1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - What is the Biggest Reason Nebraska Came Up Short vs USC?: November 3rd, 11:25am

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

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You're listening to One-on-One with DP. Brought you by Canopy Street Market on 93-7 the ticket and the ticketfm.com. We are back here on one-on-one, breaking down the Nebraska-USC game coach rule is at the podium, so we'll get to his quotes and all of that later on in the afternoon. But we did phrase the question going into the break. What was the biggest reason? Nebraska lost to USC here this past weekend. A lot of different thoughts there.

And maybe, again, there's a bit of a disconnect between myself and Nick and maybe Jake Thornton there about how frustrated. And I think in just the fan base in general. And I think that's why it's been interesting so far. There's been plenty of people coming on behalf of your side, Nick and Jake Sorenson, being frustrated. And then there's plenty of people saying, you know what? I thought that was a pretty good performance given the circumstance.

And that's why I look at like the. I look at like the biggest reason Nebraska lost. And again, we really went through the possession there in the third quarter where they used two timeouts and didn't get any points. That, you know, that's a big play right there. Obviously, one of the bigger discussion points throughout this game is would Nebraska have one with Dylan Ryola? So I'll phrase that first. Nick, do you think if Dylan stays healthy, does Nebraska win that game? Which, by the way, plenty to dissect on that.

I mean, that was the biggest dissected play on Twitter over the weekend as well. Only two men outrunning routes. One was like a crossing route against what it looked to be his own defense. You know, they had it pretty well covered is the point. Turner Corcoran got stood up, you know, back into where Dylan Rilohle was stepping up into the pocket. Elijah Pritchett and Emmett Johnson both failed, double team, failed to get a hold of the pass rush number six for USC that ultimately got to Dylan and hurt him. So, I mean, that certainly could be the biggest reason is just that play. To me, it was a lot of, and maybe this is where I come from being less frustrated is that I've

somewhat acknowledged Nebraska's weaknesses going into the game. So it's kind of like, okay, what needs to break right form? What are their problems? The biggest reason why Nebraska lost this game is probably the rushing defense to the point that you made earlier in the show. But that's, that's been a problem all year long. So it's almost something that I kind of just say, okay, that's already in Achilles heel. How does Nebraska get over that?

And maybe it's their inability to get. over it. Maybe that's, maybe that's part of it. I don't know. Um, you know, Matt Ruhl got up in the podium. I was listening during the break and he sits there and talks about how it's going to take every one of them to, to be able to rally around T.J. Lateef and, and rally around the defense. And I feel a sneeze coming. So I apologize. But anyway, um, how it's going to, you know, it's going to take every one of them. And like, yeah, yeah, it is. I just ready to see it. Ready to see it. And wins against Northwestern and wins against Houston Christian and Akron,

they just don't do the same as wins against USC. And I'm not saying that Matt Rule feels like they do. But at some point, like I said it on air this morning on the drive. You get tired of being compared to previous teams, then do things differently than previous teams. And in this results-driven business, results matter the most out of everything. I trust. I do trust in everybody because there's people that commented, Nick, trust the process.

Give it time. Give it time. Yeah, I get that. And I feel like a lot of Husker fans, even the ones that are pissed on a Monday, are, I have given it time. And this is not me saying that, hey, time is up. Right. At all. At all.

At all. And I'm definitely not minimizing Dylan's injury and what it means to Nebraska. But I will say that I do, I do view it as disappointing that Nebraska got in there with T.J. Lateef looked like they had no idea what they wanted to do offensively. That nine games into the season, you still have not figured out how to improve the rush defense, schematically heart, want to, effort, subs, whatever it is. There's just a lot there. And then, you know, the icing on the cake for me was once again.

We talk all week. You want to be physical. You talk all season. You want to be physical. Heck, even the tunnel walk talked about it over the stadium. We want people to be scared of us playing in the third quarter. Nobody yet. Just as much as they weren't in 2019 and just as much as they weren't in 2016 and now 2025.

Teams aren't scared in Nebraska. Prove it, show it, do it instead of just talk about it. Well, of course, the year 2016 was frequently showing up on the TV broadcast for two reasons. Yeah, Matt Rule. and Nebraska, of course, not won a top 25 games since then. That streak will continue. By the way, if you're looking forward to UCLA and Penn State, say, well, they're wounded.

You know, they don't have their coaches. I don't want to be the bad guy. But a reminder that since 2006, Nebraska's not won back-to-back road games. So that's what's facing Nebraska head. But to the point, somebody set off the text line, too, and I agree with it, the rush defense, again, one thing, and that's an Achilles Steel Nebraska has been working against all season. They've got to fix it.

Part of it is, and I heard you talking about this earlier, too, they're selling out a little bit more to stop the pass. And this game, I don't think that's like this single game. I don't think this was a bad idea, right? Because USC has the ability to kind of light you up in the air. Nebraska was able to hold them down. This is the number one offense reminder coming into the nation. So to hold them the 21 points,

the worst passing performance in a Lincoln Riley's history, a guy that has three Heisman trophy winner. I mean, all that stuff. So there's a lot of good in there too. But I think the thing that did cost Nebraska and to the point of the text line, was the operation behind Dylan. And we had hopes that it might look a little bit better. It was disjointed,

rather that be with Lateef, for the coaching staff, whatever. And so I think it'll look significantly better with the week of practice and game planning, all that moving forward. I do. Yeah, I do too. But at the end of the day, that was also a huge part of the loss of this game.

I'll be 100% honest. I think Latif's the dude. Like, I'm genuinely excited. Unfortunate that it had to come this way, right, at the expense of Dylan being done for the year. I think Latif's a dude.

I really do. And I think he does some things really well and gives Nebraska some creativity opportunities on offense that Dylan doesn't provide. Now, there's also, just as much as I can say that, I think there's also areas where Nebraska is going to be a little more deficient in maybe pre-stap reads. We can also talk about the ability to make changes at the line,

adjustments. But also, like, I say this like it's a give and take, right? Like it's a give and take. I'm very, very, very much of a firm believer of that players take on mindset, belief from their coaches, especially young guys. We can't act like T.J. Latif just because he's a true freshman. And I think this is truly just having expectations.

And maybe the text line will say, Nick, you're having unfair expectations. And that's fine. but I think that part of that is understanding and really realizing, like we're not talking about high school quarterbacks here. This isn't, this isn't third string backup quarterback at small town school in some state that doesn't have high level of high school football experience that didn't really pay attention in pregame, didn't really pay attention in practice that week. This is not somebody that, this is a Division I quarterback.

And T.J. Lateef might have needed a boost of confidence in that moment. Don't, like, don't sit here and once again say that you're confident in Latif and then not show that. Not show that. And I think it hindered Nebraska severely because there were multiple instances on that game to where you sit there and you go, okay, yep, does the coach believe that we can do this? Now, part of it is the players just got to do it on their own. They got to execute. But man, it just felt like some missed opportunities there to really assert yourself as a dominant team. Yeah, it's going to be fascinating to see what the offense looks like moving forward because I did,

I did hear that from a large portion of the fan base too is pretty bland play calling once Latif did get into the game. And for what? Well, he's the, he is a freshman, right? He was in high school. You mentioned not high school. He was in high school last year. He was. Yeah.

So, but I mean, again, too, with that is. But like, this is why you early enroll. Like, these are things. I'm not sitting there saying he has to be. a Heisman candidate. That's not what I'm getting at. It's be serviceable. Right.

And now part of it might have been because maybe he was just under pressure and he just wasn't, he wasn't ready for it. And that's fine. But I think another part of it also could be if the staff wasn't prepared for T.J. to come in. I mean, that's another thing. And I just, I think that there's ways before the game to get ready and then the ability to make adjustments

on the fly. and Nebraska's inability on Saturday offensively and defensively to make adjustments as the game progressed, I think was the reason they lost this game. Well said. All right. Let's go ahead and take a quick break. Nick's got a run, but we will wrap up one-on-one when we come back here on 93-7. The ticket gets ready for the Adam Carriker show coming up next.

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