1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - The players Nebraska is taking to B1G Media Days: July 25th, 10am

Episode Date: July 25, 2022

How important is Travis Vokolek to the success of the offense, Quinton Newsome will play a huge part of the success of the secondary, Garrett Nelson will do his thingAdvertising 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 Cople Chevrolet GMC Studios. Here is your host, Derek Pearson. Brought you by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul on 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Oh, it's football season. It's football season. There's no, like, I just accept it. Read that in.

It's football season. Beautiful. 4-0-2, 464, 5. 5685. Start of Hemp text on Honta Lincoln Hotline. Greatly appreciate you. Adding to it, I got the juice. I got the sauce.

I got all of that. The awesome sauce. It's in there. It's good. I think D.P. is excited. I don't know if anybody else can tell. It's good. It's football season.

Look. What does it smell like? Jocks and inside helmets and bad socks and funky cleats. Awful. Just terrible. Just sweaty. It's just the worst. Oh, Gatorade of all

flavors and colors. We had a dude who had a dry fit that he didn't wash all seat, like from the start of the center. Camp to the end of the season. It just stayed in his locker. And it smelled crisp. That was my center. My center just refused.

He refused. And I let him because it was building a culture. I loved it. I loved it. I loved this kid's like, listen, we can get lost in a minutia. But his focus was I'm good with wearing, it makes me feel grimy. He goes, center is not a position of finesse. He goes, I am a grunt.

I'm a grunt. He goes, I'm a little piglet, put my nose in the dirt, let me wallow in the mud. When everybody else is worried about socks and the color and the towel, he goes, my job is to start the play and finish the play. Like, that's what that is. That's the juice behind it. So listen, we thank the folks from Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul. We will see them Thursday when we come back. They're going to come in studio.

This is my birthday week, so I am going to celebrate like a madman on Thursday. But in the meanwhile, we're going to be an indie walking it down. And the list, we'll go through the list of who all is going to be there, what we're going to try to accomplish while we're there, trying to bring you the best of it. Yes, we will carry the press conference. When Scott Frost speaks, we will carry it.

Yes, we plug right into it. And guess what? There's nothing anybody can say about it. We could. Big Ten says we can air it so we could air it. We will have it all. Conference said it's okay.

Right, right. Dad said we could. Dad said we could. Dad said we can air it. Plus, we'll have interviews. And again, with Garrett Nelson,

Quentin Newsome, and Travis Vocalek. Hopefully some Trev Alberts as well. Try to get him one-on-one rather than in the pool. Yesterday, or yesterday. Last year, Trev Alberts at the table. Good quotes. Oh, he went into it, right?

Like, he went, as a matter of fact, Scott Frost was great at the table. When he came and sat down, he was great at the table. Trev was amazing. A lot of linemen. maybe gets maybe you know get your lineman maybe a little more skill position talk yeah i am i'm not mad about the lineman talk because of the linemen that they brought i'm cool with it uh can you can you get c j stroud we're gonna try well here's the thing this is the beauty of having eric strickland vashan and j fourman if they walk up and say hey harball can we get khakis can we uh

Can you give us five minutes? Trying to think of somebody else. Right? I mean, think of all the guys that are there, all the coaches that are going to be there. I know Bach would lose his mind if you guys got Aiden O'Connell. He loves Aiden O'Connell. And I don't know why.

I don't either. I don't know why. That is a weird thing to me. I don't know. Think about this. And we were going to talk about quarterbacks. Like literally the quarterbacks are going to be there. There you go.

Right? Because it is a statement that's being made by these programs to put out front the guys. Right. So for every team that is coming to Big Ten Media Days, there the guy is coming. Yes. Yes. I'll say this. And folks will be mad.

But I would be much happier. if Casey Thompson was going to be there. But D.P. That's just what I want. But D.P. That's what I want. Still entrenched in a quarterback battle. Batista.

Give me what I lot. Still entrenched in a battle. Give me what I want. You can't bring the guy who might be the backup. He's not going to be the backup. There's a quarterback battle. They're not settling to a starter yet. We have not.

There's no starter yet. Listen. Listen. What? I'm just telling you what I've been. Day one, play one. Guess who the QB is? QB1, Casey Thompson.

Period. You don't know that. Period. Period. As my aunt would say, period. Period. Period. Could be Chubb Perg.

No, no. No. No. Could be Heinrich Harper. No. No, it can't. Is Richard Torres healthy? Stop it.

Stop it. Stop it. Could be Richard? No, it can't. No, it can't. And if it is. Masker the Pasquer? Mask.

