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00:00 Welcome to the Carriker Chronicles, the people show.
00:11 Check the pulse of Husker Nation.
00:12 And ladies and gentlemen, I wasn't sure it was going to happen.
00:16 I got up this morning and there were serious doubt in my mind, serious question marks,
00:21 but I looked outside and sure enough it had happened.
00:24 The sun came up again this morning.
00:27 It was a miracle.
00:28 It was a miracle.
00:29 Alright, if you watched my gut reaction last night, I was frustrated, I was conflicted,
00:33 I was all of the above, and then some.
00:36 Okay?
00:37 And I'm going to dive into a lot of things here.
00:39 This show right here, right now, today, is the five things that I saw last night that
00:43 legit encouraged me, and five things we need to get better at as a team.
00:47 Okay?
00:48 And it wasn't hard to come up with five on either side.
00:50 In fact, I've got a bonus for you at the end.
00:52 And it's probably the most important/my favorite one.
00:56 So stay tuned for the end of this show to hear that.
00:59 And it's interesting because I checked out John Johnston of Korn Nation, his gut reaction.
01:03 I checked out Connor Hayden, Korn Crazed on YouTube, his gut, his reaction, his live reaction
01:08 that he did.
01:09 And you can go check all that out at CarrikerChronicles.com, cheap plug.
01:12 But in all seriousness, I'm like, "Wow, these guys are way more calm than I am."
01:16 Like, I guess I just marched to the beat of my own drum.
01:18 I don't know.
01:19 Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but they were much more calm than me.
01:22 But it was interesting because I know how I operate.
01:26 I slept on it.
01:27 I woke up this morning.
01:29 I dissected the film.
01:32 And here are my takeaways.
01:35 More positives than negatives.
01:37 But I'll dive into that.
01:38 And I'm going to go back and forth between what I saw that was good and what needs to
01:43 be fixed and addressed.
01:44 So I'm going to start with something that stood out to me immediately, and that's, ladies
01:48 and gentlemen, that we have a stout defense.
01:52 They are representing the black shirts with pride.
01:55 And this defense is going to keep us in games and give us an opportunity to win games this
02:01 year.
02:02 Now, if you are fully on board with this 3-3-5 defense, like I'm pretty much on board now,
02:08 if you're on board with me, hit that like button, ladies and gentlemen.
02:11 Just a couple of quick stats.
02:13 Minnesota only rushed for 55 yards.
02:15 This is a team that has pushed us around year after year after year, unfortunately.
02:20 They only averaged 2.2 yards per carry.
02:23 They only had 251 yards of total offense.
02:27 And they averaged 4.5 yards per completion.
02:30 And if you thought Nebraska wasn't throwing the ball downfield, by comparison, we averaged
02:34 6 yards per completion, which is also not great when you're trying to stretch the field
02:38 vertically.
02:39 But that's a good job by our defense, frankly.
02:43 Now, something that needs to be improved.
02:45 Number one in this category.
02:46 Jeff Simms, he has 24 career starts, 31 career touchdown passes, and 26 career interceptions.
02:51 He needs to take care of the ball and work through his reads better.
02:56 The next thing that stuck out to me, as something to be optimistic and happy about, to this
03:00 point anyways, our special teams is clearly better.
03:04 Our coverage teams looked good, and Ramir Johnson's 65-yard kickoff return set up our
03:08 only touchdown of the day.
03:10 The next thing that needs to get improved on.
03:13 The offensive line looked better.
03:15 Let's be honest, I don't know how they WEREN'T going to look better compared to last year,
03:19 but they looked a little bit better, but they still have to get better, especially in our
03:22 pass protection.
03:24 Next up in things that encouraged me, I found a positive in, legit, positive in, we were
03:30 a physical team.
03:31 We were.
03:32 We tackled very well on defense.
03:34 Praise the Lord.
03:37 And we averaged nearly 5 yards per carry, 5 yards per rush on offense.
03:41 I wouldn't call us explosive by any stretch, but we were physical.
03:47 The next thing on the other list that needs to be improved on.
03:53 A couple of decisions.
03:55 Giving the ball, and I talked about this, I've seen it talked about elsewhere, but giving
03:59 the ball to a back with fumbling issues with about 5 minutes to go in the game doesn't
04:02 make any sense.
04:07 Every human being is created equal, right?
04:09 But not every football player is created equal.
04:11 One play does not determine the outcome of a game.
04:14 To be clear, one play does not determine the outcome of a game.
04:16 But you can't tell me, for example, the two-point conversion attempt, 1983 National Championship
04:22 game versus Miami, is that play no more important than any other play in Nebraska football history?
04:28 Here's my point, and I'm not pointing the finger at a player, I'm like, what about this
04:33 decision?
04:34 Okay, Anthony Grant's a dynamic running back, but he's had fumbling issues, so why is he
04:37 the guy with the ball in his hands late in the game?
04:39 That's a coaching decision, okay?
