Last year, the Jayhawks beat Nebraska in football for the first time since the Vietnam War. But the Cornhuskers are 6-1 since then, and the Journal Star says Nebraska is on a roll: “In tattooing Troy, Nebraska rolled up its largest output on offense in five years (597 yards) and its first shutout in three. The Huskers rank No. 2 nationally in point production (42.75 per game) while allowing 11.25 to rank No. 15.” John Mabry has been sports editor at the Lincoln Journal Star since 1997. He joined the staff three weeks before Tom Osborne announced his retirement. John is a graduate of Kansas University. John Mabry, the paper’s sports editor, shares his Husker expertise with Jayhawk fans at 1:30 p.m. Friday.

Moderator

Hi folks! Joel Mathis, managing editor for convergence, and sports editor Tom Keegan here to moderate today’s chat. We hope to have John on shortly.

Moderator

Here we go…

oscarfactor

I’m curious – about the time KU was scoring it’s 40th point last year against Big Red, did birds start to fly backwards in Lincoln? Did cats and dogs lie down together? Did local pastors speak of the apocalypse?

Will the world be returned to normalcy after tomorrow’s KU-NU game?

John Mabry

I would have to say if normalcy is Nebraska putting together a fairly impressive win then I’m guessing that normalcy will return tomorrow and that should be noted as coming from a Jayhawk, Class of 1987. When Larry Brown arrived that’s when I started and when he left I couldn’t bear it anymore so I left.

Bad_Brad

What are the expectations of Husker fans for this team? I’m curious if most Husker fans expect to beat KU by 4 or 5 TDs on Saturday and finish the season 11-1 or 10-2 or something like that, or if expectations have mellowed somewhat in the post-Osborne era.

John Mabry

I think expectations have mellowed since Osborne left, but the expectations for this team are pretty high and I think most fans will be disappointed, really disappointed if the team does not win the North and were to lose more than three games in the regular season. The biggest question marks with this team are the offensive line and the secondary. There was a lot of criticism about the gameplan against USC but that gameplan was the result of some real poor pass protection and I honestly believe the coaches were afraid for Zac Taylor’s safety in that game and if Taylor goes down it’s not good.

hskrbkr

John,

This Husker fan in Lawrence likes the progress shown by the Husker offense lately, but I’m curious to know how you’d rate our defense against the rest of the Big 12 North? Even though Jarrett torched ’em at USC, I think the Blackshirts are pretty tough this year.

John Mabry

I would agree. The game last week against a decent Troy team, anytime you shut someone out, it’s great. Troy is not a bad football team, certainly not a 56-0 type of a team. The defense has a lot of confidence, great push up front, as Callahan likes to say, questions in the secondary remain. The good news is they will not face another team this season with the talent of USC, and that includes Texas. So I guess my answer is their defense stacks up really well in the North.

hurlehey_boy

Do you think there is a chance the huskers will actually beat KU by over 100 points the way many in of us in Lawrence are thinking?

John Mabry

A hundred, wow, that would be a heck of a story. I think it will be under 100. I just feel the night-time atmosphere for an NU home game is pretty intimidating. And I think that’s worth probably 10 points right there. The Huskers are still trying to prove the USC game was not indicative of what they’re capable of even though they stayed fairly close with the Trojans and I think they want to pardon the cliche, make a statement, about their plans to take the North. I think the Kansas defense is good enough to make it somewhat interesting but I think Nebraska should pull away.

my_black_lab_told_me_so

Sir, with all due respect (I know you’re a huge Big Red fan)….may I ask you….how is it possible that Nebraska starts off their year beating up on two high school football teams…and then gets basically shut down by a REAL college football team…and, yet, Nebraska is still ranked in the Top 25 (Number 21, last time I checked). My question to you is: How can that be? Yes, NU lost to a very good USC team…but still, given who they’ve played to date…NU simply does not deserve to be in the Top 25!

John Mabry

First off, I did somehow manage to get a diploma from the University of Kansas, so the Big Red fan allegation is a little off base, but I understand where you’re coming from. The first four games have not all been against world-beaters, outside of USC. But remember this team beat a pretty good Michigan team with a lot of these same people last December in the Alamo Bowl. I do believe it’s a Top 25 team and I believe that they’ll be there when the season’s over. Is it a Top 10 team? That would probably be a little bit of a stretch, but not a stretch to call them a Top 25 team.

DerekR25

I’ve heard a lot about Nebraska’s secondary being questionable with Bowman out, and it looked like they couldn’t do anything at all with USC’s recievers. How do you think KU’s recievers match up with NU’s corners and vice versa?

John Mabry

I would say Nebraska’s secondary is probably going to face its first significant test outside of the USC game. Andre Jones and company showed some improvement last week, although Troy is not exactly USC. Jones was a focal point of the USC soap opera because he said something about Nebraska winning that game before it happened. He caught some heck for that from teammates and coaches and he seems to have settled in with some legitimate confidence now. He is not Zachary Bowman, a big loss for the secondary and Grixby Green and Andrew Shanle are probably together a B group of defensive backs, not quite A caliber at this point, so Kansas will have it’s opportunities. If Kansas has time to throw, I do beleive the Jayhawks can move the ball that way, but there will be some heavy pressure.

legolas1996

I live in Omaha and many of the so called sports experts up here are saying that this game is going to be a blowout by NU. Then there are the select few who actually come to reality and recognize that KU has a great run defense and that it may be a fairly close game. In your opinion, does KU stand a chance to even compete in this game. I certainly think they do, but the people up here bleeding corn think this will be as easy as beating Troy 56-0.

John Mabry

I would like to see that happen, meaning a close game, my concern as far as Kansas goes is how well they’ll be able to protect the football. I think turnovers as usual will be key and I would expect Nebraska to win that battle. But you make a good point about the Kansas defense. I don’t think Nebraska will be able to run the ball up and down the field. I could however see Nebraska scoring one or two touchdowns because of their defense.

kranny

Mr. Mabry,
Do you think Husker nation is warming up to the style of offense that Coach Callahan has brought in?

John Mabry

Yes, most are, but Callahan took a step back in the eyes of many with what was perceived as the Wuss Coast Offense against USC. I don’t necessarily agree with that criticism of that gameplan because I think as I said Zac Taylor was in a lot of trouble with the pass protection that was being provided. In general, I think the fans are fired up about the Callahan system.

leikness

I recently relocated from Lawrence to Omaha and I after listening to the radion for a couple of days this week, I finally had to turn off the am dial. I have never heard a bunch of people be such horrible sports. It’s like every time they say the word Kansas they laugh while saying it. Zach Taylor’s quote about Nebraska being off last year and it didn’t matter who they played that day is the most blatantly disrespectful thing that you could say about a team. It doesn’t bother me so much that Nebraska thinks they will beat Kansas on Saturday, it just bothers me that they are making it sound like last year’s team was not that good, which is completely not true, KU was a better team than Nebraska last year. Please just tell me that KU has a chance on Saturday.

Moderator

That’ll be the last question…

John Mabry

Well, they do have a chance. They do. But don’t confuse the comments of sports talk show hosts with the player comments. I thought I had heard most of what was said by the players and I did not sense any disrespect for Kansas, which clearly did outplay NU in Lawrence last year. There is hope and it would be nice to see a close game. I do think Nebraska has the edge by two or three touchdowns. Sorry if that’s not what you wanted to hear, but remember I’m a Jayhawk by schooling.