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Is Nebraska's Defense Prepared For Ohio State's Rushing Attack? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Wednesday, October twenty third,
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Speaker 1: I'm your host, tom or the Nebraska game in three
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Speaker 1: days and the game against Michigan in thirty eight days.
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Speaker 1: Buck guys taking on Nebraska on Saturday, which means is
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Speaker 1: a chance to hear from Nebraska head coach Matt Rule.
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Speaker 1: Every year we go to Big Ten media days and
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Speaker 1: there's certain coaches we really look forward to talking to
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Speaker 1: because he gets some very straightforward answers, very in depth,
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Speaker 1: thoughtful answers. Matt Rule is one of those guys. He
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Speaker 1: had a press conference on Monday, right Monday following his
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Speaker 1: team's fifty six to seven loss against Indiana and with
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Speaker 1: number four Ohio State on deck. A lot of coaches
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Speaker 1: be kind of short, snippy, not Matt Rule. Very very
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Speaker 1: in depth answers, very thoughtful answers, not stuff you typically
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Speaker 1: hear from coaches. So today you're going to be hearing
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Speaker 1: from Matt Rule. I enjoy it. I expect that you
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Speaker 1: probably will as well. He's one of my favorite Big
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Speaker 1: Ten coaches. Very aggressive on fourth down plays to win,
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Speaker 1: shoot a straight and press conferences, really know all you
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Speaker 1: can really ask from a coach. So all right, one
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Speaker 1: thing you could ask for my coach is not losing
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Speaker 1: fifty six to seven to Indiana. But well, sometimes things happen.
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Speaker 1: So here was Matt rules. He was talking about where
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Speaker 1: his team struggled on defense to let that Indiana game
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Speaker 1: get so out of hand. They allowed seven point nine
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Speaker 1: yards per play on the ground or seven nine point
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Speaker 1: yards per play overall, six point five yards per play
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Speaker 1: on the ground, nine point three yards per passing attempt.
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Speaker 1: None of those are very good numbers. So where did
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Speaker 1: things kind of get so out of hand against the Hoosiers.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we struggled at the corner position, you know, so
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Speaker 2: you know, they they isolated some one on one throws
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Speaker 2: and one all those were fifty to fifty walls, you know,
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Speaker 2: so you should come out, you should win fifty percent
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Speaker 2: of time, and they won most of them. So then
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Speaker 2: we were kind of a little maybe a little bit
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Speaker 2: more off and they took a lot of free access.
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Speaker 2: But really the game came down sid to me, to
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Speaker 2: the run game. You know, we were not able to
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Speaker 2: stop the run, and really in some in some cases
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Speaker 2: and some like as I said the other day, like
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Speaker 2: some inexplicable, like we're blitzing into the run and there's
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Speaker 2: an unblock defender and we just just didn't tackle, didn't
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Speaker 2: play well, you know in the second half. You know,
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Speaker 2: I mean go back for that game. Now it's it's
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Speaker 2: fourteen to seven with four minutes left in the in
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Speaker 2: the first half, and we call that the middle eight,
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Speaker 2: you know, last.
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Speaker 3: Four or the first four. You know, we've we've we've.
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Speaker 2: Been historically very good in that area, and you know
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Speaker 2: we weren't. We weren't good. And uh, you know, you
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Speaker 2: as a head coach, I think you always have to start
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Speaker 2: with like what do I regret?
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Speaker 3: What do I not regret?
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Speaker 2: You know, coming out in the second half, it's twenty
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Speaker 2: eight to seven, we drive the ball down there, it's
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Speaker 2: fourth and eight, fourth and nine. You know, probably should
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Speaker 2: have kicked the field go there. You know, the analytics
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Speaker 2: say no, the analytsate go for it. And there's a
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Speaker 2: big part of me that like does wants to show
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Speaker 2: the guys that you're you're always playing to win. And
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Speaker 2: it felt like a lot of times in that game
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Speaker 2: we were playing not to lose. And I think defensively,
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Speaker 2: the minute you lose that edge if I'm playing to win,
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Speaker 2: where you're trying not to lose. A really good defense
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Speaker 2: becomes very average very quickly, and so but I put
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Speaker 2: them in harm's way in the second half. But you know,
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Speaker 2: going from fourth down trying to get back in the game,
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Speaker 2: you know, at the same time, I probably should have
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Speaker 2: done it. I don't know that I regret it, if that
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Speaker 2: makes sense. Like I kept saying a gift on the silence.
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Speaker 3: Hey, I just can't. I can't.
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Speaker 2: I can't wave the white flag. I can't not try
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Speaker 2: to get back in this game. But to answer your question,
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Speaker 2: so I think that's what made the score so bad.
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Speaker 2: But you know, we from the very beginning, we were
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Speaker 2: not tackling at the level we're cable. We were not.
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Speaker 2: We were not the first, fourth, third and one. You know,
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Speaker 2: if an unblocked defender there doesn't make the play. So
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Speaker 2: we just just was bad, bad all around.
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Speaker 1: He talked in that answer, and then actually in another
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Speaker 1: one that I didn't end up playing because it was
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Speaker 1: about outside blocking by the wide receivers and it just
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Speaker 1: wasn't that interesting necessarily. But he talked about a bunch
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Speaker 1: of the fundamentals where they failed against Indiana, So how
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Speaker 1: much can they really improve on that stuff this week?
