Latest / Return to Glory - Nebraska / Episode 4.43: Spring Game Recap -- Season 4 Finale
Transcript
- 0:09Return to podcast season finale of season four, spring game recap, some Hufker
- 0:19football talk to end off the year before we take a couple of months off.
- 0:23NBA playoffs is in whole swing, Austin. Are the Lakers gonna do
- 0:29it again? No, they're not. They are. They're very They're they're
- 0:37they're they're painful to watch, they really are. They got a good path.
- 0:42They do have a good path if they can do it. But I
- 0:44think even if they run up against like the Warriors, if they were to
- 0:47win, which I don't know, it's not guaranteed, they run up against
- 0:50probably the Warriors Round two, not a great matchup. They do really bad
- 0:54against shooters, although new generation maybe not so much. But gosh, watching
- 0:59Anthony Davis play is frustrating, and watching in D'Angel Russell is terrible. They're
- 1:03better than they were, But guy, there's no way they no way,
- 1:07no way. They're healthy. At least they're all healthy that right now they
- 1:11are. Yes, I will any of the games. Any any bets you
- 1:17took for the playoffs started, not like long ones. I've been doing good
- 1:21for the you know, his first week or two, um, just betting
- 1:25on individual games and stuff. But the the games himself. I love having
- 1:29them on every night, and I all admit I didn't watch much NBA throughout
- 1:33the year, but when it comes NBA playoff time, I feel like I
- 1:36really start tuning in and watching the games. Are at least having them on
- 1:41now more every night because there's only a couple of games a day, and
- 1:44you can focus on those two games and then you know you're gonna get two
- 1:47more the next night. It's kind of the same thing as NBA or NFL.
- 1:51And then the same reason why I don't get into MLB, because there's
- 1:56too many games and you just can't. When they're game ten games every day,
- 2:00it's hard to follow, even if you have a favorite team or a
- 2:02kind of a favorite team. So I love this format and how they do
- 2:07it because every night you can watch one or two games and that's the only
- 2:09game off. You can enjoy it, and you know everyone's gonna play.
- 2:15That's healthy. You're not gonna turn on the freaking Bucks game and Janna is
- 2:19gonna be sitting on the bench yacking it up because he's just taking a night
- 2:23off on a back to back after bad games off, but right he is.
- 2:29I mean he's hurt right now. But yes, no, NBA playoff
- 2:35basketball is awesome. And if they except for every game, the only games
- 2:39I'm really focusing on their King's Warriors, and the Warriors won the last two,
- 2:42which pisses me off. And the Lakers Grizzlies, and the Grizzlies look
- 2:45like the Lakers should have destroyed. The Lakers should be have three zero no
- 2:49Jah, Jaren Jacksons half a quarter and they've just lay a freaking egg.
- 2:53Anthony Davis got pisses me off. Whatever whatever this is, we're here,
- 2:59returned to glory. We're talking about Husker football, and I want to keep
- 3:02that frustration going that you just showed. Not really, I do have some
- 3:07frustration, but it's not it's just obviously a lot of speculation and thoughts from
- 3:14the spring game, and overall, my overall take, I'd say it's about
- 3:22a d I just I just don't think there there were positives, don't get
- 3:25me wrong, but there were a lot more like, oh, we are
- 3:30just not very good, and that's not anything new to what we talked about
- 3:36it in the fall. But we just did not look, Chris, we
- 3:40did not look We looked like a team with a brand new coach, and
- 3:46we really just are trying to figure things out and probably as expected. But
- 3:52at the same time, I'm the question from that game is do we even
- 3:54have the players this year to do it? When I say do it,
- 3:59I'm saying six. But that was my overall initial takes. Some thoughts just
- 4:05it was not a man, that was a great Spring game. It was
- 4:10huh huh wasn't wasn't the best? I would say so highlights for me.
- 4:16I didn't get to watch it live. I gotta watch all the YouTube clips.
