Preview and prediction: Nebraska football vs. Purdue

Hey, Oscar fans

Welcome back to the Husker Big Red podcast and YouTube channel. My name is Chris Peterson

And joining me as always is Danny Gillette. And we're here to talk about some Nebraska and Purdue

We got another big game coming up for the Huskers trying to get closer to bowl eligibility

And yeah, I guess let's get into it, Danny, Nebraska and Purdue

I mean, what are your first impressions, I guess, at this matchup before we get to like the keys or, you know, all that other stuff in our predictions

Just what are your first impressions of Nebraska and Purdue? It's not going to be an easy game

I mean, you look, you know, I know it's different players from last year

but Purdue has always seemed to give Nebraska a hard time. You remember last year the overtime loss with Aiden O'Connell

jukeying Ty Robinson out of his sneakers, and, you know, it was a very offensive-minded game

I believe that was the game that Trey Palmer went absolutely bonkers. What game did Trey Palmer not go absolutely bonkers

but, you know, Purdue always is a tough opponent. They play hard and they play Nebraska

You know, they're a solid foundational team. It's kind of like Northwestern

They don't commit too many penalties and, you know, they know what they do well. And that's going to be important, you know

to kind of remember as Nebraska, honestly, is still kind of trying to find themselves

especially offensively, you know, early in the season. Yeah, when you look at this matchup

I think at least it started Nebraska's a two and a half point favorite, you know, which tells you it's pretty even money, you know, in terms of how, you know, the odds makers see it. And yet Purdue, they have been kind of a weird team this year. They're two and five, one and three in the big ten, but they did beat Illinois by like 25 points. I mean, they really pounded Illinois. They beat Virginia Tech with their other power five win. They lost late against Fresno State and they got blown out by Ohio State. I'm forgetting what their other loss was. But

It has been an interesting season. Hudson Card. They have Ryan Walters from the Illinois defensive coordinator last year's

Their head coach, Hudson Card to the quarterback came over from Texas. They're running an air raid type of system similar to Wisconsin

but they do like to run the football with Devin Mockaby. Fans remember, he had 178 yards against us last year against Nebraska

So slowing him down is going to be important. I do remember, yeah. Yeah. And what's weird about Purdue is they've got 20 touchdown

Card has seven touchdown passes, but they have 13 rushing touchdowns. So when they get near the red zone, they do really like to run the football

And something else we were mentioning, you know, off the air is this is a defense that, you know, is very good at getting after the quarterback

They're third in the big 10 in total sacks. Nebraska's second just for reference point

And they rank 19th in the country. And we all know that, you know, obviously the offensive line is going to be a topic of conversation

So are those guys, you know, how do you think that that offensive line is going to hold up? against Purdue this week

You know, I don't have a good feeling about it. I don't like being negative

but I don't have a good feeling about, you know, Nebraska being able to hold Purdue

I think, honestly, offensively, we're going to have to get a lot of quick passes out

when we pass the football. And yeah, running the football is our strength

but I don't know how well we're going to be able to do it against, you know, this Purdue defensive line

with the offensive players that we have. Now, if there's one, you know

upside to this, that, you know, we're seeing freshmen develop in real time

but a lot of them have been put in tough situations already, and that's going to be the same story for the offensive line

It's interesting because what Purdue, I mean, they aren't a great defensive team

They're allowing 395 yards a game. They're ranked 100th in scoring defense

They allow 4.2 yards per rushing attempt, which isn't a great number

and they allow actually 240 passing yards per game. So their defense is not good

They have done a decent job of like taking the ball away

But it's interesting because Nebraska obviously, you know, you don't look at Nebraska as a team that's well equipped to take advantage of the past

I guess the, you know, the past defense of Purdue. But, you know, we'll see

I can't, I think that Heinrich Arborig is obviously going to play better than he did last week

You know, he had a couple of early interceptions. I still have to give him credit because he played well the rest of the game

He didn't let that kind of impact his confidence. he hit Malachi Coleman for the big touchdown

