Here Come the Cowboys!

Giddy Up!!!

Game one is in the books Husker fans and no matter what you think about it, the best part is, 1-0 sure seems a lot better than last year’s 0-1 on a heartbreaking Hail Mary from the Stormin’ Mormans from BYU. Fresno State won’t be confused with BYU anytime soon, but sometimes that’s a good thing. Nebraska isn’t quite ready to play a big dog the first week like we did in the 80s and 90s, but they may be closer than you think!

Nebraska ran the ball against Fresno State more than they had probably planned, but when you average over 5 yards per carry and only have one negative play on a botched end around, you will take it. Tommy Armstrong didn’t need to pass a lot to win and honestly, that’s ok. There will be other games that he will have to throw more, probably even this week, so to not put much stress on the passing game while wide receiver coach Keith Williams sits out his suspension, is probably a good thing.

So what went right last weekend? First, the Huskers dominated the line of scrimmage for the most part on both sides and that was a nice surprise. New to the left side, tackle Nick Gates had the best game for a left tackle according to Pro Football Focus for any college left tackle so that makes the move seem like a success so far. With three new starters on the offensive line and pretty much no one in the same spot they were last season, I would say that would qualify as success. A rough first quarter, followed with improvement in the second and finally a domination in the running game moving into the fourth quarter. Not a bad way to kick off the season.

The running backs looked solid, if not spectacular against Fresno and will need to continue that. Being able to run the ball effectively will really open the Huskers offense as we move on into the season. We even got to see Tre Bryant and Mikale Wilbon a little bit, so there is some really good depth.

We didn’t return any punts, but that had more to do with bad punting than anything Jordan Westerkamp did. We get to see De’Mornay Pierson-El this week and believe me this will be a nice spark plug for the team.

Defensively, the young guys on the defensive line didn’t shine super bright, but they also forced the running game to be shut down, which is a credit to them and new d-line coach John Parrella. I imagine we will continue to see them improve week to week, which would be a large step forward from last season.

Linebackers played really well last week and they will have to continue to play well. The Husker Linebacker group is deep and has experience this year. It will be tested as Wyoming has a really great running back coming to Lincoln, so it will be interesting to see if the Huskers can shut down the run game like they did against Fresno.

The secondary as a whole played pretty well, with some new starters like Kieron Williams and Lamar Jackson playing significant roles. Adding back All Conference player Nathan Gerry and Antonio Reed coming back from early season injury, should inject more life into a unit that seems to be improving and looked light years ahead of last year.

Overall, I give the Huskers an A- grade for the Fresno State Game, they did what they needed to do, which is put away a bad team and get young kids into the game in the fourth quarter. If they can duplicate that against Wyoming this week, Husker fans will be ready for a real prime time matchup with the Oregon Ducks, but let’s get this Cowboy win out of the way first!

A few notes…

• It can’t be overstated how great the tribute to Sam Foltz went. It was pretty dusty around Memorial Stadium as the players all took a knee on the sidelines as the team sent no punter out as a tribute to Sam. Great statement Coach Riley and great coverage of Sam in the press this week.

• Whoa be to the guy that stole from Sam Foltz’s brother. I don’t know how big an idiot you had to be to steal from the most loved family in Nebraska last week, but I’m guessing they guy won’t ever be welcome in Nebraska again. Talk about an idiot.

• More passing this week. Expect the offense to open up this week. It sounds like there was some lackluster play from the wide receivers last week, which led to the ground and pound game that Nebraska used against Fresno. I expect Nebraska to throw more than 20 times this week.

• Nate Gerry and Brandon Reilly return. No matter the reason, suspensions for starters is always hard on a team. These cats are starters for a reason, they are the best players at their positions. I look for them to provide a spark for the Huskers this week.

• Expect the Wide Receivers to play better this week. I don’t know why or how they played as bad as they did against Fresno State, although I assume a combination of Reilly being gone and Coach Williams not being at the game may have something to do with that. Remember, Jordan Westerkamp and Cethan Carter missed time this fall during practice, they also were shaking the rust off. I expect a much better performance this weekend.

• Family coming to the game wearing yellow and brown? I don’t know about many of you, but I grew up in the panhandle of Nebraska, so I’ve always had a soft spot for the Wyoming Cowboys simply because they were closer to us than Lincoln. A lot of my friends and family went to school in Laramie and dare I say, are probably the second most popular school outside of UNL when it comes to college football out west. Either way, many of them are coming down and wearing Wyoming gear this weekend. Now I won’t say I condone it, but I will gladly have a drink with them and show them a lot of hospitality. For most of them, the Huskers are there second favorite team, so let’s try to keep it that way. Heck, who knows, we might even convert a few!

• Score prediction – Nebraska 38 – Wyoming 22. I expect the Cowboys to try and run right at Nebraska. It’s the DNA of their team, but they also have a really good quarterback, so the Blackshirts will have all they can handle. I expect Nebraska to have their way offensively though, as Wyoming is very young and small on defense. Let’s hope we see Nebraska have a dominant game on offense this week! As always, GBR!!!