In the latest episode of the Pick Six Podcast, Sam McKewon and Evan Bland break down Nebraska football’s transfer visitors this weekend, and predict which players the Huskers will land as the portal closes.
Happy New Year from the Pix six podcast will you like that sound wow turn your volume down I know I’m sorry if I blew out your uh speakers I should have been further away hello everybody it’s the Pix six podcast uh Sam M along here with Evan Bland the silver
Tongue Tom chatel is in Hawaii so it’s just a two-man crew this week Tom will be back next week uh probably to Dish about Nebraska basketball which had a nice win on Wednesday night we’re talking to you on a Thursday Huskers just beat Indiana 86 to 70 they play Wisconsin on Saturday
And they play number one Purdue next Tuesday just tell be back after that so we’ll have a we’ll have a full podcast with him next week Evan happy New Year happy New Year Sam and early happy birthday oh thanks I’m still in the 30s so I thought you were still
In your 20s that’s oh well thank you yeah in my head I’m still in my 20s but yeah in the 30s it’s a new year and here we are doing doing the same thing uh with with maybe some different Vigor and energy who knows where it’ll
Go oh I’m excited I’m glad the calendar has turned 2023 was an interesting football season we have one more game for the 2023 season Washington Michigan I got both of them right nice job I got the two cfp picks right you ended up beating me I think by two for the whole
Season you got couple more bowl picks than I did um I took some chance uh Wiscon I took Wisconsin they lost I took Iowa they really lost they did um so anyway I got the a couple of those wrong but uh but yeah I mean I’m I’m I’m
Really excited it’s uh you can already feel the expansion of the college football playoff is upon us and it will change everything about the sport um once you now have 12 teams that can say they achieved their number one goal right right which is making that thing now once you get in it
Yeah you want to win the national title but every single year there’s going to be a benchmark and that Benchmark is to be one of the 12 or one of the 11 since the uh the 12th team each year gets to be the you know the raffle the lottery
Team uh from the group of five that got absolutely crushed in the bowl games this year and they will get absolutely crushed in the cfp going forward for as long I guess as the cfp includes one of those Lottery teams um but yeah I thought we would talk a little bit about
The transfer portal today Nebraska’s got some visitors coming um yeah we can talk obviously Michigan Washington what we saw in the bull games on Monday but also what we think we’re going to see next Monday uh and then just you know Nebraska football in this moment uh there there’s obviously still things to
Be figured out still things to be done we can talk about those things next week too uh but but I think there’s I think there’s things to discuss uh just about where the program’s at we’re gonna have our season in review starting next week want want to kind of wait and see where
The portal shook out and uh so we’ll we can kind of review a little bit we can also look ahead um let us start with this okay so it’s a transfer portal weekend Nebraska’s got uh look at this we have an auto play on ESPN where I was looking at the
Line I don’t know what that ad was probably a Buick ad that’s usually what the ad is on big ribbon on top yeah yeah you know a golf ad or something like that yeah probably that anyway oh it it’s yeah it’s a it’s an ad so it’s a transfer reporter weekend
Nebraska still is looking to add at a couple of spots and uh running back receiver linebacker doesn’t appear to be quarterback at this moment but you just never know what what might appear uh what can you tell us about the groups that that that’s coming in and and maybe
What Nebraska’s looking for yeah I mean you you hit on the kind of the areas that they’re looking for um I I think it’s notable that they’re bringing in multiple receivers and multiple linebackers like you don’t I don’t think you do that unless you are as Nebraska
Cool with saying yeah we’re going to take both of these guys if they want to come here certainly I think that’s true at the receiver spot where you know a couple interesting guys coming in uh I think when you look at what Nebraska’s done out of the portal at that spot over
The last few years and they’ve hit on guys like Samari tur and Trey Palmer and Billy Kemp I think Jamal Banks sort of fits that mold if he were to come here sort of reminds me a little bit of Marcus Washington kind of versatile guy
Uh but just a veteran at what he’s done more than 100 career catches the only reason he’s even still in play is because of the covid year so somebody who would bring a lot of uh a lot of experience to a group that at that wide receiver spot’s going to have nine true
Freshman or red or second-year players next season so so they need someone to be a leader there uh and then Isaiah neor who was at PBA for the basketball game Wednesday night he’s a really interesting one too everyone talks about him as a Texas transfer he played eight
Snaps at Texas over the course of two years he was hurt in 2022 and then he just never kind of found that role here this past season he was mostly a backup but the thing that stands out about him is I mean he’s he is a big play
Personified he’s got 50 I think 52 career catches is he’s averaging 21 yards per catch and you look at his highlights at at Wyoming um he’s either catching deep balls or he’s catching short passes and making a play and Breaking Free of Defenders so a little bit different I think receivers in terms
Of their skill sets but both veteran guys um you know who who who who could step right in absolutely and contend to be contributors to that spot and then you know Dante dowle who who’s probably the headliner of that particular receiver of of that visitor group coming
In I think he gives them a chance to make up for maybe what they lost with Kanan Lacy and and his departure from the class in October um maybe that makes up a little bit for AJ Allen and his departure a couple years ago who was a
Young guy that they like but you watch his tape he’s he looks like a big 10 back I think I mean he’s he’s big bodied he can run through Defenders can run around Defenders has the recruiting pedigree all the W so that’s somebody that you feel like could could come in
Right away and contend for that running back spot um so those are those are some of the guys we could talk about the the linebackers too if you want but well you know Stefan Thompson is one of them he played for Tony white at Syracuse and
Then zere is that X X3 Alexander who is a linebacker at Idaho he’s an FCS transfer um just talking about that position specifically I think Nebraska has a need at that inside linebacker spot um that’s the off the- ball line backer if for people that are kind of
