Thoughts on a new assistant coach and a new commitment for Nebraska football

Hey Husker fans. Welcome to another episode of the Husker Big Red podcast with Chris Peterson and Danny Gillette

As always, go Big Red, good morning Husker fans and welcome back to the Husker Big Red podcast

I'm Chris Peterson and joining me, as always is Danny Gillette. We're back on a Monday morning here

um, missed a couple of episodes last week, but we're still on the summer schedule of the Husker Big Red podcast

So in the summer, we really have no schedule. So we'll be getting that a little bit more defined here as the season starts

Uh, coming along. We'll have a little more steady content, but we're back here today

And, uh, Danny, how are you doing this morning, man? After a little bit of a busy weekend for the Huskers

Some good news actually was over the week. It's been a wild week for me personally and then a busy weekend for the Huskers

So it's been, it's been quite the week here, but I'm glad to be back at it and

um, I'm not gonna probably be getting a lot of sleep this week as I'm gonna be playing NC A football on Friday

So I'm gonna maybe be groggy. I'm glad we're not doing this Saturday morning chat this week because I don't think I'm gonna be

uh, I'm gonna be busy recruiting and, um, sending D MS to five star recruits for Sam Houston State and I'm gonna love it

I'm gonna be playing with Dylan Raiola tonight, man. I got the, I got the MVP edition

the pre early access. I got it ordered. I already checked today to see if they would let me play it early

I've been checking periodically just in case there's like a glitch in the system. You know, you never know

you just never know anything can happen. But, um, I know I like Michigan and Nebraska

but I've already decided I'm gonna play Nebraska first because I've just got to get some passes in with Dylan Viola before the season

And, um, yeah, man, I'm gonna be bombing it up to Malachi Coleman tonight. It's gonna be awesome

Like I can't wait to see, you know, we saw the bordeaux had the whole Nebraska thing and that was cool to see

But it just made me want to experience, I'm just like, why does he get to play? And I don't get to play

I don't understand the E A sports. Like give me, give me the early access right now because I know he gets a lot of

eyes on the game as if there's not enough. And, uh, I saw him play Donovan Edwards last week and Donovan Edwards absolutely smoked him

Oh, man, I'm like, man, that guy's got him. Like, how many, how much video game playing is Donovan Edwards doing a little bit of

a cause for concern. But no, no. Um, no, it's pretty cool

Then we, uh, then I tuned in to the, uh, matchups that this weekend I think it was

uh, Tim Tebow and Michael Vick and then, um, sketch and, um

I, I forget who sketch was playing. But, um, no, it was just kind of crazy

It's like with all this stuff going on in the world right now that we need this one uniting thing and it appears to be

uh, college football 25. I think I'm gonna do a road to glory with Nebraska and have the

and, uh, take the two star route and be their quarterback so I can lead Nebraska to a national title as their quarterback

I think I'm gonna do a smaller school rebuild when I get the game like Sam Houston State or a

or a UMass, you know, type of rebuild and work from the ground up

And I just can't wait. It's gonna be so exciting and, uh, it looks like they paid a ton of attention to detail

And the plus side is that the developers are different from that and in terms of the development team itself

So I'm, I'm, I'm fired up. I can't wait for Friday. I'm too broke for the 100 $50 version

but it's gonna make Friday that much sweeter. Yeah, it's gonna be pretty incredible

Um, all the, you know, details, it seems like they really went in depth in it and you see a lot of the football stuff

I saw, you know, being able to, you know, show different coverages at the line of scrimmage and

and being able to, you know, I think that that's a really cool thing. I would love to see them implement that into Madden

Um, that's gonna mess me up so bad. I'm gonna like, be throwing defense and then throw like seven interceptions because I can't read the

defense. That's my problem already. That's already why I throw, you know

like when I throw interceptions, it's usually not a bad throw. It's like all every time it's like bad decision

I'm like, why did you throw that pass, man? But I don't know, I saw people talking about how like they've thrown passes or the

the passes like Bardo threw in the against Donovan Edwards down the sideline

they're like, and mad that gets picked every time. So no, that was absolute precision

passing like a sideline catch. I was like, whoa. And then if you watched how quickly Donovan Edwards cut and the way the running backs

moved like that was a lot different too, like in Madden, like you can't spin, it takes like 15 minutes to make one spin and

then by that time the play is over, but the running back movements seem fluid

So I really like that. And um are you gonna use? I know they have like the regular

like the passing meter and then I think you could turn it off and do like just the passing that

you know, where we're used to. Uh Do you have a preference? I'll probably use the meter

