1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Can Nebraska Knock Off the Defending Champion Indiana Hoosiers?: August 26th, 1:00pm

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

Can Nebraska Knock Off the Defending Champion Indiana Hoosiers?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation on 93-7 The Ticket. We're back here on one-on-one with DP on 93-7. The ticket, Dick Bachman and Harrison Arms with you for today's program. And we're just having some fun here as we lead up to a lot of action going on in Hustler Sports, obviously 10 days from the opener against Ohio. And just one day away from Nebraska volleyball competing out at Jerry's World for a, million dollar prize. So it should be a very busy time and a lot to talk about. But we are just

kind of having some fun again with some topics. Of course, there is there is plenty to get to throughout the day. We will. I did want to lead off with this just because if you do have questions, we always want to at least acknowledge what's going on. Lane train says something I can't say, but it says, Jake, you are one stupid bleep, but love the show. One is, wonder what is your take on the end of game? Think we can knock off Big Sig? And so I'll give you a chance to Harrison to respond to that as well. It is going to be tough. Obviously, you look at kind of the big opponents that Nebraska has to play this year.

I think that that one, and that's kind of what you kind of get to is obviously there's not a great chance. Nebraska, again, is going on 10 years now of not beating a top 25 team. You're going against the defending champion. So history says it's going to be tough. And then the other thing is that Indiana team is really, really solid. I mean, we'll have to see what Josh Hoover looks like at quarterback, obviously. but they're considered maybe to have the best defensive line in college football. Nebraska fans hope that at that time they'll be 5 and 0 going into that game.

It could be a big time atmosphere here at Memorial Stadium. At least you have it at home. But it's especially hard to kind of think maybe Indiana's the team, considering last time you played them, obviously in Bloomington, you lost 56 to 7. This is a new year, new team and new opportunity. So, I mean, there's definitely a possibility there. You look at that as opposed to, you know, at Oregon.

got to go on the road. That seems like maybe more of a difficult kind of barrier for Nebraska. Obviously, Ohio State and Oregon both ranked above Indiana. I don't know how much that means at this point in the season, but Ohio State later on in the year, I don't know. I think that Oregon one might be the toughest.

I think at least having the home matchup is going to be interesting. It's so hard to get an idea on the Ohio State game because who knows where Nebraska is going to be at that time. I get it. Indiana's, you know, we got a lot to learn about Nebraska before then, but Ohio State, that's just tough for both programs. Though, I do think it's interesting that they will have Michigan the following week. So maybe you can overlook Nebraska if that's what you're hoping for there.

But, you know, I will say this with Indiana, there's always a chance. It's just tough right now. I mean, they've got their defensive coordinator, won the Burroughs Award. They kept their coordinators. They've got the, you know, an amazing historic head coach. So I would be lying to say that they, got the biggest chance, but they've got 11 guys. So does Indiana.

So as in any game, you're going to have an opportunity. Well, let's not forget, Bach, back at 1926 when we took down undefeated New York down here, Memorial Stadium. That's right. That's right. Never say never. I mean, like, yeah, listen, we know what it is. Indiana's, he has that program humming and has a national champion in just two years.

It's going to be an incredibly tough challenge. Now, to your point, it helps that it's at home. Like, I'm not, you know, you can't say like, oh, we're not going to win that game. We don't know. There's always a chance that we can pull. it out. The thing is for Nebraska, I just think the key to the game is like there is zero room so far what Indiana, what Kirkson is the Indiana shown through two years. You cannot start off slow against those teams because if Indiana gets up on you, they've already done to us

before when they played us, they will pile it on quickly. And then you'll look up at the scoreboard and all of a sudden you'll be in a blowout, you know, by the third quarter if you're not prepared to really grind it out early in that game in that first quarter. So of course, of course we'll have to wait and see and you know like who knows what michigan state looks like early in the year if that you know maybe is another opportunity that kind of trips nebraska up it's one year with fitzgerald down there so we'll see but yeah i mean it's just i i don't have nearly enough reasons to doubt indiana but when i talk about nebraska i have more reasons to doubt nebraska and i'm not saying you know matt rule's not the right guy i don't want people to get that idea but like you know

i need a little bit more proof in the pudding to say that i it's going to give me like a a chance that like, hey, we have a really good shot to pull this one off. I don't want to put it like a percentage on it or anything. But obviously it's a tough challenge. It definitely helps that it's at home. It helps that Indiana's got a tough one earlier. You just hope in my mind, like you have to start off against a good team like that fast. You're at home.