Thinking about what that means uh a lot of times those guys have freedom of uh movement range of movement they kind of make plays behind that front line um they need to be able to run sideline to sideline I think right now you know Nebraska was probably looking at John
Bullock and McKai Bayer and Javin Wright as their as their three starters with Nick Henrich and Luke Rymer uh uh you know graduating uh effectively uh and then you know maybe Kane Williams coming along a guy that they wanted to be good I think was Eric Fields he left the team
And then you have Dylan Rogers I don’t know exactly where they want Dylan Rogers he’s kind of a thicker guy so maybe he’s going to be a jack but you know linebacker is a position where when you get the right guys there they’re probably going to start three or four
Years and they they they got the right guy in Ernest Housman and he transferred he went to Michigan he’s going to play for the national championship played pretty well actually against Alabama uh if houseman’s still there I I think they’re probably fine and they’re not going to go out and get somebody else
But he transferred and some of the other guys just have been hits I mean we have to we have to be really honest about that um you know ryr and Henrich were in the 2019 class and they were still the starters and Javin Wright was in the
2019 class and this is kind of his third position fourth position and so they really haven’t between then and now and they haven’t hit much uh Bayer you know has kind of moved around they’re going to I think you know he was a little bit
Of a jack now maybe he’ll may play a little middle um in Nebraska’s defense you have to be able to have quality drops uh as a as a as a pass Defender I wouldn’t have described that as the strength of either one of the guys that just left so I think they want
To get better there um you know especially when you’re in zone coverage but a lot of times linebackers are not in man uh they’re in they’re in sort of a man Zone you know you play man behind it a lot of times your your linebackers are responsible for dropping into a Zone
Which when the guy is in their Zone they play man it’s a matchup Zone um sometimes they do that sometimes they do other things um they probably get better there so I think that’ll be something to watch uh no guarantees when you add a guy Thompson’s obviously very developed
And would understand Tony White’s defense is probably ADV advantageous uh the the Oregon running back is interesting to me because he is a heavy hitter downhill back what 225 yeah and that’s probably where Nebraska needed to add a player Gabe Irvin hard to know if he’s
Going to be 100% by spring camp hard to know if he’s going to be 100% by June I think that’s something that Nebraska’s going to have to assess and address with the media and obviously see where Gabe’s at so Dowell can come in I think and potentially get a rotational playing
Time almost immediately sure you know EMT Johnson’s probably earned something there I know they like Quinton IES and they’re bullish on him and I’m curious to see what they do with rir Johnson you know can you make ramire slot guy can you make him that now is he
Is he willing to go out there because you don’t want to hurt him again and get him banged up again which he has been throughout his career playing him between the tackles because he’s 183 pound back running between the tackles can you get him out there in space and make him
A receiver I have my question marks about that because if he could have done it I think they would have done it already I think his elusiveness he doesn’t have necessarily a ton of uh Shake I think he’s actually a tough downhill back who happens to be
Undersized and has a lot of elite speed straight line speed right and I think jakori Barney is going to be your guy out there at the slot so we’ll see what they do with rer Johnson but that’s I think where it’s at in terms of the portal uh they don’t really have spots
Quote unquote on their roster uh our scholarship distribution chart says they’re I think at 95 so there’s invariably going to be some players who leave I don’t know when they’re going to leave they don’t really have spots per se but we also don’t know how many of these guys are on an nil
Deal or coming in on one thing or another how many guys may have to leave once they graduate soon you know and whether that’s in May or or in August yeah and for people that kind of follow it casually sometimes the scholarship thing can be tricky because guys may go on for
A semester or for a year and then they may come off or it may have been agreed upon that they stay on uh a guy like Isaiah Garcia castanada who entered the portal and came back like in theory could be a walk- on but we don’t really
Know like it’s there’s a lot of a lot of uh I don’t know creative creativity that can go into how you how you manage that um I I think big picture too especially on the offensive side like the idea that Nebraska is going to make room or would
Like to make room for two receivers for a running back I think just adds to this idea that like you got to surround whoever your quarterback is maybe Dylan Rola with as much offensive uh you know complimentary skill guys as you can yeah and mean you think back to everyone’s going to
Compare if if roola everyone’s going to compare his experience to Adrian Martinez’s experience in 2018 and they had a couple pieces in 2018 JD Spielman Stanley Morgan and good pieces and div Z better pieces than they have now absolutely yeah but they still as as
Things went on they still had to run him and and ultimately Nebraska ran the heck out of its quarterback whether it martiners or whoever else because you can’t they didn’t feel like they could trust anybody else in those big spots and so like you can’t have that with RI
You can’t and I don’t think they intend to but you can’t run him into the ground you got to have those pieces around him and I think this particular group of visitors coming this week really accentuates this idea that like you can’t have enough depth around rolm let
Him distribute let him use that arm Talent um but he can’t be utilized the way that Nebraska has utilized quarterbacks for a long time yeah if you run him 170 times next season I think you’re going to run him off I just don’t think that’s what he’s envisioning I’m
Not saying that he wouldn’t run it six to eight times a game but if you multiply 6times 12 that’s 72 you know and that’s different than 155 you also have a quarterback on your team and Hinrich harberg who’s more than willing to do those things and is probably better at it I
Think people have thrown the baby out with the bathwater a little bit with harberg because I think chubba probably did have the best performance of the year at quarterback against Wisconsin not against Iowa but against Wisconsin and I think people thought well chubba pie is going to be the
Future here you know let’s go get a transfer quarterback but my goodness I mean chba looks like he’s got a future and then chba transfers and I think everybody’s over here looking well Hinrich harri’s this this and this and there’s still things about Hinrich har