I've got, I've kind of got used to the meter with Madden uh with the newer Madden, but I do find it kind of annoying

sometimes, but I'll probably, I'll probably stick with this one. Seems a little more intuitive than the Madden one where it seems like even if

you or like, you know, shorter or longer in the target, it still puts the ball on target

but it's just more of an inaccurate throw if you're into the Reds. So I don't know

we'll see, I just, my big thing is I hope that the catching it looks ok. But I remember in the old college football

the, the, it used to drive me crazy how often receivers would drop like wide open passes

So we'll see how that goes. But I do think that it feels like the college game and

and I'm just really excited on my first. I am gonna rebuild Nebraska like there's no question in my mind

I know everybody to go for the smaller school, but I want to get my program back on top

back where hopefully Matt rule will get it in a few years. So I don't know if I'll get it

You know, where Bordeaux had Nebraska winning the championship the first year. I don't know about that

But, uh, because I'm not that great of a player, but we'll see. Uh, I think he did a fouryear rebuild with Sam Houston State

too and he made it to and he made it to the national championship. So pretty impressive

So we'll see, but in terms of, uh some Nebraska stuff, there was quite a few

not quite a few, but a couple of notable things that happened over the weekend. So we'll get into that

Um, before we do, you know, please make sure that you guys hit the subscribe button

hit the like button, check out Husker Big red.com as well. And if you had been following Husker Big red.com

you'll see that Bryson Weber, a four star cornerback out of Texas committed to Nebraska on Sunday

Um, he's ranked in the top 300 overall, I think 2 98 621 75 um out of Missouri City

Texas and I absolutely love this kid 1056 that's runs in the 100 m dash

Um, he runs like 21 something in the 200 I mean, just fast and um

play receiver formally when you watch his highlights, he just, I really love his mentality

He really looks like one of those corners that's just competent himself. Um

he loves to get up and play press man and he will sometimes watching him in zone coverage

He'll kinda, you know, try to bait quarterbacks a little bit that got him in trouble a few times

but for the most part, he's got tremendous closing speed, not afraid to tackle, had a couple of interceptions last year

And I think the sky is the limit for Bryson Weber. What do you think about this commitment for the Huskers

Good on John Butler for closing the deal. Um I know Evan Cooper was uh Weber's original recruiter

but uh John Butler closed the deal on this one. So that's a

that's a positive sign. I know people were kind of wondering about could he recruit

And at the very least he closed the deal with Weber. Weber probably

you know, knew about this coaching move a couple of weeks before

but Webber, I mean, Butler, excuse me, sealed the deal and so good on him

And um, you know, this is another blue chip prospect for Nebraska

I know we were getting a little bit worried about the uh blue chip ratio and you know

that stuff. So that's, that's good as well. And you kind of mentioned everything I like about Weber

He's, he's very quick, he's very uh instinctive in his movements. He

he goes after the football and gets it. He doesn't wait for the play to develop

And Nebraska got a really good one here and just think like less than a month ago

we were stressing out about the corner position. What are they gonna do? What are they gonna do now

They have now, they have say Wright and, uh, Bryson Weber for the future and the corner position is looking a little bit better and

I like the fact that they're not waiting until 2025 calendar year to try to recruit corners

They're getting corners now for the future and they recognize the position of need, uh

and they, and they addressed it immediately so good on the coaching staff for doing that

Yeah. And, um, you know, it was interesting, I was just looking up some numbers with

you know, in-state recruits and not that Nebraska hasn't done well in this class with inst state recruits

I mean, I think they have like five or six of the top 10, but they may miss on two of the top three

which is a little bit different than it has been in other years and they haven't, you know

in the past couple of years they've gotten some blue, the blue chip prospects from Nebraska

which, you know, Christian Jones is the only one left. So, you know, that's, that feels like kind of a 5050 deal

But I do think it's impressive that they're able to, that they'd be able to land it four blue chips outside of the state of

Nebraska. Two from Texas now, one from Missouri in the Saint Louis area

one from, uh, California and TJ Latif. So, I do think that that shows

um, they're not all, they're not having to rely on just the State of Nebraska for 10

which you obviously can't do. Um, so I think they're doing a nice job there but

you know, they're, they're expanding and recruiting in the places that, you know, when Matt rule was hired

we said that they needed to recruit while they're in Texas. I mean, Missouri California

