Sunday Morning Thoughts - Post Sparty

[Doc Fumble]

HILLS CLIMBED. Coaches and players have been reminded OVER and OVER again that Nebraska has “many hills to climb” to erase all the embarrassing streaks the program has dug over the past fifteen years. Given our proud history and the fishbowl nature of our program, it has to be incredibly annoying for Coach Rhule and everybody associated with our program. They include:

• We hadn’t won a conference opener in SEVEN years (2019.)
• We hadn’t won in East Lansing in FOURTEEN years (2012.)
• And we haven't gone 4-0 in the B1G for the last TEN years (2016.)

We've started our 2026 “End The Embarrassing Streaks” campaign last night by wiping away the above ones. And, FWIW, I believe there’s more streak-wiping yet to come. When asked about ‘the pressure’ these streaks have put on the team, Mikhi Nelson said it best last night. His answer? None. “That’s not on us.”

THE DIFFERENCE MAKER. Sparty was typical Sparty—especially with Northwestern’s Fitzpatrick as their new coach. As expected, they played physical, hard-nosed football against us. Early on, it reminded me of all the other times in East Lansing. If the game had followed the usual script, it would’ve ended with one of us winning 16 to 13 on a last-minute FG. But we scored 31 points and coasted to an 18 point win because of ONE new addition to the team—Anthony Colandrea.

THE DIFFERENCE. Husker drives that would have stalled in the past were kept alive because of Colandrea’s legs. He made a number of first downs by making quick decisions to pull the ball and run. That said, I WISH he wouldn’t hold the ball like a damn loaf of bread. Fortunately, it hasn’t hurt us (yet.) One more thing: our ‘Gunslinger’ threw the ball away a number of times instead of doing something stupid by trying to make something out of nothing. He’s showing me a great deal of maturity and overall field generalship. Make no mistake, this is his team.

AS A TV VIEWER. This was my first game seeing Anthony Colandrea “up-close and personal” as only high-def TV cameras with zoom lenses can do. I could see how “Ant” commands the huddle. One close-up look at his face told you he’s in charge. In that way, his competitive fire is reminding me of what Tommie Frazier brought to the huddle back-in-the-day. And one other thing I noticed: AC doesn’t wear a wristband with the plays on it like 90% of the other college QBs I see on TV. That’s pretty doggone impressive given he’s only been on campus since last January. The guy is one smart cookie.

THE NORTH PLATE KID. If Lyle Bremser were still alive and calling Husker games, I assure you THAT’s the nickname he’d have given to Vince Genatone. Without question, he made the play of the game. In his halftime on-the-field TV interview, Rhule said that Genatone was Colandrea’s check-off receiver. The only problem with that decision was there were only seconds left on the clock. Rhule said it took a perfect run by Vince to score. Afterwards in the post-game presser, Anthony said he hadn’t thrown that particular ball to Vince since, he thought, early last summer. Despite that, when faced with the biggest moment in his athletic life, Genatone rose to the occasion and made a spectacular play.

THE BLACKSHIRTS MET THEIR GOAL. Three turnovers last night. While there are aspects of our defense that, in coach-speak, “they still need to work on,” I was impressed by their play, particularly their pass rush. I thought Nwaneri had a strong game. It’s exciting to see that big kid is starting to live up to his potential. Marshall—as usual—also had a strong game as did our linebackers, except for a critical flag on Shavers.

THIS HAS ALREADY BECOME A CRAZY CFB SEASON. This weekend of college football has been wild. All the assumptions about this season have already been thrown out the window. I’ve seen all the so-called ‘top teams’ and all of them have shown vulnerabilities. None of them strike me as scary juggernauts. Nebraska just needs to keep sticking with its ‘day-by-day,’ 'One Game at a Time,' workmanlike approach. But guess what? As the conference race swings through the first turn of the final lap, Nebraska is looking good and is in a surprisingly strong position going forward.

ONE LAST THOUGHT. While the players need to focus on Maryland—we fans are allowed to look ahead. Dylan Raiola has suddenly been thrust into the starting role for the Ducks—and led them to a HUGE road victory against USC. Which means that we are a few weeks away from the Huskers facing off against our former QB, Dylan Raiola, and his Oregon Ducks.

 

[Cigarman]

Still need to clean up the penalties. I liked how physically they played. MSU's defense put the game in Colandrea's hands and he delivered. Genatone showed great toughness on both his scores. Not the fastest guy on the field, but you are not going to bring him down with an arm tackle. I am liking this team more every week.

 

[Uenth]

It was a great game, IMO. I'll say it again. I'm pretty proud of this team as they refused to fold under pressure. Wasn't a perfect game but an away game and a conference game to boot and we walked away with a decisive victory. Sparty opened with a field goal and we answered with a TD. Never looked back and the game was never in jeopardy after our first score. My kind of football game!