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Speaker 3: Now?
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Speaker 1: This is an answer that you're going to start thinking,
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Speaker 1: I'm I'm playing the wrong answer.
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Speaker 3: I'm not.
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Speaker 1: It's the right answer. It takes a while to get there,
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Speaker 1: but it does give you a real good sense of
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Speaker 1: what Matt rule is like as a coach.
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Speaker 2: You know, Keith told me, you know, I do a
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Speaker 2: good job and sees I'm just staying very locked in
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Speaker 2: and not not reading stuff and listening to stuff. But
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Speaker 2: you know, Keith kind of said, like, hey, he said
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Speaker 2: to me, say, you know your your statement of I
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Speaker 2: didn't see this coming gain traction, to which I would say,
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Speaker 2: and it's gonna get your point.
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Speaker 3: If if I saw this coming, then you guys should
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Speaker 3: all be very nervous.
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Speaker 2: Like I thought we were gonna play well, and I
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Speaker 2: thought we had a great bye week and we lit
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Speaker 2: legitimately say I'm telling you we legitimately like worked on
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Speaker 2: these things over and over. No sometimes, I mean, no
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Speaker 2: one's gonna want to hear this. Sometimes maybe maybe they'll
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Speaker 2: show up this week, maybe I'll show up the next week,
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Speaker 2: but like these are not like, these are not things
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Speaker 2: we haven't done all year, all spring. You know, we
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Speaker 2: got to that moment and you know, we just didn't
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Speaker 2: do the things I know we're capable of doing, and
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Speaker 2: so I hate when coaches walking after a game and say, hey,
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Speaker 2: that's on me, Like, but I really felt that way
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Speaker 2: because like, I know what we're capable of doing, and
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Speaker 2: we didn't do it, Like we just weren't ready for
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Speaker 2: that moment.
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Speaker 3: We weren't ready for that game.
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Speaker 2: We weren't ready for And it felt like that all
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Speaker 2: the way up, even in pregame.
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Speaker 3: It felt awesome.
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Speaker 2: So to your point, I think there's I think there's
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Speaker 2: a challenge sent to the coaches. There's also a challenge
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Speaker 2: sent to the players. These are grown then, like you're supposed.
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Speaker 3: To block that guy. Block them? Like block them.
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Speaker 2: There's there's a couple of players and it spins out
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Speaker 2: of one and if the guy would have blocked the
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Speaker 2: safety on the backside, he'd gone for a touchdown. Like
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Speaker 2: I just show the guys as a team how much
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Speaker 2: we all affect each other. You know, A missed block
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Speaker 2: on a bubble screen leads to a fourth and eight pick,
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Speaker 2: which leads to the ball going all the way down
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Speaker 2: to the twenty, which leads to a touchdown. Like everyone's
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Speaker 2: got to do their job and do it at a
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Speaker 2: high level. So you know, to me, this happened to us.
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Speaker 2: We allowed it to happen. It's stunk, it hurt. We'll
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Speaker 2: find out a lot about ourselves moving forward, you know.
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Speaker 2: We'll find out about the coaches, We'll find out about
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Speaker 2: the players, We'll find.
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Speaker 3: Out about me. The last thing I do.
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Speaker 2: I'm going to do is sit around and be victims,
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Speaker 2: you know. So so yeah, you know, there's there's areas
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Speaker 2: that we we struggled in that game. But at the
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Speaker 2: same time, we haven't struggled tackling like like we did
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Speaker 2: in that game. Like we haven't struggled getting off blocks
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Speaker 2: like we haven't struggled like guys, we haven't done that,
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Speaker 2: and so we did it in that game. So I
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Speaker 2: think we'd take a today. We took a deep step back,
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Speaker 2: and then we'll attack the week.
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Speaker 1: There were a few different reasons that things got really
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Speaker 1: out of hand against the Hoosiers. One was that rule
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Speaker 1: and then Huskers were zero for five on fourth down,
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Speaker 1: so they gave Indiana some short fields to work with.
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Speaker 1: Another one was that true freshman quarterback Dylan Roola threw
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Speaker 1: three interceptions in that loss to Indiana, five total turnovers
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Speaker 1: for the Huskers. They hadn't been turning it over that
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Speaker 1: much before that. So what is Matt rule seeing there
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Speaker 1: that might have caused all those turnovers.
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Speaker 2: I think, as smart coach, probably would have just settled
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Speaker 2: the game when you're down thirty five to seven, would
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Speaker 2: have settle the game down. I just in my mind
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Speaker 2: the long game is that Dylan. Dylan's gonna have to
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Speaker 2: learn how to play in those moments, right, like intense pressure,
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Speaker 2: trying to get the team back in the game. So
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Speaker 2: we probably could have minimized that, Like you know, you
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Speaker 2: go through the interceptions, you know, the first one's fourth
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Speaker 2: and eight. Like I think if Thomas came up here,
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Speaker 2: he would say, Man, I have the defender outside me.
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Speaker 2: I'm supposed to hook in on double. You know, it's
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Speaker 2: an option route. He caught that on the first first down.
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Speaker 2: If I would have turned in and read the coverage right,
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Speaker 2: Dylan would have throw.
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Speaker 3: Me the ball. It'd have been a first down.