Florida, if Nebraska can recruit those four places, plus Nebraska and the

you know, Kansas, the Midwest area, that's all they gotta do, really need to build a successful class every year

And I think it also speaks to the amount of really, really good talent overall at the high school level that's in Nebraska

Um, you know, we, we've been talking for years about how good these, you know

next classes are gonna be and how much talent are in the classes

So even if a kid doesn't go to Nebraska and goes out of state

I think it just speaks to how good the high school game is, you know, for the state itself

And so following the commitment of Webber, Nebraska's got 16 commitments that ranked 29th overall in the 24 7 team rankings for blue chips

So 25% blue chip percentage, which I think is fine for Nebraska right now

I would like to see that get up to 50% someday, but you got to put together some winning seasons

But I do think, and it was interesting because Bardo talked about, you know, his recruit class at Nebraska and signing like

you know, 15 or 16 blue chip players and he may have got some pushback

That, that's unrealistic. I don't think that that's unrealistic. I think Nebraska can

Absolutely, you know, like last year Michigan signed, I think 16 blue chips and they had like the 16th rated class

It wasn't like, you know, Georgia's class or anything. But I think Nebraska can recruit at that level

I'm not saying they're gonna be top five, but Nebraska football can be a top 15 recruiting program

in my opinion, once they start stacking together some wins, you know, they've got nil which is going through the university now

Um, so, I mean, 25% isn't bad. I'd like to get it up to 50%

And within a few years, I do think that's a realistic, um

a realistic goal for Matt rule and company the way he recruits and the way

uh, I expect this team to win with, uh Dylan Viola at quarterback. And quite honestly

I think we could see some, uh, ratings bumps. Uh, soon Jeremiah Jones is a guy that I think may get a rating bump

Houston, uh Houston Kina Torres is a, is a guy that I think could bump up to a four star

So there are other players, I think that will be able to possibly get up to the four star ranking

I know Pierce Mulberry was ra ra um ranked as a four star by on three

I believe he's a three star on uh 24 7 sports, but I think he could get to a four star um as well

So I think there could be more coming on the way and um yeah

I I definitely think that Pierce Newberry should be a four star. Um but you know

Nebraska kids sometimes get underrated and even, you know, the kids uh you know

in Texas like like Bryson Weber can get underrated just with how much talent there is

But you watch this kid man and this is as good a cornerback prospect as Nebraska's recruited in a long time

I mean, in any of the the product prospects they've got over the past few years like this kid could be as good as any

of them. I mean 62 runs, 1010, 56 played receiver. So he's got the natural balls like he has everything that you want in a

blue chip corner back. Like when I when I put on the film, I'm like this is what a blue chip corner should look like

So really good, really good job by John Butler and I'm excited to see kind of where

you know, that develops into the future. Um and then some more exciting news

I think for Nebraska on Sunday that we did not expect, we expected the

uh, the commitment from Bryson Weber. We didn't expect, uh, you know

Jamar Mosey, a former high school coach in the state of Missouri, father of Isaiah Mosey

um, was on staff with UCF for a little while, um, has joined Nebraska as an yst and the yst can coach now

um on the field and um something that can help Nebraska this season

but also, you know, on the recruiting trail. So what do you, what do you think about Jamar Mosey? Another kind of surprise move by

Matt rule? I love his son. And if he can get his son to

to consider Nebraska, I think that would be, I think that would be a smart play

Um And you also have the Missouri connection and, you know, you mentioned that Missouri is one of the states that Nebraska has been trying

to get into. I remember, uh, back when Mickey Joseph and Bill Bush were with the program

they kind of targeted that area specifically in recruiting and now they have an in

in Missouri. So I, I love to hire, I mean, you know

when you talk about ysts and uh people that, that can be an asset to the program

Jamar Mosey can certainly be one. Yeah. And uh, like you said

a former high school head coach, Matt rules done that multiple times before at multiple stops

not just at Nebraska, but he did it at Baylor and had a lot of success. So, I mean

you look at, they've been trying to get into that Missouri, that Saint Louis area. They've done better with it

You know, they got Ken Smith last year. They got Jamarion Parker this year, but on having another guy from Lee Summit North

