Gopher's need one hell of great game to beat Nebraska!!!

[WorkingMyTailOff]

Can anyone shed light on how Nebraska's Oline stacks up versus say Iowa or Northwestern? Iowa handled the Gophers defensive front 7, but Northwestern struggled to block the Gopher's front 7. I am not sure how much of that is scheme versus talent and effort. I would love to see the defense create turnovers and compete like they did against Northwestern.

Who's going to cover Kenny Bell? Murray and Vereen both looked really good at times in the last game.

 

[Gopher Fan Chuck]

I believe Nebraska is a pretty darn good team but they have not beaten a good football team yet this year, Illinois and Wyoming are there best wins to date. If the Gophers can put together a solid game in all three phases, offense, defense and special teams we have a legitimate shot at getting the win.
Go Gophers!

Totally agree with you.

 

[dpodoll68]

Can anyone shed light on how Nebraska's Oline stacks up versus say Iowa or Northwestern?

A Husker fan like "Gopher"God or husker70 could give a better recount of it than I, but just looking at experience and their recruitment profiles:

LT Jeremiah Sirles, 5th year SR, Lakewood, CO 3-star, offers from several Pac-12 schools (including Oregon), Northwestern, Tx Tech, Louisville
LG Jake Cotton, 4th year JR, Lincoln, NE 2-star, only offer from Nebraska
C Cole Pensick, 5th year SR, Lincoln, NE 3-star, only offer from Nebraska (though he committed a year+ before signing day)
RG Spencer Long, 5th year SR, Elkhorn, NE walk-on
RT Andrew Rodriguez, 4th year SR, Aurora, NE 4-star, #183 overall Rivals, only offer from Nebraska (committed 15 months before signing day)


On first blush, they are not very highly recruited by Nebraska standards, and all 3 interior linemen were recruited as DL. All are very experienced, though, with all being in their 4th or 5th year in the program. All redshirted except Rodriguez, who is easily the highest-rated recruit among them. Four of the five are Nebraska natives. Long seems to be the best NFL prospect at this point, possibly a 2nd-3rd round pick. Sirles and Pensick could get picked up as UDFA. Rodriguez is probably the most talented and could be an NFL player but has a reputation for disinterest, laziness, and lethargy.

EDIT: I see that Long was injured against Purdue a week ago (knee) and is done for the year. Mike Moudy (4th year JR, Castle Rock, CO 3-star, offers from Kansas, K St, Stanford, Northwestern, etc.) takes over in his spot. Seems like we could do some damage to the right side of their line.

 

[thailleagle]

It's hard to even fathom what could happen Saturday seeing as NW was averaging nearly 500yds a game & 39 points and we held them to 17... on the road nonetheless. Nebraska hasn't played anyone really decent yet & when they did they blew a 21-3 lead against UCLA. The problem with this is Michigan wasn't playing well either but looked solid against us so it's hard to say...

I do believe we'd have to play a *PERFECT* game in order to pull this one out but I think if the Gophers can sustain LOOOOOOONG scoring drives & keep Nebraska's Offense off the field we could throw them out of rhythm early especially with a rusty Martinez...

I'd start Nelson...

 

[GopherGod]

A Husker fan like "Gopher"God or husker70 could give a better recount of it than I, but just looking at experience and their recruitment profiles:

LT Jeremiah Sirles, 5th year SR, Lakewood, CO 3-star, offers from several Pac-12 schools (including Oregon), Northwestern, Tx Tech, Louisville
LG Jake Cotton, 4th year JR, Lincoln, NE 2-star, only offer from Nebraska
C Cole Pensick, 5th year SR, Lincoln, NE 3-star, only offer from Nebraska (though he committed a year+ before signing day)
RG Spencer Long, 5th year SR, Elkhorn, NE walk-on
RT Andrew Rodriguez, 4th year SR, Aurora, NE 4-star, #183 overall Rivals, only offer from Nebraska (committed 15 months before signing day)

On first blush, they are not very highly recruited by Nebraska standards, and all 3 interior linemen were recruited as DL. All are very experienced, though, with all being in their 4th or 5th year in the program. All redshirted except Rodriguez, who is easily the highest-rated recruit among them. Four of the five are Nebraska natives. Long seems to be the best NFL prospect at this point, possibly a 2nd-3rd round pick. Sirles and Pensick could get picked up as UDFA. Rodriguez is probably the most talented and could be an NFL player but has a reputation for disinterest, laziness, and lethargy.

EDIT: I see that Long was injured against Purdue a week ago (knee) and is done for the year. Mike Moudy (4th year JR, Castle Rock, CO 3-star, offers from Kansas, K St, Stanford, Northwestern, etc.) takes over in his spot. Seems like we could do some damage to the right side of their line.

Nebraska has tended to play quite a few guys on the line this year. Besides those already listed, Brent Qvale, Ryne Reeves, and Mark Pelini will likely be rotated in through out the game at various positions. The loss of Spencer Long will definitely hurt Nebraska as he was without a doubt the best lineman, who went from walk-on to 2nd team All-American last year and first team All Big Ten. The Nebraska coaches at least before the loss of Long said that this was the best o-line since Pelini has been there. Pensick and Cotton are both Nebraska legacies and Cotton's dad is the o-line/TE coach.

