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Bringing you coverage of Nebraska and Big Ten sports and other stories from college football and beyond.
This week's stop on the road to Big Ten glory takes Nebraska 817 miles east to Columbus, Ohio to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes under the lights on ABC. It'll take a perfect game out of Nebraska to escape with another win over Ohio State but it is possible. The Buckeyes, while certainly dangerous, are quite flawed.
The Buckeye's success relies on the health of Braxton Miller, who has already left games twice this season. Their offense will also miss their second leading rusher (behind Miller) Jordan Hall, who was diagnosed this past week with a partial PCL tear and is likely not going to play this Saturday. Urban Meyer has been hoping to pair Miller with the Buckeye's two young but talented running backs in the offense, but injuries have kept one or the other running back off the field. (Expect some wrinkles anyway.) As for their defense, they've experienced the same head-scratching failures to tackle that we've seen with Nebraska's defenders.
Look for Husker Mike's review to drop later this morning for a deeper look at this season's Ohio State Buckeyes. While neither team has been great this fall, Saturday should still be a great game. We can only hope the good, focused Nebraska shows up and leaves the clumsy Nebraska team at home.
Note: There is no volleyball game tonight but remember that Nebraska takes on Purdue this Friday at 7pm CDT on BTN. We'll be hosting a hybrid football/volleyball open game thread here at CN. Join us!
And join us tomorrow night for THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL. Arizona at St. Louis from the NFL, and THREE, count that, THREE college football games: Arky State vs FIU, ECU vs UCF and USC vs Utah!
Maybe USC will lose again!
The Checkdown Pass
The Steele-Aid is still fresh, y'all.
I don't think we need a former alum or a Nebraskan. Just someone humble enough to act as a steward who can embrace Nebraska's athletic traditions while directing this program into the 21st century.
"I don’t know anything about that, but we do that a lot, as far as getting film from other opponents and that type of thing," Pelini said on the Big Ten teleconference. "We didn’t have any issues with the film exchange."
Sounds like George O'Leary made an unnecessary assumption. Can we put this to bed yet?
But if you're hankering for an old-fashioned scoreboard, there is an answer. The Big Ten has become a piñata for critics with a lack of speed and sizzle, but at least they still know how to tackle on most days. Ohio State beat Michigan State 17-16 Saturday, and they would not have broken 40 if they played until Tuesday.
N for 'Nowledge
That'll help recruiting, right?
Yesterday on CN
A much better day for the defense, especially in the second half.
Saturday will be a good litmus test for this defense - can they lock down Braxton Miller without leaving the field open to exploitation?
Football (4-1, B1G 1-0)
#Nebraska has averaged 44.8 points per game this season. #Huskers are 10th nationally in scoring offense. #B1G
— BTNStatsGuy (@BTNStatsGuy) October 2, 2012
Ohio State is #43 (33.6 ppg) in scoring offense. For scoring defenses, Ohio State is #25, allowing 17 points per game while Nebraska is #36, allowing 20.60 ppg. Both defenses allow between 350-370 yards per game. Statistically speaking, our game on Saturday could either be a shootout or a slugfest. So it should be good, right?
QUICK STATISTICAL UPDATE >>> Perhaps you know by now that Nebraska is averaging 521.4 yards per game on offense, ranking 13th nationally in total offense. Here’s a more interesting stat: The Huskers are one of six teams in the country who are averaging more than seven yards per play, perhaps the best measure of offensive efficiency.The five teams ahead of Nebraska (7.16 ypp) are: Florida State (8.13), Georgia (7.98), Oklahoma State (7.89), West Virginia (7.88), Baylor (7.36). That’s not bad company to keep.
A great team effort means Pelini and his staff had multiple choice candidates for Nebraska's Players of the Game against Wisconsin, but after exhaustive film study, Husker coaches selected senior tackle Baker Steinkuhler and senior linebacker Will Compton as Co-Defensive Players of the Game; junior right tackle Jeremiah Sirles and sophomore I-back Ameer Abdullah as Co-Offensive Players of the Game; and senior punter/place-kicker Brett Maher as Special Teams Player of the Game.
Congratulations, gentlemen! Let's do it again Saturday night!
Harry Potter would not be my choice for killing several hours. Gettysburg is a good option, that's like four hours of excitement. Lord of the Rings would be good for getting a nice nap going.
It looks uglier upon review, I imagine.
