August 4, 2025 • 29 mins
Dana Holgorsen is the right play-caller for Dylan Raiola and can return to the kind of offensive coordinator he became famous for being at Nebraska.
--10:45 Georgia can be a monster with a simple tweak?
--20:41 Do you think Mikey Keene can be QB1 at Michigan?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:21):
Yeah, What's up, Ken Folk? It's RJ Young.
I am not on a step. Mel, if this is your first time
watching adapt and respond, thank you for joining us here.
We talk college football year round.
If that is something you're into, go ahead and hit that
subscribe button like this videoand answer the question in the
comments below. Do you believe that Nebraska is
finally going to reach the potential that we think it has
(00:44):
in 2025? Many folks that listen to this
show watch this show on YouTube where you should subscribe if
you haven't already. Really don't like hearing
Nebraska's on his way back. I'm sorry to tell you it's true,
just not in the nature that you would like it to be true.
Let's start with this. They went bowling for the first
(01:06):
time since 2016 last year and they did it with a true freshman
quarterback in Dylan Riola, who threw for over 2800 yards and
threw almost as many T DS as he did picks.
But that's that's OK because if you watched him play, you saw a
guy that was really trying to take care of the football.
He took the check down when he was there and he did not have
the help at wide receiver that we would like to see him have.
(01:28):
To say nothing of the offensive play calling was not great.
It's one of the reason that DanaHogerson was brought in as a
consultant, then later became anoffensive coordinator in very
short order. More to say about that here in a
second, but I think the other thing to notice here is that
he's got a couple more weapons, Dylan Riola, that he'll be able
(01:48):
to take advantage of in, you know, Isaiah Hunter, right?
Dane Key and I think the favorite of the bunch among
Nebraska fans, Corey Barney. Emma Johnson could be a guy,
right? I think the offensive line is
going to be good. And we know about Matt Rule's
reputation for turning programs around.
Year 3 is magic year. Year 3 is the year in which
they're supposed to go and win 10 games if they're keeping with
(02:09):
the Temple and the Baylor program.
That works so well for Matt Rule, who has really made his
name flipping programs into winners and asking people to
wait and let him do it his way. And everybody at Nebraska has
been pulling in the same direction even as the guy that
hired him, Trev Albert, took jobat Texas A&M.
Troy Dannon comes in. He understands exactly what he
(02:31):
has in Nebraska, which is a football program that is
perennially top ten in revenue generated despite not having a
team that has been anywhere capable of winning the Big 10
championship playing in the College Football Playoff, to say
nothing of who has been their best player outside of Trey
Palmer. It's really difficult to
(02:52):
identify over the last, you know, decade.
I think when we talk about DylanRiola, though, where we need to
talk about him in conversation with Dana Hulgerson, who is
going to be an offensive coordinator for the first time
since 2010, I don't think that this fact gets brought up
enough. When Dana Hulgerson took over as
the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State, the last time he
(03:14):
was 1, he set records. They put up 45 points per game.
They had the #2 passing offense in the sport 355 yards per game.
It was Brandon Weeden thrown for3000 yards to a Justin Blackman
who had 1500 yards. They had a 1500 yard tailback in
Kendall Hunter. Some of y'all don't even know
who that man is, but that man was a monster in 2010, to say
(03:36):
nothing of who they became in 2011.
And really, the Whedon years arethe high watermark for Mike
Stoops's program. Mike Stoops, Mike Gundy's
program, that's a 40 inch lip ever was one Mike Gundy's
program at Oklahoma State. And famously Dana wasn't
expecting to be there very long.I talked to a beat writer at the
time that was like, hey, you know, Dana didn't even buy a
(03:58):
house in Stillwater, right? He stayed in a hotel because he
was not planning to be there forvery long because he didn't need
to. He did what he did.
They put up a gaudy amount of yards.
They scored 539 points and he put together what I think is
what people come to expect from Oklahoma State.
Matter of fact, one of the things that he helped really
(04:20):
Oklahoma State bring to itself at a time when the Big 12 was
pass happy, is everybody's trying to score on every single
play all the time. And he was very inventive in how
he took the principles that he learned at Iowa Wesleyan and
coaching for Mike Leach, and he put them into action at Oklahoma
State. Who is your best player?
(04:40):
Who is your second best player? Make sure those guys get the
ball more than anybody else. That's how you go and score
points and win games. The Air Raid, as I like to tell
people, is not about spreading the ball around.
It is about creating matchups that are favorable.
Who were your best player against the worst player you can
get him matched up on? And if it's their best, that's
OK. You're going to take that.
So you'd see Michael Crabtree show up just as you saw Justin
(05:03):
Blackman show up. Thing about Dana Hogerson,
though, is he was always going to make a move.
And when he went to West Virginia, people forget this.
He didn't go there as the head coach.
He was hired away from Oklahoma State to Morgantown.
And then Bill Stewart and Dana Hulgerson had a falling out that
Oliver Luck need to do somethingabout.
And I think at the time there was a coach in waiting kind of
(05:26):
philosophy that was in place. I don't know how many coaches in
waiting like to wait. And I don't think that there are
a whole bunch of coaches that got the job that are looking to
give it up. They tend to be Kobe about this.
They're not passing anything. Saw this with Bobby Bowdon and
Jimbo Fisher, right? We saw this with Manny Diaz and
Mac Brown. It's not it's not really going
the way that you expected to go.I really don't like the coaching
(05:48):
waiting moniker. Like they got to go on Utah.
It might work, but usually somebody gets impatient or it
starts to fall apart for the same reason that A2 quarterback
system does. You got to have a guy.
You can't have a guy that might be the guy.
You got to have a guy that is the guy.
And when it's time to make the other guy, the guy, just do it.
Don't do the coaching waiting tag.
But I think this is one of thosethings where it just didn't work
out because Dana Horgerson has always wanted to be a head
(06:11):
coach. And it turned out to be a pretty
outstanding run at West Virginia, all things considered.
