The Illini D

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sports Free update. Now the Husker Buzz was sewn live
and Lincoln here is Jim.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Okay Sander Now shout out when we talk about a
short week, this should benefit Illinois because they have a
far more experienced defense, and Nebraska's going to run into
a not just a physical defense, but one that knows
what it's doing. It notes how it really has a
great command over coverages and its defensive alignment, and that

(00:26):
is something that Dylan Ryal is going to have to
learn on the fly this Friday night.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Illinois will come in here, you know, with a defense
that's that's forced a lot of takeaways. I mean they've
got Miles Scott has two picks and Xavier Scott has
three picks on the back end, so they've got two
really really good defensive backs that have forced a lot
of turnovers that Kansas in a lot of ways was
going was in good control of that football game and

(00:51):
Champagne and then they turned it over a ton and
Illinois was able to just kind of pull away and
win that game. But the physical size of this ALIGNI
defense and some of the players they have up front
what will be a challenge. Nebraska's offensive line has still
not been charged with a sack, which I think is
extremely notable compared to what we've seen the last several years.

(01:14):
They've given up nine hurries in three games, so about
three per game. And you know, last week in terms
of grades, was the best grade Nebraska's offensive line has
ever received on Pro Football Focus for Pass Pro Blocking
since the grading service began in twenty thirteen for college games.
So that they had a very very good game last week,

(01:35):
and that's without Micah Mazuka him. The Towski played well
in his place there, so there will be some challenges.
Illinois does not have a lot of sacks. I mean,
you look at their defensive front on PFF. There's only
four credited sacks right now, and one of them is
to a cornerback. So their defensive line has only produced
three sacks in the first three games. So I think

(01:58):
that is something that help Nebraska. They don't have. I
mean that Wes Moreland, who Nebraska plays the first played
the first game. He's probably just as good or better
than what you know, anybody Illinois has on the edge.
They've seen some good pass rushers. Colorado had good pass
rushers too.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, we'll see what they do with their blitz packages too.
This is one of Brett Bielima's great strengths as a coach.
He's an accomplished head coach. He was very successful at Wisconsin,
not so at Arkansas, but he's certainly been competitive at Illinois.
The question is going to be what is he held
back through the first three games They've played two FCS
teams and Ku, You're right, that was a good interconference

(02:37):
win for them. But this is a guy who's probably
held a lot back just for this game.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, yes, and no. I mean, but I do think
with Dylan. I think that's what Big Ten. You have
Great Chiano and you have Ryan Walters, and you have
Brett Bieloma, three really really good defensive minds in the
Big Ten Conference. In the next three games, you have
to figure those three coaches are going to bring the
sink at Dylan and try to force him into some

(03:04):
decisions because he has been just too comfortable. If you're
a defensive coordinator, he's like, man, this kid, we got
to disrupt him. He looks like he's just too comfortable
back there at times. And that's what's hard to figure out.
You just don't see true freshman play with the comfort
level that Dylan Rayola has played with us far. For Nebraska,

(03:25):
I think you.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Could attribute that to two things. One, I've not played
great teams, but also you got to give the offensive
staff credit for making his world smaller. He's rarely thrown
the ball down the field. He's gone with high percentage passes,
easy to get rid of the ball quickly. He hasn't
had to go through a bunch of progressions, So I
think so far he's been handled brilliantly. But guess what

(03:47):
things are going to get a little stickier here on
Friday night.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, they I mean it's conference play and Illinois has
always kind of found a way to make this an
ugly game. You know. Last year, Nebraska, for all tens
and purposes, they won twenty to seven, but I mean
they easily blew They almost blew it late, if you remember,
they had all the fumbles and turnovers in the fourth quarter.
And Illinois just was not playing well on offense. And

(04:13):
that's the X factor for them. Luke Altmeyer their quarterback.
He's mobile enough to kind of get those five or
seven yard runs on third down and they can they
limit those. What's their plan this week for Altmeyer? Because
of his ability to maybe scramble. He's not an elite
runner by any means, but he's mobile enough that he'll

(04:34):
give you some problems, kind of like what Northern Iowa
did last week.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Sean, just half a minute left here, do we know?
Is Jamari Butler back ready to go?

Speaker 3 (04:42):
Yeah, Jamari Butler is back. So you'll have him and
Mackay Bayer back in the starting lineup, and those guys
they'll put him out their full boat. I mean, this
defense will look a lot different in the first quarter
than what we saw last week in Nebraska played a
lot of players again and started Iowa. There's twenty eight
players on this defense, guys that have played over twenty

(05:03):
one snaps in three games, so they have gotten a
lot of quality playing time for not just their second units,
but even some third string units as well.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Our Huscar insider Sean Callahan every morning and just after
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