Sean Callahan Breaks Down the Nebraska Spring Game

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
After all the craziness in the weatherover Friday and into Saturday, he might
have forgot that there was actually quitean important football event happening at Memorial Stadium
in Lincoln, and that was theNebraska Spring game. And yes, five
star quarterback Dylan Royola was there.He was playing. It was a competitive

(00:21):
game, a lot of fire,and it seems like a lot of spectators
were there as well. And Ineeded to talk to somebody who is going
to be able to break it alldown for us. And that's why our
insider Sean Callahan is joining us onthe phone line. Sean, thanks so
much for hopping on with us today. Hey, good afternoon, every thank
you. All right, So Iwant to start with kind of the vibe
because obviously Lincoln had just gotten hitwith the tornado. There are pictures of

(00:44):
this tornado that are in the backgroundwith Memorial Stadium in the foreground. I
mean, it's some wee real Midwesternmovie level stuff there. And then less
than twenty four hours later to tryto pack Memorial Stadium with a bunch of
excited Husker football fans. What wasthe vibe there? Yeah, Friday was
really a day unlike any we've experiencedin Lincoln that I can remember with the

(01:07):
tornado. I mean, the sirenswere going off when kids were in school,
and it was right during dismissal,so a lot of families and parents
were kind of scrambling like can weget our kids were allowed to get it.
I mean, so you know,as a parent, you know,
with kids in school buildings, youhad kind of a fear, like knowing
that tornadoes were on the ground,your kids were at school, which they

(01:27):
have a safe protocols and whatnot.So yeah, your mind was in a
lot of other places Friday, youknow, as that tornado ripped its way
through. And you know, evenright during that when it was happening,
the Board of Regents meeting was goingon right as Garner Industries was being taken
out by the tornado, as jetdoctor Jeffrey Gold was being named the president.

(01:49):
And I just don't think anybody reallyknew how quick this is going to
come. And I was talking toAndrew Ozaki, longtime news reporter for KTV
that's been you know, in themarket and Lincoln his whole career, and
he said, Shawney, is I'venever you know, I was in that
Regent's meeting, and it's like shouldI leave, Should I leave? Should
I get out and cover this tornado? And you know, I don't think
anybody realized what was coming at thatpoint and the damage it was going to

(02:14):
do. And I think I thinkthe most, you know, the you
know, thankfully nobody was seriously injuredor killed, you know, in the
tornadoes here in Lincoln, but obviouslya lot of damage was done. It
was honestly a day I don't thinkany of us are going to forget for
a variety of reasons, and definitelythe worst weather day that I had seen
anywhere close to where I lived,and I've been in the Midwest my entire

(02:35):
life to this point. But therewas still football to be played and a
crowd packed in there. I readover sixty thousand. Is that accurate based
on those numbers, based on thefield that you had? Yeah, I
mean ticket it was tickets sold.They sold sixty dollars, that's what they
always announced for anya Brass game,where they're actually sixty thousand scan tickets.
It's hard to say, but youknow, the stadium seats eighty five thousand,

(02:59):
so basically it's twenty five thousand seatswere empty, and if you look
at the top areas were empty.So I don't think it was too far
off, but it definitely was asmaller field than what we've seen over recent
spring games in the last twenty years, where you know, they've had spring
games in the seventies and eighties.Now, they did raise the prices this

(03:21):
year to fifteen dollars for regular seatsand then twenty five and there's no longer
freebies. Before this year, allkids under sixteen, I believe, we
used to get into the game forfree, and they did away with the
free ticket system, so there weresome more financial strings tied to tickets that
haven't been tied between them before.And then an eleven am time as well,

(03:44):
and you had to get going relativelyearly to be in Lincoln in time
for an eleven am spring game.Well, let's talk. We're speaking with
Husker insider Sean Callayan here. Threeeleven is the time on our humble show
here. And we made a bigdeal out of Dylan Royola getting to Nebraska.
I mean, this was one ofthe highly touted quarterbacks in the entire

