The Weekly Rundown: Was the Northwestern game a turning point?

Was Nebraska’s win over Northwestern on Saturday a turning point for this 2021 season? We start your Monday off with the Weekly Rundown column, as we hit on that and more.

You have to feel pretty good about these things right now:

QB Adrian Martinez: Junior quarterback Adrian Martinez looks like the quarterback we thought we’d see in 2019. He’s playing at a different level, and the option element added to the offense has made him that much harder to defend.

Tell me another quarterback in the Big Ten playing at a higher level than Martinez right now?

LB JoJo Domann: It used to be hard to answer the question “who on Nebraska is an All-Big Ten” player on defense. Now it doesn’t feel that way.

Senior JoJo Domann is playing like an All-Big Ten level player at linebacker. Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald even sought him out and asked Domann “if he was out of eligibility” yet? Domann actually saw 16 snaps of special teams play in a 2016 game vs. the Wildcats. I don’t blame Fitzgerald for asking.

It reminds me of back when Dana Altman complained about having to play against Cookie Belcher for five years straight when Danny Nee selectively played him to preserve a medical redshirt – one of those games was Creighton. People forget Domann is the only player on this Husker team that actually took snaps in 2016 – NU’s last winning team.

Memorial Stadium at night: I think we almost forgot how special Memorial Stadium can be at night. NU fans have been punished with more 11 am games than a guy can count.

It was nice to see the Cathedral on 10th & Vine back in its full glory. I can’t imagine what Saturday is going to bring vs. Michigan.

These were my surprises of the week:

RB Jaquez Yant: OK, nobody could have called this one. We saw flashes from Jaquez Yant in the spring and vs. Fordham, but to have a 64-yard run against Northwestern in the first quarter? By the way, NU’s previous long run by a back this season was just 21 yards.

I often joke that Nebraska’s running back rotation felt like a weekly soup special sometimes. I think the chef may have found one to keep on the regular menu.

Nebraska’s new left side of the line: Hello Teddy Prochazka and Nouri Nouili. Give head coach Scott Frost a lot of credit here. He took a gamble and shook up his offensive line in week five with a true freshman and a former German foreign exchange student that’s only played football in American for four years. Well, it worked.

That was a $5 million a year head coach going with his gut feel and pushing aside loyalty. Before Saturday, Nouili was seriously considering weighing his options long-term if he didn’t get on the field this season. He still remains a walk-on as well. I have to imagine that’s going to change very quickly.

How much Northwestern has dropped off: I knew Northwestern was down this season, but they have taken about as big of a step back as you could ever imagine. The Wildcats also don’t appear to be built for the transfer portal or NIL era.

It’s very hard to transfer into Northwestern because of their academics, and I don’t get the sense they are going to have near the organization with their NIL efforts to sway key recruits and players in the future.

Special teams: Nebraska had an 84-yard punt and every punt was fielded cleanly by Oliver Martin. Need I say more?

Questions still surround these things:

Can this offensive line match up with Michigan?: Matching up with Northwestern is one thing. Going against Michigan is a whole different story.

The Wolverines have two elite defensive ends in Aidan Hutchinson (21 QB pressures) and David Ojabo (11 QB pressures). The duo is responsible for nine of Michigan’s 13 sacks on the year, according to PFF. Hutchinson has an overall grade of 92.0, while Ojabo is an 82.6. This is the match-up of the game.

Can the Huskers’ young tackles hold up against them, and how will Frost help Teddy Prochazka and Turner Corcoran?

Will the Big Ten have a playoff team?: One thing we still don’t know is if the Big Ten Conference truly has a playoff team in 2021? Right now, Iowa would arguably be the best team in the league with their win at Iowa State and their impressive victory at undefeated Maryland last Friday.

Penn State owns wins over Wisconsin and Auburn, but I still feel like they are not a playoff-level type team.

Ohio State intrigues me because I think they have the ability to keep getting better each week and still finish 11-1.

I sure would not want to be on the playoff committee this year, because it’s going to be awfully hard to decide on four teams at this point it appears.

Moving forward, this has my attention:

Michigan vs. mobile quarterbacks: Michigan is 5-0. I totally get that. They are having a great season, but have they seen a quarterback anywhere close to the level of Adrian Martinez?

You can make a case that Noah Vedral was the best quarterback the Wolverines have faced in 2021. They have not seen any quarterback with near the dynamic skill set of Martinez. How much will Michigan go after Martinez with the blitz? Or will they play it safe like everyone else with just a four-man rush?

Jim Harbaugh’s first trip to Lincoln: This will just be Michigan’s second trip to Lincoln since joining the Big Ten and Jim Harbaugh’s first. Think about that. NU is in their 11th season in the Big Ten and they have only seen Michigan once in Lincoln, and that was back when they were in the same division.

This will be their first trip here since the split to the East-West Divisions. The good news is the Huskers will play Michigan for five straight seasons now through 2025. Three of those five games are in Lincoln. They replace Ohio State on the Big Ten’s East-West schedule cycle. The Huskers played the Buckeyes for a six-game cycle.

Finding big plays on Michigan: Can this Husker offense find big plays against a defense that doesn’t give up very many of them? That is really the storyline of this game.

Sean Callahan can be reached at sean@huskeronline.com and he can be heard each day at 6:45 am and 5:05 pm on Big Red Radio 1110 KFAB in Omaha during the football season. He can also be seen on KETV Channel 7 in Omaha during the fall and each week he appears on NET’s Big Red Wrap-Tuesday’s at 7 pm.