You know, Geno Smith, Tavon Austin down the line, then to
Houston. And Dana has always been kind of
loud about what his position should be as a head coach or how
he's not getting the kind of help that he wanted to get at a
(06:32):
place like Houston. And then he, you know, gets
fired and he goes on his merry way, kind of figure some things
out. And he gets called from that
rule going, hey, we're really down offensively, can you help
us? And I think the best way for
Daniel Hoverson to help him is mostly considered was to make
him the offensive coordinator and to demote Marcus
Satterfield. And that's what they're doing
going into 2025. If you're a Nebraska fan, you
(06:56):
wanted this to happen given the results that you saw with the
limited time that Daniel Hoverson had as the OC for Dylan
Riola. Now, what I find to be most
interesting about this is if it works, it means that Dylan Riola
is going to throw for a ton of yards.
You know, 3035 hundred yards I think is what you can expect.
(07:16):
He could be a 4000 yard passer if they're good, if he finds out
that Dane Key has the same sort of afterburners that Trey Palmer
does, if they get a run game going into, frankly, if the
defense is still pretty good andI think they'll be pretty good.
What I'm worried most about is how this is going to mesh with
the kind of football that Nebraska has been expected to
(07:38):
play forever, right? This is a program that I believe
the the joke is, hey, it was felony to throw the football
forward in Nebraska. You didn't do that.
We ran, we ran this option and we were really good at it.
We ran it into the 21st century because couldn't nobody do
nothing with Eric Crouch, among other things.
(07:58):
So you see all these passing records that are being broken
and you see these wide receiver records that are being broken,
Frank, because they didn't have no records to speak up, but you
didn't need to. The thing that has made the best
teams in college football, the best teams in college football,
has rarely been their passing offense.
It has been their ability to runthe football and their ability
to stop other people scoring. You don't need to be a great
(08:21):
passing team. You need to be a credible
passing team. However, one of the ways that
you can make the jump from not good to pretty good in a very
short amount of time is to improve your passing game
dramatically. So if you're, say, Colorado and
you don't have a run game, but you've got a pretty damn good
(08:41):
quarterback, all Big 12, Big 12 Offensive Player of the year,
and a good wide receiving court.Use that to your advantage to go
win 8 or 9 games and continue totry to build yourself into the
kind of program that can run theball more efficiently and
perhaps be something like balance.
I think when you look at the national champs at Ohio State,
(09:01):
they were balanced. They could run the ball really
well and they could throw the ball really well, but that's not
needed to be the case once you have the talent.
Nebraska doesn't have the talentyet to be what Georgia is, which
is the kind of program that hasn't had 1000 yard rushers
since 2019 and hasn't had more than 1000 yard receiver in a
single single season ever. They don't need to do it right.
(09:24):
It is a program that is synonymous with Herschel Walker,
right? With Nick Chubb, with Sonya
Michelle, with no Sean Moreno. You know more of the tailbacks
to Georgia than you know the quarterbacks because it wasn't
until recently that we put such an emphasis on the quarterback's
ability to make plays not just with his arm but with his legs.
And you're seeing that become a common trait, the plus one game,
(09:46):
as many of the coaches like to refer to it, where you have to
account for what the runner might do.
I think it can work. I think that, yeah, Nebraska
could be the kind of program that puts UP400450 yards game,
but I think they're going to have to throw the ball all over
the yard to do it. And that might be just good
enough for them to get to 9 or 10 wins this year, which is all
(10:10):
you want if you're a Nebraska fan.
You're not yet looking to contend for the Big 10
championship or contend for a College Football Playoff spot,
though. Winning 910 games in this league
puts you in that spot and gives you the kind of cachet to go to
recruit in the portal and in high school to get the kind of
players that you would otherwisesee at Penn State.
(10:31):
Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Nebraska can do
that. The brand is there.
But right now they're in the midst of rebuilding it.
And I think with Dana Hoverson and Dylan Riola, they got a
shot. Music back on adapt and respond
(11:09):
with me. RJ Young.
If you are new to the channel, go ahead and subscribe and hit
that like button and answer the question in the comments below.
Do you think that just a simple tweak is going to turn Georgia
back into the kind of team that can win the national
championship? Because it feels like that's
what you're doing in Kirby Smart's 10th year at Georgia.
(11:30):
You're going to have an opportunity, right?
It's it's going to be a lot of fun if they can tweak it here
and there. One of the things that I find
fascinating about last year for Georgia is who they took losses
to and where they ended up anyway.
OK, so they took a loss to an Alabama team that turned out to
win nine games and showed itselfto be really good when it was
(11:52):
good and really bad when it wasn't.
And that's after Carson Beck hadbeen really terrible in the
second-half of games or seen thefirst half of games.
He just wasn't always there. And needing something like
balance out of your quarterback position.
Yeah, you got to have that at Georgia.
But that's one thing. Well, Gunner, Stockton be better
(12:13):
or worse. We don't know yet.
We think that he'll be better. But given the experience that
Beck has, I think you would havemuch rather been able like to
have kept him and told Gunner towait one more year rather than
watch him go into the transfer portal out at Miami.
But it is what it is at this point.
Gunner stockings the guy They took a loss to Ole Miss.
That did not seem like the kind that would come to George's door
(12:36):
in years past, right? But they were able to beat teens
like Texas twice. They had been on the ropes
against Florida. What happens?
What's the denominator here? What what?
What is working and what's not working for Georgia?
And it's really difficult to identify this in the heat of the
season. But at one point, you're talking
(12:59):
about four of the seven best offensive lineman at Georgia are
injured, can't play. And another point you're talking
about your healthy tailbacks being true freshman and walk
ONS, which Georgia still pretty damn good, right?
It's just means you don't have alot of experience at those
positions this year. You're still big across the
(13:19):
offensive line. You go 64310 plus and you'll
have 230 lbs at tailback, right?You'll have guys that can do it.
And it's about can you keep those men healthy long enough
for the season to go. And that is going to be, I
think, a small change that reapsa huge amount of benefit
offensively because you'll notice that the Georgia defense
(13:41):
doesn't really show signs of fatigue and hasn't since Kirby
Smart took over as head coach. One of the major reasons that is
is simple. They rotate often.
That defensive line is constantly rotating in their
linebackers rotate at the edge positions.
