I apologize about being gone for so long… as many of you know I worked two jobs to help the family out beginning of this year and now finally settling into just one. I was at the Horseshoe until 2AM last night, so forgive me if this seems unedited or just awful in general!
I didn’t do a season preview on here, but I did have us going 8-4 for the season. The over/under was 7.5, and I think we finally break the streak of 8 straight seasons finishing with the under. At 8-4 I had us losing to Michigan due to some areas that I thought would be weaknesses for us and strengths for them. But have those held true?
Let’s start by saying Michigan has played a far superior team than anything Nebraska has played in Oklahoma. With that said, I do think Cincy will end up being a pretty decent team in the Big12. And if Michigan is the superior team, it concerns me that Nebraska gave up 203 rushing yards to Cincy while only gaining 110 yards of their own. What I also predicted before the season is that no matter what happens against Cincy, the fans of Husker Nation will start feeling themselves when we play terrible teams the following two weeks and possibly think those issues are gone.
My #1 concern heading into 2025 was lack of depth at RB, and that has absolutely been the case so far this season. EJohnson had to get the ball 32 times against the Bearcats, while Nelson and Mozee ran the ball once each. That just isn’t sustainable for an entire season. With that said, everyone all of a sudden are pumped about Mozee and the return of Ives after watching them the past two weeks.
Further, we couldn’t move the line of scrimmage forward down in Kansas City. I know Cincy has that unbelievable NG anchoring the middle, but they were running a 3 high shell and we still could barely muster 100 yards rushing. Michigan’s defense is top25 against the run currently. Our OL is going to have to step it up against a far superior DL.
The second issue I had coming into 2025 is the loss of our entire starting front 6 (7 if you include rover) with Robinson, Nash, Sherman, Bullock, and Gifford all graduating, while Butler and Gbayor transferred out. Further, you lost James Williams, Kai Wallin, and Princewill to the portal. All of which played a fair amount last year. While I have faith that RVP will be extremely good in 2026 and 2027, he’s not Nash or Ty 2024 right now.
Our DL is built to get pressure on the passer as we are smaller, and with that we can’t “hold the line” as well. We are having to knife up the field to get any semblance of penetration. Last year, Ty and Nash just held the line and kept our LBs clean. That made it so RBs either had to turn into them, or go the other way where guys like Singleton would fly up and make the stop on one way go’s. Watch this against Michigan, with us knifing up field it will create wide running lanes and the RBs will have “two way gos” to make our safeties miss in bigger holes than last year. I’m worried that all of a sudden people will think we can’t tackle, when in reality this is just a bad matchup for our defense.
And then the other issue that concerns me defensively is what Sorsby did to us as a running threat at QB. Underwood is the same type of guy. The 10 million dollar QB is the X factor if they can’t get a push on us or the holes aren’t as big. We do have a spy package, but we can’t spy unless we get them in favorable downs and distances. If we spy Underwood on 2nd and 5 they will just mash us backwards.
Those are my two big concerns… To let you all know I’m not completely negative, I do think our pass defense with Butler at the helm should be in a really good spot. And honestly if we have the Wolverines trying to pass on us we are probably in a good spot anyway.
I also think that while we may struggle to run the ball, I really like what Holgo does offensively to scheme some stuff up for us to get up and down the field. Watch for a ton of crossing routes if Michigan is playing us in man to get guys open whether that’s TEs or our dynamic WRs. With that said, I will be interested their gameplan because Cincy was able to stop our offense without doing a ton of that, and THEORETICALLY Michigan should have a better defense.
Look… It’s year 3 under Rhule, this is when the big jump is made. It’s year 2 for our five star QB and from freshman to sophomore year is when a players biggest jump is made. I think defensively we do seem to have more depth, but was it like that because our 2nd stringers could have beat Akron and HCU 45-0 on their own? I actually anticipate Nebraska to be up a score heading into the half. I think we will dial some things up offensively and get some scores, and our defense will call some things we have kept in our back pocket and haven’t shown on film yet.
At this point I trust my eyes on things rather than my ears from what people tell me, or my own hopes. While I think we are moving in the right direction, I just don’t like this matchup for us. If we get past the Wolverines tomorrow with a win, 10 wins is absolutely attainable as I really only see Penn State as massively better than us right now, but I’m hoping for a split over USC/Iowa if we can beat Michigan.
