1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Nebraska Football Recruiting Storylines HEATING UP: May 8th, 11:00am

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

Nebraska Football Recruiting Storylines HEATING UPAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the heart of Lincoln America, a 93-7-the-ticket and the Ticketfm.com, sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation. Here is your host, Derek Pearson. From one-on-one with D.P. here on 93-7, the ticket. Yes, you've made it to the weekend. You're almost checked out at work, and we're going to help you along with that here with the one-on-one. Hopefully keep you entertained here for the next hour.

Adam Caraker will be back in studio here after this hour. Our DP is out covering the softball, Nebraska softball team out there at the Big Ten softball tournament. So we might hear from him a little bit later today as well as Nebraska gets ready to punch their ticket to the championship game. Hopefully, we'll see if they can get the win after doubling up Michigan yesterday, four to two. So things are going well out there. Things are going pretty well in here as well. I'm Jake Bachman, along with the Ironman, Austin Ormond today. Austin, we're getting plenty of Austin today, which you'd have it no other way, right?

I mean, if we could, we'll just leave the lights on for you at night. You'd be here. Of the things that I enjoy most about this job, this is number one, talking with a whole bunch of people, right? Rudy, Bach, Jay, Harrison, me and Wyman, saying, AD up and down the list of people that I'm blessed, literally lucky to share the airwaves with, you know, you got to take care of business, handle stuff behind the scenes, got to show prep and got to make sure the station keeps running in some ways and all that. But, you know, there are worse ways to spend seven hours of my day than on the air. Yeah, that's right. So we'll hear plenty of

from Austin throughout the day. Thank you again for jumping in with me here on one-on-one. Plenty to talk about just all across the sports world and in Husker, the Husker sports world as well. Just a lot of news yesterday coming in about scheduling and both basketball and volleyball, which we can get to. Certainly a lot going on with Husker football recruiting. I want to start off with as well. But the Iowa Hawkeyes are in town. And whenever the Iowa Hawkeyes are in town,

there's a little bit of a different feel to us here in Nebraska and in Lincoln. Of course, I'm talking about on the baseball time. Nebraska will play Iowa in their final home series. And that begins tonight at 6 o'clock. So that should be pretty exciting tomorrow. Officially senior day, I'll be a two, a clock tip, or I always say tip or anything, first pitch,

and then 2 p.m. as well on Sunday. How are you feeling about the Iowa series and Iowa being in town, Austin? Yeah, Iowa was an interesting opponent. In some ways, their record looks better than I think they actually are. And some other ways they think, okay, there are some legitimate areas that Iowa can give Nebraska some fits there. I think that the biggest thing, though, is this is a series about Nebraska. you know, can Nebraska prove that it left the bad weekend in Columbus behind? You know what happens in Columbus stays in Columbus.

That's what Nebraska is going to have to prove. What better way to do it than to have Iowa come to town, an Iowa team that hasn't been what it's been over the last few years, but dangerous enough to give Nebraska some fits. Find a way, take a pitch at a time, scratch, claw out as many wins as you possibly can this weekend, and send the seniors off with their final home series on a positive note. and get yourself back in the conversation with some serious steam that you think you want to be in. Yeah, it should be interesting. Iowa, like you said, typically a pretty good program as far as Big Ten standards go.

And eight and two in their last ten. So they must be feeling something right here. So hopefully the Oscars can knock the Hawkeyes off their perch and like you said, get back in the wind column. That will certainly be fun. And again, if you haven't made it out to Haymarket Park to watch the Huskers, this will be your last chance, unless they host the regional, which, of course, is less likely. Now it's still a possibility after the sweep to Ohio State. But who would actually get to watch Nebraska host a regional block?

I mean, come on. That's a real question. Yeah, yeah. Let's get back into that as well. No, we'll pass on that, actually. Because there's plenty of talk about in the football recruiting world. I know all our shows, we're kind of talking about Ohio State going after Trey Taylor yesterday, which is certainly interesting.

then throughout the day he got reports from Greg Smith arrivals that Tory Pittman is being evaluated and in and pursued by Miami in LSU. Most notably Miami who was in Omaha there yesterday for an in-home visit, looking to try to get Pittman on his official visit or unofficial visit here later this spring. I guess they did. They hosted him on an unofficial visit earlier this spring. LSU has also been in contact. So that's kind of the negative side of it.

On the positive side, running back commit, Amir Brown, who's got all sorts of offers, said he's locked in on Nebraska and is shutting down his recruitment. I don't know if that's in response, maybe to make everybody to feel better.

