Game Day Guide: What you need to know for Nebraska-Illinois
Game Day Guide: What you need to know for Nebraska-Illinois
TGIGD — Thank goodness it's game day? Nebraska and Illinois meet once again on an early-season Friday.
Thank goodness it’s . . . game day?
It’s another Friday football game day for the Huskers — not counting the annual Black Friday matchup, of course — which seems to often pair Nebraska and Illinois up. In fact, this is the third consecutive year of an early-season Big Ten Friday night game for the Huskers, and the second straight year against the Fighting Illini.
Friday night college football games certainly make things difficult logistically. For Nebraska, the Huskers canceled in-person classes for the day. It’ll also impact high school football games, which was one area of concern that athletic director Troy Dannen addressed in May.
"I know Friday night games cause a lot of heartburn for a lot of reasons," Dannen said at the time. "We think of high school football, just the logistics of a Friday night game in the middle of a college campus. So there can be a lot of challenges along with it, but I think the ability to put the Huskers and that stadium, and our crowd, in the national limelight for a night game, it's well worth the challenges that lie ahead with it."
And Nebraska will get just that — a top-25 matchup on Fox which also coincides with the Huskers’ 400th consecutive sellout game. Works out in some ways, especially when you consider what it means for someone like coach Matt Rhule. For him and his staff, a game like this makes for an easy recruiting pitch.
“I certainly understand the gravity of (the sellout),” Rhule said this week. “The one thing that’s really easy for me and great for me is to explain that to recruits. The first thing we do is explain to recruits that show up here on their official visit, we don’t do some fancy thing. We take a picture with them, then we walk them right out onto the field. We show them, ‘Hey, here’s the number of sellouts in a row and here’s the All-Americans.’ We talk about the field and how our hope is some day that they win a championship on that field but also that they graduate on that field, and how the University of Nebraska is not a football factory. It’s a place of development and that’s the proof of it. That you can sell out 400 straight games and you can graduate an Academic All-American. They’ve changed the parameters or given some away to others, but we’ve been the leader in that for a long time. It’s just a perfect blend of everything. It’s what drew me here. It’s what draws other people here.
“I think getting to 400 sellouts will be great. My job though is to make sure that we win that game so that people leave happy about it, not anything else. I have just been trying to stick to football.”
The “sticking to football” part is for Rhule and his team, which checked in at No. 22 in both the AP and Coaches Polls this week. The ceremony of it all is there for the fans.
Thank goodness it’s game day.
Everything you need to know for Nebraska-Illinois:
TV Channel: Fox (Tim Brando, Devin Gardner, Josh Sims)
Date: Friday, Sept. 20
Time: 7 p.m. CT
Live Stream: FoxSports.com (with TV provider)
Radio: Huskers Radio Network
Location: Memorial Stadium, Lincoln, Nebraska
Weather: Mostly sunny skies. High 94 degrees. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph.1
Line: Nebraska -8.5
Over/Under: 43.5
Notable quotes:
Matt Rhule on Big Ten play versus nonconference:
“You think about it very simply. Our goal is to go 1-0 every week. Now that we’re over with it, though when you look back on it in hindsight. You went 3-0 in non-conference play, which is what we’re supposed to do. Good teams do what they’re supposed to do. But now we have Big Ten play. We’re trying to compete to win the Big Ten. All of these games matter. All of these games are important. This is a great opportunity. It’s our first league game. We didn’t certainly approach this preseason like the preseason. To me it’s just now we’re entering Big Ten play. Our approach doesn’t change but just the gravity of the situation is a little bit different.”
Illinois head coach Bret Bielema on Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola:
“He brings a different element immediately,” Bielema said Monday. “He’s a very talented young man that’s got incredible awareness. Very talented. Got a great deep-ball throw. They maximize and utilize him pretty well. I think early downs, third downs, there’s some things you can literally see him get better on every series. Just very impressive to see. I know he’s a highly recruited player and brought a lot of attention — deservedly so.”
Raiola on preparing for Illinois:
“With a short week, I wanted to move on from it pretty quick. I think that it was important that I just woke up and watched the tape and graded myself and just moved on from it. You’ve got a Friday game, and it’s a great opponent that you’re going to play, so you want to make sure that you can make it as close to a normal week as you can, just with one less day of preparation, but we’ll be ready, regardless.”
Offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield on preparing for the Illinois defense:
“I think they’re very talented. They’ve got a lot of guys on the back end that have played a lot of football.Their linebackers have played a lot of football. They’ve got a very physical and lengthy front five that they play with, so it’s going to be tough to move the line of scrimmage, so we’ve got to be ready for a fist fight on Friday night. In terms of running the football and trying to move the line of scrimmage, they’re always going to have an extra hat in the box. They play a lot of man coverage, one of the things that shows up is a little bit more zone this year than they’ve played in the past. Something we’ve got to be ready for. The scheme is excellent, the players are playing really well, they’re taking the ball away. I think they’re at a plus nine turnover margin right now. We’ve got to come in ready for a fight. We’ve got to be physical, we’ve got to take care of the football.”
Other games we’re watching this week:
(All games in CT)
Erin
Florida at Mississippi State, 11 a.m., ESPN
Florida is 1-2. Mississippi State is 1-2. It’s rough toward the bottom of the SEC right now, yet this matchup just screams chaos to me. What kind of chaos? I don’t know, but someone has to do something, right? The Gators don’t seem to have much of anything going for them, outside of the passing game, but it’s not like Mississippi State has fared much better so far. In fact, when you look at it — Florida is probably just the slightly better team. Does that mean anything? No, it doesn’t. I hope this game gets weird.
No. 11 USC at No. 18 Michigan, 2:30 p.m., CBS
This is one of those classic Big Ten games we all look forward to every single season. And Michigan is certainly looking forward to hopefully getting back on track after following up a loss to Texas with a less-than-impressive win over Arkansas State last week. Here’s the thing about that loss for the Wolverines: it highlighted some pretty important areas of vulnerability on defense. Not great when USC heads to Ann Arbor with the seventh-most productive passing offense. The Trojans are boasting 336.5 passing yards per game, which just so happens to be one spot behind Texas. We’ll see how the Wolverines hold up.
Purdue at Oregon State, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
I don’t know what it is about this game but the matchup just speaks to me. Maybe it’s the Boilermakers coming into this after a 66-7 loss to Notre Dame. Maybe it’s Oregon State coming into this after a 49-14 loss to Oregon. Whatever the case, both teams want to get back on track and there’s already talk about getting those key wins for bowl eligibility. It should be a better day for both, and I think that could make things interesting.
Brandon
Kansas at West Virginia, 11 a.m., ESPN2
This season was supposed to be the one where Lance Leipold’s Jayhawks took another step up the ladder. Instead, a preseason top-25 team enters this one 1-2. It’s not hard to see the issue—the Jayhawks are -6 in turnovers (130th). West Virginia hasn’t been any better at -5 (125th) and is also 1-2, with losses to Penn State and Pitt. The Mountaineers are a slight favorite, but I just want to see a turnover-free game. Both teams deserve and maybe then we’ll know more about each of them.
Rutgers at Virginia Tech, 2:30 p.m., ACCN
With the Huskers’ game already in the books, time to get the pad and pen out for some advance scouting. This is Rutgers first real test of the season, so I’ll be hoping to get a real sense of the team that’s coming to Lincoln in two weeks. Virginia Tech has rebounded from its season-opening loss to Vanderbilt with back-to-back wins over Marshall and Old Dominion. The Hokies are a 3.5-point favorite at home, so this one’s expected to be tight.
No. 6 Tennessee at No. 15 Oklahoma, 6:30 p.m., ABC
This game is a narrative feast. Oklahoma’s first SEC game. Maybe the biggest game in Norman since…Ohio State visited in 2016? Meanwhile Tennessee is rolling under Josh Heupel, a national-title winning quarterback at OU who became Sooner OC and then was kind of thrown under the bus in favor of Lincoln Riley. Is Heupel still bitter about it? Yeah. Given the chance to make a statement, I think he will. And he might have a good chance. The Sooners are banged up at key spots, the o-line isn’t blowing anyone away and OU’s QB is the leading rusher but these aren’t the wishbone days. There’s blowout potential here. If Tennessee decides to hang half-a-hundred on ‘em—the Vols are averaging 63.7—I might watch all 50-plus points.
Take this seriously if you’ll be at the game. It’s not looking too humid, but still hot.