- 4:19Watched the basically the YouTube version of it, so I didn't watch the
- 4:24commercials and stuff. Obviously highlights. The curse have been lifted. Frankie came
- 4:30back. He lifted the curse. We're gonna be okay. He took the
- 4:34horseshoe too. He did take the horseshoe and Nabe the locker room after him.
- 4:40Right. I felt like there was it was a little overdone. We're
- 4:42like, hey, we really really fucked you over back in two thousands three.
- 4:46I don't remember what you got fired. Yep, that's right, really
- 4:50fucked over. Say hey, come back here, we're gonna do a whole
- 4:54frank soldier Day. We're gonna name the frinking locker room after you. You're
- 4:57a hero. We never meant to do it. It's all right. You
- 5:00might be dining up too much. New Herbie unveil coming out in the chopper
- 5:04with I don't know if John Cook was driving, but that was given to
- 5:09John Cook. I saw travelers tweeted that and the T shirt cannon let's freaking
- 5:15go. But on the field, I totally agree. It was a It
- 5:18was a spring game with a new coach and a bunch of new pieces,
- 5:21and it looked it was a little sloppy, but it was It's practice in
- 5:26April. What good and bad? This kind of goes back to what we
- 5:30talked about some of the fall all of this other extra stuff. It's not
- 5:35that we're doing it as a product of our football team being bad, but
- 5:40all that stuff does again draw your tension to it and kind of strays you
- 5:46away from what, in my mind, what you're actually there for, or
- 5:49what you should be there for to watch the game, And I just think
- 5:53all this extra stuff, Yeah, it is it neat that they changed herby
- 5:58back up kind of went back retro style. Dude is at the spring game
- 6:01that's when you do it. You do. It's kind of your appreciation.
- 6:06It's mostly a fan appreciation thing. You know, Hey, tickets are cheap.
- 6:10Bring your family, it's gonna be fun for your kids. Yes,
- 6:14and I think we got the third highest attendance after two other Big ten schools,
- 6:18but third highest attendance in the country for our spring game. So yes,
- 6:25you're right, that is the purpose or designed for. Some schools don't
- 6:29even do it. Case State, they don't do it. They don't do
- 6:30a spring game. Now getting to the actual game on the field, in
- 6:35the format of it, I thought number one that I had about it.
- 6:40I really appreciated the way rule and staff went about the format this year.
- 6:46Played a full game. There weren't many gimmicks keeping score whatever, it's fine,
- 6:50but I liked how it was totally a full game situation where you were
- 6:56put into different places you would be in the game and you have to react
- 7:00to it. You know, other team just scores, okay, now you
- 7:02got to come out to this or two minutes or whatever that is. I
- 7:05feel like it made it very realistic. Now, I will say as a
- 7:09result of that, we did not do well for a lot of the game
- 7:12management standpoint from a lot of the guys that were playing. Now there's a
- 7:16mix of first stringer, second stringers, third and fourth stringers out there.
- 7:21But I do want to say the format allowed us as fans and more importantly,
- 7:27the coaches to learn a lot about their team and where they're at from
- 7:31an evaluation standpoint after this first spring and it does allow you to learn a
- 7:35lot. Again, fans, I think we learned more from this. And
- 7:40I turned on Colorado spring game after and they were doing seven on seven and
- 7:45just typical practice stuff where you watch it as a fan you're like, Okay,
- 7:48that was good, but how does that apply to a game. Yeah,
- 7:53so we learned, we were able to learn a lot, But the
- 7:55coaches, more importantly, we're to say, no, this is a full
- 7:58game. We're not stopping you, we're not correcting you. We're playing it
- 8:01as if we had a game, real referees, real calls, penalties,
- 8:05all of that, and you learn a lot. And I think as from
- 8:09a coach perspective, I guess I'll ask you that what what do you think
- 8:15as a coach, what do you want out of a spring game? That's
- 8:20a good question. I think you just want to see just a little bit
- 8:24of a what you guys doing, a little bit of an elevated pressure,
- 8:28you know, because it is more pressure. You have fans watching, and
- 8:31you're working on execution, you're working on communication. So it's for me,
- 8:35it's mostly a it's still just a normal you know, full on. I
- 8:39guess this was tackle practice, but you're gonna it has a little bit of
- 8:43the elevated actual pressure that you've probably seen in a real game, and so
- 8:46you just kind of see how people are handling it on the field as well
- 8:50as looking at the execution and how well you know players are picking up on
- 8:56players obviously, but I don't know if that'd be any different than in practice.
