Rick Neuheisel talks Nebraska vs. Colorado, future roster sizes and more at Big Ten Media Days I GBR

like as a guy and Coach okay so Dan Lanning first of all the story about Dan Lanning and his you know journey to get into college coaching is a great one driving 13 hours from Missouri to Pittsburgh to get an audience with uh Todd Graham uh says everything about how much his his want to meter was running High I think he's in it for all the right reasons I mean there's obviously you know some Romanticism to being a head coach but I think he's in it K and I think that's come shining through the B Knicks game against Georgia the opening game where bonick struggled and it looked like the bonick of Auburn that was played with turnovers and all that stuff for him to be arm around him and we're in this for the Long Hall we in it together showed great maturity on the first time uh stage uh but Dan Lanning and I became real friends and I became a huge fan when he came to Pebble Beach just recently I ask all the first timers that come to this golf tournament First Co first time they had come as the head coach they bring guests and such to come up on stage it's kind of like rookies having to sing their fight song right so I asked him to come on stage and sing a song for everybody at this uh kind of barbecue he did not miss a beat he walks up and tells the band Jesse's Girl and nailed it I mean in tune knew all the words didn't have to pull up a cell phone to get the lyrics nailed it any guy who can get up there in Commander room singing Jesse's Girl is a is a hero of mine so I'm I'm a Dan Lanning fan coach um you've got a unique perspective on Nebraska Colorado what are your early thoughts on that match up in linking a night game uh with a night game night game on NBC oh that's it it's the kind of stage that that game deserves now both programs are trying to get back to the level of where they were right when they were at the top of the Heat and playing for not just you know conference prizes but National prizes I mean I played against Nebraska where they won two national championships during the four years I was there great timing by me uh the uh so it's fun to see these these two programs get that kind of stage I know the folks in Memorial Stadium will be jazzed and ready to go and uh so too with Dion's troops uh and obviously having won the game last year Nebraska will be looking for a little uh payback opportunity so interesting especially year 2 for both coaches interesting from historical standpoint given the players and great players that played in both of those programs and uh a fitting stage what do you know about Dylan riola from what you've heard so far he grew up in Arizona which is my home state and uh everybody raved about him obviously uh there's going to be a lot of pressure on him because he's trying to resurrect a program that's been down since 2016 having not particip ated in postseason since the Music City bow of that year so uh how quickly they groom him to come along how much offense he's given because at the end of the day for Nebraska to get where Nebraska wants to go they have to win one score games which means all those little things become heightened when it's a ones score and Nebraska has been on the wrong end of those ones score games for far too long so making those plays is that because he's unique as the talent or because the coaches are holding him back not to make that big mistake as Bill McCartney uh the great Colorado coach says to win games you have to first not lose them so it'll be interesting where on that spectrum they find him when you take a look at what's going on in Washington s months removed from being in the national championship game completely new coaching staff only two starters returning a transfer portal two two athletic directors and it's like a whole new it's a new vort it's a Vortex it's like just came in crashed and you don't even know people's names yeah I don't I don't know the guys yeah uh and yet Jed fish that's right where he was when he went to Arizona and they went 1 and 11 I'm not suggesting Washington's going to go 1 and 11 but the next year 5- seven the next year 10 wins so I think Jed's going to go right to that blueprint of how to start this thing obviously the hope is that they'll be much more competitive uh than than one and 11 but uh I wouldn't put so much stock in the record this year as the culture and the culture growing because one thing I do know about jet having coached with him in Baltimore he's his mind is always working about how to fix things so uh this will start where it will start Will Rogers is a you know accomplished quarterback uh not this won't be air raid but he'll he'll be ready to play in this offense and cerebral enough to grasp what Jed's trying to get accomplish but but uh if they if they get to postseason this year count this as a remarkable season and uh and bat and the hatch is for what's going to come because Jeb's saving up for years two and three you said you were down at Alabama I mean if kayin was able to do at Washington able to do kayin was walking around going and I mean as soon as he got out of the car right first of all he's got a driver Kaylin probably never had a driver uh he was lucky the car worked in South Dakota right and and now every everybody comes massing to him like uh they turned on the light and everybody was you know fly coming to the to the the illumination he uh but he's handling it beautifully he's handling it beautifully uh and one thing they did have was a p cover uh Alabama's got players and so kayn what will be interesting the most interesting thing for me is where kayin is on the flate calling Spectrum with Ryan grub gone right is that kin's offense or Ryan offense well it was both of their offenses but he had handed it off so that he could you know be doing the other stuff the question is how much more will he have to be involved as they morph this offense towards Jaylen milro skill set which is different than Penn's skill set and where Sheridan is on this as the former tight end Coach now trying to help with the play calling I think kin's going to be immersed in that and because I think they have to incorporate jaylen's legs way more than they did penx uh that's going to be the fascinating thing is how much time that takes to get all that piece up I think exactly right yeah and just seeing what Ryan does with it's it's easy to give a guy a title yeah but Ryan was I mean he was as comfortable as the uh blanket on your on your couch right easy uh Sheridan was certainly part of that but he's not going to have nearly the experience as to what needs to be called and Ken's going to be way more mindful of what's happening there Ryan told me the story about them driving at game after South Dakota State going on the bus and they stopped and they had sandwiches out of the Pooler and they thought they were living large and they were and they were what's that old frosty rering story that the old uh Pacific Lutheran coach make the big time where you are well he's he's in Tinsel Town tea toown right now it's going to be interesting to see how he handles tusco hey coach I wanted to get