24-21 Michigan.
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Agreed. While I think MI is a good (not great) team, we might struggle with the power element. If we can put up 30, then it’s very likely we win. I hope we can keep them below 30.
I think if we get to 30, this game is ours. I just don’t like the matchup, but some others have speculated this Michigan team isn’t the 2023 team that won a national title. I’d have to agree, but I think Harbaugh’s core philosophies are still there. If we can move them off of that, it’s really good for us.
Yeah, it’s a fascinating game. On one hand, it really seems to me that this is the time for Nebraska to finally make the jump, and Michigan doesn’t seem like a total buzzsaw. However, they seem like a really difficult matchup for us. I think that the offense will need to carry the day for us to win.
On that note, I also think that we were much closer to scoring 31 or 38 points against Cincinnati than we were to scoring 13 (Barney keeps his feet, no false start on the 1, Holgo feels the need to open things up rather than protect a lead . . .). I kinda think that our receivers are really, really good (it’s no wonder Cinci stayed in a shell; they had NO answer for our receivers). If we can protect, it seems to me that we might put up a bunch of points. Do you see any chance that this is something more like 38-28 good guys or something like that?
I’m right there with you on your first paragraph. It’s time for Nebraska to make the jump, I just struggle with the fact I was saying that without any real evidence. I also agree I don’t think Michigan is some juggernaut, but the matchup if they are still good at what they’ve been known for the last few years is difficult.
I think Holgo will have us up at halftime, this is his coming out party (and Raiola’s). If we get to 30 this is our game for sure. I actually think this game may be closer to a 32-28 score like we saw a few years ago than 14-10.
“If we get to 30 this is our game for sure.”
Good call.
I was just thinking the other day. Haven’t really heard from you in a minute. Glad to know you’re doing ok. I watched ok game a couple times over and was impressed with the athleticism from oks defensive line. But I also noticed they stacked the box and had 5 down a number of times.
After watching the game with Cincy I thought that we must have a tell in our run game. I’m not very excited to see this one play out. My heart screams we win by 4. But my head says I don’t think we are up for it yet. Ahhh screw it N28-M24
I just don’t think EJohnson is elite as a RB, but he’s very good in Holgo’s offense. He isn’t running over anyone between the tackles, he’s a guy that needs to outrun the defense but he isn’t exactly a burner either.
I think we are ready to take the next step, but I can’t predict it until I see us win one of these. We haven’t beaten a ranked team since 2016.
EJ has not run anyone over yet but he is shifty. making people miss in the hole and squeeze out 5 more yards is not a bad gig. Im bummed by not having that dowdell at RB. I’ve been thinking about a lot of the new england championships and in my memory they methodically moved the ball down the field with short slants and crosses to guys like edelman. They would take shots deep and what not but I just remember being wow they just dinking all the way down the field. I don’t know how much I buy into the stat, chunk plays of 20+ and its relation to winning.
I’m also curious . . . Do you think Nebraska will do some things schematically on defense to really try to stuff the run? I think our secondary guys can lock down their receivers, so maybe leave them on an island and play some bear front or something like that? Maybe we don’t have the size to do that effectively.
Which also begs the question. Is Nebraska’s coaching staff significantly better than Michigan’s?
I think it is, probably with the exception of Martindale. How many points is that worth? Will they be able to simply out-scheme them?
After the Cininatti game my main concern is that DLine going into Big 10 play, especially if we’re playing that 3 man front. Jeudy and Van Poppel are good, but idk maybe lack the size\stength to be that stalwart in the middle?
I guess we’ll figure out today if they’re up for the task
Great to hear from you. A voice of reason. You were spot on with your Michigan preview. The analysis of our defensive shortcomings was confirmed. Why anyone thinks a smallish D line will work in the B18 is beyond me.
Glad to see you are back! Interested to hear your thoughts on the game. I think I am most disappointed in the obvious talent/development gap in our lines compared to Michigan.
And, how on earth do we close that gap? The d line is young (I’d say the middle of our line last year was on a similar level as Michigan this year), but the o line is fairly experienced. We’ve recruited well on the offensive side, but we’re still miles short there. It’s mystifying.
I wish I knew the answer there! We’ve gone out and grabbed guys on both lines. Some have helped…others not so much. Feels like the development is slow (or not there) or our coaching could be better?