Mask insanity is what the, just. pure unbridled insanity. I'm just saying that's what that's, that's what's been said. Well, not that all of that, but what quarterback battle, not, not, not tying themselves to a starter just there. There's a phrase from the streets. F what you heard. Say what you know. I don't know.

F, F what you heard. I don't know what you heard, but you did not go through what you went through to get a 30 touchdown. interception quarterback with deep reps in meaningful games in Power 5 football against some pretty good talent. Decent, yeah. Right? I mean, because that's in a place where Heisman quarterbacks are developed, formed, and we know that that's a statement of truth.

Yep. Right? Okay. Does this quarterback say quarterback have fear of Oklahoma? No, sir. No, he does not. No, he does not. That's a good thing.

He has knowledge of Oklahoma. Mm-hmm. Right? The first, like, would he be afraid of Northwestern? No. No, no, he would not. He faced O'Shawn Mathis. No, he faced him in practice.

You know what O'Shawn says? That's a really good quarterback right there. That's what I'm from O'Shawn's mouth. That's a really good quarterback here, Nebraska. Yeah, but that's okay. You know, I'm just, yeah. Look. And this is what was passed along to us.

Listen to me. Right. Sanderson wants an update on Fadoni. Yeah, we can ask that question. We can ask that question. We can ask of the players and coaches. Right. John says this, what's up, D.P.

Adrika, what's up, John? What up? Is the number of questions Coach Frost is asked over or under 12. Up on the big stage, under 12? Under? On the big stage, because he only got 15 minutes. on the big stage. Well, it depends on how quick his answers are.

Only 50. Well, it's Scott Frost. When has he given a long answer? Tusha. Like if it was only, like Scott has it less said the better guy. I think that's fair to say, right? Yeah, under 12. Is that fair?

He's got 15 minutes. So from 11 to 15 after is Scott Frost. Now, everywhere else. Now, whoever else gets, we got in five questions last year with Scott one-on-one. Yeah. So that's the space that we're in. And the message is simple. I get that for somebody that doesn't exactly, isn't exactly thrilled about media,

this is mass media on a high level. And quite frankly, he gets treated well here. As much as they complain about it, he gets treated better here than he's going to get treated tomorrow at media days. Yes. Is that fair? Yeah. Right. He's going to get questions from people who don't normally get to ask him questions.

And people who don't care, who are. aren't responsible or accountable to the University of Nebraska. They're accountable to Big Ten and getting news and providing news and content. They have zero desire to make Scott Frostfield warm and fuzzy. I'm interesting. Right? Right. All of that in place.

Same thing is going to happen. Remember with these three players that are going to be there, right? Yeah, three players are going to be there. You have Vocalek, who is the loan offensive player? Yes. Who is going to be asked about what? The offense. You're quite a big.

Right. The offensive coordinator. Right. Offensive line. Run game. Running backs. Run game. New coaches.

Passing coordinator. Offensive line coach. Right? All of those things. So. Do you think they asked him about his own coach? No. It was like, yeah, your coach is still here.

We don't need to know. So much. Yeah, congratulations. Your coach is still here. Whatever. Yeah, I don't like, this is what, and again, this is a Big Ten media production. This is not a Nebraska athletics production. Yep.

And so Nebraska will do what they can to get out of this unscathed and without controversy. Right. So this is why you pick veteran guys to come in, veteran players to come in. Now again, Quentin Newsom is, this is going to be a new kind of shark tank for him. Yep. Fadoni has been around Vockeleck has been around it but this is him

this is winning getting off the bus sort of deal there is a ton of peacocking going on at Big Ten so I would imagine that Vocalek this is a bit of the peacocking this is when you walk in

and you want other people in the Big Ten to go whoa you bring vocal whoa and Karen Nelson right like whoa what is happening in the Brack right?

So that's a thing, right? We haven't really delved into how important vocal like is to the success of the entire team. Oh, he is extremely important. Of the entire team. This is more when I said that if you pick priority and things of focus that are important to Nebraska, that the layup is Casey Thompson and his success. But all of that Casey Thompson's success is tied into who's he going to throw the ball to? Who's going to protect him?

Who's going to be able to take the burden off him by running behind him? What type of runner does he want back there? Does Casey Thompson need to have the running back on the field who can pass pro? Does he need the running back on the field who can flare out of the back field and get plus yardage? Plus yardage, plus yardage. Right? How you're going to use the tight ends. And remember the difference of having Austin Allen, who is now preparing himself for,

for the NFL and not having Fadoni immediately anyway, right? Not immediately. So whatever else happens, what else we find out about Fadoni? Well, Vocal X the guy. And we know that vocal X the guy. Well, we hope he knows the system because it's a new system. It's a new system, right? So we take that away.

