NEBRASKA CITY- Husker Radio Analyst Damon Benning told his Big Red Buzz audience at Valentino’s Tuesday that he is weary of the question can Nebraska stop the run.

Prior to Thursday night’s matchup at Kansas City, media outlets propose that the running game will be the Cincinnati Bearcats’ primary strength and potentially Nebraska’s greatest defensive weakness, but Benning places Nebraska’s defensive line in the top half of the Big 10 Conference and says Defensive Coordinator John Butler is too insightful and too competitive to let the running game be a problem in the opener.

He said Nebraska’s coaches are not signaling any alarms.

Benning: “I think they are pleasantly surprised by the development of the defensive line.”

He says Kade Pietrzak and David Hoffken are ahead of expectations and said defensive end Williams Nwaneri is playing with upper classmen awareness.

He said Defensive Line Coach Terry Braden was able to come in with no preconceived notions about the players, so everyone had a clean slate on which to be assessed.

Benning said the two-deep roster shows encouraging depth for the defensive line.

Benning: “If they talk about having two or three quarterbacks, 98 percent of the time it’s because they don’t have one. If you have eight or nine defensive lineman that you feel you can rotate, you probably have eight or nine linemen that you can rotate.”

Benning: “I don’t worry about these guys upfront at all.”

Cincinnati will replace four of its five starting offensive linemen from a 2024 team that average 5.2 yards per rush, compared to Nebraska’s 3.8 yards.

 

 

Benning expects Nebraska’s linebackers to work in tandem with the strategy of the defensive line play to stop the run.

Benning: “We’re going to figure out how to stop the run. Coach Butler told you ‘we want to be a movement defense. We want to knock guys back and we want to play with penetration.”

Benning: “Can Nebraska situationally on the D-line cause enough havoc where Cincinnati’s lack of continuity upfront matters.”

He said the dilemma for Nebraska is that Cincinnati plays with a running quarterback.

Game prediction: Nebraska 34, Cincinnati 17

GBR