Latest / Return to Glory - Nebraska / Episode 5.25: The 1-0 Podcast

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Episode 5.25: The 1-0 Podcast · Return to Glory - Nebraska

0:18
Re Turna Glory Podcasts, Bunter's Arbernikki, I'm back, I'm not dead,
0:25
Austin Rose, the code of free tag taking over for me over the past
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couple of weeks, gentlemen, how's it going good? I found out one
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of our podcasts didn't make it on the air that we recorded because I sent
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you the wrong file. So it's probably best that it didn't make it up.
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God, well, I will say it did make it on the air
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for about a half a day. Katie Daniels, let me know. Whoops
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shout out, so let me know it was the same episode as the one
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before. Austin, you took the blame because that made me look bad.
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I'm just glad I didn't make it up there. Dak was pretty freaking blitzed.
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I don't know the imagined you don't remember it? No, God,
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I know, what would you do if you took your helmet off on the
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field? Would that be a penalty? I don't know how many times you
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said that, Dek. We're probably so. I still need this clip because
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this might be a good blooper episode to put on, you know, some
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random week in the host I'll get it to you I'll find the right one.
1:29
I thought I had the right one. I am back from vacation,
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guys, and I have had just so much time to just lay on the
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beach and you know, look up at the stars at night and just think
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about Husker football over and over. I don't think i've been on since the
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Illinois game. I don't think I've talked even about winning that. Nope,
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we'll start there. What a game. We can actually talk about it because
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that podcast never made it on the air, like that was awesome. And
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I know everybody that I talked to about the game was disappointed that could have
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been worse, or like we freaking won a game. I didn't care and
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rule set it on Monday. I don't care about how bad we beat teams.
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I just want to win a game by one, one score, every
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game, doesn't matter who the opponent is. That's where we're at. That's
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what we need to do. And good God, did it feel great going
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to bed on Friday night winning a road game in the Big ten. Mm
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hmm. And here we are three and three halfway through the year. Yeah.
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I think realistically, you had you said through six games that we were
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four and two, you would be pleasantly surprised. And we're three and three
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with one really close loss that we threw away at the end of a game.
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So I feel pretty good. And you're right. People were bitching that
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it wasn't a pretty win because we tried to. You know, our fourth
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quarter didn't look good. But there's our fan base right there again, just
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starting off the top of the rant, going from not being able to win
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the game to not being now able to win pretty enough. It was an
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ugly win. Come on here, we gotta win. Let's enjoy it.
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Who would have known? You want to you beat a powerhouse too, they
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beat Maryland? Yeah, true, Yeah, that was wild. So I
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did listen to you guys, not like all of them, but I did
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kind of tune in here or there. Dak, You're lucky that Owe you
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got it done because your brother just absolutely took you down on the podcast.
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No, I cooked him. No, that did not happen at all.
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I listened to you guys while I was running the market to market, so
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it was kind of funny. Kept my mind occupied, I will say that.
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But good for your boomer sooners, let's go. I'm still ring high
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out that you wouldn't have known that he talked to him Sunday after the vikings
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came. You want to talk about going from a high from the top of
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the mountain at the absolute bottom of the barrel. Holy crap, what a
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weekend that was. Jesus, that's a funny video. I will send it
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and it will make it in some blueberrial at the end of the season.
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No next topic here. And as I was listening to you guys and you
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know, enjoying my time on the beach something, so I think it was
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the last episode you guys talked a lot about you're going through our schedule,
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talking about how much we were gonna be favored in every game. Go out
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here and be like we were all right, Fisher statement so got me thinking,
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and I'm gonna my head has gone there too, It really has.
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And it's sad. But I've caught myself several times saying, man, like
5:00
these next three games, like we could win these games, and oh my
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gosh, Maryland, and your mind kind of wants to wonder, like maybe
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the West could we do it? You know, like it goes there.
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Then you gotta you gotta reel yourself all the way back in and just go
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nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, And Rule I think did
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that today in his press conference, And if you didn't get a chance to
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listen to it, I would strongly encourage you to go back. I thought
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Rule's given a lot of really good press conferences. I thought this one was
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about the best one that he's given as far as just level setting everybody again
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and kind of not putting it in a There was hints of talking about the
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fan base or the outside noise and everything, and he just shut it down.
