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Final takeaways from Nebraska football win over Northern Iowa
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Sep 17, 2024
Nebraska football rolled to a 34-3 win over Northern Iowa and covered the spread for the third straight week. Here are our final takeaways, plus a look ahead to Illinois and some thoughts on recruiting. #huskers #GBR
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Hey, Oscar fans, welcome back to the Husker Bay Red YouTube channel
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I'm Chris Peterson, and joining me as always is Danny Gillette. We're back here on a victory Monday after another win by Nebraska football, improving
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to 3-0 for the first time since 2016. So things are trending in the right direction for the Huskers, so we're going to break down
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a Northern Iowa, offer up our final takeaways on the things that we liked and loathed from
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the win on Saturday, and then we're going to look ahead to Illinois. We've got a short week on Friday night and a ranked matchup and a chance for the Huskers
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to get their first ranked win in eight years. So big week for Nebraska football
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Danny, how are you doing on this Monday morning afternoon? I'm doing good
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Wide awake for a Monday afternoon and very happy about the state of Nebraska football
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right now. I know some fans were upset about the victory on Saturday, which is kind of crazy, but we'll
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get into it. But overall, very happy to be 3-0 and looking forward very much so to Friday's matchup
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Should be a fun game. And before we get to breaking down this Northern Iowa win, if you guys haven't already, please
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hit the subscribe button, hit the like button on this video, get to the comment section
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tell us your takeaways from what you saw on Saturday. But yeah, there was some grumbling from Nebraska, from Husker Nation, I guess, Nebraska fans
1:14
about the win. But most people, I thought, were pretty satisfied with it. I mean, we told people, they didn't want to believe us, but we told people this was going
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to be a pretty competitive football game and it kind of played out how I thought it would
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I mean, Northern Iowa had more success offensively than I thought they would, especially on third
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down of the six, third down conversions are still kind of sitting in my craw a little bit
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They had 71 plays compared to 48 for Nebraska. So I mean, that's not a recipe as the Cornhuskers that you want to have repeated every single week
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So I mean, there were some things that could be nitpicky about. So what I said in my takeaways is that Nebraska is playing really well right now
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They're playing really good football. I don't think that they're playing at that championship level right now, but that's a
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really high standard. I'm talking about like winning Big Ten championship level football. So they're not quite there, but they're pretty darn close
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And I think that's a pretty impressive thing to say after three games, you know, especially
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thinking about where this program was last year and a few years ago
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They're pretty darn close with a freshman quarterback to boot. And I think some people, you know, forget that, yeah, Dylan Rayo is really good, but
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he's also still a freshman. And the fact that he's doing this so far this year is not normal
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I think when you look at the body of work he's been able to put in, it's been extremely impressive
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And, you know, I thought that he did his job on Saturday
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He did have that interception, but I mean, that was on Jaylen Lloyd
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Yeah, that was on Jaylen Lloyd. That wasn't on him. So he's got to go get that ball
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That was a perfectly thrown football. And so, yeah, I mean, not to I mean, Matt Rule didn't want to say anything about Jaylen Lloyd
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I mean, Jaylen Lloyd was a bad play, but he, you know, he's a bit, but he needs to go get that ball. That interception is a hundred percent on him
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Dylan put it in a perfect place. He did. And, you know, I think even with all that, you know, I think that we have the, not only
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the quarterback of the future, but the quarterback that can lead us to bigger places right now
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And people have said that Nebraska hasn't been tested yet. And this, that, and the other thing, well, if they want Nebraska to have a test, it's
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certainly going to be on Friday. Yeah, they will get tested on Friday night. And here's some, you know, some, some, some stats that, you know, where Nebraska ranks
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in some certain things, which are very surprising. Completion percentage, ninth in college football, 73.9%
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They are 12th in first downs with 74 first downs, 23rd in turnover margin plus one, and
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then tied for 23rd and third down conversions, 50%. So that's another big indicator of how impactful Dylan Rayola has been on this offense
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I really liked that he got engaged in the running game a little bit. I know it didn't work the second time they got stopped short
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I actually wanted Matt rule to kick a field goal there, but at any rate I'd like that
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they had him engaged in that running game because man, if you could just do that every
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once in a while where the defense has to think like, man, maybe Dylan could keep it here
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in that zone. Read that. Just if the defense has to respect your quarterback run game at all, it opens things up for the
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other guys. And you know, I liked how they use Dylan. I thought he played really well
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I thought he played really well too. And I thought, you know, I thought that the running backs did their job
