Sideline Slice - North Dakota

0:00this is the sideline slice. Presented by Valentino's pizza, the official pizza of the Huskers. Here's your host Jessica Cudi and Husker Radio Network analyst, Jeremiah Cerels. And welcome into another victory episode of the sideline slice with Jeremiah Cerels. I'm Jessica Cudi, but Cerels, I know you had a fun time on the late night, first late night edition of Big Red reaction. This seemed to have did what they were supposed to do against bowling green. Yeah, absolutely. And I know I talked about it last week like my key was to come out and slap the team around. They did. Right. That's exactly what you needed to do against this team. That was not a very good football team. In fact, it's probably the worst football team we're going to play all year. And you went out and you handled business against him for your opponent. Clandrea was great. He was throwing the ball everywhere. It needed to be. We were winning the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. We won the turnover battle. We even somehow won the penalty battle, which I'm not really sure. We had seven. They had eight. No dominated all three phases of game.

1:00And when you have the opportunity to do that, you have to make sure that you go out and leave no doubt. So overall was very impressed with how we handled things. But again, I don't want us to get too far out in front of our skis and be like, woo, daddy. Like because that was a really bad team. OK, that being said again, you talk about the improvements that you typically see. And I know that that was a team that you were supposed to do that to. All that being said, did you see some improvements, though, from week one to week two? Yeah, I think, you know, as far as the run game looked more smooth, I thought the operation was a lot more smooth. The special teams was much improved, right? We didn't have any. Exactly. Penalties. Well, yeah, we'd have any procedure penalties at least, right? It wasn't like a, hey, we fall started or we were like, the holdings, the block in the backs, those are just lack of judgment and lack of execution, which you can't really coach that. You just have to know, hey, if I can read his jersey, his name, don't hit it, right? Like it's pretty simple. Well, hey, get my hands inside the framework of the body, not outside. And most have to get cleaned up,

2:02but blocking upon on special teams. That's a big one, getting the interception, flipping the field. And so I saw some improvements on what our point of emphasis are, which is, hey, turnovers, protecting the football, and then obviously making an impact on special teams. So I did see improvements in those facets, but as far as can we judge a true jump in our game from Ohio to bowling green, I think we probably played similar to that. It's just so hard to judge. And I even went back and watched the tape this morning and you're watching it like, well, that guy shouldn't be playing football. And so you just, it's hard to judge as you watch it. But overall, I was really pleased with the execution of our offense from the offensive line, the running backs. And then obviously we want a couple drops from the receivers, but anytime a quarterback, I believe goes 20 of 24. It's going to be a pretty good day. Jay was talking about this on the broadcast. I think at one point, Josh, was it seven out of the eight penalties for holding penalties? And then coach rule addressed that in his press conference that, maybe being officiated a little bit differently.

3:03What do you make of that? And are you seeing it being a little bit different? And how do you fix that now moving forward now that you know it's going to be officiated that way? Well, I mean, every year kind of starts like this, where it's the point of emphasis, right? Hey, we're going to call holding penalties. We're going to call this. We're going to really make sure. And then as it kind of moves for these first few exhibition games and you head more into conference play, it usually isn't policed as just completely like, oh, he talked to him a little bit through the flag. Like there's usually a little bit more grace, but it does put in your mind as an organization as a player. I have to make sure that I am mindful of this because I don't want to hurt my team down the road. I don't want to be the guy that gets the 10 yard penalty and brings back the explosive play. I don't want a guy that gets handsy on DPI and allows them to bail them out when it's third and long. So it's just it's a good reminder. You don't want to harp on it. And you don't want it to make a thing where it's all you think about is, oh, don't get a penalty, don't get a penalty, don't get a penalty. But at the same time, you want to make sure that you're still being aggressive. You're still using your hands,

4:04but you just have to make sure it's all about just getting those hands inside the framework of the shoulders, not getting your hands outside so that you don't bring the zebras into play. At one point I know after the game and coach always likes to go back and watch the film before he really dives into it. So we'll learn more about how he feels about it. But at one point he had said that, thought the pass protection needed to be better. What did you take away from that and where can that improve? Yeah, we got a little leaky on the edges, especially in the second half. You know, I thought in the first half was pretty solid, but in the second half we got a little leaky at the tackle positions and listen, I've had to do it. And it's not easy to do, but Gunner switching from right to left, the game, it's hard. It's a tough thing to do. You lose rhythm, you lose your kind of A, where your mojo is if you're used to one foot back, not the other foot's back, and then you flip back to the other side and then your brains trying to flip things around and I'm gonna get the wiping analogy. I mean, I've said it enough. If you listen to this show a long time, if you understand the wiping analogy, you think it's easy next time you go to the bathroom, wipe your other hand and see how easy it is, right?