That I think good tools good kid uh good head for the game sure good personality good character this is not a guy that and so the one thing that I would say is he appears to be Allin based on that radio interview he gave um with the Grand
Island folks uh they do great job out there um he appears to be Allin and that’s not so that’d be the one difference between 2018 and this year is that Tristan jabia wasn’t all in and Patrick O’Brien wasn’t all in Patrick O’Brien left during spring camp yep Tristan jebbia left
Right before the season the week before yeah and I don’t think Harbor’s going do that now if he may leave after spring I don’t know that for sure but but I think Harbor’s going to stick it out and so you have a much more experienced quarterback there and you may not love
All the things about Hinrich harberg but he he brought the team to a cusp of a bowl game and then he got hurt and he just banged up and so I think I think you can if you can live with three scholarship quarterbacks if that’s what you have to do plus Luke
Longval but I wonder if they’re going to go after one anyway kind of reminds me of uh Luke mcaffrey a few years ago except you know Luke mcaffrey transfers and ends up having a great career as a receiver at at rice and that where he ended up so like I feel like Hinrich
Harberg is is is maybe sort of in that vein except he’s willing to to do whatever here I mean he caught a pass in the opener against Minnesota uh there was a lot of talk in the spring about him being sort of an HB or whatever and and that didn’t didn’t
Pan out um but it’s weird that he’s like the the experienced guy now with two true freshman in the room so um I don’t I I don’t know I still think like if I’m Nebraska I still think you want to add somebody but like who who do you add out
Of the portal because by Nature those guys are in the portal looking for playing time looking for an opportunity and if you’re Nebraska you’re selling hey come be the safety net come be a backup guy for a year or two I think you can you can sell that I mean whoever it
Is is going to make six figures and be treated really well and and maybe have a good inside track to a coaching career someday the way this staff operates but you it’s just hard because like like again guys don’t go in the portal to be back up somewhere else they’re going is
In the portal what about him sure Benny year on injured reserve I still think Casey Thompson makes a ton of sense sure seventh year guy like willing to do yeah exactly but like he’s a seventh year guy what what are you really trying to do at this
Point make a little more money get a head start in your career maybe a little uh little tape for an NFL shot who knows like I think those guys do exist but it’s a lot harder than um you know obviously selling playing time to somebody I just think the the the thing
I would say about Casey is that Casey is can be a starter somewhere he could like I think he could not everywhere but like JT Daniels is moving on from Rice Casey could start a rice you know like he could do that I don’t know the Spencer
Petric can physically hold up for a whole season but he’s there he’s in the portal I just brought his name out of a hat by the way I’ve have no Insight information there but who do you think is going to be coaching these quarterbacks in in a month’s time
Well I mean you hear the name Glenn Thomas out there that who who worked with rule previously that’s someone that makes sense uh rule has a history of promoting from within So Adam demichael is a name that that makes sense too I mean he’s been involved with that
Position as an analyst Thomas is the quarterback’s coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers right so their season will be over in a couple weeks week or two well it’s going to be over this weekend I think maybe so probably they’ll lose to Baltimore probably so but Adam
Demichel I think is one to watch and if it’s not him like I don’t know could be anybody we’ll see I think that comes to light when the NFL season ends and that coaching Carousel churns um the interesting thing to me is like what has Dylan Ry and his Camp been told about
What that looks like they’ve been told something I sure I mean clearly if they’re here and they’re committed and they’re in they’ve been told something so I think they kind of have a sense of it but I don’t know that there’s going to be like you know I think all of them
All the quarterbacks have a sense of it it just hasn’t been executed because I I think there’s you know dominoes that need to tip yeah do you have a sense of like How firm that plan is like there’s clearly a a general idea and as you know
From question talk yeah I mean I think I think there’s there’s got to be um a sincere conversation about how you want to execute that when you have an offensive coordinator who can literally coach every other position on the team there are some offensive coordinators who don’t do anything else but
Quarterbacks they they could not plausibly or um what’s the right word credibly go over the receivers and go yeah I’m going to coach you now satvi can do that he’s not going to coach wide receivers but you know there’s a tight end spot coach tight ends yeah uh and so there’s you
Know and he’s a he’s a former head coach so he could do you know there’s a bunch of different things that he could do so I think you know the question becomes how do you want your operation on game day to work who do you want in the
Quarterback’s ear how do they process what you’re teaching them and Matt rule made this comment at his Signing Day of like we want our quarterbacks to see the game the way we see it and think about this this and this and you know I asked the question well who who is that person
To coach that and of course he didn’t want to answer it but the secondary question that wasn’t the time to ask that question because it was signing is well how do you want them to see it and and how would that be different from say what what they’re doing at
Washington you know if if uh if Ryan grub for whatever reason said I’d like to come and do this for you would you be like no we really need people that understand the way we want to play it with our illustrious record I you know like Matt rule has a really strong track
Record in a bunch of different areas they run the ball Pro style they play really good defense their pass defense is pretty good they’re physical they generate sacks quarterback play isn’t probably the thing at the top of the list and so Dylan rayola is the kind of
Player who you really want to maximize that ceiling is going to be high and so you have to find somebody who can maximize a ceiling and that that to me means you know considering not only your inner circle but what the Outer Circle might look like and you know who’s out