It's really difficult to game plan for a defensive line that
(14:05):
can go 8 or 9 deep anytime they want, right?
That has fresh edge rusher afterfresh edge rusher after fresh
edge rusher. 5 stars at most of these positions, four stars, you
know, you can expect it. So not only are they healthy and
fresh, they're talented. So you get to see a guy like
Jalen Walker absolutely, positively go to work on that
(14:27):
Texas offensive line in a way that nobody had ever been able
to see it before. So on critical downs and
distances, you are able to have him on the field getting a blow
here and there. It's one of the reasons why
teams started going fast. You want to try to catch your
opponent if you're an offense play caller in an alignment, but
also in a personnel that they have a difficult time defending
(14:50):
in. I think we first look at what
alignment they come out and could we exploit it over and
over again. Let's say you know that you can
beat them to the field side witha certain play because they're
weak at this linebacker positionand their safety just can't run
with your slot. Perhaps that's it, right?
(15:10):
So you're going to try to hit that as often as you can.
But the thing that George has also been good at is
conditioning guys to be able to play entire games if they must.
So those short bouts of needing to go, you know, 456 plays
without a break, they're built for that too.
The small change I think is going to be quite simple for
(15:31):
Georgia. Stay healthy, keep your veterans
on the field, Ted. Now for Georgia, that's going to
be let's let's see how good you are taking care of your
offensive line and let's see howdeep the running back room is.
I'm kind of curious because basically since my goodness, we
(15:51):
got to go back to 2019 for the last time that Georgia had 1000
yard rusher in a single season. Yeah, they haven't needed it.
So it's more about can we have an an offense where we throw the
ball down the field and people catch it and we're healthy on
the offensive line. We're healthy at defence,
defence back at running back. I think they're going to be
(16:13):
better at wide receiver this year than they were last year
because I think if nothing else,you put those guys on the judge
machine. I often wonder this like, and I
actually was talking to a Georgia fan about this dude that
went to Georgia. How much of 2019 LSU's offense
does Georgia just leave on the table because that's not part of
their identity. And by that I mean at one point
(16:33):
over the course of the year, JoeBrady had told LSU's wide
receiver you will catch 10,000 balls across the calendar year,
right from what we do in winter all the way through playing the
season. You'll catch a lot of passes.
Some of that is just lining up on the jug machine and running
the route to go catch right or put your hands on the ball, get
used to catching it in contestedsituations.
(16:57):
I don't think that that's a partof George's program.
I think one of the things that is fascinating about them is how
much of the wide receiver room is built on the idea of you
might actually need to be distraught during the drink this
year. We're in this game and how much
of this is, I know that I'm big,I know that I'm fast, I know
(17:17):
that if I put a little bit of good on tape, I'm wearing a
Georgia uniform and I can get tothe NFL in three years.
I don't think that it is beneficial for Georgia to change
how it is getting down with its offensive play calling, right?
I don't expect Mike Bobo to all of a sudden go 7030 pass to run.
(17:38):
However, I do think it is worth pointing out that if they are
not one of the worst teams in the SEC in drop passes and they
are not 11 out of 16 in yards per carry at just four O 6,
we're talking about a national championship team.
The margins are that thin for this program, and what's scary
(18:00):
about Georgia is these are things you can fix for other
programs. You can't fix those things by
simply recruiting or developing.You're just going to have that
as your weakness and you're going to try to cover it up.
And that's what football is about.
Football is about identifying your opponent's weakness and
exploiting it, identifying your own weakness and trying to
(18:21):
compensate for it. Whoever can do that best usually
wins. And at this level, every coach
knows how to coach. For the most part.
Not all coaches know clock management, but all of them know
the game, so you're not necessarily going to get out
coach. There are times when you do, and
it does happen, but more often than not, they've got a beater.
That's what they got. They have a guy that it doesn't
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matter that you had the best defensive play call for him,
He's just going to win because his Jimmy is better than your
Joe. So it's hey, you want to go and
you want to run, you want to roll coverages to one side, We
have a guy over here that can beat you.
So if you want to take away Zachariah Branch, to use an
example at Georgia, we can throwthe ball the other way and we'll
(19:06):
be just fine. But that guy's got to catch the
football. I think Gunner Stockton is good
enough. And one of the things that is
also interesting about Gunner Stockton is he sets all these
records as a passer in in high school.
And I'm really asking myself, ishe going to get a chance to get
anywhere near those numbers at Georgia?
Can he be a 3000 yard passer? Yeah.
Can he be a 4000 yard passer? Maybe.
(19:29):
But I just don't see that being part of the game.
If they're healthy on the offensive line, they're getting
the push on the offensive line. They're able to run the ball
with the kind of authority that they've shown themselves capable
of in years past. Again, if Georgia right, and the
first thing you got to worry about is getting past that
defense. And again, Georgia fans, they'll
(19:49):
tell you run the ball BAWL and please get out of the defense's
way. Don't make this any harder than
it has to be, because the one thing that could happen that
hasn't yet is Georgia turns intosome.
Frankenstein version of Iowa 2023 and nobody wants that.
I don't think they're going to do that because they're really
good at quarterback, right? That that's it.
(20:10):
Iowa hadn't had a quarterback inyears.
They had one. Kate McNamara got hurt.
I think they got one of Mark Gronowski.
But a small tweak here, a small tweak there, and Georgia's once
again playing for a national championship and that could be
huge in this year, where we're expecting perhaps a changing
under guard. If the Big Ten wins a third
national championship without anSEC team in the title game,
(20:33):
we're going to have to really start asking questions about
which league actually runs this sport.
(21:01):
Back on adapt and respond with me RJ Young.
If you are new to the channel, go ahead and subscribe.
Hit that like video and answer the question in the comments
below. Do you think Mikey Keane can be
QB one for Michigan because I don't.
However, we're in the middle of camp and Ship Lindsay is doing
what I expect most offensive coordinators in something like a
(21:23):
QB battle. It's saying he's doing the
saying, yeah, I think Mikey Keane has a shot.
But the quote that he gave was pretty interesting.