5:05Now imagine doing it like multiple times a day, like one right one left. And then yeah, so looking at it from that perspective, I'm not gonna make an excuse for Gunner. He would be mad at me if I did, but he has to clean up some of his pass protection stuff, same with Pritchett. I thought early in the game, when Pritchett does it right, my goodness. It looks like a, could be a first round, draft pick. Like when he sets properly, throws his hands, strikes guys and then just moves his feet, it looks effortless. When he gets himself in trouble, either poor technique, he's laid off the ball, takes a poor angle, then it doesn't look so good. And so just consistency from the tackle position is gonna something that we're gonna have to show up more because we did put a little blood in the water of speed rushes and up and under moves. So we're gonna see some more of that from North Dakota, Michigan State, and as we go, that's what the pass rush is. Is it's a game of cat and mouse every single week? What's you put on tape? What you're gonna be tested with the next week? Do we fix it in practice? Do we shut it down? Or is it something that's pandora's box? We're gonna continue to get worked on. So yeah, the edge is gonna get shared up

6:05a little bit more in pass protection. I know it's early. I know it's two games in, but I think already just in the first two games, you're seeing a little bit more of a vintage Dana Holwersen type of offense, the way that they're spreading it around, and lots of guys involved, and a balance to attack at that. I mean, I know he gets called for the air raid, but he's been a guy that likes to run the football and it's been very balanced to back to back yards over, or back to back games over 500 yards of total offense and both very balanced games. I think again, just a little bit of the first two games, a glimpse of it, just the makings of an explosive Dana Holwersen offense. 100%. Yeah, it's a completely different field than last year. I mean, people last year, even when we were playing against Houston, Christian and some of the other bad schools, you know, they were like, why is the explosive play? Where's the down the field shots? Why don't we push the ball down the field? Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. And you and I had to sit here like listen, let the offense come to you, like trying to figure it out. We're seeing none of that this year. It is head hunting. Hey, where's the Cory Barney? He's down there. Let me put a ball on him.

7:05Hey, Wersen is a hunter, where's Luke Lindon Meyer? Where's Gil? Like there's just so many weapons on this offense that you have to spread the field. You have to make the defense think about the deep shots because we are capable of it. We are capable of holding up and pass protection. Our quarterback can move around and create and our receivers can go up and make contest to catch is. And so when you're day in a whole Gerson and you've got all these different fun tools to play with, it opens up so many things you can do on offense. And then also you can just come back to the bread and butter, hand the ball to rule, hand the ball to Nelson, hand the ball to Mozie, and let them pound away on the ground. It's just get those safeties to sneak up and then shoot it over their heads. Right now I get it. It's early, it's young. It's I see the building blocks of what this identity of this offense wants to be. And I can't wait to see when we're tested for a four quarter battle. What the chess match of Dana Holgerston is with a schematics aspect of it looks like. Do you get an early feel just through two games? I know they shut down Jamal rule at half, but his ability to read what he is being given because I don't watch the all 22s like you do,

8:07but I did go back and watch for the TV show. And it seems like he does a pretty good job of reading where he needs to hit the gaps early on. Well, you and I could have ran through those holes on Saturday and Jessica, those holes were as we refer to gaping. So, you know, it's just like you look at them in just the red C parts. And so yeah, I hope you can see those ones. I want to see more of as things are progressing what his vision looks like where you have to assume where the hole's going to be. Is that's the next level of vision for running back? Everyone's moving to my right. I see where I believe the cutbacks going to be and I have to anticipate the cutback and hit it in the real time. You can't see the cutback and then hit the cutback because it's going to close by that time. You have to anticipate. You have to, hey, this is where I understand that I've worked with this offensive line enough to know that once we hit this point by step three, four, five, whatever it is, I'm going to put my foot in the ground and I'm going to get North and South. Or hey, if I see that the front side has this reach, I understand now I can push this thing out the front door.