Get the crowd behind you. Like see if you can. It's a new team. Like as great as a head coach is, you still got new players. Like can you get in those players heads mentally? Can you get the crowd behind it? Kind of what we did to Colorado. and we come to find out that Colorado team wasn't very good,

but I mean, we made to play early. Tommy Hill gets that pick six, and you could just tell Colorado was shaking up a little bit. And the crowd just absolutely exploded to a level that I haven't seen my entire life, really since growing up. And obviously, I didn't get down here until 2018. But I think that's kind of the key is, you know, it is still college football.

There is an element of this that is, I know with NIL it seems professional, but a lot of these guys are still kids young, adults, however you want to phrase it, to where if you can get in their minds mentally and get the crowd behind you, maybe you can see a team like Indiana who, even though Kurtz-Kennie seems like a great coach and he's got a really disciplined program, see if you can get them to mentally slip up. Kurtzignani can't go out there in the middle of the game. You can call tie him out, but you only get so many of those. Like there will be a moment where the

players got to figure it out if Nebraska can get a jump on them. So I think that's the key. Not in my state jump. It doesn't mean like, hey, you got to go score first drive of the game. but you certainly can't give up, you know, back-to-back scores early or, you know, a touchdown and a field goal. So again, like, no percentage I want to give on it. It's definitely not impossible, but I think it's up to the coaches, the players here in Nebraska is like put enough out there early. So you can get that home crowd behind you and try to throw them off mentally because they have

the talent. They have the coaches. We kind of see all that right now. I think that's the best chances, you know, have a little bit of that X factor. I know it's cliche, but I think it's going to be the mentality and mindset. heading into that one. Well, yeah, and again, too, I mean, it's just the problem with predicting any wins at this point, too, you know, in that type of scenario is the line of scrimmage. I mean, that is a line of scrimmage team. Indiana was last year. So you look at last year's

match, if it would have been rough, has Nebraska fixed that rushing defense. Indiana lost 2,000-yard rushers from last year, but I think they're going to have them again. I mean, you know, so I think that, but yeah, two of them. They had 2,000-yard rushes last year. That's how dominant they were on the ground. So, you know, you think about Nebraska's rush defense that better be short up, you know, over the off season, but certainly by then, I will say this, if you're looking for some hope, you know, that Indiana team last year as good as they were, and especially by the end of the year, struggled on the road at Iowa, only one 20 to 15, struggled on the road at Penn State, 27 to 24.

Yeah, those teams didn't blow us out of the water or anything last year. That's the only problem, right? Those are, you know, teams that might not be the top of the Big Ten. The problem is those teams absolutely spanked Nebraska. but, you know, those are, some road games, yeah. You know, they beat Old Dominion, 2714 to start the year. Maybe that gives you more hope. That does.

I like that. There you go. Yeah. That was the earlier game, you know, so, yeah, okay, there we go. So there. Now we're cooking with that. That game's a little bit better to point out. So there's always, there's always a possibility.

But it is, it is going to be an uphill battle. As we know for Nebraska to get past that, that line and beat any top 25 team, let alone the defending champions. Right. That's the, that's the, about as big as it can get. But again, I hope for Nebraska's sake, you know, I just can't imagine the, the atmosphere and the excitement, you might, you'll probably still be double-digit underdogs, but if you go in there undefeated and a lot of people are wanting to count their

wins before they happen, by no means by doing that. I'm worried specifically about some of those conference games, Nebraska's got early on, Michigan State, especially on the road. I know others are played Notre Dame, I think, right before us, though. Michigan State does. Yeah, I want to say they have an interesting. on-con game this year. They do, yeah.

