Unlike the Holiday Bowl, Saturday's game will have Nebraska's attention

Nebraska and Washington meet for Round 3 in Lincoln, NE, on Saturday. Or as they say in baseball as a three-game series wraps up, it's the rubber match.


The two meetings last year between the two teams were the confluence of extemes. On Sept. 18 in Seattle, Nebraska chewed up the Huskies and spit them out. Quarterback Taylor Martinez had 139 yards rushing on 19 carries and scored two touchdowns. The Husker defense was equally dominant as the Blackshirts intercepted Jake Locker (who complete just 4 of 20 passes) twice. Nebraska rolled to a 56-21 win and catapulted to No. 6 in the rankings, leading most people to believe the Huskers were a darkhorse National Championship contender.

Nebraska, however, struggled down the stretch as the offense became a shadow of what it was early in the season, mostly due to Martinez's ankle injury. Nebraska was 10-2 in the regular season but a 23-20 loss to Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game relegated the Huskers to a second straight Holiday Bowl appearance, where they trounced Arizona 33-0 one year earlier. Washington had to win its last three regular season games just to finish 6-6 and become bowl eligible.

Washington was a better team at the end of the regular season than it was when the two teams met in Seattle while Nebraska had regressed since that time. While most people were predicting a much closer game, those same people figured Nebraska would still win by two touchdowns or more.

However, a strange thing happened, Washington won 19-7 but dominated much more than the final score suggested. The Huskers had no answer at all for running back Chris Polk, who rushed for 177 yards on 34 carries and one touchdown. Incidently, Polk is back and if that's not bad enough facing him comes one week after the Blackshirts were gouged by Fresno state's Robbie Rouse for 169 yards rushing.

Even worse than the loss, the Huskers appeared very apathetic about playing in the game even though they said all of the right things leading up to the contest. Perhaps we should have seen it coming because bowl games are often decided by which team is more motivated to be there. Nebraska entered last season with goals being: Beat Texas. Win the Big 12 North. Win the Big 12 Title Game. Get to a BCS Bowl Game. They achieved only one out of four. Considering the Huskers lofty preseason goals going awry coupled with playing a team they had already crushed and it's understandable why the team put up a listless effort.

On the other hand, Washington had not been to a bowl game since 2002 and had a winless season in 2008, the year before current head coach Steve Sarkisian arrived, so even the lowest end bowl game was an exiting proposition. Considering that the Huskies had their doors blown off by Nebraska in the earlier meeting, they were largely being told the second matchup would not be much different. Couple that with the fact that Washington entered the game having won its last three regular season games and its understandable why the team entered the Holiday Bowl feeling the need to prove the doubters wrong.

The dynamics are a lot different this time. Granted, there is one common denominator to each tea's 2011 season, they both struggled to put away a WAC team at home. Fresno State put a scare into the Huskers before Nebraska prevailed 42-29. Washington, meanwhile, blted to a 21-0 first quarter lead before holding off Hawaii 40-32. Both teams also opened the season against a Div. I-AA team. Despite an uneven offensive performance, the Huskers were not threatened as they defeated Tennesee-Chattanooga 40-7. Washington, meanwhile, struggled to beat Eastern Washington 30-27.

So what does all of this mean for Saturday? Nebraska has been tabbed a 21 point favorite and is the No. 11 ranked team in the nation. While the Huskers are considered the favorite to win the Big Legends division, this season has more of an "under the radar" feel than last season. Couple that with the fact that the Husker defense, which has been the team's calling card since Bo Pelini became the head coach, looked suspect last week against Fresno State. OK, it wasn't 2007 Kevin Cosgrove but substandard nonetheless.

A Pelini coached defense won't have two bad efforts in a row, right? Probably not but one thing is for certain, unlike the Holiday Bowl, this matchup will have Nebraska's attention. Which bodes well.

Huskers not alone in needing to iron out rough edges

The perfectionist Nebraska football fan would like to have seen the Huskers season-opening 40-7 win over Tennessee-Chattanooga have a lot fewer rough edges.


