30:09
Speaker 3: we're having. Is there anybody that's been more oppressive? I
30:12
Speaker 3: don't think. I think than uh n Isaiah Hunter from
30:16
Speaker 3: what well he's not coming in the year to what
30:18
Speaker 3: he is now, Like I would almost say, of course
30:23
Speaker 3: still number one, but he's gonna he's getting up there
30:24
Speaker 3: with the best wide receivers on Nebraska.
30:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think that's the thing. It's fair. I
30:31
Speaker 1: think Isaiah is only a sophomore too, so keep that in.
30:36
Speaker 3: Mind, and he can score out a shoot on two.
30:41
Speaker 1: Who needs shoes?
30:43
Speaker 3: Nope, I didn't. I didn't know he was this quick
30:48
Speaker 3: either coming into the year, like he's I think can
30:51
Speaker 3: be more possession wide receiver, but he is. He's quicker
30:55
Speaker 3: than ship coming out of those screen passes.
30:57
Speaker 1: So he was just hard to tackle. Yeah, he's rolling
31:00
Speaker 1: off people. Yeah, it's a good good thing to have.
31:06
Speaker 1: And I think as we continue to evolve this offense
31:10
Speaker 1: and what it's going to look like, you know, Isaiah
31:13
Speaker 1: is going to be more involved. And I'm not saying
31:15
Speaker 1: Dame Key is not a threat by any means, but
31:18
Speaker 1: he's ball's not going to him as much, which but
31:23
Speaker 1: I think I think that's okay. Like he I think
31:25
Speaker 1: he's still a threat out there, which allows sometimes these
31:30
Speaker 1: other guys to you know, draw more single coverage or
31:35
Speaker 1: less help from from linebackers or safeties and zones. So
31:39
Speaker 1: I think I think it's a good problem to have.
31:41
Speaker 1: I think this offense is still okay. I don't I'm
31:44
Speaker 1: not panicking and hitting the panic button on the rest
31:48
Speaker 1: of the year because I do trust Dana and I
31:50
Speaker 1: think that Dana understands and it's trying stuff and Okay
31:54
Speaker 1: that didn't work, this is working. I think he has
31:57
Speaker 1: a good vision in on how to tweak things and
32:04
Speaker 1: then you know there's this trust there. I think a
32:06
Speaker 1: little bit in in the offensive coordinator when it comes
32:09
Speaker 1: to improving this offense more than we've had in the past,
32:11
Speaker 1: where you know things aren't going well and you go, well,
32:14
Speaker 1: this isn't gonna go get any better because this coach
32:18
Speaker 1: doesn't understand how to change it. I think Dana does
32:21
Speaker 1: and will. It's not gonna It's not gonna be a
32:24
Speaker 1: drastic overhaul, but I'm just saying it tweaking and adjusting
32:27
Speaker 1: two have a better make it look a little bit
32:31
Speaker 1: better for the next game. Let's flip over here to
32:36
Speaker 1: the defense, and I I guess, first off, Aidan Chiles.
32:45
Speaker 3: Why did I nail that on the head?
32:46
Speaker 1: But what is that? Is that a product of him
32:49
Speaker 1: or is that not not being as good as we thought,
32:52
Speaker 1: or is that a product of our defense just playing
32:53
Speaker 1: really really well.
32:56
Speaker 2: I think it's probably a little bit of both. Probably
32:58
Speaker 2: a little factor of the wind, because you know, if
33:00
Speaker 2: you're not as strong, because I saw Dylan kind of
33:03
Speaker 2: struggle a little bit and how it changed our passing
33:06
Speaker 2: game plan a little bit. So now if you're a
33:09
Speaker 2: dual threat quarterback, it's a little more of a one
33:12
Speaker 2: threat quarterback, so you could probably play it a little
33:14
Speaker 2: bit differently on top of the fact that our secondary
33:19
Speaker 2: is our strength. But the one I'm just I've struggled
33:25
Speaker 2: to balance it because I do think I think they
33:28
Speaker 2: should have ran him more. I don't know why they
33:30
Speaker 2: didn't run him more. I mean, obviously he got hurt,
33:32
Speaker 2: so that kind of impacted it. But when their backup
33:36
Speaker 2: came and was just hitting every pass he wanted, it's like, oh, well,
33:40
Speaker 2: maybe you can't throw it. It's just they don't want
33:43
Speaker 2: to throw it with him, And then you probably you
33:46
Speaker 2: probably didn't see it, but like there was he got
33:49
Speaker 2: into a beef with their best wide receiver on the
33:51
Speaker 2: sideline there in the fourth quarter there Marshall, he was
33:57
Speaker 2: there over there, the apping at each other.