There Tony white was out there for the defense good hire oh yeah but there may not be many head coaches in college football who know more about defensive mat rule like he knows a lot about it from a lot of different perspectives and the thing I appreciate about rule is he
Knows about what it’s like to play defense without five stars because that’s what he was doing at Temple and Baylor and Franklin Carolina he was doing it without the advantages that Alabama enjoys for example let’s say Nick Sab Nick Sabin knows more than anybody but Nick Sabin also and so does
Kirby Smart so does Jesse Miner at Michigan they enjoy great talent Nebraska is never going to get Alabama and Georgia so Talent so you have to kind of think outside the box and Rule is able to do that with Tony white I don’t know if if if the connections at that quarterback position
Are as robust it’s that that’ll be something I guess we’re going to have to assess and and um and see what happens but I do think there’s going to be something different we can talk about this in subsequent weeks too the NFL regular season is over Sunday night then
You have Monday and a bunch of people get fired yep Black Monday right bunch of people get fired on Monday then it takes another week or two to plug coaches in to jobs National coach coing convention a lot of interviews will be done I mean with the
NFL sure like you don’t I mean we we’ve got a couple jobs open Vegas the chargers there’s going to be a couple of other firings for certain Ron Rivera is probably not going to survive Carolina has to hire a coach I don’t know who would want to go work for
The guy that just threw drinks on the opposing fans but someone will take the job there are others that are going to be open and it takes time to plug those in and then everybody kind of does the shuffle thing and then you have to figure out okay now that we’ve all done
The shuffle thing you know who goes here here and here who gets depopulated from college staffs are they able to coax Jim Harbaugh to the NFL if so does Chiron Moore take it over the dominoes stop there if not does Michigan seriously go outside of that and go hire someone else
Then there’s dominoes again so we just don’t we just don’t have a definitive answer for that and that’ll probably affect not only the quarterback coaching deal but also defensive tackle and other things and we’ll just have to see speaking of Michigan they beat Alabama on Monday Washington then survives its
Own mistakes and a weird quirk in the rules that I think needs to be fixed to to beat Texas they controlled that game almost from start to finish against Texas they outplayed Texas what did you think of those games I mean they were blast obviously came
Down to the last play and and everything else it I thought the the rose bow it was weird to me to see Alabama not control the line of scrimmage that was like we knew Michigan that was their strength but like I was curious to see how that would translate against the tide and
They did like they they got after milro and uh I know part of that’s just kind of how he plays with all the sacks but like you just you don’t see opposing lines uh dominate on both sides the way that Michigan did so I thought that was um
That was eye opening I mean they were they were the better team and I said on our podcast last time I felt like that was a spot where Alabama gets in and they rise to the level that they always do and that they were going to go on a
Run and finish it and Kos to Michigan I mean for responding when they were down early JJ McCarthy was a gamer that little uh that little double pass where he corals it with the one hand and and fires a completion for whatever it was 10 yards or so like that was that was
Good stuff um and then you know the the Washington Texas game was was ton of fun too I I agree with you that rule needs to change with the player injury late that saved Texas what 30 40 seconds whatever it was um but wow I mean I think that game accentuates the the
Value of a quarterback and Michael penix what he did I think probably top to bottom Texas was the more talented team but Washington had the best player and they they had some some I thought they had some 2019 LSU Vibes just with the Deep balls and and the chemistry between
Quarterback and receiver and like you got you got to be able to pass the ball to win at the highest level and both those teams had that and um it was a fun game I think it Steve sarkeesian could take Washington’s current team and Coach
It just as well as kayin dbor and Ryan grub have dor and Grub are doing doing an incredible job with that team sarkeesian’s just as good of a mind and just as good of a play caller I think the problem is at Texas they don’t have Michael penck penix I’ve heard it both
Ways they don’t have that guy yet and he’s still hidebound to to play in that game and if Texas had had gone into the game and said where’s going to have a tight end and we’re going to have maybe two tight ends on the field and we are going to
Line up under Center and we were gonna Mash this team I think Texas would have won the game I think they have I think their their head coach is who he is and they’re not going to change and they could have run the ball I mean they did
Run the ball at will I don’t know how many yards they ran for in the game now I’m going to have to look it up but it was I mean it was it was dang near you know it was dang near comical mhm how how easy it was for
For for Texas to run the football and they didn’t commit to it enough like there’s just no other way to put it so Texas runs the ball for 180 yards on 28 carries they averaged 6 and a half yards a carry and they only ran it 28 times they
Threw it 43 times and they really threw it more than that because Quinn eers was sacked a couple of times but it was bizarre it was the opposite of what Michigan does you know and so like by the end of the game I think Michigan had a little
Bit of a physical Advantage because they had spent so much time and during the game just pounding the ball at Alabama not gaining necessarily a ton of yards but by the time the the back half of the fourth quarter comes Michigan was stronger and then in the overtime
Michigan’s stronger and it’s kind of like a Nebraska thing that’s what Nebraska used to do if your defense is good enough then your offensive approach physically will will win out in the end do you have enough time and are you ahead and you know Michigan was down by seven and they
Had enough time and they were able to win the game Texas what’s interesting is I think Texas had more physicality and I think they had the better defense this didn’t play like it they should have held on to the ball for 38 minutes they should have walked up to the line ran it
Slowly thoughtfully they didn’t do it it was the third quarter I mean it was what tied at half and yeah and they f behind by 14 they fce your hands kind of forced at that point they fumbled the the fumbles hurt them but they could have
Done that from the very beginning of the game I mean I from my perspective the game really should have Texas should have been able to control it they didn’t Washington knows who they are they do a really good job of controlling the football at the last minute and a half