Obviously, he already had to, you know, be committed and feel like that was going to be his way either. But among some concerns for the class of 2027, Mir Brown shutting down his,

his recruitment and looks like like he's going to be locked in, which is good news, again, along with, you know, Trey Taylor's still going to make the move to to Nebraska. I think we all feel kind of good there, but it is, it is certainly interesting. The class of 2027, a lot of stuff's kind of shifting in here. And then the other kind of later news I think is very interesting, too, is Nebraska's seems to be in pretty good position for an elite offensive lineman. We'll see if it kind of comes to being.

but the number 13 overall prospect in the class of 2027, a five-star offensive lineman as kind of a connection with Jeep Wade there. We'll visit Nebraska for the fifth time over the weekend in Albert Simeon from Sam Houston and Lake Charles, Louisiana. That's good news. And I don't think he's got any other official visits lined up as at this point. Now, again, he's highly regarded. So that will definitely change.

But Nebraska seems to be in early in on him. We'll kind of break these down, you know, case by case, I suppose. But I want to start with Albert Simeon because there have been a few times over the years. Nebraska's been close but no cigar on elite offensive linemen. And, of course, they've landed some guys that you like and have been highly recruited. But, I mean, again, this is five-star offensive linemen territory. Austin, you know, kind of put in the cart in front of the horse. But what would that mean for Nebraska if they could land it?

would mean that the Jeep Wade investment paid off for the moment. You see what Nebraska was able to do in the transfer portal with Jeep Wade in the fold, get guys from, you know, some kind of big time, big name programs to slot into the starting lineup. And good. Okay, step in the right direction. But we haven't seen Jeep Wade coach a regular season game in Nebraska. Of course, he was there for the bowl game, starting to install some of his stuff, but not with with this entire lineup. landing a five-star offensive lineman, I think, to your point, Bach would be a good step in the right direction. You think of the Brandon Baker's in the world, the Isaiah Worlds of the world, no pun intended there, that end up not picking Nebraska, whether it's out of high school or out of the transfer portal. But Nebraska landed Turner Corcoran, where that came?

Nebraska landed Grant Bricks. Where's he been? And maybe that one's unfair because he's been on campus for two years and, okay, two years of development. but is Grant Bricks's name legitimately in the conversation to be a starter this year? No. Nebraska recruited over him. Nebraska went to the transfer portal over, you know, a high pedigree guy like Grant Bricks, right, Gibson Pyle in that mix as well, pretty well regarded guy.

Nebraska hasn't, you know, locked up or locked down or been able to keep a bunch of these, you know, five-star especially tackles. But Nebraska hasn't made it work with even the four-star guys necessarily. And so the hope is that, yes, Jeep Wade gets you. in the door and landing more commitments from high-profile guys like an Albert Semyon. But then once you get him to campus, Nebraska, you would like to think had good enough talent on the offensive line, had enough to work with that it's been a, you know, for the better part of the last decade, slightly underachieving group, or a fine group

but not a malling group. Or maybe Nebraska's taking guys that the industry likes or will assign stars to that just don't project to the college game. And maybe that's because the biggest and the baddest and the best are the five stars and everyone else you're fighting to get the winning lottery ticket but i don't believe that necessarily so yeah land him great get some good good clay to mold in the door and then go mold it and then keep him around and then have him actually you know steamroll some defensive line that yeah yeah it should be excited i always go back to andris pete uh nebraska was in i ended up choosing

um stanford he was a high end uh kid what was that back in oh i was probably early two like 2011 or something at this point. Yeah. Relative of Co-A Pete who Nebraska got on a visit back in the day. That's right, yeah. And Todd Pete. And Todd Pete, yeah, who was on campus for a while for the Oscars. But he ended up being a first round

pick. And so, you know, those type of things kind of stick with you and you think, well, maybe if you can get the five star this time, that could certainly change things moving forward on the offensive line. But you mentioned, I mean, Jeep Wade, I don't know, of all the moves this offseason,

and maybe it is the problem that you've had with the offensive line. But that seems to be the one that I'm most focused on and most excited about slash have, have like faith in. I was just reading something today kind of going through this article, I think, was that Georgia Tech's offensive line only give up nine sacks last year. We did that in one game. So, you know, obviously Haynes King, you know, now with Anthony Calandria, there could be some, some similar play styles there as far as at least being able to scramble

Hanksky more of a bigger quarterback and particularly like to rumble. So, I mean, he's better running quarterback. Don't get me wrong. But it is, it is interesting going into this year with all the changes. I think there's, you know, some questions there on the defensive side of the ball. Yes, you've brought some players along with you that know the system for Rob Orch over from San Diego State. but it's kind of especially where it finished last year.