33:59
Speaker 1: So the one thing I didn't see because I was
34:02
Speaker 1: kind of sitting behind the Michigan State bench when in
34:06
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, I think it was on their last
34:08
Speaker 1: drive they went down to score. He was sitting on
34:13
Speaker 1: the bench, like the back bench by with one other
34:16
Speaker 1: player and nobody else was sitting down. Everybody else was
34:18
Speaker 1: standing them. He was just sitting there and hanging out,
34:22
Speaker 1: which mean I don't know if he was hurt. He
34:24
Speaker 1: was hurt to some extent, but he was just he
34:26
Speaker 1: did not look very enthused to be there, and he
34:29
Speaker 1: had got the shit be out of him.
34:31
Speaker 3: That's that's what's gonna say. I feel like, now he's
34:35
Speaker 3: not as good as what I was seeing coming, and
34:36
Speaker 3: I will take that out. He's not. He's not as good.
34:38
Speaker 3: But I feel like it was a lot through the defense,
34:41
Speaker 3: like he was taking those hits, he was getting smoked
34:43
Speaker 3: in the first quarter or two, like yeah, and that
34:46
Speaker 3: you could you could just tell us his confidence went
34:49
Speaker 3: went down hill big time, and so I would put
34:53
Speaker 3: on mostly defense was the reason why he struggled so much.
34:56
Speaker 3: And I think that and in the part like you said,
35:03
Speaker 3: I just don't know why they didn't run because because
35:06
Speaker 3: when he was running it was it was pretty effective.
35:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a year he got hurt, he
35:10
Speaker 2: got smooth, like, well, we don't want to get him killed.
35:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was I think might play so poorly was
35:20
Speaker 3: most of the defense. And then the injury got to
35:22
Speaker 3: him too, like you could tell you just he didn't
35:26
Speaker 3: he didn't want to be there, is what. Yeah, I
35:27
Speaker 3: felt like coming.
35:28
Speaker 1: In takeaways, he maybe isn't as tough as people thought
35:34
Speaker 1: it didn't. There were NFL drafts scouts maybe talking him up.
35:40
Speaker 1: I think that's going to be a big takeaway looking
35:42
Speaker 1: at a game like this is I mean, whether it
35:44
Speaker 1: be physical hits, are just you know, mentally pushing through things.
35:49
Speaker 1: I just it looked like Nebraska got to him on
35:52
Speaker 1: both in both of those ways, and that made him
35:56
Speaker 1: not look like a very good quarterback. And we've done
35:58
Speaker 1: that now to a handful of quarterbacks. So I mean
36:01
Speaker 1: that that's why I think that our defense maybe doesn't
36:07
Speaker 1: get enough credit for that kind of stuff.
36:09
Speaker 2: I think defense is good enough if we score. If
36:11
Speaker 2: we're scoring thirty points a game, well are we lost
36:15
Speaker 2: after giving to thirty? But it it up front.
36:19
Speaker 1: Obviously it's still our weak spot. But just start to
36:22
Speaker 1: piece to I'm going to throw those two high school
36:25
Speaker 1: games out. Look at the other three games and the
36:28
Speaker 1: quarterbacks that are in those games, and what these quarterbacks
36:31
Speaker 1: are starting to do to other teams now that now
36:35
Speaker 1: that you kind of have a little more data numbers.
36:37
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that you know, they're playing top ten
36:41
Speaker 1: teams and doing it, but whatever the scheme and thing
36:47
Speaker 1: that we're doing to just stemy opposing team quarterbacks and
36:53
Speaker 1: make them look like they're not very good. It's working
36:56
Speaker 1: kind of.
36:57
Speaker 2: I mean, we gave up twenty eight points and Michigan
37:00
Speaker 2: we gave up thirty points.
37:01
Speaker 1: I'm talking about just specifically making the other team's quarterbacks well, OK,
37:06
Speaker 1: bad like no, man, maybe not bads that were, but
37:11
Speaker 1: just not as good as they've looked in other games.