Notwithstanding they run a spread passing offense but they they they walk it up and it’s really effective and they did a really nice job the other thing I’ll say about the Michigan team is pre-nap the amount of time and effort that Michigan spent shifting and motioning and moving that’s what it
Takes to beat Alabama if you come out there and you don’t move guys around constantly and you don’t get that group of that group of Defenders thinking about what’s going to happen you’re not going to win because their athleticism and their ability to react and their
Ability to play up to the moment is so significant I felt like Michigan was able even though they didn’t get gain a ton of yards they kept Alabama off balance the whole game they just a little bit they didn’t score a ton of points but Alabama never had that moment
Where they just overwhelmed Michigan’s offense and sent him back 32 yards Michigan did that to Jaylen milroe like five times and I don’t know that Alabama was diverse enough like I think that was partially the difference between Jim Harbaugh and Chiron Moore against Tommy ree I think
It’s some of its coaching and some of its quarterbacking I think JJ McCarthy is better than Jaylen milroe I think Jaylen milroe is a better athlete MH but I didn’t feel like watching the game I tried anymore I don’t even root for teams I just kind of watch it for
Whatever I’m like I just don’t think Jaylen milro got the tools in this game from his offensive coordinator and his quarterback coach to to successfully figure Michigan out and I feel like JJ McCarthy was given all the tools um and by the end of the game they
Had tools they had answers Alabama lost those answers the last play of the game is stupid oh it was ridiculous and you know I actually felt like walk you know coming out of that game and sitting there on my couch uh I’m like Michigan how coached Alabama and that doesn’t happen that
Often but they did and then I thought again in the final in the second game coaching I just felt like Washington they’re that duo which gets a crapload of money they make like 9 million combined grubs I think the second highest paid assistant he’s well paid
And he earns it and you can kind they kept going to the box and showing him and his other guy and like those guys are totally dialed in there’s no emotion to any of this they know exactly what they’re doing they have answers on third down I’m like this operation is as good
As it gets and I was really impressed with that and then you know the other game that’s the other two games I guess that stuck out to me is I’m I’m impressed with Oregon I think they they’re unbelievably good uh their talent is just overwhelming Big 10
Favorites maybe next year oh I think they are um although you can’t discount Washington because if they’ll if they keep the coaches they’re so well coached um but overwhelming Talent on Oregon and the speed and the athleticism they made Liberty looked bad and Liberty’s not that bad but they look terrible it was
45 to6 and then you know I was an embarrassment and they shouldn’t be they should not go into that game and I don’t know if you watched any of that game oh yeah but Brock Osweiler was just all over that quarterback it’s like what is he doing
What is he looking at where is he you know like why won’t he give his receiver a chance where is he throwing the ball like he was all over that guy and I think again it’s that they don’t have a quarterback coach they don’t have they don’t that quarterback doesn’t have the
Tools he’s not been given the tools he kept throwing to the same guy over and over five yards short of the first down right and I was like this is embarrassing this is not and Iowa won 10 games and of course Kirk fence comes out and he’s like yeah
Let’s think about let’s take a step back and think oh come on you you win and you you lost 35 nothing to a team that was playing a true freshman quarterback and isn’t that good they’re not good on defense at all and you couldn’t move the
Ball on them and so like I always got this whole like they’re going to have to reset their identity and all this other stuff and I was like I was going to come into this game you know they’re going to find a way it’s going to be 1613 it’s
Going to be messy you know they’re going to figure it out they’re going to Moneyball their way to a maybe a win I’m like oh no oh no no no not today time n nope they’re not even going to move the ball you know they’re and and then the
Tempo’s going to eventually beat them because they keep standing their defense out there to get hammered so that really stuck out to me too is just like the new Big 10 and the old big 10 Michigan represents the old big 10 so does Iowa and the new Big 10 is Washington and
Oregon I’m like I don’t know who do you think’s going to win on Monday uh I think well if Texas could have run the ball on Washington and won the game you can bet Michigan’s going to run the ball in Washington and so I think they’ve got the advantage
At the line of scrimmage I think Washington has the better quarterback I think it’s going to be a great game quite honestly but probably probably Michigan just because the line of scrimmage and I mean you talk about a team that knows who it is what it is has
The chip on its shoulder from the the sign stealing stuff like you can tell they they feel that still uh they’re out to prove themselves in a way that maybe not a lot of undefeated teams are at this stage of the game so probably Michigan but I I like I
Think Washington’s coaching is maybe even or a little better I think their skill players are even or a little better uh I just don’t know about the line of scrimmage and I think that could be the difference what do you think Michigan will will will do some things to
Washington to try to put pressure on them and I think penck will have to hit you know manto man throws which he did against will yeah he he threw dimes I mean he was a dime machine he’s playing his way maybe into a firstr grade in the NFL draft and what
Keeps him from that is his size I mean he’s not you know there’s not many guys who have been his size that that become you know leite NFL quarterbacks Russell Wilson is one but but penck can’t run like Russell Wilson Drew Brees is another that’s what he would have to be
Is that good that accurate that good well I’ll tell you what he he played like Drew Brees in the Sugar Bowl he did that’s the best let’s not get it twisted that’s the best quarterback performance in the history of the college football playoff don’t talk to me about Joe burrow
Throwing to Justin Jeff Jefferson and Jamar Chase and Joe burrow is the second best but Joe burrow was throwing to Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase Roman dun is a nice player he ain’t nether one of those guys and so you know Joe Bro was playing on an All-Star team penck