 

[Johnob2]

Trying not to sound pessimistic but I think we need to execute and hope they have a bad day for us to win. If they play near potential I fear they have a bit too much for us to handle. Having said that, I still believe we are improving and am very proud of the team. I'd be happy with a win v either Penn State or Indiana and a low bowl victory (7-6) this year.

 

[thailleagle]

I saw something in that game MN played against Nebraska at TCF 2 years ago and I've been waiting for this game ever since...

We played them last year and got worked as well... not sure what you think you saw but why skip a year? Lol...

 

[Maximus]

I saw something in that game MN played against Nebraska at TCF 2 years ago and I've been waiting for this game ever since. This is the game, getch your popcorn ready!

I had to refresh my memory about that game so I looked at the box score and saw we were down 34-0 at halftime so naturally I was gonna come here and post a sarcastic comment. But then I remembered the team played pretty well in the second half....media (and some here) mocked all the quotes from players/coaches referencing that....and then the next week the 1-6 Gophers beat 5-2 Iowa at the Bank.

Maybe you're onto something.

 

[thailleagle]

I had to refresh my memory about that game so I looked at the box score and saw we were down 34-0 at halftime so naturally I was gonna come here and post a sarcastic comment. But then I remembered the team played pretty well in the second half....media (and some here) mocked all the quotes from players/coaches referencing that....and then the next week the 1-6 Gophers beat 5-2 Iowa at the Bank.

Maybe you're onto something.

So you're saying we'll lose this week but win next week? I'll take it...

 

[Bayfieldgopher]

I dunno. We weren't in the game at all last year at Lincoln. And they have most of their play makers back, at least on offense.

I can see the Huskers easily roll up 40+ pts on us which we won't be able to match. If we can somehow play our A game and Nebraska takes the day off, we could win a close one.

We caught NU at a bad time and Kill's sudden appearance provided the guys with tons of motivation. Not sure either will be a factor this Saturday.

Maybe Coach Claey's comment that "you are better than you think" will catch on and bring out their best.

 

[jaymil]

I remember that game as well, we actually didn't play terribly. That was the game where Nebraska fumbled a pitch in the red zone and actually fumbled it FORWARD past the first down mark out of bounds on a 4th down play. That play/rule really could've swung momentum in our favor because we were playing pretty well up until then. I think things unraveled a little bit after that.

 

[wait!what?]

I remember that game as well, we actually didn't play terribly. That was the game where Nebraska fumbled a pitch in the red zone and actually fumbled it FORWARD past the first down mark out of bounds on a 4th down play. That play/rule really could've swung momentum in our favor because we were playing pretty well up until then. I think things unraveled a little bit after that.

The NE game at TCF was a strange one. MN had been getting curbstomped by almost every opponent and NE had been running the score up on teams so the spread for the game might have been >50. NE was bent on beating Minny by the spread or better and Minny gave everything they had. ilooked it up spread was 25? i thought it was higher.

 

[Who Boppin]

As a Nebraska fan i felt Bo & Nebraska basically shut it down after halftime in 2011. Im sure Minnesota played better, but thats just my recollection. Nebraska was up 34-0 at halftime and Bo is generally pretty nice when it comes to running up the score on opponents.

 

[Maximus]

As a Nebraska fan i felt Bo & Nebraska basically shut it down after halftime in 2011. Im sure Minnesota played better, but thats just my recollection. Nebraska was up 34-0 at halftime and Bo is generally pretty nice when it comes to running up the score on opponents.

That's possible and I remember when anyone would say that Minnesota played better in the second half, that was the quick response. Either way, it was a different team at least for the next two games after the Nebraska game. Beat Iowa. Down to the wire at Michigan State which won the Legends division. Then ended the year dominating a sliding Illinois team.

Nebraska did throw the ball 10 times in the first half and 13 times in the second though. Of course the way they ran the ball that day, that could be a form of "shutting it down".

 

[Who Boppin]

That's possible and I remember when anyone would say that Minnesota played better in the second half, that was the quick response. Either way, it was a different team at least for the next two games after the Nebraska game. Beat Iowa. Down to the wire at Michigan State which won the Legends division. Then ended the year dominating a sliding Illinois team.

Nebraska did throw the ball 10 times in the first half and 13 times in the second though. Of course the way they ran the ball that day, that could be a form of "shutting it down".

Yeah i dont remember the exact specifics. Im sure Nebraska missed out on a few scoring opportunities/Minnesota playing better. Maybe it was more of a 4th quarter shutdown than a 2nd half shutdown.

 

[e.bigelow]

Yeah i dont remember the exact specifics. Im sure Nebraska missed out on a few scoring opportunities/Minnesota playing better. Maybe it was more of a 4th quarter shutdown than a 2nd half shutdown.

I remember at one point in the 2nd half of that game, Martinez for you guys was allowed to toss three straight 'go routes' over the top to try and get 6, none of which he converted or completed, for that matter. I think the Huskers were at the MN 40 or something like that. Basically seemed like Pelini wanted to get him practice on deep balls in a live game. But, that just goes to show you where that game was at in 2011 that Martinez was just chucking it up on deep routes....unfortunately.

 

[thailleagle]

I think NE just let off the gas in 2011 because it was 34-0 at Halftime. The game was already decided... & they just dominated us last year. I'm hoping this will be at the least a more competitive game but these Brewster-esque 2nd Half Moral Victories are a joke...