UCLA Football Preview: Matt Rhule Has Nebraska Moving in the Right Direction
To win today, the Bruins will have to find a way to score on one of the best defenses in the country.
Over the past decade or so, the Nebraska Cornhuskers have struggled much in the same way that UCLA has. Neither team has really lived up to expectations during that timeframe and both teams are now on their third different permanent head coach.
The difference between Nebraska and UCLA is that the Huskers most recent coaching hire was someone with a proven track record of turning college football teams around and they are now on Year Two with Matt Rhule at the helm while the Bruins hired an unproven head coach and they are struggling through DeShaun Foster’s first season as a head coach.
Under Rhule, the Huskers have already shown improvement from last season when they went 5-7 overall. In fact, they have already matched last season’s win total after just eight games.
Rhule has been one of my personal favorite potential Bruin head coaches in the past for two reasons. The first is that history of turning multiple programs—ones which have traditionally struggled—into winning programs. The second reason is that he has coached in Westwood before, having served as the Bruins defensive line coach back in 2001 under Bob Toledo. The Bruins went 7-4 that season. After starting the season 6-0, UCLA had a late season swoon and lost their four-plus next four games including a 27-0 loss to Southern Cal before closing out the year with a win over ASU.
In his first season at Nebraska, Rhule matched the best season that his predecessor Scott Frost had in four-plus seasons with the Huskers.
Rhule is not the only current Nebraska coach with a UCLA connection. Defensive coordinator Tony White was a grad assistant for the Bruins in 2007, which was Karl Dorrell’s final season at the helm. Since then, White has had stops at New Mexico, San Diego State, Arizona State and Syracuse.
Nebraska’s offensive coordinator has coached with Rhule at every stop. Marcus Satterfield has worked with Rhule at every stop including the Carolina Panthers.
Special Teams
Redshirt freshman John Hohl has been the primary kicker for the Huskers this season, even though he hasn’t been especially accurate. He’s just 4 for 8 on field goal attempts, though it seems that he just hit a bad stretch. After missing a field goal attempt against Illinois, he missed all three tries against Purdue. He bounced back last week against Ohio State by making all three of his field goal attempts.
Despite that bad stretch, Rhule did not turn to sophomore Tristan Alfano even though Alfano has made three of his four attempts this season. It’s doubtful Alfano will kick for the Huskers today since he hasn’t played since mid-September.
Hohl has split the kickoff duties with punter Brian Buschini. Hohl has averaged 61.2 yards per kickoff while Buschini averages 61.8. Despite the fact that there isn’t much of a difference between their respective averages, Buschini has 11 touchbacks to Hohl’s five.
Bushcini is also the team’s starting punter. He’s averaging 45.3 yards per punt and he’s only had two go for touchbacks while nine have been longer than 50 yards.
Senior receiver Isaiah Garcia-Castenada is the only guy who has returned punts for Nebraska this year. He isn’t a particularly dangerous return man. He’s returned 11 punts for 60 yards, averaging 5.5 yards per return, and his longest was just 13 yards.
Freshman receiver Jacory Barney, Jr. has returned nine of Nebraska’s 16 kickoff returns. He’s averaging 18.2 yards per return and his longest was 35 yards. Of the other four guys who have returned kickoffs for Nebraska this season, the best one was redshirt freshman Kwinten Ives who’s returned two for 40 yards. Given that his longest was 40 yards, that means the other one had no gain. No one else has returned a kick more than 17 yards.
Offense
Offensively, look for the Huskers to run a typical spread offense with three receivers, one running back, and a tight end. The offense is pretty balanced overall, running the ball 51.1% of the time. The offense hasn’t quite sputtered like the UCLA offense, but it was definitely scoring a lot more points in their first five games than they have in their last three.
Quarterback
True freshman Dylan Raiola will start at quarterback for the Huskers. As you might expect from a freshman starter, Raiola has had a bit of an up-and-down season. He’s thrown nine touchdown passes , but he’s also thrown seven interceptions. That could bode well for the Bruin defense since he’s thrown an average of almost one pick per game. While Raiola has gained 85 yards rushing, he’s actually lost much more than that. His offensive line has allowed 17 sacks, resulting in 134 yards lost. He is also averaging just 218 yards per game passing.
