NebraskaWas this the old Nebraska offense or the new Nebraska West Coast offense?  I’m sure that is what most Husker fans were asking after seeing Nebraska run wild over the smaller Nevada Wolfpack team.

Marlon Lucky ran wild in the opener for the 2007 season.  Lucky finished with a career high 233 yards rushing, 33 yards receiving and four touchdowns. Lucky’s backup, freshman Quentin Castille, pounded out 78 yards on 18 touches. Junior Cody Glenn and sophomore Major Culbert also turned in strong performances, combining for 71 yards on 11 carries. 

When you turn out 413 team rushing yards, you know that the offensive line was doing a great job all day.  They opened up huge holes for the runningbacks, and also did very good in their pass blocking.

The Nebraska quartersbacks had an alright day even though most of the plays were going to the runningbacks.  Sam Keller and Joe Ganz finished with a combined 15-26 passes for 212 yards and one touchdown.  That wideouts could have helped out the quarterbacks as they did drop the ball when they should have made the catch but it is the first game so hopefully they will start to haul in those passes.

What a performance by the Nebraska “Blackshirt” defense in the opener as well.  Coach Cozgrove was blitzing quite a bit against the younger and smaller Nevada team and it worked very well.  It was awesome to see Steve Octavien running around the field and making plays.  Stay healthy Steve and you are going to have a huge year!

The defensive line played well at times.  I would have liked to see more pressure up the middle, but the Huskers had outside blitzes coming most of the time.  I really thought Suh would bust through the line more then he did.  Zach Potter and Barry Turner turned in very good games from the defensive end positions.  Big Kevin Dixon picked off a pass that be batted down which was awesome to see. Great hands for a big guy!

The secondary was very good.  Nevada only completed 8 of 24 passes on the game.  When they did catch the ball, there was usually someone there to tackle them right after they caught the ball.  I figured the secondary would have picked off a pass, and Larry Asante had his chance but wasn’t able to hold onto it.  Zack Bowman played around 25-30 plays and looked ok.  He needs more gametime to get back into things and expects to play 30-35 plays against Wake Forest next week.

Now onto the kicking game, WOW!  Adi Kunalic received standing ovations after his touchbacks and could be seen on the sideline with smilies after each one.  He was probably wondering, “Wow a standing ovation for a kickoff?”  Kunalic also booted a 46 yard field goal that would have been good from 50 yards +.

That’s how you want to start a season with a victory, and it was dominating.  The Huskers will face Wake Forest next Saturday with a kickoff set for 11 A.M. central time.  Wake up early and get your Bloody Mary’s and beer flowing!

Nebraska 52 Nevada 10!

Rushing Stats
Lucky, Marlon      30 rushes for 235 yards, 2 touchdowns
Castille, Quentin  18 rushes for 78 yards, 2 touchdowns
Culbert, Major     5 rushes for 35 yards
Glenn, Cody        8 rushes for 36 yards
Helu, Roy          6 rushes for 26 yards
Ganz, Joe          2 rushes for 15 yards
TEAM TOTALS        70 rushes for 425 yards, 6 touchdowns

Passing Stats
Keller, Sam        14 for 25, 193 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 INT
Ganz, Joe          1 for 1, 19 yards
TEAM TOTALS        15 for 26, 212 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 INT

Receiving Stats
Lucky, Marlon      3 catches, 33 yards, 1 touchdown
Nunn, Terrence     2 catches, 26 yards
Swift, Nate        2 catches, 28 yards
McNeill, Mike      1 catch, 25 yards
Hardy, Frantz      1 catch, 24 yards
Erickson, Dan      1 catch, 19 yards
Sand, Andy         1 catch, 15 yards
Young, Dreu        1 catch, 14 yards
Peterson, Todd     1 catch, 8 yards
Paul, Niles        1 catch, 6 yards
Brooks, Chris      1 catch, 4 yards
TEAM TOTALS        15 catches, 212 yards, 1 touchdown

