Gamboa, Buffs Defense Expect High-Powered Nebraska Offense
September 04, 2018 | Football
BOULDER — After a highly satisfying win against Colorado State last Friday night, the Colorado Buffaloes look to replicate that performance and take it with them to Lincoln, Neb., when they take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday.
After recording six tackles against CSU, senior linebacker Rick Gamboa is anticipating a stern test against the Huskers.
"A lot of high-speed, high-tempo offense by trying to run the ball," Gamboa said. "I also expect a lot of motion and shifting around to make it a numbers game to find out where they've got the best numbers to get their athletes in space. They have a lot of good athletes."
Nebraska is expected to start dual-threat true freshman quarterback Adrian Martinez. While he did play in Nebraska's spring game this year, he hasn't taken a snap in a true game since his junior year of high school after sitting out his entire senior year with an injury.
Gamboa and the Buffs will have to prepare for Nebraska in a different fashion due to the Huskers cancelling Saturday's scheduled season opener against Akron because of inclement weather.
"They haven't played a game yet, so that gives us an advantage playing," said CU head coach Mike MacIntyre. "The other side of it is that we've never seen them play. All we've watched is Central Florida film."
Nebraska head coach Scott Frost previously coached at Central Florida, where he led the Knights to a 13-0 record last year and a victory in the Peach Bowl against Auburn. UCF last year finished fifth in the nation in total offense, averaging more than 530 yards per game while scoring 77 offensive touchdowns (second in the nation). The Knights had a balanced offense, averaging nearly 200 yards per game on the ground and more than 330 in the air.
Frost, who served as an assistant coach at Oregon for seven years before taking the UCF job in 2016, will make his Nebraska coaching debut Saturday.
"We pretty much just have to go off the old film of the Central Florida film that we have," Gamboa said. "We'll prepare for them like any other week and go through the game plan. When we play we'll get ready for some adjustments here and there."
The Buffs will have to contend with Memorial Stadium, one of the largest stadiums in the nation. It's "official" capacity is 85,458, but the Huskers have surpassed the 90,000 mark on multiple occasions. It will be the largest stadium by capacity the Buffs will travel to this season.
Gamboa has started 38 consecutive games for the Buffs, and has had some solid games in big environments on the road. In 2016 he made a season-high 12 tackles in back-to-back games on the road at No. 4 Michigan and Oregon.
"(Playing in big environments before is) going to help," he said. "A few of the guys playing right now are used to being on the road in a big stage, especially Steven Montez, considering his first start at Oregon in Autzen Stadium. We've seen a lot of videos about the atmosphere in Lincoln, so we're really excited."
