This is the one day of the week that we get to talk with UW defensive coordinator Nick Holt.

And obviously there's a lot to talk about with the No. 8-rated team in the country coming to Husky Stadium Saturday. Here's some of what he had to say:

Initial impressions of Nebraska's offense: "They run the ball they are averaging over 300 yards a game rushing the ball. They spread you out. They have a lot of good weapons. The quarterback is real fast. Got a big, good offensive line and good skill, they've got a 1,000-yard rusher coming back and a heck of a receiver coming back. So they have a lot of good skill and they spread you out and they run some really good things so we are going to be stretched thin and out in the middle of the field by ourselves we have to make some one-on-one tackles.''

On Nebraska QB Taylor Martinez averaging 13.8 yards per carry: "They've got some good schemes, where he's one-on-one with a safety or one-on-one with a linebacker and a lot of space and he's beating them...he's outrunning them. That's why he's averaging all that stuff. And maybe some of those schemes that he's played against aren't as good as they need to be against an offense like that. Who knows, but he gets on the edge and there aren't a lot of guys that can catch this guy."

On getting to Martinez before he can get started: "That's one of the keys. But you've got so many guys on him you've got the running back, who is pretty good, and you get so many guys in the box, they've got a decent passing game."

On Nebraska's offense resembling Oregon: "There's a couple plays that are similar, but there are a lot of differences. They've only been doing it a year or six months, where Oregon has been doing it a little longer. Oregon has a bunch of different plays, and Nebraska likes to do some of their other stuff. And their quarterback...they are trying to hone it in a little on him too, so he doesn't have all this playbook to manage."

On how the crowd could help Saturday: "I think our fans have always been good. I enjoy coaching here and having ball games here because of our fans. This is going to be one of those games where they are going to really be into it because it's a heck of an opponent. ''

On what a defense can do to rattle a QB on their first road start: "It's playing really good defense. We're not like, 'Let's do some things that are going to rattle this guy'. We've got to be able to play our stuff, and hopefully by playing that really, really well this guy can get a little rattled. There's no magic formula; you've got to play really, really good defense against these guys....they've busted a lot of plays against people when these other people aren't doing some sound things, it looks like."

On covering Nebraska's passing game: "You still have to cover down these receivers or guys are doing to be wide open. That's the problem with the spread passing game. It's hard to go man on man because a couple of them can run right by you so then you start spacing out your linebackers and get them further and further away from your run game and it's a headache, it really is. You've got to find creative ways to bring them back in but yet still be really good in the passing game.''

Any lessons in having gone against BYU's mobile QB Riley Nelson?: "No, no lessons, really. ...the lessons we've already learned and stuff like that. This is kind of new, not new but some of the same problems that we encounter and just got to keep getting better at it.''

On Nebraska's OL blocking similar to Oregon: "They have some similar schemes where they don't block any of the defensive tackles and they let them run around with their heads cut off and try to tackle quarterbacks in space. They do have some similar schemes. They do a bunch of other stuff, old Nebraska stuff, but they do have some schemes that Oregon and some of these other spread offenses are doing. And their quarterback it's smart because he's averaging 140 something rushing yards per game and he's fast and they are using him in a good way.''

On young guys on the verge of playing more: "Sean Parker, and Greg Ducre could get more reps. We always thought that and they are starting to get in the groove.''

What about Sione Potoa'e?: "Well he had 20-something snaps so he's been playing quite a bit and he will continue to play.''