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He said, nope, like, we want to go want to know
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this week, and Northwestern's a very very good football team. He said it
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over and over and over, and we need to win the week and it'll
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test what kind of coaches we are, what kind of person I am.
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Like that message right there, I think hopefully got through to the players because
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it is you guys are talking about it, and I I told you guys,
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I was gonna bash you when we got on. But my head's gone
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there too. Here was week. You know, that's what you do.
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You look at your schedule going forward, and that's what Rule says too.
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He said, you know, fans, that's what fans do. But as
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a coach, it's not. That's my job to make sure that us as
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coaches and the players are thinking all about Northwestern and just going one to know.
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And I thought that that message right there, even though it's very coach
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speak, very common, like that's what needs to happen here, even as
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we're talking on the podcast, like I don't want my mind to go so
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far in the future and think here's what it could be. I just want
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to say, okay, and can we win this week? What do we
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gotta do this week to win? Even though we are just three guys doing
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a Huscer football podcast, two of them being Husker fans, one not a
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soft Husker fan, soft Husker fan, we're working on them now you go
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to the games. So I thought that was very good. It was a
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very good press conference. And as you guys are talking about some of those
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lines, I'm like, you're probably not wrong, like we could be favored
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in a lot of these But at the same time, that's not what we
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need to be talking about. We need to be talking about where we're at
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now, what are we doing, because in reality, we can be talking
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about five years of winning a conference or being in the playoff like that'd be
7:26
great, but we know that so far away, so let's not waste our
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time talking about Maryland and Illinois or Wisconsin and Iowa. No, it was
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bye week. We were going over the landscape of the Big Ten. Totally
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reasonable talk about the land. You're going to win the West, that's what
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we came up with. That was not the intention of the way the conversation
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started. But then we started talking about the Big Ten West, and it's
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like okay, okay, okay, maybe yeah, okay. And then by
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the end of it, I'm pretty sure Dak was putting money on nebrask gonna
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be in the Big Ten Championship game. It comes down, there's a good
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shot now with Wisconsin's quarterbacks out to him, see there is what what's the
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money lined for? Not money line? What are the odds for Nebraska in
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the Big Ten Championship. I don't know, Dak, But even how you're
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talking, I'm not you're talking like a Husker fan, because all the crap
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that I've been seeing is stuff like that, like we control our own destiny.
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Yeah, Mortar ties out and McCarthy's out for all. It's just like,
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oh my god, People like, let's let's beat Northwestern, a team
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that yeah, it's a winnable game, like, let's win this game,
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but Rule said it best. Louisiana Tech, Northern Illinois. Those aren't gimmes.
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These games aren't gimmeis None of them are. And so it's his job
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to make sure that the players and the coaches are not listening to this outside
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noise and all these Husker fans and media doing what we do all the time,
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just thinking that we're better than we are because it's fun. It's you
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know, I heard people say it's kind of fun thinking that you know,
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we're competing for Bowl eligibility this year, Like, yeah, I guess,
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But how thought we just win this week? There's that Debbie Downer. I
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thought maybe you'd come back from vacation a nice tan, humped up on sugary
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alcohol, and you'd just be ready to be drink that Rule Aid. You
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know, you find that true inner self of you again, you know when
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you go on these vacations and you know the real part of me is still
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coming out. But I will say this, You're talking about the Rule Aid
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like this press conference and listening to Rule like I'm getting more ingrained in him.
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Like, I like his mess, and yeah, I think what he's
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doing it it could work, like not saying it will, but I think
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it could. And I'm forgetting a lot of those red flags that we were
10:07
pointing out early on in the year and almost like saying, why did we
10:09
think those are red flags? Well, because we weren't winning, right.
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Well, now we've won a couple of games for three and three. Let's
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continue to win those games and see what we think once we get to the
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end of the year, whatever our record's going to be. Who cares?
