This week will test the leadership of Nebraska more than ever. We hit on that and more in the Weekly Rundown column.

Nebraska’s locker room and overall team culture will face their toughest test of the season, playing at Wisconsin without four of their offensive coaches, who were fired a week ago.

We hit on that and more as we start your Monday off with the Weekly Rundown column.

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

NU’s culture will be tested these next two weeks: We have heard all season how strong the culture is on this football team.

This week at Wisconsin and next week vs. Iowa that culture is going to be tested unlike ever before.

As we know, Scott Frost parted ways with four assistant coaches last week. Things have been far from normal for the Husker football team since then. This is where a strong locker room can come together and will a team through adversity like they faced this past week. They have held together so far this season, but this week game at Wisconsin offers a whole new challenge.

OLB Damian Jackson: The 29-year old former Navy SEAL was featured on ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday in a wonderful feature about his path to playing at Nebraska. For Jackson’s story to get shared on that stage was great publicity for him and the program. There’s no question there are plenty of Damian Jackson fans now around the country.

2024 QB Dylan Raiola: With Frost on hand on Friday, 2024 Burleson (Texas) quarterback Dylan Raiola put on a show in his team’s 70-48 win over Mesquite in the Texas state playoffs. Raiola was 15-of-20 for 454 yards and seven touchdowns.

Wisconsin’s grip on the Big Ten West: After three early-season losses and a lot of struggles on offense, I think a lot of us doubted Wisconsin in 2021. However, the Badgers once again continue their dominance in the Big Ten West and are the odds-on favorite once again to head to Indianapolis, as they hold the critical tie-breaker over Iowa.

These were my surprises of the week:

Minnesota’s collapse the last two weeks: A couple of weeks ago Minnesota looked like a team that could win the West, but back-to-back losses to Illinois and Iowa have the Gophers looking like more of a 7-5 team instead of a 9-3 team in contention to win the division. Minnesota closes with Indiana and Wisconsin.

The positive reaction nationally on NU’s decision: Listening to FOX’s Joel Klatt and the ESPN College GameDay crew, the reaction of Nebraska sticking with Scott Frost for a fifth season was greeted with positive praise.

Yes, we’ve aeen some national writers who share different opinions, but Klatt and the GameDay crew agreed with Trev Alberts’s decision to stick behind Frost another year. This also does not appear to be a good year to be coach shopping, as we’ve seen several bigger jobs come open already, and there are still two weeks to go in the season.

A Gretna vs. Westside state title game: I’m not sure anybody saw this game coming next week in Lincoln. Congrats to Gretna and Westside for getting to the Class A state title game.

I think all of us are also interested to see 2023 Dragon quarterback Zane Flores on the big stage next week. He’s received a lot of attention, but so far has no major scholarship offers. That could change with a big game in the Class A state title game.

Chase Mason leaving the baseball team to pursue football: This summer there was a lot of talk about Nebraska freshman pitcher Chase Mason having potential future first-round draft pick ability. With guys like Rob Childress now on Will Bolt’s coaching staff, you couldn’t help to be optimistic about the development he had the potential to receive the next three years.

However, this past week Mason pulled a shocker. The South Dakota native left the baseball program to pursue college football. This has the feel of a modern-day Tom Kropp leaving the Husker football team to play football and basketball at Kearney State.

Questions still surround these things:

The direction of the OC hire by Frost: No legitimate early names have emerged to be Frost’s next coordinator in Lincoln.

What direction will Frost go? And does anyone out there exist that Frost would truly turn the reigns over to? We know that’s what Frost wants, but I think many remain in a wait-and-see camp on the ultimate direction of this hire.

The defense vs. Wisconsin’s run offense: Since taking over the starting running back job at Wisconsin, 17-year old Badger freshman Braelon Allen has rushed for over 100 yards six straight games. He’s arguably the hottest running back in the country, considering how much competition stiffens in October and November.

Allen had 25 carries for 173 yards and three touchdowns last week vs. Northwestern. He punished the Wildcat defense.

Nebraska has already shut down two of the best running backs in the league in Michigan State’s Kenneth Walker III and Ohio State’s TreVeyon Henderson. How will the Blackshirts match up this week against the 6-foot-2, 238-pound Allen?

Moving forward, this has my attention:

JoJo Domann’s draft status: After officially announcing he was done for the 2021 season, what will Nebraska sixth-year senior JoJo Domann’s draft outlook look like?

Domann will need about eight to 12 weeks to fully recover from his season-ending hand surgery. That should give Domann enough time to be back in January for draft all-star games and the NFL Combine.

Adrian Martinez’s health coming off the bye: We all know now how much Adrian Martinez has played through at times this season between his broken jaw and ankle injury. What will another bye week do for Martinez? To have any chance against Wisconsin Saturday, the Huskers are going to need Martinez to make things happen with his legs.

The closest thing to a mobile quarterback Wisconsin has faced this season is Rutgers and former Husker QB Noah Vedral. That element of this match-up really intrigues me.

The plan at kicker this week and beyond: Iowa Western C.C. kicker Chase Contreraz got his opportunity to start the last two weeks, but missed two kicks vs. Ohio State.

Will NU stick with Contreraz this week? The better question is what is the kicker plan for the rest of 2021? Things can’t continue this way for the Big Red in 2022. Two of Frost’s four years at NU have been plagued by disasters at kicker.

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.