0:00

And now back to

0:02

Hale varsity radio Thanks

0:06

for hanging out its Hale varsity

0:09

powered by cornhead logger Roadshow Thursday

0:11

NFL draft is Well

0:14

less than an hour and a half away two

0:16

hours 34 minutes 24 seconds as it ticks down

0:21

from Detroit and we'll

0:24

check in with field Yates at 505 as

0:28

Chris Schmidt Elijah herbal Connor Clark

0:31

and from counter read counter read

0:33

calm It's Brandon Vogel to talk

0:35

some big red football and maybe

0:38

talk Connor into it being okay

0:40

finally for that Bears

0:43

Excitement level so vogues we've kind

0:45

of stumbled upon this Who's

0:47

in greater need for kind of

0:50

that breakthrough? quarterback

0:52

play is it the

0:54

Chicago Bears or Is

0:56

it Nebraska football? How are you today? I'm

1:01

doing well Technically

1:03

to the degree that I am a fan of

1:05

the NFL. I am a Chicago Bears fan

1:10

And I wouldn't consider myself in

1:12

my role But also just generally

1:15

as a Nebraska fan, but

1:17

Nebraska needs a breakthrough quarterback performance mark That's

1:20

that's where I'm going with with that one A

1:24

lot of reasons for that I think but Yeah,

1:29

that's that's a tough one that that strikes

1:31

right at the core of what I

1:33

what I am and kind of what I'm not No,

1:37

Brandon, I was not alive for this Schminter and I

1:40

talked about it before the show that there's an old

1:42

Tom Osborne quote That if the defense played well in

1:44

the spring game meant they were probably gonna have a

1:46

good season in the fall Does that

1:48

still ring true with you now based on where

1:50

this team is at right now? I know the

1:53

old adage still goes offense wins games defense wins

1:55

championships I think that's kind of at the heart

1:57

of the old Tom Osborne quote that if the defense is

1:59

able to stop that really difficult Nebraska triple option

2:01

offense means they're probably going to be good

2:03

because the offense is so hard for everyone

2:05

around the country to scheme for. But you

2:08

look at where this Husker football team is

2:10

at now with all the question marks on

2:12

offense. Do you think if the offense

2:14

goes out there and dominates in the spring game that

2:16

it actually means good things for this team in 2024?

2:22

No, probably not. Spring

2:25

games have gotten more and more, as

2:27

more and more of them have become

2:29

televised, I think they've become harder and

2:31

harder to, I

2:34

think extract meaningful data from.

2:37

You can be impressed by individuals. Like

2:41

I'm going in Saturday super interested to see

2:45

all of the quarterbacks, but

2:47

particularly the two true freshmen.

2:50

And beyond that,

2:53

I think we have a pretty good beat on it,

2:55

or at least I feel like I do, that Nebraska's

2:57

defense is going to be good in 2024. So

3:00

if the offense comes out here and

3:02

it seems like it's lighten it

3:05

up on Saturday,

3:07

that's going to tell me that that

3:10

was probably allowed to happen to a

3:12

certain degree. At

3:14

least that's how I would approach that because

3:16

Nebraska's offense averaged 18 points a game last

3:19

year. They've

3:21

got a lot to prove in 2024. The

3:24

defense does not because

3:26

of the allowed 18 points. Which should

3:28

win you some football games. Notice how Schmidty and

3:30

I both laughed when you pointed out that they

3:32

scored 18 points a game on offense last year,

3:34

but let's move on. Sounds like the Bears,

3:37

huh? Don't worry reality. But

3:39

Matt Rill talked about how they're going to throw

3:41

the football, or at least he wants to throw

3:43

the football. What does

3:45

that look like to you on Saturday?

