Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've got some news. Were they stuff? Sean, Welcome to
the show today. How you feeling.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Yeah, I'm doing great. We're not talking Bowl gamer I
and a lot more bigger things have obviously happening down
here in Lincoln with the Nebraska football program. The news
of Tony White, at least the wheels and motion for
him to become the next defensive coordinator of Florida State
not officially yet announced by the school, but they're pretty
far down the road. There's some logistics that have to
(00:25):
get worked out. I mean, there's a significant buyout tied
to Tony White if you were to leave Nebraska for
another coordinator position, not a power not a head coaching job.
So there are some logistical strings that need to get
tied here, I think before they announce it. But you know,
there's no other things other than that. I know there's
(00:46):
been some reports of other coaches and whatnot, but it's
only Tony White. I can tell you that's the one
right now. And you know, it's disappointing. I'm sure to
a lot of people listening right now because he thought
you had a good decordinator in stability. But like everything,
I think there is more to the story, more things
here behind the scenes that we don't know, and it
appears Tony White will move on to a place for
(01:08):
the head coach of Florida State is also I mean,
he's in kind of a bind after a two and
ten year in Mike Marvel.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, and that was going to be my first question
about this because while yeah, we're gonna we can talk
about a lot of different aspects to somebody taking a
new job in the world of college football these days,
but there are a lot of factors to this. How
I hate saying this because Nebraska's stock hasn't necessarily been
(01:35):
super high for high profile coaches to want to come
and resurrect this program over the last decade plus. But
Florida State's coming off maybe the worst season they've ever
had and the head coach is seemingly going to still
be there, and they're coming off the heels of what
was a great season the year before that. So what
is kind of like besides him being a guy who's
(01:57):
from Florida and maybe they have a lot more money,
I guess, I don't know, but what is the state
of that position right now? Because they also got Gus
smells On, didn't they to be their offensive guts right.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
And you know what's going on, especially in the highest
ranks of college football, it's very few institutions, especially head coaches,
that have big buyouts, are going to make moves on
head coaches in twenty twenty four because of the pending
revenue sharing that they're going to have to come up with.
Every school has to come up with, you know, roughly
twenty two million dollars or twenty two and a half
(02:30):
million dollars if they're going to have to begin paying
athletes with next year. So on top of that extra expense,
the last thing you're wanting to do is pay out
you know, fifteen twenty twenty five thirty million dollar head
coach buyouts. Yeah, because a lot of money to come
up with. So what's happened in a lot of places
is coordinator changes. We're seeing staff changes, coordinator changes becoming
(02:54):
more than the norm, and they've gone all in into
all HAPs. I mean, Gusmells on what's kind of getting
pushed out. It appeared to be getting pushed out of
Central Florida. And he comes over and pulled the Chip
Kelly and joins the OC job. The question is, you know,
what drove this for Tony White. I think when you
start to go back and think about the year, the
Indiana game, Nebraska's five and one, they give me fifty
(03:16):
six to seven, really didn't force upon the entire game.
And they come back and play this unbelievable game against
Ohio State, and you're like, Okay, they're back. But then
the next week they play Ucla and they begin the
game on the field for I believe it was twenty
seven of the first thirty plays of the game, fourteen
(03:36):
and a half of the first sixteen minutes. They got
down twenty seven and seven against a UCLA team who
did not get bull eligible. I mean to me, those
were kind of the turning points with Rule and White,
where the defense really, you know, slid at a level
that I don't think people were expecting to see at
all this season. And then they bring in Phil Snow
(03:58):
on the bye week, and it would be like me saying,
you know, Emery, you're a good radio host, but we
think we're going to bring in our friend that I
used to work with from my heart to evaluate your
show and tell you what we think you could maybe
do differently. And so Phil Snow comes in town, and
they had been using him as a consult evidently all year.