Not doing that they don’t have those kind of players it’s true and so that’s the best quarterback performance in the history of the cfp and they still almost lost the game because of some stupid thing at the end that you know a rule they need to change
But um I’ll take Michigan to win it and I think if Michigan wins it Harbaugh can can do whatever the hell he wants he can walk away he’ be hailed yeah I think he would walk away I think he would have an opportunity right then and there to say
I’ve done what I need to do you need to hire the Chiron to to take over the team and I’m going to go coach the Raiders maybe so and that would be a win for a lot of people it’ be a win for the Raiders who need something and I think
It’d be okay for Michigan I I I don’t know who you put in that job to follow one of the oddest people alive so it probably helped to just be the guy that’s already there and Beetle house date and all that stuff but I think in the larger sense what I’m going to
Remember from this bull postseason is I mean it’s very much in transition with all the opt outs and it just you know this the Georgia Florida State game um it’s going to be interesting to see what it what happens because you’re going to go to a 12 team
Playoff which will mitigate the opt outs obviously as teams continue to put their best foot forward but like what what has the rest of the bow season even become cuz like we said earlier like if you’re one of the 12 teams that made their goal of making the playoff great but like
What about everybody else are you going to cut down from from this this bull overload or the bus just kind of lean into more of the silliness and and add edible mascots and man dumps and like all the and I think that’s cool that’s great for TV programming and and keeps
Players around but like What Becomes of the Bulls does that trim down how does nil factor into the future maybe with with player compensation to get them to play in those games yeah uh I don’t know that might have something to do with it just very much felt like a year where
Yeah this is a system that in all honesty has held on probably too long as it is and is going to continue to linger in some fashion moving forward but I think it’s going to look different next year is going to look a lot different
Than it did this year um and where that goes is really fascinating to me because there’s a lot of the Old Guard loves the bull system and I think if you were to blow it up and start over you’d be like what are we doing but how how they sort
Of mish mash that and find some Middle Ground it’ll be fascinating the bows tended to serve a purpose for the cities that were holding hosting the Bulls 60 years ago like that was part of it is you know it was an opportunity for Miami and Tempe and Dallas and these other
Places well now it’s it’s TV inventory M and to be very honest with you I don’t think it matters that much which teams are in it uh which players are in it so long if it’s if it’s a lower tier Bowl I don’t think people care that much you know I
Think the Independence Bowl and the Holiday Bowl are kind of going to get the same ratings almost no matter what Oklahoma and Arizona had you know most of the players in there but not all of them a lot of these guys have young five-star quarterbacks that are playing
And the 12 teams will have their their rosters protected you know those guys aren’t going anywhere so I I’m not as maybe concerned about it I think if they kept going in this four team Direction it would it would get get more concerning you don’t want what happened with Georgia and Florida State
To occur again that that that’s not helpful um Oklahoma got pounded a couple years ago Florida did or one of them did just got humiliated because all their players opted out and went to the NFL but yeah I think that would be bad I don’t think that’s going to happen
Again so I think I watched the Wisconsin LSU game on New Year’s Day pretty damn good game it was Jen Dan wasn’t in it neither was brillan Allen and neither were some other good players for Wisconsin but I enjoyed the football game it was still football I mean yeah jayton Daniels
Would have been fun to watch but and so would brillan Allen but whatever you know still pretty good football hell of a lot better than Tennessee Iowa and I think Iowa I don’t know that Iowa had anybody opt out they just opted out of offense the whole season
Long let’s talk a little basketball here for a second uh we’ll have a half court press podcast with Wilson Moore and John Walker so you want to listen to that too Nebraska Men’s Basketball you put something out last night about National narrative all of a sudden what what’ you mean by
That well I you know Nebraska to me and like I feel like for the last 15 years I’m the ultimate like casual Nebraska basketball Observer like I there’s enough else going on that I just I haven’t made a ton of deep dives into it but I watched the game almost the entire
Game against Indiana and I think it’s just the kind of game that if you’re if you’re on the outside nationally if you whatever you know about Nebraska and Indiana basketball you’re always going to assume that Indiana is going to win that game just because of pedigree and track record and
All the rest and it wasn’t close like Nebraska did not play a perfect game they didn’t come close to really playing a perfect game uh and yet they still won going away and it wasn’t it wasn’t in doubt in the last 15 minutes of the game 20 minutes of the
Game really I mean it was it was just really impressive they looked the AP part that’s the kind of game that when you’re looking at the the scores at the end of day kind of do a little double te oh they beat Indiana and then you maybe
You look at their schedule and you say oh they beat Michigan State last month interesting and now you rattled off their schedule coming up like now how do you build on that like that’s it was just it was it was it wasn’t game where they shot lights out I mean Tom tomaga
Had he was on a heater there for a while but like that’s not so crazy for him I thought uh Alec was was really strong down low masted had his moments Gary was really good defensively and they gave up some size on the interior so like to me
Like they they they looked the part there are a lot of ways they can beat you and they play tough defense that’s the thing they’ve hung their hat on that’s the thing that can travel that’s the thing that can keep you more consistent than just how you’re shooting
On a given night so I just was really impressed and and Indiana’s no not a perfect team but they had 10 wins they were undefeated in the conference two and0 coming in they got a guard back yeah so I don’t I just I was impressed like that’s the game over the years that
Nebraska doesn’t win right that’s the that’s the heat check moment they’re like okay and then you you kind of fade and they won that game so it has my interest I think it has a lot of people’s interest after how they performed I’m probably getting out ahead
