Game Day Guide: What you need to know for Nebraska-Purdue
Game Day Guide: What you need to know for Nebraska-Purdue
Hope you have your winter coats ready because it's going to be a chilly one for Nebraska's matchup with Purdue in Lincoln.
Happy game day, everyone. Hope you’re ready for a chilly one if you plan to be at the game in Lincoln, because it’s going to look and feel a whole heck of a lot different than it has so far this season.
If you ask coach Matt Rhule about it though, he’ll tell you he’s ready for it.
“There are all of these things that I kind of had to learn about our home stadium,” he said on Monday. “What does the wind look like? All of these different things. But we put everything together with the hope of it allowing us to win cold weather games. It would allow us to win windy games. That’s why in the start of spring when you go out in spring football when it’s 27 degrees and windy we never practiced indoors. We always practiced outside because we don’t have any dome games this year, save the Big Ten Championship game, so we might as well practice outside. We have prepared for all of those things.”
As for the game itself, Nebraska (4-3, 2-2 Big Ten) comes into the matchup having defeated Northwestern last Saturday, 17-9. On the Purdue (2-5, 1-3 Big Ten) side of things, the Boilermakers come into this week’s matchup following a bye week. Prior to that, the Boilermakers fell to No. 3 Ohio State, 41-7.
Fun fact to share with your friends: Purdue has faced one of the nation’s most difficult schedules this season. The Boilermakers have faced SIX Power Five opponents to date.
Anyway, Purdue currently boasts the fourth-best offense in the Big Ten in passing per game with better than 230 yards per contest. As for its running game, the Boilermakers have Devin Mockobee, who had a 100-yard game against the Buckeyes. He’ll be one to watch.
However, Nebraska’s defensive line — led by nose tackle Nash Hutmacher — should keep things in control. Removing the Michigan game from the mix, Nebraska has allowed only 48 rushing yards and three total rushing touchdowns over six games. Not bad.
Where are our Run The Ball fans? If that’s you, expect Saturday to be a good day for the Huskers to do just that. Aside from the weather — which also calls for running the ball — the matchup sets up well for Nebraska quarterback Heinrich Haarberg and running back Emmett Johnson to put some work in on the ground. Purdue is second to last in the Big Ten in rushing scores allowed. Only Northwestern is worse.
Every game is one step closer to bowl eligibility, so here’s hoping Nebraska can play smart, run the ball and get out of this matchup healthier than it has in previous weeks.
Nebraska versus Purdue: Everything you need to know for game day
TV Channel: FS1 (Jeff Levering, Mark Helfrich)
Date: Saturday, October 28
Time: 2:30 p.m. CT
Live Stream: FoxSports.com (with TV provider)
Radio: Nebraska fans can listen to the game on the Huskers Radio Network. Internet radio, as well as a Spanish broadcast, will be available at Huskers.com.
Location: Memorial Stadium, Lincoln, Nebraska
Weather: A mix of clouds and sun in the morning followed by cloudy skies during the afternoon. High of 39 degrees. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph.
Line: Nebraska -2.5
Over/Under: 39.5
Notable quotes
Head coach Matt Rhule on finding a way to win even when the team isn’t playing its best:
“The danger, and it goes back to Bill Parcells, who used to talk about the psychology of results. There’s four things to it. One of them is, when you don’t play at the level you want to play at, when you don’t play well and win, sometimes you start to think, ‘Hey, I can win.’ That’s why you’ll hear me say I don’t care about the score all the time. Obviously I want to win but I care about how we play. There’s a standard.”
Purdue head coach Ryan Walters on playing at Nebraska:
“You know, 91,000+ that are a Sea of Red. My history with Nebraska started at a very young age. Obviously grew up a fan at Colorado, my dad playing there, and that was the hated rivalry, right? And so you remove yourself from that as a coach, and the first time I got to play against Nebraska again was in 2021. My first season at Illinois. I just remember them running out of the tunnel in Champaign and the feelings just come back, right?
“It's like, man, I really can't stand that color. Don't like that N on the helmet. And so definitely this has been a big week. We've explained to the guys how crazy it gets out there. They are die-hard fans, win, lose, or draw, so we're looking forward to a great venue to play a competitive and tough football game.”
Other games we’re watching
(All games in CT)
Erin
Morning - Maryland at Northwestern, 11 a.m., Big Ten Network
I mostly picked this as one to watch because Nebraska has yet to face Maryland, so it’s worth keeping at least an eye on through the morning. Maryland is coming off a much-needed bye week where the Terrapins needed a number of players to get healthy. It seems like that happened, so we’ll see what a more fully-loaded Maryland team can do with the final weeks of the season.
Afternoon - No. 20 Duke at No. 18 Louisville, 2:30 p.m., ESPN
These two teams have only met three times in school history, with Saturday marking the fourth meeting. The Cardinals have won all three to date. Does that change on Saturday? Well, it’ll be tough for Duke but the Blue Devil defense could be a major factor here. Louisville is currently favored by 4.5, so it looks like it’ll be a close game either way.
Evening - No. 3 Ohio State at Wisconsin, 6:30 p.m., NBC
I’ll keep this short. Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell played and coached at Ohio State. That’s all. Let’s watch football!
Brandon
Morning - No. 8 Oklahoma at Kansas, 11 a.m., FOX
Oklahoma’s defense over the first four games: 8.5 points per game allowed. OU’s defense over its last three games: 26.3. The Sooners, 7-0, still have plenty of cushion with an offense that averaged 38.3 over that latter three-game stretch, but Kansas, per FPI, has the best offense Oklahoma has faced yet. I expect the Jayhawks to trade blows for a bit.
Afternoon - No. 8 Oregon at No. 13 Utah, 2:30 p.m., FOX
The easiest way to build a program into (or back into, if you catch my drift, Nebraska) a consistent winner? Do it like this: Outside of the pandemic season, Utah hasn’t lost a home game since September of 2018. (The Utes lost the first game they played in 2020, at home, 33-17 to USC, but won the other two.) Oregon’s perfectly capable of playing hard-nosed football, but Utah always seems to find something extra in Salt Lake City. Will definitely second-screen this one during Nebraska-Purdue.
Evening - Colorado at No. 23 UCLA, 6:30 p.m., ABC
From a Nebraska perspective, it makes the most sense to pay the most attention to Ohio State-Wisconsin. I, however, am anxious to see how Colorado comes out of its bye week after dropping three of its past four games. In a lot of ways, CU is almost back to where it was pre-TCU–everybody’s interested, but only Deion die-hards think it will work out. UCLA is around a 17-point favorite, and, unless Colorado is favored at home against Arizona in two weeks, the Buffs will be dogs the rest of the way, needing two wins to get to a bowl.