But I think just him coming to town. I just
(04:19):
think back to that moment and how anybody would react
when that goes on. You probably don't feel real comfortable
when your former defensive coordator, Phil Snow is all of
a sudden in a Lincoln you know, to quote advise
your current defensive coordinator.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, we're speaking of Sean Callahan or Husker insider. The
big news today in the wake of the Iowa loss
for Nebraska while still being MOLL eligible, is that, all
of a sudden, your defensive coordinator looks like he's in
his own version of the transfer portal, at least the
way that it sounds right now. So with the way
that you're talking about this in all the different aspects
of this, is it fair to say that Matt Rule
(04:57):
made a lot of those decisions in that last bye
week of the season with the last few games, knowing
they really need to get to that six win Did
he does it feel like he was coaching for his
job and what does that do to the rest of
the staff. You talk about kind of the shuffling and
bringing in advisors and reassigning different duties, But what does
that do to the performance of the rest of the
(05:18):
staff for how they feel about a place when it's
the head coach seems to be coaching under a lot
of pressure.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, they got to the five and one start, but
then all of a sudden they were close to staring
at five and seven. I think the thought of five
and seven again, naturally is going to set off alarm bells.
After you lose that game at home to the UCLA
and then you got USC Wisconsin, Isle, or you're like,
oh man, here we go like or underdogs in all
of these games and we got to figure out how
(05:46):
to win them and get to ball eligibility. So I
do think that UCLA loss really set some bells off
and and and changed a lot of the conversations, and
the pressure really mounted up. And at that point, here
we are today. And I don't know what drove Tony
White why he decided to leave, but he just got
(06:08):
the sense maybe their relationship at the end probably wasn't
as strong as it was at the beginning with some
of the things that happened in the inconsistencies. Even though
when this defense is at its best, they were unbelievable.
They could stop anybody. I don't know if there was
a defense as good in the country in the short
yardage runs when they played Rutgers and they played Colorado,
(06:29):
when they played Ohio State, when they played Iowa. When
you're third and one, fourth and one, they were dang
near undefeated in those games on those downs.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah, and certainly the coach that is going to be
dealing with the defense is going to have an awful
lot to do with the kind of players that are
going to be playing, whatever scheme it is. In the recruiting,
how impactful is a move like this to the incoming
class that you are expecting to play at least on
that side of the ball, If indeed does get done
(07:01):
like we expected to, what does that do potentially to
the class of defenders that you were anticipating joining the
program next year.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Well, they sign in two days, so I don't know
what can really change in the next two days. But
the defensive line group is outstanding. Malcolm Simpson locally, Tyson Terry,
and then you have Kate pet Shock. I mean those
are essentially three four star defensive linemen, all big bodied,
all guys. I mean, the best defensive lineman guys in
(07:30):
their area. You know, a lot of upside and potential.
So there's nothing out there about anybody not signing Wednesday
or anything with this news. Yet it's been awfully quiet.
The other thing that's different now is coaches can't even
go on the road to recruit in December. It's a
dead period for coaches being out. So there's a lot
(07:50):
of things behind the scenes that can happen on the
phone or nil and other collectives getting involved now with kids.
But as of now, there's nothing with any of these
recruit roops that are expected to sign on Wednesday. But
there's no doubt that Tony White news I think comes
as a big surprise to everybody because there's everybody's just
kind of looking for answers of why what's going on here?
(08:11):
Give us an idea of what's going on with your
defensive coordinator position.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I hate asking you this two or three days after
the last meaningful game, not to say that the ball
game is meaningless, but it doesn't really like move you know,
you up or down in the standings or in the
hierarchy of the Big ten? Is did is Dana Holgerson?
The answer on offense. Are we sure that the offensive
part of this is all figured out?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Oh? I think I think Dana Holgerton, Yeah, he did
an outstanding job the last three weeks. And you know,
there was a lot of meat left on the bone
against Wisconsin and Iowa. I mean, there were three or
four or five plays in the Iowa game where that's
three hundred and seventy six yards Nebraska had could be
pushing five hundred yards. I mean, they, especially in the
first three quarters, attacked Iowa's defense as well as anybody
(09:01):
had all year. I mean, they were really moving the ball.
That ten nothing lead, though the problem is that ten
to nothing lead needed to be bigger. It needed to
be seventeen nothing, and he needed to be twenty nothing.
And they weren't able to really maximize what they accomplished
early in that game to any more than a ten
to nothing lead. And then, as we saw the margin,
verreer not much. A muff punt and five miss tackles
(09:25):
and the game was tied. And then it fumbled by
Riola and that was the first time we had seen,
you know, a blindside kind of sack fumble situation where
Riola took a sack and fumbled like that in a
long time. I don't really recall. Maybe Illinois had happened,
but Ryola has not been hit like that where he
fumbled and it happened in the worst possible time. And
(09:46):
even then, I'm like, man, this could be a hard
kick for Drew Stevens to make in this cold weather.
