“I’m not looking for the best players; I’m looking for the right ones.“ – Herb Brooks in Miracle
No, this didn’t just magically come to me. I got Twitter-X’d or whatever by this piece of witchcraft:
Anyone who has seen the movie Miracle starring Kurt Russell will immediately recognize this as solid quality AI morphing of of Matt Rhule into one of the Mount
Rushmore sports movie/TV speeches of all time. (The others: Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday, Billy Bob Thornton in Friday Night Lights (movie) and Kyle Chandler in Friday Night Lights (TV series), halftime of state championship edition. And sure, we can argue about these.)
But it wasn’t really the Herb Brooks speech before Team USA’s championship round game against the Russians (it wasn’t a gold medal game, or even their final one) which I was thinking of. It was the quote at the top when he was speaking to his assistant coach, Craig Patrick, who had seen the list of players who would be competing for the final spots on the team.
Because after five games, this is really the type of player it feels Rhule and his staff snagged through the transfer portal this season.
Not the best ones. The right ones.
A roster which had already aged some naturally got a bigger dose of experience. In what might have been a stroke of luck, we lost Kenny Minchey, talented but inexperienced, and instead got Anthony Colandrea who came to Lincoln with 30+ starts in his bag – the first season Rhule’s starting QB for the majority of the season began with more than 13. Owen Stoudmire, Anthony Jones Jr and Jahsear Whittington shored up a porous defensive line. Owen Chambliss stepped in as a leader and a QB of the Blackshirts. Vic Evans and Dwayne McDougle immediately started in the defensive backfield.
Kwazi Gilmer and Colandrea clicked when they met and the pair exploded together last Saturday against Maryland. Brendan Black and Paul Mubanga started immediately and Tree Babalade is working his way up as well.
No one was calling this a Top 10 portal class or anything, but they may be among the nation’s best when it comes to the roles they’ve filled and the experience they’ve brought to the Huskers. Will it be enough to end Indiana’s 21-game winning streak on Saturday?
Yes, it’s a big ask but stay tuned.
HOW TO WATCH
Time: 11:00am CST
Location: Memorial Stadium, Lincoln, NE
Surface: Hellas Turf (Blessed by the Bobfather himself in Husker Valhalla)
Wagering Info: Huskers +7 1⁄2 . O/U – 48 1⁄2. Moneyline: Nebraska +370, Indiana +135 ($100 wager) (FanDuel)
Series Record: Nebraska is 9-11-3 vs. Indiana all-time; 2-2 since joining the Big 10.
TV: The game can be viewed on Fox. Play-by-Play: Gus Johnson. Analyst: Joel Klatt. Sidelines: Jenny Taft. It is also streaming on the Fox Sports app.
Radio: The audio can be streamed live for free at Huskers.com or the Huskers App. The crew will be: Play-by-Play: Kyle Crooks. Analysis: Jay Moore. Sidelines: Jessica Coody. Pre/Post-Game: Matt Coatney, Jessica Coody, Ben McLaughlin & Jeremiah Sirles.
Weather: Saturday will begin decently, with sunny skies and temps around 78, but rising steadily to around 87 by games end. It may feel a little warmer with only slight breezes 0f 3-5mph but it shouldn’t be too bad as the humidity will remain low.
HUSKERS HAPPY HOUR
Hey, did you know we have Corn Nation podcasts every Monday, Tuesday & Thursday? Mine is every Tuesday night at 8pm CST and is called the Huskers Happy Hour…although it often goes over an hour. Or two on occasion – stay as long as you like. You can watch on Corn Nation’s You Tube Live Channel or Corn Nation Facebook or Twitter/X. It also streams on my own page on Facebook Live.
Next Tuesday’s show will be Season 3, Episode 6 and we will hopefully be celebrating our 6-0 record after taking down defending National Champion Indiana!
The watchers and listeners are encouraged to chime into the comments as they are happily a big part of the show. Pour your own cold one – or spiked coffee, we don’t judge – and hop aboards!
CLICK THE LINK ABOVE TO CHECK OUT THE MOST RECENT EPISODE!
FACTS & FIGURES
- Nebraska and Indiana are among the nation’s best teams in protecting the football, combining for just three turnovers. Nebraska has committed two turnovers, while Indiana is tied for the national lead with just one turnover lost.
- Nebraska and Indiana both rank in the top 15 nationally in both scoring offense and scoring defense. The Huskers rank ninth in scoring offense (43.6 ppg) and 15th in scoring defense (14.2 ppg), while the Hoosiers are eighth in scoring offense (44.2 ppg) and fifth in scoring defense (10.8 ppg).
- Indiana is the first defending national champion to play at Memorial Stadium since Texas visited Lincoln 20 seasons ago in 2006, with the Longhorns winning 22-20. Previously, NU hosted defending national champion Oklahoma teams in 2001 and 1986.
- The 2024 game in Bloomington marked the first time Nebraska had faced a ranked Indiana team since 1945.
- Seventeen of the 24 games in the series have been played in Lincoln, with Indiana holding an 8-6-2 edge in the previous 16 games.
- The Huskers will be looking for its first victory over a ranked opponent since a 35-32 victory over Oregon in 2016.
Sidebar: If you follow me at all, you know that I only consider it a win over a ranked team if that team is ranked at season’s end. That “We’re back!” game against Oregon came against a team which finished 4-8 – imagine the ridicule if we had a streak of victories against ranked teams and that 2016 abomination was holding it together.
If scoring properly, our last win against a ranked team was in 2024 against Colorado who finished 25th in both the AP and Coach’s polls.
- Nebraska’s most recent victory over a top-10 opponent was a 39-38 win over sixth-ranked Michigan State at Memorial Stadium in 2015. (This one counts. The Brandon Reilly TD may have been the last time a bad call went our way in a huge moment.)
- The matchup with Indiana is the first of four games remaining on the schedule against currently ranked teams. The Huskers will also play at 13th-ranked Oregon (Oct. 17), host No. 5 Ohio State (Nov. 21) and play at No. 20 Iowa (Nov. 27).
- Nebraska improved to 5-0 with its victory over Maryland, marking the first time Nebraska has been unbeaten through five games since 2016 when NU opened 7-0. This is Nebraska’s sixth 5-0 start to a season since 2000.
In case we’re in trouble at the half, here’s Chandler’s speech from FNL mentioned above. It won’t affect the game, but you’ll get fired up for a few minutes. Besides, after starring in Lanterns, he is now linked to the Huskers since the show took place in Rushville and Rhule had a cameo in which he snagged a 5-star recruit.