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You know, I understand we didn't rush it as much as we probably should have, but you know
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I feel like Emmitt Johnson, you know, that touchdown run at the end signifying that he's
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very much still a part of the rotation. And I know Dante Dowdell is the starter, but Johnson showed that he's, that he's not going
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to go away and that he's still very much a part of, you know, what Nebraska wants to
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do in terms of running the football. And then, you know, they even got some non-running backs involved with Ja'Cory Barney with that
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nice touchdown run, I believe it was from 18 yards out. He showed off his speed right there and he's such a dynamic freshman
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He truly is. And he was able to show that again on Saturday. So there were a lot of good things
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And you know, like you said, we didn't think that this was going to be a 60 to 10 game
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We thought it was going to be a lot closer than that. And you know, overall, there were some things that Nebraska needed to clean up, but I thought
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that this was a good win nonetheless, because truth be told, I think this Northern Iowa
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team is very tough team. You know, they know what they wanted to do. They wanted to run the football and they, they did that
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And I think they had a, you know, extremely physical offensive line. And you know, I think people were saying that Nebraska didn't do a good enough job of getting pressure
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Well, I think the Northern, Northern Iowa offensive line was pretty good
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You know, that's a, that's a tip of the cap to them for sure. Yeah
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And I mean, it's, you know, you look a lot of their completions, they were shorter, shorter completions
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So it's not like, you know, they seem like to me, they realized that, Hey, we have to
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get the ball out quickly. And Nebraska had missed some tackles. And like you, I think you pointed out, you know, they had like some of those curls and
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comeback routes, some of those shorter timing routes they had trouble with. So I mean, that's, that's something that, yeah, I mean, Illinois may try to take advantage of
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And the thing I think that really hurt Nebraska as well was the quarterback running. And so that's definitely going to be a focal point this week with Altemeyer there at Illinois
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He's definitely somebody who can run the football as well as throw it. So the thing I like to know about the defense is they, they, you know, Nebraska is not a
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I wouldn't call it a bend, but don't break defense, but they did that a little bit in this game
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And every time they needed to, you know, whether it was the Malcolm Hartsog interception, they came up with a stop
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I realized it was in the fourth quarter late, but they still, you know, made the plays they needed to
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So they held to a field goal and that's the bet. I mean, yeah, you know, you don't want to give up eight third and fourth down conversions
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or whatever, and you know, as many rushing yards as they did, but they still gave up
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they allowed three points. And at the end of the day, that's what matters. And that's what good defenses do
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Even if they give up big plays, they recover and get stopped. And that's what the Huskers did on Saturday night
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So I can't fault their defense for how they played. No, I can't either. Just say they seem to work on the tackling a little bit more
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And, you know, I think, I think then they'll be good to go
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They did struggle tackling a little bit, but I honestly think a lot of that too, was their
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running backs were just so skilled. I mean, Ty Edwards is a very skilled football player and they had another good running back
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in there whose name I can't remember off the top of my head, but I think a lot of the missed
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tackles, you know, when they tried to tackle the running backs was just good running back play
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And, you know, I think tackling is something that they're going to need to work on and
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they're going to need to be better on on Friday, but I thought people put too much of an emphasis on, you know, the tackling itself, because I just think it was just, you know, those
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were good running backs that were brought to the table. Yeah. And I think, you know, rule mentioned the tackling as well
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Something that he saw and they'll clean it up and they'll get better at it. I'm not worried about this team's tackling
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That's not that's I'm not concerned about that. I mean, just look at the way that they cover and this defense will be fired up on Friday night
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So that's going to be an exciting matchup. But overall, what's truly crazy, though, is Nebraska got 48 plays offensively and they
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turned that into, you know, 423 yards. I mean, I know it would have been nice to put a 50 spot up there on the board or a 40 spot
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Maybe they maybe they could have if they didn't have the interception and they didn't have the turnover on downs
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But even those drives, the interception drive was was a one play drive and it was the right
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read, like I said. But beyond that, I think the shortest drive that they had, even that didn't end up in
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points was six plays for 41 yards. So I mean, they were incredibly efficient
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The passing game, you know, just it just seems like Dylan Rayola never makes a mistake
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I know he had the interception, but that was the correct play. And it just seems like, you know, whether it's the right read, the right throw, he just
