Ask a Husker: Make sure and check out Corn Blight's FanPost, Ask a Husker and feel free to ask just about anything you want. I had told Jon that with my work schedule this week, I wouldn't be able to properly answer questions, but I'll see if we can't get something similar up on Corn Nation and would even appreciate you guys helping out with answering questions about our Red Raiders.
Ball-Control: LAJ's Don Williams (be careful when clicking on the link as a video starts whether you like it or not) writes that the defense will try and stop the Nebraska ball-control offense and DC Ruffin McNeill says that the Cornhuskers changed their offense before the Texas Tech game last year:
"They changed their whole offense before our game last year,’’ said McNeill, who said what Nebraska ran was nothing like what he had watched that week on videotape. "Totally different plays. Totally different passes.
And LB Bront Bird sounds as if he's done this before:
"They like to run the ball, and they like to bootleg,’’ Tech strong-side linebacker Bront Bird said. "That’s one thing they like to do is run a lot of stretch plays — get us used to those — and then fake a stretch and run a bootleg. They kept our offense off the field a lot.
"I think we’ve all improved as a defense and as individual players. We didn’t feel that we played as good as we could have last year. We’re excited about this challenge.’’
Football Notebook: LAJ's Don Williams writes that the Red Raiders are finally getting healthy as FS Cody Davis was back at practice as was C Shawn Byrnes, DE Daniel Howard and QB Taylor Potts . . . Williams also reports that there is no chance of the TT vs. TAMU game being on television . . . OL Coach Moore thinks that DT Ndamukong Suh and RG Brandon Carter will be lined up against each other almost all night:
"From what I’ve seen, he plays every snap over the right guard,’’ Moore said. "He plays 95 percent of the snaps over the offensive right guard. Same thing last year. He moved to the nose maybe four plays (in the Tech-Nebraska game). Other than that, he played over Carter every snap.’’
Lots of Balance: DT's Alex Ybarra writes the team is finally playing some balanced football, and QB Steven Sheffield agrees:
"We needed this week to be that week that everything came together,’’ said quarterback Steven Sheffield, who spelled starter Taylor Potts and had 370 yards and five touchdown passes by halftime against the Wildcats — both school records. "We hadn’t played a full game on all three sides of the ball – just played a smooth game. Since day one, that hasn’t happened this season."
And RT Marlon Winn thinks that this is all part of the maturation process:
"It’s something we have been working for and something were finally getting to experience," said right tackle Marlon Winn of the balance. "We experienced it for one game, and I think everybody liked the way it felt."
Texas Tech Links: TR's RRR with a comparison of the QB's, Steven Sheffield and Zac Lee . . .
Nebraska Cornhusker Links: CN's Corn Blight notes that tackles and sacks aren't the only measure of how good DT Ndamukong Suh is and also notes that backup RB Rex Burkhead is out with a foot injury . . . BRN's Steve Hanway believes that Captain Leach is lacking something . . . StatePaper's Samuel Mckewon talks with C Jacob Hickman about the Texas Tech defense:
"Pretty vanilla," Hickman said. "They don’t blitz much. They’re gonna play one or two defenses. They’re gonna play so they don’t make mistakse. Basically their goal is to let their offense score points and minimize mistakes.
. . . HuskerExtra writes that Bo Pelini is confident in their offense . . . Omaha.com with lots of notes from yesterday's NU press conference . .
Neglected Video: It's after the jump and it's a sportacular Pete Christie going one-on-one with Captain Mike Leach . . .
Open Practice: Pat Knight and his 2009-2010 squad will have an open practice at 5:00 p.m. this Friday at the United Spirit Arena. See the link for more details, and this is yet another reason I need to move back to Lubbock.
The promised neglected video: