Nebraska football heads to southern California this weekend, as you know, without Dylan Raiola, who’s been lost for the season with a broken fibula. It’s a “Brook Berringer moment,” you might say, with previously second-string quarterback TJ Lateef stepping up.
Berringer was the No. 2 quarterback in 1994, until blood clots sidelined third-year starter Tommie Frazier for the remainder of the regular season. Berringer led the Huskers to the Big Eight title and a trip to the Orange Bowl to play Miami for the national championship.
That’s a bit of history attached to the point here regarding Lateef, who takes on a significant task. Nebraska faces a “crossroads as a team,” Matt Rhule said Monday.
The three-remaining regular-season games are “some of the most important,” he said, in the Huskers establishing themselves as worthy of continuing national respect.
Replacing Raiola is no small task, of course. He had already passed for 2,000 yards this season, with 18 touchdown passes. His 72.4 completion percentage ranks fourth nationally.
However, Lateef, though a freshman, is a “very calm, mature kid,” said offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, who also described him as “a student of the game.”
He’s also more of a running threat than Raiola. Offensive guard Henry Lutovsky said Lateef’s “an athlete, for sure,” and as such, the “threat of his legs is always there.”
With Emmett Johnson leading the way, Nebraska is becoming a “run-first team,” Holgorsen said. Johnson has rushed for 1,002 yards, including 100 or more in three of the last four games.
UCLA is 3-5, including 3-2 under interim coach Tim Skipper, after DeShaun Foster was fired three games into the season. Skipper’s record is also the Bruins’ Big Ten record.
Quarterback Nico Iamaleava, a redshirt sophomore transfer from Tennessee, has completed 148-of-234 passes (65.2%) for 1,468 yards and 10 touchdowns with seven interceptions. He also leads the Bruins with 388 yards, and four touchdowns, rushing.
“He’s elite,” said Rhule.
Statistically, UCLA’s offense has been similar to Nebraska’s, but with more yardage rushing and less passing. The Bruins average 160.8 rushing yards per game, 183.5 passing.
In addition to Raiola, the Husker offense has also lost tackle Gunnar Gottula for the season because of injury. Add the earlier loss of tackle Teddy Prochazka, and new faces are stepping up on the line, including Turner Corcoran, who has come back from multiple injury problems, and Tyler Knaak.
Elijah Pritchett, who left the USC game with injury, appears to be back.
As mentioned in last week’s preview, redshirt freshmen Grant Brix and Preston Taumua are also in the mix. They “prepare all week like they’re going to play 60 snaps,” said Lutovsky.
Lateef has prepared like that as well, no doubt, because “we all knew he was going to start eventually,” tight end Luke Lindenmeyer said.
The game will be a homecoming, of sorts, for six Huskers from southern California, including Lateef, who’s from Compton. The others are wide receiver Nyziah Hunter (Salinas), Nickel Ceyair Wright (Los Angeles), cornerback Andrew Marshall (Eastvale), defensive lineman Sua Lefotu (Bellflower) and linebacker Jacob Bower (Rancho Santa Margarita).
Matt Rhule earned a master’s degree from UCLA and was an assistant defensive line coach there in 2001. Bob Toledo was the head coach.
Saturday’s game, televised on Fox with an 8:10 p.m. CST kickoff, will take place at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Rover DeShon Singleton was asked if he’d take more than one pair of shoes to test the playing surface. Singleton wanted clarification of the question and responded: “Grass is grass.”
The Huskers have a grass practice field. That immediately became the quote of the day.
Singleton also said something else that could have been. “How you finish the season is who you are.”
With the No. 2 quarterback stepping up. As Berringer did, big time.