Pelini said the smaller numbers created some issues for coaches in the press box, but that other than one time, they were able to get the correct defensive personnel on the field.
Expect other teams to exploit this in the future. I think this is the next wave in uniforms - "WE HAVE THE SMALLEST ALLOWABLE NUMBERS BY NCAA BYLAWS." So naturally, Oregon will be using numbers transcribed on a grain of rice next season.
But my real issue what with the numbers (or lack thereof). The combination of black numbers on a red jersey and very small number on the front made it practically impossible to know who was on the field, who was making plays, or any of the other things I take for granted in a normal game. I have pretty good eyesight, but I had to rely on other clues (i.e. black guy vs. white guy) to know what was going on. When adidas convinces Nebraska to do these alternates again (and now that the door has opened, it will be a "when" and not an "if") please for the love and respect of fans (as well as the defense), put some damn numbers on them that can be read by somebody sitting higher than row 12.
It might take a NCAA bylaw to stop the insanity.
Expect Nebraska to employ a similar defense to the one we ran against Idaho State. All the Eric Martin.
"After that UCLA game, he came to me and said, ‘Coach, that’s not my style of game. One of the younger guys, are they ready to go?’" Els said. "Because he understood that. When you can get that type of character and when you can see that turnaround, that’s why I work in this business."
The question is, with Anderson out, who do we have to step up against "wide open spread teams" like Ohio State and Northwestern?
"I was kind of kneeling right behind the ball. I saw the ball come out, and I saw a white shirt and I just grabbed it. It was Bo. Once I figured out it was Bo, I let go pretty quick and then tried to find JP."
And that's how we almost lost a coach.
Ohio State Football (5-0, B1G 1-0)
Our fans have made an impression.
A round up of storylines from the Ohio side of Saturday's game.
It's too bad Ohio State rotates off the schedule next season until at least 2017. Nebraska may have to schedule games against the various Ohio MAC schools to maintain a footprint in the state.
I feel like there's an engineering joke when talking about stresses and allowable failure. Unfortunately, I don't waste time making science applicable to real people so I don't know any of those jokes.
I'm not inspired by college bands, but that's probably because for at least three of the four years I was at Nebraska, I couldn't hear the band. (And when I did, they were doing Family Guy.) But hey, I'm sure this will interest some of you.
And Meyer still is waiting for Ohio Stadium to be as loud and exciting as he expects it should be.
I guess we'll see how the Buckeyes respond to a late start, a revenge game and significant optimism surrounding their team. Let's hope they don't recover as well as Nebraska.
Wouldn't it be great to see the best of Nebraska taking on the best of Ohio State?
Volleyball (11-2)
Very, very cool. And can you imagine how insane our volleyball support would be if it became a spring sport?
Big Ten (39-18)
Well, I guess the presumption is that the Big Ten representative in the Rose Bowl will be from the West. Hi, Northwestern.
Michigan State didn't fire Dan Roushar so they can't be panicking. ZING.
Every Big Ten team should be thinking this.
The Horned Frogs won 21-19 after Ohio State President Gordon Gee questioned TCU's strength of schedule by saying the Buckeyes ''do not play the Little Sisters of the Poor.''
I'm glad OSU is going to help TCU with their SOS problems.
Other Stories
About what you would expect.
Looks like Wisconsin's luck left for the NFL.
Maybe he'll get the chance to be burned by a Taylor Martinez touchdown pass to Kenny Bell next year. #teamsunshine
Zack Maynard is ready for the Chicago Bears. HEYO.
BEST TEAM: Ohio State may be the best team, Northwestern may be the last unbeaten bowl-eligible team, but Nebraska (24) is the best bowl-eligible team. The hiccup at UCLA hurt, but the Cornhuskers are positioned to win the Legends Division if they can keep Taylor Martinez and Rex Burkhead healthy. But make no mistake, this is not a great team.
#teamsunshine disagrees with you, Forde.
First non-Alabama team to figure out this thing called "defense" gets to play Alabama in January.
Fighting Iowa State's unearthly power to humble with excessive bling.
Wait, people still watch ESPN? Why?
The next Collin Klein?
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Embarrassing Ohio State videos are hard to find.
Surprisingly, OSU lacks in their fan videos. Or at least, a search for Ohio State Football yields very few crazy videos.
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That's all for today. Have a great Wednesday! Check back throughout the day for more Corn Nation original content.
GO BIG RED! Beat the Buckeyes!
- Salt Creek and Stadium
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