37:15
Speaker 1: I'm gotten three quarterbacks, Forsby Underwood and now Aiden Childs,
37:19
Speaker 1: like all three of them had probably their worst game
37:21
Speaker 1: of the year against Nebraska so far.
37:24
Speaker 2: Yeah that's probably true.
37:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's which I I didn't have this coming
37:28
Speaker 3: into it. And if anyone out there did time out
37:31
Speaker 3: your bats, tell me the future how it's going to go.
37:32
Speaker 3: I did not have Alicio being the best Mission State
37:35
Speaker 3: missigonan state quarterback of the game. No, yeah, like by
37:39
Speaker 3: far up, which is which is another reason.
37:42
Speaker 2: He did come in to different spots. I mean, yeah,
37:45
Speaker 2: he did, even during garbage time and then he hey,
37:48
Speaker 2: other one he had he came in after a thirty
37:51
Speaker 2: five play red zone drive by Cincinnati where they were
37:56
Speaker 2: in the red zone for basically twenty minutes. Because every
38:00
Speaker 2: time we almost had the Dender Heights, we did something dumb.
38:06
Speaker 3: Just him coming in and playing that well is I
38:08
Speaker 3: guess it's in a shot at Childs like he didn't
38:12
Speaker 3: If that didn't come in throw the ball, why aren't
38:14
Speaker 3: you playing that well?
38:17
Speaker 1: And I will say this too as far as stopping
38:19
Speaker 1: quarterbacks go, and just from a big picture standpoint, not
38:22
Speaker 1: talking about X's nose. If the other team's best player
38:26
Speaker 1: is their quarterback, which you could argue for those three
38:29
Speaker 1: teams that's probably true, right, take away their best player,
38:33
Speaker 1: making beaches somewhere else, and you're not gonna hold them
38:36
Speaker 1: to zero. Ideally you want to, but you're probably not.
38:39
Speaker 1: And so if you slow down their best player, you're
38:42
Speaker 1: probably going to be doing decent on the defensive side
38:46
Speaker 1: of the ball. Obviously upfront we're still not great, but
38:52
Speaker 1: it was better today or on Saturday, we had five sacks.
38:57
Speaker 1: I thought we got in the backfield a lot more.
39:00
Speaker 1: I also think that we have to realize the three
39:04
Speaker 1: three five you're getting taken a step back is a
39:09
Speaker 1: higher risk, high reward type of defense. And John Butler
39:13
Speaker 1: is even putting his taste of higher risk, high reward
39:17
Speaker 1: on that even more from what twenty White was doing.
39:20
Speaker 1: So there are plays that like this game, we got
39:26
Speaker 1: in the backfield because of the stunt the scheme that
39:30
Speaker 1: we were running. There are also plays that, oh here's
39:33
Speaker 1: another nine yard, Oh there goes their quarterback for fourteen.
39:36
Speaker 1: Oh that guy was wide open. Like that also happens too,
39:39
Speaker 1: So there's a little bit of give and take there.
39:42
Speaker 1: We just want to make sure we're getting enough reward
39:45
Speaker 1: to cover that risk on the defensive side. And I
39:49
Speaker 1: think that we overall are. This game was pretty good
39:54
Speaker 1: at that. It's not not perfect, but I think it's
39:57
Speaker 1: getting better. That's just more the style that this defense
40:00
Speaker 1: is compared to pass defenses.
40:04
Speaker 2: Yep. Agree, And then I guess otherwise. I thought Javin
40:07
Speaker 2: right stood out having a good game and was a
40:11
Speaker 2: big win. That was the other one.
40:14
Speaker 3: Look looking at how especially Sowersby has played, that's that's
40:18
Speaker 3: got to change your thoughts totally on the defense, Like
40:21
Speaker 3: he's balked out every single game since the Oscars and
40:26
Speaker 3: and we we've said our thoughts on the defense, like
40:30
Speaker 3: we it's not the best defense ever. But with how
40:34
Speaker 3: these quarterbacks are playing outside these games, you've gotta you
40:37
Speaker 3: gotta be impressed with And I don't know what they're
40:40
Speaker 3: doing if it's a secondary or what, but something, something
40:45
Speaker 3: is making these quarterbacks not play well at all.
