History vs. Michigan:
Michigan leads all-time series 5-4-1
Last meeting: 2018 at Michigan - 56-10 Michigan
This Season:
at Illinois - L 22-30
vs Fordham - W 52-7
vs Buffalo - W 28-3
at #3 Oklahoma - L 16-23
at #20 Michigan State - L 20-23
vs Northwestern - W 56-7
Martinez is 100/150 (66.6%) with 1,463 yards, 6 TDs and 2 INTs. He's also rushed for 412 yards with 9 TDs including runs of 75 and 71 yards.
Running Backs: Rahmir Johnson 5'10" 185 lbs (RS Fr.) & Jaquez Yant 6'2" 245 lbs (Fr.)
Johnson has had 55 rushes for 231 yards (4.2ypc) with 2 TDs and a long of 23. He's also had 6 catches for 64 yards with a longest of 26. Yant has carried the ball 18 times for 152 yards (8.4ypc) with a long of 64. He's added 2 receptions for 6 yards.
Wide Receivers: Samori Toure 6'3" 190 lbs (RS Sr.), Omar Manning 6'4" 225 lbs (RS Jr.) & Zavier Betts 6'2" 200 lbs (Fr.)
Toure has 23 receptions for 483 yards, 3 TDs and a long of 70 yards. He's ran the ball 6 times for 48 yards with a TD and a long of 21 as well. Manning has had 12 catches for 176 yards with a long of 32 and a TD. Betts has had 13 catches for 187 yards and a long of 55. He's also rushed the ball once for 83 yards and a TD. Familiar face Oliver Martin will see the field as well, he's had 7 catches and a TD.
Tight End: Austin Allen 6'9" 255 lbs (RS Jr.)
Allen has totaled 17 catches for 163 yards with a long of 26 yards.
Left Tackle: Teddy Prochazka 6'9" 305 lbs (Fr.)
0 career starts.
Left Guard: Nouredin Nouili 6'4" 315 lbs (RS So.)
1 career start.
Center: Cam Jurgens 6'3" 290 lbs (RS So.)
25 career starts.
Right Guard: Matt Sichterman 6'4" 310 lbs (RS Jr.)
6 career starts.
Right Tackle: Turner Corcoran 6'6" 300 lbs (Fr.)
6 career starts.
Nose Tackle: Damion Daniels 6'3" 325 lbs (RS Jr.)
Daniels has 17 tackles with 2 behind the line of scrimmage and 2 pass deflections.
Defensive Ends: Ben Stille 6'4'' 293 lbs (RS Sr.) & Ty Robinson 6'6" 305 lbs (RS Fr.)
Stille has compiled 19 tackles which includes 2.5 for a loss and a pass deflection. Robinson has 14 tackles with 2 for loss.
Outside Linebackers: Caleb Tannor 6'3" 225 lbs (Jr.) & Garrett Nelson 6'3" 245 lbs (So.)
Tannor has totaled 18 tackles with 3 for negative yardage, a sack, a pass breakup and a forced fumble. Nelson has a total of 25 tackles including 8 for a loss, 2.5 sacks and a pass breakup.
Inside Linebackers: Luke Reimer 6'1'' 225 lbs (So.) & Nick Henrich 6'3'' 225 lbs (RS Fr.)
Reimer leads the Cornhuskers with 51 tackles, 2.5 for a loss, a half sack, an INT, 3 pass breakups and a forced fumble. Henrich has 43 tackles with 1 .5 for a loss and a half sack.
Nickel: JoJo Domann 6'0" 229 lbs (RS Sr.)
Domann has tallied 37 tackles, 7 for a loss, 2 sacks, an INT, pass breakup and 2 forced fumbles.
Cornerbacks: Cam Taylor-Britt 6'0'' 197 lbs (Jr.) & Quinton Newsome 6'1" 185 lbs (So.)
Taylor-Britt has 15 tackles, 1 for a loss and 3 pass breakups. Newsome has had 28 tackles, with 2 in the backfield, a sack and a pass breakup.
Safeties: Marquel Dismuke 6'1" 210 lbs (RS Sr.) & Deontai Williams 5'11" 191 lbs (RS Sr.)
Dismuke has 18 tackles on the season to go along with 1 INT. Williams has contributed with 31 tackles, 2 for a loss, 2 INTs and 2 pass breakups.
Punter and Kicker: William Przystup 6'4" 250 lbs (RS So.) & Connor Culp 6'0" 180 lbs (RS Sr.)
Przystup seems to have won the job over Daniel Cerni. He has 7 punts with an average of 42.9 yards and a long of 84 (so that should tell you about that average). 3 were fair caught and 1 was downed inside the 20 with no touchbacks. Culp is 5/10 on the year with a long of 51. He's 22/32 on his career with a long of 44.
Returners: Samori Toure 6'3" 190 lbs (RS Sr.) & Rahmir Johnson 5'10" 185 lbs (RS Fr.)
Toure took over punt return duties from Cam Taylor-Britt and is averaging over 6x as many yards per return which is only 4.5 yards average on 2 punt returns with a long of 10. Johnson also took over duties after Zavier Betts averaged just 17.3 yards per return. He's not been much better as he has returned 3 kicks with an average of 12.7 yards and a long of 13.
