NE Football Talk

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I got Nebraska schedule pulled up for football, by the way,
got the win against Michigan State. It was a little
didn't look so great at points. Got a huge black
punt to make things feel pretty good early. Michigan State rallied,
worked their way back into the game, looked like they
had complete control, and then a great sprint to the

(00:22):
finish by the Huskers in the fourth quarter and they
were able to hold off the Spartans and get themselves
a really important win thirty eight to twenty seven. It
was right near the line of where that spread was.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
But I thought Michigan State, like I was hoping for
there to be a you know, an opportunity to have
an easy win for the Huskers. But I don't know
if that's going to happen. I don't know if there
is such a thing as an easy win. Still, even
on the schedule. Their first true road game is taking

(00:56):
place against Maryland this week. Maryland. I was kind of
throwing floating it out there, like Maryland kind of kind
of good, kind of really good. Like I was impressed
with their quarterback play. They went to Wisconsin and destroyed Wisconsin.
There were four and oh and I was like, Yeah,
they look great, and then they collapsed against Washington at

(01:19):
home this week. Washington team that I think is I mean,
they're four and one also, but I felt like they
were pretty mid. It was twenty to three at one
point in favor of Maryland, and in the fourth quarter,
I mean Washington scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter
to win the game. So I mean I was sitting there,

(01:41):
I was like, Wow, Maryland gonna route Washington, who had
only lost once so far this season, Maryland looking.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Pretty dog gone good.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
I would not want to be heading in to Maryland
and taking them on College Park, and sure enough, here
they are getting beat by a team thought they were
better than so well that I still think it's going
to be a tough game for the Huskers. So that's
the next game on the schedule. But the media poll
and the coaches poll, Huskers are a few spots out.

(02:13):
They're still working their way in. They win on the
road at Maryland to go to five and one, I
think certainly would be kind of what the doctor ordered.
As far as getting back on the national radar. It
being the first true road game I think is going
to be a fairly interesting development. How do they play
on the road, because that Cincinnati game was essentially a

(02:35):
home game in Kansas City, and then four legitimate home games.
You're four and one. You got to feel pretty good
about your record. You only lost to Michigan by three.
Cincinnati hasn't lost since you played them. They just upset
Iowa State, who was previously unbeaten this past week, so
that game looks better and better on the schedule as
time goes on. At Maryland, at Minnesota, home games against

(02:57):
Northwestern and against usc who I'm still not quite sure
how good they are. Ucla out of nowhere, beats Penn
State this week, which was one of the great stories
of college football over the weekend, and then we have
Penn State, who all of a sudden is no longer ranked,
and essentially they have to win the rest of their
games to be in the mix to be a college

(03:19):
football playoff team.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
And even then, a loss to an zero to four
is you know.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
How do you justify putting them in over anyone else?
You know? So, but that's the thing is like when
they lost to Oregon, people are like, Ah, it's not
a big deal for them, you know, if they just
take care of the business that we expect them to.
Their schedule is pretty legit. You know, they're going to
be fine. Losing the UCLA changes that, so will Penn
State at Penn State late in the season mean the
same thing that we thought it might mean for them,

(03:48):
Maybe that makes it a more winnable game. And then
of course at home to AA would have finished out
the season. So I'm just looking ahead. I'm looking at
this seven games left there, they're like, Northwestern's not very good,
UCLA shouldn't be very good, but they definitely look a
little better now than I would have said three days

(04:08):
ago what they looked like. Penn State's still obviously a problem.
I was always a thorn in the side. There's just
not a lot of easy You're just if you expect
easy wins in Big Ten play, it's just not gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
The Big Ten is so tough.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
And it's just balance. It's so much more balanced than
I remember it being, even when it was a smaller league.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
And then it got expanded, you know, like and.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
You're just thinking to yourself, like, uh, it's not We're fine,
it's not the you know, it's predictable, it really is it,
And it kind of reminds me the Big twelve is
good too, But the Big twelve has this thing of
just like, we have no idea who the best teams
are outside of Ohio State and Oregon and I guess
maybe Indiana, Like who's really that good? This is why