9:10So I think that's just going to continue to come with him more. I like that he's seeing it now and going. He hasn't had to anticipate anything yet. And that's where he's going to grow more as a back. Nelson and Mozie of you have to say, hey, by the time we get here, how does this outside zone, how does this pin pull scheme, where are the holes I'm supposed to hit and where are the things that I can then create and make the big plays? So that'll be something again. You'll continue to see as we go along and continue to play better defenses and all of that. Yeah, because as I mean, I promise you, the scheme that we are running right now is so based off stretch and sink, stretch and sink with these running backs. Defense of coordinators are going to see that. They're going to have safety's coming in on the back side. They're telling linebackers to rock back. Like there's a lot of different things that people are going to do to this offense to try and slow down the explosive run games. So much of it is just also going to be trying to get those defensive linemen to penetrate a little bit more, which are interior offensive lines that a great job of not allowing penetration early so that we can get those stretches on the front side. Yeah, fascinating. All right, let's talk defense and coach Roles said one of the things that he liked on Saturday

10:11was that the defense is pissed off that they gave up that touchdown even though they had the big lead. And they were they were you could tell they were not happy that they gave up that touchdown. And again, that's when you talk about, I know you had referenced the caller and about scoring the touchdown late in game one, but when and you're trying to teach a team to finish and to put the foot on the throat and all of that, I mean, those are the things you want to see that a team like that be mad that they gave up a touchdown like that. Yeah, the standard is the standard is the standard. And that's and that's what you have to live by. That's how you have to build a culture that it doesn't matter what the score is. It doesn't matter if it's the ones, twos or threes on the field. The standard for Nebraska is the standard. And that is we shut down the defense. We score we play sound football. And so yeah, it's if you let someone go out there, you can't let the disease of mediocrity. We're like, hey, it's okay. We're up by we're up by 40. It's all right. They scored like it's fine. Everyone needs to score to know you have to have the mindset and the culture built of like F that no one scores.

11:12Right. No one scores in our house. And if we have that we have the chance to pitch a shut out, we pitch the shut out. And it doesn't matter if the starters are out in the backups are in. It is your job to carry on what we started as the starters and shut this team down. And when you build that sense of accountability within the entire team, that's where you get that pure lead team. That's when you get the culture that is built, not the culture that you have to create. And when players come in now, whether it's a transfer portal or it's a high school kid, they come in and it's your job. Hey, I better assimilate to this culture. I'm going to get ran out of here. And so I like seeing that. I like seeing the fire from the defense of, hey, this is what we believe in. This is what we know we're capable of. This is what we're going to hold ourselves to. Just like on the offense where I see Luke Lindon Meyer do a tiny thing that no one probably saw besides people that really I kind of understand football there right before the second half. Mozie or Nelson, I can't remember which one it was, Gets a ball and he's kind of running around and he's juking and he's trying to make things happen right before half and then falls down. And he killed like six seconds. And you see Lindon Meyer come up to him after and they would zoom in on him and Luke's going,

12:12hey, in that moment, get down, save the clock, the extra two yards aren't worth it. And those are the tiny little things that when you see a player led team by veterans that have been there building that type of culture. And it may seem like a tiny little thing, but that coming from Luke Lindon Meyer, instead of coming from Daniel Holgerson, is a completely different level of accountability and competitiveness that this team has to get to. Love that. Valentinos has been a Nebraska tradition for more than 68 years serving the family recipes you know and love. Valentinos, the official pizza of the Huskers and a slice of home you just can't get anywhere else. So how about the defensive touchdown? Those celebrations are fine on the sideline. Yes, I mean, yeah, defensive guys, they don't know how to act when they score. Like they're just they get super excited and they run around like crazy people. But anytime you can score as a defense, I mean, you're odds of winning skyrocket. And it's a good thing to have because turnovers kind of come in bunches.

13:13It's just kind of like sacks. Sacks and turnovers come in bunches when they're contagious for a defense because when you see someone get a sack or you see someone score, you're like, I want a part of that. Like I want I want to I want a piece of that. And so they kind of continue to go just like if you're not getting them, everyone's like, whoa, what's happening? Why are we getting the football turnover? Why are we getting the sacks? So I like to see that we're getting a taste of the end zone. We're getting a taste of some sacks, some pressures because that's just going to continue to be good for our defense to build more morale, to build more confidence and to really just want to go out there and find ways to take the football and give it to this explosive offense on a short field so they can score quickly. And that strip sack was a young defensive lineman that's got a lot of upside, which you always like to see too. Yeah, anytime the young guys can get in there, I mean, when it gets to the point where you're like, who is 71? Yeah, I don't know who that is, but nice job, buddy. Like, you know, because I've always told you, I won't learn your name to you're in the two deep. And so, you know, watching some of the young guys get in and get some meaningful minutes, really cool. All right. I also was really impressed with T.J. Lateef. And he came out with some fire. He was aggressive and that second team offense