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I just trust him with the football. And you know that he's a big reason why Nebraska is winning games
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I mean, if you don't beat yourself and if you have a really good defense, you know
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you can win a lot of football games. I think we've seen that. And I mean, look at Iowa
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We've seen Iowa win a lot of games with just absolute trash at quarterback
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And you know, you look at last year, I felt like Nebraska had a lot of those same characteristics
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in terms of the defense, the running game, you know, all that type of stuff. And now not only did we get like a game managing type quarterback, I think we have a quarterback
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that's as good as anybody in the Big Ten. So and then this gets like super elite
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And I'm very excited about the prospects of, you know, this defense and, you know, that
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quarterback over the next few years. Finally, have complimentary football, which is something we haven't had in years
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And that's always a good thing to have. And, you know, when you look at, like you said, his decision making, and I just look
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at his poise. He doesn't panic in the pocket. You know, if something doesn't go right, he's very level headed
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He's calm. You know, and he's a and that's what the leaders of a football team do
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They don't they the team goes how the leader goes. And Riola, you know, I'm sure he's nervous to some degree, but on the field, he seems
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unshakable and he seems very confident in what he wants to do. And that's just a that's just a, you know, kind of notch in the belt for him
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Yeah, and it was good to see Carter Nelson get into the end zone, you know, in that 24
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yard route. And yeah, I mean, four catches, 48 yards like this guy
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You know, it's just laughable to me. I remember the people who, you know, said, oh, Carter Nelson's not going to be able to
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make an impact for like two years. And, you know, he's going to have to learn how to play 11 man football like football
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ain't that hard, man. When you can run and catch and do the things that Carter Nelson can do like, yeah, maybe
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he's not going to have the full array of the the playbook, but he doesn't need it. Just give him a few plays here and there
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He's clearly I mean, that's like with Corey Barney. He's clearly one of the most explosive athletes on this team
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So I love the fact that, you know, like Pete Carroll, when they were great at USC, like
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they didn't mess around. If you were the best players, a freshman, you got in there and played right away. So I love it
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And I mean, just thinking about this offense with with Jalen Lloyd, who caught a 59 yard
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pass to Corey Barney, Carter Nelson, all here for multiple years. I do want to see I still want to see a little bit more out of Nair and Banks, but I feel
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like they're also getting a lot of coverage attention, too. So that's the thing with with Biola, is he you know, if you take away his first second
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option, he'll go to the third. He'll go to the fourth. He'll go to the fifth. He has that ability
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And it's just been really fun to watch this team operate. And I guess we I was going to wait a little bit to touch on this
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But with the Matt Ludwig, he did get projected to Nebraska. And I have to think that, you know, seeing Carter Nelson do what he did Saturday night
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plus the atmosphere. But I feel like the Carter Nelson thing had to help with that recruitment. Yeah, I mean, Matt Ludwig is so dynamic
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He played three positions in high school. I believe it was linebacker, wide receiver and tight end if I'm not mistaken
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So he's quarterback. He's he's played quarterback and running back, so he's done a lot
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He also plays basketball. He's a jack of all trades. And I know did did you say that you that you covered him in high school a little bit
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Yeah, I've covered him a few times. Yeah, this is junior year. So I watched him play twice in person last year
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Hopefully I'll get a chance to see him this year. But but yeah, he's a he's really exciting player
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I definitely think he's a big a better prospect than Quinn Clark
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I really like Quinn Clark, too. But this this guy's got it all
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Oh, I wonder what's going on with Quinn Clark. Not that I expect him to necessarily be an All-American
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but I haven't heard his name at all. Maybe he's redshirting. I think it's going to redshirt
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But I heard quite a bit about him, actually. I heard some really positive buzz about him in fall camp
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So, yeah, yeah. Just like I'm not in terms of games. No, I mean, I just think where they're at with in terms of the depth chart
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I don't know if he's gotten in yet. I mean, you have to think what I call McMorris
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There's just a lot of bodies at wide receiver. But I think that he maybe next year will start being a factor
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But yeah, another guy from Montana, Matt Ludwig, projected here to Nebraska to 52 overall by Steve Wilfong
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So that would be, you know, another nice pickup. And they haven't got any commitments yet in that 2026 class
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But, you know, Isaac Jensen, Jace Reynolds and now, you know, Matt Ludwig all projected to Nebraska, Michael Clayton, too
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So they they have some really strong roots building in that 2026 class already
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And, you know, aside from recruiting, one of the things I want to talk about
