Latest / Return to Glory - Nebraska / Episode 56 | Dear October Husker Fan

Transcript

Episode 56 | Dear October Husker Fan · Return to Glory - Nebraska

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Go Big Red! The takes, the numbers, the chaos. Hunter
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Austin Deck.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Talking Cornhusker football, basketball, and everything Nebraska sports. Welcome to
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: the Return to Glory podcast.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Return to Glory podcast.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: Hunter here by myself today on our solo Tuesday episode.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: I'm going to do something a little bit different today.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: It is obviously still wrapping up the bye week. I
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: want to go through a few different scenarios and as
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: if it was December 1st or beginning of December and
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: we are writing letters back to the.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Present in October.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: And so I think the way these last five games
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: could go We got Washington at home, obviously, this Saturday.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Then we go on the road to Illinois on Friday
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: night next week. And then we go at Rutgers, Ohio
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: State at home, and then back to Iowa. I think
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: the season could.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: End a lot of ways, right?
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: And I think looking back at where we are today,
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: we're going to look back and say either we were
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: right to feel a certain way or maybe we should
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: have felt a different way. depending on where your head's
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: at now and then what the end of the season
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: looks like. On one side, the first little letter that
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: gets wrote back here, Nebraska finishes 9-3. In other words,
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: we think that these results in the Indiana and Oregon game,
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: while they weren't wins, it's put us in a place
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: that We are very competitive and are better than, for sure,
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: our next three opponents. And then we grab one of
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: Ohio State and Iowa. And when I say it's funny
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: that we're even talking about being able to beat Ohio
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: State this year, it's kind of wild and crazy. But
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: they have a backup quarterback. And that was us last year, right?
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: Not to say that it's... Lucky, I mean, I guess
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: you can call it luck if you want, but you
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: have another opportunity in front of us, just like we
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: did against Oregon, for sure, to go out and win
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: a game like that. When coming into the year, you know,
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: those three games that we keep talking about, we were
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: just saying.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Nope, nope, nope, there's no way. There's no way we're
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: winning these games. It's not a possibility. They're all losses.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: You don't ever consider injuries and backups, but as Rule
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: mentioned in his press conference, you know, everybody's got backups
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: in it. It's just, it's going to happen as part
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: of college football. I think this year probably is more extreme,
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: especially at the quarterback position than past years. But it's
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: not an unexpected thing to be playing against backups in
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: November in the Big Ten. So anyways, that being said,
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: you know, the letter writes back at 9-3 and says,
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: guess what? all this concern and frustration, put it to bed,
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: and enjoyed that 9-3 is a pretty damn good year.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: And no, it wasn't the perfect clean break. I guess
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: you could call it a breakthrough year if you wanted to,
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: but didn't make the playoffs. But in a year where
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: our schedule was supposed to be one of the toughest
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: that we've had in a long time, yeah, it was.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: Being 9-3 is definitely a big step forward and a
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: big turning point for this program.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the offense maybe.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: Was a little bit stagnant middle of the year, but
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: for us to go 9-3, I do think the offense
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: takes a step forward here in the second half, and
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: I think it hopefully will be evident in these next
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: few games before we get to the end of the
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: year where Ohio State and Iowa's defense are going to be,
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: I believe, much tougher than these first three.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Games to end the year.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: I think the running game in this scenario looks more
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: like it was beginning of the year. And is that
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: a product of adjustments being made?
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Is it a product of the opponents we're playing?
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: Yes. I think it's a product of all those things.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: But to go 9-3, the run game, I think, needs
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: to get back established. It's just going to be hard
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: to have Calandria do everything here to get us where
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: we want to be. So defensively, I saw some numbers
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: this week where we rank nationally in some of the
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: different key metrics. I think we just continue to build
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: off of what we're at. You look at the Big
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: Ten this year, to go 9-3, you're holding teams to
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: under 20 points. You're controlling the clock. You're getting teams
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: off the field and third down, which we have been
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: tremendous at this year. One of the top in the country,
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: if not the top in the country. It's one of
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: those things that you just want to continue to see
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: improvement and don't take any steps back because if you
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: do that, you're going to like where you're sitting. And
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: having a bye week to reset, regroup, you know, fix
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: the things that you need to improve on, but also
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: continuing to do the things that have worked really well
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: to you know, that's a great time to evaluate that
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: as we head into the second part of the year.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: So on, on one hand, I think that's the, that's the,
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: that's the letter you're writing in December. And I guess
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: you could maybe even go a step further. I'm not
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: wanting to put this thought in my brain because I
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: don't want false sense of excitement, but I do think
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: the other hand of that is if you went out,
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: you go 10 and two, you're in the playoffs, especially
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: this year. Uh, but But I'm not going that far.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: I think going 9-3 would be a very big win.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: You know what?