(04:54):
we play the games. And if Nebraska wins against Maryland
this week on the road, they're four and one Maryland,
a road win against them, I think you're going to
get ranked, or you're going to be right there to
get ranked. That is important at this stage because that
could lead to you being in the College Football Playoff rankings,
which could if you can get in that fourth fifth

(05:14):
spot in the Big Ten, that creates the conversation of, hey,
maybe we could kind of slide into one of those
last spots if we just win all these games. It
would require beating Penn State at Penn State. Still, I'm
not sure you're going to be able to lose any
other game on the slate. But nobody else is ranked
on the schedule right now. EUOSC is not ranked right now,

(05:36):
so I was not ranked right now.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
So we'll see.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
You don't really have in quotes that quality team like
the Cincinnati game is looking as good as any game
that you have on the rest of the schedule, and
that could create a big problem for UH Nebraska as
far as like, you can't really drop one of these
games to any of these teams and still try to
work your way into that playoff contention, because if they

(06:03):
would have been preseason ranked number eight or something, maybe
they could have survived the second loss. Not to the
way these teams are right now, Penn State is like
the number three team in the country. Yeah, you could
lose that game and still people will be like, Oh,
it's not to say Nebraska is any worse than we thought.
It's just Penn State's really good. That doesn't exist now,

(06:23):
So Penn State's not even ranked. They went from number
I think number two or three. Yeah, yep, and all
of a sudden felt think it was two. They were
number two, and now they're out of the rankings in
two weeks because same with Texas. Eight people one and
two both dropped. They were number one preseason. Texas started
the seasons the number one ranked team in the country.
After their loss to Florida and arch Manning just doesn't

(06:45):
look very good. I mean now they're out too. So
for all the stuff we say about college football, it
really is balanced. I mean you just can't guess and
know who the great teams are, and that includes in
the Big ten so ghost cards. But first's time for
Husker buzz as always and joining us for that is
our guy, Sean Callahan. Sean, how are you feeling today?

Speaker 3 (07:09):
It was quite a weekend. I mean we all blew
away out here in Lincoln, and you know it was
one of the stranger games you'll see just what the
tip the tipping of. You know, they never had a
feel for it. You know, Nebraska got up fourteen nothing,
you thought they were going to blow out in Michigan State.
But he knew the wind was going to be a factor,

(07:31):
and he didn't really realize until Nebraska played two consecutive
quarters into the win. I mean, their offense struggled, but
they also couldn't throw, couldn't do much into that thirty
forty thirty to forty mile an hour gusts that were
blowing around the stadium. When you know, they went from
the nine minute mark of the first quarter that was
the last time they had the wind until the fourth quarter,

(07:55):
and they scored thirty one of their thirty eight points
when they had the wind. So it was a strange game.
And for Michigan State, they only scored six points into
the win the whole game itself, so both teams had
a battle through it. But it was a weird deal
to see Nebraska almost blow that and to see Dylan
Royola just not in rhythm. The offensive line have some problems.

(08:19):
You know, they weren't throwing the ball down the field.
The average depth of throw on Saturday was three point
one yards from Nebraska. The previous two weeks that have
been between eight and nine yards, So they just weren't
pushing it down the field and kind of reminded me
a little bit of the Rutgers game, which coincidentally was
also a very windy game, just like this game on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, so the situation that I'm finding myself in when
I watched the game, the wind was a factor. As
you mentioned, you illustrated it really well about how all
but seven of Nebraska points came when they were going
with the wind at their back. I also think Michigan
State maybe a little bit better than we thought, even

(08:59):
though I think, you know, the the offensive struggles definitely
were a problem that I think Dana Holgerson is going
to look to address.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
But it's just never easy.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Like you kind of mentioned it alluded to it, like
it has been a while since we've had a Big
ten game where it just felt like Nebraska is favored
and they're just going to steamroll this team. It just
felt a lot harder than it actually probably should have
been in a lot of cases. The bad interception, you know,
the you talk about, you know, Child's being the mobile