So, I mean, I think the game plan is going to be very similar. You know, pound the rock, run Harburg, run Emmett Johnson, run Anthony Grant

But yeah, the offensive line is going to be interesting. You know, a lot of people wanted Teddy Prohashka to play

and now we're going to get to see, you know, that opportunity over Turner Corkman

I thought Justin Evan Jenkins, you know, acquitted himself pretty well last week

He did really well, I thought, yeah. So I'm hoping that, you know, he can do a good job at guard. and I've always thought that Henry Lovtoski, you know, did pretty well when he played in

I know he started a couple games last year. And Nordinole's injury, if I'm not, it's a few weeks, which obviously we've only got like five

So, I mean, you know, hopefully he'll come back. But I guess my biggest concern now is like you can't lose any more guys right now because after that you're going to be looking at playing, you know, some of these freshmen, which maybe they're ready to play

I don't know. But, yeah, the depth is now. becoming a concern

Well, I mean, the thing is, is if, and I say if we get to a bowl game, right

then that'll push us out into December, and that'll give these guys a couple weeks to heal and continue to heal

So maybe we could see them at some point later than the season if we make a bowl game. I mean, for Newelly, obviously, you know, Corkrens are for the season

and, you know, some of these guys are for the season, but this will give a chance for the line to get healthy

Should we make a bowl game and have those extra practice? and things like that. So, I mean, I think it's going to all depend on, you know, how

how we play these last couple games. And I think for Nebraska offensively, you know

one of the things we're going to have to do is get Harburg out of the pocket. And, you know

Satterfield loves to, offensive coordinator, Marcus Satterfield, loves to start the game by throwing the

football, you know, and, you know, getting wide receivers involved early. And I think for this game

we're going to have to play it a bit more conservative because it's almost like a tail of two halves

I've said this throughout the entire season. He likes to pass the football early

and then we kind of stall and then he finds his groove

and then we get back to what we do best. So I'm hoping we don't have a repeat of last week

because last week you remember we started passing the ball early and that was two interceptions

So I'm hoping for a little bit better game plan to start off the game

And I understand that they want to put players you know they want to make players uncomfortable in the sense that they want to try things to help them you know get better as a unit But you know the slow starts we lucky it hasn cost us too badly yet

Yeah, if you, if Nebraska comes out and for and gives Purdue the ball inside the 30 twice

you know, this week, it's not going to be three nothing, you know, so, I mean, Hudson Card is

excuse me, he's capable of, you know, taking advantage of, you know, the defense

So that's definitely something to watch. And yeah, the offensive line, I think it is going to be important to run the ball

And I get like with Satterfield, you know, wanting to come out and not, you know

trying to catch the defense off guard a little bit. But, you know, just go with what has got yet to this point

And that's Heinrich Harbor running the football and whoever's really at running back

Because, I mean, Gabe Urban, Grant, and Emmett Johnson have all really found success

I mean, the biggest issue has not been yardage. It's been taking care of the ball

So, I mean, that's another thing is that. Purdue these two teams

Nebraska's law Nebraska has fumbled the ball 19 times Purdue's fumbled the ball 13 times

So they both rank outside the top Nebraska's fumbled it more than anybody

Produced like a hundred twenty third so And the weather's going to be bad so it's like

This ball could be all over the field on Saturday And we're lucky it hasn't caused us more of the fumbles

We've been able to recover a lot of them So I mean you know I think you've brought up a big name

You know one of my probably key players Emmett Johnson he's been really

impressive and I know the running back depth is not strong and I know it's been a beaten up position

but Emmett Johnson has really taken advantage of the opportunity. He rushed for over 70 yards last

week and I've been really impressed with his decisiveness and his quickness through the hole and

you know he doesn't dance. He just runs straight and you know he's able to pick up nice yards that

way so I'm looking for another big game from him. Yeah I have been impressed with him. I thought um you know

But Nebraska was missing something, not running Anthony Grant a little bit more

But he did a really great job last week. I think he had the only, you know, explosive run maybe in the game

