1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Huskers vs Illinois Reactions w/ Tom Shatel of The Omaha World Herald- September 23rd, 2024

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

Huskers vs Illinois Reactions w/ Tom Shatel of The Omaha World Herald- September 23rd, 2024Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

All right, welcome in to Ticket Week nights. This is the Husker Football Hour with Tom Chattel of the Omaha World Herald before we bring him in. Again, if you guys want to join in, Facebook, YouTube X Allo Channel 961, filling in for DIP here, at least for this week. But nonetheless, we'll still have Tom Chappelle. And again, feel free to chime in, ask for some of your own questions. That number is 402, 464-5-6-85. All right, let's bring him in. Tom Chetel on the Allo VIP line where they understand the importance of acceptance.

exceptional service. Tom Steele, how's going on this somewhat of a sour Monday? Yeah. It's so good. You know, it took me two hours to get back from the game Friday night. It took me an hour to get out of Lincoln. And another hour, and it was just kind of added to the whole thing. But I think most people I interacted with all weekend, and kind of calmed down and had a good perspective on the thing. It's, yeah, we, a lot of people got their hopes up, and I thought they'd win and play better and didn't happen, and so here we are. Yeah, sitting here three and one.

I should want to shout out the volleyball team. They took care of business, obviously got things done, put a smile in a lot of people's faces as they kind of woke up, after SMU. But yeah, on this football program, before we even dive into the offense and what we saw on defense, I mean, did it feel like,

and when I say we, I'm throwing myself in there, we as in the media, certainly on my part, and maybe you could argue it seeped into the locker room a little bit. But maybe we're starting to overlook Illinois. I mean, two seasons ago,

they win eight games. I know last year they only won five, but they were a ranked opponent. Brett Bilema is a great head coach about all his stops. You can question the Arkansas. I won. But it kind of feel like a certain point maybe this team was getting overlooked in Illinois.

Yeah, I think the question I had going into the game was, okay, the level of play is going to go up. And I was looking at the quarterback. How was he going to play when they've got a veteran, you know, a defensive coach who's seeing everything. and he's going to throw a bunch of stuff at him. How was Dylan Raoul going to play? And it turned out to be the exact opposite. He played great and handled it. Nobody else, I mean, a lot of the other people,

or not even handled the moment as well. So, you know, it's, I've not ruled. Had some telling comments today about they played tight. They still, you know, they got in a close game, and they just kind of went back to not knowing how to win. I think it started by giving Illinois credit. They were fired up to when that came.

They came out talking trash, and they kind of carried it to the whole night. And Nebraska didn't have that energy. It wasn't Colorado energy. They needed Colorado energy. in that game and you know and they're going to need that every

every game now. So, you know, I saw a team in Scarlet volleyball team a few weeks ago just swept it up by SMU and they looked flat. I think that was probably a wake-up call.

Is this going to be a wake-up call that's going to save the press as football season? Yeah. And you know what I watched that game the second half that defense in particular it didn't look like they're playing hard just looked like they're incredibly frustrated and the penalties certainly

have to add to it but Mr. Simons guys you know putting their hands up a little more in the game's prior where I felt like everybody was on page speaking on that offensive side of the ball that offensive line especially in that second half when they really had to start pushing the ball to try to get

in scoring position you know were you surprised at how well a guy like Turner Corpren you know even held up, kind of getting shoved into that role. Yeah, they had tough duty because, you know, look, good old Brett Bealama, the old Fox, said, even though it's on the brass's own field, I'm going to take away the run. I'm going to load up the box and take away the run and make the hot shot kid beat us. And he almost did.

I thought you that's a strategy that will play well going forward with other schools. But, you know, right now the best running game is going to be Dylan's arm to kind of loosen things up in the league. And I like the running game. If it's not, if they're not going up against the, you know, if the numbers up front are dark are to the opponent's advantage, you know, it's outnumbered. I like Dowdell. I like him a lot. And I think the opposite line is better.

You know, it's all relative. I think this is a six or seven win team. I don't think they have great talent. They have good talent, but they don't have a lot of great talent. Certainly have enough to win that game last Friday night. but they didn't play well. I thought they got out coached.