GO BIG RED!!!

 

[Righteous Red]

This was a very satisfying on the road conference win, especially going up against Pat Fitz, a coach who knows how to beat the Huskers, long time coming. My thoughts:

* The turning point in this game was early in 1st qtr, State is up 3-0. They block a punt giving them excellent field position to potentially go up 10-0. State was penalized for holding, we retain possession and go down the field to score. We seized momentum for much of the game after that.

* State had a number of their DB’s injured, I thought given that, we would be more effective in our passing %. We were 15/27, about 55%. Still we had completions when needed.

* Appreciate AC’s running, but hate to see him our leading rusher. With many of their D injured, I thought we could still have a consistent rushing attack without Rule. We really had trouble with getting to the perimeter, State really took that away from us. I just hope that going forward that there wouldn’t be a huge drop off from Rule.

* Championship teams don’t repeat the same mistake twice in a row (see episode unfold where we get whistled on consecutive plays, illegal formation, five players in backfield)
also later on, we get whistled for 12 guys on the field.

* Pass rush really came to life today, it really made State change their pass patterns.

* That 4th & 1 play at midfield that failed, I’m not a fan of that formation. Huskers and State had all their players tightly packed, shoulder to shoulder, too many bodies jammed and crammed together. It reminded me of a clogged toilet, and the turd (ball) couldn’t get flushed through, my wife said I was disgusting. Anyway, devise a quick slant pass play to TE with that formation, might surprise folks.

* All in all, on the road, it wasn’t a tight game like many, against who I think is a pretty darn good coach, we did GOOD.

 

[Doc Fumble]

State had a number of their DB’s injured, I thought given that, we would be more effective in our passing %. We were 15/27, about 55%. Still we had completions when needed.

I thought the same thing, RR. It felt at times like we were forcing the run even though the Sparty D seemed to be selling out to stop it. Yet, despite FOUR injured DBs, I never thought we never really challenged their secondary. But that said, when we did throw, I never saw a bunch of wide open WRs waiting for AC to throw them the ball.

Still, the key was they couldn't stop Colandrea.

I am liking this team more every week.

Ditto.

 

[OhioHusker]

I'm so glad fat boy is gone.

 

[Jimbosc]

I still don't know what happened on the blocked punt. Archie had a clean spot in front of him - I think his directional kick came off his foot further to the right than he intended and got blocked. Penalty wiped out what could have been a huge play for MSU. Otherwise I thought special teams played pretty good.

Defense.....I tend to look at total points and total yards. MSU did move the ball with 22 first downs but the sacks, turnovers and generally good play against the run kept MSU to 13 points. You are going to win games in the B1G holding teams to 13 points. We are going to see better offenses so D will need to keep working - especially on that damn up the gut A/B gap run.

Offense......first test of the oline to show us it could mash vs. a B1G defense did not go well. We really couldn't run the ball much outside of AC scrambles. That is a big concern. But no turnovers and AC ran the pass game well overall. No sacks no turnovers. That is good execution. We just need to get better at LOS to open up the run game. Obviously no Rule for most of the game hurt the run game too.

Big road test passed and room to improve. Maryland is not a great team but UCLA is way better than expected - they could win the B1G. We should expect a good fight next week - but if we continue to improve it will be a very winnable game.

 

[Jimbosc]

I'm so glad fat boy is gone.

He looked pretty good against USC - I will give him that. Oregon has very good skill guys and protected him pretty well. Most of the yards he racked up were off YAC - short throws that ended up being big plays. He did push it downfield later in the game and seemed pretty accurate - as you would expect having seeing him do that here for 2 seasons when he had some time to throw.

 

[GIJoeRed]

Still need to clean up the penalties. I liked how physically they played. MSU's defense put the game in Colandrea's hands and he delivered. Genatone showed great toughness on both his scores. Not the fastest guy on the field, but you are not going to bring him down with an arm tackle. I am liking this team more every week.

Dare I say "the next Jeff Kinney?"

 

[justino52]

4-0
1-0 in conference play.
They win a conference road game while favored. A game that Nebraska has lost in the past.
The 3rd quarter effort was an issue, again. So coach needs to get that figured out.
Nebraska was physical at times, as witnessed to the number of MSU players that exited. At other times the running game stalled. The defense played well most of the game although there were issues when tempo was used but they were physical as well.
Missing Rule showed. The Wideouts were a no show at times but good to see Lindenmeyer used more.
The game after the 1st quarter was never in doubt but didn't feel like it.

Now let's hammer Maryland, heal up, rest some guys late and play lots of guys.

GO BIG RED!!!