I don't know. It's kind of just like, all right, let's see how this goes. On the offensive line side of things, you know, there's obviously different ways to read it. But Donovan Riello was the only one to be the holdover from the previous staff, right? And he was hired in the last year. It all seemed to be somewhat of attempt to get the Rialis into Lincoln in my mind. And so, you know, one way or the other, again, like you said,

at times fine, at other times, frustrating. But Deep Wade specifically, you know, working under Brink Key there at Georgia Tech, I mean, together have some impressive numbers and some impressive resume to put up there as far as the offensive line goes. And I mean, as much as we like to look at all these other positions and, you know, I saw another article that was specifically highlighting quarterback since Nebraska's joined the Big Tenor since Eric Crouch left Cam as well. whatever it was.

And so there's all these kind of different ways to look at it. But certainly the last time Nebraska was on top of college football and look at the teams on top of college football, they have some of the best lines in college football. Well, yeah, better line leads to better quarterbacking. You would think it would flow there. And I think that should be a reason that Nebraska fans can have some legitimate and deserved optimism, is that there is an offensive line full of guys who've played college football, not necessarily together, but have played it, played it at a high enough level that you can reasonably project

over to Nebraska and into the Big Ten with a guy that's done some really good work in the last few years over there at Georgia Tech. And the hope then is that, okay, this is an offensive line that you can plug and play that's going to give Anthony Calandria a time where he can use his scrambling ability but doesn't have to rely on it necessarily.

That you have young running backs that have, you know, hovered their hands over the fire, but not gone full in with McKinnellson and Isaiah Mosy particularly. And then I'm sorry, I'm not sure I'm there on Jamal Rule yet. I'm in wait and C mode with him. He strikes me as the classic,

oh, this guy had a really good spring candidate that we don't hear from again for a while. We'll see if I'm right, see if I'm wrong. But I do think that there's a real opportunity for this Nebraska offensive line to establish itself as not just a top half of the big 10, top third,

maybe, you know, even top 10-ish percent and top top three, maybe in the entire conference, which would go a very long way, I think for Nebraska in terms of the cascading effects down the rest of the roster, but we haven't seen them play together. We haven't seen what a full off season if you played looks like for for this group. We don't know if Elijah Pritchett is the cornerstone.

Seems like he turned a corner last year. You know, is Justin Evans the guy that you want at the center of a big ten offensive line? He's been fine. Does he help other guys play up because he's been around Nebraska before because he knows college football? Or is he a guy that the rest of the offensive line and the transfers have to cover for? It's either the guy that gets picked on. I don't know. There's as many questions with that group as there are any group on the team,

but at least you have some level of pedigree and you see Nebraska invest in it. Yeah, yeah. And again, I don't know if you're going to get the, you know, they did make a big investment to your point, you know, going out there and getting Tree Babelata and Britain Black and Paul Mubanga and you expect to just plug and play and start those guys. But, you know, what I hope is that Nebraska has, you know,

what you see often in this in this region and in these teams that you know when iowa minnesota kansas state are doing well is that they're pretty good technique wise they're not going to all together overwhelm you generally but they and it kind of goes year and as we've seen in Iowa right goes year over year where you can develop these guys from maybe not stalwart's coming out of high school but they're they're you know absolute technicians by the time they get out of there or they make the most of what they have with them and i hope that jeep Wade can be that guy. Can the owl happen in one year?

I mean, when you say top three in the big 10, I'm excited, but I don't know if I've got that, that type of excitement or hope toward them. Just because I like you, like you're saying for some other parts of the team, and it's true on all the time right of team is you got to see it, come to play. Specifically with Mubangin,

Bobolade, you know, I like those guys. I like their frames. I like, you know, the potential there. But they were more kind of spot starters.

And Bobelade is big on potential. Mitchell Mavanga couldn't, didn't hold down a spot at LSU, swung back and forth between guard and tackle. You know, like versatility, but it's not like Nebraska got a no doubt starter. The other thing, Bok, that I think we can loop into this from 1508, the only thing the football team has going for them is hope that they pull something out like the basketball team, preseason pick to be towards the bottom, middle of the Big Ten, but had an amazing year.