Harburg might have had one too. But I know he had a plus 20-yard run last week, Emmett Johnson, which I thought was a really good sign

And, you know, but yeah, all these guys, I think, need to take care of the ball. And Matt Rule, you know, I don't know if you saw his halftime speech against Northwestern

But, I mean, you know, he was talking about fumbling the ball like four times

And, you know, is that who the team we're going to be? is that who we are? And at some point, you know, these guys have got to get this figured

I mean, it's been going, I mean, it was an issue in the spring game. I mean, I don't know if you got, if you remember that, but there was fumbles in the spring game

So it's been, I mean, it was a constant talking point during fall camp

Like, I don't know. And I mean, as a coaching staff, I don't know what else you do

I mean, I'm sure they've gone through every drill possible to keep these guys, you know, protecting the football

And so that's why, I mean, sometimes as a coach, it can be frustrating because even if you do all the things you think you're supposed to do, you know

these things are still happening. I'm not sure what the deal is, but hopefully it was just like a weird thing

And we have like, you know, three fumbles for the rest of the way. And that number will kind of even itself out a little bit

I do think that that is part of it, you know, just like a lot of weird, weird, you know, fumbles and things like that

But you can't in this game, this is one of the games where Nebraska can't lose the turnover battle

I mean, they just, they've got to take care of it. And they have to be able to, you know, if we're talking about the biggest keys, I just think it's, I think Nebraska has to run for about 100

50 to 200 they have to win the rushing battle i mean that's the formula for this team outrun the

opponent by about 100 yards you know sack their quarterback a bunch of times and don't give up any

i mean that's that that's been the formula and i think it can work again this saturday and on the fumble thing you know you said you hope it's kind of just a weird thing i mean it's

been a weird thing for seven weeks so how i i don't know if it's a weird thing anymore so much as

it's a communication issue or you know bad snaps because some of the snaps are bad i i i will

say just watching some of the snaps are bad, but I do hope they get that figured out

And, you know, I think another big key for me is to try to, you know, again, to make the most

of your red zone opportunities because you're not going to get, I don't think you're going

to get a ton of red zone opportunities in this game, both due our inability to kind of move the

football consistently and, you know, the Purdue defense. But, you know, trying to at least, you know, convert field goals, get into field goal range

because I think Elvano, Tristan Alvano is getting his confidence back. That 45-yarder, he kicked into the wind that was an absolute laser

made me believe that he's found his groove again. Yeah, man, that thing looked good for my 55

Like I was like, man, if he was lining up for the Alex Henry 57-yarder against Colorado

that would have been good. Yeah, that was an absolute bullet. That was really good to see

And it is another point about this game that I mentioned in my five things to watch

is that Purdue, you know, and this year is three of nine and field goal attempts. They have a couple of kickers that they try to use

So they're three of nine. Tristan's four of eight. So, I mean, in what could be a close game, I think that could really have an impact

And, you know, I know that Tristan has struggled a little bit this year

But I think, you know, if it comes down to him having to make a big kick at Lincoln Memorial

Stadium Saturday, I feel pretty confident that he'll deliver. So I think Nebraska, you know, has an edge in the kicking game there if it comes down to

a field goal. And I actually got a message from one of our longtime listeners, and he said a topic

we could address maybe going forward is who is the most important player on this team? I honestly

think it might be Alvano. And I'm not saying that to exaggerate, but I mean, you know, Harburg

obviously him playing well is important, but as far as conversions, like if we can just get into

field goal range, you know, Alvano's, you know, consistency and stuff like that, I think he is probably

one of the most important players moving forward. Yeah, that's an interesting question

We were the most important players on the team. Like, who could Nebraska least go without

I would, you know, honestly, like, I would say Robinson and Nash Hutchmaker

I would say those, I can't separate those two, but I think they have been the most impact

Because, like, if you look at why this defense is dominating and it's those two guys more

than anything. And, you know, they're both, you know, like Ty Robinson, I mean, Clemson, we had to

beat Clemson out for him. Like, there was a lot of guys that wanted him. And he's playing, you know, he's playing like the recruit that we thought he was going to be same with

with Nash. So, I mean, yeah, Tristan's going to be a really important player. And I'm like