And if you give it a little bit of thought, perhaps you can talk
yourself into that, too. That's not what I got from it,
but I'll give you the quote anyway.
He told The Wolverine, I think. So talking about, you know, QB 1
(21:43):
going to Mikey Keane, who transferred into Fresno State,
also got to play against Michigan last year and spent a
little time at UCF and we'll talk about that here in just a
second. One thing he's got is
experience, right? He did.
He didn't miss those opportunities talking about last
year, but in some ways we got Jayden and Bryce a ton of reps
talking about spring practice. Mikey's played in an offense
(22:06):
that is similar from our passinggame standpoint.
So I think the opportunity is still there for him.
We'll just see how it plays out.Kane, who has, you know, played
more in 2000 snaps college football, who has accumulated
more than 6200 yards passing, also played a year in the same
system that Ship and Lindsay runs at Central Florida.
(22:29):
Now there's that, and there is the idea that you want a guy who
knows the system to help educateand prepare the young, more
talented quarterback for what isto come, right?
Chip Lindsey also had Drake May Drake May first round pick great
(22:54):
talent at UNC. Probably should have won more
football games and done more given his talent with with North
Carolina, right. That is not a knock on him.
It's a knock on North Carolina. But ship Lindsey helped do that.
He has that same skill set in a Bryce Underwood.
I don't think you're going to sacrifice what you can get out
of Bryce Underwood even in a true freshman season to get
(23:14):
Mikey Keene in his experience out there.
OK, However, the other thing that you have here along with
Jay Garcia is a capable, experienced starter that knows
the system. That's it, right?
The thing that is still absolutely ridiculous about
(23:35):
Michigan last year is either themost impressive stat or it is
the most egregiously engaging and malpractice that of all time
is that Michigan managed to win nine games, beat the national
champs and Alabama averaging 5.04 yards per attempt per pass
attempt. And they did it with Davis
(23:57):
Warren, with Jack Tuttle and with Alex Orgy.
Now I've beaten that one up because it's it needs to be
beaten up because they basicallywon nine game or eight games,
excuse me, without a quarterback.
But now they got a quarterback. They got 2.
They might have three depending on how you feel about Jake
Garcia. And the last time they had a
quarterback, they won the national championship, right?
(24:18):
Like that's that's how that went.
It's a different offensive coordinator and it's a different
quarterback. But I don't think we're going to
see another depth chart at a place with the kind of pedigree
and class as Michigan as we did last year.
I just think that Sharon Moore and Kurt Campbell overestimated
what they had and Alex Orgy and it was downhill from there.
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I don't think that's the case with a guy like Bryce Underwood,
and I think that's why they soldout to get him, even calling in
Larry Ellison to kind of sweetenthe pot.
So the NIL deal stood up to the kind of guy that was already
committed to play at LSU and wasthe best player at his position
also inside the state, period. This was a tremendous win for
him. This is a tremendous win for
(25:01):
Michigan and I don't think they're willing to risk a year
of him sitting down somewhere sothey can get Mike Keane some
opportunities to play and give him some snaps on the other side
of the ball. I think it's as simple as how
good Derek Moore can be. And when they get Rod Moore
back, Ernest Hoffman is going tobe great.
That lineback, of course, is going to be good.
(25:22):
It would not shock me at all to find out that Ernest is a
captain at Michigan. He's played that way.
I think he has shown himself to be that kind of a veteran.
Derek Moore gets to be. I think what Josiah Stewart was
like, it's a guy that had four sacks and like 37 pressures with
fewer attempts at the quarterback than Josiah Stewart.
Now, he's also expected to come on because there's no Kenneth
(25:44):
Grant there. There's no Mason Graham there.
Now, Rashawn Benny might be thatguy, right?
We'll see. And if you get Rod Moore back,
especially given what he had meant to their secondary when
he's healthy, Wing Martindale's right back to where he was last
year and the year before where his defense is really doing the
job I was going to the year before that was Mike McDonald,
(26:06):
My bad. Wing Martindale's back to doing
the job right. Like I I think they've got
everything they need. So when my 136 comes out here in
a couple weeks time, you'll get to see where Michigan is ranked
and I'll tell you a lot of why Iput them there and why I still
am going to give them the benefit of the doubt.
(26:26):
A lot of it also has to do with what I've been talking about
throughout the show here, right?If you were watching the
segment, there is the full show that you can watch and I
encourage you to do so. It's much more clean.
It's easier to follow so for so on, but the thing that they're
able to do is lean into their identity and their identity is
built on Jim Harbaugh, who builthis identity on both Jim
(26:48):
Beckler, which is to run the football.
That's what they want to do Lloyd Carr did this too.
They want to run the ball. If they don't care to have a
3000 yard passer, they care to be able to take advantage of
throwing the ball downfield. I continue to point out to
people JJ McCarthy threw for just 2900 yards across 15 games
in that national championship year.
That means most of what they were doing was damage that
(27:11):
needed to be done where they knew they had a look that they
could exploit. They weren't going to be a pass
first team, they were going to be a run first, run first, play
defense, play action, pass team.And JJ was great in those
situations and his legs, his speed gave them the opportunity
to get out of bad players. And when Plays Breakdown broke
down, he would get a shot to go do something about it and it
(27:33):
worked. That's the playbook.
That is what they're going to try to do.
Once again, with Bryce Underwoodat quarterback, you got A1A and
A1B and Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall, right?
You got guys that can carry the load.
Your offensive line's going to be pretty damn good because
that's just what Jerome Moore's been able to recruit and develop
even as a head coach. If they can develop Donovan
(27:55):
Mccully into a star or Samaj Morgan or even Fred Moore, then
you'll be able to answer my big overarching question for the
offense, which is who's catchingthe passes.
Their leading receiver last yearwas tight in Colston Loveland.
You still need a guy like Roman Wilson that can take the top off
(28:15):
the defense and be reliable in doing so.
Do you need to have a guy like Braylon Edwards?
No Would it be nice? Sure, but ain't what you got to
have. What you got to have is a
quarterback that can run the offense, is capable of making a
play with his legs when the playbreaks down, which is something
I'll also say Mikey King can do,and a formidable run rushing
(28:37):
attack, and I think I'll have that.
