The Quiet Man, Marlon Lucky
And other observations heading into Saturday's game vs Nevada
By SAM McKEOWON
August 31, 2007
DN File Photo
Nebraska running back Marlon Lucky says he's "a step faster" in 2007 thanks to a strong summer conditioning program.Marlon Lucky is a man of a lot football moves and few words for the tape recorder.
How's it going, he's asked.
“Good,” he answers.
And his week in practice?
“Great.”
Nebraska's junior running back, who persevered through a difficult offseason and a mild concussion in fall camp to start Saturday's game against Nevada, is patient, polite and unusually brief in response to questions.
In other words, he has an excellent poker face for the media.
He's made personal goals, but doesn't want to make them public. When he's asked about what kind of game he'd like to play against the Wolf Pack, he gives one of his standard answers: “Whatever comes, comes.”
Lucky dropped only a few hints Wednesday in an interview. He believes he'll be used more as a receiver. He thinks he's a “step faster” after NU's summer conditioning program.
“When I run I don't want anybody to tackle from the back,” he said. “It's like being caught by a dog.”
And when he watched tape of himself from last year, he saw too many plays in which he was tackled near or just behind the line of scrimmage.
“I needed to pick up my legs,” Lucky said. “Run through more tackles. Pick up my legs and keep them moving. That's the one thing I had to work on most.”
So Lucky did the classic ropes drill more this summer than he ever had.
He seems to relish his role as a receiver as much carrying the ball; Lucky said he could get “five carries” on Saturday and be satisfied if had a bunch of receiving yards. And, of course, if the Huskers won.
But expect more – much more than just five totes for Lucky. Unless he gets hurt.
Senior tight end JB Phillips wasn't trying to cough up the gameplan during Tuesday's press conference, but he did provide a peek into NU's mindset for Saturday.
It would seem to feature a lot of gut-busting between the hashmarks.
“We all know (NU Head Coach) Callahan by now,” Phillips said. “He likes to line us up, see what we're made of and make us earn our scholarships. I'm sure we'll line up and run at them.”
And just maybe a little “razzle dazzle,” Phillips said.
Bank on this: Nebraska will throw when it must and run when it can.
And don't expect Callahan to be shy about using freshmen backs Quentin Castille and Roy Helu. They've not only had good fall camps – because of injuries to Glenn and Lucky, they've been unusually involved in camp, too.
Sometimes, expectations are difficult to bear. They were for Lucky during his freshman season.
And some kids just love them.
Either way, Nebraska's becoming more like the Southern California model each day.
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Callahan, quarterback Sam Keller and Lucky all made reference this week to Nevada's performance in the MPC Computers Bowl – a 21-20 loss to Miami - as an indication of just how talented the Wolf Pack are.
“If you look at their success in that particular game, it's impressive,” Callahan said. “If you look at the way 'Reno' matched up with Miami, it's awfully impressive.”
That's accurate – Nevada played hard, notched 23 first downs, and took Miami to the wire - but a little misleading.
At 7-6, this was one of the Hurricanes' worst teams in 30 years; it was the team that got Larry Coker fired. It was a team that had to rally for a 20-15 win at Duke, which finished last season 0-12. The only signature “Hurricane moment” was that giant brawl against a crosstown cupcake.
It was a team playing in Boise, Idaho, in 31-degree temperature.
Miami, in Boise. That's like Nixon in Hanoi.
Baggage. You can't trust the performances of teams with it, or the performances of their opponents.
At any rate, Nevada was a better team last year. It must invade Lincoln with a quarterback getting his first career start. Its top running back carried the ball two times for zero yards in the bowl game. It has to play without its starting center and best linebacker. It has to face a Nebraska defense that is easily Defensive Coordinator Kevin Cosgrove's fastest, most athletic unit.
Speaking of Miami, at least someone related to Nebraska gleaned a positive from the Canes' 37-14 victory over NU in the Rose Bowl.
Sophomore safety Larry Asante, who earned a Blackshirt Tuesday and is rumored (how would we really know, since practice is closed) to be one of the team's signature hitters/tacklers, watched that game. To most Husker fans, that's akin to viewing “The Godfather Part III,” but it helped Asante decide he wanted to play in Lincoln.
Say huh?
Yep. ABC must have run a little feature on the Blackshirt tradition, and Asante was hooked.
“I wanted to somehow, some way be a part of that,” Asante said. “I think I was 14 years old – I was in eighth grade at the time. Watching that game, it was something I wanted to be a part of...
“Nebraska's always been on my mind.”
Well, the Big 12 North's off to a great start.
Iowa State dropped its opener 23-14 to Kent State. Right now, Northern Iowa's looking like the only “W” on the Cyclones' slate. Enjoy it, Ames.
Don't be too entirely optimistic about the Big 12 in general this weekend. The league should be happy to win 7 of its 12 games this week.
Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech should all win pretty comfortably. Missouri might give up 28 points to Illinois, but it could score 63, too. Expect a five-hour game inside the Edward Jones Dome Saturday.
But Baylor's getting buried at Texas Christian. Kansas State has long odds at Auburn. Oklahoma State has a better chance at Georgia, but the Pokes haven't won a significant road game since beating Oklahoma in 2001. Who knows what kind of team Colorado will field against Colorado State. Same goes for Kansas against a Central Michigan squad that many believe will win the MAC conference.
Ball State, Nebraska's cool-down workout after the USC game, lost 14-13 to Miami (Ohio) Thursday on a final-minute touchdown run. Here's a writeup of it; sounds like Ball State outplayed the Red Hawks, but lost in the “intangibles” column.
Statepaper's a little late to the party, but Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm's winning the Heisman. He'll have 40 touchdowns, his team might not lose and, most importantly, ESPN/ABC/Disney will pump his campaign because the Cards are prominently featured on the Mouse Network this year. Just you watch how Sports Mickey pulls the strings.
Not that Brohm wouldn't deserve it; unless he gets hurt, he's the No. 1 pick of the Atlanta Falcons in the 2008 NFL Draft. It's simply that Arkansas running back Darren McFadden will play half his games on CBS. And Sports Mickey only appreciates storylines that involve the games on the Mouse Network. Brohm, along with Rutgers, is ESPN's ticket to finally recalibrate must-see college football to Thursday nights. It's already been done with college basketball.
Heisman voters are ripe to give the award to someone from a non-elite school. McFadden will have to drop 2,000 rushing yards on the nation to have a chance. Bank it.
And finally...rumor is Nebraska's changed the music for the Tunnel Walk. The new song, called “Husker Beat,” is produced by Nebraska artist Mike Bohuslavsky. He goes by MikeyBo. The song was played on an Omaha radio station earlier this week, and polls are showing up all over Internet message boards about its sound.
It's a fusion of hip-hop, horror music, the old “Sirius” song, and actor Tobin Bell, who played Jigsaw in the “Saw” series. It's his voice that says “Let the game begin” in the first 20 seconds of the song. NU officials have confirmed the song has somehow been changed; we'll see Saturday if it's same exact song in the link.
And here that link. It's to Bohuslavsky's MySpace Web site, so if you have to, click on “Husker Beat” to hear the song. Remember, it's MySpace. Not always the best language in the some of the friend comments.
Nebraskans do not tend to appreciate trivial, cosmetic changes too much. (Or drastic, monumental ones, for that matter.) Remember the demise of Herbie I, and the rise of Lil' Red?
Remember the 2002 uniforms, featuring the red gussets that looked like the Kevin Spacey character from “Seven” had cut his pound of flesh out of every Husker?
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