1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Nothing Wrong that a Win Wont Fix: October 20th, 11:00am

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

Nothing Wrong that a Win Wont FixAdvertising 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. Here is your host, Derek Pearson, brought to by Canopy Street Market. In your face. In your face! On a Monday, 1102, Lincoln, Kyle. when to expect you today.

Gorgeous. Gorgeous. You're absolutely gorgeous today. It's good to be back. 424-6-4-5-6-85 is the Saurorheimate-line. You want to be a part of what we're doing, and you can. You are invited. Do so. Appreciate you. Hang it out with us. You can follow on all the live video streams, Facebook, YouTube X,

Allo Channel 961, and the ticket app. Amazon Prime if you're fancy. And some of you are. We know this. I'm going to cue up Jake Bach of him because I know he needs to scramble. We're going to make him scramble like Ridge Lovett at a national championship, championship wrestling level. And to give him away, he'll figure out a way to come out on top. If you would, please, Bach, pay the bills, pay the bills.

Yeah, today's show is sponsored by Hamilton Telecommunications, bringing you the latest quality technology and communication service since 1901, whether it's residential or business. Hamilton has the answer. Visit Hamilton tell.com for more info today. Thank you, kind, sir. Greatly appreciated. We thank the folks from Hamilton for all that they do and help us do. It's simple for me.

It's good to be back. I had to, I'm a little jet lag. Vancouver to link to Nebraska is not an easy transition. But Vancouver's gorgeous, gorgeous. Beautiful town, beautiful people, great event, great weekend. Shout out. I made a post yesterday and just letting Nebraska know to be proud of its sons. Because, of course, we have Anthony Lionheart Smith, Nebraska kid.

who is one of the major voices of UFC worldwide. Worldwide. And I got to walk the building with Anthony and to see the fan reaction and the love shared for him. And then Nebraska's own, Miller Nort's own, Drew Dober, who threw some friction through a tough night, a tough sequence in his career, found a way. He found a way.

Nebraska gritty, Nebraska tough, Nebraska strong. He showed all those things Saturday night to get up, basically a come from behind win. He had to throw, he had to throw a Hail Mary. Like they took a point away from him for a kick. And there's no other way for him to win, but to get a finish. So what did he do? you know,

Brasket up and got the finish. We'll have him on as well. Got to spend time with nephew, Kyle, the monster Nelson, who also had an interesting night in Vancouver. He had a premature stoppage, Jake. A premature stoppage. And all the men cringed.

He got into some ground pound in the first period and the official jumped in to stop it and everybody celebrated and they thought it was over and then the official said no I made a mistake

I thought I heard the bell there were still 43 seconds left and so they continued the fight and Kyle manned up and got it done and big win for the family he's got a newborn on the way

got a baby daughter on the way So he's got lots of going on. So through all of that, I had to rush from the UFC way in Friday afternoon to get back to the hotel in time to watch the Huskers. And I'll say this. While disappointed, I wasn't surprised. We talked last week, and I said that the eight and a half point spread was just bonkers. there's nothing in the metrics. There's nothing analytically that if you look at those two teams

and the style of play and the matchups, to say that's an eight and a half point Nebraska spread sort of game. And I, it just, I felt a little weird about it. And Bach, I mean, we had the discussion. I was like, man, this is a lot. This is a lot. And the Minnesota team plays a certain style and styles make fights. And this was a fight.

This was the football game. This was a fight. This was, we often talk about in the coaching circles that I've been in. We talk about commitment to execution, commitment to execution, that a player or a group of players will to commit. to executing a play, evolves over the course of the game. And at some point, often,

one team commits to that execution at a higher level than the other. And whether that be through adjustments, change of mentality, change of energy, change of vibe, or simply choosing to be more physical, more aware,

that's what happened. and Bach, you know, you could tell me that you were fighting for your, if I put your wallet behind you in a room and open the door and put the wallet on the floor behind you, your commitment to executing and keeping J. Foreman away or keeping Adam Carriker away would start out at a high level, would start out at a high level. But the longer Adam Carrecker pushed against you, the lower that commitment becomes. Why?

Because quite simply, the force and the engagement requires it. There's a moment you realize that either I'm tough enough to withstand the lean on or not. And it looked like Minnesota committed to the execution. their commitment to the execution. Who we? They leaned on Nebraska. They leaned on them and they leaned on them heavy. I say that to say this.

A wonderful sports adage is this. There's nothing wrong that a win won't cure. There's nothing wrong with this team that a win won't cure. Don't tell Billy Napier that. Well, no, no, no, no, no. If Billy had paid attention, Billy would have a job today. They did win. No, no.

But winning cures, he, he didn't even have a 500 record. What was he 23, 22 and 23? Maybe. 23 and 22. Yeah, you look it up. Something very, something very 500-ish. Yeah, it's right below, I believe, yes. Right.

winning here is a lot because it allows you to explain why people should believe that winning is the way. Winning is your way that you have answers to questions. College football, college athletics, and specifically Big Ten football is about your ability to handle friction. Because you're always going to face fiction in the Big Ten. It could be the weather, it could be side massive. of linemen on both sides of the ball. It could be exceptional speed players at the skilled position. It could be big arm quarterback. It could be toughness quarterbacks who, you know, Tommy Fraser their way into specific levels of success. But all of those things, can you handle the friction?

And if you handle the friction, you win games. If you don't handle the friction, you don't win games. At Maryland, they handled the friction. It wasn't pretty, but they figured out a way throughout, through all the friction and all the mistakes. Now, when it's repetitive mistakes, people don't buy in. It's you still haven't fixed that. Right. Bach, if you ordered dinner from your favorite place, right? And they convince you that they can make the thing that you enjoy the most the right way, except for one Friday they put onions in and you didn't want onions, right? And you went, I still love you, but these onions, man, handle this. And then the next time they handled the onions, but then you come back two Fridays later,

Bach, there's more onions. You start to buy or you, there's some doubt rolling in that maybe you're not capable of getting this right anymore. Nebraska found out some things about itself Friday night. But that's what Big Ten football is. It's never the same week to week. Stop me if you've heard this before. Nebraska will go into this week's Big Ten game at a crossroads against the team with the same record it has

and an opportunity to change the direction, path, elevation, and location of their season. and the same can be said for their opponent. Stop me if you've heard that before. Most weeks in the Big Ten, this is what happens in the Big Ten. Ask Penn State. Ask Wisconsin. If you're in the middle third of the Big Ten,

guess what? Each week is a crossroads game. That's why you're in the middle of the pack. It's a crossroads for Ohio State in Indiana. What? Oregon? No, they're on the high road. They're right.

Matter of fact, they got a freeway. They got a fast car in their own lane. That middle pack of folks, their season goes from week to week, week to week to week to week to week. And the question becomes, did you learn from last week's lessons? So then, what a, Bach, I'll ask you, what's the biggest, what's the biggest thing you learned Friday night?

I don't know. Unfortunately, it's not new. I think the past protection problem is not getting better. I think there was a week when we thought, okay, they only gave up one sack the previous week. It hasn't looked pretty this season, but maybe they're taking steps in the right direction. They went back to where they were. And then I don't think it's been a big problem all year, but the mistackling on the other side

of the ball really as and we've seen it before against michigan there's a big long drive minnesota had these big long drives um where you had opportunities to get them off the field same thing happening against michigan so there are things that are reappearing um that have been problematic from the beginning of the year those those reappearing flaws those reappearing flaws that is if you really want to talk you talk about the reappearing successes the consistent successes, but you also had to talk about the reappearing flaws. And you had to talk about those reappearing flaws because you just lost the game where it was obvious.

It was obvious. You can hide them in a win. You can't hide them in a loss. They are the loss. The flaws are the loss. You can hide them in the win, the consistent good. But my goodness gracious. Now, you can check all the boxes and

say, well, you lose, you know, Rocco Spindler, you lose Elijah Pris. You played without Malcolm Hartzog again. But then people start to fall and the balances. But here's the thing, the people that you put in the game, the people that you practice with, all the stuff that Nebraska talks about, the coaching staff talks about, with getting player reps, right, active reps. We give good reps. We give high volume, highly effective reps at practice.