I really do. If you like the longer show, let
me know about that in the comments below.
Otherwise I will see y'all on the flip side.
Yeah, What's up, Ken Folk? It's RJ Young.
I am not on a step. Mel, if this is your first time
watching adapt and respond, thank you for joining us here.
We talk college football year round.
If that is something you're into, go ahead and hit that
subscribe button like this videoand answer the question in the
comments below. Do you believe that Nebraska is
finally going to reach the potential that we think it has
(00:44):
in 2025? Many folks that listen to this
show watch this show on YouTube where you should subscribe if
you haven't already. Really don't like hearing
Nebraska's on his way back. I'm sorry to tell you it's true,
just not in the nature that you would like it to be true.
Let's start with this. They went bowling for the first
(01:06):
time since 2016 last year and they did it with a true freshman
quarterback in Dylan Riola, who threw for over 2800 yards and
threw almost as many T DS as he did picks.
But that's that's OK because if you watched him play, you saw a
guy that was really trying to take care of the football.
He took the check down when he was there and he did not have
the help at wide receiver that we would like to see him have.
(01:28):
To say nothing of the offensive play calling was not great.
It's one of the reason that DanaHogerson was brought in as a
consultant, then later became anoffensive coordinator in very
short order. More to say about that here in a
second, but I think the other thing to notice here is that
he's got a couple more weapons, Dylan Riola, that he'll be able
(01:48):
to take advantage of in, you know, Isaiah Hunter, right?
Dane Key and I think the favorite of the bunch among
Nebraska fans, Corey Barney. Emma Johnson could be a guy,
right? I think the offensive line is
going to be good. And we know about Matt Rule's
reputation for turning programs around.
Year 3 is magic year. Year 3 is the year in which
they're supposed to go and win 10 games if they're keeping with
(02:09):
the Temple and the Baylor program.
That works so well for Matt Rule, who has really made his
name flipping programs into winners and asking people to
wait and let him do it his way. And everybody at Nebraska has
been pulling in the same direction even as the guy that
hired him, Trev Albert, took jobat Texas A&M.
Troy Dannon comes in. He understands exactly what he
(02:31):
has in Nebraska, which is a football program that is
perennially top ten in revenue generated despite not having a
team that has been anywhere capable of winning the Big 10
championship playing in the College Football Playoff, to say
nothing of who has been their best player outside of Trey
Palmer. It's really difficult to
(02:52):
identify over the last, you know, decade.
I think when we talk about DylanRiola, though, where we need to
talk about him in conversation with Dana Hulgerson, who is
going to be an offensive coordinator for the first time
since 2010, I don't think that this fact gets brought up
enough. When Dana Hulgerson took over as
the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State, the last time he
(03:14):
was 1, he set records. They put up 45 points per game.
They had the #2 passing offense in the sport 355 yards per game.
It was Brandon Weeden thrown for3000 yards to a Justin Blackman
who had 1500 yards. They had a 1500 yard tailback in
Kendall Hunter. Some of y'all don't even know
who that man is, but that man was a monster in 2010, to say
(03:36):
nothing of who they became in 2011.
And really, the Whedon years arethe high watermark for Mike
Stoops's program. Mike Stoops, Mike Gundy's
program, that's a 40 inch lip ever was one Mike Gundy's
program at Oklahoma State. And famously Dana wasn't
expecting to be there very long.I talked to a beat writer at the
time that was like, hey, you know, Dana didn't even buy a
(03:58):
house in Stillwater, right? He stayed in a hotel because he
was not planning to be there forvery long because he didn't need
to. He did what he did.
They put up a gaudy amount of yards.
They scored 539 points and he put together what I think is
what people come to expect from Oklahoma State.
Matter of fact, one of the things that he helped really
(04:20):
Oklahoma State bring to itself at a time when the Big 12 was
pass happy, is everybody's trying to score on every single
play all the time. And he was very inventive in how
he took the principles that he learned at Iowa Wesleyan and
coaching for Mike Leach, and he put them into action at Oklahoma
State. Who is your best player?
(04:40):
Who is your second best player? Make sure those guys get the
ball more than anybody else. That's how you go and score
points and win games. The Air Raid, as I like to tell
people, is not about spreading the ball around.
It is about creating matchups that are favorable.
Who were your best player against the worst player you can
get him matched up on? And if it's their best, that's
OK. You're going to take that.
So you'd see Michael Crabtree show up just as you saw Justin
(05:03):
Blackman show up. Thing about Dana Hogerson,
though, is he was always going to make a move.
And when he went to West Virginia, people forget this.
He didn't go there as the head coach.
He was hired away from Oklahoma State to Morgantown.
And then Bill Stewart and Dana Hulgerson had a falling out that
Oliver Luck need to do somethingabout.
And I think at the time there was a coach in waiting kind of
(05:26):
philosophy that was in place. I don't know how many coaches in
waiting like to wait. And I don't think that there are
a whole bunch of coaches that got the job that are looking to
give it up. They tend to be Kobe about this.
They're not passing anything. Saw this with Bobby Bowdon and
Jimbo Fisher, right? We saw this with Manny Diaz and
Mac Brown. It's not it's not really going
the way that you expected to go.I really don't like the coaching
(05:48):
waiting moniker. Like they got to go on Utah.
It might work, but usually somebody gets impatient or it
starts to fall apart for the same reason that A2 quarterback
system does. You got to have a guy.
You can't have a guy that might be the guy.
You got to have a guy that is the guy.
And when it's time to make the other guy, the guy, just do it.
Don't do the coaching waiting tag.
But I think this is one of thosethings where it just didn't work
out because Dana Horgerson has always wanted to be a head
(06:11):
coach. And it turned out to be a pretty
outstanding run at West Virginia, all things considered.