Yeah, what led to that for basketball, identity, knowing what you wanted to accomplish getting pieces that fit. Not impossible for Nebraska football. But it's another change up front. It's probably another philosophical change on offense in terms of how they want to go about moving the ball down the field and trying to put it into the end zone. I'm still not convinced of the head coach and the offensive coordinator,

see eye to eye, you know, and on a bunch of stuff on a philosophical level like that. Or at least if they do, it hasn't borne out in terms of positive, consistent results. So, yeah, it's not bad that Nebraska went out and did it and got all these guys. They all have questions to answer. That's probably why they were available in the transfer portal. at Nebraska's price point, to be fair. But if it's going to come together, it's because for the first time and too long,

it fits and it works consistently. Does it make you feel any better or any worse that the defense is the one with a little bit more questions here? And I only say that because at least you look at Matt Rule's tenure so far, and there's questions of both sides of the ball. Don't get me wrong. But I think there's more on defense at this point, is that the defense has been good under Matt Rule.

Now you're going on a third defensive coordinator, in three years. And yeah, but is that, is that sustainable with Matt Rule? And of course, a big part of this discussion, of course, is going to be where they left off,

which was, yeah, it did not look like a top 30 defense by the end of the season, even if it finished that way in a lot of the rankings. But, you know,

I think the opposite side of the ball sometimes gets a little bit of a pass. And obviously year one, we all know it was kind of a disaster. Kind of. Yeah. If you go back through the numbers, though,

I'm not sure this offense, I'm almost sure that they don't average over Matt Rule's tenure, 25 points a game, right? I mean, for the most part, outside of a few different blips there with Holgerson, maybe playing some lesser teams, it's pretty close to 20 points per game. And so, you know, that offense, and then the other part that you brought up is identity. Like, what is the identity? And sometimes it could just be kind of finding out what is what is going to work at the beginning. beginning of the year, of course, last year. And again, don't want to go year by year because the

identity was turnovers, I think the first year, trying to find a quarterback, all that sort of stuff. But even last year, you know, I was just surprised that they didn't have as much of a plan B. like it seemed like they came into the year, like, all right, in the first couple games it worked, of like, we're going to sit back and fling the ball around.

And they did that without almost acknowledging that they've had trouble at 10. tackle an offensive tackle over the year. Like they haven't figured that out. And then not that it was just the tackles fault. Of course, there's all sorts of all sorts of situations. But I mean, that that plan A, if you will, for going into the season had to change, obviously in shift, especially after the Royal injury to relying a lot more on Emmett Johnson

throughout the season. Now to be fair, too. I mean, they relied on him early. I mean, they gave him what 30-something carries. Yeah, Cincinnati to begin with. But, you know, this year, I hope they just have. have a little bit more of a plan B because, you know, and it's, it is a tough thing that you have to find because like you say, you got to get those plays that you know and that you can do.

And you got so many moving parts and new parts on this offense. So their focus in this year might be to find that identity that you're saying, right, more than anything is get, you know, figure out what you're good at and do that there. But at the same time, there's going to be times when you're challenged against better teams where what you're good at is specifically what they work to shut down and then they might do it. And so you've got to have, you know, another pitch. I think plan A is the offensive line clicks. And Nebraska can run for five plus yards per carry.

I think plan B is Calandra's legs, Superman mode. And far too often that's been or had to become plan A for Nebraska and its mobile quarterbacks in in recent years, right? You think about Adrian Martinez and the Superman plays that he had had to make. Did not look the same, was not utilized the same as Taylor Martinez's legs or Tommy Armstrong's legs. That's a run game with some quarterback run involved. Not, oh, these guys have to go Superman just for Nebraska to get the ball past the line

of scriments, which is where it really got. And rudimentary math gave me 23.4 points per game for Nebraska in the three years under Matt rule. So you were spot on there on that. I'm going to circle back to what you said about the defense because, yes, probably more big picture questions about the defense third coordinator in three years.

I still got plenty on the offense, but that's another topic for another day. I don't know how much carryover we can be confident in. Maybe there's more defensive identity in Nebraska with the players on the team than I want to believe. You know, Nebraska brought back some guys that played last year, certainly. I would feel more confident about the defensive

carryover for Nebraska for its third coordinator in three years. If A, Rob Orich had been on staff and got promoted, or B, if Matt Ruhle was in his, you know, Andy Reed, Sean McVeigh kind of tenure. Matt Ruhle prides himself on being a defensive-minded guy or a line guy, but is it Matt rule who's guiding the philosophy of what he wants on the offensive and defensive lines? Does it Matt Ruhle, who has the guiding principles for what he wants on defense? Is Matt Rule the primary defensive play caller? No.