- 9:00Yeah, and I guess the game deal of it is what makes the
- 9:03spring game a game and not a practice from a fans perspective, what you
- 9:09want out of it. I think some of those things you touched on depending
- 9:11on how much you care about the football game or the other stuff. Right,
- 9:16the other stuff I think appeals to a lot of the fans and to
- 9:20what you talk about earlier. Of that's what the spring games for. Now.
- 9:24What's hard as a if you're if you're analyzing the game and trying to
- 9:30break down what went good and bad. What's hard about this And as we
- 9:33go through this podcast, one side of the ball is good, is the
- 9:39other side of the ball's bad. So it's hard to say, yeah,
- 9:43well this this play was really good. Well it actually was really bad if
- 9:46you want to look at it from the other side. So it's hard to
- 9:50pinpoint. It should be a net even every plays an even correct and as
- 9:56a coach, you're even if you're thinking as a head coach, the same
- 9:58thing. Obviously, if you're an offensive coordinating or you want the offense to
- 10:00destroy the defense, defensive coordinator the same. But one thing that I think
- 10:05is a coach, that you want is things being executed. Well, the
- 10:09communication you mentioned those two things which I had hritten down is two very important
- 10:13things. The chemistry. You obviously don't want fights breaking out between your team
- 10:18that aren't in healthy competition. But you you want to see those sharp,
- 10:22crisp things you know, no, no, shoot yourself in the foot.
- 10:26Penalties that are unforced by the other side, or on turnovers. Well,
- 10:31here's the deal. We had a lot of turnovers and we had a lot
- 10:37of unforced penalties that weren't Oh, I'm being aggressive trying to make a play
- 10:41on the ball. I've got a pass interference. No, it was false
- 10:45starts or offside, just lining up in the neutral zone or not having enough
- 10:48guys out in the field. All of that stuff, to me adds or
- 10:54that's what gave that connotation of a man. This hurts, this sucks,
- 11:00But at the same time, it is just the first few weeks of spring
- 11:03practice here and there's a lot of learning curves, and I think coach Rule
- 11:07realizes that. But the one thing that he said, I remember when you
- 11:09get hired. He emphasized, and we talked about it, no or limit
- 11:13turnovers, And I mean we had eight of them. Now a couple of
- 11:18them were with our backups and third and fourth stringers. You also have to
- 11:22remember everyone on the field, or it's you're going deep, you're going third,
- 11:26fourth stringers, right stringers. And that told me too. I don't
- 11:31know how deep we are from a roster perspective. I think we have a
- 11:37lot of younger, inexperienced guys that I hope we don't have to end up
- 11:41turning to. I think our top group needs to be challenged and pushed every
- 11:48day in practice, and I think they will to an extent, but I'm
- 11:52worried that we're not going to get the best to look in practice because we're
- 11:56not super deep and our offensive line needs some boys to do that. So
- 12:07that was that's my overall thought. We can go into more of the specifics
- 12:11here on both sides of the ball, but it's hard to evaluate the good
- 12:15and the bad because one side as good as the other side's bad. But
- 12:18overall, it gave me that sourcase was it was not a clean game.