You know, Geno Smith, Tavon Austin down the line, then to
Houston. And Dana has always been kind of
loud about what his position should be as a head coach or how
he's not getting the kind of help that he wanted to get at a
(06:32):
place like Houston. And then he, you know, gets
fired and he goes on his merry way, kind of figure some things
out. And he gets called from that
rule going, hey, we're really down offensively, can you help
us? And I think the best way for
Daniel Hoverson to help him is mostly considered was to make
him the offensive coordinator and to demote Marcus
Satterfield. And that's what they're doing
going into 2025. If you're a Nebraska fan, you
(06:56):
wanted this to happen given the results that you saw with the
limited time that Daniel Hoverson had as the OC for Dylan
Riola. Now, what I find to be most
interesting about this is if it works, it means that Dylan Riola
is going to throw for a ton of yards.
You know, 3035 hundred yards I think is what you can expect.
(07:16):
He could be a 4000 yard passer if they're good, if he finds out
that Dane Key has the same sort of afterburners that Trey Palmer
does, if they get a run game going into, frankly, if the
defense is still pretty good andI think they'll be pretty good.
What I'm worried most about is how this is going to mesh with
the kind of football that Nebraska has been expected to
(07:38):
play forever, right? This is a program that I believe
the the joke is, hey, it was felony to throw the football
forward in Nebraska. You didn't do that.
We ran, we ran this option and we were really good at it.
We ran it into the 21st century because couldn't nobody do
nothing with Eric Crouch, among other things.
(07:58):
So you see all these passing records that are being broken
and you see these wide receiver records that are being broken,
Frank, because they didn't have no records to speak up, but you
didn't need to. The thing that has made the best
teams in college football, the best teams in college football,
has rarely been their passing offense.
It has been their ability to runthe football and their ability
to stop other people scoring. You don't need to be a great
(08:21):
passing team. You need to be a credible
passing team. However, one of the ways that
you can make the jump from not good to pretty good in a very
short amount of time is to improve your passing game
dramatically. So if you're, say, Colorado and
you don't have a run game, but you've got a pretty damn good
(08:41):
quarterback, all Big 12, Big 12 Offensive Player of the year,
and a good wide receiving court.Use that to your advantage to go
win 8 or 9 games and continue totry to build yourself into the
kind of program that can run theball more efficiently and
perhaps be something like balance.
I think when you look at the national champs at Ohio State,
(09:01):
they were balanced. They could run the ball really
well and they could throw the ball really well, but that's not
needed to be the case once you have the talent.
Nebraska doesn't have the talentyet to be what Georgia is, which
is the kind of program that hasn't had 1000 yard rushers
since 2019 and hasn't had more than 1000 yard receiver in a
single single season ever. They don't need to do it right.
(09:24):
It is a program that is synonymous with Herschel Walker,
right? With Nick Chubb, with Sonya
Michelle, with no Sean Moreno. You know more of the tailbacks
to Georgia than you know the quarterbacks because it wasn't
until recently that we put such an emphasis on the quarterback's
ability to make plays not just with his arm but with his legs.
And you're seeing that become a common trait, the plus one game,
(09:46):
as many of the coaches like to refer to it, where you have to
account for what the runner might do.
I think it can work. I think that, yeah, Nebraska
could be the kind of program that puts UP400450 yards game,
but I think they're going to have to throw the ball all over
the yard to do it. And that might be just good
enough for them to get to 9 or 10 wins this year, which is all
(10:10):
you want if you're a Nebraska fan.
You're not yet looking to contend for the Big 10
championship or contend for a College Football Playoff spot,
though. Winning 910 games in this league
puts you in that spot and gives you the kind of cachet to go to
recruit in the portal and in high school to get the kind of
players that you would otherwisesee at Penn State.
(10:31):
Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Nebraska can do
that. The brand is there.
But right now they're in the midst of rebuilding it.
And I think with Dana Hoverson and Dylan Riola, they got a
shot. Music back on adapt and respond
(11:09):
with me. RJ Young.
If you are new to the channel, go ahead and subscribe and hit
that like button and answer the question in the comments below.
Do you think that just a simple tweak is going to turn Georgia
back into the kind of team that can win the national
championship? Because it feels like that's
what you're doing in Kirby Smart's 10th year at Georgia.
(11:30):
You're going to have an opportunity, right?
It's it's going to be a lot of fun if they can tweak it here
and there. One of the things that I find
fascinating about last year for Georgia is who they took losses
to and where they ended up anyway.
OK, so they took a loss to an Alabama team that turned out to
win nine games and showed itselfto be really good when it was
(11:52):
good and really bad when it wasn't.
And that's after Carson Beck hadbeen really terrible in the
second-half of games or seen thefirst half of games.
He just wasn't always there. And needing something like
balance out of your quarterback position.
Yeah, you got to have that at Georgia.
But that's one thing. Well, Gunner, Stockton be better
(12:13):
or worse. We don't know yet.
We think that he'll be better. But given the experience that
Beck has, I think you would havemuch rather been able like to
have kept him and told Gunner towait one more year rather than
watch him go into the transfer portal out at Miami.
But it is what it is at this point.
Gunner stockings the guy They took a loss to Ole Miss.
That did not seem like the kind that would come to George's door
(12:36):
in years past, right? But they were able to beat teens
like Texas twice. They had been on the ropes
against Florida. What happens?
What's the denominator here? What what?
What is working and what's not working for Georgia?
And it's really difficult to identify this in the heat of the
season. But at one point, you're talking
(12:59):
about four of the seven best offensive lineman at Georgia are
injured, can't play. And another point you're talking
about your healthy tailbacks being true freshman and walk
ONS, which Georgia still pretty damn good, right?
It's just means you don't have alot of experience at those
positions this year. You're still big across the
(13:19):
offensive line. You go 64310 plus and you'll
have 230 lbs at tailback, right?You'll have guys that can do it.
And it's about can you keep those men healthy long enough
for the season to go. And that is going to be, I
think, a small change that reapsa huge amount of benefit
offensively because you'll notice that the Georgia defense
(13:41):
doesn't really show signs of fatigue and hasn't since Kirby
Smart took over as head coach. One of the major reasons that is
is simple. They rotate often.
That defensive line is constantly rotating in their
linebackers rotate at the edge positions.
It's really difficult to game plan for a defensive line that
(14:05):
can go 8 or 9 deep anytime they want, right?