However, there are a few things that miss the point about that argument. For openers, if quarterbck Taylor Martinez plays the entire game, Nebraska probably wins 54-7 but in a lopsided game it is much more prudent to get the second and third teamers some much need playing time. If you hadn't watched the game, you would have immediately thought the Huskers were a powerhouse but a 40-7 win is nothing to complain about whether it's Game #1 or Game #10. Consider what else took place around the naton. No. 2 Alabama beat a Kent State team that is probably just as weak as UT-Chattanooga 48-7. No. 6 Florida State was a 34-0 winner over Louisiand-Monroe, an opponent just as weak as Kent State and UT-Chattanooga. No. 18 Ohio State beat Akron 42-0. Not that big of a deal considering Akron is consistently one of the worst teams in the nation.


The point is that other teams had their problems Saturday, too, and we haven't begun to mention reigning National Champion Auburn needing a miracle to beat Utah State 42-38. While we're at it, let's mention Sacramento State going into Oregon State and winning 29-28. Sac State, people! Div. I-AA Sac State. Oklahoma is the top-ranked team in the nation and played like it n beating Tulsa 47-14 but keep in mind led the Sooners 17-0 in the Big 12 title game only to lose 23-20.

The truth of the matter is, nobody is a juggernaut. Yes, the Huskers need to learn to develop consistency, but there is no team that resembles the 1995 Huskers let alone say, the 2004 USC Trojans or the 2001 Miami Hurricanes out there. Yes, Nebraska has a long way to go, but the Huskers can get better.


True, there were some impressive performances around the Top 25 ike No. 11 Wisconsin rolling UNLV 51-17. In some circles, Wisconsin is consdered the favorite to win the Big Ten conference and they certainly played like it Thursday. The Huskers have three more nonconference games (Fresno State, Washington and Wyoming) before vsitng Wisconsin on Oct. 1. Fresno State lost to a pretty meidocre (and frequently overrated) California team 36-21 but a garbage time touchdown made that game closer than it appeared. Washington narrowly escaped at home with a 30-27 win over Div. I-AA Eastern Washington. Wyoming also narrowly beat Div. I-AA Weber State 35-32.


Point being, the Huskers have a month to clean up their mistakes before the aforementioned road trip to Madison, Wisc. so there is no need to panic.


True, the Huskers' season-opener was more ragged than you would have liked, especially on offense as the timing and spacing in the backfield seemed surprisingly bad on several occasions. However, I didn't see anything that priactice and time shouldn't overcome. The young offensive line needs to come together -- and very quickly at that. They had a few good moments but to many not so good.


No need to worry yet. Let's see how much the Huskers get cleaned up this week and what they put on the field Saturday against a Fresno State program that has had a history of knocking off college football's giants.

Playing redshirt roulette

Omaha World Herald columnist Tom Shatel had a great sense of timing this week.

Earlier this week, Shatel reasoned that Nebraska might not have the luxury of redshirting true freshman quarterback Cody Green http://omaha.com/article/20090810/SPORTS/708109892. If there is one thing we know about second year Husker head coach Bo Pelini is that it will be a rare set of circumstances that he does not redshirt a true freshman.

The Huskers enter the 2009 campaign with junior Zac Lee as the clear cut favorite to be the starting signal-caller with redshirt freshman Kody Spano, Green, junior LaTravis Washington (a converted linebacker) and true freshman Taylor Martinez battling for the No. 2 spot. The best case scenario would be Lee proving that he is more than ready to play at a high level with Spano being the No. 2 man while redshirting Green.

Spano, however, will miss the season with a torn ACL. The injury, which took place Tuesday, came in the same left leg that Spano suffered an ACL tear in during spring ball. Pelini expects to have him back in the fold by winter conditioning. Spano might pursue a medical redshirt but that’s a discussion for another day.

It was a non-contact injury suffered while running, Pelini said, which occurred during Tuesday's practice. The injury leaves Washington and Green as the likely candidates to backup Lee since they were in Lincoln for spring ball.

Some media members that cover the team daily as well as message board posters have wondered if perhaps Spano rushed back to soon. Hard to say really because for all we know the structure of his knee might make him more prone to injury.

So does this mean Green redshirting is pretty much off the table, or does become the de facto No. 2 guy and you hope that you can redshirt Green by not having to play him?