Harvard, you could say too. But, you know, if he went down, you know, I do think that Jeff

Sims could find a way to be productive for this team. But like, if you lose Nash or you lose

Ty Robinson, there's not, there's nobody else on this roster, at least right now that can do what those

guys can do we were wondering last year like why why did we beat out you know clumson for robinson he not playing like a clemson type of recruit Terrence Knight again we given him props on this you know show before He done a great job with the defensive line and getting the most of the players

And now we see why Clemson wanted Ty Robinson and the entire Nebraska staff flew out to recruit him back in the day

Now we're seeing the importance of Nash Hutchmacher. And, you know, he is absolutely dominating on the line

So as much as I just said, Alvano, I do agree with you that

you know, Hutchmacker Robinson are going to be very important moving forward

And, you know, I think, I think, I think this team can win games without Harburg being

the main star. We've kind of seen that at points. And so I do agree that he's important

but, you know, I think we can, I think, you know, guys like Emma Johnson and, you know

Anthony Grant, they can help us win games without Harburg doing a ton, which is a good thing

And, you know, with Terrence Knighton, you know, good old pot roast, you do, you know, you bring up a really good point about, you know, guys that are playing much better than they did before Ty Robinson, Nash

But then look at the job he's done getting these young defensive linemen to play

I mean, Cameron Leonard, a principal human malignant. I know that he's, you know, more of a jack now

But, I mean, Riley Van Popple. Yeah, Riley Van Popple. I'm trying to think of the other

There's another guy. Rayquan Buckley who probably would step in if Nash, you know, he actually has played

you know, I shouldn't say that there would be that big of a, I mean, I do think there would be

a drop off, obviously, but there just has been, you know, Terrence Knighton has done a really

good job and maybe outside of all the assistant coaches, like, you know, probably only Tony

White has impressed me more than him, you know, and so, yeah, but, you know, you talk about

um, the formula for Nebraska. I mean, in the heyday, you know, was offensive and defensive

line playing well and the D line is getting there and the old line is getting there too

And the thing with Teddy, you know, I'm really curious to see what happens with him because I think

there could be some rough points to start. But this kid is a top 100 talent and he does have a lot of, you know, he's got the long

arms and the length and he's got a lot of things that, you know, you would look for in a prototypical

left tackle. So hopefully, you know, like the light comes on for him and everything works out because when he, when he's

been healthy and played. He's been effective. And you know what? You mentioned the offensive line

and I thought they played really well last week. I've been quick to dunk on them all the time

quite honestly, but I thought they played really well last week. And I thought, especially on that

you know, kind of belly pass to Malachi Coleman, I almost said McCle Hardeman, but he might as well

have been with that speed. You know, I think the belly pass with the clean pocket and the nice

protection gave Harburg time to throw and you have to wonder if maybe play action should be

more part of this offense going forward because, you know, I thought the offensive line did a really

good job of protecting and, you know, giving Harburg time to throw

And, you know, I thought they did a good job throughout the entire game of just making sure

that Harburg was able to get the ball off. So I did see some improvement last week and I have

seen some improvement overall this season. Yeah, well, I definitely agree with that in the play

action, I would like to see, you know, some more play action, you know, shots

I've been, I've been calling for it for weeks to get a shot to Malachi Coleman. I finally got one

They finally listened to you, Chris. And touchdown, you know, like, just the kid can run, man

There's not, you know, he's got, Malachi Coleman has abilities that you can't teach

You know, he's six, five, and he runs four, four. Like, that's not, I mean, like, you, you make that up in a lab

Like, this guy's a freak. Like, get him the ball. And so, yeah, I just think, too, eventually

you know, the more, at some point, that's why the running game is important, right

Because I mean, you do have to get big plays in the passing game, but at some point, if a team is just getting four or five, six yards on you, like you have to start loading the box up

And that's where Nebraska can take these play option, you know, play action passes and take those shots