That has fresh edge rusher afterfresh edge rusher after fresh
edge rusher. 5 stars at most of these positions, four stars, you
know, you can expect it. So not only are they healthy and
fresh, they're talented. So you get to see a guy like
Jalen Walker absolutely, positively go to work on that
(14:27):
Texas offensive line in a way that nobody had ever been able
to see it before. So on critical downs and
distances, you are able to have him on the field getting a blow
here and there. It's one of the reasons why
teams started going fast. You want to try to catch your
opponent if you're an offense play caller in an alignment, but
also in a personnel that they have a difficult time defending
(14:50):
in. I think we first look at what
alignment they come out and could we exploit it over and
over again. Let's say you know that you can
beat them to the field side witha certain play because they're
weak at this linebacker positionand their safety just can't run
with your slot. Perhaps that's it, right?
(15:10):
So you're going to try to hit that as often as you can.
But the thing that George has also been good at is
conditioning guys to be able to play entire games if they must.
So those short bouts of needing to go, you know, 456 plays
without a break, they're built for that too.
The small change I think is going to be quite simple for
(15:31):
Georgia. Stay healthy, keep your veterans
on the field, Ted. Now for Georgia, that's going to
be let's let's see how good you are taking care of your
offensive line and let's see howdeep the running back room is.
I'm kind of curious because basically since my goodness, we
(15:51):
got to go back to 2019 for the last time that Georgia had 1000
yard rusher in a single season. Yeah, they haven't needed it.
So it's more about can we have an an offense where we throw the
ball down the field and people catch it and we're healthy on
the offensive line. We're healthy at defence,
defence back at running back. I think they're going to be
(16:13):
better at wide receiver this year than they were last year
because I think if nothing else,you put those guys on the judge
machine. I often wonder this like, and I
actually was talking to a Georgia fan about this dude that
went to Georgia. How much of 2019 LSU's offense
does Georgia just leave on the table because that's not part of
their identity. And by that I mean at one point
(16:33):
over the course of the year, JoeBrady had told LSU's wide
receiver you will catch 10,000 balls across the calendar year,
right from what we do in winter all the way through playing the
season. You'll catch a lot of passes.
Some of that is just lining up on the jug machine and running
the route to go catch right or put your hands on the ball, get
used to catching it in contestedsituations.
(16:57):
I don't think that that's a partof George's program.
I think one of the things that is fascinating about them is how
much of the wide receiver room is built on the idea of you
might actually need to be distraught during the drink this
year. We're in this game and how much
of this is, I know that I'm big,I know that I'm fast, I know
(17:17):
that if I put a little bit of good on tape, I'm wearing a
Georgia uniform and I can get tothe NFL in three years.
I don't think that it is beneficial for Georgia to change
how it is getting down with its offensive play calling, right?
I don't expect Mike Bobo to all of a sudden go 7030 pass to run.
(17:38):
However, I do think it is worth pointing out that if they are
not one of the worst teams in the SEC in drop passes and they
are not 11 out of 16 in yards per carry at just four O 6,
we're talking about a national championship team.
The margins are that thin for this program, and what's scary
(18:00):
about Georgia is these are things you can fix for other
programs. You can't fix those things by
simply recruiting or developing.You're just going to have that
as your weakness and you're going to try to cover it up.
And that's what football is about.
Football is about identifying your opponent's weakness and
exploiting it, identifying your own weakness and trying to
(18:21):
compensate for it. Whoever can do that best usually
wins. And at this level, every coach
knows how to coach. For the most part.
Not all coaches know clock management, but all of them know
the game, so you're not necessarily going to get out
coach. There are times when you do, and
it does happen, but more often than not, they've got a beater.
That's what they got. They have a guy that it doesn't
(18:43):
matter that you had the best defensive play call for him,
He's just going to win because his Jimmy is better than your
Joe. So it's hey, you want to go and
you want to run, you want to roll coverages to one side, We
have a guy over here that can beat you.
So if you want to take away Zachariah Branch, to use an
example at Georgia, we can throwthe ball the other way and we'll
(19:06):
be just fine. But that guy's got to catch the
football. I think Gunner Stockton is good
enough. And one of the things that is
also interesting about Gunner Stockton is he sets all these
records as a passer in in high school.
And I'm really asking myself, ishe going to get a chance to get
anywhere near those numbers at Georgia?
Can he be a 3000 yard passer? Yeah.
Can he be a 4000 yard passer? Maybe.
(19:29):
But I just don't see that being part of the game.
If they're healthy on the offensive line, they're getting
the push on the offensive line. They're able to run the ball
with the kind of authority that they've shown themselves capable
of in years past. Again, if Georgia right, and the
first thing you got to worry about is getting past that
defense. And again, Georgia fans, they'll
(19:49):
tell you run the ball BAWL and please get out of the defense's
way. Don't make this any harder than
it has to be, because the one thing that could happen that
hasn't yet is Georgia turns intosome.
Frankenstein version of Iowa 2023 and nobody wants that.
I don't think they're going to do that because they're really
good at quarterback, right? That that's it.
(20:10):
Iowa hadn't had a quarterback inyears.
They had one. Kate McNamara got hurt.
I think they got one of Mark Gronowski.
But a small tweak here, a small tweak there, and Georgia's once
again playing for a national championship and that could be
huge in this year, where we're expecting perhaps a changing
under guard. If the Big Ten wins a third
national championship without anSEC team in the title game,
(20:33):
we're going to have to really start asking questions about
which league actually runs this sport.
(21:01):
Back on adapt and respond with me RJ Young.
If you are new to the channel, go ahead and subscribe.
Hit that like video and answer the question in the comments
below. Do you think Mikey Keane can be
QB one for Michigan because I don't.
However, we're in the middle of camp and Ship Lindsay is doing
what I expect most offensive coordinators in something like a
(21:23):
QB battle. It's saying he's doing the
saying, yeah, I think Mikey Keane has a shot.
But the quote that he gave was pretty interesting.
And if you give it a little bit of thought, perhaps you can talk
yourself into that, too. That's not what I got from it,
but I'll give you the quote anyway.
