Know your foe: Nebraska
With Nebraska coming to Oklahoma for the first time since 2008 and playing each other for the first time since 2010 and commemorating the 50th Anniversary of 1971’s Game of the Century, SoonerScoop.com is bringing in some help.
Here to breakdown all things Nebraska is HuskerOnline.com publisher Sean Callahan.
Temperature check time. Where is the Nebraska fanbase with Scott Frost right now? Where is the Husker administration with Frost and his job security?
I would say things are across the board on this. You have a very strong camp of people that obviously fully support Scott Frost and want him to have a full 5 to 6 years to see things through. Then you have a group of people that think four years is plenty of time, and if things don’t show improvement this year, the reset button should be hit immediately.
Frost currently has a $20 million buyout after this season attached to his remaining five years. $5 million for the 2022 to 2024 and $2.5 million for 2025 and 2026 as his buyout terms. They have committed to him financially more than any coach in school history by a wide margin. Both the President and Chancellor fully support and back Frost, and they are the ones who chose Trev Alberts to be the Athletic Director this past July.
Right now, I have a hard time seeing any type of move being made on Frost this year, unless it was just so obvious, then things would get interesting. Today, I think Alberts would like to settle into his role as AD and then 2022 become even a bigger season for Frost to prove the growth of his program.
What’s different about Adrian Martinez this season? Once upon a time, there’s no doubt Lincoln Riley looked in his direction for the 2018 class. What are the strides he has made so far in 2021?
I would say in 2018, Martinez had better talent around him in all respects. He had an NFL running back, NFL receiver and a pretty good offensive line. In 2019 he lost almost all of that and he got hurt and wasn’t the same that year. The 2020 pandemic season they staged this battle with him and Luke McCaffrey which ended up being not what we all thought, as Martinez was much better and McCaffrey ended up abruptly transferring in January once he knew Martinez regained the upper hand.
This year Martinez seems more relaxed and surer of himself. He’s also a good 15 pounds lighter, and he runs faster. He’s had runs of 71 and 75 yards this year, both on scrambles where nobody was open on a pass play. He wasn’t able to do that the last two seasons. In fact, their longest run in all of 2020 was just 50 yards (running back Dedrick Mills) and they had very few plays as an offense over 40. Last week they had four plays over 50 yards against Buffalo.
Finish this. A potential breakout player on offense is…? A potential breakout player on defense is…?
A potential breakout player on offense is wide receiver Oliver Martin. He had over 100 yards vs. Illinois and has been out the last two weeks. I think he should be back in the offense on Saturday.
A potential breakout player on defense is linebacker Luke Reimer. He’s a kid that grew up in Kansas on the Oklahoma border and came to NU as a walk-on. He was the Big Ten defensive player of the week and ran 10.9 electronic in high school in the 100, and now he’s a physical inside linebacker that can really fly and make plays.
How do Husker fans view this game? All the rumors from the spring of Nebraska trying to backout of the game, is this a contest the fans want to see?
I think a lot of Husker fans are really excited for this game, even though NU is a big underdog. When the rumors came out that Scott Frost was trying to get out of it, there were a lot of upset people, and quite frankly a lot of embarrassed Nebraska fans.
I expect to see a good traveling contingent of Husker fans, despite the $220+ face value ticket price many had to pay from the University to get their tickets. It’s hard to believe the last time Nebraska played in Norman was 2008, and that game was 28-0 midway through the first quarter.
Anything surprise you, good or bad, through the Huskers first three games?
I would say the play of the offensive line has been very average to bad through three games, and that’s a surprise. They have a lot of four-star type talent on the line, but they haven’t played like that. It’s really set the offensive run game and protection back. Illinois pressured Martinez on 26 of 44 drop backs and Buffalo got to him 14 of 24 drop backs, with only five of those 14 pressures coming on blitzes. Four-man rushes have had a lot of success vs. this line, and that is a concern for everyone.
The other surprise is their kicker, Connor Culp missed all three of his field goals last week and two extra points vs. Illinois. He was the Big Ten kicker of the year in 2020. Nobody saw that coming.
Not a lot of Oklahoma ties on that roster, but there were some OU fans who were hoping Sevion Morrison might be a running back for the 2020 class. He’s played the last two games, scored twice, is he somebody who might have a little more juice this weekend?
I’m sure Sevion will be eager to get on the field Saturday. He’s a solid player that is just getting going. He’s gotten around 8 to 10 carries per game the last two weeks, but is probably running third in the pecking order at back.
The other Oklahoman is defensive lineman Deontre Thomas from Mustang, and he’s a guy that will for sure see plenty of action too on Saturday.
Bonus
Your favorite OU-Nebraska memory?
Honestly, my favorite memory was being in Norman in 2000. I was a young 20-year old at that time working with 1620 the Zone in Omaha and we broadcasted at O’Connell’s across from the stadium for Thursday and Friday shows leading up to the game. What I remember is OU had not gotten going yet, and the access at that time was incredible.
We had coaches walk over from OU across the street to come on our show in Omaha.
After the game on Saturday, I was also doing the national radio reports for ESPN and I had to get guests to come on with me. I was on the field and Mark Mangino came on and he brought me in the locker room. Then after that we got Torrance Marshall on my phone, and he was in the training room getting treatment. It was a different time back then, but just to be there to see the official start of the OU dynasty under Stoops, I’ll never forget that day and the joy so many Oklahoma fans had knowing they had their coach and a team that could win the national title.