3B
TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com
Behind Enemy Lines: A conversation with
Nebraska football beat writer Jacob Bova
By MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor
In the softest part of its otherwise
tough
schedule,
the
Michigan
football team has started to gain some
momentum.
The 19th-ranked Wolverines (2-1)
have dominated Western Michigan
and SMU in the last two weeks,
scoring a combined 94 points.
Now, though, things will begin
to ramp up again for Michigan, as
Nebraska (0-2) comes to Ann Arbor
on Saturday, marking the start of Big
Ten play.
The
Cornhuskers
have gotten off
to a tough start in
their first season
under coach Scott
Frost, falling to
Colorado
and
Troy,
both
at
home.
Nebraska
quarterback
Adrian Martinez
suffered
a
leg
injury
against
Colorado, and it’s possible that the
Cornhuskers would be 2-0 if that
hadn’t happened. Still, Nebraska
seemingly hasn’t faced a team with
Michigan’s talent.
The Daily caught up with Jacob
Bova, a Nebraska football beat writer
for The Daily Nebraskan, to talk
about Cornhusker fans’ expectations
for Frost, the health and ability
of Martinez and predictions for
Saturday’s game:
The Michigan Daily: With the
first couple of losses, is there still a
lot of faith in (Scott Frost) and a lot
of hype for the program and where
it’s headed? Or has it depleted at all?
What’s your perspective on that?
Jacob Bova: I would say that a
majority of Nebraska fans are going
to give Scott Frost as much time as he
needs to get this program right. There
are like a few of those detractors that
are already saying, like, ‘He’s 0-2. He’s
not doing it.’ Those people are by far,
they’re a loud minority. I feel like most
Nebraskans will give Scott Frost the
time he needs, and they have the faith
that he will do the right thing. When
he was at Nebraska as a quarterback
and won the national title — by
the way, we were the national title
winners that year — anyways,
when he won the national title that
year, like, Scott Frost was loved by
everyone. He’s always been someone
that Nebraska fans — before he even
got into coaching, he had some blogs
that a lot of Nebraska fans followed.
What he says has a lot of weight. And
so, Scott Frost coming home, was
like, it was seen by most Nebraskans
as the only choice that Bill Moos, the
athletic director, had. And people are
gonna give him as much time as he
needs. He just got a 7-year contract,
so it’s like, I think most Nebraska fans
are gonna be pretty patient with him.
TMD: Getting into the actual play
this year, obviously Adrian Martinez
goes down. Have you guys gotten any
updates? Is he supposed to play this
weekend? Does anybody know?
Bova: So what Frost said after
the Troy game was that he looked
good. And from what I saw from
the sidelines during warmups, he
was warming up, and there was no
real, I mean, he had a brace on his
knee, but he looks pretty close to 100
percent, I would say. But at the end
of the day, he didn’t practice until, I
want to say (last week) Friday, I think
— Thursday or Friday. So he didn’t
practice until late in the week. This
week, he’s practiced every day, and
the offensive coordinator said that he
looked better every day.
But this coaching staff is not one
that’s going to risk putting him up
against, I mean, Michigan’s d-line is
for real, and our o-line hasn’t been the
best. So he’ll be running a lot, and on
a bad knee, if it’s still not 100 percent,
there’s no way that Scott Frost is
gonna risk it, especially since he’s a
true freshman.
TMD: So if he doesn’t play, (backup
quarterback Andrew) Bunch seemed
to struggle a little bit. If you had to
give a scouting report on Bunch, what
would it be?
Bova: So for what he was told to
do, he did an admirable job. The thing
is, is what he was asked to do was not
much. He didn’t offer any deep balls.
I think he only had one completion
when the ball went in the air for 15
yards or more. So there was really no
big play threat, yet, I mean, Nebraska
has the receivers to do that. J.D.
Spielman and Mike Williams are fast
guys, and they can blow the top off a
defense.
But, I don’t have enough faith in
Bunch’s deep ball accuracy. Like he
had a few throws deep that were just
awful and into double coverage and
that kind of thing. So honestly, Bunch
starts, I have a hard time seeing
Nebraska doing a lot. He’s a good
enough athlete to where he can move
the pocket, but he’s not a good enough
athlete to run the read option, like, all
the time.
