[Husker] big red wrap-up

[Dr. Derek Ryter]

Damon Benning and Aaron Taylor were on the Big Red Wrap Up tonight and they
had some really interesting perspectives on the USC game.  Benning pointed
out something that I missed: USC had changed their coverage prior to the two
pass plays in the second quarter.  Perhaps the coaches saw this and called
the first down passes.

They had a lot of objective things to say, and none of which questioned
whether Coach Callahan wanted to win, was confused, or just wanted to avoid
a blowout.  Sorry.  Aaron did wish they had tried one play-action pass,
though (more later).  There was talk about how the gameplan was a good one
without the mistakes like the fumble (though they didn’t spend any time
trying to figure out whose fault the fumbled handoff was) or the penalty
that killed one drive.  Aaron Taylor pointed out that considering the loss
of Mann, the OL did well against the USC front 4.  Also, without the tight
ends involved in the passing game, the USC LBs were free to roam.  Benning
said that the WCO is vulnerable if the tight ends are not active.  He also
noted that Taylor seemed nervous and jittery in the pocket after he took his
first hit when the blitz wasn’t picked up.  It also seemed to me, like on
the 4th down throw, that he was not secure in his protection.  And when the
running game isn’t doing well and the Huskers fell behind, the play-action
passing wasn’t going to work; the LBs wouldn’t respect it.

Benning speculated that Callahan might have been protecting Taylor a bit
because he wasn’t having a good game; he not only needed to get out of there
alive, but with his confidence.  Perhaps he wasn’t playing to avoid an upset
as much as challenging the OL and other blockers to run it on the USC D.
Aaron said that he thinks that the Huskers are still his pick to win the
North and Benning was very positive about the rest of the season.

Anyhow, you can watch it here: http://netdb.unl.edu/bigredwrapup/  If you
miss the live feed you can scroll down and watch the repeat broadcast.

PS: I don’t think that Callahan hears or would give a crap about what people
comment on his coaching at USC.  I’m thinking that 1:00 AM after the USC
game he was analyzing the Troy game plan.

-----------------------------------
Derek Ryter


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