And I think just, you know, even if it doesn't work, if you take one or two of those a game to Coleman or Doss or Jalen Lloyd or, you know, whoever, I think it just, it opens things up where the defense now has to respect that

I mean, Nebraska hadn't taken a deep shot in a little while. So I was glad to see that for a couple of reasons

Yeah, and it allows the receivers to utilize one of their biggest strengths, speed

And, you know, you recruit these guys, partly because of their speed. And quite honestly, speed has been a big selling point and a big focus for this coaching staff

I mean, we heard it in the introductory press conference back in December last year

And so, you know, utilizing their speed and utilizing their playmaking ability

I mean, you look at some of the other freshman wide receivers. Zachariah Branch is making a big impact out at USC

So, you know, just getting these wider series involved and continuing to develop the position

I mean, developing the position is not something that, you know, previous coaching staffs have done real well

So, you know, just continuing to develop, you know, this group will set us up nicely for the future

So looking at this Purdue game, you know, not that we have to do like three keys or anything

but what's one thing that you think Nebraska has to do to win this game

Red zone conversion, same thing as last week. I mean, you know, we've shown that we can get down the field

but making the most of the opportunities, aka touchdowns, I believe, is, you know, going to be crucial in this game

because we don't know how many chances we're going to get. And, you know, I don't expect Purdue's offense to be as stagnant as

Northwestern was at times last week. So just red zone conversions, again, you know, make the important plays, not the sexy ones

And, you know, that's what we've seen from the offense quite honestly so far this year. And that's going to have to continue on Saturday

Yeah, red zone efficiency is going to be huge and we'll have to, you know, improve

I think the biggest key for me is just that running battle

You know, if Nebraska can hold Purdue. under 100 yards and can rush for close to 200, I think they're going to win the game

And that's, I know that's like a, you know, that's not like a bold statement if you, you know

outrush somebody by 100 yards, but that's what they've done almost every single

I mean, outside of the Michigan game, they've done that almost every single game. I mean, they did it against, they did it to Illinois

They did it to Minnesota. They did it to Colorado. I mean, Louisiana Tech, Northwest

I mean, they've done it six out of seven games. So it's not like, you know, a far-fetched thing to say, like, oh, they're going to outrush Purdue

180 to 90. But that's what needs to happen. like 180 to 200 to 90 yards

And I think, you know, if you force Purdue to, you know, into longer down situations that will let our pass rush you know be more effective And if we running the ball I think that will limit their pass rush And I think that the key for Nebraska to winning the game run to win and to stop the run

which to me has been two of our biggest strengths this season. And a lot of times if you win the rushing battle, you also win the clock battle

And controlling the clock, I think, is going to be an important factor as well

So, I mean, like you said, as long as they rush the football, then we'll definitely be in this game

Do you have any X-factors for this game? Emmett Johnson. I mean, you talk about rushing the football

Emmett Johnson, I think he's going to be an X-factor player. And then I think defensively, I think, you know, Polar Bear and Ty Robinson, again

they're going to need to show up again. And, you know, they're going to need to get to the passer

And, you know, that just kind of made me think of players who have really flourished this year

That didn't last year. Omar Brown. I mean, Omar Brown in that secondary

have really played at a high level. So make their job easier and don't necessarily rely all on them

Make sure to get the Hudson Card because card is a pretty good quarterback. Yeah, the secondary has been really good this year

I mean, Omar Brown, like you said, has just been night and day from, you know, makes you like, why the hell wasn't this guy playing last year

I was just going to say it boggles my mind. He didn't get playing time last year. I remember doing like the spring previews a couple months ago and like his stats were so minimal

and he only appeared in like this many games. And I think it just goes back to the staff

putting the best players on the field this year. And he's shown that he's more than earned it for sure

Yeah. So one of my X factors, though, is going to be Malcolm Hartzog

You know, I don't know if he's going to be, he's been playing some corner and safety this week

And I just feel like, you know, he hasn't, I don't think he's got an interception yet this year

Maybe he has one. Maybe he got one against Colorado. I'm going to look that up for you right now while you're talking