- 12:24It was very much shopping you can easily control. Yeah, you go into
- 12:31a spring game, that's kind of what I you know, I'm like I
- 12:33want to see I don't expect it to be great, but you know,
- 12:37usually a personal standout you'll be like, oh wow, did you see that
- 12:39play? Or you know, out of every spring game, you know you
- 12:43think you have the next Heisman quarterback of teams like at Nebraska, it's the
- 12:46last couple of years, but this year it's kind of like, all right,
- 12:48I just want to see him make a couple of good passes, or
- 12:50I want to see this wide receiver do something. Well, yeah, that's
- 12:54spot on from an offensive standpoint because I think everybody's mind still naturally goes to
- 12:58that side of the ball. The score was twenty one to seven White Team
- 13:01one. There are no points in the second half, and really those points,
- 13:07if you look at how they were scored. Two of the touchdowns were
- 13:09as a result of the Red team turning it over on their side of the
- 13:13field. The White team had a short field and scored. Red teams touchdown
- 13:18was not a touchdown. It was a turnover that they a fumble that was
- 13:22definitely a forward pass that they just didn't review. They picked it up and
- 13:26scored. So I mean as far as putting together long drives on the offensive
- 13:31end of the ball, we really didn't have one that ended in a touchdown.
- 13:35Like if you think about it that way now again you talk about the
- 13:39quarterback where the skill players that pop there weren't too many. Now, if
- 13:43you flip it over on the defensive side of the ball, you're you're like,
- 13:48oh, maybe our defense is is gonna be very strong this year.
- 13:54And that that was what stood out to me, or there anything was our
- 14:00was our defense. And I guess the three three five itself. So I
- 14:03want to start there, what were your initial thoughts like watching the three three
- 14:09five not knowing much about it. Again, we knew the basics from kind
- 14:13of doing a little research on it, but it's not something that you see
- 14:18a lot in college football. A few teams run it and and there's varying
- 14:20opinions on it. What were your thoughts and seeing it live for the first
- 14:24time, so obviously it's tough to I had I struggled to evaluate our defensive
- 14:31line just due to my evaluation of what our offensive line is, so admitting
- 14:35that it was interesting because when they line it, it just looks very I
- 14:41don't know how it just looks very spread out and I want to say zony,
- 14:46but that's how it looks. It seemed to be effective, but again,
- 14:50it wasn't effective because they were really good. Yeah, it allowed some
- 14:54of the quicker players on the defense to move around a lot, which was
- 14:58fun to see, but I don't I would like to see it against a
- 15:03team that we don't know their offense it plays or tendencies. So I'm with
- 15:11you because yeah, you can bring it back on the offense. So one
- 15:13thing, regardless of you're playing, that I liked about it was it's very
- 15:18multiple and it's very chaotic. From what we were running it, peep the
- 15:22linebackers that second layer, and then you can even bring that third layer a
- 15:26couple of guys down. It just seemed like to me, yeah, you
- 15:30could call it a three three five, but there were times it looked like
- 15:33a five two. At times it looked like a five three, a four
- 15:37four. It just got mixed up so much. Or the base of it
- 15:41was, yeah, you have a nose tackle in two ends, but the
- 15:43bullitzes you can be very creative with where you're bringing guys from. So the
- 15:50like you said, spread out or or chaotic was the word I wrote down.
- 15:56It just very chaotic, which to me was a positive because it'll be
- 16:00very hard to prepare for for an opposing team, especially because it's new now.
- 16:07There were definitely plays that we got gashed on running several and it felt
- 16:14like in the first half it was either we were dialing up and hitting the
- 16:18blitz correctly and getting a two yard loss, which keep in mind, we've
- 16:23had very very few tackles for loss with our most recent defense, it's very
- 16:29few, or we were getting gashed. The offense was executing their blocking schemes
- 16:36and they were running for ten to twelve to fifteen yards, and there really
- 16:38wasn't much in between. It was ten or fifteen yard game or two or
- 16:41three yard loss. So high risk, high reward. Maybe is that a
- 16:47product of, like you said, our offensive line being maybe not great but
- 16:52serviceable. I don't know, but that was the area of concern. Is
- 16:56against the run game, against your Iowa's and maybe not Wisconsins anymore because they're
- 17:02spreading it out, but your traditional big ten powerhouse teams Michigan States, Penn
- 17:08States, Ohio States, those kind of teams that can run the ball,
- 17:11whether it be out of the spread or under center. Can that three three
- 17:18front hold up? And yes, there'll be other ways to adjust it.