10:26
Are you sure you like what he's saying? Because he said, uh,
10:28
Iowa Wisconsin was a beautiful game. I wrote that down and I wrote a
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big old check mark, like I love that. That da that got God
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well, okay, dak Not not from a college football fan standpoint, right,
10:41
Like if you want to see offense, but if you want to see
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two teams bloody battle, like how we're going to have to win Nebraska football,
10:48
how we're going to have to win in the Big Ten, that's fun
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football because both those teams are just kicking each other in the face. They're
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not good offenses. We're not a good offense, clearly, But to be
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any of the teams and the rest of our schedule, it's gonna just be.
11:01
It's gonna be playing Iowa Wisconsin football deck. I know you hate that,
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but that's what. That's how we're winning games. It's how he'd be
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Illinois. Right. You want to see those games because that's how we're gonna
11:11
have to win. Yeah. With a minute and a half long montage of
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the Iowa punters performance, I think that was just shitty football. I don't
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think that was anywhere near good football. See I I loved it because it
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showed that he cared about the West in style and winning. Now, I
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will say this, You bring in the usc s and the now they got
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their asses kicked. DA's hoppy on that. Oh yeah uh, but UCLA,
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you bring in these other teams, Oregon, Washington, it's gonna be
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a little bit different, right, And who knows what the divisions and all
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that's gonna look like. The schedules are out, so it is, but
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this is our year to play a bunch of bad football teams and we're one
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of them. And Rules made this quote too that I loved. He said
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anybody and any given week can beat us, and anybody or we can be
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anybody else in the given week, like as like dumb and dumb down that
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statement as it's true, Like it's a good year for a rebuild. Yeah,
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you get some solid reps. You get, but you don't come out
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of it. You know two and ten you're coming. You might come out
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of it, possibly with the bull game, Like should we win these games?
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We should be competitive? Probably not should the right one, but could
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we? Yeah, Like yeah, I wouldn't say. Maybe the closest one
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to a should win is probably this week. But like again, you don't
12:31
want to start thinking like that at all if your coaches or players, because
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this game should be the biggest game of the season right now. And Northwestern
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has a better record than Perdue and Michigan, don't they then they had a
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big comeback win against Minnesota. Yeah, So all that being said, I
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liked a lot of what I heard from Rule this week, and I think
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he's doing a great job at being a leader of men and just more the
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minds of college kids, which I just think that that's the most important thing
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in coaching, especially at the college level, and a football coach, because
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you have a lot of sistants to help you and I'm not going to compare
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a rule to any of these guys about to mention, but if I had
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to ask you, guys, maybe a hot take. We'll see who is
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the best leader ever ever? Or who are some of the best leaders,
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not any anything, just leader in general? Oh boy, George Washington,
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Yeah, strong on Abraham Lincoln. Also the easy president's layups. Best leader
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ever. I have a number clear, Number one, Nick, I'd say
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he's a good leader. Figure number one? Are you talking? Is your
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guy college football? Or I'm saying in the history of the universe, are
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the best the leaders? And what I'm getting at here Jesus Christ, Jesus
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is a He's a great leader. That is not good answer trying to be
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that one? Dare you mine is kind of opposite of that. Here it
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is, guys, it's a Dolf Hitler. I was gonna say that,
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but I didn't know if he didn't. But think about it as far as
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what a leader does, right, You get people to follow you you,
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Yeah, you more of people's mind, believing what you believe, to accomplish
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a task in a common goal. You can't tell me there's really anybody.
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I mean, Gandhi, Maybe I mean I don't know these people that are
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just they're so powerful at knowing how to get people behind them. And when
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I say people, it's all over them. It's not just people that are
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like right underneath you. It's everybody. And so when you a guy like
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Rule. I'm not comparing Rule to Hitler or any of these guys, but
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when you're the leader of an organization, you have to handle so many aspects.
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Everything that you say, everything you do, everything you speak to someone,
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every time you act and you respond a certain way, someone's watching you.
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And when you're at a press conference, when you're in the locker room,
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now there's fucking videos on you, on every goddamn speech on the planet
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that you give, like it matters if you are a leader of men,
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like if you can do that, Scott Frost was not. Scott Frost was
15:31
sliding down railings, and I know we laughed about that, but can you
15:35
imagine any good leader doing that. I'm not saying that has really any effect
15:41
if you're winning games, but it does. It gives up a perception of
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here's your personality, here's your attitude. All those little things matter, and
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I think Rule is leaving a very good impression on his players and the Nebraska
15:54
fan base on that. Now that being said, it's obvious Sleep very early
16:02
in his tenure here, and it's going going to come down to winning games.