Running Game
Sophomore Dante Dowdell will be the team’s starting running back. Dowdell leads the team with 410 net rushing yards and his 95 carries is more than the next two guys on the team combined. Dowdell leads the team in rushing touchdowns with six. Emmet Johnson has the second-most carries and second-most yards on the team, but Barney, Jr. has the second most touchdowns with three which is interesting because he only has a total of just eight carries this season.
Passing Game
There are seven different Cornhusker receivers who have made more than 10 receptions. Raiola’s key target is senior receiver Isaiah Neyor who is second on the team with 21 receptions, and he’s scored four touchdowns. It’s those touchdowns that really put give him an edge over Nebraska’s other top receiver Jamal Banks, who leads the team in receiving yards with 347.
The guy with the most receptions, however, is Barney, Jr. who has 34, but despite leading the team in receptions, he averages just 6.8 yards per catch for a total of 230 receiving yards.
Tight end Thomas Fidone II is the only other Nebraska receiver with more than 20 receptions. While Fidone has gained 273 yards, he hasn’t found the end zone yet.
Defense
Nebraska will run a 3-3-5 defense featuring two defensive ends, a Jack linebacker, and a rover as the team’s fifth defensive back.
Overall, the Cornhuskers have one of the best defenses in the nation. They are ranked 16th in the nation in total defense, They are also ranked 12th in rushing defense and 45th in passing yards allowed. This doesn’t bode well for UCLA’s offense which is ranked 125th nationwide out of 133 teams
Defensive Line
The defensive line is anchored by senior Nash Hutmacher. He’s made 17 tackles including three TFLs and two sacks. He also has a quarterback hurry.
Senior Ty Robinson and junior Jimari Butler will be the starting defensive ends. Robinson is eighth on the team in tackles with 25 including seven TFLs and four sacks. He also has three pass breakups, two QB hurries and a safety. He leads the team in TFLs and is tied for the team lead in sacks. While Butler has made just 14 tackles, 5.5 of them have been TFLs and two have been sacks. He also has three QB hurries and a fumble recovery.
Linebackers
Senior linebacker John Bullock is third on the team in tackles with 41 including five TFLs and two sacks. He has also made one interception, broken up three passes, had two QB hurries and forced a fumble. Junior Mikai Gbayor is right behind Bullock with 35 tackles including 4.5 TFLs and a sack. He also has one breakup, two hurries and a fumble recovery.
The Huskers’ starting Jack linebacker will be senior MJ Sherman. Sherman has 17 tackles this year including 4.5 TFLs and 3.5 sacks. He also has four QB hurries.
Secondary
The starting corners will be senior Tommi Hill and junior Marques Buford, Jr. Buford has 19 tackles along with an interception and five pass breakups while Hill has made 16 tackles and intercepted a pass.
Senior DeShon Singleton and junior Malcom Hertzog, Jr. will start at the safeties. Singleton is second on the team in tackles with 42 including a TFL. He also has two pass breakups and a fumble recovery. Hertzog is fifth in tackles with 27 and he leads the team in interceptions with four. He also has three breakups.
Senior Isaac Gifford will be the starting rover. That role has resulted in Griffin leading the team in tackles with 44 including three TFLs. He has also broken up a pass and had a QB hurry.
Analysis
Today’s game is going to be a tough one for the Bruins. Nebraska’s defense is one of the best in the country. That doesn’t bode well for a UCLA offense which is one of the worst in the nation. I expect that the Bruins will continue to try using short passes in lieu of a running game since UCLA just cannot run the ball at all.
For the Bruins to have a chance in this game, the defense will need to keep the Nebraska offense out of the end zone. If they can do that, the offense might be able to do just enough to win the game, but I’m not expecting a win today.
Go Bruins!
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This is a big game for the Bruins. I remember when Brett Hundley was our QB and we went to Nebraska. Nebraska fans treated us sooooo well, so kind. Good people. Excellent fans. Go Bruins!
Is there easy access to watch the game?