- 17:22I get that, and we just saw the base of it. But I
- 17:25was very encouraged by how chaotic it was and it was just different. I
- 17:29like that it was different, and I'm hoping that, like you said,
- 17:32the guys up front can do their job, because I think that's very important
- 17:36that those three are able to fill their gaps and kind of beat big old
- 17:40bullies up front, because in that defense, it's very important to clock it
- 17:45up. What do you think of the size of the defense of just like
- 17:48the players. Did they feel small or does that just mean I felt our
- 17:56whole team felt small across? Okay, that's what I thought too, watching
- 18:00and that also ties to my point of maybe we're not that good, or
- 18:07maybe we're not that big, maybe we're not that strong. But we looked
- 18:11fast. I will say that we looked quick to the ball, and I
- 18:15think that's what this defense is meant to be. And maybe not so much
- 18:18the side, but it's supposed to be more flying around, speed oriented versus
- 18:26strength. But I'm with you on that. But I thought, I thought
- 18:32we had some guys that looked good on defense, and and I don't know
- 18:36if you got a couple of names, but I thought Prince will h looked
- 18:41very very strong. Um, I thought. I thought snod Grass came in
- 18:45and looked pretty good flying around early on. I thought Noonan Baverick. Noonan
- 18:51has a very very high ceiling, very high ceiling um and he looked really
- 18:56good. And I thought, up front, um, Nash hutch Meyer stood
- 19:00out to me. And then I'm at the back end, Malcolm park Hertzoga
- 19:04was the one I had written down. Those are just the names that popped
- 19:08out that made some plays I thought were around the ball a lot um.
- 19:11Did you have any others that you saw? No, those are the same,
- 19:15Like that was almost all the same ones, I said. MJ.
- 19:18Sherman had some moments that probably the only other one that I didn't have on
- 19:22the list. He looked apart. He was the one that looked like he
- 19:26does look like a dude all right, switching over to the offensive side of
- 19:33the ball. What were your overall thoughts? So obviously no Casey Thompson,
- 19:42so it it definitely felt like he's the He's the front runner for quarterback rightfully,
- 19:48so it feels like Jeff Sims is easily number two. It kind of
- 19:51felt like that was where they were going with it. He played pretty well.
- 19:56I was also surprised, I feel I was surprised with are receiving rooms
- 20:00specifically tight ends that I feel like that was kind of a another room that
- 20:03everyone felt was probably one of our deeper rooms. And the people you expected,
- 20:10you know, Thomas Fedonian, Eric Gilbert not really present. But I
- 20:18feel the best about a running back room. I feel like that's the deepest
- 20:22room we have. I think is the most talented, which makes sense.
- 20:23I feel we have three guys who could be starting running backs for US,
- 20:27and two of them happened starting running back. Actually, all three of them
- 20:30happen starting running backs for US. And the other obvious glare is the offensive
- 20:37line. I thought I wasn't even gonna talk about anybody else. I don't,
- 20:44but you know, it's nice to talk about the other things. We
- 20:48always talk about the offensive line, always, always, always, it starts
- 20:53and ends there. I will, I'll go to the quarterback day because you
- 21:00said something in that to me. I'm fascinated by the black How nobody really
- 21:11knows our quarterback situation, what's going on. If you talk to any like
- 21:17Braska fan around here, local person, I think they have the opinion that
- 21:22you just had. Casey's the front runner, number one, probably gonna start
- 21:26again. Nationally, Jeff Sims is like twenty to twenty five and Heisman odds,
- 21:34and nationally people think Jeff Sims is probably our starter next year. I
- 21:42don't know that anybody knows what's really going to happen. Besides that, I
- 21:48think there will be a battle, and I think it's gonna be closer,
- 21:52and people think I really do and and I even I might even leave Jeff
- 21:56Simms right now as a starting quarterback next year over Casey. I don't know
- 22:00why, just something with the new quarterback and Casey being hurt, and Sim's
- 22:04getting more reps now, and I mean, well, who's rule going to
- 22:07have seen the most and they're often Jeff Simms. Yeah. So I think
- 22:14it's interesting because Husker fans would say, well, Casey didn't play a case
- 22:17he's our quarterback, and well, maybe I don't know Sims. I thought
- 22:22looked he looked like he looked like a two year starter with Georgia Tech.