04:42 Also late in the third, early fourth quarter, I felt like we were about to take over the
04:46 game, we were running the ball well, and we threw three straight passes at that point.
04:52 Again, something I didn't quite understand, something that this coaching staff, this team
04:56 will grow and learn through together.
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05:21 All right, here's the deal, to put a bow on the thought I just had.
05:27 When you're making that kind of money, there's a level of accountability that comes with
05:31 some of these decisions, and I think that that's fair, okay?
05:34 That's all I'm doing.
05:35 I'm just trying to be fair here, both sides of the coin, because I'm going to come back
05:37 to the coaches in just a minute, all right?
05:40 Now the next thing that stuck out to me as a positive, we were the stronger team in the
05:44 second half.
05:45 I did, I felt like we were about ready to take over the game at a certain point, okay?
05:49 Our strength and conditioning is clearly improved.
05:52 The next thing that needs to be improved upon, okay, Minnesota didn't beat us, we beat ourselves.
05:58 All right, we left 10 to 14 points on the table, and at the end, obviously, the fumble
06:05 that I just addressed, okay, gave them a big time opportunity late in the game to get the
06:09 ball back.
06:10 Now, I laid out last night how we left those points in my gut reaction, how we exactly
06:15 left them on the table, so you can check that out if you want.
06:17 The fact that we lost is what bothers me the most, okay?
06:22 The fact that it was ugly didn't bother me the most.
06:25 I predicted it would be ugly and close and low scoring, okay?
06:29 It's how we lost.
06:30 It just seemed all too familiar, okay?
06:33 The next thing that's a positive to me, legit a positive, okay, and it's not like we ran
06:38 the ball down their throats here, but we averaged nearly 5 yards per carry.
06:42 We were averaging over 7 yards per carry at one point in the game.
06:46 Jeff Sims is dynamic with his feet.
06:49 He's a dynamic playmaker with his feet.
06:51 6, 4, 2, 20, and he can run.
06:54 And I love seeing the option.
06:56 I want to see even more of it, but I thought that that was a positive.
07:00 All right, one last thing that definitely needs to be improved upon is we need some
07:04 pass catchers to step up.
07:06 Wide receivers, tight ends.
07:07 There's nobody stretching the field vertically, okay?
07:10 Right now the most exciting wide receiver we have is our backup quarterback, Heinrich
07:14 Harburg, coming in at the moment.
07:16 So that is something that needs to be improved upon sooner rather than later.
07:21 And that'll help Jeff Sims out when it comes to his touchdowns, to completion percentage,
07:25 to INTs that he throws or doesn't throw, okay?
07:28 That'll help him out.
07:29 There's a lot on his shoulders right now.
07:31 He's got to get better, but the people around him have to help him get better too.
07:35 Here's my bonus.
07:36 All right, and there were obvious coaching adjustments that were made throughout the
07:44 game.
07:45 We clearly have a good head coach and a good defensive coordinator.
07:49 All right, our program is in the hands of someone who has done this before, and it shows,
07:56 ladies and gentlemen.
07:57 Temple, I believe he won one game, or two games in year one.
08:00 And Baylor, he won one game in year one.
08:02 I still believe we can go 7-5 this year.
08:05 Per my prediction video from a couple of weeks ago, and go to a bowl game.
08:09 I believe we'll beat Colorado.
08:11 And then, we can beat Northern Illinois and Louisiana Tech and be 3-1 heading into that
08:16 Michigan game at home.
08:18 It's year one, folks.
08:19 Okay, it's game one.
08:21 Let's not get trigger happy here, and I'm throwing myself into this too, but I can't
08:25 control how I react immediately following a game, but I'm working on it.
08:30 But I also am who I am, but I digress.
08:32 I have no problem holding Matt Rule and the coaches accountable when necessary.
08:37 But here's what I saw.
08:38 I saw a Nebraska football team last night that had exhibited characteristics of a tough,
08:44 physical football team that got stronger as the game went along, that still needs to get
08:51 better.
08:52 I can't believe he hasn't fixed everything by game one already!
08:55 What's taking so long?
08:57 Okay, I digress.
08:59 In all seriousness, let's give the coaches some time to figure it out.
09:04 Okay, after processing, the way we lost is what bothered me the most.
09:10 But there's so many things to feel positive about, and the obvious improvements that I'm
09:16 sure are going to come as this year goes along.
09:17 Three questions I have for you.
09:19 Let me know in the comments below.
09:20 Is there anything I missed?
09:22 Positive or negative?
09:23 Let me know.
09:25 Will we beat Colorado?
09:26 Yes or no, let me know.
09:28 And what do you think our record will be going into that Michigan game?
09:30 Do you agree that we'll be 3-1?
09:32 If you missed my football gut reaction, volleyball gut reaction, you can check them out at CarrikerChronicles.com
09:38 along with Jon Johnston, CornNation, and DocTalk.
09:41 Go Big Red Nose, remember, THROW THE BONES!
09:43 (sighs)