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: Even going 8-4, I think, is not that too discouraging.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: I also think you've got to consider how we lose again.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: It would suck to go 8-4 if we have both
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: the Ohio State and Iowa games won early in the
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: fourth quarter, like we did against Oregon and Indiana, but
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: then couldn't finish it. That would hurt quite a bit.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, 8-4 would be nice, but that would hurt
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: if you have four games that you're ahead to start
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: the fourth quarter by double.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Digits and then you lose them.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: Uh, the second letter writing back to October Husker fans
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: here goes the other way and says to all the
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: optimists in the room right now, which I would consider
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: myself maybe to be that after where we've gone so
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: far as yep, you were right. This, these close losses
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: just shows that we just can't get it done. Um, and,
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: Once you can't get it done and do that, you
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: lose the locker room. Things fall apart, and we finish. Gosh,
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: I hope we don't finish 6-6, but I don't think
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: you can cross that out yet. You know, it's finished 6-6, 7-5.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: You fall.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: Obviously, Ohio State, Iowa, and then you take another one
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: out of there, whether it be at Illinois or Washington
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: this week. maybe take two out of there, right? I
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: think all that would come to say that we just
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: were not there. And I guess seven wins is exceeding
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: the win total, which we haven't done in a long time.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: But I do think for this season, the opportunities are there.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: And if we can't seize an opportunity to take advantage
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: of what we have left in our schedule, it's going
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: to be a pretty disappointing end to the season. And
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: I think in that scenario, you're going to look back
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: and you're going to say, yep, this coaching staff can't
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: make adjustments. We didn't do anything different. We just quite
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: don't have the players still. Even though we think we
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: have the players to compete with the top teams, maybe
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: that was truly good coaching and game planning. And now
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: we're just, everything's falling apart. In that scenario, it's going
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: to be very interesting to hear and see what the
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: reaction is to the coaching staff as, as, as you
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: look forward.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: And finishing the year six and six, for sure. I,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: I don't think that's going to sit very well with
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: not just the fans, but you know, the administration and.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: How that's going to go.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: Cause think about what would have to happen for that
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: for to go six and six and, and the reaction
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: of what that will be. So I just, I, as
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: you're thinking forward of what the future scenarios could look like, um,
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: you know, the, the, the downs, the, the, the floor
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: of all of that.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Could get pretty ugly still.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: And, um, that's what makes college football so exciting and, uh,
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: intriguing week to week. And I, the other thing I
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: heard this week, and I think it's true and, and
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: whether you like it or not get used to it
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: because it's, it's moving more and more towards the NFL
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: in every way, shape and form possible. Um, when it
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: comes to money, when it comes to transfer portal. We're
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: not obviously at contracts in terms and salaries yet, but
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: I do think we're moving that way. And then now
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: look what is happening in the games, right? It's so
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: much more balanced out because of the simple fact that
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: you can't build depth like you used to because all
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: the people that are good, that used to be second
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: stringers that you're developing are playing somewhere else because they can.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: They're getting paid to play somewhere else. And maybe it's
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: not a power five school, but you're playing at smaller
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: schools and then making.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Your way to be a starter.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: So you just can't stack the talent behind your players.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: I think that's a very big piece of that. So
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: That being said, I mean, just get used to battles,
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: close games, and finding a way to win. There's a
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: reason why point spreads in the NFL are never 20-plus, right?
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: Even the worst of worst teams have enough talent and
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: depth to be and hang around your top teams in
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: the NFL. I just think we're going to continue to
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: merge closer to that with every year. You know, you
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: look at the playoff next year. You look at people
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: discussing whether that's good or bad for college football. You know,
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: you give everybody an opportunity and a chance. And if
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: you can win games by one, no matter who you're playing,
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: no matter what their record is. You heard Rural talk
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: about the preseason polls, how meaningless they are. I mean,
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: I'm with you. I think there's not just Nebraska talking
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: about that. Everybody's talking about that, especially now how preseason
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: polls put.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Random expectations on random teams. When in reality.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: You're facing the team. That you line up against each week.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: And you just want to find a way to win
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: that game.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: And every year.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: If you look at schedules. It's going to be harder
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: and harder to say. Oh this schedule is easier or tougher. Right.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: You just got to each year. Put your best product
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: out there on the field.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: So.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: I go to the two scenarios. And then. I think
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: the last. Real letter, and what we want to talk
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: about is what are we actually going to open?
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: When we open that letter, writing it back to October fans,
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: what's that going to look like? If I had to
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: put a prediction on here, I'm going to say we're
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: going to beat Washington this week. I think it's going
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: to be a battle of a game. I don't think
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: it's going to be a cakewalk by any means. I
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: think that spreads actually too much. But I think we're
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: going to find a way to win this game at home.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: And I think we're going to find a way to
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: slip up at Illinois.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Illinois beat Oregon. We know that.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: I've always thought highly of Brett Bielema. I think that
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: sucks that.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: I'm playing out there for whatever reason. I just don't
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: like that on a Friday night either. I think that
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: place is going to be pretty juiced even though You know,
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: their season's gone, maybe not the way they completely hoped,
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: but they just came off a big win.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: We will see what that impacts that game. We're not
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: losing to Rutgers. I don't think that.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: And then they come to the Ohio State game, right?
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: I think that's a very big opportunity at home. Julian's
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: saying being out. I think that you look back on
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: that game and if you were saying that we have
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: a chance to win, I'd say, yeah, right. But I
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: do think we can. Unfortunately, I think we're going to,
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: Keep it close. I think we're going to be competitive.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: I don't think we're going to win. I really, for
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: the sake of our season, I don't want the game
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: script to be the way the Oregon-Indiana games were where
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: we were ahead and then blow it. If we're going
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: to lose, I'd rather lose by 10 and kind of
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: be down the whole game and have people be a
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: little bit saying, okay, yep, Ohio State still.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Has a lot better players than we do versus the opposite.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: Because I think if you get just stabbed in the
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: back again in a way that we've lost our other
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: two games. I think that doesn't bode well for the
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: Iowa game versus the other way of hopefully still being
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: hungry to go out because it's still Iowa and go
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: out there and find a way to win out there
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: on the road. That would be a very big positive
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: end of the year. And I think I'm going to
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: say we're going to do it right now.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: At the end of the year.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: So that put us right there at eight wins, eight
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: and four going to a bowl game. And I think
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: that's a very, to me, a very successful, I shouldn't
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: say very, but it's a successful season. Obviously, the opportunities
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: have been there for us this year that we haven't
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: been able to capture.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: But I think that's a step in the right direction
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: for this program.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: And as we also want to think about the future
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: and look back on letters and players in the portal,
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: God damn it, I hope that's enough to keep Calandria here.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: I hope that's enough to keep Jamal Rule here and
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: get him back healthy. You know, I hope obviously everybody
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: stays healthy through the end of the year. But I just,
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: you know, we know how that goes. It doesn't always happen. So,
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: you know, I hope that gives you enough momentum going
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: into a bowl game to whatever I guess we put
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: out there or the team we're playing puts out there.
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: I think this bowl season is going to be very,
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: even more obsolete than last year given.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: The new 2014 playoff structure.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: It's not going to be good, and everybody's going to
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: kind of laugh at the bowl season outside of the
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: 12-team playoff this year, which again, rightfully so. That's just
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: the way things are moving. Whether you like it or not,
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: get used to it. That's the way things are moving
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: more NFL-based.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: As we go.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: Anyways, that's today's topic. Looking back on the season, trying
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: to predict what will happen come early December. Last thing
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: I'm going to mention here and give my thoughts on
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: our Husker basketball as we beat K-State last night in
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: Grand Island in our last exhibition game. If you had
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: a chance to watch the game, this game we did
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: play our starters, both teams did, through the end of
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: the game. It was like a regular season game, playing
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: to win the whole time. Your best shot, which I think,
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: you know, preseason, how they do their games. You know,
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: game one, you play a lot of backups. Game two,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: you dial back a little bit. And your game three,
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: you're playing a lot more your starters because you're closer
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: to the regular season.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: So you have a better idea of your rotations.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: I think, I don't know that K-State's going to be
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: a top 25 team at any point this year.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: I'll say that.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: But I do think it's very good and important for
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: us to get a win heading into our season. next
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: week where we kick off against LeMoyne on Monday before
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: we play Providence on Saturday. So we're jumping right into
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: our season, and that Providence game is going to be
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: a very big game here in a week and a half.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: So there were a lot of good things last night.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: I think we were able to get Sanford and Frigger going,
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: which I haven't really been able to do here these
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: first couple of games. We kind of saw how we
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: were able to do that and accomplish that against Kansas State.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: And like I said, I don't think Kansas State has
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: the athletes and the players necessarily to be a top
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: 25 team, but I do think they're obviously not.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: A bottom 100 team in the NCAA either.
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: So I think it's important to play these games and
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: try to find a way to win them. You learn
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: a lot, and we'll see as we kick off our
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: season on Monday what this Nebraska basketball squad is made
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: of as we head into the 2026-27 season. And Kent Pavelka,
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: this is his retirement tour here this year. So now
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: it's his retirement. This will be his last year calling
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: Nebraska basketball. So we'll enjoy that every step along the way. Tomorrow,
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: Dak will be back for Wacky Dacky. Wednesday, Thursday, Big
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: Time Washington.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Preview. Halloween night on Saturday. Go Big Red.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: The headlines change, but the mission stays. From Memorial Stadium
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: to PBA days. Football Saturdays, basketball nights.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Every story chasing.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: Red and white. Recruiting buzz, big time commits. Camp battles,
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: coaching hits. Transfer moves and rising stars. The road to
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: glory's never far. This is Return to Glory Where every
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: headline tells the story Big Red pride every season Husker
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Nation's got a reason From touchdowns, dunks, and championship dreams
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: We'll be back with the latest from every team Until
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: next time, keep the faith, keep believing Because the Return
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: to Glory is just beginning Go Big Red! See you
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: next episode!