I don't think that Nebraska had an answer for a lot of stuff. You know, certainly the passing game did, but defensively they didn't have any answers. There was always an open Illinois receiver, you know, and that's Illinois is, you know, they have a nice team, but they're not, they don't have great offensive skill talent. I mean, so these guys are wide open. So it's just one of those nights, and yet they still could have won, right?

You make it play here or there, and they, you know, or kick. But, you know, today rule talked about he kind of slipped this in. He said a lot of Mondays are great. He really explains things and really gets into stuff. And he's kind of threw this in there in the middle about, you know, basically not being surprised because this is the second year or this is year too. And I don't think it was meant to be an excuse. It's just he knows what this is like. It's just reality.

And the roster is not set yet. It's better. and, you know, the quarterback makes them a lot better at that position, but it's still in progress. So, again, they should have, they still could have won that came in the night, but it's a margin of, their margin for error is not great. If they don't show up and play well and, and he got there, and yes, they did play hard.

They played, but they didn't. play with the kind of purpose you need, to execute things. Defensively, it was just kind of a mess sometimes. That offense, nobody coming into that game thought that offense was going to run up and down the field on the press. So after I watched KU a couple times, I thought, well, I don't think KU is quite as good.

And, you know, Illinois had to go down at the end to beat them. But as it turns out, well, Nebraska, Utah, Colorado, and Northern of Iowa. So we didn't know much about the Emmett either, and now we do. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, if I had to kind of summarize the game, I think you're right. The silver lining, you managed to go to overtime when it feels like everybody in the stadium thought this was not a great showing from Nebraska. but I really did just come down to a few key moment plays where Nebraska failed to execute. You can point to the missed field goal.

You can go ahead and point to the touchdown pass. I ended up paying an interception from Illinois, which, you know, give credit to Illinois for making a phenomenal play on the ball. You can point to the penalties. You can point to the offensive line or the defense in that, you know, what might have been one of the shortest overtimes I've watched in a long time. I mean, for Illinois, it was a couple of plays they scored for Nebraska. Penalties and out.

right out of the gate. When you're looking at this offense, Dylan Raola, I don't think anybody's pointing the fingers at him or necessarily anybody individually, but 24 for 35, just short of 300 yards, three touchdowns with a long of 44 takes five sacks in that game. I mean, we can't really be asking too much more from Dylan Rao. It feels like that part of the game where we're finally confident. So what are these final links in this offense?

Because again, I think you're right that we're not have the skill. if we're like Georgia, if we don't play well, we can still find us to win. We don't play well, these teams in the Big Ten are going to beat us. What are you, some of those missing links on offense that you feel like we're just not quite taking advantage of right now?

Well, to start with the injury to Alvano is just, it's not good. If you don't have a kicker, I'm certainly not not, not,

uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, It changes play calling and it changes.

It just, you have to score. You have to get down there, you know, really close. I mean, you know, so, but I thought the silver lining was one of the great things about the game. Maybe the best thing for the breast standpoint was seeing what Raola did. I mean, I didn't know how he would handle it. Again, he handled it at the night better than anybody. I mean, his talent. I mean, people across the country were just shaking their heads.

I mean, they were like, NFL scouts on Twitter going, you know, this guy's the first rounder. I can't wait to see what he's like in three or four years. I mean, this is, he's a stud. And we have to watch them, you know, develop before our, eyes. And, you know, what else is he going to come up with? So, yeah, they have to help him. They have to block. I thought they did. The sacks kind of over time just got out of control. And I think it always changed to get out of the zone and they got back in the man and

went after him. But other teams will do that too. I think, again, I don't expect teams to load up the box to run and to stop the run like Illinois did. If they do, Nebraska really has to make them pay and they have to make it hurt. So they don't do that ever again. And that will open up the running game. So I think the one of the talent in the offense is there. It's just, I'm not sure the office was even really a problem yet tonight. they couldn't run it and that was

I'll put the blind and and you know I guess you'd throw two tight ends in there and try to do it that way but they just weren't going to move Illinois out of there they just don't have the line to do that I don't think and they weren't going to run too much so

but again I think watching the quarter but that's a guy they have had a long time. And again, like I said, he's the best passing quarterback I've ever seen at Nebraska. And some of the stuff he did Friday night, there was one pass where he threw over. There were two defenders, maybe 10 or 15 yards apart. He threw over the top of one and in front of the other. It just dropped this little pass on there.