40:47
Speaker 2: I mean, we do have a good we have a
40:49
Speaker 2: senior secondary or you know, so that does obviously impact
40:53
Speaker 2: quarterback play. The most I said, still give up twenty
40:59
Speaker 2: seven point should have been I don't know why they
41:01
Speaker 2: didn't kick a point where they went for two on
41:04
Speaker 2: the last play.
41:05
Speaker 1: But all of the numbers and data must tell you,
41:10
Speaker 1: I don't know, tell you to go for two at.
41:12
Speaker 2: That point, but then you would have been down nine.
41:14
Speaker 2: What are you going to do down nine?
41:16
Speaker 1: Pick a field goal and score and one by one?
41:17
Speaker 2: I don't know, right, but if you missed it, then
41:19
Speaker 2: you're down eleven. Okay.
41:25
Speaker 1: And then lastly, and maybe we should have started with
41:27
Speaker 1: this because I think, guys, it's it's new and it
41:35
Speaker 1: was the one kool aid that I drank coming into
41:38
Speaker 1: the year.
41:39
Speaker 2: Is Mike, kool aids you drinkin of there? You were
41:43
Speaker 2: dain key?
41:44
Speaker 1: Oh yeah? And that that kool Aid's what is it going? Great?
41:51
Speaker 1: I was gonna say a different analogy, but I stopped myself. Uh.
41:55
Speaker 1: Mike Eckler, guys, is his birth to yesterday or Saturday?
42:03
Speaker 1: So far very good and picking the right specialists, I
42:11
Speaker 1: think is a big part of it. We're gonna we'll
42:13
Speaker 1: post it on our social media pages at Gloria or
42:16
Speaker 1: turn on Twitter and maybe Instagram. If Dak ever, it's
42:22
Speaker 1: our Instagram page posted. But there's a graph of punt
42:27
Speaker 1: return yards. And if we just talked about the punt
42:29
Speaker 1: return game specifically, it's incredible. It's probably even understating it.
42:37
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty five the numbers compared to the past
42:39
Speaker 1: ten years. And I do think a lot of a
42:45
Speaker 1: lot of that, if not all of it, not all
42:47
Speaker 1: of it, but a lot of it is Mike Eckler
42:49
Speaker 1: coming in and saying, here's how punt return works. I
42:55
Speaker 1: thought about that on the way home. What's unique this year?
43:00
Speaker 1: We have time to catch it and make a move
43:05
Speaker 1: every time that they're a punt. And I think there's
43:08
Speaker 1: two aspects that come down to it. I special team
43:11
Speaker 1: is one thing that nobody really knows that It's hard
43:13
Speaker 1: to like nitpick because you don't. You just feel like, oh,
43:17
Speaker 1: it's just it's a catch in a punt and the
43:19
Speaker 1: catch it You catch the punt and you go like,
43:21
Speaker 1: there's two parts of it. I think one you have
43:24
Speaker 1: to force the punter to punt when they catch it.
43:28
Speaker 1: We've seen it at the flip side where Archie does
43:30
Speaker 1: a really good job. In our scheme on the other
43:32
Speaker 1: side of if you are able to hold the ball
43:35
Speaker 1: a couple of seconds or roll out or whatever, you
43:38
Speaker 1: allow your coverage to get down to cover. So number one,
43:44
Speaker 1: we're forcing teams to punt it right when they catch it.
43:46
Speaker 1: And then two on the outside specifically is where you
43:50
Speaker 1: got to disrupt the gunners, but internally to guys that
43:55
Speaker 1: are coming down the field, you have to somehow get
43:58
Speaker 1: in there blockings and maybe not the right word for it,
44:00
Speaker 1: because it's really hard to truly block as they're running
44:04
Speaker 1: that full speed down the field, but you have to
44:06
Speaker 1: get in their way enough and set up some sort
44:08
Speaker 1: of return so that when you catch it, you're able
44:11
Speaker 1: to do something with it. And there's very few times
44:13
Speaker 1: that you catch it and you have a wall like
44:15
Speaker 1: that's that doesn't happen. But it's when you catch it
44:18
Speaker 1: is are people in the right place that you can
44:19
Speaker 1: make a move and you have the right guy back
44:21
Speaker 1: there too. That's another that probably the third piece is
44:24
Speaker 1: making sure the right people are involved in that, and
44:26
Speaker 1: so far Eckler's figured out that right combination on the
44:29
Speaker 1: punt return game. And guys, it's you talk about the
44:32
Speaker 1: short field los and the stats like we're sometimes we're
44:35
Speaker 1: getting fifteen twenty yards on punt return, so like that,
44:39
Speaker 1: we're starting drives and such better. Whether we're capitalizing on
44:42
Speaker 1: that every time or not, different story, but we're starting
44:45
Speaker 1: drives in such good spots because of the punt return game.