- 22:27That's I mean, he looked like the one thing that he is that he
- 22:33has. It's different than any quarterback we've had in a long time. Is
- 22:36the quarterback They zeke the broad shoulders, but four or five just he looks
- 22:45like a quarterback and still has the legs to do it. So I thought
- 22:49that was promising. And I thought we didn't really see him stretch the field
- 22:55much throwing the ball. I thought he had some good mid midfield throws across
- 22:59the middle, some good short route throws, no smothers, no smothers.
- 23:06That was interesting. I will say. I will say this, I thought
- 23:11our offense looked very simple. Bland maybe is a good word, just very
- 23:22one back. I rarely ever saw app two guys in the backfield unless we
- 23:26had a fullback in there under under the center, which was good to see,
- 23:30but we aren't very good at that yet. The one time we tried
- 23:33handing it off, we hit the fullback with our handoff and bumbled it.
- 23:38So I think that that's a good sign that were maybe we're doing some of
- 23:42that, but just looked very simple. A lot of two tight ends,
- 23:45which was to be expected, but no, really we didn't show much versatility,
- 23:52I guess. And that's kind of flipping the script where Scott's Frost's offense
- 23:56was all about being creative in versus and Mark Whipple comes in and quote unquote
- 24:03simplifies it last year. Well, it still wasn't good last year. So
- 24:07here we are with this approach from what we've seen so far that I thought,
- 24:11was again very simple, very basic. But you have to get good
- 24:18at that. I think in order to be good at anything else, you
- 24:22can't out out scheme somebody. If you can't base block and isso, and
- 24:30we saw that happen across We were all about trying to outscheme and make up
- 24:33for the lack of strength and talent we had upfront. It's all gonna come
- 24:38down to that. And I thought our oh line looks good at times.
- 24:41I thought we did have some polls and some well blocked plays, But again,
- 24:45how much of that was because we were playing a three three five.
- 24:49I don't know the three three fives weakness. It's supposed to be power run
- 24:52game upfront, so I don't know how much of that was the product of
- 24:57the three three five. We just been talking about how good our defense was,
- 25:02so I don't know where that puts us out on offense. But there
- 25:06wasn't anything flashy that really stood out, like whoa like you said, high
- 25:11quarterback, skill player, There wasn't any of that. The running back room
- 25:15is deep. I will echo what you said with that. It's deep.
- 25:18And you look at all those guys. They all have had their moments in
- 25:22a Nebraska football jersey over their time here, and that's exciting, but it's
- 25:30not gonna matter. They're not gonna be elite if we can't block. And
- 25:34a lot of the guys that are up there I think made some progress,
- 25:40but it's still those same guys. There's a lot that needs to happen between
- 25:45now and our first few games of the year in order for our offensive line
- 25:48to be able to effectively block simple run plays in past plays. Yeah yeah,
- 25:56the offensive line. Again, it's spring practice. People have been hurt,
- 26:00people are out, people are coming. You know. It's like,
- 26:03oh, but it did not make me feel good about playing Minnesota week zero.
- 26:08I was like, gosh, it tru'd be nice to get some reps
- 26:12against some quality teams that aren't Minnesota. And Turner Corcoran went down in the
- 26:19third quarter, I believe. I guess I never saw the severity of that
- 26:22or heard anything from that. It mustn't have been two bad because they didn't
- 26:26come out with any big If it was here, I think they would have
- 26:29come out with something something online. M I do want to actually get into
- 26:34our schedule very briefly. Before we do that, we got to talk about
- 26:37special teams real quick quick thought, quick thought. On the XFL kickoff,
- 26:45I liked it, You hated it? No, I liked it too.