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Speaker 2: Think about Dylan, is Dylan's not gonna walk in the
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Speaker 2: post game press conference say hey, Tho, those ones are
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Speaker 2: on me. You know, He's just gonna walk and say
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Speaker 2: I have to play better, and he does. We all
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Speaker 2: have to play better. But you know, so we're a
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Speaker 2: crucial fourth and eight, Like if the game's a little different,
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Speaker 2: maybe kicked that field goal, Dylan, he doesn't have that
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Speaker 2: one there, you know. Then the one with the scramble,
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Speaker 2: you know, he's he's scrambled to his left. Ja Cory
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Speaker 2: season scrambled, so he throws it to Decroy. Jacory takes
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Speaker 2: off because that's how he teaches.
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Speaker 3: Scramble.
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Speaker 2: Just just kind of a tough play. So the third
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Speaker 2: one is a bad at ball. So yeah, we don't
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Speaker 2: want any of those, and those aren't excuses to them.
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Speaker 2: But everything's not just always kind of as it sees.
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Speaker 2: Seems about. Dylan did a lot of really really good
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Speaker 2: things in the game. Unfortunately, the game plan we had
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Speaker 2: going in when it hit twenty eight seven kind of
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Speaker 2: starts to alter a little bit, right, Like, all right, well,
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Speaker 2: we have to throw the ball a little bit more
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Speaker 2: than we maybe wanted to. Indiana's Indiana's an elite pass
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Speaker 2: rush team, and so our hope was to be able
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Speaker 2: to mix the run in the pass. When I got
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Speaker 2: away from this, but I don't think people are doing
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Speaker 2: anything differently. I think you know, we're facing each week,
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Speaker 2: we're facing better teams and we have to continue to
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Speaker 2: improve and play better and that's that all goes together.
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Speaker 3: Right.
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Speaker 2: We're talking about the perimeter blocking, like you have to
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Speaker 2: be able to kick a bubble out and have a
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Speaker 2: guy go for thirty. You know, Steve, you asked me
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Speaker 2: if the game like we need to run to pop
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Speaker 2: for eighty, you can't. Everyone can't get tackled by the ankles,
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Speaker 2: and so, you know, instead of you know, my my
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Speaker 2: my main thing in life as a coach is not
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Speaker 2: to panic, not to overreact, not to change everything. Just
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Speaker 2: get keep getting better at it until you're the best
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Speaker 2: at it that they are. And so, but I wanted
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Speaker 2: Dylan to stay in there in that game, in that situation.
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Speaker 2: I wanted him to have to battle through all that
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Speaker 2: you know, he suffered. You know, he went through three interceptions.
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Speaker 2: He suffered through that, and hopefully we get a little
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Speaker 2: bit better as to move forward. But I think he's
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Speaker 2: playing well.
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Speaker 3: I really do.
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Speaker 2: I might not seem that way to everybody, but I
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Speaker 2: think when I watch the tape, I like most of
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Speaker 2: everything that he's doing. And we'll just keep building off
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Speaker 2: it because the teams get better and better.
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Speaker 1: So coming off of a fifty six to seven loss,
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Speaker 1: does anything change in his approach or what he's looking
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Speaker 1: for with the team this week.
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Speaker 3: I think I think you're doing that every week, right,
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Speaker 3: you know. I think.
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Speaker 2: I think if you have the right team, the right
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Speaker 2: group of men in the room, and you you know,
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Speaker 2: if anything, fifty six to seven should should should snap
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Speaker 2: you back to reality, right, Like it's again. You know,
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Speaker 2: it's like, you know, we had some we had some
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Speaker 2: success defensively the last game, and all of a sudden,
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Speaker 2: you know, I'm more worried about success leading to complacency
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Speaker 2: than I do about coming back from something hard. I mean,
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Speaker 2: you go back and watch the tape now, if you
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Speaker 2: watch the coaches tata two or three times, we should
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Speaker 2: have sacked guys. So the guys that were like all
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Speaker 2: over the news interviews and all over Twitter talking about
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Speaker 2: how many sacks they have or they.
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Speaker 3: Didn't show up in that game. Right.
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Speaker 2: So to me, I'm worried about complacency, and I really
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Speaker 2: trust our players. I think our players just have to
9:42
Speaker 2: settle down and go back to the drawing board. You
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Speaker 2: have a bunch of veteran players who you know, we've
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Speaker 2: had a couple opportunities to get to these big moments.
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Speaker 3: And we've gotten there. It's just kind of fallen a
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Speaker 3: little bit flat.
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Speaker 2: Right, So last year in Michigan, right, and then then
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Speaker 2: we rebound from that, right, and then we get ourselves
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Speaker 2: to five and three, and then we just can't quite
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Speaker 2: get over the hump. And then here we are. Colorado.
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Speaker 2: To me, was a breakthrough, right, like, hey, a big moment.
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Speaker 2: We went and played it and then you know, the
10:05
Speaker 2: Illinois proven to be a pretty good team. Right, They
10:07
Speaker 2: just pete Michigan on the road. But that was a good,
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Speaker 2: good game back and forth, we got to overtime and
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Speaker 2: it just kind of looked like that game, right.
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Speaker 3: And now here we are on the road.
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Speaker 2: Against Indiana team I felt we were prepared for and
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Speaker 2: it fell flat. So part of my job is getting
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Speaker 2: us to you know, not fall flat.
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Speaker 3: Right.
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Speaker 2: I'm not saying we were flat. I'm saying the effort
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Speaker 2: falling flat. But I don't I don't worry about our
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Speaker 2: guys not competing. I really, I really honestly do don't.
