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Kirk Herbstreit on Ohio State-Nebraska: Buckeyes ‘will have their hands full’
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The Scott Frost era at Nebraska couldn’t have gotten off to a rockier start, but things are starting to come around in Lincoln.
Since starting the 2018 season 0-6 with losses to Colorado, Troy, and Purdue (not to mention a 46-point blunder at Michigan), the Cornhuskers are 2-0 — albeit against Minnesota and Bethune-Cookman — and seem to be finding their stride on offense, averaging 43.0 points over their last three games. Freshman quarterback Adrian Martinez has been a big reason behind the increase in scoring, going 89-of-128 (69.5 percent) with 1,124 yards, eight touchdowns and three interceptions in the month of October, adding 212 yards and two more scores on the ground.
Meanwhile, Nebraska’s upcoming opponent in Ohio State has suffered visible regression over the last few weeks, having escaped a close win at home against an average Golden Gophers team before getting its doors blown off in a shocking 29-point loss to Purdue in Week 8.
ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit believes Ohio State will continue struggling on defense when hosting Nebraska this weekend:
“You can say whatever you want about Nebraska,” said Herbstreit, per 247Sports. “ If you watched Nebraska play and you can look at their record and say, ‘they’re 2-6 how good are they.’ Go look at those six losses and find three or four games that they have a chance to compete. If things went right they could have been able to pull out a victory. The one thing that’s not struggling is Adrian Martinez in that offense. They’re throwing it for 250. They’re running it for 220. Ohio State will have their hands full trying to slow down this offense.”
Opponents averaged 29.9 points per game against Ohio State in October — not exactly a formula that creates a College Football Playoff contender. Altogether, the Buckeyes rank 67th nationally in total defense (390.8 yapg), 89th in yards per play allowed (5.88), and 114th in opponent plays of 30-plus yards (26).
“We’ve not seen Urban Meyer’s team play since they played Purdue,” Herbstreit said. “It seems like it was a while back. But they had a bye week last week. Think about how bad their defense looked the last time they played. I can imagine what the practice has been like with Greg Schiano and Urban Meyer getting ready to try to get their defense to play better. Offensively, they’re trying to become more physical at the line of scrimmage. Urban Meyer is spending more time with the offensive line to try to get more of a push so it’s not just Dwayne Haskins.”
Kickoff is set for noon EST in Columbus on Saturday.
Tyler has covered college football on a freelance basis since 2010. In addition to Saturday Football, his work has been featured on ESPN Radio, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, Cox Media Group, Athlon Sports, and more.