44:48
Speaker 1: And it's not talked about enough. Like that's huge in
44:53
Speaker 1: a game like this if you're able to get twenty
44:57
Speaker 1: yards here, fifteen yards there because your special teams is
45:01
Speaker 1: better than the other teams. So it's a big bar
45:04
Speaker 1: that the game. Maybe peop will say it's a third
45:07
Speaker 1: of the game, Probably not quite a third, but it's
45:10
Speaker 1: huge in games like this, and whoever makes the least
45:14
Speaker 1: mistakes on special team is going to be a lot
45:16
Speaker 1: better for you.
45:16
Speaker 2: Right if you're getting seven points off of and scoring. Yeah,
45:22
Speaker 2: I mean it went from us scoring after you know,
45:26
Speaker 2: a long offensive drive to then immediately scoring again after
45:30
Speaker 2: a three and out from there like also it I
45:34
Speaker 2: mean within the first I don't know how much time
45:37
Speaker 2: of the game had passed, like you know, for six
45:41
Speaker 2: minutes of the game. Also it's fourteen to zero, you're
45:44
Speaker 2: feeling pretty good. And they had that touchdown called back
45:48
Speaker 2: which there was a block in the back. I don't
45:51
Speaker 2: know how much where the block in the back happened.
45:54
Speaker 2: It is like, well, we probably still would have scored
45:56
Speaker 2: on that play because the guy was kind of behind Jacory.
45:58
Speaker 1: But what's what's already need about that too? Carter Nelson
46:02
Speaker 1: was the one that had the block in the back,
46:04
Speaker 1: and in the post game he before even topped, he
46:07
Speaker 1: was the one that got the scoop touchdown, ball bounced
46:10
Speaker 1: right to him after jamiir Con blocked the pond. He
46:14
Speaker 1: was one of the first things he said before he
46:15
Speaker 1: been talking about that was the block in the back
46:18
Speaker 1: that he had. Now it was his fault and he
46:21
Speaker 1: apologized on it. So like that, that to me is
46:24
Speaker 1: a really neat mindset, like a good like It shows
46:28
Speaker 1: that we're stressing and talking about the right things from
46:31
Speaker 1: a culture standpoint, a team building standpoint too. That made
46:34
Speaker 1: me feel good there too. And Carter Nelson, like, I'm
46:36
Speaker 1: guessing as one of he's a very good teammates.
46:40
Speaker 2: I guess we did have a bad not a bad
46:43
Speaker 2: but it failed. Fake punt yep.
46:49
Speaker 1: I did call we were faking it on that I
46:51
Speaker 1: thought we were. I thought Archie was gonna throw it,
46:53
Speaker 1: but I was like, I think we're gonna fake this one,
46:55
Speaker 1: I think. And then we did it and we didn't
46:56
Speaker 1: get it.
46:58
Speaker 2: I was surprised that we didn't just plan to go
47:00
Speaker 2: for an on fourth there. Honestly, I understand the fake punt,
47:04
Speaker 2: but where we were out on the field our third
47:06
Speaker 2: down call, I don't remember exactly what it was. I
47:08
Speaker 2: was like, we probably should have just ran it to
47:09
Speaker 2: see if we get a couple of yards, and was
47:10
Speaker 2: planned to go for it on fourth. But yeah, it
47:16
Speaker 2: was a great special team's day. Not a lot of
47:18
Speaker 2: times you could say it was like we were like
47:20
Speaker 2: people were actively like man special teams. It's up to
47:23
Speaker 2: say they want us the game.
47:24
Speaker 3: But well, basically, I mean, how many how many games
47:30
Speaker 3: will last let's say four or five years A specal
47:33
Speaker 3: teams lost you the game.
47:34
Speaker 2: And they didn't. I'm not saying they lost this game.
47:36
Speaker 2: I don't know if I can confidently say they won
47:38
Speaker 2: us a game and we won by ten, but I
47:42
Speaker 2: mean they did score seven of those points.