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Speaker 2: That's the least of my worries.
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Speaker 1: I don't Rule wants to run the ball. He is
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Speaker 1: an old school football coach in that way. But they
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Speaker 1: average just two point four yards per rush against Indiana.
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Speaker 1: So how do you work around a struggling run game
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Speaker 1: to get the offense to where you want it to be?
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Speaker 2: I think you stay very focused on like what it
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Speaker 2: is right like I think I think I think it
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Speaker 2: all comes youre like what people do against Like when
10:54
Speaker 2: people just line up and play us straight.
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Speaker 3: Up, we run the ball pretty well. You might not,
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Speaker 3: maybe people, but I believe that when.
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Speaker 2: People pressure us, they blitz us, we struggle, like we
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Speaker 2: just out and out struggle. And so how do you
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Speaker 2: relieve that? You leave that with RPOs and kicking the
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Speaker 2: ball on the screen. But when we do that, even
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Speaker 2: we have numbers, we're not getting what we want.
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Speaker 3: And so.
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Speaker 2: It's a it's a challenge and it's just one that
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Speaker 2: I think you have to.
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Speaker 3: You know, what do you do put in a whole
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Speaker 3: bunch of new runs? You don't know?
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Speaker 2: You just to me, You go back and say what
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Speaker 2: can we do? What can we do better? And then
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Speaker 2: the shame of that game is, you know, you get
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Speaker 2: down there, you run, you run the power. I mean
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Speaker 2: if you see the bock by leaving tread on that power,
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Speaker 2: I mean he absolutely rocks their white linebacker. You know,
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Speaker 2: the ball gets up inside, we get the first down,
11:36
Speaker 2: you know, it's seven nothing. Maybe you know, maybe we
11:38
Speaker 2: make it seven to seven. We feel better about the
11:40
Speaker 2: run game. We fumble the ball. Then it's twenty eight
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Speaker 2: seven and you're kind of like, all right, we're kind
11:43
Speaker 2: of out of the run here, guys, We're gonna have
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Speaker 2: to drop back and throw it.
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Speaker 3: And I don't know that we're.
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Speaker 2: Gonna be necessarily real, real successful for a full game
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Speaker 2: just dropping back and throwing at fifty times. Though when
11:51
Speaker 2: you watch the drop back game we did, we did.
11:53
Speaker 2: We do a decent job in that game of dropping
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Speaker 2: back and finding people open. So yeah, that is that
11:59
Speaker 2: is what makes us difficult, right, you have to try
12:03
Speaker 2: to find them. You have to run the ball to
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Speaker 2: get some consistency. You're not running it, But I think
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Speaker 2: it's going back and saying what exactly.
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Speaker 3: Are they doing?
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Speaker 2: They're pressuring us, they're blitzing us, and our effectiveness throwing
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Speaker 2: RPOs and run alerts and blitzer relief has not been great,
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Speaker 2: so trying to build off that somehow.
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Speaker 3: Some way.
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Speaker 1: Nebraska is on one of the nation's longest bowldless streaks.
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Speaker 1: They have just had a series of terrible seasons with
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Speaker 1: close losses, pulling defeat from the jaws of victory over
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Speaker 1: and over again. And then against Indiana. If you watch
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Speaker 1: the game, you saw some slumping shoulders on the sidelines
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Speaker 1: during that game. Is confidence of concern with that that
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Speaker 1: Nebraska team right now?
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Speaker 2: I do think, if I'm gonna be completely honest, my
12:45
Speaker 2: battle since I've been here has been the here we
12:48
Speaker 2: go again, which is predates us.
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Speaker 3: It's like, you know, oh, here we go again.
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Speaker 2: Whether it's it's just the constant narratives of tough losses
12:56
Speaker 2: or you know, we were having some success earlier, the
13:00
Speaker 2: local narrative is always very much like here's what they're
13:01
Speaker 2: not good at. Right, so our kids are reading what
13:03
Speaker 2: they're not good at, and that's life. I'm not complaining
13:05
Speaker 2: about that. That's just it's just you want to come
13:07
Speaker 2: play in Nebraska, you deal with it. So when things
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Speaker 2: get go wrong, we naturally in that game. To me,
13:12
Speaker 2: kind of in some ways, they'll like sunk back into
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Speaker 2: like here we go again. And I'm not saying that
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Speaker 2: I saw that. Okay, I didn't feel that during the game.
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Speaker 2: I was competing to the end, but that's you know,
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Speaker 2: as I talk to people, that's kind of what they
13:23
Speaker 2: you know, they said, I think it always comes down
13:28
Speaker 2: to just football, like like if you're supposed to be
13:30
Speaker 2: in the B gap, then be in the gap. Like,
13:31
Speaker 2: don't go to the A gap like touchdown hits because
13:33
Speaker 2: you're in the wrong gap. So, whether that's confidence or whatever,
13:37
Speaker 2: but this first time we've been down, right, We've been
13:39
Speaker 2: up in every football game for pretty much the most
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Speaker 2: of the game, right, and then all of a sudden,
13:43
Speaker 2: now we're down for one.
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Speaker 3: So this is a great opportunity for our guys.