He told The Wolverine, I think. So talking about, you know, QB 1
(21:43):
going to Mikey Keane, who transferred into Fresno State,
also got to play against Michigan last year and spent a
little time at UCF and we'll talk about that here in just a
second. One thing he's got is
experience, right? He did.
He didn't miss those opportunities talking about last
year, but in some ways we got Jayden and Bryce a ton of reps
talking about spring practice. Mikey's played in an offense
(22:06):
that is similar from our passinggame standpoint.
So I think the opportunity is still there for him.
We'll just see how it plays out.Kane, who has, you know, played
more in 2000 snaps college football, who has accumulated
more than 6200 yards passing, also played a year in the same
system that Ship and Lindsay runs at Central Florida.
(22:29):
Now there's that, and there is the idea that you want a guy who
knows the system to help educateand prepare the young, more
talented quarterback for what isto come, right?
Chip Lindsey also had Drake May Drake May first round pick great
(22:54):
talent at UNC. Probably should have won more
football games and done more given his talent with with North
Carolina, right. That is not a knock on him.
It's a knock on North Carolina. But ship Lindsey helped do that.
He has that same skill set in a Bryce Underwood.
I don't think you're going to sacrifice what you can get out
of Bryce Underwood even in a true freshman season to get
(23:14):
Mikey Keene in his experience out there.
OK, However, the other thing that you have here along with
Jay Garcia is a capable, experienced starter that knows
the system. That's it, right?
The thing that is still absolutely ridiculous about
(23:35):
Michigan last year is either themost impressive stat or it is
the most egregiously engaging and malpractice that of all time
is that Michigan managed to win nine games, beat the national
champs and Alabama averaging 5.04 yards per attempt per pass
attempt. And they did it with Davis
(23:57):
Warren, with Jack Tuttle and with Alex Orgy.
Now I've beaten that one up because it's it needs to be
beaten up because they basicallywon nine game or eight games,
excuse me, without a quarterback.
But now they got a quarterback. They got 2.
They might have three depending on how you feel about Jake
Garcia. And the last time they had a
quarterback, they won the national championship, right?
(24:18):
Like that's that's how that went.
It's a different offensive coordinator and it's a different
quarterback. But I don't think we're going to
see another depth chart at a place with the kind of pedigree
and class as Michigan as we did last year.
I just think that Sharon Moore and Kurt Campbell overestimated
what they had and Alex Orgy and it was downhill from there.
(24:41):
I don't think that's the case with a guy like Bryce Underwood,
and I think that's why they soldout to get him, even calling in
Larry Ellison to kind of sweetenthe pot.
So the NIL deal stood up to the kind of guy that was already
committed to play at LSU and wasthe best player at his position
also inside the state, period. This was a tremendous win for
him. This is a tremendous win for
(25:01):
Michigan and I don't think they're willing to risk a year
of him sitting down somewhere sothey can get Mike Keane some
opportunities to play and give him some snaps on the other side
of the ball. I think it's as simple as how
good Derek Moore can be. And when they get Rod Moore
back, Ernest Hoffman is going tobe great.
That lineback, of course, is going to be good.
(25:22):
It would not shock me at all to find out that Ernest is a
captain at Michigan. He's played that way.
I think he has shown himself to be that kind of a veteran.
Derek Moore gets to be. I think what Josiah Stewart was
like, it's a guy that had four sacks and like 37 pressures with
fewer attempts at the quarterback than Josiah Stewart.
Now, he's also expected to come on because there's no Kenneth
(25:44):
Grant there. There's no Mason Graham there.
Now, Rashawn Benny might be thatguy, right?
We'll see. And if you get Rod Moore back,
especially given what he had meant to their secondary when
he's healthy, Wing Martindale's right back to where he was last
year and the year before where his defense is really doing the
job I was going to the year before that was Mike McDonald,
(26:06):
My bad. Wing Martindale's back to doing
the job right. Like I I think they've got
everything they need. So when my 136 comes out here in
a couple weeks time, you'll get to see where Michigan is ranked
and I'll tell you a lot of why Iput them there and why I still
am going to give them the benefit of the doubt.
(26:26):
A lot of it also has to do with what I've been talking about
throughout the show here, right?If you were watching the
segment, there is the full show that you can watch and I
encourage you to do so. It's much more clean.
It's easier to follow so for so on, but the thing that they're
able to do is lean into their identity and their identity is
built on Jim Harbaugh, who builthis identity on both Jim
(26:48):
Beckler, which is to run the football.
That's what they want to do Lloyd Carr did this too.
They want to run the ball. If they don't care to have a
3000 yard passer, they care to be able to take advantage of
throwing the ball downfield. I continue to point out to
people JJ McCarthy threw for just 2900 yards across 15 games
in that national championship year.
That means most of what they were doing was damage that
(27:11):
needed to be done where they knew they had a look that they
could exploit. They weren't going to be a pass
first team, they were going to be a run first, run first, play
defense, play action, pass team.And JJ was great in those
situations and his legs, his speed gave them the opportunity
to get out of bad players. And when Plays Breakdown broke
down, he would get a shot to go do something about it and it
(27:33):
worked. That's the playbook.
That is what they're going to try to do.
Once again, with Bryce Underwoodat quarterback, you got A1A and
A1B and Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall, right?
You got guys that can carry the load.
Your offensive line's going to be pretty damn good because
that's just what Jerome Moore's been able to recruit and develop
even as a head coach. If they can develop Donovan
(27:55):
Mccully into a star or Samaj Morgan or even Fred Moore, then
you'll be able to answer my big overarching question for the
offense, which is who's catchingthe passes.
Their leading receiver last yearwas tight in Colston Loveland.
You still need a guy like Roman Wilson that can take the top off
(28:15):
the defense and be reliable in doing so.
Do you need to have a guy like Braylon Edwards?
No Would it be nice? Sure, but ain't what you got to
have. What you got to have is a
quarterback that can run the offense, is capable of making a
play with his legs when the playbreaks down, which is something
I'll also say Mikey King can do,and a formidable run rushing
(28:37):
attack, and I think I'll have that.
I really do. If you like the longer show, let
me know about that in the comments below.
Otherwise I will see y'all on the flip side.
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!