I think that that is a really gonna be an asset for Nebraska. And um with right now Isaiah is committed to Oregon

but I think could be worth an attempt to flip him. I mean

anything goes in recruiting now and man, if we could get Isaiah Mosy

that would be, that would be crazy because I love Isaiah Mosy. Yeah

he's definitely one of my favorite targets in this class um at wide receiver and um I

I don't think that it's crazy to think about flipping in because there was buzz about Nebraska even before this move was announced because he

just took an official visit while, even while he was committed to Oregon, he took an official visit in June to Nebraska

So there were definitely, you know, some push, their things were really quiet. I think he visited another school too

Um I can't remember which one it was in the Midwest. Um But so he's visited maybe it was Oklahoma

Um but he's visited a couple of other schools. Ok. That's, that's

that's right. Um So, yeah, I mean, you visited Kansas visited Nebraska

It seems like, you know, there is possibly an opening. They've got, I think

uh, you know, um even if they don't have a spot available

I think they would make one for Isaiah Mosi, he's that kind of player. I mean, he's ranked in the top 300 in the

on three industry ranking. So that would be a big time commitment. And what I was gonna say too

with these new, um, you know, coaching rules, not only does it affect

you know, on field coaching, but also recruiting, you can designate 10 coaches to go out and recruit on the road

Now in, in, in addition to, you know, your like your linebackers coaching

whatever those 10 guys, so you can have 20 guys go out and recruit man. What an asset to Jamar Mozy

the former high school head coach of Lee Summit North, a big time program going around the state of Missouri recruiting for Nebraska

I mean, that, that's a smart move by Matt rule and hopefully

you know, that leads to getting Isaiah mosy, but even if not, this is still gonna be beneficial for Nebraska long term

Yeah, even if not, you know, you have a connection, you know

in the Midwest and I know people are saying, well, Nebraska is in the Midwest duh

but having that Missouri connection when people know how, how fruitful that area is

especially at the wide receiver position. I mean, that, that's gonna be huge

And, you know, I think again, it's just another calculated move by Matt rule

I mean, you know, for, even though he didn't work out here

for example, you know, Bob Wager was, you know, a director of the Under Armour All American game

I mean, you know, stuff like that just calculated moves, uh, um

of people with experience in certain areas and, and in that respect

Mosey is a really good pickup for the staff. And then, uh last thing

um, I wanted to touch on, I think we touched on this a little bit more, but it's kind of got a little more clarity

We're gonna get grass at Lincoln Memorial Stadium and, uh Tony or Troy Dannon

excuse me, confirmed that last week it's gonna come after the 2025 season

So we're gonna play two more years on the turf and then we're gonna move over to a natural grass surface

Matt rule is really one of this, which isn't surprising because coming from the NFL NFL players want this

they don't want to play on turf anymore. I mean, when FIFA is bringing the World Cup over here

every NFL stadium that has field turf will need to install natural grass to be able to host World Cup games

So if, uh, field turf isn't good enough for, you know, the World Cup, then it probably shouldn't be good enough for college football in

the NFL. That's my opinion. Did you see? Sorry. But did you see the

uh, people trying to climb through the vents at the Copa America

uh, game at, uh, I got pretty hard rocks. Yeah, they were

the, the, uh, attendance sold out, the emission was sold out and people were climbing through the vents to try to get into the game

They had to stop the game because there was like a mob of people outside trying to get onto the field and it was a

mess. But anyway, um, I like the idea of grass because I've talked to a lot of running backs

I used to be a manager for a college football team and what they used to tell me

uh, was that, uh, grass, you could cut a little bit more naturally and make quicker moves naturally and it wouldn't necessarily

um, you know, it would kind of feel more natural in terms of moving with the grass

whereas turf, you can kinda get stuck a little bit sometimes that is harder

So it doesn't feel as natural movement. So, you know, al although turf is

you know, probably more ideal in terms of maintenance, I think grass is better for football

I do think grass is better too for health. And, um, it's obviously grass is gonna be more expensive to maintain and I've never seen

Nebraska play, you know, home games in the grass field before in my entire life, even going back to

you know, a lot of the highlights. So it's gonna be different, I think for a lot of Nebraska fans to see the

you know, Lincoln Memorial stadium in turf but, or with natural grass. But, you know

I think about Lambeau field and, and they've got, that's like the most beautiful field. It's a credible surface

I know Nebraska is gonna have the best grass surface in college football, like, I, 100% believe that