It was just beautiful to watch. he just does that with E. And so, I came out of that game going, okay, this more hurts, but I'm optimistic because I think he's, he's not acting a freshman.

Yeah, and he's shown his ability to throw, you know, against any of the coverages that Illinois was trying to show. They were switching, like you said, between man and zone quite a bit,

trying to get him guessing, having to think a little bit more on that pocket. And, you know, he was cutting up just about anything. If he had the time in the pocket, he looked really good identifying where that ball needs to go. We've had quarterbacks in the past. You know, Adrian Martinez, he was a phenomenal quarterback. But in that second year in particular, teams realized he really struggled to throw against zone. And Dylan O'L is just a really impressive performance.

And it does give you a lot of hope for this offense. You just got to hope that defense can hold strong and give them a better chance for not forced to try to pick it up out of rhythm. But I mean, defense special teams, I think it's fair to say you lose those two phases of the game. And you mentioned the kicker. Are you a little bit surprised that, you know, in year two, we're still kind of seeing these same special teams issues where the kick return team looks leaky at times. The field goal kicker, I mean, if it's 30 yards plus, we're never super confident that it's going to be of a sure go ahead. You're surprised to see this in year two, knowing that it was a problem in year one that needed to be addressed. Yeah, I think

injury. I mean, you know, let's have an injury to a kicker. I don't know how many programs have two or three guys lined up to kick. You know, some do, but they aren't there yet. But they didn't expect an injury. And, you know, Tristan, you know, he had a

like a couple of issues in spring and just, you know, he was coming to work through that. maybe, you know, maybe that's when the injury was happening. But I just don't know if he's going to come back. Is they going to have to shut them down this year? I don't think they're at that point yet. But, no, I think that they are, yeah, the coverage stuff is, that's got to get better.

And, you know, part of the issue, live and I was the wind. You've got to kick it out of the end zone. They're having a hard time with that with the wind when they had the, we're going to pick up against it. But, you know, it was a field day for the second-guessers like me

who thought that they should have run the ball when it was like third and three and at the end of the game. I frankly thought a pass was okay. I was trying to run. against those guys is I thought it would be easier to pass. It just, they just missed it.

So, yeah, it's, it's one loss and everything's still on schedule. I can't afford to get off schedule again. But, you know, this is just going to get the defense. Two games in a row now, they haven't tackled well. I mean, I don't know what's going on there. And I wonder if they need to, so when you get some of these quarterbacks, if they need to use some creative ways to get some pressure

because it didn't seem to be getting any last week. And that's two weeks in a row, you know, where the coaches even mentioned it, the yards after first contact have just been piling up. you and I that kind of exposed that a little bit, that maybe Nebraska isn't as strong in terms of tackling, as we might have thought. And then Illinois certainly exposed that.

On top of them, just having some really great run blocking and forcing Nebraska's defense, those corner safeties, have to make some tough open field tackles. But it's just kind of been a theme in these two games in a row now. We're a little bit surprised by Nebraska's defense to certainly tackle. Do you expect Tony White to get this patched up by Purdue? likes to run a lot of outside zone. I'll stretch it out a little bit.

Do you expect Tony White to be able to get this dialed in? I mean, we're working with a lot of the same guys of last year, and, you know, that problem rarely reared its head. Yeah, I think, you know, it's really better get a figured out this week. I'm on board with the whole year two thing, but tackling doesn't take two years. Now, it's a habit.

You know, it's always. things are habits. But these guys tackle well last year, I thought. I don't think defense was really the issue last year. So I don't know what's going on. If, you know, a rule mentioned today that it's looking ahead to what the record's going to be. And a lot of people were saying seven and oh and the worst thing they could have happened.