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Speaker 2: It's like a gut check to say, like, hey, if
13:50
Speaker 2: every time we're down we're going to talk about our confidence,
13:53
Speaker 2: then like, man better start handing up participation trophies. Like
13:57
Speaker 2: this is a game for men to go out and
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Speaker 2: battle and fight, and you find out a lot about
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Speaker 2: yourself when you get knocked down. We were knocked down
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Speaker 2: in the second half. We were knocked down of that game.
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Speaker 2: You come back, you don't point fingers. I didn't think
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Speaker 2: the guys, through their helmets are acted foolish. You took
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Speaker 2: the loss as bad as that loss felt. It's the
14:14
Speaker 2: same as losing seven to six. You're five and two.
14:19
Speaker 2: Find the things you're good at, build off them, work
14:21
Speaker 2: on the things you're not good at, come back the
14:23
Speaker 2: next week, and go compete. So all those other things
14:28
Speaker 2: like confidence and all that, I mean, I think those
14:29
Speaker 2: are It was very direct with the team, like we're
14:32
Speaker 2: not going to make a bunch.
14:32
Speaker 3: Of excuses, like we just didn't play well enough. Go
14:35
Speaker 3: play better, go coach better rule.
14:37
Speaker 1: His used tempo in the past in his offenses to
14:39
Speaker 1: kind of help that get things going. Is it possible
14:42
Speaker 1: that they might start doing that more, mixing things up
14:44
Speaker 1: a little bit more and playing with a little more tempo.
14:46
Speaker 2: I think anytime you're playing well, you know, and executing,
14:49
Speaker 2: like I mean, Michigan won the National championship, lest you're
14:51
Speaker 2: in the huddle. You know a ton of teams that
14:53
Speaker 2: are in no huddle the whole. I think, I really
14:55
Speaker 2: honestly believe it kind of comes down to like blocking,
14:58
Speaker 2: making plays, winning your one ones, making guys miss. So
15:01
Speaker 2: my natural inclination would be always played with some tempo.
15:04
Speaker 2: I think it's just hard to run the defense. At
15:07
Speaker 2: the same time, you know, we're living in a world
15:10
Speaker 2: of signal stealing still and all those things, So sometimes
15:12
Speaker 2: easier to get in the huddle. You know you're facing
15:14
Speaker 2: an offense, that's you're facing an offense that's you know,
15:18
Speaker 2: we weren't playing great defensively. Sometimes easier maybe to slow
15:20
Speaker 2: it down a little bit. But you know, my natural
15:23
Speaker 2: commision would probably always be new, would probably always be
15:26
Speaker 2: to play with some tempo, just to keep people on
15:29
Speaker 2: their heels.
15:30
Speaker 3: But I think every game is a little bit different, right.
15:31
Speaker 2: I think every game you're trying to identify, you know,
15:34
Speaker 2: what you do well, what they don't do well. Again,
15:36
Speaker 2: when the game got to twenty eight seven and thirty
15:38
Speaker 2: five to seven, you know, we kind of aborted what
15:40
Speaker 2: we had hoped to do and tried to adjust a
15:42
Speaker 2: little bit.
15:43
Speaker 1: Tackling is definitely a big concern for the Huskers. You
15:45
Speaker 1: heard him talk about that a little bit earlier in
15:47
Speaker 1: the show. How big of an issue is that with
15:50
Speaker 1: a team like Ohio State and it's running backs on deck?
15:53
Speaker 3: Yeah.
15:54
Speaker 2: I thought Mynung guy from Rutgers was an excellent back,
15:56
Speaker 2: and we we didn't tackle him great on the first series,
15:59
Speaker 2: and then after I thought we kind of settled in right,
16:01
Speaker 2: you know, now, we tackled a lot during that week
16:05
Speaker 2: to get prepared for him. I thought a lot of
16:08
Speaker 2: our issues in this game were we're us and we're
16:12
Speaker 2: a gap. We're what we call gap and a half team.
16:14
Speaker 2: Like if I'm playing outside of rob and I'm playing
16:16
Speaker 2: this gap, but I'll also come inside. I thought you
16:18
Speaker 2: saw a lot of guys on defense ripping and swimming
16:20
Speaker 2: up the field like everything was a pass and it
16:22
Speaker 2: was a run, like we didn't adjust to Hey, they're
16:24
Speaker 2: running football on us, and so a lot of balls
16:26
Speaker 2: got to the safeties. I think when you're asking a
16:28
Speaker 2: safety to tackle a big time back with fifty three
16:30
Speaker 2: and a third, that's a lot that's hard to do.
16:33
Speaker 2: So I thought a lot of our issues maybe started
16:35
Speaker 2: upfront in the fits.
16:38
Speaker 3: So yeah, but.
16:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, tackling, especially as you gets you as you go
16:41
Speaker 2: on throughout the course of the year. PAD level fundamentals
16:44
Speaker 2: and tackling are the first things to go and so
16:46
Speaker 2: if you can find a way to prepare practice those
16:48
Speaker 2: moving for you know, as you go through it. The
16:50
Speaker 2: disappointing thing about last week was it was coming off
16:52
Speaker 2: a bye where we took a lot of time to
16:53
Speaker 2: work on the fundamentals. And that's kind of when I
16:56
Speaker 2: go back, you know, to the question earlier about perimeter blocking,
16:58
Speaker 2: Like I do believe we're wrap those. But anytime something
17:01
Speaker 2: to me, anytime something doesn't show up, you know, we're
17:03
Speaker 2: not gonna just throw it on the kids. Hey, you
17:05
Speaker 2: guys got to execute. We have to rep it until
17:07
Speaker 2: it's good enough. And tackling wasn't an issue against Records,
17:10
Speaker 2: it was in this game. It'll certainly be a challenge
17:13
Speaker 2: versus a running game like Ohio States. You know, I,
17:17
Speaker 2: I know, we want to talk about last week, but
17:18
Speaker 2: you know, we have a heck of a challenge in
17:20
Speaker 2: front of us this week. And if you go out
17:22
Speaker 2: there against Ohio State and you don't challenge them, and
17:24
Speaker 2: you just want to bail and play off coverage and
17:27
Speaker 2: you know, hope that you don't get beat, you're gonna
17:29
Speaker 2: get run off the field. With these guys, you got
17:31
Speaker 2: to go out there and compete. If a team beat
17:33
Speaker 2: you because they're better, they beat you because they're better.
17:35
Speaker 3: But you know, you got to go challenge people.
17:38
Speaker 2: And that wasn't We weren't that way on Saturday to
17:42
Speaker 2: many degrees, and so we have to be better.
17:44
Speaker 1: One of the things that has not gone particularly well
17:46
Speaker 1: for the Huskers this year is the passing game just
17:49
Speaker 1: hasn't really been particularly dynamic. They only had five point
17:52
Speaker 1: one yards per past attempt against the Indiana Hoosiers.
17:56
Speaker 3: That is bad.
17:57
Speaker 1: So our receivers just not getting open. What's what's going
18:00
Speaker 1: on there?
18:00
Speaker 2: I think I think we had a lot of guys
18:02
Speaker 2: open a lot of the day, I thought, I thought,
18:06
Speaker 2: But I do think that when we're getting pressed and pressed, man,
18:10
Speaker 2: we're not doing a good enough job. I mean, they
18:11
Speaker 2: played that we're not doing good good enough job of
18:13
Speaker 2: getting releases and getting off press.
18:16
Speaker 3: So I think it's twofold, right.
18:17
Speaker 2: I think it's kind of like I talked to you,
18:19
Speaker 2: Gus about last year, if you give us his own coverage.
18:20
Speaker 2: But we have guys running wide open, right, And I
18:23
Speaker 2: do think we're pretty good at running by people and
18:25
Speaker 2: throwing the ball up till we didn't do it a
18:26
Speaker 2: ton that we threw that one to back shoulder to
18:28
Speaker 2: Jamal on the touchdown drive.
18:30
Speaker 3: But I think you go back and look at the table,
18:33
Speaker 3: like if I if I made a.
18:34
Speaker 2: Cut up of the press press reps where we didn't
18:37
Speaker 2: beat the guy off the line, and some of them
18:39
Speaker 2: are really bad, like just really really really bad. But
18:43
Speaker 2: there are guys open, you know, at other times too,
18:45
Speaker 2: So I think it's it's very specific to me to
18:48
Speaker 2: beating press and getting off press. And you know, we
18:52
Speaker 2: have a lot of guys that want to play pro
18:53
Speaker 2: football and they come here to get a degree and
18:55
Speaker 2: then you know, win and go on and play pro football.
18:57
Speaker 2: And uh, pro football is a game of press, cut
19:00
Speaker 2: beverage and tight coverage even for the quarterbacks, like like
19:04
Speaker 2: the guy being right here and that's like the throwy
19:06
Speaker 2: through to Fidoni. Lily too throws that and then the
19:08
Speaker 2: over out like that's open in the NFL, And so
19:11
Speaker 2: I thought, uh, I thought, I think our guys are
19:14
Speaker 2: going to have to recognize that people are gonna come
19:16
Speaker 2: out and press us and play man, and we got
19:17
Speaker 2: to win. And then we have to go out and
19:19
Speaker 2: press people and play man.
19:20
Speaker 3: We got to win.
19:21
Speaker 2: And everybody wants to play callers to design a play
19:25
Speaker 2: where the blitzer comes free or the guy's wide open, right,
19:28
Speaker 2: But when you face good teams very rarely or you know,
19:30
Speaker 2: SAT's job and Tony's job to me's to get a
19:32
Speaker 2: guy one on one and then it's our guys job
19:34
Speaker 2: to go win the one on one. And I think
19:36
Speaker 2: coming out of that game, I hope our guys understand
19:38
Speaker 2: that a little bit better. Indiana was a good defense,
19:41
Speaker 2: and they challenged us.
19:43
Speaker 1: The fifty six to seven lost to Indiana was quite
19:45
Speaker 1: a shock to the system this time last year, a
19:48
Speaker 1: little earlier in the season last year, they lost forty
19:50
Speaker 1: five to seven at home to Michigan last year and
19:54
Speaker 1: Rule did what is something he called a shock to
19:56
Speaker 1: the system week just to kind of give the players
19:58
Speaker 1: a little bit of a jolt following week to try
20:00
Speaker 1: and get them back into rhythm. So was there doing
20:04
Speaker 1: anything something similar to that this week?
20:07
Speaker 2: I thought, you know, this was different than the Michigan game.
20:12
Speaker 2: This was this was just we sat there for the
20:14
Speaker 2: last two hours and watch the game like the first half.
20:16
Speaker 3: As a as a as a as.
20:17
Speaker 2: A team, coaches, staff and players, which I like to do.