3:47

Because as you just said, things get

3:49

televised, more people watch, the more vanilla

3:51

it gets on the field. So how

3:54

far in that playbook do you expect

3:56

this offense to go with the deep ball? Yeah,

4:01

probably not that deep into the

4:03

playbook. I mean, honestly, hitting a

4:06

couple of deep balls would be nice, particularly

4:08

if they connect a new

4:11

on-campus quarterback to a new

4:13

on-campus wide receiver, or really

4:15

even, you know, a young

4:17

wide receiver who we saw flashes from last

4:20

year. But

4:22

I mean, really the bigger thing I think

4:24

for Nebraska when it gets to the actual games,

4:26

and you might be able to see this, is

4:28

like, what are they doing on first

4:30

and second downs? Those downs where you

4:32

could run or pass, where

4:35

you can run a fairly basic route

4:37

combo, and like, is

4:40

the ball on time? Is it where it needs to

4:42

be? Is the receiver making

4:44

a catch? I think those kind of more

4:47

detailed pieces of it might

4:50

tell you a little bit more about the passing game than

4:53

maybe the big plays that

4:55

they have. Because I think Nebraska hits

4:57

some big plays via

4:59

scheme and via individual talent in

5:02

some cases. But

5:04

the piece that was missing was just kind of like,

5:06

yeah, it's first and 10. We're trying to get six

5:09

yards here. Can we make the throw and make the

5:11

catch? Brandon

5:13

Vogel is with us from Counter

5:15

Read, counterread.com. Vogel's really

5:17

enjoyed you and Aaron's work this week

5:20

with Counter Read, Aaron Sorensen. And let's

5:22

talk about, again,

5:25

meshing tonight together

5:27

with Nebraska football and the

5:29

NFL draft. And

5:31

what do

5:34

you believe Nebraska should be? Me

5:37

and Babers were talking earlier today, too, at the

5:39

press conference, just looking through some of

5:42

Nebraska's more wow drafts.

5:45

The last first round offensive

5:48

player to be selected went

5:50

by the name of Lawrence Phillips. The

5:53

last first round pick for Nebraska football

5:56

13 years. There's

5:58

a drought. Now, there's been... What

6:00

the Levant days. The Red Gregory's

6:02

The Amir's there's been edited. The

6:05

Tree Palmer's like there's been some

6:07

guys you've got tam t of

6:09

a break goddamn jurrjens so it's

6:11

not been. Completely.

6:14

Erased. Bet. It's a

6:16

far cry from. Every

6:18

year. Worse case scenario you gotta

6:20

third round guy. Best. Case

6:22

scenario, you got a couple of first rounders.

6:25

you got a second rounder, he got some

6:27

third guys, and in that. Betty.

6:29

Ford a about o two window

6:31

use kind of printed. Russians

6:35

are defensive tackles and be just

6:37

year after year after year with

6:39

the Neil Smith Saw the way

6:41

through the band and bosses are

6:43

Steve Warns it was incredible. What

6:45

is what should be normal for

6:47

Nebraska. On draft weekend. Yes,

6:51

It's a good question and you know. I

6:54

don't. I don't follow the draft closely

6:56

enough to like. I. Would say

6:59

like look at Lincoln Nebraska's few

7:01

programs like the real peer programs

7:03

are Georgia at the moment ah,

7:06

been caught Alabama or Ios day.

7:09

And and what kind of numbers are they

7:11

are they putting up in the draft and

7:13

that's that's. probably a pretty good guys. What

7:16

I do know is like. A

7:19

you can just walk in Nebraska the

7:21

recent draft history and for a long

7:23

time they had that dress street right

7:25

where there was a player that were

7:27

never draft for having me years at

7:30

as long as the longest have any

7:32

school and like by the time he

7:34

gets a twenty a team draft so

7:36

fine twenty seventh and see them like

7:38

Tanner Relief barely cat that thing alive

7:40

and I remember like which year it

7:43

was that streak ended be just look

7:45

at at so the Satanic really like

7:47

barely he said alive. Arm

7:49

and probably for getting a guy or

7:52

to buy from like the Frost era.