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was Matt Rule said in his postgame press conference that he would address why Micah Mizuka was not on the field on Saturday
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He Mizuka started against UTEP in Colorado, but he was not on the field Saturday
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So I'm wondering if it's an off the field thing or something. But I would pay attention to that closely because I thought he did
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pretty well the first two games on the line. Yeah, I believe Henry Lutosky replaced him
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And I think Lutosky is fine, but he's not. He's not quite the mauler that Micah Mizuka is
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And I do think that he was having a really positive impact on the running game. So I will be interested to see what Matt Rule says about that probably today
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I'm not sure if he's meeting with the media today. I'm assuming he is. He usually does
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So hopefully he'll be available Friday night. I mean, this is going to be a knockout dragout fight, I think, on Friday night
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with Illinois. It always is. Yeah. Before we get to that, though, let's get to our liked and loathed
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what we liked and what we loathed from this 34 to three win for Nebraska
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And I do have to say, you know, great teams, good teams win. Great teams cover the spread
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Nebraska is three and now against the spread. So when's the last time that we could say that
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I mean, there's we've said that a lot already this year. You know, the last time we've been ranked last time they've started three
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you know, it's been a long time for a lot of these things. But so I'll start, I guess, in one thing I liked
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I already mentioned it here earlier, but was the offensive efficiency. I mean, 48 plays to only get 48 plays and turn that into 423 yards
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Thirty four points really only had one bad possession, I would I would say, which was the interception
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And that wasn't you know, it was just kind of a bombshell to really even hurt you
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So I mean, the fact that they put together a drive on every single possession, like their offense, just it felt like, you know, when I'm playing Madden
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and I got it rolling like an all pro level, you know, like they just didn't seem like there was anything that northern Iowa could do to stop them
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that Nebraska could only stop themselves, which is what happened. And so I feel really good about where the offense is going into Big Ten play
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I definitely do, too. And, you know, one of the things I liked was the play of the freshman
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Carter Nelson, Ja'Cory Barney. Again, we saw Vincent Shavers out there. We saw let's see, I'm trying to think of some others
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There there were a couple more that I saw out there, I think I saw
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he's not a freshman, but a newcomer in Vince Genitone. I saw him out there
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So I liked the impact that the freshmen were able to make. And it gave me hope that these guys will be able to be a huge part of the future
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One thing I love, which I also kind of mentioned already, wasn't a big fan of the third down defense that has got to get better this week
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Six third down conversions to fourth down conversions allowed. That's why northern Iowa was able to keep the ball for 71 plays
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And it's fine that it happened this game. But if you allow Big Ten teams to run 71 plays on you, it's going to be
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you know, if they have a 23 play advantage on you, that's not going to work out well. So the third down defense has to improve this week, which I think that it will
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Yeah, I think that it will. And one of the things that I kind of loathed was
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the time of possession. Northern Iowa had 38 minutes of possession. Nebraska only had 21
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And I understand that that that was based a lot on northern Iowa's offense
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But at the same time, if you let these long drives continue to happen and wear down your defense, that's not a recipe for success
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Yeah, absolutely. Got to get off the field on third down. One thing that I liked was the Tristan Alvano field goals
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And I predicted that he would make a couple before the game. They were both, you know, 31 yards and in
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So they weren't long field goals, but he missed a 31 yarder last week. And I feel like with kicking, it's a lot like, you know, free throw shooting
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or putting or, you know, I compared it to like a basketball player
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who, you know, struggling from the field. Sometimes you need to make that free throw or make a layup
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and then you get that guy suddenly gets going. So I'm hoping that that's the case for Tristan Alvano
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He saw the kicks go in. And now when he steps back for like a 45 yarder, he's going to knock it through
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Isaac Gifford and John Bullock were all over the field. And I get that the other two people are not necessarily one thing that I liked
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But the play of those two Gifford and Bullock returning veterans, if you will
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I believe Gifford had ten total tackles and Bullock had nine, if I'm not mistaken
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So I liked how they were able to step up and, you know, continue
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to be those veteran leaders of the defense. And I've always loved the way both of them have played
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They're just scrappy. They fly around. They fly the football. So I really liked how they, you know, continued to show their
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their great play style on Saturday. So the last thing that I loathed was the officiating