Of my skis here but I I really do think they have a chance to be Wisconsin on Saturday Wisconsin’s ranked uh Wisconsin’s you know I guess a co- Big 10 favorite at this point which is strange to me after how they ended last season but I think Nebraska’s got a real
Chance I think they match up with Wisconsin I think Wisconsin doesn’t jump out of the gym on you they execute they execute they have Chucky heern a good point guard they do a lot of good things I don’t think they can run away away from Nebraska they didn’t run away last
Year they lost in overtime and two years ago when they had a big 10 Championship on the line mhm they lost to Nebraska and Bryce mcgow didn’t play that game and I think some of it is I think Fred hyberg is a good coach on offense and we
Don’t we don’t pay a lot of attention to it because they’ve gone to this defensive emphasis but the Big 10 Network brought it up last night they’re 18- five in their last 23 games and the reason that they’re 18- five in their last 23 games yeah kind of Defense but
They’ve really scored really well and there were times last night when it was rink casay Bryce Williams ah Jawan was on the floor it didn’t really matter was Jawan or it was Alec and it was it was Jamarcus Lawrence and they had a couple of possessions
Where it’s like this defense is effed no matter what they do do and Indiana covered the first two or three options and then it’s a handoff to casay he gets around the corner and he hits a little floater from 11 ft mhm the next time they cover the first three options and
Rinks on that you know sort of at that little high that horn spot he’s not right in the middle of the floor the where Derek was but he’s off to the side and you know they got a Kai that comes around a guy that comes around Casey
Comes around he’s not open rink throws it crosscourt to Bryce hits a three I’m like there’s no way you stop this if they execute this right and Fred can set some stuff up for this team and if they can execute it it’s very very challenging to slow down and I was like
Again Mike Woodson is a really good defensive coach Indiana’s a good defensive schematic team they’ve got some athletes and they could not figure Nebraska out and yeah they didn’t shoot the lights out but if Kay makes four of those you got to go out there and cover
Him mhm and you’re out there all all night then it’s like a guy that catches two deep ones behind you it’s Tyreek Hill like if he catches two behind you it doesn’t matter if he catches two more you’re like we got to go we got to go
Figure that out and so when casay hits a couple of those then all of a sudden the gravity of the defense is like wow screw it we got to go out there because he’s going to make those it’s like Caitlyn Clark who’s you know better but it’s
Like that and all of a sudden then everybody else gets life is easier and all of a sudden Demarcus Lawrence is open and making a shot for once all the sudden Bryce Williams gives an open three and Bryce Williams on a lot of teams wouldn’t get open threes because
He’d be their best shooter well it’s Casey on this one so there’s so many good things happening right now I like their chances at Wisconsin I don’t not saying they’re going to win they’ll probably be like a six to eight point Underdog but I think they can take that
To the final two minutes and then they play Purdue next week and you know the issue with Purdue is that if those two guards on the uh Braden Smith and whatever the other guys’s name is if they’re making threes you’re not probably going to beat them because they
They have the best player in the country he’s too good you can do whatever you want with him you can double him you can triple him but if he passes out to Braden Smith or the other guy and those guys hit you know seven of 14 threes
You’re going to lose a game but if they don’t make their shots if those guys miss for whatever reason and then their third score doesn’t make his shots you got a chance yeah Lin too it’s the number one team in the country and Ed doesn’t Edy doesn’t fold easily like
He’s he’s pretty tough like he doesn’t he doesn’t have bad games he didn’t have a good game against Derk Walker last year but you know he’ll go for 23 and 12 but so did the kid from Indiana who’s a really good player he is but the rest of
Those guys just weren’t able to weren’t able to help him out so you just never know um I feel like this is a tough stretch the game at Wisconsin on paper looks hard and the game against Purdue looks unwinable like unwinable like they’re not going to win the game but you just never
Know and PBA is hard you know it is if they do it on peacock does it count I think the the Purdue game is on peacock it’s on peacock it’s their first game on peacock you imagine they they pull off that upset and like nobody watches
It I think I think people will will if they beat Wisconsin that you’ll get some subscribers people like all right I can also watch the office yeah uh peacock had a very very good first night with kayen cl sure that was that was a good night um side note we don’t we don’t
Talk about Iowa here much but my wife didn’t know who Caitlyn Clark was H God bless her she didn’t know and I watched quite a bit of women’s basketball like that I I just do and she didn’t know and so we’re sitting there and she doesn’t really watch basket she doesn’t like
Basketball she likes football and gymnastics she doesn’t like basketball but she’s sitting there and all of a sudden she starts getting into it because it’s basically Caitlyn Clark against the entire Michigan State team and when she made the shot at the end even she was like oh my God and here’s
The other thing she was kind of rooting against her a little bit she’s like she didn’t get that shot off and I’m like I think she got the shot off wow it’s just because if you watch 30 minutes of her what do you see she complains 12
Times about fouls now again I like K Clark I respect this to me this is like a player that has made a conscious choice to go out every single night and play literally 40 minutes because that’s almost what she thinks people expect of her like she doesn’t have to play that
Many minutes she’s leading the Big 10 in minutes and she’s leading the te league in shots and like it’s almost like what people are going out there to see it’s like all right we came here to watch you so we don’t want you we don’t want to
Watch you sit down it reminds me of something yeah Michael Jordan used to say was like he was going to play every night because he knew there was somebody who bought a ticket who was going to be in that Arena to see him play I think
There’s a sense of that coming from her for sure I think there is and she delivers most of the time consistently yeah I mean it took a 34 shots to make 40 points but the point is that even the Miss shots are an adventure into themselves we’ll talk more about this
When you know Nebraska plays her again and um but there’s just a kind of price of admission there like you’re not really going you’re going to go watch a comedian or you’re going to go watch an Entertainer at the lead Center that’s really what this is this isn’t even who