14:15moved the ball really well. And the offensive line, the back of's offense on the offensive line blocked well for him when he was in scramble mode. Yeah, no, I thought Lateef came in and looked incredible. I mean, it's a great problem to have, to have two quarterbacks like that that you have full trust in because as we've learned, I don't dress, maybe since every year that you and I have been doing the show, the quarterback, backup quarterbacks, going to come into play at one point in time during the season. And so you have two guys that you can completely trust around the offense and again, not taking shots at the last guy. But when you have two type of quarterbacks with similar physical skill sets, it's easier to tailor your offense to grow and build and develop where, hey, if one quarterbacks in, this is the type of offense we run. If this quarterbacks in, this is the type of offense we run. When you're going, hey, Lateef and Calandria, both really good athletes, both can get on the move and run. Also a really good thing that you can continue to, like accuracy is getting better. So we can just run our offense within our offense.

15:16And I think that's helped this, the Lateef and Calandria work with each other because they can build with each other and give each other advice and see what each other working on and continue to push and grow with each other instead of having just completely different skill sets, which is kind of what we had last year with DR and the Teaf. It looked like the same offense, you know? It was the same. I know and I'm just saying like, you don't always get that not even here, but even when I was at Oklahoma, sometimes in the back up would come in for Baker or Kyler, it didn't look like the same offense. Yeah, I mean, last year is the same thing when the Raven signed Cooper Rush. And it was like Lamar Jackson Cooper Rush, one of these things is not like the other. And so it just changes the whole feel, it changes the whole flow, the whole rhythm. And so I'm always a big component on whoever you're starting quarterback is go find a backup that matches the skill set and can play within the scheme because that's just going to be the overall health for your offense so much better. All right, well, kind of burying the lead here, but you're going to be on the call with us. I know. I can't. So we're excited to have you in the booth. Yeah, no, I'm super excited. I got to go up last week and I got to see Kyle

16:17with his little elbow pads on the thing to make sure he doesn't scuff up his elbows. So excited to be up there with Ben and the crew. And I think the last game I called I was with Gregie and Colorado. I think I called the Colorado game in Boulder. So excited to get a chance to get back on the call with the crew and pretty good North Dakota team coming in here. Which I do clearly want to go back to that because Marcus Satterfield told me a story this week that they played the chopped up clips of Luke Lindemmeyer of that game at Colorado. He got I think smoked on a few, few plays and they matched it up to that game when he was a freshman and young to what he did in that week one opener and just the process of hey, if you stick with it, it works. Yes, you just trust the process, right? Trust the process overcome. So hey, I learned I grew from my call and call and call, I grew from my call and the little boy. So I'm sticking with the process. We do. Coach Bow would say trust the process and compete every day. We joke, I don't know if Kyle's ready

17:18for your energy up there in the booth. I mean, he's going to learn. He doesn't have a choice. So he can be ready or not. Here I come. Like shove him into Ben. Yeah, Ben's going to have to be the corner. They're going to be they're just going to all be like after I leave. We're going to first of all, we're having vows afterwards. We have victory. That was the thing we used to do with Greg and Ben and myself and Nate Ror, victory vows when I was doing the sideline. It was like, hey, I'd come up after the game. I do the fifth quarter show and then we just sit there and we'd always keep going out until we could smell it. So hopefully we get the W here and then I am definitely partaking in some victory vows after this game. All right. Well, let's talk about the matchup. Then you're impressed with ortho code as you're diving into their their film. Yeah, you know, so I've watched it. They mean they haven't played anyone worth of crap in the first three weeks. But you look at their final scores 42 points against L.I.U. 62 points against St. Thomas, 47 points against Portland State. So this this offense has put up some numbers, which means they have confidence and they have some swagger coming into this game about what they want to do. And one thing I do know about the Missouri Valley physical,

18:21that is a physical conference. They mean they have they have as many players in the NFL from the front sevens as maybe like the big 10 at times. Right. All of North Dakota State's offensive lineman plan. They're South Dakota states, Illinois states, Northern Iowa, like they are a physical group. These guys, this conference prides themself on their ability to play bully ball. So I would really like to see us come in and take that away from them. And we play some bully ball. But we need to have our helmets strapped up because so many of these kids are Midwest kids. They are from the surrounding Dakotas, the Kansas, the Missouri's, the Nebraska's. And this is going to be their Super Bowl. This is going to be the biggest stadium they may be have ever played in or will ever play in. And so they're going to come here strapped up right ago. And from someone that probably should have lost to South Dakota State, when I played them at one point in time, you have to be ready to go because these dudes will come in with their hair on fire. That physicality a pretty good precursor right before you go into Big 10 play. I do. I love the, it's a step up. I think this is the best team we will have played this year. I think Ohio probably has some better athletes on the edges.