(04:05):
high school class. Every school was, you know, knocking on that door
seeing how likely it was that hewould be their guy, and Nebraska became
the school that he decided to goto. And I had you on like
the next day to talk about howbig of a deal this was. Can
you tell me what I mean?I look at the numbers. It's hard

(04:27):
to have to be impressed. Isaw some of the video. The guy
was making a lot of throws.That man, they could have helped Nebraska
last year. Whin a couple offootball games. What did you see from
a guy that hasn't even stepped ontoan actual competitive college football game yet?
And what you saw in this springgame over the weekend? You know,
today, I've done three different nationalinterviews with on three other companies about Dylan

(04:49):
Royola. I mean, that's theimpact he's had with that performance in the
Red White spring game, and peopleare talking about him. Compare it to
a year ago. Arch Manning camein equally as hair if not more heralded
than Dylan Royola, and he hedidn't really play well at all in the
Texas spring game. You know,and then it kind of like let people
know, yep, Quinn Yours isthe guy. Well, Nebraska had its

(05:12):
own version of a Quinn yours ina returning starter and Heiner Carberg, and
I think nobody is leaving that springgames thinking, boy, this battle is
still going on now. Matt Ruleis going to continue to paint that picture
and he wants to keep that competitiongoing. But everything about Dylan Royola's day
just felt effortless, like his commandof the offense, the way he made

(05:34):
his throws, the reads that hemade, and not just the deep throws,
but I thought the situational throws,you know, throwing it through you
know, a window on I believeit was third and or second and twenty
two or thirty, you know,yeah, twenty two yards pass to Alex
Bullock right over the middle, justslipped it right through three defenders. You
know. I thought the two pointconversion throw, I thought that was a

(05:56):
big time play for Dylan Royola.So there were all a lot of plays
that you can take out of it. To go fifteen of twenty one though,
for two thirty nine and two touchdownsin the first half, I don't
think anybody could have drawn up abetter start to things for doing Royola thing.
Think about that, right, andwe're keeping stats in a spring game
and they're not hitting hard, youknow, everybody's trying to take care of

(06:17):
themselves, but you still want somesigns, especially from players that are at
skill positions, that hey, youknow, there is a lot of talent
here, especially for the guys thatwe haven't seen on Saturdays in the fall
yet. So what about Harberg inthe way he looked? And then I
want to throw Daniel Kaylen in heretoo, because until the Riola commitment,
Kaylan kind of seemed like he mightend up being the future here. So

(06:40):
what what did you see out ofthe other two guys? And is there
an angle that you know, MattRule can take realistically that this could end
up being some level of competition atleast deep into camp in the fall.
Yeah. I mean it was literallytwenty four hours away from probably Kyle McCord
being here in Nebraska right now ifnot for the deal Royola's story playing out
that week, Tom McCord was oncampus and you know, from all intents

(07:05):
and purposes prepared to commit to Nebraskaif the if the offer and everything came
through the way they wanted and lookedright, and then Rayola comes in the
picture, and then that even putthe commitment with Daniel klen in Jeopardy,
right, but he's stuck with Nebraska. But yeah, I thought Kaylen for
where he I mean, he lookedgood too, for a guy that still

(07:25):
should be in high school. Ithought he put together a really nice spring
game, and you know, he'sgot a good command of things. But
you know, now you're trying tocompare everything to a Ferrari. I mean,
Dylan Royola is literally a Ferrari.He's got everything. He's got to
speed, the arm abilities and whatnot. And the other quarterbacks are good,
but Dylan Ryla has just things thatyou can't coach. And then he's got

(07:46):
other intangibles that he continues to develop. And that's the scary thing about him
as you look at him heading inover the next couple of years here at
Nebraska. And for those who maynot be familiar with Kyle McCord, he
was highly sought after transfer quarterback outof Ohio State ended up landing at Syracuse
after this news, but I mean, it's still obviously incredibly early for that

(08:09):
sort of thing to be happening,and we know that there's the likelihood of
you know, keeping a full teamtogether for more than a year at a
time. With the transfer porter rulesthe way that they are pretty impossible at
this stage of the game. Butthere are some fit names that in faces
that are going to be familiar toHusker fans, and there's going to be
a lot of new ones that haveentered the fray as well outside of the
quarterback position. So Sean, whatdid you see and who were kind of

