Huskers to Face Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl

I was at Utah v Cincinnati at Rice-Eccles in SLC. Utah was electric, super fun/exciting to watch and absolutely dominated Cincinnati. I'm not very optimistic that Nebraska will be up to the task of stopping them in Vegas.
 
Know your foe / opponent

The good and the bad

First the good: NU can run on Utah like everyone else did. NU needs to use the running game to set up the pass.

Utah is 111th on defense against the rush (182 yards per game) which is actually worse than Nebraska's defense against the rush. Think about that for a moment. And Utah's rush defense YPC is slightly worse than NU's. If I'm the OC and have Geep working with the line, let's move the ball running back to back to set up short 3rd downs. And eventually some of those runs will hit for longer runs. Plus we need to keep Utah's offense off the field.

Because Utah has a high-powered offense.

Utah 60 point games - 63 (vs Cal Poly)
Utah 50 point games - 51 (vs KSU) 55 (vs Baylor) 53 (vs Colo)
Utah 40 point games - 45 (vs Cincy) 42 (ASU), 48 (WVU), 43 (vs UCLA)

Utah rushing Offense:
44 attempts per game (9th)
270 yards per game (2nd)
6.11 yards per rush (1st)
Practically gaining 100 yards rushing more than what NU's defense allows per game.

Nuggets:
Utah has been favored in every game they played this year.
Utah lost 2 games - at home to Tex Tech 34-10, at BYU 24-21

Utah has held their opponents to 14 points or less in 7 games.
Utah is 2-2 when they allow 24 points or more in a game.
NU has scored 24 points or more only twice in their final 6 games (and won both of those games).

It's a Bowl Game. Play hard. Play with confidence. Have fun. Run the ball often. Use play action. Use read-option/zone read. Go vertical. Play in front of the chains. Use your tight-ends. And since Utah plays man coverage - take shots and go get the ball. And let's have a great day with our Special Teams.

Utah is really really good. But, they are not Big Ten good or SEC good. Meaning, they are beatable.
 
A general comment. Looks like we're never gonna conclude the debate on the "worthiness" of bowl games.
I'm gonna repeat what I've said before, YOU WANT YOUR TEAM IN THE PLAYOFFS, IF NOT THAT, THEN IN A BOWL GAME.

I've followed the after-math of K-State and IA-State opting out of bowl games.
Guess what ... IT DIDN'T HELP THEIR RECRUITING. It also doesn't help their historical record as a football program. We were missing from the post-season for quite a long time. Was anyone here celebrating that "accomplishment"?

People can keep using the word "exhibition" as if that means something that it doesn't.
High school kids DON'T WANT TO PLAY FOR TEAMS that view bowl season as something to be avoided! And they certainly don't describe bowl season as "meh". Grown men who confuse cleverness with mild autism do, but preps who dream of playing on national TV during the Holidays don't.

Now release the KRAKEN!
 
Bobby_Axelrod said:
A general comment. Looks like we're never gonna conclude the debate on the "worthiness" of bowl games.
I'm gonna repeat what I've said before, YOU WANT YOUR TEAM IN THE PLAYOFFS, IF NOT THAT, THEN IN A BOWL GAME.

I've followed the after-math of K-State and IA-State opting out of bowl games.
Guess what ... IT DIDN'T HELP THEIR RECRUITING. It also doesn't help their historical record as a football program. We were missing from the post-season for quite a long time. Was anyone here celebrating that "accomplishment"?

People can keep using the word "exhibition" as if that means something that it doesn't.
High school kids DON'T WANT TO PLAY FOR TEAMS that view bowl season as something to be avoided! And they certainly don't describe bowl season as "meh". Grown men who confuse cleverness with mild autism do, but preps who dream of playing on national TV during the Holidays don't.

Now release the KRAKEN!
Click to expand...
Yeah, people be acting like we been bowling for 20 years straight. It’s another game, even if it is fairly meaningless, an excuse for some fans to go to Vegas and, most importantly, more practice time for the team. We can’t put much stock in any outcome but the fact we’re in a bowl game does have value.

But I also understand the meh attitude in the era of actual playoffs, opt outs and teams foregoing bowls. Have to admit there are a bunch of meh bowl games, but not ours.
 
admo said:
Know your foe / opponent

The good and the bad

First the good: NU can run on Utah like everyone else did. NU needs to use the running game to set up the pass.

Utah is 111th on defense against the rush (182 yards per game) which is actually worse than Nebraska's defense against the rush. Think about that for a moment. And Utah's rush defense YPC is slightly worse than NU's. If I'm the OC and have Geep working with the line, let's move the ball running back to back to set up short 3rd downs. And eventually some of those runs will hit for longer runs. Plus we need to keep Utah's offense off the field.

Because Utah has a high-powered offense.

Utah 60 point games - 63 (vs Cal Poly)
Utah 50 point games - 51 (vs KSU) 55 (vs Baylor) 53 (vs Colo)
Utah 40 point games - 45 (vs Cincy) 42 (ASU), 48 (WVU), 43 (vs UCLA)

Utah rushing Offense:
44 attempts per game (9th)
270 yards per game (2nd)
6.11 yards per rush (1st)
Practically gaining 100 yards rushing more than what NU's defense allows per game.

Nuggets:
Utah has been favored in every game they played this year.
Utah lost 2 games - at home to Tex Tech 34-10, at BYU 24-21

Utah has held their opponents to 14 points or less in 7 games.
Utah is 2-2 when they allow 24 points or more in a game.
NU has scored 24 points or more only twice in their final 6 games (and won both of those games).

It's a Bowl Game. Play hard. Play with confidence. Have fun. Run the ball often. Use play action. Use read-option/zone read. Go vertical. Play in front of the chains. Use your tight-ends. And since Utah plays man coverage - take shots and go get the ball. And let's have a great day with our Special Teams.

Utah is really really good. But, they are not Big Ten good or SEC good. Meaning, they are beatable.
Click to expand...
Sometimes I think some posters here put more thought into a game plan than the coaches do.

This is one of those times. 👍
 
Bowl games equal more practices. We need all we can get. Let the new coaches see what they have and what tweaks they can do in a short amount of time. TJ needs all he can get. RB's need all they can get. As a fan it means one more time to see them play.
 
Wouldn’t most games after about 3 losses be meaningless? I’m glad to finally see some chatter about our game IN ONE WEEK. Time to move on from Dylan. That’s the past.

Has anyone e see anything regarding bowl practice? Like how’s it going and stuff like that.
 
admo said:
Utah is really really good. But, they are not Big Ten good or SEC good. Meaning, they are beatable.
Click to expand...

85% unlikely beatable by us, according to the odds makers. My heart is with Huskers. My money ... is on Huskers, too.. but, well, I have grave doubts. :confused:
 
JJ Husker said:
Sometimes I think some posters here put more thought into a game plan than the coaches do.

This is one of those times. 👍
Click to expand...
It was fun researching to help out, but mostly to put it out there in case a big chunk of people are screaming at the TV during the game and posting here about it afterward. But also, would be a helluva win! and not something to brush off as "eh, it's only Utah" lol.

Keeping it a close game going into 4th, or one score game with half a quarter left in game would be pretty impressive. One can only hope and root !
 
They think…”a win against Nebraska, meh”

When they win against us and improve to 11 wins and kiss their longstanding coach goodbye, they’ll say “we beat Nebraska in a bowl game, if we coulda just beat Texas Tech we’d be in the payoffs”

Sad and hard to say, but we are the ones that good teams beat and finish their season on a high note after they win against us.
This is who we are.
 
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