19:23But from a completely well coached all around team, I think North Dakota will be the better team. So it's a really good ramp up game coming from the slappies we played last week to a really well coach football team heading into conference play. I like the progression of what our schedule has looked like. And it's going to be a good test for us at home here to cut our teeth one more time before we head into the gauntlet. All right, keys for Oscar victory in this one. Yeah, I mean, I think the number one key here is we have to stop the run on first down. We have to stop the run on first down. We cannot allow North Dakota to live in second and five in second and four, which is what they want to do. They want to run the ball, establish the run on early downs and then be able to take their shots on play action. We have to get them behind the sticks where we can allow our pass rush to make a difference because when you're sitting at third and third and two, because you didn't win first down, we allowed a play right in North Dakota's game. They are not a team that wants to live in third and 10 plus. They don't have the athletes on the edge and it really gives us the advantage with our pass rushers. So number one key is going to be stop, stop the run on defense and win first down. The second key is going to be we need to get some turnovers.

20:24I'm going to be heavy defense this week. We got to get some turnovers. Get some turnovers. Give our offense a short field, continue to build the confidence of our offense with the explosive play. Hey, quick change, quick turnaround. We get a turnover, take the deep shot. Let's try and put the nail in the coffin earlier than we can. And then the third thing is going to be on offense. We have to control the line of scrimmage. We have to be able to show that against Ohio against bowling green. It's been up and down at times. We have to so for 60 minutes, we can control the line of scrimmage. We can control the dictate in the tempo. So so much of this game is going to come down to who can win the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, which is where I'm really looking at us. Because I think we have the advantage on the edges on both offense and defense. But the interior piece of this is where this game will be won or lost. So it's all about controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football. Players to watch for you. Yeah, I think I know a player that I want to watch. I want to see Paul Mubanga. I want to see him really continue to grow and go at the left guard position. He's showing some really good flashes. He's got great feet, really good long arms. I want to continue to see him be a little bit more physical in the run game.

21:28And start running off the ball more, snapping on linebackers, continuing to roll there. And then I think, you know, Marshall on defense. I would love to continue to see him grow as a corner. I think we talked about it on the first week of big red reaction. We need to have some dudes at every level. He's playing like he could be a dude. So excited to see what he can continue able to do. How he's going to grow and hopefully become that lockdown corner and good tackler on the edge. We've talked about this before, but it's like for a corner when they're playing well, you don't really notice them, right? Correct. It's just like an offensive lineman. Like when the things are going great, I don't want to know who you are. I don't want to hear your name. I don't want to hear anything about you. I don't want you to do your stupid little seat belt celebration. Like just do about your business. Do your thing. And he's been really good. He had the one penalty. He should have had the pick last week. So he's starting to turn the corner. Obviously we're going to get better and better play. But when you play, it gets to team like North Dakota. You can do some things where you might bait the quarterback into, hey, my guy's open and then slam the door, get the interception. So again, starting to see him play the game a little bit more like a professional,

22:28which is great to see. You just going to go through the offensive line on your players to watch on offense. Yes. That's a good, don't our last week. Does that surprise, does that surprise anyone? No, as we get into big 10 play, there will be more, but so much about how our team will go or fail this year is based off the offensive line. Jamalian, you like it. The Jamalian, dude. Yeah, so we had a caller call in that said they wanted to nicknamed Jamal rule the Jamalian and I don't hate it. I think, you know, it's in the workshop phase. I don't think we're ready to put the hashtag out, but I don't hate Jamalian. All right, well, we'll see you again on our network for picks. First, what you are dominating out of the gate college football is crazy man right now. College football has been nannas and I don't think it's going to slow down anytime soon. But you've called it so far, so good out of the gate on our pitch. So long year. So long year. Keep it rolling. And then yeah, you'll be on the call with us starting with Husker game day with Ben McLaughlin at two o'clock on Saturday. Let's go. You know, I'm just excited.

23:29I don't want to do a big red reaction to one in the morning again. So when the game is over, my day can actually end. All right. Well, good stuff is always again. This has been the sideline. And size percent of by Valentino's pizza, the official pizza of the Huskers. Goldie red Valentino's treasured Italian family recipes have been passed down for generations and still locally owned and operated. Valentino's proudly serving Nebraska's in memorial stadium for over 30 years.