So I think it's gonna be awesome. I know some people are kind of freaking out about it

I just, they, they don't like change, but this is gonna be a good change for Nebraska. Well

I think people are thinking of the Purdue grass field, for example

and Purdue is taking a lot of careers so I could kind of see the freak out a little bit

but I don't think that's gonna be the case. I mean, Purdue is an extreme case in the sense that it's very poorly maintained

Um, but I don't think that's gonna be the case here. And

um, the football program is the only one that plays in Memorial

Right. Yeah. Yeah. So you have one sport, whereas if you were playing

I don't know, five sports on one grass surface, then I could see the hesitancy too

But, you know, potential practices and games, uh, you know, for one football program should help

it be maintained a little bit easier. I think one thing people maybe are wondering about

um, the high, they have all the high school football championships and the memorial stadium

which might be a little more difficult with grass, but at the end of the day, I mean

I think it's still gonna be better for the team and, and like I said, it, it's gonna be a beautifully maintained

uh, surface, you know, I believe that it's gonna be, you know, like natural grass in NFL stadiums is freaking amazing

It feels like carpet. So I, I feel like that's what we're gonna have here and I don't know what that's gonna mean for high

school football, but Matt Rubble really wanted it and I think that that's a good move by Troy Danen to support the head coach and

you know, he's the, he's the most important guy in the state of Nebraska right now for what we wanna do

And, uh, so let's keep him happy and keep him here as long as possible. Speaking of Troy Dannen

um there, there was a report out there, um, and it is going to happen that Nebraska is going to offer fans the opportunity to

watch a practice for $25. And that caused a lot of uproar

Speaking of, uh, things that fans have been, you know, in, in an uproar

but I don't understand it either and I want to hear your side because I've talked a lot, but I guess from

you know, I look at it, you know, as a Packers fan they have what's called Family Night and I don't even know if they

charge for that. They might just let you get in free for that. So, I mean, maybe that, maybe there is some of that

but I would pay 25 bucks to go watch the practice. No problem. And not all the time

but this is the fourth practice now. I mean, I do think that Matt rule is gonna be aware that people are paying for this

practice and I think they're gonna see some live scrimmaging. Now, I'm not gonna, if I have to sit there and watch players go through

drills for hours. I mean, personally, myself, I would still enjoy it. You know, hopefully

you know, hopefully they put on a little bit of a more some scrimmaging and stuff, some live pads

but I think they will, I, I don't think they would have sold tickets if they weren't going to do that and you get a

sneak peek at Dylan Viola and this 2024 Nebraska football team, plus you

you know, you get to make a small contribution to the nil program. So I think it's a win, win all around and people who

are upset, just want to find something to be upset about you. And those are the people that complain

We don't have enough nil and this is the perfect way to do that. I mean

and the way I look at it for these types of things. You know, how much is it to go to

You know, for example, a Patriots game, you know, you pay oodles

amount of money for a seat, oodles, amount of money for parking

you know, food, things like that. And, you know, so if even at a Nebraska game

it's probably not cheap. I'm not sure of the exact prices. But if you can watch

you know, your favorite players for $25 and you get to be a memorial and see the team

I, I would say that's a win. I think it's a win. I think a lot of people are gonna enjoy it

Um I'm looking forward to it, I'm sure we'll see lots of great videos and stuff. So I think it's a cool thing

I think they should try to do more of that stuff and, uh, give, give more fans a chance

you know, the fans that don't have season tickets too because it's not easy to get those. So, um

yeah, I think it's a good thing all around and some look, sometimes Nebraska fans just complain too much

you know, that's just the way we are. We've got a lot to complain about, so I understand it. We're grumpy

We haven't been to a bowl game in six years, but don't worry, guys that's gonna end, the streak is gonna end

So, um, we'll have more maybe this year. Yeah, we'll have more

I was gonna say we'll have more on that maybe this week because we haven't done our, our win loss predictions

So we might need to, might need to pull out that episode this week. Danny, I might be drinking the Kool Aid

Uh When we do that, III I might pull a U and have them go like 11 1

I don't know. That's hilarious. That's hilarious. We'll see. Well, next episode

you guys, we're gonna bust out our 2024 win loss prediction. So I'm thinking probably Wednesday

we'll try to have that. Um So check back for that, check out Husk. Good big red.com

Um If you haven't already hit the like and subscribe button and as always go big red, go big red