- 26:48I thought it was oh you did okay? Thought it was good field goals
- 26:56Yeah yeah, yeah, maybe made mister forty six er. It's like we
- 27:03thought Timmy bleak Row, maybe had that spot, you know, safe,
- 27:07and we don't have to worry about us being bad at field goals. But
- 27:11I'm not My mind's not there. Hey, we still got that. We
- 27:14got that west side kicker coming in still ye Alvarez or whatever. Bushini punting
- 27:22whatever was fine. Two fake putts, I don't think they were in rule.
- 27:27Spoke to those after. He was trying to get the Red team a
- 27:30few more possessions, so he just hoping that maybe they would get them,
- 27:33so the plays were more even. He just told Buschini, hey, if
- 27:37you think you have a scene, didn't do it. Brushini didn't do it,
- 27:42not once but twice. Didn't work either time. I again, I'm
- 27:48not reading into that too much. Besides, I hope that he doesn't have
- 27:52that freedom in the fall and less they practiced it a lot more because if
- 27:57those were his crudest on he thought he had a scene, although it was
- 28:03funny to try to see him duke that, yeah, did you did?
- 28:07You also notice that Bushini did most of the kickoffs. He did, which
- 28:15I thought it was interesting, but really quick, I want to take all
- 28:19of this in the spring that we've talked about and soft in the spring game
- 28:25and looking at our fall schedule. You mentioned we opened with Minnesota and Colorado
- 28:30are our first two games, and we play I believe it's Northern Illinois Louisiana
- 28:34Tech before we get into conference play. Here's what I want to end this
- 28:40season with. From my perspective, everybody has to keep their expectations in check
- 28:48for this first year. Rule is a yes, rule is not going to
- 28:52come in or not would be taken eight and fourth season, absolutely, but
- 28:57I don't expect us to be there. In your getting to six wins would
- 29:00be phenomenal, but looking at the schedule, I think that's even could be
- 29:06puff Even if rules doing all the right things and we're moving in the right
- 29:12direction, that still could only result in four or five wins because that's what
- 29:17we are right now. We are a four or five win football team from
- 29:19a talent perspective. From an execution standpoint, yeah, you could say we're
- 29:25quote unquote close. You could say that, but again, it comes down
- 29:30to bottom line of wins, and that's what we are right now. We're
- 29:33a four win football team. People have to keep that in mind with their
- 29:37expectations this year. That yeah, good, Like you said, it could
- 29:42be six wins now at the same time we went through this whole thing with
- 29:48Frost. At some point those I'm not I will say this year is not
- 29:55about wins or losses. For me. People were saying that with Frost in
- 29:59year four. All right, oh, we're still we're still making progress,
- 30:03We're still close, Okay, But at some point the narrative has to switch
- 30:07to we are going to win football games, and with coach rule my expectation,
- 30:15that's not what has to happen in year one. I do not think
- 30:17you can pick this team we have last year, the offensive line we had
- 30:19last year, and go win seven or eight football games next year. It's
- 30:22not gonna happen. It's not possible, no matter if you're the best coach
- 30:26in the world, you're not gonna be able to do it. But in
- 30:29year three or year four, that should hopefully start. You should start to
- 30:33see a product of what he's been implementing over the past few years. So
- 30:37expectations for this year, looking at this schedule, I think there's a good
- 30:41chance we start owing two. Unfortunately, I hope we can win those next
- 30:45two. But I think getting to five wins or six wins is gonna be
- 30:51good as long as we are making progress towards again eight wins in year three
- 30:56or four, that's that should be the goal is eight wins in year three
- 30:59or four and build to that. Not expecting that right away, No,
- 31:07I totally agree with it. I do not expect. I'm not. Yeah,
- 31:11I'm not gonna be watching for us to win. Especially Yeah, week
- 31:14one, that's an L. Just looking through it, I can count the
- 31:18l's and it's it's a six right now. Colorado. I really don't know,
- 31:22because they're going through the same thing we are, except for they arguably
- 31:26started at a lower point, but they got better people that came in.
