The start of the college football season is always met with some sort of level of excitement whether that is a new coach, a new jersey, or just a fresh start in general. Each team and their fans have a fresh, and often positive, outlook for whatever the new season will bring them. Some teams end up cashing in huge in that first opportunity, and set a pace which follows them through the rest of the season. Alabama, Texas A&M, and Michigan are all examples of this from the past weekend. Some teams take that opportunity, and fall flat on their face. Iowa, Kansas State, and Oregon State are all examples of this. Then there are other teams like my beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers who happen to win their game, but every other sign points like they should have actually lost.
Going into the season everybody knew of the inexperience of the Nebraska front seven on defense and that inexperience was exposed during this first game. Aside from one bad call on a play which should have been a sack for Randy Gregory, the Nebraska defense came up with no sacks against Wyoming’s Brett Smith. The lack of pressure wasn’t exactly shocking, but was worrisome, and against a better offense than Wyoming, who knows what will happen. I am still having nightmares thinking about what someone like UCLA’s Brett Hundley can do to the defense.
Another worrying part for the Cornhusker defense was the issues they had covering the passing game. Going into the season I thought the biggest strength of the Cornhusker defense would be the defensive backs, and I was disappointed in the overall play of the secondary. Brett Smith and Dominic Rufran looked like they were Joe Montana and Jerry Rice in their prime with the way they sliced and diced the Nebraska secondary for yard after yard. Aside from cornerback Stanley Jean-Baptiste’s play in the first half, I was very disappointed in the performance. The fact that Nebraska gave up 602 total yards of offense, yet Wyoming only held the ball for a little over 24 minutes is horrifying. Thankfully this performance happened in the first game of the season, which means they have one more game before a big team comes to Lincoln in order to get some sort of groove going on the defensive side of the ball. My sources (read: source) have told me that Southern Mississippi isn’t capable of doing the same damage as Wyoming was, and that it should be a good confidence booster for the Cornhusker defense. We’ll see.
I feel like I was too negative in the prior section so I will throw out some positives about the positive game.
1. True Freshman Terrell Newby’s play – After being inserted early in the third quarter for a few plays Terrell Newby really stepped his game up the rest of the second half looking like he could carry the bulk of the running game if the situation arose. At one point becoming the primary tailback for the most of the possessions in the third quarter. I look for more carries from him in the upcoming game against Southern Mississippi in order to establish a rhythm, and get him use to becoming somewhat featured back this season.
2. Kickoff specialist Mauro Bondi and Punter Sam Foltz’ impact on the defense via the kicking game – Both players kicked the ball extremely well for the Cornhuskers on Saturday. Mauro Bondi having four touchbacks to his credit for the entire game, and helping the defense as much as he could by minimizing total returns for the Wyoming special teams. Nebraska’s kickoff coverage wasn’t the best last year, and if they can have another booming leg to take kickoffs again (ala Adi Kunalic), it will be a huge boost for the rest of the team. Sam Foltz’ punting game was off the charts on Saturday as well, giving Nebraska’s defense multiple chances with Wyoming’s back against the wall. I look for more of the same during the season from these two, and a continued improvement of the special teams as a whole.
3. One-Armed Taylor Martinez – During the game I sent out a tweet which said “A one-armed Taylor Martinez just lead a touchdown drive. 2010 me would have had a complete meltdown at this thought.” I was very impressed by the fact that despite really only having use of one arm for the bulk of the second half, Taylor hung in there, and Coach Pelini stuck with him the entire time. I am unsure if Taylor said something on the sidelines, but to see how far he has come as a quarterback, and a leader for the team is really impressive. His performance wasn’t too bad either, and aside from one “Oh Taylor…” moment on an interception; I had no issues with how he played the entire game. The offense (finally) appears to be catered to his strengths, and he is letting the game come to him rather than forcing decisions.
An overall disappointing performance from the Cornhuskers on Saturday, but they did pick up the win, and that is what matters at the end of the day. I do look for some improvement in the upcoming game against Southern Mississippi, but I am also keeping expectations low for the simple fact that they are a weaker team. However, if the same miscues, and inexperience issues creep up in this game, I will be slightly less bullish heading into the game the next week against UCLA.
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