Tad Stryker: Failing the Physical

Nebraska was quietly but firmly denied admission to the upper division of the Big Ten Conference on Saturday.

That may not seem like news to people who’ve been following this situation for the last decade, but there had been some speculation that the Cornhuskers were finally ready to make the move. And to make matters worse, the conference didn’t even send one of its top three or four teams to administer the test. Instead, the league sent a Michigan squad that has slipped a bit since it won a cheating-tainted national championship in 2023.

In fact, Michigan’s chief spokesman was also unavailable, but his replacement, one Biff Poggi, who inadvertently gave Nebraska seven bonus points when he made a colossal time-management blunder just before halftime, nevertheless issued a statement not long after the exam’s conclusion:

“The Big Ten’s upper level requires a certain level of competence in blocking and tackling, and in our judgment, the applicant has failed to prove that it meets baseline standards.”

Yeah, I know, those football engineering types sometimes aren’t much with words, but you can’t fault Biff’s logic.

Full disclosure, I dressed that up that scenario a bit, and Poggi doesn’t always let the facts get in the way of a good story, but despite Nebraska’s attempts at showtime, Michigan’s 30-27 victory itself was an exercise in truth-telling. The 1995 national champions were in the house, and world-champion boxer Bud Crawford led the Huskers onto the field, but the team didn’t pack a punch once the whistle blew. The Huskers failed their early-season physicality test.

On the CBS-TV postgame show, the talking heads seemed a bit embarrassed to have to comment about the same old Nebraska, which lost for the umpteenth consecutive time against a ranked opponent, reminding their viewers for the umpteenth time that you’ve got to win in the trenches to have a chance in the Big Ten. “Raiola needs a running game to help him out a bit,” was their assessment.

In losing their sixth consecutive Big Ten opener, the Huskers made it close with smoke, mirrors, Dylan Raiola’s short passing game and a 52-yard Hail Mary heave, which Raiola and Jacory Barney executed to perfection to send everyone to halftime tied at 17.

Poggi, who still may not realize he could’ve called time out with 15 seconds left in the second quarter and forced Nebraska to punt from midfield, nevertheless was accurate in taking the temperature of the game. He told his team at halftime, “I know it's 17-17, but physically, we're beating the snot out of them, and we're turning this into a heavyweight fight, and that's going to be to our big advantage in the second half.”

Nebraska was outrushed 286-43 after running for 33 yards on its opening drive, and Dylan Raiola was sacked seven times. Both are telltale signs of failure for the offensive line, which has more combined starts than you can shake a stick at. Proving the truth of the old adage about a rushing yard being worth more than a passing yard, the Wolverines kept Nebraska in their rearview mirror most of the day despite committing more penalties than the Big Red and playing even in turnovers.

On the game’s first drive, Nebraska had the Wolverines on their heels, moving the ball 68 yards in seven plays, but got nothing out of it. Offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen showed early that the Huskers had not exactly brought a blue-collar mentality into the contest. On second and three from the Michigan 7-yard line, he lined up Raiola in the shotgun, all alone in the backfield. If that were 2014 Tommy Armstrong back there, the Wolverines would’ve had to at least respect his running ability, but with Raiola taking the snap, they were 100 percent certain of a pass, and they had everything well covered. Then they stuffed a running play and snuffed a Luke Lindenmeyer midline screen to stop the Huskers on downs at the 5.

Michigan defense — Emmett Johnson is tackled by Michigan Wolverines linebacker Jaishawn Barham during the fourth quarter. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

On their next opportunity, Kyle Cunanan missed a 44-yard field goal try, and the Huskers had completely frittered away the fast start they needed.

The Big Red is not good enough in the trenches to talk about turning any corners just yet. If the Nebraska offensive line had as much starch as the skill players do, the Huskers would be heading into their first bye week undefeated, but they don’t and they aren’t. Raiola and Barney made a few plays, but they couldn’t keep up when the Michigan pass rush started getting home.

The defense, which is young, a bit undersized and on the way up, has a valid excuse.

The offense, with several of the nation’s more experienced linemen, does not. In his fourth year on the job, Donovan Raiola has not yet been able to build a Big Ten-caliber o-line. Has there been slow, painstaking improvement? Yes, there has. He inherited a failing-level outfit under Scott Frost in 2022, and now, on its best days, it can pass for a grade B offensive line against FCS competition. But in the Big Ten classroom, it cannot yet be taken seriously. It remains to be seen if Holgorsen can build a consistently high-performing attack with a middling line.

On defense, there were whiffs galore on open-field tackles and too many garbage truck-size holes in the defensive line for Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall to run through. Haynes gashed the Huskers for a 75-yard touchdown run and piled up 149 yards rushing on 17 carries, while Marshall piled on with a 54-yard score and finished with 80 yards on six carries. The embarassing effort can be tempered somewhat by the knowledge that John Butler is using a lot of freshmen and sophomores (three of the Huskers’ top five tacklers Saturday were underclassmen). The defense will get better, but the offensive line’s ceiling is not all that high, so although he works hard at his craft, Emmett Johnson is not a frontrunner to make the all-conference team this season. Johnson gained 97 yards on 19 rushes and five receptions, and had to fight hard for nearly every one of them.

True freshman Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood (105 passing yards, 61 rushing yards, a touchdown and a fumble lost) was pretty much as effective in his fourth college game as Raiola (308 passing yards, three touchdowns and one interception) was in his 17th. After what is likely their only head-to-head matchup this side of the NFL, Underwood’s ceiling appears to be slightly higher.

Underwood led his team on a hope-crushing 16-play, 77-yard drive that consumed more than half of the fourth quarter, set up a short field goal that gave the Wolverines a 30-20 lead with 3:54 remaining and allowed his defense to execute a slow retreat that gave Nebraska a meaningless touchdown in the closing moments of the game. Nebraska has a lot to learn about being the stronger team on the field in the fourth quarter. The Huskers will get another chance in two weeks when they host Michigan State, in a battle for second-division relevance.

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