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the lack of holding calls specifically. And this was a problem dating back to last season
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with like Nash Hutmaker and Ty Robinson. And I get like I know the old saying, like you could call holding on every play
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but if they hold, you have to call it quite a bit. And I feel like that the Nebraska defensive line is getting punished
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for being so good because they're so good. They're getting held all the time that refs just have stopped calling it
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This happened in Michigan last year, but they were just constantly held and it just wasn't called
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But I mean, you can see it Nash, Jamari Butler, the Jersey grabs like at some point you have got to throw because honestly, there's no
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letting the offensive line hold. That's the biggest advantage in football. You see it all the time in the NFL
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You know, it opens up things for running backs. If the quarterback has time like you cannot give the offense that advantage
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and officials continue to do it against Nebraska's defense. And it's really frustrating
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One of the things I loved was the fact that Marcus Satterfeld
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continued to pass late in the game when he could have just probably run out the clock and utilize the running game a little bit more
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It's not an end of the world type scenario, but he likes to pass the football
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No matter what. I mean, we saw it last year and Matt Roe kind of had to reel him in a little bit
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But I would just like to see a little bit more running late in the game we don't need to pass and we're up 34 to three
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I get you have Dylan Riola and I get that you want to continue to move your offense
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but I'd love to see you running the football a little bit more. So I kind of load that on Saturday
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I'd love to kind of have, you know, the running backs kind of take over
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And, you know, those last few minutes of the game. Yeah, I agree with you
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But overall, I liked how everything worked on the offense. So really quick here, the last couple of minutes before we move ahead
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we are going to cover Illinois on Thursday much more in depth. We'll have our predictions and all that stuff
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But looking ahead to this matchup right now, Illinois is number 24
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We talked about this. If they won, they were probably going to get ranked because, you know
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sorry, your B.C. Eagles didn't quite get it done at Missouri. So it was close, though
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They're a good team. They're going to be a team to watch the A.C. But Luke, Luke Altmeyer is a guy you got to watch for Illinois
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Six touchdowns, zero interception, 69 percent completion percentage. And, you know, this offense is really, you know, doing some good things
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averaging 32 points per game. They're allowing just eight points per game. So the Brett Bielema defense working well, they're averaging four point
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two or four point four yards per rushing attempt. So Illinois running the football pretty well
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I'm not sure. Take a look at just who they've played so far. Eastern Illinois, they did beat Kansas, Central Michigan
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So pretty similar schedule to Nebraska so far. But the Huskers have opened as a nine point favorite
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So what are your what are your initial reactions to that? I think it's going to be a little bit closer than nine
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I think Illinois is a very good team. One of the guys that I've kept my on my eye on as I've kind of reviewed
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Illinois this week is Pat Bryant. I mean, he's coming off a game against Central Michigan
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you know, where where where he caught seven passes for one hundred two yards
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And then in the opener, he caught, you know, five passes for sixty three yards
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So he has dynamic playmaking ability at the wide receiver position. And, you know, the secondary for Nebraska hasn't been terrible
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but they've had some leaks. And so I'm curious to see how they defend a guy like Pat Bryant
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And he's going to be a player that I'm watching and making sure that Nebraska locks up
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Yeah. And on the defensive side of the ball, Illinois, six interceptions already this season, Xavier Scott with three, Miles Scott with two
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Torrey Cox Jr. with one. So they will test Dylan Rayola and the pass offense for Nebraska
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who's done a great job of not turning it over. So it's going to be a great matchup
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I wish it wasn't on Friday night, but it is what it is, I guess. I wish the Purdue game wasn't on Peacock
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Like, what are we doing here? I know. And I know I complained about Peacock last week, but I'm going to complain about Peacock until until kickoff
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So probably even during the game. So, you know, it's interesting for Illinois
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They always are not always, but the last couple of years, they produced some really, really good corners and really
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really good secondary players. So it seems like that tradition is continuing this year
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It is. And we'll we'll get into that more on Thursday when we talk about Illinois
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But yeah, it's going to be a fascinating matchup. I definitely think it's the biggest challenge for this Nebraska football team
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So come check out our episode on Thursday. We'll do our keys and our predictions for Illinois
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Again, if you haven't already hit the like button, hit the subscribe button
22:10
And as always, go big red. Go big red
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