Hopefully that kind of helps our case out where, you know, if they take a tough loss, you know, versus Notre Dame, you know, maybe mentally they're already a little bit unstable and it is year one with Fitzgerald. So I am nervous about that Michigan State game. Don't get me wrong because I just, I've always been a big fan of Fitzgerald. I think he's a great coach for everything he did down there at Northwestern. And, you know, his Big 10 regular winning percentage is better than what Matt Roles had so far here at Nebraska.

And I get it right. Matt Ruhl took over a very rough state. of the program. And he's only, you know, he's heading into year four now. So he still got, if it works out, time to build that conference record up. But yeah, I mean, that's a, I just don't want to overlook any of the games before we get to Indiana. You know, I think it's very important for Nebraska to just lock in, obviously, on these

non-conference games. But like, even when you talk about Maryland, is it likely probably not? But you do have a coach coaching for his job. So, you know, I just, the amount of coaches on the. schedule, whether we're talking about Indiana, or we're going to talk about Oregon, or you talk about Ryan Day, Kirk Farrants, Brett Bielma. I mean, there's so many elite coaches on this year's schedule. So I think it's just got to be the ultimate like game by game process. And then to your point, if you are five and now by the time you get to Indiana, okay, well then now we can

really start to fill it into the hype. And that's where I'm hoping, you know, my dream scenario where you have an undefeated Nebraska at that point in the season's where you just have that energy in the air. And then the players hopefully can answer to it. It is, it is especially interesting last year, you know, through the victories over Michigan State and Maryland for that, for that portion of the schedule this upcoming year is, yes, they were wins and you don't, you know, you don't look down on any wins that Nebraska. You're trying to, you know, still trying to get, you know, mark your way up there. But if they look similar, if they win those games and look similar to what they did last year, still wouldn't inspire a whole lot of confidence

going into Indiana, right? So part of it is, does this team look different, right? Is Anthony Calandra look like the difference maker, you know, again, has the rush defense short up? Is the special teams not, you know, collapsing again, you know, is it back? And that's why I specifically worry about that Michigan State game. Remember, Kenneth Williams transferred to Michigan State. That's right. And he saved Nebraska in some of those games with his kick returning, but also Levar Woods, the long time I was special teams. They're specifically known for winning in the special teams game. It will be coaching on the sidelines for Sparty as well there, too. So, you know, I think that Michigan State game could be, is one I, I'm worried might come down to

special teams and might end up hurting Nebraska in that case. And that Maryland game, obviously, you know, like you said, by Cloxley there. I will say this. It seems like he's been coaching for his job for like three years. But this could be the year. But they let him go. They went four and eight in the last couple of years and went one and eight in conference planes and he's still there.

So I don't know. But yeah, at some point, you'd think they would get done with that. But obviously, good young quarterback did lose one of their better defenders in free season for the, for the season. but still could be an interesting game there before Nebraska gets to Indiana. But really, obviously, after that, that's when he ratcheted up, Indiana at Oregon by week,

but then, you know, Washington, three ranked teams, Illinois the next week, you know, on a Friday night at Illinois. Kind of screwed us on a lot of a Friday game, too. I will say, I don't think Illinois is very happy with that one either. But, yeah, man, that's, that's just, the window dressing on this one's tough. I mean, there's just no out. like that's the biggest thing that sticks out to me on this year's schedule.

There's no out at any point. Like once you get through the first few Big Ten regular season games and we're even kind of talking about Michigan State. It's, you know, I don't even care if you're Ohio State looking at this schedule and just swap out, you know, Ohio State for Nebraska. Like any Big Ten team look at the schedule, like, okay, not only do these teams have promising coaches, but, you know, just the long time coaches for a lot of these programs too.

and maybe not at that specific university, but these are all coaches that have had a lot of blood in that Big Ten water that know what they're doing. So, like, that's the part of me that I think is going to be the biggest challenge is you have coaches that know how to play in the Big Ten and win in the Big Ten with convincing records. You're in, you're out. So you just go down the list.