(09:31):
quarterback and he got on a bit of a role
there during the middle part of the game. So how
do you best assess this coming out of it knowing
that they grinded through a game that they really had
quite a bit of adversity. We're actually behind in the
game and we're still able to come out and win
by multiple scores.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, they were favored by
anywhere from ten and a half to twelve and a
half the number fluctuator. They won by eleven points. Well,
God dang, those guys in Vegas don't do it, don't they.
I Mean, the pretty much had it nailed. Yeah, it
should have been a seventh It should have been a
seventeen point win, and Nebrass gave up that late kind
of cheap touchdown and so that kind of, you know,

(10:11):
hurt the final outcome. But the special teams were outstanding.
You block a punt, you get eighty one yards and
punt return yards, you force a turnover and it was brilliant.
They kicked the ball up into the wind, so that
ball was moving forward and you have an upman who's
not used to probably fielding balls, have to field that.

(10:31):
And let me tell you, as a guy that dropped
the punt in Memorial Stadium during the spring game, and
to win, it's not easy to do.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, let's put you in the back position there, Sean,
I mean you would have done better than that guy did.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yeah, I mean the came bat, the wind was moving
the ball, you know, four or five yards from where
you think it was going to go, and he muffed
it and they were able to get that. Then you know, defensively,
we're not talking enough about the job John Butler did.
That unit was outstanding. The defensive line led by williams
Wneri and then he had Desn McCullough on the edge,

(11:05):
Elijah Judy. They made a lot of noise. Javin Wright
had his career best game. You had Deshaun Singleton as
the Big Ten defensive player of the year with two
interceptions and also had a scoop and score touchdown called
back because it was not a backwards pass. But there
were a lot of things about that defensive performance. Michigan

(11:26):
State only had twenty one rushing yards on fourteen first
down attempts, and look, Aden Chiles is going to get
a couple of runs like that every game he plays like.
There is no recipe to stop mobile quarterbacks. They're just
good athletes and they're gonna make plays every now and again.
I thought for the most part, Nebraska did a really
good job with him, and then they started to kind
of peel back people as spies where they would crash

(11:49):
rush him with two edges and then have one or
two guys kind of waiting for him to take off
late in the game, and they were pretty much helpless.
They were going in in the wind on top of
the was not going to let him just get a
cheap first down running that ball late in the game.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
Yeah, no doubt. Michigan State team that I think is
not bad in the middle of the road Big Ten team,
but it was important to get a multi score victory
over them here to get in the win column as
far as the Big Ten is concerned. Now, I want
to go around the Big Ten. I want to go
around college football just a little bit here with you,
Sean Big The big story is Penn State dropping a

(12:28):
game at UCLA in the biggest upset so far of
the season Ucla. You could have made the argument here
with the worst Power conference team going right now. They
certainly came to play with their coaching changes. Jerry new
Heisl all of a sudden a pretty hot name in
terms of like offensive genius of putting up forty two
points on this Penn State team that is a future
opponent for Nebraska. That also kind of almost removes them

(12:51):
from the playoff conversation for the time being at least.
What do you make of that loss in what that
does to change the complexion of the race to the
top of the Big Ten.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
Well, yeah, Penn State still is Indiana and they still
have Ohio State on their schedule. I mean, they could
very well be six and four when Nebraska comes in
there now, and it just completely changed the dynamic. I mean,
they went from being a playoff team to probably a
Pinstripe Bowl team in a weekend, and it's remarkable to
see that kind of change for a team that was

(13:25):
a play away from going to the National Championship Game
and facing off against Ohio State at the same time.
Though Ucla, I always knew they had some guys they
just they just didn't have it put together. I mean,
Nico is a phenomenal quarterback talent, and Jerry Neweiel, you know,
for him as a thirty three year old to come

