Nebraska football lost to Illinois on Saturday, and there are now quite a few more questions than answers for Mickey Joseph and company. Right at the top of the list is whether or not the Husker coaching staff is going to come up with those answers before the end of the season. Because they’re bound to pop up again. Like next week.
While there was a brief period of time when the Nebraska football team had all the momentum and even looked like they might be able to pull of the upset, the vast majority of the game shed light on everything that’s wrong with this program.
That includes a coaching staff that still seems very much over its head. Granted, when you consider that Mickey Joseph just finished his fifth-ever game as a head coach, he might get a pass for being in over his head. The rest of his staff, however, including Mark Whipple, are veterans in their position. They get less of a pass for sure.
Why doesn’t the Nebraska football team have a backup QB?
Obviously, the Huskers do have a backup quarterback. We’ve seen a second QB come into almost every game this year. For the most part, the reason Logan Smothers and Chubba Purdy have played so often is that Casey Thompson has taken some real shots. He’s left the game for a play or two quite often. On Saturday, he was done for the game before the first half was over.
So why did it feel like Joseph, Whipple, and the rest of the offensive coaches were totally unprepared for the eventuality that Thompson would have to leave again?
When the starter first went down, Husker faithful collectively raised their eyebrows when Logan Smothers entered the game. He finished out the first half and then was replaced by Purdy, who played about as poorly as a quarterback could play in the second half.
Yes, Illinois is one of the best defenses in the Big Ten and the country. It still looked like Purdy came into the game without much of a plan. The playcalling didn’t seem to be aimed at getting him acclimated.
So far, there’s no word on whether Casey Thompson will be able to go against Minnesota. Even if he does, if he gets hurt again, can the Nebraska football coaches come up with a better plan for Purdy? If they can’t, then what’s going on?
Can Trey Palmer Still Set The School Record?
There was a time when it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Trey Palmer was going to set the Nebraska football school record for receptions in a season. Yards in a season seemed likely to be toppled as well. Then he ran into the buzzsaw that was the Illini defense.
Granted, it wasn’t really Palmer’s fault that he went from 7 catches for 237 yards and two touchdowns against Purdue to one catch for one yard against Illinois. The quarterback issues were glaring on Saturday.
Even before Thompson went down, he was having some real issues getting into a rhythm. There were several times in the first half where Palmer appeared to be wide open and his QB either overthrew him or completely missed that he was on the field.
The question now is, with the quarterback questions in front of him, is there really any chance that he’s going to set Nebraska football history? He’s going to need to find a way to rack up some catches against Minnesota as he’s fallen off the pace big time.
It should be pointed out that Minnesota’s defense is also very, very good. The Golden Gophers are coming off a 31-0 win over Rutgers. Even if Thompson is fully healthy and ready to go next week, it seems hard to believe that the wide receiver is going to be able to find that Nebraska football record pace again quick enough to make that mark. Which shows just how hard that kind of task is to pull off.
What Is Going On With Nebraska Football’s Running Game?
Yes, when Mark Whipple was hired, Nebraska football fans were told to prepare themselves for a pass-happy offense. But that was before the Huskers showed that they actually had a couple of pretty good running backs in Ajay Allen (now hurt) and Anthony Grant.
Considering that the Big Ten is built on bruising offenses and rushing games that carry their teams to victories, it’s not a shock that Husker fans are wanting to see guys like Grant get the rock more. But it goes beyond that.
There’s a real question right now as to what exactly is going on with the choices coaches are making when it comes to who plays and when. Some of those questions are exacerbated by Gabe Ervins also being injured.
But there has to be real questions about why Jacquez Yant is the top backup right now when the race is between him and Rahmir Johnson. Yant seems to be the perfect kind of back to use to run straight ahead in short-yardage situations. It’s not clear why he’s coming into the game in other situations. Against Illinois, Yant had three carries for -4 yards. Meanwhile, Rahmir Johnson had zero carries and one pass target. His usage continues to confound, especially since he had all of one carry last week and managed to go 17 yards.
And then there’s the usage of Grant. The Huskers’ starting running back has had less than 20 carries in four of the last five games and less than 15 carries in three of those. The one game where he had 32 carries against Rutgers? He ran for 136 yards.
With all the questions at quarterback for Nebraska football, it would seem as though they’d lean on the running backs room. But that doesn’t seem to be something Mark Whipple has much confidence in.