7:55

you've got can tailor britain camps are

7:57

against a point to as to like

7:59

home grown guys like real like we

8:01

identified them, we recruited them, they came

8:03

here, they played and they went and

8:05

got drafted. Maybe

8:08

there's another one or two, but

8:11

then you're looking at Nebraska's draft

8:13

and it's Moriture who's a transfer,

8:15

it's Trey Palmer who's a transfer

8:17

and like that's just

8:21

it's hard to win football games

8:23

at the level you are. Nebraska

8:25

has won previously and I think the fan

8:28

base still expects when you're

8:30

not putting those guys those

8:33

guys in the NFL draft like they

8:35

just don't have them. I'll be very

8:37

surprised if the house court gets drafted

8:40

this weekend and that's

8:42

just kind of the reality of where things

8:44

are and it gets a little bit stark

8:46

this time of year because yeah we got

8:48

spring games going on and we're

8:51

wrapping up spring practice in Nebraska but the

8:54

draft if you're a even a college

8:56

football fan like myself who

8:58

doesn't care all that much about the NFL like

9:00

this is the crossover point so you look at

9:03

it and you're like I don't

9:05

know if it's great to not

9:07

have any players drafted and

9:10

it's probably not even if the you

9:12

know I do think there's a difference

9:14

between being draftable and being

9:16

a successful college player in some

9:19

instances but for the most part

9:21

like if you're if you're a good

9:23

college player you're gonna get drafted. Brandon

9:25

one thing that I've said before on this show and

9:27

I also said it on the newest episode of the

9:29

average show sports show is that how

9:32

many first and second round picks a

9:35

college football team has might be a better barometer

9:37

for the health of your program in the modern

9:40

era of college football than ever has been before

9:42

would you agree with that statement? Yeah

9:46

it could be I'll say

9:50

it's not the college football that I want but I

9:53

think it might be the college football that

9:56

that we have because even when

9:58

Nebraska was was like humming

10:00

under Tom Osborne and kind of

10:02

running whatever in to Schmidy's

10:05

point about the last first round or an

10:07

offense. At

10:09

that time, at that point,

10:13

Nebraska was extremely talented, but

10:16

they ran the option. The NFL was

10:18

just like, yeah, we're not doing that. We're

10:20

not interested in that. Those lines

10:22

have blurred since then, but

10:26

it's tough to look at the Georgia and

10:28

the Alabama and the Ohio States of the

10:30

world, see their

10:33

performance in the draft and see what

10:35

they do in college football and say,

10:37

yeah, that kind of might be like

10:39

what you have to do to like win

10:42

at the top

10:44

level in college football. That

10:46

said, Nebraska's trying to get to a

10:48

base camp that's not quite at the

10:51

summit of that mountain yet, I think,

10:54

in terms of, hey, can we get

10:57

to a point where we're winning eight,

10:59

nine, 10 games consistently? And

11:02

what does that take? That

11:04

probably doesn't look like putting

11:07

six, seven guys in the first three rounds, but

11:11

you got to have more, I think, than

11:13

what Nebraska's had, certainly. What

11:15

it takes is some of the

11:18

evaluation and development that

11:20

you had with not

11:23

only the scouting part, and you

11:25

got to give Callahan credit. He brought in

11:27

a lot of NFL guys that may not

11:29

have been NFL

11:32

ready. Bowe got them

11:35

developed, and then some

11:37

of the guys that went after Bowe's tenure

11:39

ended up into the

11:41

league, and then you've got some crossover that

11:45

got drafted under Riley, and

11:48

then you've got this kind of just

11:51

drop-dead moment where the

11:54

streak snapped, and then you're

11:56

trying to rebuild up. And oh, by the way,

11:58

it kind of coincides too. with from

12:01

a bowl standpoint. Can I get two minutes on

12:03

the other side, Vogue? Is that all right? Sure.

12:07

All right, Brandon Vogue will hold over here

12:09

with us. Counter-Read, counter-read.com, Chris

12:11

Schmidt, Elijah Herbal, Connor Clark. We're

12:13

on the road today getting you

12:15

ready for the NFL Draft TVs

12:17

here at the Single Barrel. 9th

12:19

and P inside the Graduate Downtown

12:22

Lincoln, our football

12:24

headquarters. And what's really awesome

12:27

is that we'll be back here Saturday morning

12:30

for the weekend edition. A little bit

12:32

of a flex schedule time

12:34

for the live show 8 to

12:36

10 Saturday morning. So

12:39

a couple more thoughts from Vogue's. We'll

12:42

hear from Matt Rule, Field Yates from

12:44

the draft in Hour 2

12:46

at Hail Varsity powered by Cornhead Larger. And

12:50

now, and now back

12:52

to Hail Varsity Radio. A

12:56

couple of nice recruits for Nebraska

12:59

Football 2025. We'll get to Brandon

13:01

Vogue with us from Counter-Read, counter-read.com.

13:04

When you think of

13:06

Detroit slash Michigan music,

13:09

Brandon Vogue, is it Ted

13:11

Nugent, Bob Seger,

13:14

insane clown posse, Eminem,

13:18

D Snyder, Kid Rock,

13:20

or Iggy Pop? Who is Brandon Vogue's

13:22

draft pick? If you say insane clown

13:24

posse, we never had you on the

13:26

show. I

13:29

have relatives that actually went and saw them in

13:31

Kansas City. I will not out my relative. I

13:36

want to say the pick

13:39

that I want you to think I have is Iggy Pop.