(13:45):
in there and put in that game plan in two days,
you know, he's all of a sudden getting some steam
for that job and how this team responds the next
couple of weeks. I've had a chance. When Jerry was young,
I interviewed him at a camp and I'll never forget,
you know. Obviously he ended up going to UCLA to
play for his dad, Rick Newiel at that point, but

(14:06):
he told me his other dream school was Penn State.
He did State would be the other place he'd maybe
want to go check out because he loved the White
How he gets his win against Penn State. But you know, Jerry,
it's going to be interesting if if they look at
him for that job, because you get the sense that
UCLA doesn't really have a lot of money to go
out and just get a big name. I mean, they're
not going to be able to get Chip Kelly this

(14:28):
timing game, you know.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
But also Sean like it's just like how many people
love that football program, right Like, like this is a
guy who he would tell you his dream job is
to coach UCLA football. I don't even know if another
guy like that at that level exists.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
What I still believe Rick Neweael was kind of wrongly fired.
He took him to the Pac twelve championship game and
he got fired that same season, you know, and they
they were like a seven win team. But still like
he played well. So yeah, you know, the new Aseels
could be back in you know, Westwood. It'll be interesting

(15:05):
how that plays out. And also you know, Tony White's
still a name to watch. But Florida State has kind
of continued to slide. M M.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Definitely last thing real quick Maryland. I mentioned last week
because this is the opponent we have coming up. Maryland.
They were a team I was like sleeper pick here.
They have some teams that they can run over. They
have some teams like Indiana, Illinois, Michigan that they could realistically,
like stack up some pretty good wins if they can
beat a couple of those teams and find themselves like

(15:35):
in the top fifteen of the rankings. And then of
course they go out there and give up three fourth
quarter touchdowns at home to Washington and to completely squash
any talk of them being like super underrated. But I'm
I'm kind of like the way they look the first half.
I was like, Nebraska's gonna have their hands full.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
With this team.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Rather some things about this game though, that matchup well
for them. Number One, Elik Washington's not a runner. Long
run and power four games has been four yards. He's
not going to take off and run like Chiles and
Underwood or some of the guys that they face Soresby.
But he is six five, two thirty. He's a big,
big man in the pocket for a true freshman. They

(16:14):
don't run the ball well though I believe they have
not had a tailback have more than sixty around sixty
sixty five yards in a game, so they haven't even
had one hundred yard rusher. And guess what who gets
who leads to the country in passing defense Nebraska. So
I do think that matches up well with the Black Shirts. Now,
on the other end, Maryland is a great pass rushing team,

(16:37):
So what will that, you know, look like going against
that Maryland pass rush for Nebraska this week. Yeah, that'll
be probably one of the bigger storylines.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
Yeah, and we'll get into more of the personnel, like
you mentioned, you know, in five games, the rushing yards
leader is their running back with over just barely over
two hundred yards and five games to one. Williams is
the leader, and he's also a freshman, so they're really young,
but they're.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
Kind of plucky.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
The collapse at home was a bit disappointing to see,
Otherwise they would be undefeated right now. But Nebraska opened
up is a five and a half point favorite. It's
already up to six and a half and it may
even go further that direction with the week continuing here.

Speaker 3 (17:17):
And this will be a developing thing as we get
closer to kickoff. But there'll probably be about ten thousand
Nebraska fans in that stadium because of the large alumni
base that we have in Virginia, Maryland, Washington, d C.
North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania. For them, this is their
road trip This is like driving North Platt or Carney
to Lincoln for those folks, and they're all going to

(17:39):
be going to that game. So I do think we'll
be a road game, but there'll be more Husker red
in that stadium than most will probably realize.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Something to keep an eye on out there in College Park.
We'll have a full breakdown throughout the entire week. Is
the Terrapins and corn Huskers get set to do battle
in a Big ten showdown coming up this week and
uh sewn as always, my man, appreciate the time. I
will chat with you tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
Hey. Thanks every