16:06
So leading is one thing, but then translating that the wins is another.
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Yeah, he's he's definite getting the team to believe like you, Like
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you said about Frost, he didn't he down the team behind him at all,
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and you could tell, like he the team didn't know what the hell
16:27
they are doing any week. And with this team, with the Rule,
16:32
you can tell they are. They are coach solidly, they know what they're
16:36
doing, and they they don't Okay, they turn over a lot, but
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they don't make that many mistakes. I would say the mistakes are on simms.
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I don't think that's right. The turnovers aren't a product of or prep.
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It's just a just dumb plays by the players. Yeah, and football
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people on the fucking ball, Jesus, I'm tired of watching bubbles. And
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the thing is Rule knows that. I mean, we all know that,
17:07
right, and he's addressed He's addressed it several times with several of the different
17:11
players. And but even those comments too that you make about that, like
17:17
some people are going to judge, well, you can't be putting down a
17:19
player because he's fumbling the ball, like is it is it fair to be
17:23
putting it on Jeff Simms but Anthony Grant, But not on this player because
17:30
you know it's like I don't know, but that's Rule's job to determine.
17:33
And not even determined. He's not consciously thinking. It's just what kind of
17:37
person and leader he is. He just comes out and says it. And
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this was one of the things he said was Anthony Grant, he's not gonna
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play if he's gonna fumble the ball, he's not my guy, Like all
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right, fair enough like that, he says it as it is. And
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Anthony Grant now knows, all right, Am I gonna deal with this crap
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or not? You know? Am I gonna listen to a coach that put
17:56
that says that out loud? I think Anthony Grant is in the circle,
18:00
like I think he is going to respond and do well, at least we
18:04
hope. So so it's all that stuff. I just think it's telling of
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Rule's personality. He's going to say it as it is. He's just gonna
18:12
leave it all out there for you to hear. And I think that's a
18:17
very good approach for where we're out of the program because it tells you that
18:21
he has a vision of what he wants to do. He said it several
18:23
times, Dak, what does Rule want to do? If you know this
18:26
and we're good, what does what is rle? What's his identity? Run
18:30
the ball? There go and on the other side of the ball, H
18:36
play solid defense? I yep, have a strong defense. Yep. So
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we talked about identity for Frost for fucking five years and Rule has come out
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and said is what we're gonna do Now. The next part of that,
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I think is now getting the players to fit into that system and get them
18:56
to buy in it. As Dak mentioned the Big Ten and West football,
18:59
that's not a very flashy offense that you're gonna get some four or five star
19:03
players to come and play for you at receiver. But do you get some
19:07
linemen who we don't need receivers. If this is how we're gonna play,
19:11
like freaking be able to run the ball and and control the line of scrimmage
19:15
every game, I think we're gonna be Okay. Well, you don't have
19:21
any wide receivers and you're winning right now, won one game three. This
19:27
is the year to get it though. You decide to play, you decide
19:32
to play Oregon and Washington they're coming in. Watch we'll see it. Like
19:36
watching those teams though, and I mean they're on a little bit next level,
19:41
right, But I would say your next tier PAC twelve teams, you're
19:44
like Washington States, You're Oregon States, Arizona, those kind of teams.
19:48
Like I'd be curious to see what a what our style would do to a
19:53
team like that. Like it's not gonna be a like what Michigan did to
19:57
us. I think that's probably what organ Washington probably would do to us right
20:00
now. But you get a very good version of this style, a very
20:06
strong version of it. Like you never know, like you one team is
20:11
going to be in control of the clock more than the other. And yeah,
20:15
it might come down to athletes and players at some point, but the
20:18
style could win out. It's worked before in the past, I think,
20:22
I mean, we haven't seen it in our lifetimes, but it could do
20:26
a complete flip here in about ten years. Dak you just wait, Yeah,
20:32
I'll be waiting. No, I like you, Yeah, like you
20:37
said about those top FAC twelve teams, they're they're so far ahead of like
20:42
they're up like the Michigan Ohio state category. And then is it UCLA that's
20:48
joining too. Is that the only other team? Yep? And see there
20:52
I put them in the middle, and I think you could compete with them.