People forget that. There are things that we don't know. And how Whipple uses tight ends in the passing and running game, right? Do you want vocal like to be the hammer? Does he have to be the hammer? Hammer in motion type big vocal leg in motion. Is he the edge setter, right? Taking away helping two tackles that we don't know who they are

and where they're going to play to help them chip the most powerful position in the Big Ten, which is the edge ed setter in the Big Ten. Yeah. Right? To occupy the best athlete to the Big Ten, which are the safeties who get downhill against, against the running game and then who take away intermediate routes for Big Ten teams who love to throw intermediate routes to tight ends. Right?

The size differential matters. We love the fact that Vocala can do the things he can do. But then you have to stretch and being able to work the seam because Nebraska will use. Whipple system uses tight ends on seam routes, crossers, and mesh routes. Right? Quick slants where he's just big in space. He needs to fold into green, right? They'll tell him to run the green.

They'll tell Casey to throw to green. Right? Two linebackers, he'll be in between or between a lineback in safety or a lineback in a corner. The importance of a vocal act is loud. It's loud. But then it's who's running behind you? Power running? We're going to go yant? Is that what we're going to do?

Right? Because there are people that will rub their hands together. Look, we don't have fullback. At least we got to do who can get downhill and cause some damage. Or do we want the playmaker? do we want the guy who can get you out of deep end trouble and flip the field? Because that's what it is. Like there's several ways to flip the field.

Running game power flips the field. Why? Because it keeps your defense off the field, right? If you go Yant and Yant carries the ball seven times in a drive, you've had a successful drive. You've had a successful drive. If you have any more than two drives where Vocalek is not a target in the passing game, it's different.

It's different. Yeah. And Vocalek's ability to work within the passing game tells us whether we go to three receiver sets, four receiver sets, or five. The running back's ability to pass pro, right, is the offensive line, is the five up front protecting well enough

that we can put Vocalek and the running back into the passing game. Changes Nebraska offensive. More weapons. Absolutely changes. changes the way they're defended, changes the way they're reacted, also allows the defense to load up and rest up on the sideline. Flair game, Vocal leg, drags a linebacker into space.

Oh, we've got a running back, an open field on the flat. Entirely different scheme. Entirely different scheme. Runs on read, different responsibilities, more responsibilities for Vocalib. Yeah. So he's a vital cog in this thing. And look, if you want single coverage for Omar Manning and Trey Palmer or whoever else is out there or whoever's opposite in the slot, Vocalek occupying two defenders in the secondary, mandatory.

Yeah. Mandatory. But imagine Vocalek on the same side as Omar Manning. It's a big side. It's a big side. And the safety's got work to do, doesn't it? Have fun. Uncomfortable.

Deeply uncomfortable. Put him opposite of Trey Palmer. Palmer's in the slide opposite of him. The linebackers are like, this sucks. This sucks because I can run mesh vouchers with them. Vocalike underneath with his size. Palmer. Gone.

Right? Full stretch. Stretches the fill 55 wide. 50 wide. We understand what we can do with it. So Vocalek is important. But he's going to be the answer to. several questions.

How is this going to work? What does Mickey Joseph want to do as the passing coordinator? What does he want to do and what is he able to do with Vocal? Because that's the space that we need to get into. Right? Figuring out who the receivers are going to be around them because guess what? If you can't block with the five, you got to add six. If you can't block with the six, you got to add seven.

which means more responsibility for the people outside to be playmakers and be game breakers. But if you're good with the five, you can just, as Jay Foreman says, death by a thousand paper cuts. Vocalek for six. Trey Palmer on the hedge, right? We can run fade routes with Manning. You can run Manning on skinny posts where safety has to make a decision on a slot route and a running back coming out of the backfield. Casey Thompson does not have to stand back there and hold a ball.

Because the more Casey holds it, the longer he holds it, the more trouble this is. Unless it's protected. Because if it's protected and he holds the ball, we're going bang, bang, bang, eight, we're going deep, we're stretching folks out. And again, with four receivers, and they're running that cover three that folks like to run, that fourth receiver is the thing that makes it all break. They want to go cover two. Listen, they're going to give you 15, 18 yards apart.

But that's the understanding of what happens with Whipple's offense and his schemes, plus what Mickey likes to do as well with his playmakers. Just think about LSU in the past and what he asked and taught his receivers to do. Right? And it wasn't always big play. What it was was an understanding of what defenses do against you. accepting the layup. And then having people that when you give me a four-yard hitch,

I can bust it into 11. Right? Your playmakers in space, give them the ball and let them work. Fewer defenders back behind the wheel to get in your way. And all of that's based on your control from the middle of the field to your tackles. Control that space in six yards. It's just, this is where it gets really simple. and it frustrates me.

