Nebraska football offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf is in a position not unlike chefs on the cooking show ‘Chopped’.
For the uninitiated, cooks are given mystery baskets containing ingredients from the fairly average to the out of the ordinary. They must use all of these items to create a delicious course for the judges to viciously rip apart with their taste buds and the results can be rather…creative.
Picture Langsdorf with a poofy chef’s hat working violently at his station after being gifted a basket with the following items:
- Approximately two quarterbacks (once you roll them all together)
- A running back corps (complete with slowed starting and supporting players)
- A wide receiver corps missing its most dynamic player
- A mostly-healed offensive line
Now all he has to do is rush to the pantry and rip fistfuls of film off of the racks that show Tennessee’s weaknesses. Come Friday, he must be ready to serve an appetizer, entree and dessert of a game plan against a Volunteer defense that resembles something like uncooked pancake batter a bit itself.
That said, defensive end Derek Barnett is as rock solid as three-day-old French bread and was named to the SEC Coaches’ All-SEC First Team along with Pro Football Focus’ All-SEC Second Team.
It’s only a wonder what Langsdorf will serve up for the Volunteer defense to take a shock at slicing and dicing in Nashville, TN. Perhaps the best thing that he has going for him is the element of complete surprise.
Will he manage to cobble together an elegant blend of a strained Terrell Newby and Tre Bryant infused with a hard splash of Devine Ozigbo as a running game?
Perhaps a two or even three-quarterback salad will be in the mix with Tommy Armstrong, Jr., Ryker Fyfe and Zack Darlington all being used in some way. Maybe as decoys or one-off bursts of flavor.
No doubt the fly sweep accents will come out, but will Brandon Reilly truly be the man that Tennessee wants to keep their eyes on to take a bite out of in that scenario?
Nobody knows. Everyone’s famished and ready to see what Langsdorf has ready to unveil.
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He still has a little time to work.
Three days as of this writing. Starting…
Now.