20:56
But staying here in a couple of years, just keep building and just
21:02
you got to play this style because you won't be able to play the same
21:04
stat orgon Washington want to play to beat them, you got you gotta play
21:07
this style and keep with it. Oh and that's why I don't I could
21:11
I could care less on like the Mission game this year, I know we
21:15
get our asses kicked, like eventually I hope in the future that you know,
21:18
those games are going to be competitive again, right, but playing this
21:22
style is going to be hard. I guess a team that just has that
21:25
much better athletes and talent than you. But but then look at the rest
21:30
of these teams in our schedule, like this style is going to win those
21:33
games, and that again is the most important number one thing is winning games.
21:37
And it starts Northwestern this week and we go from there and see see
21:42
if we can just win by a point. That's all we need to do,
21:47
is real said, win by one score. So all right, second
21:52
part here of this episode. What we want to do here. We're at
21:55
the halfway point. I know Austin and Dak have kind of given their mid
22:00
season expectation review already, but I wanted to have time for me to go
22:06
through this. So we're gonna do it a little bit different than how they
22:10
did it. We're gonna go by position group as a whole. Obviously we
22:15
can comment wherever we need to comment on from a player perspective, but we're
22:18
gonna say what did we expect from that position group coming in, what's happened?
22:25
Where are we at, and then moving forward here into the second half
22:29
of the year or maybe just this next game. One game, do we
22:33
have started adopting rualisms? We might we might just go one to know tonight.
22:40
We're going one to know tonight on this podcast. We're undefeated. So
22:47
Austin, let's start offense offensive side of the ball. I'll let you kind
22:51
of take the first position and then you kind of give your thoughts and then
22:53
we'll go through and add to it from the ostensive side. I'd say,
22:59
the most interesting part is the offensive line. Personally, I think coming back,
23:08
coming into the year, we were running back basically the exact same offensive
23:11
line and expected to be super shitty, and I will say, six games
23:15
in, I am kind of impressed that's not super shitty. There has been
23:19
some privent Turner Corkoran still has some issues, obviously, and we've we've talked
23:25
about that in the past. Of there, there's been a couple of games.
23:29
But even with Teddy Perhoska coming back and not looking as good as he
23:30
did before he was injured, I think ben Hart looks better, I think
23:36
Scott looks good. I honestly think it's it's much more serviceful than it was
23:41
last year. So I've been pleasantly surprised with the O line improvement and play
23:47
in general. Yeah, I I like a lot of that. I think
23:52
coming in we knew we had a lot of returners that we didn't think we're
24:00
probably great, so that maybe was not a good thing. Yeah, we
24:03
had a lot of returners, a lot of starters that we were like,
24:04
Man, if these guys weren't on our team, I'd be happy. Is
24:08
that giving me a thumbs up? With a bubble. How'd you do that?
24:12
No? What he just gave us a thumbs up with a bubble?
24:18
Are you serious? That agrees? I think the offensive line Ben Scott has
24:29
been solid. Uh Ner, he's been very solid. I think the word
24:32
that I like to use with them is solid. Right, they done a
24:34
decent job. I think, like we said, better than probably what we
24:38
expected. Pretty mean surprisingly too. I mean outside of like the first couple
24:44
of games where we had a little bit of jitters, I think it's been
24:48
much better than it has, not as many bone breaking holding calls as we
24:52
had last year. I'd say moving forward, this is one of the least
24:56
less obvious things they're gonna have to step their game up. We just lost
25:02
Dak lovely. Uh, They're gonna have to step their game up a little
25:06
bit more here as we keep going, because it's gonna be a grinder second
25:08
half of the year, and it's gonna we are We're gonna run the ball.
25:12
It's no secret. It's gonna be very physical. It's gonna be demanding
25:15
of them to continue to get a push up front. And the second I
25:21
think Rule said he wants to get seventy five rushing yards in the fourth quarter.