13:43

And it's not because I was like, I never

13:46

listened to this, but like the first

13:48

band I think of is insane clown posse. Fascinating

13:53

kind of cultural

13:56

entry into the fabric of

13:58

America. I can

14:01

tell you every time

14:03

I've been to Michigan, which has solely

14:05

been for Nebraska football reasons,

14:08

either they're playing at Michigan or they're

14:10

playing at Michigan State, it's always struck

14:12

me as just kind of like a

14:15

strange place. I

14:18

can't really describe it. And then like I

14:20

make myself like, Oh, but this makes sense.

14:22

Like Kid Rock and in Saint Clampossie are from

14:25

here. Like I get it now. And

14:27

any of those artists that

14:30

you listed, like the one

14:32

that I probably actually listened

14:34

to the most was probably

14:36

Eminem. I was

14:38

never like the biggest fan,

14:40

but you know, he was

14:43

becoming huge at an impressionable

14:45

time for me. And

14:47

even Eminem like was a bit

14:49

strange in terms of when

14:52

he entered the game, so to speak. Michigan,

14:55

I haven't figured it out yet. I'll

14:57

put it that way. Kranak

14:59

believes there's lots of militia

15:01

in Michigan based

15:03

on our time at East Lansing

15:05

last fall. What do you believe

15:08

about the format tomorrow

15:10

and rules

15:12

comment today on

15:14

the pressure part of things, not only for the

15:17

head coach, but the quarterback here? Yeah,

15:20

I thought it was pretty good. You know,

15:25

I think I think

15:27

Rule does a nice job of

15:29

balancing like, Hey, you know, there

15:33

are coaches out there that are just like, I'm not

15:35

going to do anything in the spring game. Like,

15:38

I don't care. Like, it's I

15:40

don't want this stuff out there. And

15:43

that's what I want. I do. And

15:45

I mean, Rule even said, like, if

15:47

he had his quote unquote druthers, like,

15:50

you'd probably go with a system that

15:52

like awards points to the defense, which

15:54

we saw at Nebraska once previously, at

15:57

least once. And I

15:59

would agree with him. like that scoring system

16:01

sucks. Like it's impossible to follow. It

16:05

makes sense, but it's just like

16:07

you're sitting there. You're like, ah, who's winning?

16:09

What's happening? How many points is that? So

16:13

I think you just line up and play, play like

16:15

pure football. And like, you

16:17

know, we've also seen coaches at

16:20

Nebraska in the past, I think, and

16:22

elsewhere who are just like, well, this

16:24

15th practice is just gone. It's like

16:26

a showcase. And that's what

16:28

we do. And

16:30

in rule, I think looks at it as,

16:32

well, we're playing in front of fans,

16:35

in front of a remarkably large

16:37

amount of fans, contextually.

16:40

So let's use that to our advantage. So

16:43

I think it's the right balance of,

16:47

for your 15th practice of the spring of

16:49

like, hey, let's try to get something from

16:51

this, but let's also acknowledge

16:53

that, hey, this one's a

16:55

little bit for everybody else. Brandon,

16:58

when it comes to a winner, we've seen coaches

17:00

do it in different ways before we've had the

17:02

winners get the steak dinner, the losers get the

17:04

hot dogs. In the modern era,

17:07

would it be legal under NCAA bylaws to

17:09

have the winning team get an NIL check

17:11

that they get to split among themselves? Would

17:13

that be a legal way to incentivize winning

17:15

the spring game? I think you're onto something.

17:19

That's a good question. I mean, let's

17:22

walk it out. Hypothetically, you just

17:24

need a business or a potential

17:28

donor to say, I

17:30

would like to provide an NIL deal to anyone

17:33

who is on the winning team in

17:35

the spring game. And

17:37

yeah, it might be

17:39

that simple. I'm

17:42

trying to insert business here. They're like,

17:44

yep, $5,000 to everybody who

17:47

is on the winning team at the spring game. Everybody

17:49

gets cool headlions. Which is very much in line with

17:51

NIL is

17:54

actually working in college athletics. And

17:56

it's not actually about market value.