He nailed it. I mean, give Drew Stevens credit. He
made that kick look awfully easy considering the win and
the frigid conditions down there on the field.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah, it was. That's got to be just a gutting
way to lose because statistically it made no sense. The
defense certainly kept that Iowa offense and check the entire
game except for one play and then you had this, uh,
this really unfortunately timed to turnover. What is it about
that game that that I know that there it's a
(10:20):
kind of a new rivalry, if you will, compared to
some of the other long long standing rivalries in America.
But there's something about that game that Iowa just finds
a way at the at the end to win and
Nebraska has found ways at the end to lose. What
is it about that game?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
There's just something about the way Iowa plays. They they
force you to take the fight out of the ring
and they make it kind of be an ugly fight
on the sidelines or in the streets, and they make
you play their way, and and you know, it's it's
tough because you know, the Nebraska is playing a very
good brand of football offensively and defensively, and eventually they
(10:58):
got the car off the road and force Nebraska to
get dirty and they win that most of the time.
That's how they've done it well. That style sustained after
Kirk Ferns. I don't think so, But that's their style
right now. And they're no different than the team they
were a year ago when Brian Ferns got fired as
the out seat. I mean, they're the same team they
(11:19):
always have been. They tried to improve their offense, but
they are who they are, and you know, they do
it with special teams. They do it with opportunistic defense.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, and I don't know if I've ever seen a
program do it better more frequently than they do to
win games. The way that they do it just makes
no sense and defies logic. But man, you just have
to trust that they're going to get it done. At
some point in that scenario. Last thing for you, Sean,
we're not talking daily now that the regular season is over,
but and I know we have to kind of see
(11:51):
how Championship Week kind of sorts itself out. But with
the lost Iowa, that kind of puts Iowa into that
Tampa driver's seat. What would be kind of the bull
game thing that you're hearing, because there's obviously several that
would be in the mix here, What are you hearing
as the most likely scenario at least right now?
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Well, the thing with Tampa now to watch is Michigan.
The Wolverines were not expected to beat Ohio State. They're
now at seven wins. They were expected to be six wins.
Iowa's at eight, so they can be selected for Tampa
over Iowa and Michigan. I was told today from a
source at Michigan would prefer Tampa over New York. Now,
(12:30):
New York was where they were heading. If they went
six and six, that was almost a done deal. But
now I think it's a wait and see. Iowa has
this long love relationship with Tampa and Kirk Ferrence. They've
always they've always had this connection with Iowa. The Bowl
game in Tampa, they haven't been to Tampa since twenty sixteen,
(12:52):
so there is a lot of history there, but they
haven't been there in a while. Iowa wants to go there,
But Iowa without Caleb Johnson, they're all American running back,
are they as attractive Tampa? While Hawkeye fans want to
go watch that team play without Caleb Johnson, And I
don't know if people barely want to watch them play
with Caleb Johnson On Friday, you take away from a
bowl game that's a completely different Iowa team. So there's
(13:15):
a lot to chew on that's going to come out
probably by tomorrow. It's gonna leak at least what direction
these bulls are thinking. But if you're a Nebraska fan
and you don't want to go to New York, which
I'm guessing a lot of folks would rather go to Nashville,
you want Iowa to still go to Tampa, and you
want Michigan to go to New York, and then Nebraska's
going to Nashville to the Music City Bowl. That's the
(13:36):
scenario I think that you hope. Otherwise, if Michigan takes Tampa,
Iowa will probably go to Nashville, and that puts Nebraska
in the pin Stripe Bowl, which tries to take a
different Big Ten team every single year. In the last
nine years they've played the pin Stripe Bowl, they have
taken actually nine different Big Ten teams. The two available
(13:58):
teams to them that have not played in the Pinstripe
Bowl Michigan and Nebraska. So you know that. That's why
I do think as much as Nebraska fans probably artists
thrilled to go to a New York Nashville, it is
something that is very realistic and it's probably i'd put
it fifty five percent in Nashville forty five percent New York,
just depending on what happens with Iowa and Tampa.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Interesting stuff. Sean Callahan has always excellent information. Thanks for
joining us today, Buddy, really appreciate it, and we'll be
talking again very soon.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Thanks Henry