We do that. That is the thing that we do well. Why do you need to do that well? So that when you have to replace Pritchett and Spindler, you have people that are prepared for the moment. But PJ Flut in his postgame conference talked about, we went back to basics. It's blocking, tackling for us.

They went back to the basics. And if there's flaws in the basic, if there's flaws in the foundation, it shows up. I don't care what kind of house you put on the foundation. if it's cracked. Look, you can dress it up and put all sorts of fancy furniture in it and, you know, do all the Christmas lights and all that stuff.

But if the foundation sucks, eventually it's going to crash. So you have to fix at the foundation. You have to get back to basics, running, blocking, tackling. And you probably should put blocking first and then running. But we have to identify if pass protection is issue one. I'm not sure it is. I'm not sure it is. It's certainly in the top three,

but the fact that you have top three is a problem. You can tell the state of a program and a team by the number of questions you have about it. So we can get into all the questions we have about this Nebraska football team. But then it becomes this. Can it be fixed with a win against Northwestern? Because it means that you got back right to the basics.

You have to tackle well against Northwestern. You have to block well against Northwestern. They're going to be in a right. place, run fits are going to be solid, right? They're not going to throw it around a lot, and the throws that they make are low risk, except they've got a 10-and-7 quarterback with 10 touchdowns, seven interceptions, who's a bit of a gunslinger because sometimes he has to. He doesn't have the skill players that Nebraska has.

But he does have two elite runners that they give the ball to. They've rushed the ball 50 more times than Nebraska has this season. So what's that feel like to you? They're going to come in here in Palmyra. And then lure Nebraska into a broken tackle or a missed assignment in the secondary to get a play. But running, blocking, tackling, and then making your kicks should be the basics in which this team works from. So then, Bach, I ask you this. In the past pro, what do you think the problem is?

Is it scheme? Is it technique? What's it, is it bad eyes tell lies, right? Is it footwork? What do you think it is? I mean, I think it's a combination. A lot of people, obviously, you want to, you want to kind of break down how much of this is on Dylan, right? And how much of it's on the offensive line, running backs chipping.

I've said it kind of, unfortunately, it's not as bad as it has been. But a lot of it, I think you also have to look at play calling here. Because you have to acknowledge an address, at least acknowledge your shortcoming. And I think in the future, if Nebraska, for the rest of the season, is just going to say, all right, let's sling it down the field. Let's see what we can get done here. You're not acknowledging what you're struggling with, or at least maybe you're hoping you're getting better, but at a certain point, maybe acknowledge that this team on this day

has your number in there. So, I mean, I was very disappointed in play calling. You scored six points. So you're pretty disappointed in everything. But, I mean, at this point, too, it's been a long time. and I've addressed it as a program issue, not necessarily a team issue. Nebraska as a program has only done Ben Hart and Corcoran for like six years. Well, Ben Hart's gone and Corcoran is still there,

but he's obviously a little bit beat up from his playing time. One way or the other, those have been solid tackles, not next level great tackles. And Nebraska has not been able to address that through two. coaching staffs now. And here we are again. So it's a, I think it is a variety of issues. I don't just point at the offensive line coach.

I don't just point it. Even the tackles. I don't just point it, Dylan. It's an overall team problem. But past protection altogether is a gigantic problem. Whatever way you want to, whatever way you want to, you know, who you would appoint the blame that month. Bach, do I ever ask you about synchronized swimming? Not often. This might be the person.

You know why? Why is that? Because I don't think it's your area of expertise. It's not putting you in a place where you can succeed. Play calling, schematics, all of those things. Understanding who your players are physically, understanding who they are emotionally, understanding who they are intellectual. That's culture.

That's the part of culture and play calling. That the psychology behind it is, I know what my guys can do. I know what they can do best. Now, if they're not doing it, I have to stop. asking you to do it. I have to stop asking you to do it. And I have to have another plan when that happens.

Oh, you know what? This is a, of our five linemen, there are two bad matchups. They're two bad matchups. And then you say, hey man, maybe double up.