Wins and who loses the game outside of the Iowa home games like nobody cares they’re just there to let’s go watch the phenomenon and you know Paige Beckers put on a show at kraton a couple nights ago speaking of Nebraska women’s basketball we’ll get out on this uh they
Had one of the best wins of any Emy Williams tenure on Sunday they beat Maryland hard team for Nebraska to beat mhm hard team to beat in general even if it isn’t vintage Maryland uh they still beat him and they play Wisconsin tonight I’m a little worried about that game for what it’s
Worth even though Wisconsin’s not good still worried about it we we’ll see and then they play the pack the PBA game on uh on Sunday and want to be able just again to mention you know Jordan Hooper is getting her jersey retired on Sunday and sometimes
We do this real world class at UNL and some people will ask me who’s your favorite person to ever covered and Jordan Hooper is you know number one on the list really oh yeah why is that uh just a really good person like a really great Soul wore it easily
Didn’t never never put on a heirs never you know I wouldn’t call her the best quote I’ve ever talked to no but just like a genuine pure person who really uh was humble like genuinely humble and you know just played as hard as she could and all of
Her teammates liked her when they ended I’ll never forget this they lost to BYU in the NCA tournament and this was out in LA and they were going to come back if they’d won the game they were going to come play Yukon in PBA so it was it was
Really deflating everybody was kind of devastated uh by this but on the podium the two players it was Jordan Hooper’s last game and she really wanted to go back home play Yuko it was her last game and her two teammates were really just focused on the fact that they weren’t going to play
With her again and one of them like grabbed her around the shoulders on the podium is like I am going to miss you and it was it was awkward because everybody was kind of sad but she was sort of like really like it was spontaneous Joy of just being around
Jordan Hooper and I’m just telling that’s what it was kind of like I think their attendance has never quite been the same since she left because I think a lot of people were coming to watch her like more than come and watch Jazz
More than and i i i j was a great player maybe she’ll have her Jersey up there one day but like people just wanted to go and watch this one specific player and I think she had such a following and when she left was just a little bit of a
Dip and enthusiasm in the program and I feel like once she left there was there was a there was a void like that was the perfect player for Cony Yori and when she was gone it just didn’t quite feel the you know the same the star player
Who who never thought a day of being anything other than you know like the last player of the bench so good for her I think Nebraska will maybe win tonight I think they’ll win might be a weird game uh and then Indiana’s a tough Challenge on Sunday so that’ll be a
Tough one I I think Indiana’s very good and they’re like 900 years old they have like 6year seniors 12E seniors transfers that somehow have three years left even though they played two it’s just I mean they’re basically playing like the oldest team in America and so Indiana is
Also ranked and very good team and Nebraska struggles to beat them they’re always very competitive games but they don’t always get it done who do you got in the national title game Michigan Washington Michigan michig my official pick yeah line of scrimmage you’re already up by
Two so Tom W Tom he’s not here to gloat thankfully he won so he’s gonna have to pick the place where we eat and then we’ll have to give a review of that place oh okay can’t wait you think Nebraska gets a transfer this weekend yes maybe multiple transfers this
Weekend yeah I think so they’ve already had I mean they’re on campus uh as we speak really some of them are so yes I do classes start the 22nd UNL so there’s some they enroll well the the players show up a week before they do they want to get it done this weekend
If they yeah absolutely you’re going to be working I’m sorry there’s some emergency there I think they’ll get the running back I do too and I think he could play like a lot although EMT Johnson held up we have to be honest about that he did he did
Like he didn’t play great against Iowa but nobody nobody played great on offense against Iowa but he held up like he he played and he played well the best game Nebraska played all year they lost in my opinion their best game all year was against Wisconsin and that was a pretty good
Wisconsin team that they lost to yeah wow that version of Wisconsin not the version that played three weeks before but that version that night with that quarterback I mean Wisconsin kind of found it at the end of the year you could kind of tell that morai figured it
Out they were hard to stop they scored 31 against LSU defense sucks but that was a fun game you could argue that that was the best game they played all year and the second best game they played all year was probably against Purdue maybe Northwestern they didn’t play very well
Against that team that day Northwestern finished eight and5 can you believe it but Illinois too I’d put Illinois in there I they had some turnovers and whatnot but yeah they did they played okay against Earth wer I guess I think Purdue is going to be a much better football team next year than
People think because just kind of like some of the things that they’re about I like their coach I think they’re going to be pretty good on offense they got good on offense by the end of the year um I think they’re going to be a tough team to beat
Not tough but you know like win seven I don’t know I’m I’m not so high on him I think they’re they’re firsttime head coach I think he’s I think he’s got a little learning curve to go through just just my hunch we’ll see I think they’re
Going to go up right now I feel they’re trending up there’s no way Northwestern wins eight games again no not in the new Big 10 and I I don’t know where Minnesota’s going you know that quarterback they got coming in from New Hampshire is about 184 pounds he better be
Good CU he’s he’s gonna get crunched in this week that’s an interesting one with Fleck like he’s I don’t know that he’s ever been anywhere as long as he’s been in Minnesota now and when you have a guy like that sometimes I don’t know that that messaging can kind of lose its
Effectiveness a little bit lose its punch yeah maybe he’ll go to the NFL we’ll see all right that is our pixix podcast for this week hey thanks for listening everybody it’s happy New Year should tell be back next week
4 Comments
MCKOWEN PLEASE NEW USE THAT VOICE AGAIN!
I like Sam but…. he is a hater!! Lol 😂
Did I hear that correctly? Eric Fields left the program? I can't confirm that anywhere.
Penix is 6-3. Sam thinks he's Brees' height?