The answer is pretty simple. Whomever wins the No. 2 job doesn't redshirt. I don't think the coaches can worry about anything else now; you have to get that No. 2 guy some reps in a game early in the season, just in case. You can't try to save Green or Washington for a redshirt, I don't think, like Bill Callahan tried to do with Harrison Beck in 2005. To be fair, Nebraska was seldom in a blowout situation in 2005.

Potentially, if the threesome of Green, Washington and Martinez are dead even for that No. 2 slot, you could play one of them as No. 2 this season, then redshirt him next season and play the other two behind Lee, thereby preserving everyone's redshirt. Had Spano remained healthy, and the No. 2 job was pretty even between him, Green, Washington and perhaps Martinez, then you could've tried to save the redshirts for Green, Washington and Martinez, using Spano in the mop-up role, since he already had redshirted. This re-injury makes that impossible.

I know some will look at this as Spano rushing his return, and he may have, but look at it this way. Spano had already used his redshirt. He knew this fall gave him a great shot at winning the No. 2 job. The doctors probably told him he might re-injure it and was pushing his return date, but he had a reasonable shot of staying healthy too. With his redshirt already burned, he probably figured the reward of being No. 2 was worth the risk of re-injuring it. If he had sat out another couple of months, he would've had little to no chance of being No. 2 this season, so he probably felt like pushing the return was worth a shot. I can understand why he did it - if he sat out another couple of months of rehab, 2009 would be pretty much a lost season for him anyway.

As for Green, I’d say he only burns a redshirt if he is so much better than Washington that the coaches have no choice or if Lee gets injured. If the guy is Terrelle Pryor, Vince Young or Tommie Frazier, then that is one thing but only the coaches will really know if he's that good this soon. If, in their estimation he's not going to be any less mistake prone than Washington then let Washington finish it out.

Let’s also not forget that Ron Kellogg Jr. might be an option too. Kellogg joins the Huskers as a walk-on from Omaha Westside High School, where he starred at quarterback. He also held scholarship offers from Northwest Missouri State and North Dakota and a walk-on offer from Iowa. Kellogg is the son of former Kansas basketball great and NBA player Ron Kellogg.Then again, we also have to truly understand the true meaning of the term “redshirt.”

There is no such thing as a redshirt in terms of being defined as one before the season starts. As long as a player does not play in a game (or gets a waiver for a medical redshirt because he was injured in an early game) and has not used his redshirt year, that player is considered to have used it when the season is over. So, theoretically, Green could be Nebraska's No. 2 QB and still use his redshirt year if he does not play during 2009.

When offensive coordinator Shawn Watson and Pelini think about this, I think this is the most likely scenario. If Nebraska is up big and it's garbage time, Washington and/or Kellogg will likely come in to finish the game. If, heaven forbid, Lee is injured and cannot go when a game is still close, I think you'll see Green. If a game's out of reach with NU ahead and Lee gets injured, I think Washington and Kellogg finish with Green taking over as the starter the next week if Lee isn't healthy. I don't think this automatically means Green does not use his redshirt year at all. There's nothing that says he won't use it next year even if he does have to play this year. This was the plan that was supposed to have been done at Virginia Tech with Tyrod Taylor. He wasn't supposed to play last year, it's just that Sean Glennon was so bad behind a young/poor offensive line that Taylor had to play because VaTech could use more rollouts/QB keeper plays and not have a drop-back passer get sacked routinely because their O-line wasn't very good early in the season.

Sizing up position battles

Competition or controversy?

If a football team has two good quarterbacks, it’s a controversy. If the team has two good middle linebackers, it’s a competition.

As fall camp enters for the Nebraska football team, as with any season, there are position battles that bear watching.

The No. 2 quarterback position will especially bear watching as Zac Lee is the odds-on favorite to replace the graduated Joe Ganz. After Lee, the race for No. 2 includes Kody Spano, LaTravis Washington, Cody Green and potentially Taylor Martinez. I remain very adamant that Green and Martinez should redshirt. For starters, it’s going to be very rare that head coach Bo Pelini does not redshirt a true freshman.

In an ideal world, Washington would redshirt too given that the junior is a converted linebacker. However, I kind of made the same argument last year when Cody Glenn moved from running back to linebacker but not redshirting Glenn seemed to work just fine. Redshirting Washington now, however, would logjam the position for the future.