It was on Kirk Herbstre'd say seven a low. I think they're going to have been in it. And last week, he actually doubled down on that statement saying, you know, he believed after them, you know, the first three games that they would definitely go into Phoenix, going to Ohio State. So they don't have that point where they can believe any of that crap. They just can't. So they've got to go. the big chance, it's long, long past time to, I take this week for granted. All these people that were saying, seven and no, assuming that they would beat Illinois and Purdue and Indiana and Rutgers,

those are the teams that they've been losing to the last 10 years. I mean, as I said, these other teams like Indiana and Purdue and Rutgers and Illinois, They see Nebraska as the team that they can beat. So they see Nebraska as the team that, okay, that should be a W. So I don't know what people are getting all this. They haven't won more than five games since 2016. So all of a sudden they're going to win seven in a row.

So that's what we do. That's what sports writers do in fans. We look at schedule. We put down, you know, what we think is going to happen. but you can't do that in the Big Ten. You've got to respect it. You've got to respect every team. You know, this is a tough one.

You know, Purdue will come out wrong this week after two straight losses. You know, their seasons are not going the way they thought. And, you know, Rutgers will be a really tough out. As Alms and Indiana is on fire. So they've got to get a lot of the things. things right going into this week. And, you know, I think this is a game where it's 11 a.m. I think it would be good for them to go on the road, kind of get away from everything,

and just kind of band together in the hotel and all that stuff. But it's 11 a.m., you don't expect the boiler crowd to be, you know, I've been there. It's, I mean, it can be. a good atmosphere. It's not intimidating. And again, coming up two losses, 11 a.m. You know, I think Nebraska would

could really use a fast start. I'm just going to call things down there. But, yeah, they're going to have to come out fighting because, you know, I'm just trying to save their season right now. Yeah, and I want to talk about that on their side is we've got to throw it to our first

break here. It's just kind of recalibrating the sites because yeah you mentioned it you can even throw Joe Clad out there the amount of hype around Nebraska was hitting national attention and for some reasons with Dylan Raola makes sense and for others we haven't beat a lot of these teams and in the Big Ten you know even if you got the better talent

there's so many great coaches that they can scheme their way to win even if they got lesser talent so certainly something we got to keep in mind keeping away the Kool-Aid a little bit and watching this team actually do it before we start writing on the wall I mean we're even here in 12 team playoff conversations

which is kind of hard to believe. So with that being said, we'll throw out the break here. We got Tom Chappelle of the Omaha World Herald on the ALO VIP line. So don't go anywhere. We'll keep it rolling, but keep in mind, we got NFL on the brick and mortar coming up. So use the streams, Facebook, YouTube X, Allo, Channel 961. We'll keep it rolling. Talk to you guys on the other side.

All right, welcome back in to the Husker Football Hour with Tom Chattell of the Omaha World Harold. Harrison Arns filling in for DP. And if you guys want to join in, use the Sarton-Haman Text line, 402, 4664, 568. page five or use the streams. All right, let's go ahead and bringing back in. Like I said, we got Tom Chappelle Lowe, World Herald.

I want to talk about recalibrating the sites here because he did mention some of the expectation as national attention got towards Nebraska. Some people were saying seven or no. Some people, we even flirt with the idea of Nebraska getting into this new 12-team playoff. How do we recalibrate from here? Because I do think a lot of people,

if you would have said, you're three-and-one at this point, most people will actually take that. They won't maybe be super happy, but that means, A, you beat Colorado or you beat Illinois. Either way, you only dropped likely one of those games. So recalibrating from here,

what is a reasonable expectation for Nebraska fans on a win total? Well, I think a lot of the excitement happened because of the Colorado. And the way they, it was who they beat, and the way to beat them, so everybody,

they got ranked, and then people started getting, you know, getting excited. There are people are, you know, and when I say people picking them seven ago, that was not the majority of Hester fans.