your view on roster cap numbers I mean there's been a lot of talk about this 105 110 number for Nebraska that's uh that's that's cutting the roster in half right cutting 40 guys yeah Tom Tom uh Dr Tom used to have somewhere around 200 players we all marveled that he had two Scout teams at a time you know going uh to deal listen I'm about opportunity I I hate the idea that we're going to limit opportunities but I will say say it this way if a kid can't get on one of those rosters and wants to play college football there'll be a spot for him and given the way you can transfer now if you Blossom as you know I'm looking at myself if UCLA would have told me I couldn't walk on I there were places I could have gone and if I could play well which fortunately I was able to at one point or the other at UCLA I can catch somebody's eye and if I want to I can go and keep chasing that dream so we have ANM at those opportunities for people it just maybe changing the starting point so why is it wanted or needed I me what is it because the bigger schools can just buy as many players as they want now is that kind of the thought of putting a cap on things yeah and and basically trying to create some measure of parity between the Hales and Have Nots which has never been the case uh but ultimately finding some some common ground I got all sorts of ideas on all this stuff is to because it's such an open template right uh like for instance I think is we look at these conferences without divisions that we ought to tear them and for lack of having thought it all the way through four tiers so just follow my thinking here if you're in tier one number one you're going to earn a little bit more than other year you're going to win what you earn but if we have still 85 scholarships and then let's say another 20 guys that can be on the roster that are going to be earning whatever so 85 of the 85 50 would be scholarship okay 5050 scholarships would be enhanced from where they are now super siiz so you give there AER compensation so that that 20 million that we're going to have to write off to them is going to be part of that so anyway Insurance travel for your folks all that kind of stuff now the next 15 are going to be scholarship plus one all right that's giving somebody because he's that coveted you giving him a little bit more in the way of compens ation scholarship plus two or 10 spots a little bit more compensation than scholarship plus three with the top let your quarterback pass rush spots 10 spots is all you get but if you take a transfer from a tier four team because right now the tier four teams you look at Purdue from last year you look at uh uh Vanderbilt the SEC they got rated players that are on that team now are going if you take one and you're a tier one team taking one from tier four he has to be a scholarship plus three you have to put him in there so you you have so which one of those 10 guys are you lose right you're not saying it's impossible for that kid to get to transfer but there's going to be a a a cost to the team that's taking a salary cap a salary cap we have to have that and every other league in in sport does it other than baseball we just have to figure out how to do that right but they still have luxury taxes right in baseball so we we can figure this out and create something that the fans are going to be excited about but we can't just keep coaching out these bottom teams and to say tampering isn't going on is ridiculous hey Rick I walked up late I know you probably got SS R for chump we're standing here on the precipice of an 18 team Big 10 two places where you coach you know and played are you stunned a little bit about how quickly things have have flipped here in three years well the genie was out of the bottle in the Alon case head right and uh once that happened it was not hard to predict given the lack of the ability to hold on to your players with the you know year in Residence rule uh and the ability now to pay your players those two things happening simultaneously or close to simultaneously created a free-for-all and now it's the television folks that are making the G right in terms of which games are important and uh so you want to get your dance card you you want to first of all be invited to the dance and then secondly you want to get on uh and get out there and dance and so it's not surprising that we're seeing the big Brands find a way to the top it's why Clemson and Florida State are embroiled in what they're embroiled into the ACC yeah but I mean we're talking about a big 10 that's got Oregon and and USC and Washington um and UCLA in it I mean back when you played there lucky to be there and lucky to be there and lucky to be there right I mean but could you've ever envisioned this 30 years ago you understand what I'm saying is your oh yeah I mean the fact that we're you know involved in college athletics without a West Coast presence of uh of a conference right shocking shocking and yet if you look back over the life of those decisions you can see what big Stakes they decisions they were uh and you it's easy to just start pointing fingers at former Commissioners and saying oh it's your fault I would have loved to have been in the room to hear the discussion and I understand believing and being optimistic about a future but I wonder about the discussions about what the downside was and you know who really brought up do we have enough for a rainy day type of thing that would have been fascinating so but here we are and uh you know charge what intrigues you most about this new about this new 18 team Big 10 I mean you got a host day playing in Oregon now we we we got you know it's a Rose Bowl every week in terms of the the matchups right uh we've got just giant matchups I think CBS and week four gets SC at Michigan and that's you know bam Beckler and John M right that's that's who should be coaching that game but uh so we're going to have that uh that's fun Penn State coming out to the West Coast to play I think they come out to play UCLA I think so yeah yeah uh that that's going to be fun hey Jack how you doing how you doing so uh those are those are fascinating matchups and I think that that's why the television is paying such an enormous amount of money because they know people are going to be gravitating towards that how it turns out in the long run how it impacts the other sports still to be determined last question you have the you have the possibility there aate play at Oregon one of them's going to win playing again here first weekend of December you you know where I'm going with this and then possibly playing again in the quarterfinals cuz they would both probably make the the 12 yeah is that good or bad that's maybe too defend I I think listen I think it's I think it's fine I we don't have a problem when the Rams play the Eagles again I mean that's not a problem if they're going to play in a in a championship game we don't have a problem with you know division you know teams play each other couple couple of times uh the Washington Oregon games were freaking outstanding last year right they were outstanding so I good good on good always gets the attention of America