47:46
Speaker 3: I mean, was was there anybody in the whole stadium
47:48
Speaker 3: more pumped up than Mike Eckler after card Nelson scored
47:50
Speaker 3: that touchdown.
47:51
Speaker 1: Like kind of people like that to me though, is
47:56
Speaker 1: it it feeds into why special his special teams units
47:59
Speaker 1: are good. Yeah, he just he cares so much about it.
48:03
Speaker 1: And when when you care about it as a coach,
48:05
Speaker 1: the players go oh wow, like this matters, and then
48:12
Speaker 1: players start to make plays. And that's what happened on that.
48:17
Speaker 3: And I guarantee, which I didn't listen to, is plost
48:20
Speaker 3: game Brestagram. I guarantee that fake punt he puts totally
48:22
Speaker 3: on him too, like.
48:24
Speaker 2: Well, like the rule is the one who called the
48:26
Speaker 2: fake punt.
48:27
Speaker 3: Oh wow, okay back to the back to the punker
48:34
Speaker 3: turn yards here, Like you said, in the last couple
48:38
Speaker 3: of years, it feels like Barney has when he catched
48:42
Speaker 3: it now has at least ten yards of space, like
48:46
Speaker 3: there's no one within him. Usually I mean every now
48:48
Speaker 3: and they'll have people on him, but he has ten
48:51
Speaker 3: fifteen yards to he has time even to just think
48:55
Speaker 3: about where he's gonna go and then take off from there.
48:57
Speaker 3: And so now some of your face you's got to go,
48:59
Speaker 3: Like I think that.
49:01
Speaker 2: For sure.
49:02
Speaker 3: The main difference in the development.
49:04
Speaker 1: You're literally repeating stuff that I've said. I literally just
49:08
Speaker 1: said that.
49:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, he didn't say it's ten yards.
49:15
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I think the only other special teams thing
49:19
Speaker 1: we have, like Archie punting, he did have. It's probably
49:22
Speaker 1: the worst part of the year, but but Archie is
49:24
Speaker 1: still Like when when his name was announced on the
49:30
Speaker 1: on the loud speaker for the starting lamp, everybody just
49:35
Speaker 1: went nuts, probably louder than any other player, like as
49:38
Speaker 1: as it should be. Uh. I think the biggest thing
49:42
Speaker 1: that is huge, and we talked about it a little
49:45
Speaker 1: bit preseason. Teams don't know which way he's rolling. Therefore
49:52
Speaker 1: he always is having time to hold the ball a
49:57
Speaker 1: few seconds and get our coverage down the field. Any
50:00
Speaker 1: He's not like a punter that punts it really high either.
50:02
Speaker 1: It said it's a low. It's a rugby style, so
50:05
Speaker 1: our coverage does get down there and there's very few
50:09
Speaker 1: opportunities to return it. So it's it is, it's it's
50:13
Speaker 1: a it's a good thing to have and teams you
50:14
Speaker 1: can't load up one side and guess because if you
50:17
Speaker 1: guess wrong, he's probably just gonna take off and go.
50:19
Speaker 1: So it it talk about being able to kick with
50:21
Speaker 1: both feet being very underrated. It's it's huge. It's huge,
50:25
Speaker 1: And I wonder how many what percentage of college football
50:30
Speaker 1: fans think they know that Nebraska's got a punter that
50:34
Speaker 1: punch with both feet?
50:36
Speaker 2: How often does he punt from I'm curious, Steve, do
50:39
Speaker 2: we know the stats on?
50:40
Speaker 1: I don't know the split? But okay, that think about
50:44
Speaker 1: how unique that is, Like it's like having a pitcher
50:48
Speaker 1: pitch with both arms. Like you don't you hear about it?
50:51
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, like Creighton had one man's preven ten
50:53
Speaker 1: years ago. Now that I was like, oh, that's pretty cool.
50:55
Speaker 1: You can pitch with both with both arms like that.
50:59
Speaker 1: It doesn't happen, but no one probably knows about it
51:02
Speaker 1: until you play us and you go crap, like this
51:04
Speaker 1: is kind of tough to prepare for, like what do
51:06
Speaker 1: you how do you do this? It's a good thing
51:09
Speaker 1: to have.