I was in the majority, we're probably hoping to get six or seven. And if they got better than that, they'd take it. So I think most people are still fine and understand that it's going to be

a game once in a while. It's just you get your hopes up, right? And so people went into the Friday night, you know, Illinois, you know, they beat him last year, kind of had a, you know, again, it was a wake-up call. We saw it with volleyball, and that's a different standard. They're talking about national championships.

But for Nebraska football, a good reminder that every game has to be Colorado. I don't care where you're playing. Every game has to be that effort, that kind of concentration and execution. And I'm going to watch this happen as we go forward. But, you know, when does Dylan take over? When does he become the fire? You know, the guy who puts everybody and keeps everybody in line to do. usually senior's job.

When is he that guy who, by the way he plays and gets things done, become the sort of heart and soul of this thing and the fire? His old man had plenty of fire. And, you know, there was never, you know, Dominic Rao never played tight in his life. He was always loose, and he was usually on top of you. I'm trying to bury you into the ground. So, and just interesting to hear Rule today talk about the freshman as if he was an older guy. And he, you know, he was the guy out there trying to make it happen, trying to get everybody going. And so I'm going to watch that as a sort of a thing to, you know, sort of a sideline story.

You know, it's a sideline story as we go forward here because, you know, it's being in all those tight games, I do get it. I'm a golfer. You know, we get the yips. I get the shanks, and I keep thinking about how I'm going to shank. And I get over the ball on a big shot. I'm not thinking about how I'm going to hold it. I'm thinking about how am I going to screw this up. And so how do you get past that?

well, I don't think Tiger Woods ever had that. Maybe he had some problems with shipping a few years ago, but, I mean, talent, talent gets things done. And, you know, there's going to be a breakthrough to the other side, winning close games, it's going to be talent. And I think it's going to be the quarterback. And he almost, by God, did it Friday night. So I think, as he has he, is he,

the Ghostbuster here, the guy that gets him to the other side, it's going to be energy to watch, but, you know, he's kind of taken over already. It's fun. Yeah, it's, you know,

it's crazy to even have this conversation, because I think before the season started, I would have been saying that's too much, but, I mean, he's proven it in every game. And let's say this Illinois, even though it was a loss, just the way how Illinois he wanted to play Nebraska defensively. He still shined in a really good way,

along with our tight ends, along with the receivers, obviously outside of that one dropped past. I ended up turning it into an interception. But Dylan Rail has proven that he can be a leader on this offensive side of the ball. Have you liked how Satterfield has tried to implement him in this offense so far?

The Utep game was a little interesting because it wasn't too flashy. Colorado, you know, they really just had a lot of success running the ball, even though he still made some great plays. You and I are more of the same. But Illinois, we saw a really strong sign that Satterfield's going to go ahead and trust him to sling the rock. Do you like Satterfield the way he's calling this? And do you think we're going to see more of Dillan Rale going forward on a more past heavy offensive available?

Yeah, you know, I wrote this earlier in August. For Run the Damn Ball guy, it was, this was going to be a very frustrating thing. because Santa Feel loves to throw it. And he's got all the toys. You've got more toys than last year. And he's got people that can throw and catch. And you might say that that's the strength of their offense. I think that they're very capable of running.

I love the two running backs I use. I love those guys. We heard rule, but, you know, if you're going to load up the box and take away the run, you know, you just had to feel that says he's, Perfect. That's what I want to do anyway. I want to throw it. So, but today, you know, rules said, this is very interesting that even though we may be throwing, doing a good job, moving the ball on the air, you still have to try to run it and have to wear people down. So, you know, he's the head coach. He will, you know, he's in charge. So, you know, we will see about that going forward. but it's always an interesting question

just because they load the boxes I mean you can't run it Nebraska always had that option you can load it up they're going to spread you out eventually and so you know just because they load the boxes

I mean you don't keep trying to run and pound pound pound on the wall until it breaks down I don't know that Nebraska has that kind of offense or even that kind of offensive line. But it's, you know, they didn't get much done on the ground last week. And I think they're going to have to do better if they're going to start winning games again. Yeah, you know, running the ball works great and well and all,

but you've got to have the offensive line that proves they can do it at a consistent basis to where you're not wasting downs, getting behind schedule. And then obviously the penalties. that showed up in an ugly way versus Illinois more so than it has at any other game this season. Just some really, you know, blowing your toes up kind of plays where, you know, defense isn't doing anything other than you just making miscues mentally. So again, when it comes to that run, like if we can be dominant, great. If it can be an accent to the passing game, you know, or the other way around, you know, if the passing game can be an accent to our run game, fantastic. But we got to have an offensive line that is able to put.

