1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Nebraska vs. Iowa cont, December 1, 2025, 11:30 am

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

More reaction to the end of the regular season as Nebraska Football turns their attention toward bowl season. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In the building, Jake Bockovin's in the building, DP one-on-one. Of course, the news, in case you missed it, that George Butler has been relieved of his duties as defensive coordinator for the Hustard. And we were asking the question, and really, and just, and there's no, there's no venom to it, there's no poison to it. We're talking facts and, and then asking you how you feel. Because you two are, I think, emblematic of what Husker Nation is all about, right?

That you guys love this program. You love this program. The people in the text on who are willing to listen. If you're willing to text in and go through this. And it has to be frustrating. My frustration is multifaceted in the sense that watching, being around and talking to top level, powerful coaches, head coaches, assistant coaches, NFL head coach, as assistant coaches,

they will ask questions, they ask me questions about Nebraska football. And I explain to them that I do not have the answer. I do not have the answer because it doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't make sense to me that this is a seven and five team. It doesn't make sense to me that until last year you hadn't been in a bowl and forever. It doesn't make sense to me that you're playing middle of the big 10-pack football. It doesn't make sense.

there are a bunch of things in the athletic department that don't make sense to me. So I'd lean on you guys to come, give me some explanation for what's going on. It doesn't make sense to us either. We, I mean, the backing of the fan base has never gone away. I mean, you try to

avoid apathy as much as possible, and we talk about NIL has been strong for the Huskers, and I mean, everything is in place for Nebraska to win. And I, people keep telling me, you can't keep bringing up Indiana. I said, yes, I can. Yes, you can.

And I'm going to forever. Yes, you can. Because their coach is 23 and 2 as the head coach of Indiana, who is the losing his program in the history of college football. Terrible. And he inherited a 3 and 19. And the first year, he went 11 and 2. With his two losses,

it's being to the teams that played in the national championship. And that's all he's lost. That's it. He won at Oregon this year. And he's putting up 50 burgers on people just for grins and getting it. I mean, they ran the ball against Illinois. It was, it was 307 yards to two rushing. Like they just, they love kicking the crap out of you because they can.

And it's happened like this. They brought in a culture from James Madison and they brought in the coordinators. What's the culture? Brock and I were talking about this other day, but what's the culture? Well, there's got to be physicality. I mean, if you watch Indiana, they are physical. They are, they are road graders on the offensive line and their defensive line is a bunch of dudes also. And if you watch, if you see where they're from,

It's James Madison. It's small schools. They're not getting transfers from SEC schools or Big 12 schools. It's all small schools. Can I tell you where they got their people? Go for it. The Washington, D.C. Catholic school programs. The DeMathas, the Archbishop Carols, the St. John's, the Paul the Six, the John Paul, the Great.

They went through, those are the folks who were good enough to play at Virginia, Virginia Tech, North Carolina. But Signetti got them to Harrisonburg to fix a thing that the players knew they need to work on. These were character people. To tell you, to explain to you that the discipline required for you to get into and excel at those programs in the DMV, you have to be dudes, you have to be willing to be coachable, you have to have heart, you have to integrity, you have to work within honor codes. And then you go to James Madison, where you're ice. isolated, and you can focus on the thing you were supposed to be good at.

Tell me that Nebraska can't do that within 250 miles. They sure can. They should be able to. Now, here's the thing, is that another example, this is a different, you know, this is not the physical tough area, but I look at a line that just scares the crap out of me, that Jet Tamala sits in Miller South in Omaha. He's going to Alabama. He was an Iowa State commit.

You never talk to the kid. You never talk to him because you had, you know, Trey Taylor, I like trade. I think he could be very, very good. But, you know, with Dayton decubating, I mean, Jet Tamala is somebody that maybe you should have talked to, Bach at some point, because he's getting a lot of offers. He's going to Alabama.

There's been so many mistakes about, like, leaving, going away from this area that is supposed to embrace physicality and toughness. Like, I look at Iowa's roster. They get guys from over the place, but a lot of guys from the Midwest, Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa. Tough physical dudes. They like kicking your butt.

They like being the tougher team. I need guys that want to prove something here. I don't want my guys coming from the Dakotas. They're tough people. If they can play football. If they can play football. If they can play football, like Bach, if you tell me that Omaha creates talent, right?