(08:33):
the names that stood out to youat the other positions over the entirety of
that game on Saturday. Oh,I think the receiver position as a whole
is really upgraded. Of the twotransfers they brought in, Jamal Banks and
is ana Or, I think they'reboth going to be really good players.
To Corey Barney, the freshman fromMiami, almost ran a kickoff back for
a touchdown, had a few bigcatches as well. It was really impressed

(08:56):
with him and Evan jan Iron Bonnerthought he had a great showing as well
for Nebraska and is now more backat home at receiver. He was kind
of playing a highbred tight end fullbackrole a year ago, so that was
encouraging to see. Defensively, it'shard to really gauge the spring game because
they didn't really play any of theirtop players. I mean, the story

(09:20):
to me was the injury to BlyHill, who looked like he could be
a starting corner, So that wasa significant news story that came out of
the spring game. Vincent Shaver isa freshman linebacker, has really been a
guy to watch. I think ChiefBorders what he's shown as an edge rusher
has been another player that has reallyupped his stock here over the course of
spring practice. Speaking with John Callahan, he's our Husker insider. Sean just

(09:43):
want to reiterate that this is springpractice. I don't get myself too hyped
for this stuff because it is springstill, but I noticed that some other
programs, including the Iowa Hawk guys, and I don't think that was incredibly
surprising to see a guy who startedmost of their games of quarterback last year,
Deacon Hill, after their spring practicejumped into the transfer portal and is

(10:03):
going to play his the rest ofhis career elsewhere. Was there any vibe
there that this was kind of maybethe last time a player or two are
going to be in a Nebraska uniform, or did it seem like this as
a unit you expect to come backas a whole for Matt Rule in the
fall. Well, as of rightnow, there's not been any injuries to
the portal, and that can change. There's two more days left to do

(10:26):
it. But I think you wouldhope that anything that would go in the
portal would be more standard attrition asyou would call it. You don't want
to have a bombshell hit you,but you never know. I mean,
the nil element has really changed alot. I mean Deacon Hill, you
mentioned him. I was with somebodythat covers Iowa last week and his understanding
was that Hill went in and hewanted a QB number one type money because

(10:50):
he was technically the starter because ofthe injury situation, like well, that's
not going to happen, and thenhe put himself in the portal. So
you never know what a player thinksthey're worth. And it's kind of one
of those things when that player goesin for that meeting. You only got
one shot to make your pitch andif it doesn't go very well, you
may be gone. And Deacon Hill, I think clearly tried to make his
pitch and didn't go very well inIowa and he's gone. I think Matt

(11:13):
Rule he can't speak about in Iowaplayers directly or talk about those things.
But I think the collective follows atleast a vision that he wants, and
they've done a really good job ofbuilding this roster and creating ways to build
retention, which is really important ata place like Nebraska and Sean, just
real quick, on a scale ofone to ten, how important is what
you see in the spring game historicallybased on what we can expect in the

(11:37):
fall. There's always a few thingsthat I think the Ryola storyline is really
important, just that we all sawthat with our own eyes about the receivers,
but we don't really have a greatread on this defense because they rested
all those players and the scrimmages,they didn't play any of the key veterans.
But I always look at the springgame as you look for flashes,
moments that you that you can kindof see the big picture on. We

(11:58):
saw all some of those in thespring game. But you can't really look
at it as a game. Youknow, a stat and a score.
It's more about what flashes and thingscome out of it. That this team
and the season we built around,definitely, and the guy that's going to
be giving us all the information aswe count down into the Fall is our
buddy Sean Kelly and our Husker insiderSean. Thanks so much for the time,

(12:20):
Thanks for watching that game and breakingit down for us, and we'll
talk to you again soon, noproblem, Thanks every all right, of
course, what about I'm gonna askhardcore Nebraska fan Matt Case here about that
when we come back about his thoughtson the spring game, but also on
what he saw, because it's nevertoo early to think a little grid iron

(12:43):
action in this parts of the country. I think I think that's pretty fair.
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