But in any rate, I did expect him to, you know, make more plays this year

I know he hasn't been, you know, playing quite as much cornerback. But I just think with all the passing that Purdue's going to do

and I think we're going to slow down the running game, I think he's going to get some chances. And I just, you know, he intercepted a pass against Purdue last year

And I think he's going to do the same thing this year. I think he's going to find a way to make a big play for Nebraska on Saturday

And I kind of like the idea if I'm not playing court as much as year, because as athletic as he is, his, you know, size kind of

does hinder him a little bit in certain situations. I mean, he's 5'9, and, you know, that's not necessarily the best size for a corner

but that athleticism makes up for it. And now he has 29 tackles this year, and it says zero interceptions according to ESPN

although I could have sworn he got one. But maybe he got overturned or could have been somebody else I was thinking of

but I think maybe he did get one overturned. I think it might have been the Illinois game, because I don't know Newsom got one overturned, but

Yeah, I'm trying to think. But at any rate, sounding like the guy from Bugs Bunny there for a second, anyway

But at any rate, Malcolm Hartsog is due for interception, and I think there's a chance he could get one on Saturday

He had five tackles last week, which was his highest amount of the season so far

And, you know, I think his athleticism allows him to really get after the offensive

of players and, you know, if he's not playing corner and then, you know, his speed on the outside

when he is playing corner allows him to disrupt wide receivers. So he has been, you know

one of Nebraska's better defensive recruits in quite some time. And we were wondering if he

would be able to make as big an impact in his sophomore season as he did last year. And he's

he's become a staple of the defense now. So it's good to see that development kind of really

kind of accelerate a bit. Yeah, and exciting that he'll be back next year, too

So, all right, Danny. It's going to to prediction time here. So I do have to tip my own horn a little bit right now because as we're sitting here

and going into week eight, straight up picks this year on Nebraska games

I'm 7 and 0. I haven't missed a game. So in terms of straight up picks

Now, against the spread, not doing as I think I'm three and four against the spread

So, I mean, not terrible. Spreads are tough. Spreads are tough. Well, and I just keep getting

It's like, you know, if they could have got one more point last, or like one more field goal last week, I would have got it

Louisiana Tech got that late touchdown, which, you know, so allowed them to cover the spread

So not that far off, but I'm pretty proud of my 7 and 0 record

But what's, you know, overall, what's your prediction this week, though? I mean, regardless of what the spread is

I don't know. So I'm going to have to think about this for a second. You give me your prediction, and then that will give me time to think

And I promise I won't copy your prediction. and I try to

So I did, I put out a prediction. You know, I always do one when I break down the odds and put out a prediction this week

So I think it's going to be a close game of a battle all the way

And I think Nebraska is going to pull it out late 20 to 17

I think Tristan Alvano is going to hit field goal in the fourth quarter and the defense will get a big stop

And yeah, I think it's going to be a nail biter. But Nebraska, I'm going to say wins at 20 to 17

I'm going to say 31, 24 Nebraska. I think it's still going to be close

And, you know, I do think Alvano will have a big hand or foot in this game

And, yeah, so I think Nebraska is going to win, get to five wins

an inch ever so closer to the bowl game and bowl game opportunities

And I know this has been talked about before on the Facebook pages and things like that

But getting to a bowl game also means 15 extra practices. So when you look at a bowl game and the excitement of getting to a bowl game

Those 15 practices are definitely something that you need, especially with the team this young

And, yeah, especially with this coaching stat, that's like 15 practices are like a gold

So that would be really great. And, yeah, make sure that another thing I did want to mention is that if Nebraska wins this game

there's a very good chance that we'll be tied for first because Wisconsin's playing Ohio State on Saturday

and I don't think they're winning that game. So Minnesota would still technically like own the tiebreaker over us

but we will be tied for first place in the Big Ten West if we win Saturday

That's my prediction. And I believe that it will happen. So make sure

About 500. Yeah, two games above 500. Only one game from bowl eligibility

So at any rate, make sure that you guys join us on Saturday

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