20:22
Speaker 2: You know, I learned it from Coach Kaughlin and well,
20:24
Speaker 2: it's take the you know, the Blue Angels or the
20:26
Speaker 2: Navy Seals. They debrief after every mission and guys take ownership.
20:30
Speaker 2: But really I just want them to see how it
20:31
Speaker 2: all fits together, right, Like again, a bubble screen thrown
20:36
Speaker 2: to the left where you forget to block the safety
20:39
Speaker 2: that leads to second and ten, that then at leads
20:41
Speaker 2: to fourth and eight, which then leads to the ball
20:43
Speaker 2: in the twenty.
20:43
Speaker 3: You know, I just want them to see.
20:44
Speaker 2: How interrelated they all are, because when we're out there
20:47
Speaker 2: sometimes we're like, you know, you know what's happening, But
20:50
Speaker 2: it's just just make the block, like, just do your like,
20:52
Speaker 2: just do your assignment like, And it's easy to it's
20:56
Speaker 2: it's easy to talk about that a lot when you're
20:57
Speaker 2: you know, when you're five and one and you know
21:00
Speaker 2: you only trailed for six minutes in the whole season,
21:01
Speaker 2: But when you're getting your tail kicked, like we got
21:03
Speaker 2: our tailkicked, it's easy to go back and show them, well, okay,
21:06
Speaker 2: I know, I know it was bad, but let's look
21:08
Speaker 2: at this, if we did this.
21:09
Speaker 3: If we did that, if we did this, if we
21:10
Speaker 3: did that.
21:11
Speaker 2: And hope that it grounds them and brings them back
21:13
Speaker 2: right and also pulls them away from you know, again,
21:16
Speaker 2: some of the narratives of who we stink or this
21:17
Speaker 2: stink like, it's all interrelated.
21:19
Speaker 3: It's all interrelated. So you know, if you.
21:22
Speaker 2: Catch the catch the kickoff and don't catch it at
21:24
Speaker 2: the two, you know, catch it, you know, catch it
21:26
Speaker 2: at the you know, let the ball go out of
21:27
Speaker 2: bound to get the ball. Imagine let the ball get
21:29
Speaker 2: a bounce to get the thirty five. Then we get
21:30
Speaker 2: two first downs like we did. Now the game's different,
21:32
Speaker 2: and so I want them to see that, and I
21:36
Speaker 2: want them to I want them to also see like Indiana,
21:40
Speaker 2: Indiana came out and challenged us, I don't know how
21:42
Speaker 2: well we challenge them, and so I'm taking that personally.
21:46
Speaker 2: Now you're facing the best team, the best best team
21:48
Speaker 2: in the country, the best roster in the country, whatever
21:50
Speaker 2: they are, number four, unbelievable team. If we spend the
21:53
Speaker 2: whole game playing Ohio State looking at the score we're
21:55
Speaker 2: hoping to win, we'll get our face beat in if
21:58
Speaker 2: we go out there and challenge them. Because we all
21:59
Speaker 2: think good football players and we want to play in
22:01
Speaker 2: the NFL, and their players are going to play in
22:02
Speaker 2: the NFL. So if you're an NFL player and I'm
22:04
Speaker 2: an NFL player, then I should compete with you. If
22:06
Speaker 2: I back down from you, then I'm not really an
22:08
Speaker 2: NFL player. So I want I want our guys to
22:11
Speaker 2: go out there and compete and see what happens. And
22:12
Speaker 2: then I want to come home and play UCLA and
22:14
Speaker 2: do the same thing, and do it for five games
22:16
Speaker 2: and we've had, we've had a we've had been on
22:19
Speaker 2: a journey of a season. This was a real, real,
22:21
Speaker 2: real down point. See how we respond.
22:24
Speaker 1: Here's a question that you're probably not going to like
22:26
Speaker 1: the question, but I think you're going to like the
22:27
Speaker 1: way that rule approaches the answer. He was asked by
22:30
Speaker 1: a reporter about how deep and talented the Ohio State
22:34
Speaker 1: team and is and whether he thinks that a potential
22:38
Speaker 1: future revenue sharing model that has sort of been bandied
22:40
Speaker 1: about around college football where teams might all kind of
22:43
Speaker 1: have basically the same salary cap more or less, would
22:47
Speaker 1: that maybe help reshape those rosters in the future. So
22:49
Speaker 1: that was how the question was proffered to him. Here
22:52
Speaker 1: was his answer.
22:54
Speaker 2: I want to first give credit to Ryan Day, okay,
22:56
Speaker 2: in that those those guys are Ohio State because Ohio
23:00
Speaker 2: State wins and players want to go to a winner.
23:02
Speaker 3: Okay, I mean.