Nebraska has to win three yards forward and three yards back. I'm going to repeat it till you again. Three forward and three back from the center to the tackles. Now, one, first thing with the center, listen, Hickson, whoever's going to be there. Whoever's going to be there? Pretty sure it takes it. Listen, man. Listen, listen.

And the question then becomes, okay, are we in shotgun or we understand it? Yep. Right. a whole other conversation. Oh, there's a whole other conversation. Right? But your ability to protect in a base five allows you to make decisions on being under center and being in shotgun.

If you don't win the middle, if you don't win the middle, and for the last three years, as much as you can talk about it, remember two years ago that you weren't sure you were going to win the middle because you weren't sure the ball was going to reach a quarterback. And when that happens, it threw, it broke that. the four boundaries of the fence. Everything. The gate was open, so it didn't really matter what was happening with the boundaries.

It didn't matter. So there's base stuff that happens. Vocalek will go to India, and they will ask him questions, and we will ask him questions. Because I like him as a young man, and I think that he can be a difference maker. He should be a difference maker. He has to be a difference maker. He just does. He just does.

On the other side, it's Quentin Newsom. It's Quentin Newsom. Like we've talked about Garrett Nelson. Like we can go into deep with it in the next segment. But I just want to point out that Quentin Newsom is now the lead shark. Yeah. And why I say that is that he is going to, in the Big Ten conference, he's in deep water from day one, play one, set one.

It's all you. It's all him. He's the gatekeeper. He is the tone setter. Look, he has to be. He's going to add everybody's best. All heads to bed, everybody's going to attack. Listen, we don't know what happens at the corners.

We don't know what happens at safety. We don't know. But what we imagine is there are going to be six players who are going to kind of fill spots. And the loudest voiced amongst them has to be Quentin News. No matter where he is. If he's on there one, he's got to be loud. Listen, this is where I need help or I got this.

Y'all hold down the rest of it. Cover two. He's on wide receiver number two. Flexibility and freedom. What you do with the number two, depending on the number two, if he's a flash guy, if he's a burner, look, I'm going to take away the burn. I'm going to make this dude catch and take a beat.

Like I'm going to invite him to a party that he doesn't want to be at. Right? Speed guys don't like being forced to catch and make going to deep water. They don't want to do that. Sort of a pastor. Right? If you're at safety, Be the hammer. Oh, yes.

Be the hammer. Behind linebackers who will be in the right place. We know that the two linebackers will be in the right place. They'll be there. They'll be in the right place. And then he has to be aware that Garrett Nelson, O'Shawn Mathis, Caleb Tanner, etc., etc. Are going to be up there wreaking havoc. And if this plays out right, there's a different clock that the defensive backs are going to play from than they did a year ago.

things are going to be sped up and you need to be prepared for it. Like that's the mission. That's the mission. It can be, should be good for the defensive backs that those guys are going to be wreaking havoc and speeding things up for the quarterback. But at the same time, it could be a problem. Because if you're not prepared for things to go faster, you're thinking, okay, you know, this guy's going to do this and he's going to have this much. And then all of a sudden somebody's running a quick slant. They get the ball and all of a sudden they're running past you.

Well, half of the Big Ten Conference plays slow. Yep. On purpose, end direction. The other half plays fast. They can play slow when they need to, but they can also play fast better than the other half of the division. Like we don't. You go look at the top of the Big Ten conference.

The bottom plays slow. They want to play slow. They can't help it. No for the way. Let's turn this into a back alley brawl. This is a backyard brawl. It's going to be 10 to 3. Oh, Chef's Kiss.

They love it. Iowa. You know what you're getting into. Iowa doesn't want to play fast. Nope. Indiana don't want to play fast. They don't want to. Penn State doesn't want to play fast.

They don't want to play fast. But when you talk about Ohio State and Michigan and Wisconsin because they play slow and then even slower because they're not trying to break you that. Wisconsin is different. Like, it's got its own. So this guy, we're going to sit in a room for two days and hear from the people, they'll tell their stories where they can't wait to tell you who they are. We just have to be able to listen.

And so the mission, we'll go over, we'll throw the break when we'll come back. We'll go over the mission, our mission, in covering the Big Ten Media days. And I'm telling you, we have a great plan. We have a great display. I think you guys are going to love it. Get the word out. will be the place to come to all day for those two days to get your Big Ten news, your Husker News. But we'll go into that when we come back.

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