3 Husky Objectives for Beating Nebraska

For the University of Washington football team, it's been opportunity lost so far this season and, seven games into it, the Huskies have traveled to Nebraska, hoping for the best.

The UW seemingly had a chance to do some real damage this fall with a home-heavy schedule early on and having several touted Big Ten teams experience a pronounced drop-off, such as USC, Penn State and Oregon.

Unfortunately for them, the Huskies (4-3 overall, 1-3 conference) are one of those teams that took an unexpected dip as well, losing three consecutive games for the first time under coach Jedd Fisch, including two at home, and failing to live up to a No. 17 preseason ranking.

Fisch calls it growing pains while others might argue it's been underperformance in some areas. The quarterback wasn't ready to play when the season began. The offensive line has been shuffled and reshuffled and now shuffled once more. The defense didn't pick up the slack as expected when needed.

So what's next?

Generally speaking, you don't go to Nebraska (5-2, 2-2) to get or stay well. The last two times the Huskies have come through this place, they lost 55-7 in 1998, which was one of the reasons Jim Lambright got fired as coach at the end of that season, and again 51-38 in 2011, when Steve Sarkisian was the boss.

A win here would be a big deal. It would be opportunity finally realized with a big step forward. That said, three things that could influence the outcome of this Saturday evening hay ride in Lincoln, Nebraska, are as follows:

1. STUMBLING BLOCK

With starting center Landen Hatchett out for the season with a neck injury, does the UW offensive line regroup or regress?

Do the Huskies resemble the offensive line that enabled freshman running back Brian Bonner Jr. to get loose for 89 rushing yards against USC or the one that got nothing done in a -3 yards performance against Iowa -- a 14-year UW low.

One man should not dictate the outcome of an entire line here, especially with six guys remaining who each have started at least three games this season, including fill-in center Kolt Dieterich.

Elijah Brown threw 39 times against Iowa, completing 28 for 251 yards and 3 touchdowns. | Dave Sizer photo

2. BROWN BAG

We'll take a wild guess here and suggest that Elijah Brown gets the call instead of Demond Williams Jr. as the Husky starting quarterback for the second consecutive game. No real intel here other than the fact that Williams was listed as questionable early in the week before getting moved up to probable.

Counting his time spent at Stanford and the UW, Brown as a five-time starter has beaten California and now Purdue, both sub .500 teams, while losing to the more meatier Wake Forest, North Carolina and Notre Dame as the No.1 guy. He could use a signature victory this weekend. We'll see if he's the guy and up for it.

Jayden Limar moves along the Husky bench during the Apple Cup. | Dave Sizer photo

3. CROWD CONTROL

The Memorial Stadium atmosphere initially will be a shock to the Huskies' system. It went on like this all game long 28 years ago, when the UW lost 55-7. It was the same way for two and a half quarters 35 years ago when the guys from Montlake, the best in school history, fell behind 21-9 to the Cornhuskers before winning 36-21.

However, as the 1991 Huskies demonstrated, if you can hang in there, let your ears ring a little and begin making big plays, remarkable stuff can happen.

Jedd Fisch's guys need to do what Minnesota and Iowa did to them -- take the crowd out of the game.

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