"The Nameless, Faceless Opponent"

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's go to sports Breath now. This will be the
Husker Buzz edition with Sean Callahan our Husker insider alive
and Likekenrosie, Well.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
It doesn't seem like this game is lost on the
ball club SHAWNA. I'm listening to the kids talk and
they're not really acting like kids. They're acting like professionals.
Talk to the media and they say, we get it.
This is Michigan, this is a big ball game, and
we need the Nebraska Husker faithful or really rev it
up on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yeah, they've kind of kept still this mantra of the nameless,
faithless opponent. And yeah, you're right. I mean the mood
yesterday was very business like as they get ready for
this game. But everybody knows what it means, what this
game could do for this season as far as kind
of getting it launched. And you know, last year they
had a chance to start out four to oh and

(00:45):
they blew the game at home against Illinois. It's rare
back to back years to kick off with home conference
openers like this, and this year Nebraska gets two of them.
They're the only team in the Big Ten that plays
two consecutive conference home games with Michigan State coming in
after the bye week, so it is really set up,
and you know, it starts here on Saturday with the

(01:07):
Michigan team that is good, but they're not as good
as the Michigan teams that we've seen in previous years.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, they may not be as polished as the teams
that we've seen in previous years. But they went at
Ohio State last year and they won that ballgame at
the end, which is not easy to do. But the
bottom line is it's still a mentality of that Michigan
carries and has for decades. We're one of the top
five programs in the country and we act like it,

(01:34):
and I'm not sure that changes, especially since they have
the experience of playing in a hostile environment already this year.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, that Oklahoma game didn't go well for them, but
they still obviously have that under their belt. Now, I mean,
this is a Michigan team. If you remember, they had
what they had four or five NFL draft picks last year,
and they're replacing Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant on their
defense and Josiah Stewart, I mean, and these were big
time draft picks. Will Johnson, you know, you got on

(02:04):
the line, and you know that was a team that
beat Alabama and a team that beat Ohio State, like
you said, And so they're still kind of developing as
a unit. You know, the coordinators and coaching situation has
changed there a lot since Harball left. I thought it
was interesting the emotion of last week for them. With
Sharon Moore in his suspension, he actually could be with

(02:27):
the team all week up until Friday night at midnight,
so he was with the team at the hotel and
it was an emotional scene, you know when he left
the hotel on Friday night, and then he cannot now
be with the team for provably this entire week. So
he missed the Central Michig game and he missed the
entire week. He can't have any communication with the program.

(02:49):
So he doubled dipped last week and they I think
he tried to do some Nebraska game planning as well
before he had to leave leave the facility.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, and he wasn't responsible for this spying. It was
somebody under Jim Harbaugh. But Harbaugh's not there. He's in
the NFL, so he can't exact any punishment against him. Well,
they're saying that that that Moore knew about it. He
wasn't in charge though, not being the boss. It's sort
of like, you know, being a lieutenant in the army.
The captain decides you may be a lieutenant, but he decides.

(03:20):
So that's kind of where Sharon Moore is. They have
a veteran coaching staff, They have people who have been
head coaches before, so that's not an issue at Michigan Sean.
It's about the running game. It's about stopping their runs.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
What did you get from our coordinators yesterday?

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Well, I think for Dana it's about not having wasted
plays inside the red zone. I mean that they've they've
been great on offense, but they want to get their
red zone touchdowns scoring percentage of higher. They want to
be in a seventy percent range when they get down there,
and they've been in the sixties. And you know, if

(03:56):
you want to be a college ball playoff team, all
four of the teams in the Big Ten or in
the seventies. So they've got to get better down there.
For John Butler, really high on the secondary and the
way this group has played. They lead the country in
passing defense. They're the only secondary that is not allowed
or only team that's not allowed a pass play of

(04:17):
twenty plus yards. I mean, that's pretty remarkable through three
weeks because you're usually going to have somebody bust or
fall down. And they've been outstanding on the back end,
and I think they've got to play well enough on
first and second down in this game to make the
back end a factor to win on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
I think part of that, just to be honest about it,
part of that is the other teams, at least so far,
have said, look, we're going to try to control the ball.
We're going to try to burn clock and minimize possessions.
And that comes from not throwing the ball downfield because
that puts you in second and long, that puts you
sometimes in an interception scenario, and it also stops the clock.

(04:55):
I mean, you saw what Houston Christian was doing in
the first half last week. They were burning off almost
every second of that clock, that play clock because they
want to shorten the game. Well, Michigan's going to try
to run the ball.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
So Aill gave up fifty nine. Yeah. Part of it
was this fumble recovery for a score from houscar online
dot Com. Our Big Red insider Sean Callahan every morning
and afternoon with the buzz here