And if you have that hiccup, I don't care who it is. It can be Maryland or can be Ohio State. I think the biggest thing for Nebraska this year is what does the bounce back look like? Like, we can't have that first loss. and we say, you know, the games in November, what seems to be the happen and not just this staff, you can go through staff since it's really falling apart here, is once we take that first wound, it's like, all right,

now we're just, we feel, I don't know if it's confidence or what it is, but it feels like that next one almost feels like a guarantee, where it's like, okay, well, now the cat's out of the bag, we've shown who we really are. And that's what you have to avoid because you have that kind of mindset. Good luck, you know, it's not going to any easier. These teams will just pummel you, if you're not locked in mentally and willing to go like 100% with full conviction that you are going

to win the game not think you can win the game but like you have to have conviction that we're going to go out here and beat these guys especially if it's at home because it will not get easier at all and it's just not an opportunity for you know a weak quote unquote opponent to pick you back up after a tough loss if you end up having one well and it is and i think nebraska's had some easier schedules the last couple of years unfortunately and he could say they didn't take advantage of them. Maybe they don't make a bowl game with this guy's schedule the last couple of years. So maybe they did somewhat take advantage of them. But I get the idea because there are losses like the Minnesota game last year, you know, that you expected to win. Like the UCLA game, you know,

the year prior to that, you could throw Illinois into that for 2024 as well. And then obviously 2023, things just kind of broke down. You lost that Michigan State game on the road, probably still the worst loss on the rest of the rule era. You know, I think you had three, quarterbacks throw four interceptions against Maryland. They just needed one win in the final four games to go bowling and didn't quite get there. But you mentioned too, just kind of going into the games, as part of it is going to be like, what is your belief that Matt Rule can outcoach the opposing coaches? And when you have a schedule like this, that's going to have to step it up, right?

Because you mentioned coach Signetti, Dan Laning, Dead Fish, obviously Ryan Day, Kirk parents has had everybody's number. Brett Beelma has won big 10 titles. I mean, these are, this is a tough, you know, throw Pat Farrill's Fitzgerald in there. Yeah. It's a tough run of coaches when, you know, again, thus far, all you can use is what you've seen so far. And who has Matt Ruhle beat as a head, like a good head coach on the other side at Nebraska? David Braun at Northwestern might be the best one. Bill O'Brien is falling off at Boston College could be another one.

I mean, I don't know, Luke Bickle, there's just, there hasn't been a big name. Dionne Sanders might be the best one. And he's also falling off. Like, all these guys that might be successful wins outside of David Braun are like kind of hot seat. So he's going to have to win a coaching matchup that he hasn't done necessary in the first three years. Well, that's the other part where, you know, I'm trying to be like optimistic as I can here. But like even you look at years prior and even like last year, it's like, okay, here comes Michigan. Yeah, pogee out there.

You don't even have Sharon Moore. Can you take advantage of it? You know, you get these, we've just had opportunities. And I'm blanking on some of the faces that we had out there. But we've had situations where we have first year head coaches at a university where it's like you have to take advantage that. You have to give them the L there. And that's the part to where not only on the players,

it's going to be up to rule in this coaching staff is like you're going to have to do your work to make sure that you're able to call a complete game start to finish. And, you know, I don't know what that necessarily looks like. I'm not going to act like I, you know, was ever an offensive corner or defensive corner at any point in time or even an assistant equipment manager at the university anywhere. But it is one where like you can just look at the numbers. And again, this is not the end all be all.

But if you just look at the winning percentages in the Big Ten regular season, out of all the coaches that Nebraska is going to play this year, if you go this coach versus Matt Rules winning percentage in the Big Ten, it's two and seven this year with a win versus a win versus Maryland and I'd be playing on who the other one is but it line up to just what's going to be not only a tough one for the players but the the tougher gig of this one might be on the coaches like as far as their prep goes

because there's again I think all these coaches are really great phenomenal coaches and that's what you're going to see in the big 10 going forward especially being one of the big two conferences now is you'll look around. none of these universities, especially in the Big Ten, look like they're getting any weaker. And even Northwestern, like you got the Ryan Fieldhouse getting done. They had another donor, you know,

pour in another $35 million over the course of like three years. And I get it. Like some of these alumni networks are different. But the money's in the Big Ten. So like you don't want to get in the situation to where it feels like you're kind of stagnant in terms of your development production. Because when you're looking around the rest of the Big Ten, you see a lot of interesting moves,

moves with potential big impacts for turnarounds. And I think that's why that Michigan State game is a team that a lot of people are circling. Like, don't let Michigan State get back on top of Nebraska. Put Minnesota back down, you know, where they belong. Don't let Iowa consistently sit above you. You know, these are the things, whereas Nebraska's climbing out of that middle tier, you don't want other teams that are behind you to pass you up because you're stagnant and you're moving too slow as you're trying to work back into that powerhouse. Yeah, and it's interesting. Again, you can do the tiers and it feels like Nebraska, is either the back end of the middle tier or, you know, whatever.