I will say … if Martinez plays, what I
would say is out of him, he’s a fantastic
athlete. He’s a very good athlete, but
also an underrated thrower. In the
Colorado game, he had like a 50-yard
pass to J.D. Spielman that was on a
dime, like a perfect throw. And if he
plays, first off, he’s going to be at 100
percent, which means he’ll be able to
run and do all that. So I would say if
he plays, then I think that the game
will get a little more interesting. If
Bunch plays, I think it could be pretty
ugly.
TMD:
From
an
outsider’s
perspective, a lot of the talk has been
about the offense, … but I don’t know
a ton about the defense. From what I
can tell, the rush defense, pretty solid.
The pass defense has been a little bit
suspect, is that correct, or am I off on
that?
Bova: No, that’s pretty accurate.
I would say going into the year, a
lot of people were asking questions
about this defense. I mean, last year,
the last three games, Nebraska gave
up 50-plus points, and it was ugly.
So there were a lot of questions
going into this year of how the
defense would look. But so far, the
front seven has been, I think, has
exceeded everyone’s expectations
and have been very good. The game
against Colorado, I’d say the corners,
personally, I don’t think they played
very bad. One of the corners, Dicaprio
Bootle, this is his first year starting,
and he’s physical and he’s played very
well. The safeties in the Colorado
game, I think is what cause a lot of the
— Laviska Shenault, the wide receiver
from Colorado, had a few where he
just burned the defense. And I think
that was a little more on the safeties
than it was on the corners.
That being said, the Troy game last
week, the secondary showed up. The
secondary allowed — I think it was
like 110 passing yards over the whole
game. I mean, the defense, I’m more
interested to see how they play against
a team like Michigan, because, yeah,
the rush defense’s numbers have been
good, but it’s also been against Troy
and Colorado, which are two teams
that don’t run the ball very much.
And one last thing, the pass rush
has been really good. They had seven
sacks against Colorado and three last
week against Troy. So, yeah, the pass
rush has also been pretty potent.
TMD: Before the year, (did) you
have a prediction of what you thought
(Nebraska) would be? … What are
your expectations for the rest of
the year, and what would make a
successful season for Nebraska?
Bova: So at the beginning of the
year, I think 7-5 was seen as a decent
number — like 7-5, maybe 8-4. But
I guess there were pretty low-ish
expectations, but also Nebraska’s
schedule this year is brutal. I mean,
we have to go to Michigan, to Ohio
State, to Wisconsin, to Iowa and
home against Michigan State. So it’s
like, the schedule this year is brutal.
And so, I think that 7-5, 6-6 or even
8-4 were seen as probably like the
baselines. Now? I mean, at this point,
if Nebraska can get bowl eligible, that
would be huge. That would require
Nebraska, though, to win one of the
Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State,
Wisconsin or Iowa games. Games that
we’re gonna be significant underdogs
in. You know, it requires us to win one
of those and then not drop any of the
other games. So, I think that if Scott
Frost can get Nebraska to be bowl
eligible this year, I think that would
be seen as a success.
TMD: I know it’s hard to predict
with the whole quarterback situation,
but I want to ask you for a prediction.
What do you think, score-wise, we’re
looking at?
Bova: Earlier today, we have a
podcast, and I had a score prediction
21-9 Michigan. I feel like this game
is gonna be pretty low-scoring.
Michigan’s defense is for real. I think
Nebraska’s defense is a lot better than
what it was last year. But at the end
of the day, I just don’t think that this
team has enough — I don’t think this
team is experienced enough and has
had, I don’t know where the psyche is
at this point. But I think the line was
at like 18.5 or something like that, and
I feel like that’s a little absurd. I think
that might be a little much. But yeah, I
said 21-9, I think, Michigan.
Nebraska at
Michigan
Matchup:
Nebraska 0-2;
Michigan 2-1
When: Saturday
12 P.M.
Where:
Michigan
Stadium
TV/Radio: ABC
EVAN AARON/Daily
Junior quarterback Shea Patterson will play in his first Big Ten conference game as Michigan’s quarterback on Saturday.