25:26
That's one of their team goals. So they're gonna have to continue to
25:30
get better. They can't just stay oh, we're good enough. And that
25:33
goes for all of our positions. But I think the offensive line again is
25:36
the most important position Austin. Like we've said over and over, Yeah,
25:44
yeah, I would. I would. Coming in the season, I thought
25:48
the offense line is gonna be terrible, like one of the worst in the
25:52
nation. But I would say it's about middle of the road right now.
25:56
It's it's not great, not not absolutely off you're run blocking. I think
26:02
he's actually pretty freaking good. Yeah, we're we're it's an improved offensive line.
26:08
I think that's a very easy statement to make. Yep, Dak,
26:12
I'll let you do the quarterbacks because you probably have the most knowledge on that
26:17
of you. So what did we expect going into the year? Where are
26:21
we at, and what's to expect moving forward? Okay, coming in the
26:26
year, I thought exactly how Sims played. I thought it was gonna be
26:30
terrible, just a train wreck. I had no hope for that guy at
26:34
all, and exactly how I thought I was gonna go bench already. Now,
26:40
I think you have a solid quarterback nowhere and you're great but solid.
26:45
He throws some wild ass passes though, like they when he throws a deep
26:52
you don't know where that ball is going. But at least he holds on
26:55
the ball now and you when he when he goes back to past year,
26:59
are you guys scared when he goes back there? Are you guys? He
27:02
guys like he's gonna make a good decision. I'm not like slunching my butt
27:07
cheeks when he throws the ball like I was with Sims in the first couple
27:11
of games. I I don't know. I guess yeah, Illinois game,
27:17
he was fucking throwing some mahone mahome side arms throws like it is. It
27:22
is wild. I don't mind him back there. I think he's a safe,
27:26
solid option. Like you said, I I think the comment that was
27:32
made earlier in the year might have been before the season, like we don't
27:36
need to rely on our quarterback, and we don't necessarily want to rely on
27:38
our quarterback right now to win games now in the future, I think maybe
27:42
we want to get there, but right now we don't have. We don't
27:45
have, and Sims and Harbor probably, as rule said, are probably not
27:49
too much different of players, and one turns it over less than the other.
27:53
So there we go. Did he did he name Harbor at the start
28:00
of the rest of the year then, or not necessarily the rest of the
28:03
year, but he said he's going to keep rolling with Harvard for the time
28:06
being, even though Sims is considered fully healthy. Now I like that,
28:12
Dak. You hate to admit that you're right, but you were a spot
28:18
out on Sims, and I think we're hoping that he would be this stud
28:22
athlete. We knew he had turnover problems, but we just thought, oh,
28:26
it was a fluke thing. But yeah, I mean some things like
28:29
that, that's just part of your DNA. I do hope that we are
28:34
able to utilize his strengths without seeing those turnovers and other things come out still
28:42
in the second half of the year, But that might not happen. And
28:47
if the coaching staff doesn't believe that can happen, then you just got to
28:49
trust it and think that they're making the right decision. But I do hope
28:53
that we're able to utilize them somehow. I do think Girl's doing a good
28:57
job of keeping Sims and high spirits in the sense that if Harbor does go
29:04
down with an injury, We're not putting in a guy that's just defeated already
29:10
from the get go, because we're only happy through the year. Shout out
29:15
to Sims for I mean, he does not at least on the sideline.
29:18
He is full on cheerleader teammate mode. I mean he is every completion or
29:26
touchdown, he's up there celebrating with Harberg. So I mean, I know
29:30
you're talking like rules trying not to, like, you know, bury him,
29:33
But I think Sims is doing a good job himself of staying engaged.
29:37
Yeah, And I don't think he's a terrible quarterback. I think he is
29:42
one of the worst decision makers ever. Yeah, which might make you a
29:48
pretty bad quarterback I need Yeah, I mean throwing and running, I think
29:52
he I think he has a decent arm and he's a hell of a runner.