It depends on how many tiers you have, but they do kind of need to get over the middle of the Big Ten. And that's why it's hard to kind of imagine beating one of these top of the Big Ten teams. But, you know, again, back to the kind of the coaching points here is, you know, if that goes back to that Maryland good that we go to, if they lose to Maryland member because they lost in 2023, one last year, if you're one and two against Mike Locksley, And I mean, it's still at the beginning of the season.

There's still a lot could happen. But that's not going to be a good sign for what's going to happen in these coaching matchups down the line. Some of the other ones that you, that you may have forgotten or, or, or, the friend of mention was the Sean Foster.

That's right. Yeah, they punked us in that one. Yeah. I will say, I think that was more Eric B. enemy cooking in the kitchen because he was offensive coordinator at the time. But that's still one where you have to take care of that one. you can't get punked by a California team in the Midwest. And that's what it felt like.

Well, and remember, Deshawn Fosser at Big Ten Media Day just showed he wasn't ready for the job. And so that was just kind of a bad look. Obviously, they made the change of Coach Sat afterwards from office coordinator. So it was bad enough to jolt the program. But also, again, back to that 2023, lost to Harlan Burnett, a Michigan State interim coach. That's right. And they were in a pretty rough spot at the time, I believe, going into that game. Again, Nebraska just needed one game for a game.

bull win. They were two and six going into that game. Oh, and five in the big 10 was Michigan State with the interim coach. So, you know, part of it is again, can you rise up and beat the coaches that you haven't yet? But the other thing is, my God, there can't be another disappointing loss where at least you should have the coaching advantage here. So it's tough. I mean, it's one thing if you have the disappointing loss and you can trade it off with a big win. Yeah. You can't not do either. And unfortunately, that's kind of been the problem for us. It's like maybe we, we have the slip up and we also don't get a big win to make up for it. Because I was used Notre Dame because it's always just crazy to me in back to back years.

They lost to your Marshall. Then there was Northern Illinois and then Marshall, maybe you flip them. But the one that's the one year, even though they lost to a what you consider a week while they're not in any conference, but what a weak opponent for Notre Dame, they made the cultural football playoffs that year. You know, so like they bounced back. They got some big wins through the course of the season to redeem what they felt like was a failure early on.

So and that's what I mean by the bounce back. For Matt, like, I don't care if the loss to Ohio State or if it's a loss to Michigan State. What do you do after? Like, don't let that be, don't let one nail be the nail for the coffin, you know? Normally it's the last nail on the coffin. It feels like it's, you know, one and done. And like, that's all it takes to shut the lid on Nebraska football's hopes for that year. So that's the biggest part for me is, you know, we keep saying it.

There's no easy routes in this year's schedule. There's great coaches up and down the line. There's a very good chance that you have a day where, you know, maybe it's not on the staff. you know, you have a player that gets hurt, you got to put a backup in there, or just for whatever reason, guys aren't at 100% and you take a tough loss. Do not let that be the state of the program for the rest of the season. Like, you have to figure out ways to get quick turnarounds and, you know, get a redemption game in there and find yourself hungry again and find that conviction again

to fully believe that you're going to go win the next one. Yeah, it's a lot of stuff that hasn't been done that needs to be done. And that's why I think there's a lot of, you know, it's hard to do, inhale the Kool-Aid, I suppose this off season and just chug it is because it is, you know, at a certain point, it's just show it to us. And I think that's where a lot of Husker fans are going into the year. All right, let's go ahead and take quick break. We'll be back with more on one-on-one on 93-7 the ticket. Watch live on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch. You're listening to one-on-one with DP on 93-7 the ticket and the ticket FM.com.