Matt Rhule with some Monday press conference feedback on Brian Buschini, what went wrong on the blocked punts and Tristan Alvano’s recovery.
The topic is special teams and Husker fans know there are two tales to tell. The one with a feel-good “Full(er) House” script and the other one that easily could’ve spoiled the mood of a bye week had the Blackshirts not showed up on the scene unfazed.
The enjoyable story, made even better when victory was secured, included the sight of banged-up Brian Buschini out on the practice field during halftime of Saturday’s game, practicing for a fake punt the Huskers knew they had to run.
As Buschini noted after the 14-7 Husker win over Rutgers, it would have basically been back-talking the football gods to not run that fake based off how the Scarlet Knights were playing it. Still, could the punter with a hurting back throw a strike with all that wind and pressure? At halftime Buschini was getting his practice in.
“I wish you guys could have seen. One of the best things I’ve ever seen is this kid gets hurt – he can’t even move – and he’s out there on the little practice mini field … and he’s throwing just to see, ‘Can I get my back loosened up to go throw?’ Because we’re going to go throw. And he found a way to get it done,” Matt Rhule said Monday.
That fake worked just as special teams coordinator Ed Foley, Rhule and everyone studying the film on those units had suspected. It worked for 30 yards. The Huskers were actually planning on it working for a touchdown but receiver Jaylen Lloyd just got tripped up trying to elude the last Scarlet Knight between him and the fight song playing.
Even without the touchdown pass on the stat sheet, it was a memorable day for Buschini. And it’s assumed he’s allowed to sit anywhere in the cold tub he wants this week. He was named Big Ten special teams player of the week after that throw and averaging 50.2 yards per punt. That includes a 69-yarder in the final minutes to back Rutgers up 89 yards from a possible game-tying drive.
Of course part of what made Buschini’s day even more impressive was connected to the black eye that Nebraska’s special teams wore Saturday. He was a wounded man after Rutgers came charging through to block two punts – absolutely hammering the punter on the first one.
As Rhule would say at Monday’s bye week press conference, “To ever have two blocked punts and not lose the game is almost impossible.”
So what happened? We know Rutgers was basically attacking with 10 guys. That’s a piece of it. Certainly there were mishaps on Nebraska’s end too.
“I usually won’t say who it was, but Giff just blocked the wrong guy,” Rhule said of one of the team leaders Isaac Gifford, who also had a team-leading eight tackles (including 1 1/2 TFLs) in the win. “I say that because I don’t think anyone here would question his determination – it’s not any of those things. They just brought the gunner in. He just missed it.
“On the second one the personal protector just didn’t make the block. They challenged you in every regard. If I could go back, I wish I would’ve faked the punt on the first one because we knew they were going to do that and we knew the corners were just going to sit there. We knew we were going to be able to throw it. And it was a little challenging to say, ‘Hey, let’s go throw it in that wind with our punter.’ But I believed in Brian.”
As Rhule had also said right after the game, he thinks faking the punt might’ve backed off Rutgers, which it did for Buschini’s final punt. He’d been unloading one-step kicks to make sure he got them off but he saw the Scarlet Knights peeling away and took his usual routine and nailed that final punt with the wind carrying it all the way until it was downed at the 11. It in many ways relieved the remaining anxiousness from Nebraska fans the way the defense was playing.
But the multiple blocked punts add to the worry list about Husker special teams at the bye, coming a week after two field goals were blocked, contributing to the Huskers missing on their last four field goal attempts. Bad snaps and bad kicks on those. And Buschini fielded a low snap on a punt Saturday too.
Rhule was still as anxious as any fans before that last punt.
“They’re sending one more guy than you have a blocker for. At the end of the day, your punter has to get it off.”
Rhule said what Rutgers was doing reminded of some old Frank Beamer Virginia Tech stuff, where the Hokies would rush the punt and leave the corners in the mix just nine yards off the line. The Scarlet Knights were even leaving them just five yards off.
Rhule also said in no way was the vulnerability Rutgers left itself open to on the fake bad coaching on that side’s part. It had obviously paid off for the Scarlet Knights prior to the bold call by Nebraska in its own end.
“I’m just saying not many people have a punter with an arm like ours does,” Rhule said. “He can throw-throw. A lot of people wouldn’t (say), ‘Hey, throw a 22-yard honey hole shot. That’s hard to do. But thankfully Buschini has probably got one of the better arms on the team, to be quite honest. He’s really good at this stuff. And we had Johnny Hekker at Carolina, who is epic at this stuff. So we have a couple of these things that Ed has. And it worked.”
Whether the bye week allows enough time for Tristan Alvano to get back into the mix with the place-kicking operation during the second half of the season isn’t sure.
“I think Tristan is going to potentially, potentially begin the process of testing and seeing where he’s at,” Rhule said, “and whatever that means in terms of when he’s comfortable, healthy.”
Just one of the questions with Husker special teams that will need to be answered.