17:58

It's just been like. It's

18:00

just a way where it's like, yeah, we can pay these guys now.

18:03

So we're going to do that. Folks,

18:06

what's coming up from you with Counter Read?

18:08

counterread.com, how can folks get signed up?

18:13

Yeah, you can check us out at counterread.com.

18:16

We'll, of course, be all

18:18

in on the spring game in the

18:20

next couple of days. I think Aaron,

18:22

tomorrow, has a newsletter coming out on

18:25

Nebraska's two commits, but

18:28

also taking a look at some of the

18:30

official visitors in town, which is interesting because

18:32

Matt wrote, spoke about it on Thursday about

18:35

making that an official visit day. On

18:38

Saturday, we'll have a little spring game preview right away

18:40

first day of the morning. And then

18:42

plenty to come after we actually see the

18:44

game and have the

18:48

longest practice yet to overreact to

18:50

for the rest of the summer.

18:53

Brandon, who wins on Saturday, red or white?

18:55

Not knowing anything about the rosters, not knowing

18:57

anything about the game itself. Just your

19:00

thought, red or white, who wins? Red.

19:04

I'm going to go with red. I

19:06

think you picked red last year, too. I like asking

19:08

this question every single year. Why, it's one of the

19:10

irrelevant. Like twice. Folks, we'll check

19:12

in Saturday morning for the weekend edition here

19:15

from the single barrel. Thanks again, bud. Thanks,

19:18

guys. Have a good one. There he is. Good

19:20

to spend time with Vogelin. Sneak in what

19:22

Rule was talking about here, about

19:25

that pressure, that stage, and

19:28

getting ready for Saturdays and

19:30

Saturdays. Spring game cut six

19:32

here. Pressure with the head

19:34

coach, pressure with the top quarterback. Husker

19:38

fans have pretty high standard. I'm sure that if

19:40

I was a Husker fan, I'd just be coming hoping that the ball's

19:43

not on the ground. You know what I mean? Like, hey, let's play

19:45

real football. But

19:48

you want to be the starting quarterback at Nebraska? You

19:50

better be ready to deal with

19:52

the heat. So Heinrich learned

19:54

that last year. A lot of guys

19:57

have learned that. It's hard.

20:00

After games, after

20:02

games, you guys don't talk to Gifford

20:04

after every game, do you? You don't talk to Nash

20:07

after every game, you talk to me in the quarterback. And

20:09

so the two people with the most pressure

20:11

are me and the quarterback. And so they better, the freshmen

20:13

start and they better learn it now. Yeah,

20:17

fair, very real, laying it out

20:20

there. Let's talk

20:22

about what's gone on all spring and what

20:25

needs to happen Saturday. Cut five here from

20:27

that rule of time. To

20:29

me, great

20:31

players do what they

20:33

do, they don't do new stuff. And so the

20:36

analogy I just gave our players in here is a lot

20:38

of them play Madden. If you call

20:41

engage eight on defense in Madden and

20:43

it doesn't, so you know engage eight. I

20:45

said that, I don't play it. I was like, if they

20:48

still have engage eight? And they're like, yeah. If you call

20:50

engage eight and then eight guys don't blitz, you

20:52

think your game's broke. Well when

20:54

you're calling plays and you're calling an out cut

20:56

by one and a shallow cross by two and

20:58

they don't do that, you're

21:00

like, how do you call the plays, right? So my

21:03

challenge to the guys is just, hey do what you've been doing all

21:05

spring. And that's really true for the quarterbacks, right? I

21:08

think with the headsets and the operation and all that stuff,

21:10

being in two minutes for us will really help. So

21:13

that we can, you know, I don't want to get to the first

21:15

game and if a freshman's starting, you know, I mean we have a

21:17

66% chance of a freshman starting is what I've said to the coaches

21:20

all spring. So I don't want to

21:22

get there and all of a sudden, that's the first time and

21:24

then it's behind us starting. It's

21:26

his first time using the headset. So I really want

21:28

this operation to flow, especially at the end of games.

21:31

So I'm hoping it's loud so that

21:33

the guys get used to, hey we're on the road, we're at Purdue, you

21:38

know we have to go win the game. At the end of the game in

21:40

two minutes, what's it going to sound and feel like? So those are the things

21:42

I'm really looking for from a football standpoint. If it doesn't look the way

21:44

we play, so be it.