51:10
Speaker 3: It's huge because against Michigan two, it makes my turn
51:13
Speaker 3: to choose which side, Like he has to guess too,
51:15
Speaker 3: where it's gonna go. Against Michigan, he gets wrong and
51:18
Speaker 3: there was nobody back there to turn the ball. Like,
51:21
Speaker 3: so that's that's a big difference right there. It's it's
51:25
Speaker 3: coming into a game. You're confident now in the special
51:28
Speaker 3: teams instead of like, oh good god, we don't we
51:31
Speaker 3: don't want anything to do with them coming into the game.
51:33
Speaker 3: But now you're confident that they are going to I'd say,
51:38
Speaker 3: not lose the game or do anything bad.
51:40
Speaker 2: Really, the good news is after this week that we
51:43
Speaker 2: are in the A people. We are only one team
51:45
Speaker 2: behind both Texas and Penn State.
51:48
Speaker 1: But behind Cincinnati.
51:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, behind Cincinnati, that is true.
51:55
Speaker 1: I did also see two we if you look at
51:59
Speaker 1: the eight people, we don't have a ranked team left
52:00
Speaker 1: on our schedule.
52:03
Speaker 2: But it also makes you a little bit worse keptic
52:05
Speaker 2: about UCLA.
52:06
Speaker 1: Yep, yeah, I was gonna ask you this. Does UCLA
52:08
Speaker 1: beating Penn State make you feel if you had to
52:11
Speaker 1: pick one, does it make you feel worse about UCLA
52:14
Speaker 1: or better about Penn State?
52:16
Speaker 2: Ucla, I still think we're gonna get killed by Penn State.
52:18
Speaker 2: I don't think Penn State's that bad. I think they
52:20
Speaker 2: have lost one. I guess they're a good opponent last
52:24
Speaker 2: week and then they got got by a coaching change.
52:27
Speaker 2: Raw raw moment in you after flying across country after
52:31
Speaker 2: losing a big game.
52:32
Speaker 3: One last week, I'll say worse by Ucla just because
52:37
Speaker 3: I thought there was absolutely zero shot they could beat Nebraska.
52:40
Speaker 3: Now now it's like twenty five percent. But I do
52:43
Speaker 3: think Penn State is that bad.
52:45
Speaker 1: Like, so, I see I for your reason that I'm
52:48
Speaker 1: flipping it. On the other side, I thought there was
52:51
Speaker 1: absolutely zero percent chance we were beating Penn State, and
52:53
Speaker 1: now yeah, I think there's like a twenty five percent
52:56
Speaker 1: chance we could be Penn State. And I still think
52:58
Speaker 1: we're gonna beat Ucla. Now did that maybe go down
53:01
Speaker 1: a little bit? Yeah, but I still think we're gonna
53:03
Speaker 1: beat him, and I think now we can beat Penn State.
53:06
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think we're gonna be favored in
53:08
Speaker 1: Happy Valley, but I feel I feel better about potentially
53:13
Speaker 1: winning that game now than than where we at least
53:16
Speaker 1: being in the game and then who knows, we getting
53:20
Speaker 1: the bluff punt and you never know.
53:22
Speaker 3: So, I mean, there was toxic UCLA being the one
53:24
Speaker 3: of the worst Division Football team Division One Football teams
53:26
Speaker 3: in the country.
53:27
Speaker 2: Like new coach though all it takes as a coaching change.
53:31
Speaker 1: If if if you listen to the other podcast in
53:33
Speaker 1: the Husker Lab, Larry goes into pretty good detail about
53:38
Speaker 1: new Heisel and in U c l A. So it
53:42
Speaker 1: it is a good good if you if you don't
53:44
Speaker 1: know what happened in that game and haven't seen this stuff,
53:46
Speaker 1: and it is pretty neat.
53:47
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's I also think speaking to your coaches,
53:55
Speaker 3: I think James Franklin might have sealed his ease out
53:59
Speaker 3: the door. I think at Penn State.
54:04
Speaker 1: I don't think he's done yet, but he's on his
54:08
Speaker 1: way there.
54:09
Speaker 3: Yeah's his seat is very hot right now, we'll just
54:12
Speaker 3: say that. I think he's about one more lots from
54:15
Speaker 3: the year from I think he's gone.
54:17
Speaker 2: If we go ten and two and James Franklin gets fired.
54:22
Speaker 1: I'm just saying it, right. I had I had a
54:24
Speaker 1: thought after watching a video yesterday of Mike maybe it
54:28
Speaker 1: was even Saturday night of Mike Eckler celebrating or whatever.