Spano, who is a redshirt freshman, would be the No. 2 man ideally but is he fully recovered physically and mentally from a torn ACL injury? I say, plan on making Lee the main guy and find a role for Washington. Perhaps the Wildcat role.

Wide receiver and right guard will also be a compelling thing to watch. At the former, Menelik Holt and Niles Paul are likely to be the starters for the season opener. Both had meaningful snaps last year behind Nate Swift and Todd Peterson but being the lead guy is a whole different deal. Behind Holt and Paul, you have Chris Brooks, Will Henry, Curenski Gilleylen, Brandon Kinnie and Marcus Mendoza, Antonio Bell, Tim Marlowe and Khiry Cooper.
For right guard, the wild card is backup center Mike Caputo, who could possibly be the start and move Jacob Hickman to right guard. Or keeping Hickman at center and having Ricky Henry and Caputo battle it out at right guard. It’s really a battle to see whether sophomore backup center Mike Caputo progresses enough to surpass junior Ricky Henry at his position, right guard. Obviously the possibility has been brought up, because current center/former right guard Jacob Hickman talked about it at length at Big 12 Media Days.Middle linebacker will also bear watching. Linebacker was an area of weakness for much of the year but senior walk-on Colton Koehler was a bright spot.

The wild card is what happens to Phillip Dillard, who has fallen out of favor with the coaching staff (specifically position coach Mike Ekeler). Dillard has enough talent to be an asset but will his mind be in the right place?

Then there is also redshirt freshman Will Compton, who is highly touted but young players also come with a learning curve.

You also have five guys battling for two cornerback positions -- Anthony West, Prince Amukamara, Dejon Gomes, and Alfonzo Dennard and Anthony Blue. For now, West and Amukamara are the favorites but if he’s healthy, Blue might be the best corner.

Quick hitters from the pre-spring press conference

Year Two of the Bo Pelini Era at Nebraska continues in earnest as spring drills get underway today.

Watching Pelini’s press conference Tuesday that also rekindled another reason why we Husker fans identify with him. Pelini does not shy away from the words “high expectation.” In an earlier “wine Country Husker” blog back in January, I posed the question, “what are your expectations?”

One thing that stood out to me when Bo Pelini was hired to replace Callahan was that he does not shy away from expectations. I remember very specifically an interview he did on the Jim Rome Show. For starters, I do not listen to Jim Rome because while he knows his material, his show reeks of too much adolescence for my taste. However, since Bo Pelini was his guest, I decided to make an exception and listen.I remember Rome using the word “rebuild” in one of his questions. Pelini replied with a statement to the effect of, “I’m not here to rebuild, I’m here to win now.” At the time I thought, well we probably won’t win big right away in 2008 or even 2009 but the fact that he’s not backing away from expectations was refreshing.

The Huskers started the Pelini era with a 9-4 record winning six of their last seven games including a come-from-behind 26-21 win over Clemson in the Gator Bowl.

It is refreshing to see the Huskers in a much different light than the psychologically wounded club that limped to a 5-7 season in 2007. Granted, the 2009 Nebraska squad will hardly evoke memories of the 1993-1997 teams that went 60-3 but you just get the sense that this Husker coaching regime is here to build a program as opposed to just survive from year-to-year.

A few other snap shots at what Pelini addressed as the Huskers begin spring practice:

-- The coaching staff is taking the right approach with true-freshman-to-be quarterback Cody Green, who is expected to miss at least the first week of spring drills with a hip injury. Green finished high school early and enrolled at Nebraska in December.

-- Linebacker LaTravis Washington (cousin of former Husker cornerback Fabian Washington) has moved to quarterback. Keep in mind, Washington was a high school quarterback. The departure of Patrick Witt also created a void. Does that mean the Huskers have fully closed the door on potential transfer Robert Marve (late of the University of Miami? Suffice it to say, I don’t think Washington makes the change if Witt is still in the program.

-- Offensive line was viewed as a position of solid depth but with Javoirio Burkes out indefinitely with a medical condition, the Huskers can ill-afford any more setbacks on the O-Line.

-- Lots of talk revolves around the quarterbacks but the best position battle might be at linebacker.