Give me all of the anonymous coach quotes
Who doesn’t love football coaches being snarky about, or occasionally complimentary of, their peers?
College football’s Magazine Season keeps getting pushed later in the calendar. Blame the portal. Blame the ongoing erosion of print. It’s probably more of the former, but the latter doesn’t help.
Outlets used to race to get their national previews on newsstands in plenty of time for summer reading. Now it’s more like, “We’ll get it out as soon as we can feel good about what’s in the magazine,” but that’s a moving target. Wait too long and there’s no point in a preview. The season basically starts mid-July with Talking Season, which remains fixed on the calendar for now.
There was a time a decade-plus ago when you knew May was the time, and I’d buy almost every preseason magazine I saw. Eventually I settled on two must-buys: Phil Steele and Athlon.
I have reservations1 with Steele’s preview these days, but I’ll always buy it out of tradition and to maintain the annoying archive2 my children will curse me for one day.
Athlon entered my favs about five years ago when it began including advanced stats paired with anonymous coach gossip. The latter3 was probably the bigger draw if I’m being honest. Who doesn’t love football coaches, mostly assistants and staffers, being snarky about (or occasionally complimentary of) their peers?
Here are some of my favorite gossip hits about Nebraska from previous years:
2019: “They need an identity. That’s what separates a talented roster or a high-scoring team from a Northwestern or Wisconsin. You need a defense that can make it ugly.”
2020: “It turns out it’s harder to fix this program than everyone in the media thinks. Going in last year everyone was hyping them to blow through the West and try to win the league.”4
2021: “Right now, they can’t claim to be a developer of NFL talent. A few years ago, they had three DL at the Combine, and that was after a year they couldn’t stop anyone’s running game. I’d describe their defensive personnel as world-beaters on the hoof. They look the part before the game.”
2022: “We call it the all-bus team because they look better than anyone else in the West in pregame. Long, tall dudes, really athletic, and then after a quarter or so, you stop worrying because they’re hurting themselves…I think it’s a culture issue.”
2023: “Matt Rhule is a legitimately good college football head coach. Fans talking about the Carolina Panthers don’t get it. He changed the culture at places that were in really, really bad situations, so he’s got an even better shot than an alumnus of waking up the sleeping giant.”
Pretty complete narrative arc of the past five seasons.5
What’s the gossip mill churning out on the Huskers this year? I’d be happy to run through all of the quotes, but that’s not very sporting and probably overkill. You can find everything Athlon published here, but there’s a splashy big-picture quote about year two, a note that things hinge on the quarterback, a prediction for breakout receivers and a positive opinion about defensive coordinator Tony White.
But the quote that stood out the most to me was this one:
“I thought the shift to the 3-3 worked out really well for them, and they’re starting to look like old, or legendary Nebraska, with the size and talent up front on defense.”
While any impartial observer mentioning “legendary Nebraska” will always be the takeaway locally, I’m highlighting this one because it mentions the defensive front. That could include the whole front six, but given the Huskers have to replace two multi-year starters at linebacker I’m assuming this is mostly about the line where Nebraska returns almost everything.
Ty Robinson (4 TFLs) and Nash Hutmacher (8) are the big, Nebraska-of-old-lookin’ headliners. Edge Jimari Butler led the team with 8.5 TFLs. Those three alone might give the Huskers’ their best top line up front since 2015.6 What happens behind those three, however, might be more important.
True freshmen Cameron Lenhardt (5 TFLs) and Princewill Umanmielen (4.5) were impossible to miss last year and should be even better in 2024. Fellow true freshmen in 2023, Riley Van Poppel and Kai Wallin, weren’t as splashy but still showed real promise. Texas A&M transfer Elijah Jeudy appeared in 11 games. Sua Lefotu redshirted as a freshman but drew good reviews during the spring when injuries to others offered an opportunity.
In total, that’s nine guys, and they’re just the ones who seem like the best bets to play.7
While there wasn’t a lot to take issue with defensively in Lincoln last season, pull out the magnifying glass and there were hints that the Huskers would’ve benefitted from a bit more depth up front. Over the first six games of the season, opponents ran against NU on just 38.3% of plays, managing .013 Expected Points Added per play with a 35.9% success rate. Over the back half of the season, all Big Ten games, opponents ran it 49.3% of the time with a .046 EPA per play and a 37.7% success rate.
Perhaps a better way to visualize this is by quarter. In the first quarter the Huskers allowed 2.5 per rush (3rd nationally), it climbed to 3.9 (58th) in the second and then, with a break at halftime and a chance for adjustments, settled back down 2.8 in the third (8th) and 2.7 in the fourth (13th).
None of those numbers are bad by any means, but they suggest the Huskers could’ve used a bit more depth up front if we’re picking nits. It’s depth Nebraska might have in 2024.
There’s a growing consensus around Nebraska as a “team to watch” this season, and everyone knows Dylan Raiola is probably the quarterback and how he plays in concert with those around him on offense probably sets the ceiling. Coaches mentioned both those things to Athlon, but if we’re talking about strengths rather than pivot points or unanswered questions for this year’s team, defensive line may very well be Nebraska’s best asset.
Shout out to the Big Ten coach who mentioned that one. I don’t know who you are, but may you forever remain anonymous. Gotta keep one of my favorite offseason traditions going.
I’d boil it down this way: The big type in this magazine —i.e., the front of the book features—doesn’t change much year to year. The little type—the information-dense team sections—is what’s actually new, but I don’t need a printed page to know about Indiana’s roster or its stats from the past five years. That said, if I want to know what the vibe was around the Hoosiers in 2009, all I have to do is turn to my bookshelf.
I’ve got a complete Steele set going back to 2006, and if anyone has 1995 to 2005, let me know. I might be a willing buyer.
Compiled by Steven Godfrey, one of three journalists behind Split Zone Duo. If you like big-picture, national college football coverage, I think it’s some of the best you’ll find.
To be fair, three of the five coaches quoted anonymously in 2019 were also “hyping them up,” which is another great thing about anonymous coach quotes. When you’re in the game, you can just attribute undue hyping up to gamesmanship. Better for those coaches if Nebraska thinks its good before it is. Do it in the media, however, and you weren’t just wrong, you’ll never be right again.
See, kids? Pulling those off the shelf was probably even easier than a Google search.
Starring Maliek Collins and Vincent Valentine with a breakthrough debut from Freedom Akinmoaldun.
I wouldn’t be surprised if NU found a way to get Keona Wilhite’s beak wet right away in 2024. A flip from Washington in the February signing period, Wilhite’s listed at 6-4, 240, as a true freshman.
Not that anyone ever has or ever will ask me for an anonymous quote. But if I were to make one about the Huskers, I'd say something like "I just don't see how, when you've got a healthy returning starting quarterback with a winning record, you don't at least trot them out there to take the first snap of the first game."
Or maybe
"Coach Rhules secret sauce is finding people with specific speed and size for each position and then teaching the players to play that position, no matter what position that they've played in the past or think they should be playing."
Or finally,
"Did you know that polar bears are one of three animals that once they get a taste of human flesh, will actively hunt them? That's what the Nebraska defensive line is going to be like this year."
Last season we saw a defense that attacked first and second down, but had some struggles with stopping short passing game on third down. Line play showed up, and I saw an improvement on offensive line play at the end of the season. The defensive line needed more capable bodies. Jeff Simms was perfect example of the problems the old staff had. But more puzzling with these guys. His problems and his backups injuries meant the offense had few options and all were fraught with huge risk.