29:56
He just can't make a decision to yeah, hey there's defensive guy in
29:59
front of me us the yeah, after we kind of set to start the
30:03
year too, Like, yes, that natural ability, it's just poor decision
30:07
making. Moving on to the running backs here, they were supposed to be
30:12
pretty deep coming in, right, we had three or four guys that could
30:15
play. We've had a lot of guys come in and out of this backfield
30:19
over the last two or three years, even through the coaching staff change.
30:23
The injuries obviously have not helped. And now we are very very slim at
30:27
running back in an offense that's running the ball out right and there's there's fumble
30:36
problems, whether it be on the exchange or just not knowing how to protect
30:41
it. And you watch these other other games NFL and college guys that you
30:45
know when they just have the awareness when they're going into a tackle, you
30:48
put two hands in the ball when you get tackled, right. We don't
30:51
do that with five minutes left in the fourth quarter yet, So hopefully that
30:53
gets fixed, and it needs to get fixed so it doesn't cost us a
30:57
game. And if we don't do those mistakes, I think we're going to
31:02
be in a good position to run for seventy five yards in the fourth quarter
31:06
and be where we want to be. But I think there's some goods still
31:11
there, but it's just very slim right now at that position, as well
31:15
as the wide receiver position coming up here too. Yeah, it's tough to
31:22
do a mid your adjustment or a mid your assessment of the running back room,
31:25
and it's been completely decimated and it's just Anthony Grant. But I feel
31:29
like we're getting reasonable production out of it. And Anthony Grant's done well outside
31:33
of the fumbling issue. But it hasn't even really felt like that big of
31:36
an issue. Honestly, I know Rule thinks he might be the like mister
31:41
Buttersworth holding on to the football, but well, it's because it really hasn't
31:47
cost us anything yet Minnesota. I think it's neat that Rules identifying that though,
31:52
because he knows that he knows he gets that that very well could cost
31:56
you a game, as it has with Nebraska football for how many years now.
32:05
Wide receiver tight end Room Daki has something to say about running backs.
32:07
It's just like I said for Vikings running backs stand there, punch the ship
32:13
out of them all practice long until they until they don't fumble that ball.
32:16
Just keep punching at that ball all practice long, and you know what,
32:20
they won't fumble that. That'd be my drill. They need to hire you
32:27
to go do that. Just keep I don't give you break rips, keep
32:30
punching them. Can we try that at the tailgate on Saturday. Yeah,
32:34
I guarantee on the ball all right, running backs and tight ends similarly there
32:42
with the injuries in the running or the wide receiver room, uh FDONI I
32:46
think has been one of the most impressive things we've seen so far on the
32:52
offensive side of the ball. The wide receiver room again coming into the year,
32:55
we I guess Billy Camp has been a pretty big disappointment. I would
33:00
say from a elusivity standpoint and being able to get open Marcus Washington's now hurt.
33:07
There's just not much there, so there wasn't much expectations and therefore there
33:12
still aren't in moving forward. I just don't know that we can expect much
33:15
to get out of this group. Like it just we're gonna get what we're
33:19
gonna get, and we're not really utilizing him much. What we need them
33:22
to be able to do is on a play action, be able to be
33:25
open and grab the ball like I guess do what a wide receiver does.
33:30
And that's that's why I Fidoni's doing all right, is because he can catch
33:34
all those He's got a little bit of a larger catch ratius than the rest
33:37
of those receivers. So he can jump up there and grab some of those
33:40
not quite as tight thrown balls. But I agree there wasn't much expectations for
33:45
receivers. I did see Malachi Coleman was listed as a starting wide receiver for
33:49
this week, so we'll see what happens there. But deep shot too,
33:53
Sorry, what was that they gonna They're gonna throw a deep shot to him
33:57
this week? I mean, probably at least one. You'd hope he's our
34:00
only wide receiver. It's not really Kemp downfield. I guarantee that it's one
34:07
of those things that they're not being utilized much and we don't really need to.
34:12
It would be very nice to say that we can just fully rely on
34:15
the run game, which I think we're going to do right, but it
34:21
would be nice to have a guy or two that can even just one,
34:25
but we don't. I think coming into the year, we expect our best
34:28
receivers to be Thomas Bedoni Borkshire and ramiir Johnson so and Billy Camp obviously.