Players to watch:
QB - Adrian Martinez
WR - Samori Toure
OLB - Garrett Nelson
ILB - Luke Reimer
Prediction:QB - Adrian Martinez
WR - Samori Toure
OLB - Garrett Nelson
ILB - Luke Reimer
Nebraska puts up a lot of yardage on offense but tend to come up short on points averaging 21.5 points against teams not named Fordham and Northwestern and two of those teams were Buffalo and Illinois. Hanging on to the football is an issue with the Cornhuskers having turned the ball over at least once every game this year prior to last week vs Northwestern. Nebraska has turned the ball over 7 times in 6 games, 5 of them being fumbles. In fact, they've put the ball on the turf 10 times in 7 games, recovering 50% of them.
Another issue that plagues Nebraska is negative plays. 7 sacks and 11 tackles for a loss for MSU against Nebraska. 5 sacks and 10 tackles for a loss for Oklahoma. 5 sacks and 6 tackles for a loss for Illinois. Nebraska did a good job against Fordham, Buffalo and Northwestern allowing just 1 sack in those games, though there were still 11 tackles for a loss in those. In case you lost track, that's 18 sacks and 38 tackles behind the line of scrimmage on Nebraska in 6 games. For comparison, Michigan has allowed 1 sack and 11 tackles behind the line of scrimmage after 5 games. So they'd have to give up 17 sacks and 27 negative plays tomorrow to match Nebraska's six game total.
Adrian Martinez is a significant contributor to the fumble and negative play issue. He has a tendency to hold the ball way too long with seemingly little awareness for the opposing pass rush. If Michigan can apply pressure, which everything indicates they should, Martinez is going to have some issues. That said, Martinez is a legitimate threat running the football. He's serviceable passing as well but is prone to mistakes when under pressure. Both of his interceptions this year being against the only two opponents with an above average defense (MSU and OU). Outside of Martinez, Nebraska's running game has been pretty average and I would expect Michigan to be able to contain the Husker running backs.
Defensively, Nebraska has been subpar against the run with teams like Fordham and Buffalo averaging 4.5 and 4.1 yards per carry respectively while Oklahoma racked up 5.5. That said, they did a decent job containing MSU (2.4ypc). Northwestern technically only had 1.4ypc however, negative 47 yards were attributed to QB Ryan Hilinski via 4 Nebraska sacks. If you took sacks out of the equation, Northwestern picked up 4.4ypc with their running backs against Nebraska.
Their pass rush is hit or miss with outings of no sacks against Oklahoma and Buffalo. The other 4 games have seen Nebraska total 11 sacks. Pass defense is a weakness for Nebraska. Lowly Northwestern completed 62% of passes for 256 yards. Which should be noted is more passing yards than Northwestern had against Ohio and Indiana State combined and the best passing percentage game they've had this year. Only MSU gave up more passing yards to NW (283) thus far. While they did a good job against both MSU (183yds) and OU (214yds) in regards to passing yards, both teams still had decent outings with passing percentages of 60% and 70% respectively. Buffalo also saw their best success through the air yardage wise (224yds) against Nebraska besides their 257yd performance against Wagner. Buffalo has only averaged 163yds passing in their other 3 games against WMU, Coastal Carolina and Old Dominion. Illinois had a 79% completion percentage against Nebraska led mostly by Artur Sitkowski. Opportunities should be there for Michigan's passing game.
Special teams is a disaster for Nebraska. They are averaging kick returns barely beyond the 15 yard line. This is where the dumb fair catch a kickoff for a touchback really comes into effect. Their punt return has not been much better with average returns of 2 yards on the year. Add this to a 50% field goal kicker and a team net punt average of 32 yards, an allowed punt return TD and 4 kick returns of 30+ yards allowed and this is the weakest unit on the field for Nebraska.
All that said, playing in Lincoln in a night game won't be easy and this will be significantly more hostile than Camp Randall. Despite their ever too occurring incompetence on offense, this is still by far the best offense Michigan will have played and with a dual threat at QB, there is a legitimate cause for concern. If Michigan's offense can remain clean, they should have plenty of chances to put points on the board as the defense will be a significant step down from Wisconsin. I believe that the balance of last week will open up more opportunities for the running attack to return to form against a team that is already susceptible to being run on. McNamara will have to make some throws though.
Michigan should win both lines of scrimmage, especially on defense. Factor this in with a special teams advantage and complete opposites in terms of turnovers, the game should favor Michigan. The hostile road environment, a mobile QB and an uncharacteristic gaggle of errors by the Michigan offense will be the only way I see Nebraska winning this game. A Nebraska win of course is quite possible. However, it's not likely.
Michigan wins 35-24
This years predictions:
41-17 vs WMU (47-14 actual)
31-20 vs Washington (31-10 actual)
45-16 vs NIU (63-10 actual)
48-10 vs Rutgers (20-13 actual)
20-24 at Wisconsin (38-17 actual)
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