defense is around. And Illinois, you know, I kind of circled that. I'll be curious to see how this offensive line continues to gel. Obviously, Muzuka, if he gets back at the mix, what does that look like? You know, Matt Ruhl made some comments about him as well. But if we're going to nitpick anything about Dillon Royola, you know, I thought he had a fantastic game. I don't think hard to ask him to do anything else.

You know, do you have any worries about him? I even shouldn't say worries, but do you see opportunities for him to run more and go ahead and just take the green space in front of him? He hasn't shown that. I don't know if it is a really big part of his game. In high school, he's able to do it, but obviously D1 football is a whole other animal. Yeah, I would make a living on it.

I think it's okay once in a while. He always, he's done it a few times, and he always seems to bounce back up. But I was watching for him, okay, get up now, come on, get up. He bounces right back up. I'm fine, I got it. But, you know, you worry about that time, where, you know, slides wrong or plants his foot wrong, or, you know, it's unnecessary.

You don't want to take a sack, but you don't need him to run that much, if anything. So does it keep people honest? Not necessarily, because they know he's not going to, he's not very, he is great at it. So they know he's not going to run that much. And so they're not going to be worried about it too much. I just do all you can to get the protection packages in there. Make sure those running backs are blocking, not like overtime. Here they can.

So just keep them up right in the pocket, and he's going to get the job done. So, yeah, I don't think a running quarterback. I like the Harburg angle. Let's get him back. I think he should be a bigger part of the offense. I mean, there's a guy who can run. They had him throwing a pass back to that game. But there's a guy I would use maybe on a jet sweep or throwing a pass and let him go on a screen

or something kind of deal like that where he becomes sort of like an H-back or a tight-eat-a-old. end type of guy. You know, sort of a hybrid, you know, running back, tight end receiver type of guy. He's got wheels. So rather than Rioa, I'd rather have Hartberg out there do with all the damage. Yeah, I couldn't agree more on the packages with Harvard. For the most part, have been pretty successful. And he kind of reminds me of Taylor Martinez just only purely in the way that doesn't

look like the freakiest athlete. but when they get that dead end straight ahead speed and they get a few steps to fully gather, they become tough guys to try to find an angle on. I think Harburg's breakaway speed can surprise people, especially, you know, if he's got the power to drop that first defender and it's a while before that safety corner,

whoever can get over there. He's proven that he can breakaway speed despite being, you know, one of those bigger athletes out there. All right, with that being said, we'll throw it to our final break in. And on the side, we do got to talk about the other rail up. Obviously, got 2026 QB, commit from Dillon's brothers.

We're going to talk about that and just overall how this QB class is starting to shape up here. So don't go anywhere. We're going to keep it rolling the Tom Chappelle Hustkell Hustker Football Hour right here on 937. The ticket. All right, welcome back in to wrapping things up here on the Hustker Football Hour with the Omaha World Harold's very own Tom Chattel. And to wrap things up here, we only got about five minutes. And I want to get to this as I forgot to bring it up in that previous segment.

You know, Tom Chetell, I'm curious, just from the stadium. sights and sounds, you don't have to look very far to figure out that. Nebraska and overtime has been pretty abysmal in these past nine, ten years. Could you kind of feel that when it got to overtime, even before those two big, massive plays from Illinois to start things off? Or maybe you could just feel the stadium, hold their breath. Yeah, I think it did. When they didn't, they missed a field goal and didn't get that touchdown, it just felt like Illinois

was just making more plays. but I still felt like the problem in overtime is they couldn't run it. So at some point, we are inside the 25 you're going to have to get some yards on the ground. And, you know,

should they have taken offense first? I don't know. I don't know. It would have mattered. I just felt like they weren't they were 10 cup on the driving range, hitting the little dribblers down the line of the other golfers. I mean, they got in the tight spot. They didn't think they could do it.