 

[Uenth]

* That 4th & 1 play at midfield that failed, I’m not a fan of that formation. Huskers and State had all their players tightly packed, shoulder to shoulder, too many bodies jammed and crammed together. It reminded me of a clogged toilet, and the turd (ball) couldn’t get flushed through, my wife said I was disgusting. Anyway, devise a quick slant pass play to TE with that formation, might surprise folks.

Tell your wife I said she needs to "Lighten up, Francis!" A great analogy, IMO. Not to mention funny as hell!

 

[Hunchback Johnny]

4-0
1-0 in conference play.
They win a conference road game while favored. A game that Nebraska has lost in the past.
The 3rd quarter effort was an issue, again. So coach needs to get that figured out.

GO BIG RED!!!

Having dabbled in sports psychology over the years I think I know what's going on with the 3rd Q Blues. I have heard Coach Matt say repeatedly how every B1G game is going to be a 4Q battle. Is that his message at halftime when leading by 14 and dominating? It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead of "Guys, we know they are going to give us their best in the second half. We need to be prepared to win a 60-minute battle." How about "We have a 14-point lead, let's stay focused and put this game away early. We have the ball first coming out of the break, let's put points on the board and take command." That subtle difference in messaging can make a world of difference in the minds of athletes.

The Dabbler

 

[KansasRed]

I agree with the positives, but I'll say two things I noticed: 1) Not a big knock, but AC tried to rely on his speed to get around when if he'd turned up field a couple of times the plays would've been much bigger, (A minor complaint for sure, and it's easy to call it from my easy chair!) 2) Sparty still had a wide open receiver on many, many throws. The pass rush negated some of that, but not all. I frankly don't understand some of our pass coverage, and I don't know if it's by design or...? If we come up against a good passing QB that has protection this could be a problem.

An aside: Dylan looked really good last night. It's amazing what a little protection will do.

 

[OhioHusker]

The fact is right now this is a better football team than we've seen in a while. AC is the difference. Instead of running out of bounds three yards short of the first down, he gets the first down.

I think 8-4 is attainable, and I think they could beat someone they aren't supposed to beat

 

[redfred]

The Dabbler[/QUOTE]

Having dabbled in sports psychology over the years I think I know what's going on with the 3rd Q Blues. I have heard Coach Matt say repeatedly how every B1G game is going to be a 4Q battle. Is that his message at halftime when leading by 14 and dominating? It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead of "Guys, we know they are going to give us their best in the second half. We need to be prepared to win a 60-minute battle." How about "We have a 14-point lead, let's stay focused and put this game away early. We have the ball first coming out of the break, let's put points on the board and take command." That subtle difference in messaging can make a world of difference in the minds of athletes.

The Dabbler

Interesting thought.

 

[redfred]

He looked pretty good against USC - I will give him that. Oregon has very good skill guys and protected him pretty well. Most of the yards he racked up were off YAC - short throws that ended up being big plays. He did push it downfield later in the game and seemed pretty accurate - as you would expect having seeing him do that here for 2 seasons when he had some time to throw.

Imo Dylan needs a very good O-line to look good. His uncle didn't give him that.

 

[redfred]

2) Sparty still had a wide open receiver on many, many throws. The pass rush negated some of that, but not all. I frankly don't understand some of our pass coverage, and I don't know if it's by design or...? If we come up against a good passing QB that has protection this could be a problem.

An aside: Dylan looked really good last night. It's amazing what a little protection will do.

I kinda felt the same way at times.

 

[valiantsailor]

I kinda felt the same way at times.

The pay at N U was better but the protection on the way to the bank to cash the checks was not. Dylan does not run or move much...he was never a fit for a team like the Huskers whose 5 national titles have with mobile QB s.

 

[JeopardyHusker]

I agree with KansasRed about Colandrea's scrambling. I'm glad to see it but often times he's running side to side and comes up short instead of turning and heading up field to get another couple of yards that might get us a first down.

 

[Pavlov's Dog]

How do you feel about TJ QBing a few games this year? If AC has to take hits running the ball like he did yesterday we need to prepare to see TJ. Did anyone watch the cheap shot Dante Moore took? Well, teams know if they can knock AC out of the game their chances improve.
We need to rely on AC's scrambling ability to extend passing plays, not be a main part of our running game. Our run blocking needs to improve for that to happen. Also, if teams don't respect the run, people rushing the passer are standing tall with their hands up. I'm starting to think AC is 5'9" and he will continue to get his vision obstructed and passes batted down. A running game forces defenses to stay low to stop it and play action freezes them.
I don't think MSU is the worst team in the B1G, but they're close. We will have some ugly games if we can't run the ball. While Rule would have helped a bit, I didn't see our line dominate in the trenches, run or pass.
Anyway, I'm glad for the solid win.