Three & Out: Where to from here, Torres’ huge opener, and judging the “Ts”

This is HuskerOnline.com’s feature in which recruiting analysts Mike Matya and Bryan Munson give their weekly takes on topical issues concerning Nebraska football, baseball and recruiting.

Today in our next installment of “Three and Out” we hit on where to from here, QB commit Richard Torres’ huge opening game, and judging the “Ts”.

Nebraska suffered another dispiriting loss in predictable fashion against Illinois last Saturday. Unfortunately, I think we’re getting to the point where if Scott Frost knew how to fix this, we would be seeing signs of it by now.

The major problem with the team looks to be not so much physical, but instead mental and psychological. As farfetched as it seems, it’s like the team looks for new ways to sabotage themselves during each game.

The book is out on how to beat Nebraska: just show up, bide your time, and wait for the Huskers to self-destruct and beat themselves with head-scratching mistakes at crucial times in games. On both offense and defense Saturday, that one of your captains made probably the two biggest boneheaded plays speaks volumes about the current state of the team and program.

So where to from here?

I don’t think there’s any doubt that the sellout streak will certainly end this season. It’s simply time to let go of that last vestige and tie to the past great era of Husker football.

Maybe having the sellout streak end will finally get the 900-pound gorilla of trying to live up to the standards of the past Nebraska great football teams off of the players’ and coaches’ collective backs. Nebraska’s teams have been carrying the weight of those unrealistic expectations around through several coaching staffs and they have been buckling under the pressure of it.

But they don’t have to worry about that anymore. After Saturday’s game, for all intents and purposes, nationally the “Big Red is dead”. That’s just a fact. So, the team should embrace the liberation of that irrelevancy. There’s nothing to live up to anymore and the expectations for the remainder of this season could not go lower than they are right now.

A significant portion of Husker fans will likely stop going to games or not tune into the broadcasts at all. The attitude for a lot of Husker Nation will be to do something else on beautiful Autumn weekends instead of wasting any more time on the same old garbage football.

If I were Coach Frost, even though it’s well before any of them were born, I would sit down the entire team and make them watch the famous scene from the 70s movie comedy Meatballs in which Bill Murray gives his “It just doesn’t matter” speech. Because, after Saturday’s national embarrassment, it really doesn’t matter anymore what they do the rest of the season.

Except for the most diehard fans, Cornhusker players will now be mostly playing for themselves; for pride, as well as their family and friends. The pressure is off, so they might as well go out there, play loose and have fun, with all the expectations and pressure of the past era of Cornhusker football greatness now long gone.

– Mike Matya

On Friday night, the tweets just kept coming about the performance that Richard Torres was having. The Nebraska quarterback commitment was in a non-district contest, being played at a neutral site, against another 5A opponent. One viewpoint being thrown around was how non-competitive the other team looked.

Personally, I know nothing about Brownsville, (Texas) Lopez and not a lot more for San Antonio (Texas) Southside except that Torres plays for them. It’s tough to make equivalency judgments between this team or that district or this classification and any high schools or classifications in Nebraska or other places for that matter.

Living in Texas, however, I will tell you that 5A ball is very good and competitive ball. There are a number of teams, if I threw them out there, that would be recognizable to most people who follow recruiting.

Teams like: Denton Ryan (Josh Williams), Lancaster (high school for current Husker Omar Manning), La Porte (Quentin Castille) and Leander (Curenski Gilleylen).

There are also traditional 5A powerhouses like:

Longview (moved to 5A from 6A two years ago), Highland Park, Sherman, Pflugerville, Lufkin, Tyler and West Mesquite (Longview, Highland Park, Sherman, Tyler and West Mesquite are all in the same district).

I would say, after doing the Texas Hot 100 for Allen Wallace/SuperPrep magazine for a number of years, there were pockets of Texas that just didn’t produce the number of recruits that others did. You had Houston followed by Dallas, and by population standards you would guess San Antonio would be right there for producing talent but it just really wasn’t.

Consider, out of 217 recruits from the state of Texas this year that are three-star or better recruits, just one comes from San Antonio. Just one. San Antonio has a population of just over 1.5M people.

I live in Rockwall which is easier to tell people “east side of Dallas”. It’s a town of 44,000 and this year there are five players that are three-star or better from just two high schools. That is a stark comparison.

And then you may ask why is Nebraska chasing a guy in San Antonio if it’s not known for football? Well, it has been an area that has produced players such as Trevor Knight, Jace Amaro, and one that Nebraska fans will never forget — Travis Lewis.

Last Friday night was a huge night for Torres throwing eight touchdowns. I wouldn’t expect Tecmo Bowl type of numbers from him each week, but he is in a district his team is favored to win and it’s in part of a state that just doesn’t have a lot of talent in the area this year or most years in general.

Torres is special, though. Put on the tape and you see the size, his eyes downfield, a big arm and good mobility. He definitely stands out on the field.

– Bryan Munson

In last week’s Three & Out, I said I was going to be gauging the “Ts” to determine how Nebraska played against Illinois and the rest of the season. Well, needless to say, they did not get off to a very promising start with these key indicators.

Training

This was the area where the team probably fared the best. The players held up pretty well physically, if not mentally or emotionally. They looked to be well-hydrated and in shape on a very hot August afternoon.

Understandably, some fatigue was noticeable late in the second half after the frantic comeback attempt, but we did not see many players cramping up, nor were there any injured Huskers lying on the field every other play as there used to be during the Mike Riley years.

Trenches

The offensive line has to be considered one of the major disappointments in the season opener. They got very little push for the running backs, and didn’t seem to be on the same page with Adrian Martinez in the passing game. A lot of that is the fault of Martinez, though, with his constant skittishness in the pocket.

Much of it is also due to practicing against the wrong defensive front leading up to the game, according to Coach Scott Frost. The offensive line looked confused and unprepared most of the game.

The defensive line was probably the highlight of the day on both sides of the ball. The Blackshirts recorded three sacks in the first quarter alone, but did not get any more the rest of the game as Illinois went to a ball control offense with low risk passing plays.

Toughness and tackling

Once again, the defense mostly held up their end of the bargain. They were physical all game long, and even knocked out the starting quarterback after a sack. They did get penalized for roughing the passer, but that is an error of aggression which you can live with most of the time.

Even though they gave up an 8-minute drive for a touchdown right after halftime, I give most of the blame for that to Adrian Martinez’s scoop and score touchdown he gave up right before halftime. The defense looked as if they came out a little dispirited in the second half with the offense and special teams mistakes, and it took them a while to get their footing back.

Turnovers

Nebraska broke even in the turnover battle against Illinois, but that does not count the boneheaded safety on special teams which, in essence, was a turnover. It also doesn’t count the canceled interception due to penalties for roughing the quarterback and taunting.

Throwing vertical

Adrian Martinez hit one deep pass of 40+ yards on Saturday, which equaled their entire total from last season. But he missed on several other possible big passing plays with receivers running wide open throughout the game. And, even on the long pass play he completed with Oliver Martin, it looked more like a punt than a pass.

Tenacity

There were definitely players who gave it their all last weekend against the Illini, but they were canceled out by subpar play by other players and units on the team. Particularly, at quarterback, offensive line and special teams.

All in all, it was a reprise of what we have seen from Scott Frost coached teams the first three seasons of his tenure in Lincoln. There was no appreciable improvement in the overall play of the team, which does not bode well for the rest of the season.

– Mike Matya