Nebraska Football: Defense may have upperhand on Illinois quarterback

Nebraska Football should be familiar with Peters.

Coming into Saturday’s game against Northern Illinois, Nebraska Football defensive line coach Tony Tuioti has some familiarity with the opposition. This may be of note, as Nebraska looks to develop a mini-win streak and hopefully set their season in full momentum.

Brandon Peters is starting for Illinois. Peters was at Michigan while Tuioti was part of the program. Peters was a highly thought of recruit when he committed to the program, and he has had an up-and-down collegiate career since then.

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Right now, Peters is in the midst of having the best collegiate season of his career. He has recorded 687 yards, nine touchdowns and two interceptions. A 52-yard pass has been his longest of the season to this point.

Perhaps even more impressive has been his play at home. With this being a road game for Nebraska Football, Peters is definitely not to be taken lightly. He has five touchdowns and an interception on the year at home. Averaging 7.7 yards per pass at Memorial Stadium, a 52-yard throw is his longest of the season.

Tuioti will definitely need to use all the knowledge he has in order to contain Peters. As we have seen over the past couple of weeks, no team should be taken for granted. Although this Illinois team only averages 239.3 passing yards per game, opponents have shown that they are not afraid to throw the ball against Nebraska.

I would definitely expect the defense to be aggressive. They are at their best when they can get penetration up the middle and rush the passer. They have done that very effectively over the course of the last three games, and I could definitely see them making an impact via sacking the quarterback once again.

As Brian Christopherson of 247Sports notes, Tuioti is in his element when it comes to facing former quarterbacks. This is something he did last weekend, and he will have the opportunity to do it again this Saturday night.

"Nebraska defensive line coach Tony Tuioti said he’s familiar with Illinois starting quarterback Brandon Peters, who was at Michigan when Tuioti was on staff there. This will be the second-straight game where Tuioti has knowledge of an opposing quarterback. Northern Illinois quarterback Ross Bowers was at Cal with Tuioti before transferring."

I’m excited to see how the Nebraska Football passing defense takes on the challenge of facing Peters. One thing is for certain, they will be ready to play. They showed a certain energy on Saturday that seemed to be contagious throughout the course of the game. Hopefully, they can continue to play at a high level.

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