Punting Stats
Titchener, Dan     2 punts, 44.5 average

Field goal attempts
Kunalic, Adi       1 for 1 46 yards

Kickoff Stats
Kunalic, Adi       9 kickoffs, 6 touchbacks

Defensive Stats
Octavien, Steve     3 solo, 2 assist, 5 total tackles .5 sack
McKeon, Corey       3 solo, 1 assist, 4 total tackles
Murillo, Armando    1 solo, 3 assist, 4 total tackles
Asante, Larry       4 assist, 4 total tackles
Grixby, Cortney     2 solo, 1 assist, 3 total tackles
Wilson, Bryan       2 solo, 2 total tackles
Suh, Ndamukong      2 solo, 2 total tackles
Potter, Zach        2 solo, 2 total tackles
Dillard, Phillip    2 solo, 2 total tackles
Turner, Barry       1 solo, 1 assist, 2 total tackles, .5 sack
Brandenburgh, Lance 1 solo, 1 assist, 2 total tackles
Dixon, Kevin        1 solo, 1 total tackle
Bowman, Zackary     1 solo, 1 total tackle
Eisenhart, Ben      1 solo, 1 total tackle
Ruud, Bo            1 solo, 1 total tackle
Barfield, Shukree   1 solo, 1 total tackle
O’Hanlon, Matt      1 solo, 1 total tackle
Paul, Niles         1 assist, 1 total tackle
Wortman, Tyler      1 assist, 1 total tackle
Green, Tierre       1 assist, 1 total tackle
Sullivan, Tony      1 assist, 1 total tackle
Sievers, Clayton    1 assist, 1 total tackle
Allen, Pierre       1 assist, 1 total tackle
Blue, Anthony       1 assist, 1 total tackle



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NebraskaThe 2007 season is almost here and we can hardly wait the last 48 hours to see the Nebraska Cornhuskers take the field against the Nevada Wolfpack.  Husker fans have been waiting a long time for the season to start and well here it is!  Get your tailgating stuff ready, make sure your beer is cold, and lets start off the season with a win over Nevada!

First off I’ll start out with what I expect out of the Nebraka offense against the WolfPack.  I look for Marlon Lucky and Quentin Castille to get around 35 carries together.  I’d also expect Roy Helu and possibly Cody Glenn to get 5 or so handoffs in the game.  Coach Callahan hasn’t said if Glenn will play or not so between Helu and Gleen I’d expect 5 carries.

Sam Keller will have plenty of time in this game to get his feet wet with the Husker offense during a real game.  Look for him to to throw for 2-3 touchdowns atleast.  I see a big day for Keller and and the receivers on Saturday.  With Maurice Purify sitting out the first game of his suspension, Terrance Nunn, Nate Swift, Todd Peterson, and Frantz Hardy should all catch a few balls each I would imagine.  Who will score the td’s?  I’ll go ahead and predict that Nunn, Swift, and Lucky will each have a receiving touchdown in the game.

On the defensive side of the ball for the Huskers, lets pay close attention on how the new d-line plays together.  Nevada will be down to their third string center for this game so I expect Ndamukong Suh to have a huge game up the middle.  Look for him to blow through the line ateast a few times and either sack the QB or stop the running back behind the line of scrimmage.  I also think that Barry Turner and Zach Potter will combine for atleast two sacks in the game.

The linebackers are the strength of the “Blackshirt” defense this year.  Corey McKeon, Steve Octavian, Bo Rudd, Phillip Dilliard, and Lance Brandenburgh will have huge days for the Huskers.  Expect them to be very good at gang tackling and possibly causing a few tournovers.

I’m really excited to watch the defensive backs in this game as well.  Since Nevada runs the pistol offense and is always in a shotgun, expect them to really mix up the run and pass quite a bit.  I’d expect some safty blitzes in this game with Larry Asante who is really licking his chops to get to the quarterback in his first Husker game.  Cortney Grixby and Armando Murillo will start at the cornerback positions while Tierre Green and Asante will be the safties.  Expect too see a lot of Andre Jones as well as Nevada loves to run atleast 3-wide most of the game.

Special teams will be a big deal for the Huskers this season.  They haven’t had a punt returner that really put a scare into opposing teams since Groce graduated.  Grixby, Nunn, Jones, and Swift will be called upon to help out on punt and kick returns.

Freshman Alex Henery and Ali Kunalic are still battling it out for the kicking job.  No one will probably know who the starter will be until gametime.  Dan Titchener will be back to handle the punting job for the Huskers.

I’ll go ahead and throw this score out there just as a guess.  Nebraska 45 Nevada 17



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NebraskaSam Keller was officially named the starting quarterback of the Nebraska Football team on Monday.  Most Husker fans knew that this would be the decision that Coach Callahan would make choosing Keller over Joe Ganz.

It was kind of suprising that Callahan made the decision on Monday as he has always said it would be made the week of Sep 1st when the Huskers open the 2007 season against Nevada.   It was also exactly one year ago that Keller decided to leave Arizona State for Nebraska and now one year later he is being named the starter.

I’m ready for the football season to begin!  GO BIG RED!!!


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NebraskaThe Missouri Tigers have been picked to win the Big12 North Title over the Nebraska Cornhuskers who the media picked 2nd.  One reason the media loves the Tigers is because they return 15 starters from last years teams including quarterback Chase Daniels.

We all know the Missouri/Nebraska game on October 6th will more then likely decide the Big12 North Title.  Sure the Huskers will be bringing in Sam Keller and new people on the defensive line, but I’m pretty sure we will beat the Tigers by 10-14 points.  GO HUSKERS!


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