Husker Football: Fresno State Bulldogs Wrap Up

Three times the Husker football team has played in 2014 and three times they’ve shown progress in bits and pieces. Clearly, the Huskers have offensive skill players that have the talent to get the Big Red a win on any given day. On defense, there is, indeed, a youthful and talented core.

What do we really know about this squad?

Well, here’s what you can mark down as sure things next to death and taxes:

Ameer Abdullah’s a freak of nature
Tommy Armstrong, Jr’s far and away the best quarterback Nebraska has right now
Tim Beck has fallen in love with the vertical passing game

The rest is up in the air. For the second week in a row, the offensive line had difficulty getting a push up front. Many times, Abdullah looked like he was running into a mass of humanity between his guys up front and Fresno’s.

How much yardage he picked up seemed like a roll of the dice. He eventually breaks a big run, though. As we’ve already established, that’s right up there with the sky being blue and water being wet. Jake Cotton’s proven to be a liability overall during the past two games.

Alex Lewis can be an All-American if teams can avoid him and go to work on Cotton and Mark Pelini.

While Armstrong is the best signal-caller, he still struggles with locking onto his first receiver. Throughout three games, he’s had the option to toss to a Heisman candidate for easy yardage and opted out because he was looking downfield.

On defense, it’s been a mixed bag. We’ve seen a young duo show flashes of being as dynamic as predicted in defensive tackles Vincent Valentine and Maliek Collins.

Greg McMullen’s won’t be confused with Randy Gregory any time soon, but he’s stepped his game up to the point where he has to be accounted for.

Let’s be honest, if the Big Red had crushed McNeese State, it’s hard to think anyone in the country would easily guess against the Huskers right now.

The linebackers are proving to be a weakness considering how many screens have been successful after being started right in front of Josh Banderas and David Santos.

The jury’s still out on most of the defensive backs except Nathan Gerry. The guy’s an absolute beast. If anyone deserves their scholarship in the back four, it’s the South Dakotan.

Special teams has been a pleasant surprise through a trio of games. Long snapping hasn’t gone in the toilet, kicker Drew Brown’s been more than adequate, Mauro Bondi’s holding up his end of the bargain by booting long kickoffs and De’Mornay Pierson-El showed us how to love punt returns again.

The bottom line is that Nebraska’s shown some excellent potential heading into a prime-time matchup against the Miami Hurricanes.

You won’t confuse these guys with the same ‘Canes that Warren Sapp and Michael Irvin were a part of, but it’s still a group of speedy Floridians that will put the Huskers to the test.