34:35
But yep, all right, defensive side of the ball. Here go through
34:40
this pretty quick defensive line. I guess let's go. Let's go the interior
34:46
defensive line and linebackers together, this group, I think all of them,
34:52
let's just do it all at once. The secondary included, it's being done
34:58
so much better than we expect. M hmm. I think. Yeah,
35:04
there's a lot of river improvements. Don't get don't get me wrong, but
35:07
like for what we did not know, there was a lot of unknowns,
35:09
right. I wasn't saying we're gonna be bad, but this three three five,
35:13
I was getting pulled up, Dak, it is the three. I
35:15
was wrong. Yeah, I know you can't really tell, you know,
35:21
do your numbers on defenses? Heard that? Okay? I was wrong.
35:29
At the beginning of the year, I said three three five has no chance
35:30
of working. Boy, I was off. Yeah, and we'll see,
35:37
we'll see. I think we've seen a couple of like heavy run teams.
35:39
We're gonna see a lot more here. Uh. They need to continue to
35:43
get better. They need to continue to get to the quarterback. We've struggled
35:46
to do that here since the start of the year. Continue to get pressure
35:52
and and stop the run. That's that's that's the definition the name of the
35:54
game for the defense. How about our special teams? Off? Then,
36:00
what do you think I'd say? Outside of Albano's accuracy, which is obviously
36:06
a big part of special teams. We've made special teams plays this year which
36:08
we did not do the last several years. We've had a blocked punt,
36:13
We've had some decent returns, We've had a couple of block punts correct or
36:17
No, we had a fumble recovered kickoff yep, so that was kind of
36:22
a fluke thing. But yeah, yeah, But I mean, like Bushini's
36:27
still doing well. Obviously, every once in a while he'll kind of kick
36:30
one to the wrong side of the field or shank it a little bit,
36:31
but most punters do, and Albano's got the distance. I think we kind
36:36
of put him in there a little bit early, but I'd say we're better
36:38
than what I expected. Bushini needs to do better. I agree for the
36:45
style that we're playing, Albano needs to do better. I'm on the opposite
36:51
end of that where I think, not that we had a high expectations for
36:53
Albano, but like this area of the game we talked about it before,
36:58
is a third of the game. Special teams needs to be a lot better.
37:01
We haven't had the catastrophic meltdowns that we've had in previous years. So
37:07
that's probably why it feels a little bit better. But they need to be
37:12
better. It needs to be a lot more solid, Dak. We need
37:15
an Iowa punter. We need one of those guys that can just freaking boom
37:17
it down there every time when our offense can't be a moving the ball.
37:22
Well, with how hard it is for you guys to score points, you
37:24
can't be missing field goals, no, correct. I agree with that.
37:29
You have to give as many points as you can. Yep. And that's
37:31
why I mean it's coming into the season. I don't know where I thought,
37:36
but it needs to be better than what it has been to capitalize on
37:38
some of these games here towards the end of any year. He's a freshman,
37:42
so I mean, given time, but but especially these next couple of
37:47
weeks, it's gonna be like thirteen to ten every week the rest of the
37:51
way out, it will be they're gonna be grinder games. I mean real
37:55
said that. With Illinois. He's like, we knew they couldn't go down
37:59
the field and score like hecause I didn't care if we scored because I just
38:01
wanted to, you know, to take care of the ball and punn it.
38:05
I'm like, that's exactly what I was thinking that whole second half,
38:07
like just running fun it, running fun it, Like we don't need to
38:09
score, don't turn the fricking ball over. I want to I want to
38:15
sit there and rewatch I went to brass Or I Wisconsent with the rule and
38:19
have him sit there and tell me, man, this is just a beautiful
38:21
game I'm watching. There's no way he could tell me that with a straight
38:24
face. Well, we'll get that set up here, dak for you that
38:30
one on one sit down coach rule and Dakota free Tay. I'm in.
38:35
I'll send the invite to him. All right, Well, we'll be back
38:39
on Thursday this week. One day later, here's recording. On Monday evening,
38:45
we'll preview the Northwestern Wildcats and see if we can go one to know
38:49
this week, Go big red GVR when we're sooner. I love that burnt
38:54
orange dude. That was t