54:34
Speaker 1: I thought, WHOA Penn State lost? I was like, our
54:41
Speaker 1: next head coach is gonna be Mike Eckler. It's gonna
54:43
Speaker 1: be Mike Eckler. That's my that's my bold like under
54:48
Speaker 1: the radar prediction. Because rule we're gonna have a good
54:52
Speaker 1: We're gonna have a decent year. Rule's gonna go back
54:54
Speaker 1: to Penn State, and I was like, you know what,
54:58
Speaker 1: Mike Eckler would be a very good fit if people
55:00
Speaker 1: are going to be so happy and high on him.
55:02
Speaker 1: He's a Nebraska guy. He's never He's always said, I'd
55:05
Speaker 1: never want to be a head coach. I want to
55:06
Speaker 1: specialize the special teams.
55:07
Speaker 2: But I don't think the rules. If you're Penn State,
55:11
Speaker 2: you're not hiring Matt Rule. It's like, well we can't
55:14
Speaker 2: win the big games's let's hire the guy who hasn't
55:16
Speaker 2: won against the top twenty five opponent. And so I'm
55:20
Speaker 2: not worried about him going to Penn State. Speaking Offen State,
55:24
Speaker 2: or we wrap up women's volleyball absolutely freaking rolled Penn State.
55:30
Speaker 1: Penn State looked bad.
55:32
Speaker 2: That State looked bad, and they might be bad this year.
55:34
Speaker 2: That could just be a product, but it's gonna be
55:39
Speaker 2: a game. But we we killed them.
55:41
Speaker 1: We look like we just and I've watched a couple
55:45
Speaker 1: of volleyball games this year by more than I usually
55:47
Speaker 1: happen to this point in the here, we look like
55:49
Speaker 1: we just play so care free and fun, like more
55:53
Speaker 1: more happens.
55:54
Speaker 2: When you're when you know you're better than everyone. Yeah,
55:56
Speaker 2: I mean and you can't.
55:58
Speaker 1: You can't let yourself get too comfortable when you are.
56:00
Speaker 1: But at the same time, by playing relaxed, especially in
56:05
Speaker 1: a sport like volleyball, I do think that that is
56:08
Speaker 1: very beneficial.
56:09
Speaker 2: So that lost to set in Big ten play yet so.
56:13
Speaker 1: And they Penn State looked really bad.
56:16
Speaker 3: They just they just totally dominated, and that that crowd
56:19
Speaker 3: is ready to rock any more possible, Like like in
56:22
Speaker 3: that third set they were I think they were down
56:25
Speaker 3: maybe ten points in Penn State scoring, that crowd went
56:27
Speaker 3: crazy and I.
56:28
Speaker 2: Was the crowd did go crazy. They scored two points
56:30
Speaker 2: in a row.
56:31
Speaker 3: Ten Yeah, I was like, what what are they going?
56:34
Speaker 3: Some nuts for us?
56:34
Speaker 1: That for a team that just won a Natty title.
56:37
Speaker 1: Me think about that, for a team that just swept
56:39
Speaker 1: us reversely did last year.
56:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, not even swept the reverse where they still
56:48
Speaker 2: believed and they're like, oh man, we did this to
56:50
Speaker 2: them last year.
56:51
Speaker 3: Good point first first of all game, and watch this
56:54
Speaker 3: year and the grass is pretty pretty good. I'll just
56:57
Speaker 3: walk away with that.
57:01
Speaker 1: All right, Well, what's great? We don't have a byewek
57:06
Speaker 1: here for a while. And I do think is looking
57:11
Speaker 1: at our football schedule like we're gonna play a lot
57:13
Speaker 1: of teams that we're gonna be favored against. The line
57:17
Speaker 1: open for Maryland this week six and a half, and
57:20
Speaker 1: we're favored as we go out there, I'll be at
57:22
Speaker 1: the game. Dack's going to ou Texas down at the
57:25
Speaker 1: Texas State Fair, So we'll be out on the road
57:29
Speaker 1: this week. As we continue on this stretch of winnable games,
57:38
Speaker 1: I can't say that very often.
57:40
Speaker 2: Right, well, every game is winnable if you're good enough.
57:46
Speaker 1: Alrighty, go begred gbr, go be gret atta