If Iowa thinks you have talent, If Michigan thinks you have talent, if UCLA think you have talent, why would you allow somebody to come into your backyard and steal all your fruit? Bach, what, I mean, is there enough talent in Omaha and surrounding areas to help Nebraska? There is. It was long, you know, the 500-mile radius was long the kind of the program's Bible, if you will. Now, Matt Ruhl and staff has kind of gone away from it. But no matter where you get your kids, again, to the point, you've got to be able to develop them.

And we just haven't seen enough of that at Nebraska in a long time. And so, you know, there is one thing about getting, you know, the top ranked recruits across the country, regardless, Nebraska's, and you got to be careful with these recruiting rankings. I know how much you hate them DP, but regardless, Nebraska is usually, you know, 25th ranked recruiting class regardless. But, and that's been the case forever. all right well at some point you got to you got to develop and if you're constantly moving coaches around and you're constantly i mean guys this is going to be going into year four with the third defensive coordinator you know jake what's your favorite restaurant in lincoln well there's a lot to choose from give me give me what i'm panicking trying to give me i know the pressure there's a lot of my like tp Bach give me what's your favorite restaurant uh one your most loyal to I go, a Momo. How about Momo Pizzeria and restaurant? What's your go-to pizza?

All-meat. All-meet. All-meet. Okay. So what if you show up at Momo? And without announcement, they've told you, we don't sell the all-meat pizza anymore. I go, excuse me? Right. Because did I hear you properly?

They made a change, didn't consider you, and quite frankly, didn't have an answer for it. Nebraska, that's Nebraska football. That Nebraska football. That Nebraska football does not have an identity. It does not have a go-to thing. You can't say it's the run game, right? You can say it's Emmett Johnson, but you can't say it's the run game. You can say that it's Dylan Riola, but you can't say it's the passing game.

You can say that, hey, we sent two defensive tackles to the NFL draft, but you can't say it's front seven football. You can't say that, hey, we're a defensive specialist in the back, our back five is elite, except for they're not. So who are you? Bach, culture. What do you want the identity of Nebraska football to be? Because the next hire is vital.

It's now you're on the clock, right? It is a red flag. You are now on the clock because you are, you're going to go into your ball game. Whatever that ball game is, and we'll talk about that in the final segment. You're going to go to a ball game with a lot more questions. And I say this all the time.

You can tell the status of a program by the number of questions you have about it. And there are a lot of questions. Bach, what do you want the identity to be with the next hire? What's the statement? Again, I think you've got to go back to, I mean, at some point, somebody's got to bring somebody in, you know, with toughness first. A front seven, certainly, you know, you're always going to be looking for that. I think they're a little bit surprised when they hired a secondary coach and the secondary

is great and leaving a room kind of bear of a front seven there. So I'm still not agreeing with the whole thing, but it's just kind of. of interesting to see um where they go with it it you know and i'll go back to something and you know the jim learned tweet maybe be something go to somebody that's proven they can do it in the big 10 that's what i want i want i don't want here's another big 10 higher yeah the next the coordinator is a big 10 yeah there's no experiment maybe hey he's got this or that over here there go go find somebody that's big 10 proven so you don't leave any doubt at least on the table but but why would they come here what if they what if they promote

Phil Snow, they'd be D.C. They might. Oh, you guys are wild. Very well, might. You guys are wild. To be fair to Phil Snow, that's, he's been Matt Ruhl's defensive coordinator throughout his success up until the NFL. Isn't he on the staff now?

He is on staff. Yeah. Ask the question, why was he not the guy in the first place? If he's been in his DC before and he's on staff and Butler's the guy and they go to Phil Snow, you're saying, what the hell are we doing here? He just wants to retire. He wants to be able to leave him alone. I'm just,

Bach, I'm going to ask you to do one thing when we go to break. I need you to make a list of all the folks on YouTube who have been active and we see y'all, Mr. Blitzkrieg always. We're paying attention.

Husker and Iowa, we see y'all. And that chat has been busy. The text line has been busy as well. The Texas says, do not put that Phil Snow energy out there. I'm just saying. We're not really trying to do that.

But hey, man. Yeah, and the text says this, hmm, no brainer. Bill Bush is right here. We'll miss him at the ticket. But he's always, he could do both. Hey, but that would make too much sense. That would make too much sense. And he would probably change the 3.35.

Yeah, that makes sense. We'll say, we're going to, listen, I'm going to ask you both a question. There's, there's bowl game conversations happening. Where, as fans, where do you want the Huskers to go? And I think it comes down to Vegas or Nashville. And that choice is probably already made, but it doesn't mean that I don't want your input. So Bach, Jake,

going to need you guys to lead the party. Where would you like this bowl game to take place?