If this was a Matt Rule defense that was similar to an Andy Reid offense where you know that, oh, his fingerprints are all over it. He's the final play caller. Oh, he hires a coordinator just because that's the traditional thing to do. That would be one thing. And okay, yeah, maybe there is some DNA there in Nebraska. Maybe Matt Ruhl does know what he wants and can get it out of this unit because he has his finger on the pulse because he knows his personnel

because he's a good game caller and can get his guys in the right spot at the right time. Matt Rule obviously signs off on everything, but Rob Orich is the one coordinating the defense. It's a Rob Orich defense. We don't know what a Matt Rural defense looks like because you go from the Tony White 335 to the John Butler, you know, 335, there's a 425, there's an amoeba, the house of these NFL concepts in it,

to a pretty vanilla be in your spot, do your job, Rob Orich defense, at least on the outside looking in. if Matt Ruhle knew what he wanted on defense was calling it and coordinating it with a guy titled coordinator just to oversee it at practice, that would be one thing. But this is three new coordinators with three distinct styles. And just like in baseball, every time you open the door and someone new runs in, you run the risk that it's not going to work. I'm not saying that's going to be the case with Rob Horich.

I think I like where Nebraska is headed with it. But it doesn't change the fact that there is that risk associated with making a third move, you know, for a third new voice leading the defense as opposed to slotting someone in underneath Matt Ruhle who's leading the defense. Well, I think that that is very, you know, altogether very interesting because I'm somewhere in the middle, too, of like, how much do, how much do I just trust that Matt Rul's defenses are going to be solid because they have been, right? Or, you know, how much of it is going to get it to depend on origin. I think, you know, just thoughts going through my mind. I think

that's part of what we miss too on our on a recalculation of bo pelini um which again anybody can have their different feelings about it um we kind of rewrite history on why he was fired and all this sort of stuff but part of it was just that is that you know john papuchess was was the play caller or was the defensive coordinator but we knew that bo pelini had more of a of a specialty in the defensive side of the ball than even matt rule does and that was specific specifically frustrating and scary about kind of turning the corner was not only were they getting blown out. Obviously, they were getting bombarded on defense at times. And that was his strength, right? So once you kind of, and that I always kind of find that fascinating to go back that far as one thing.

But then, you know, even the Scott Frost fifth year decision was like, all right, let's make him a CEO type of head coach. And it's like, okay, not the personality type for that. A, B, he's here. Well, A, to me. That's B. A would be he's here because of his offense. That's why he's risen to where he has and why you believe that this was going to work to begin with. So, you know, it is very interesting to see where the head coaches in what side of the ball, they kind of have that specialty in. Matt Rule almost, and some coaches have this where he's worked on both sides of the ball, probably a defensive lean, but it's not so heavy that you're going to directly associate, okay, not only is the program struggling. It's your side of the ball they're struggling on and therefore what,

you know, what, you know, this is, this is falling more on you. Well, yeah, you don't have the ski. You don't know what a Nebraska defense looks like under Matt Rule if he is the defensive guy. It's not like he's saying, oh, yep, we run a 4-3. We're known for, you know, a ranging middle linebacker. We're known for exotic blitzers or we're known for just keeping everything in front of us and being sure tacklers. I don't know if Matt Rule knows what a Matt Rule defense looks like at Nebraska. You know, with the outcomes that you want, are you want takeaways? You want, you know, less than 125 rushing yards per game. You want, you know, sub 60% completion percentage by your opponents. But those are the results. It's not the process about how you get there.

And we still don't know what Matt Rule wants to hang his hat on defensively. No way he wants to go. Don't know how he wants to get there because it's been three different answers in the last three years. Well, and I think that's kind of going back to identity. I think that's the biggest thing. And why there's so many questions around the program is partially, you know, everybody, you don't have to be an expert on Matt Rule and watch all those games at Carolina. sort of stuff. If I'm just asking you as Husker fans, okay, three years in, what can you count on from a mat rule team? I don't know even where to start. Like, you know, there's certain coaches, you know, well, the wide receivers at least will be really good. Or like you said, a linebacker unit's

going to be. It's got to be the tight end somehow for Nebraska, but they haven't been a feature focal point. And it's not like they've even been to strength relative to the program next door. No, no. So, I mean, it is, again, all types of questions. We'll continue talking next about Nebraska recruiting and going into the next season, as well as this, because I got into, I want to say an argument, but a disagreement, of course, with Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless reuniting. It is good to have your disagreements here on radio. They were united today if you didn't see that. But with DP about the starting quarterback position, I want to get your thoughts on that, Austin. And your thoughts on the text line, 402, 464-5-6-85, what does your percentage of belief

out of 100 that Anthony Calandra will be the starting quarterback for Nebraska because I'm fairly I'm fairly convinced and I want to see if everybody else is in the same place I am. We'll talk about that coming up next year on one-on-one with D.P. on 93-7 the ticket. Download our app by searching 93.7 the ticket in your app store. You're listening to one-on-one with DP on 937 the ticket and the ticket FM.com.