Numerical Nebraska Football: Is It Really Fixable?

A look at some numbers from Nebraska's win over Wyoming last weekend  and ahead to the Southern Miss Golden Eagles.

1 - Win. Regardless of what everything thinks about the offense and maybe scary bad defense, Nebraska is 1-0 on the season.

2 - Turnovers that lead to Wyoming's late comeback.

3 - The number of the guy that committed both Nebraska turnovers. You could argue about whether Taylor Martinez was responsible for the interception or that Sam Burtch ran the wrong route. Who gets the interception stat? That's what I'm talking about right here.

5 - Nebraska's national ranking in rushing offense after one game.

6 - The number of turnovers committed by Southern Miss in their first game against Texas State.

10 - Penalties on Nebraska in its first game. Two false start penalties on 3rd-and-one. Jake Long's in the first quarter killed a drive as did Imani Cross' in the second quarter.

11 - Wyoming plays that totaled 327 yards. 63 plays went for 275 yards. Those add up to 602 yards and that's a lot of yardage, we all know that by now.

13 - Southern Mississippi's ranking in total defense after one game.

13 - Consecutive losses for the Golden Eagles who went 0-12 last season and lost their opener last weekend to Texas State. Yes, Texas State is a real school, and no, I don't know what you can figure out about a team that's lost that many games in a row. Last year is basically a wash for them.

14 - Games in a row that Nebraska has had two or more turnovers.

18 - All the WTF's I screamed after Randy Gregory got called for unnecessary roughness while sacking the quarterback. That is 17.5 more than Bo Pelini screamed. Who the hell is this guy coaching our team?

28 - Season opening wins in a row for Nebraska. That leads the nation, and don't give the response that we've played horrible teams for 28 years in a row because most everyone else does that too, and second it's not true, at least for all 28 years. That's all the way back to 1986, with the last loss being a 17-13 loss to Florida State in 1985. In 1988, Nebraska played Texas A&M in a Kickoff Classic and won 23-14, that being the closest to a loss until this past weekend.

34 - Husker fans who dropped dead upon hearing defensive coordinator John Papuchis say this:

"Allen Bridgford and Brett Smith are both big, strong-armed guys," Papuchis said. "I've been impressed with the way Bridgford throws the ball, and I walked away very impressed with Smith as well. We're still doing some research on Bridgford from his time back at Cal, but I'd say he's somewhat similar to Smith."

50 - Bo Pelini improved his career record to 50-20 with the win. He is the fifth coach in Nebraska history to reach 50 career victories with the Huskers, joining Dana X. Bible, Bob Devaney, Tom Osborne and Frank Solich.

52 - Estimated times this week that you've already heard the term "fixable" this week.

53 - The number of times you'll hear "fixable" before you take a big, sharp stick and shove it up the ass of the speaker and say "YOU THINK YOU CAN FIX THAT" right back at them.

56 - The Golden Eagles have forced turnovers in 56 of the last 66 games and had two or more in 40 contests. The team is 31-25 when they force at least one turnover and 27-13 when they collected multiple takeaways during that time. That makes you feel all better about Saturday, don't it?

96 - Nebraska's national ranking in rush defense after one game. Wyoming averaged 7.3 yards per rush, 30 times for 219 yards.

111 - Nebraska's national ranking in pass defense after one game.

113 - The number of times I screamed "Don't Run Out of @#$(*&@#@(* Bounds" after Imani Cross ran out of bounds with a little over a minute left in the game.

115 - Nebraska's national ranking in total defense after one game. The big question here is - after the game against Southern Miss, what would you like this ranking to be?

118 - Nebraska's national ranking in opponent long scrimmage plays, tied for last... which corresponds with Wyoming being number one in long scrimmage plays.

183 - consecutive passes thrown by Wyoming Smith without an interception before he was picked off by Stanley Jean-Baptiste.

193 - yards receiving one seven receptions that Golden Eagle receiver Rickey Bradley had, playing in his first game last week. That total was the fourth-highest in Southern Miss history. Remember that their coach Todd Monken rank Oklahoma State's offense the past couple years before taking over the Golden Eagles this season.

377 - yards that Southern Miss quarterback Allan Bridgford passed for on his first start, going 28-for-53. His passing yard total was the fifth-best for a game in school history, while his completion mark ranked tied for fifth on the school game charts and his attempt total holds the No. 2 spot.

602 - sigh.

91,185 - Recommendations that the coaching staff has received since Sunday. 67,437 of them advised some sort of violence against players and/or members of the coaching staff as a form of incentive. 89,239 mentioned Tom Osborne and 6,340 offered offensive and defensive plays that are illegal. 1,734 wanted the Blackshirts taken back and burned, while 2,345 said more should have been given out.  63 involved violence against Lil' Red (really it's the same 63 people every week of the year who obsessively hate on the cute inflatable mascot). 14 wanted Bob Devaney's statue torn down, citing God's wrath against vanity, while eight asked if the UNL Athletic Department would help pay for rehab.