- 31:32That game's gonna draw so much hype, so excited for it. Just with
- 31:34the tickets right now on ESPN it says as low as three hundred and seventy
- 31:37bucks the Low d hod and their spring game was sold out in their stadium
- 31:44of whatever forty five thousand people and it was broadcasted on ESPN the same time
- 31:48as ours or right after. So just the hype around that will be very
- 31:53interesting and hopefully we are a better football team than them. I don't know,
- 31:56but I do love Matt Rules subtle jobs at I know it's early and
- 32:00we're probably gonna get beat by then week two. But I really do enjoy
- 32:04it. I really do. And as you hope that all the stuff that
- 32:08whatever d on, all this hype, you hope it's all just broad like
- 32:13it It's just it's just and all it is is hype. We're not going
- 32:16to know that until they start playing. I think they open with DCU on
- 32:21the road and then they play US week two, so they have a tough
- 32:25start too. Yes, we'll see so Um And then last last thing that
- 32:32I have written down here rules a great guy. He's a great dude.
- 32:37Philosophy of what he of what he has to do with players from a mindset
- 32:46gives me a lot of hope. Um talks about a brotherhood. The biggest
- 32:52thing, one of the big things from this game was right when the game
- 32:53got over, he made a signal like everybody go around the stadium or what
- 32:59do He was telling the players to do was to go high five and talk
- 33:01to all the fans thank them for coming because, like he said in this
- 33:05post game, you never know what the situation that that kid is in or
- 33:07that family's going through. This might be their only time ever to come to
- 33:10the game. He believes in that kind of stuff. The attending other He
- 33:15believes in all the intangible stuff, which I believe will translate hopefully to positive
- 33:22results on the field. Not guaranteed, but I think that overall, over
- 33:25time, what is going to help some of the in game situational stuff that
- 33:30we've obviously lacked over the past few years. Now, like I said,
- 33:34we still have to earn that and have to have the players to do it,
- 33:37and that'll be the test that we have over the next coming years.
- 33:40But that is a step in the right direction for me. Is the intangible
- 33:45piece that rule brings to the table. No, I thought I did really
- 33:50well. I thought, Yes, he's a great interview. He's a great
- 33:54interview. Yeah, we'll see if it actually figures out. On the field.
- 34:00It was a really good spring game. I know the product on the
- 34:02field isn't the best, but I think everything else seemed like everyone really enjoyed
- 34:07it. There's a lot of good videos from it. Everything beyond the field
- 34:13is really well done, which makesfield I feel really good about Trev Alberts.
- 34:15This is a very good trouble Albert stay too. Yep. I think that
- 34:20that speaks a lot to it on the field stuff. And again you have
- 34:22to get by the expectations thing, yea, in order to overcome that,
- 34:27which it still struggles to me because it just it sucks that we're a foeurign
- 34:30eight football team. It does. It just sucks. But that's the reality
- 34:35of where we're at and where we have been the past few years, and
- 34:38we can't get out of that. And we're going to see if this new
- 34:42approach and like you said, Trev Albert's his approach and rule all that everybody's
- 34:47approach, can that get us moving back up the ladder and out of this
- 34:52fourign eight team that we are. But it just sucks. That's where we're
- 34:55at, and that's what we saw on the field again was a foreign eight
- 34:58football team. There's no denying. So we'll don't forget we were four and
- 35:04eight, But were we three and nine the year before that? Yeah?
- 35:07So yeah, so we're not even a five one team man? Yeah?
- 35:13Yeah, all right. Season four in the books. Season five will be
- 35:19back later in the summer if we get closer to fall practice and seeing coach
- 35:23rules first season as the head coach of the Nebraska corn Husters, I'm hunters
- 35:29are Berniki or Austin Rowe signing off, Go Big Red GBR, the be