So totally different vibe than in Colorado. They felt like everything was working. They just, they got hit in the mouth, and they didn't respond the right way. But again, there's something, you know, the rule, it's their, the coach's job to get these guys over the, over the finish line, but there's something about losing, you know, sometimes the best teacher is losing.

So these guys are competitors that they've had enough. They'll step up. Yeah, I mean, there's your adversity for you. Early in the season, you know, you definitely make the argument that if there's time to learn, the better the earlier. So hopefully, you know, if you're a Nebraska fan, that adversity only helps them out in the future. And it will certainly help, you know,

even seem like Purdue. Nebraska, once again, opens up as a favorite. You know, I think most fans have certainly learned if they're drinking a lot of the rule aid, cool aid, whatever you want to call it. Let's just go 1 and no and stop circling games in the future. All right, let's talk about Dayton, Rayola, already commits to Nebraska for the class of 2026.

You're looking at these classes. We also got T.J. Lateef, another highly tired quarterback in that 2025 class. We still got Danny Kalin, who's redshirting right now, part of that 2024 class with Dylan Raola. You know, when it comes to Dayton, I think he's about 5-11. Good chance he's still growing. But what do you kind of see in his game and how similar is it to a guy in Dylan Rao? I know it's 2026. Plenty of things can happen.

But with the connections with the Raola is here at Nebraska and everywhere. Part of his statements why he chose Nebraska, it feels like it should be. not a tons of twist and turns like we've seen in the past, in particular with Danny Kalin. What do you kind of see in Dayton Real and how similar is that game to his brother? Yeah, I got to be honest,

I don't follow the recruiting like some people, so I have not seen play. I just know the last name, and if certainly they wanted him, he's got games. So I like the way that they go out with the quarterbacks. It's a very competitive position. Yeah, it's not a,

everybody stays, you know, but you've got to have, you know, a lot of depth there. It's going to matter. And, you know, what I'm really interested in, especially after this season, is now that people have had a look at Nebraska's quarterback, who wants to come play with them, how many guys are going to line up in the portal to come here, you know, The NIL is good, and you've got a chance to play with this guy for at least, you know, a couple of years or so. It's going to be fascinating. I think it's going to give them a chance to really add on to the roster going on in the next season. But certainly recruiting is important. I'm an old-school guy. I've always loved offensive lineman.

I think the quarterbacks certainly very important. It changed the game. You better take care of that offensive line. It better, and they have been, you've got to build that up.

Oppensive wine and a defensive wine going forward in this league. You've got to have those you've got to have studs up front. And so, yes, I love the quarterbacks,

but I'd like to see them as well to get the the big time alignment in there. Yeah, nobody in the state of Nebraska is going to disagree with you there. All right, Tom Chattel's, we wrap things up. Where can the people follow you on Twitter

if they want to go ahead and do that and give you a follow? Yeah, it's Chateau at OWH. Whatever, whatever, whatever the Twitter is not dot com. It's just at Tom Chetel, OWH. So I did that. I joined Twitter all the time ago, and that's what I came up with.

Nothing fancy. Easy enough to find, though, right? All right, nonetheless, appreciate the time. Tom Chattel, like I said, of the Omaha World Herald, wrap things up with him. Go ahead, give him a follow on X, Twitter, whichever one you want to call it. And we'll talk to him again next week.

Tom Chappelle, appreciate the time. Thanks. All right, that's going to do it. Like I said, once again, appreciate the time from Tom Chattel. of the Omaha World Herald as always, but don't go anywhere. Keep things rolling on Ticka Weeknights. DeMorne Pearsonel, the former Husker-wide receiver, special teams threat. Speaking of special teams, he's probably had plenty of things to say about this Illinois game.

Maybe talk about the Raiders, too. I don't know if I want to bother him that much about his Oakland Raiders, but they give the Panthers their first win of the season. So plenty of things to talk about with the former Husker. Up next right on Ticka Weeknights.