23:04
Speaker 2: So while there is well, there is you know, anil
23:07
Speaker 2: component to everybody. Ryan's one, right, Urban one, Jim Trussell won,
23:12
Speaker 2: you know, House States won a ton and so kids
23:15
Speaker 2: want to go be a part of one of the
23:16
Speaker 2: best programs in the country, right why you know, best
23:18
Speaker 2: receiving Corps over the last sever many years, great all
23:20
Speaker 2: first round quarterbacks. But to your point, I just don't
23:25
Speaker 2: know if we know how reversharing's gonna work yet there's
23:27
Speaker 2: still no manual been handed out of like here's how
23:29
Speaker 2: it's going to work. But in theory, if everyone has
23:32
Speaker 2: the same dollar figures, then you should bring about more
23:35
Speaker 2: parody on the flip side of that. You know, no
23:37
Speaker 2: one knows the impact of nil. But to me, Ohio
23:40
Speaker 2: states roster's not about nil. It's about guys saying, hey,
23:43
Speaker 2: I want to go play at a place that competes
23:45
Speaker 2: for championships, and you know, so for us like we
23:48
Speaker 2: for us to get to that point, we've got to
23:51
Speaker 2: win enough to justify players taking a chance on us
23:54
Speaker 2: until we're at the top of the mountain and then
23:56
Speaker 2: everyone wants to come. So you know, you can't have
24:00
Speaker 2: many fifty six to seven wins right games. You got
24:02
Speaker 2: to you gotta go compete at a high level. But uh,
24:06
Speaker 2: we'll get there.
24:07
Speaker 1: When you have a team like Nebraska that has struggled
24:09
Speaker 1: over the years, has it made a Bowl and close
24:11
Speaker 1: to a decade at this point, how do you fight
24:14
Speaker 1: back against against the sensation that, oh boy, here we
24:17
Speaker 1: go again at the first time with Trump.
24:20
Speaker 3: Just deal in fact, deal in reality.
24:22
Speaker 2: Just watch the tape right, like to me, as I
24:24
Speaker 2: said to the guys that start to meet today, when
24:25
Speaker 2: something like Saturday occurs and you're at your lowest, you
24:29
Speaker 2: first start with you like what can I do better?
24:32
Speaker 2: And then you turn to the tape you don't read about,
24:35
Speaker 2: you know, or listening to the guys in the locker
24:37
Speaker 2: room talking about well, I think it was this. I
24:38
Speaker 2: think it was that, like you just hey, okay, go back.
24:42
Speaker 2: What did I not do well enough? All right, Like
24:43
Speaker 2: I said, you guys are have the bat. I probab
24:44
Speaker 2: should have kick the field and made that twenty eight
24:46
Speaker 2: ten and just hit the ball back across the hit
24:49
Speaker 2: the ball back across, right, But watch the film, like
24:52
Speaker 2: even before I showed the team to the film today,
24:54
Speaker 2: this morning I watched it games over, I watch it
24:57
Speaker 2: on the plane on the way back. I watch it
25:01
Speaker 2: yesterday twice, and I watched it again this morning one
25:04
Speaker 2: more time because all the answers are on the tape
25:07
Speaker 2: and just like, hey, guys, look at this, look at this,
25:09
Speaker 2: look at this. I think when you do that, you
25:13
Speaker 2: start with reality, and you start with yourself it doesn't
25:15
Speaker 2: ever feel like it's up me versus them. You know,
25:17
Speaker 2: I'm not sitting up there saying you guys didn't do this,
25:19
Speaker 2: and you guys didn't do that. We didn't play our
25:20
Speaker 2: best game and anyway, and that was a team that
25:24
Speaker 2: that was a team that that was a team that
25:26
Speaker 2: was gonna try to embarrass you if you let them.
25:27
Speaker 2: And so we took the loss, We come back and
25:30
Speaker 2: we regroup.
25:31
Speaker 1: And finally he was asked about the most eye popping
25:34
Speaker 1: thing about the Ohio State offense. Now, he said the
25:37
Speaker 1: run game. And then he expanded on his answer.
25:40
Speaker 2: Here, you know they can, they can. You know it's
25:42
Speaker 2: Chip Kelly right. He's gonna find a way to run
25:44
Speaker 2: the ball. And they can run the ball any which way.
25:47
Speaker 2: They have an elite offensive line and defensive line. I mean,
25:50
Speaker 2: they have elite guys up front. But you know they're
25:53
Speaker 2: they're not no spread tempo anymore like they're they're the
25:56
Speaker 2: quarterback run game. They've got two great tailbacks or tailbacks
25:59
Speaker 2: are special, but they create all different kinds of angles,
26:02
Speaker 2: and you know they're gonna run with a lot of
26:04
Speaker 2: different run schemes. They'll play with two tight ends and
26:06
Speaker 2: then they've got you know, outstanding receivers who if you
26:09
Speaker 2: play one on one, you know they'll go to them.
26:11
Speaker 3: So they've got great, great players.
26:13
Speaker 2: They start with the run game to create one on
26:15
Speaker 2: ones to throw the ball, and then they have the
26:16
Speaker 2: QB run game, which you know, as you know, is
26:19
Speaker 2: a great equalizer, you know, so you know, really outstanding
26:23
Speaker 2: football team.
26:24
Speaker 3: Well rule in.
26:24
Speaker 1: The Huskers will be in Columbus on Saturday noon kickoff
26:28
Speaker 1: inside Ohio Stadium. Tony Kevin and I will be there
26:30
Speaker 1: as well. We're covering the game as per usual. Buckeyes
26:34
Speaker 1: back on the field this Saturday, looking to get themselves
26:36
Speaker 1: Bowl eligible to six and one play the Huskers noon
26:41
Speaker 1: on Fox. We will have our usual pre postgame coverage
26:44
Speaker 1: all that good stuff all at YouTube dot com slash
26:47
Speaker 1: Buckey Huddle as well as at pucke udle dot com.
26:49
Speaker 1: We hope to see you there. That will do it
26:51
Speaker 1: for today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have
26:52
Speaker 1: a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.