Maybe I'll double up on the guys that would give me trouble. But if you double up and then a linebacker runs over your tailback in pass pro, Hey man, maybe that, maybe that's not it. Maybe that's not it. Maybe I need quicker developing plays, past plays. Maybe I need different route combinations because maybe they're on my route combinations.

Or maybe I need to get better releases from my receivers who get pressed at the line of scrimmage and takes 2.3 seconds before them to get vertical and get to the top of their routes. Right? Because that 2.3 is enough time for somebody at 1.7 to get Dillon. or at least to change his eyes. Easy throws. There are easy throws against, listen, if you bring a linebacker against me, hey, Bach, you know where that linebacker was?

That's where I'm going to attack. There are ways, if you're willing to adjust and then play call to the advantage. But if they're bringing linebackers, hey, man, throw the pressure. That's not a new football thing. You can't be defensively in two places. You have 11 defenders, bro.

Guess what it is? Now, the problem also as well is that along with whatever Dylan sees, whatever they called, right? So then their keys and whatever Dylan sees, bad eyes tell lies. And if you don't see a win, you have to know immediately, okay, I've got 1.6 seconds to get this ball out of my hand. Forget about the high percentage rate, you know, completion. Sometimes I need three or four throwaways to keep, to keep my safety. and to keep myself safe and to keep them those stats off the board. Right? There are a bunch of things wrong. But I also think that if you drew it up, if you drew it up,

that the perfect team from the Big Ten to come into Memorial Stadium on a Saturday at 11 o'clock to fix the basic things at the highest. level, a game that is not going to be, it'll be a highly intelligent game, but it will not be, you aren't going to face the fastest opponent, you aren't going to face the biggest opponent, you're going to face, and you're not facing an unfamiliar opponent. You're fixing, you're facing a team that, quite frankly, is in the same place you are. Because if Northwestern comes in here, wins, they're six and two bowl eligible. and they celebrate on your field.

But Bach, what have we said since day one? Nebraska has to stop beating Nebraska. That wasn't a Michigan issue. That was toughness, awareness, having a scheme in play, having answers to the friction, because the friction's coming. It's Big Ten football. The friction is always coming.

Point of attack football always happens to the Big Ten. making solid decisions with the ball from the pocket. Always Big Ten football. Getting runners to the ground in open field. Always Big Ten football. Minnesota just played it better than Nebraska did. And that's not pro-Mnesota. That's, hey, Nebraska, get your play call together.

Get your schematics together. Get your technique together. Get your mindset together. Those are all Nebraska things. The film study? Hey, man. I made the mistake getting in that game in that film study. Oh, boy.

Oh, boy. This had so little to do with P.J. Fleck in Minnesota. This was attitude, ego, intent, and commitment to execution by Nebraska for Nebraska. If in the passing game, if you drop 25 times and they get to your guy 10, stop dropping back. Stop holding the ball. Run the dang ball. In football, they're ways to fix simple problem.

Get back to the basics. Go back to square one. And it's a shame that you have to go back to week one in week eight. Go back to square one in week eight. But you have to because we know Northwestern is going to be in the right place at the right time. We know they're going to understand their assignments. We know they're going to understand their assignments. We know they're going to be in the right place and they're going to effort and they'll be highly skilled.

They showed that to Penn State. We saw that. And if they're not afraid of Penn State, they're not afraid of Nebraska. So then it's about Nebraska. And in that locker room, my hope is, my hope is this, that they took it personal. Every single lineman took it personal. To his gut, take it personal. to the receivers that couldn't get open in routes

and didn't get the targets that they take it personal. To Dylan, take it personal, bro. That's a personal attack on Dylan Raola. Take it personal. Emmett, you didn't give me any ball 25 times. Take it personal. Demand the dang ball. Defensive linemen got pushed around.

Molly Wap dragged around. No, no. Take it personal. Take it personal. Special teams, you get single opportunity. to make place, you didn't. Take it personal. This is a take it personal weekend. I don't care who the opponent is. It's about Nebraska. Can you fix the things that you did? The things control the controllables, one of the great

coaching coach speaks ever. Control the controllables. Hey man. Block it and tackling. That's grown man work. Is this team grown? We're going to find out on Saturday against Northwestern. 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 in the ticket FM.com.