Nebraska Cornhuskers (1 - 1) vs. Arkansas State Red Wolves (1 - 1)

Kickoff: Saturday, September 15^th, 11:00 AM CDT. Television: ESPN2 / WatchESPN

Announcers: Unknown, however bribes have been sent to the ESPN crew to keep Joey Galloway...away. From the booth. And the microphone.

Tickets from $24

Arkansas State Team Website

Husker Mike's Pre-Season and Game Preview

CFBStats Team Profile Page

Last Week: Defeated Memphis Tigers 33 - 28

Arksansas State Coaches and Personnel

Head Coach: Gus Malzhan 1^st Season. Record: 1 - 1

Offensive Coordinator: Rhett Lashlee (really, it's Gus Malzhan)

Defensive Coordinator: John Thompson

I mentioned before that Gus Malzhan is secretly a Koga Ninja, whose dark magic and know-how transcends the visible universe. He's mastered the mystical hand positions of the East and the spread offense of the West, which is rolling up the yards like Dana Holgerson on a whiskey run. If you watched any of Auburn the last two years, you know what I'm talking about. While Ryan Aplin is not Cam Newton re-incarnate, he is the best quarterback in the Sun Belt and he knows how to run this shit. Seriously. You know what UCLA did to us last week with motion? Yeah...expect that. Screens, slants, quick passes, play action off the zone read to get our linebackers out of position to open up the middle of the field. He'll also attack our interior DL similar to how UCLA ran the Franklin train right over our ass. When it's all over, I expect something around 500 yards of offense and between 28 - 35 points on the board.

Offensive Leaders:

QB - Ryan Aplin, Sr. (RS) Last Week: 23 - 43, 304 yds, 1 TD, 6 carries, 73 yds.

I mentioned earlier that he's the best QB in the Sun Belt. He's the career leader for completions (633) at ASU and 2^nd in Total Offense (8,734 yds). Although not quite as athletic as Hundley, he knows how to run this offense efficiently and if we don't knock him on his ass early and often, it'll be something similar to "Brett Hundley - The Return."

RB - David Oku, Jr. Last Week: 25 attempts, 130 yds, 1 TD, 1 rec., 8 yds.

Remember how we tried to recruit the hell out of this guy? He moved to Lincoln and we all thought "He's a Husker for sure!!" Ahhh...no. He went to Tennessee, got buried on the depth chart (and some little business about being arrested for domestic assault, but you know, who cares) and then transferred to Arkansas St. where he's been the featured back in Malzhan's spread offense. Let's just say there's a reason this guy was rated the No. 1 All-Purpose Back by Rivals coming out of high school. Character issues aside, he's another one we can't afford to try and cover with one of our lumbering LBs (see Compton, Will v. Franklin, Johnathan)

Defensive Leaders:

Ummm...their defense sucks. Hopefully they'll suck worse than ours and we'll stomp a mud-hole through their foreheads.