2012 Improvements Hard to Swallow - A glass half empty view

pretty much how i am feeling about this team right now. just wasn't a lot of improvement. not as much as we expected that's for sure. the win/losses ended up about what was expected, but the product on the field certainly didn't. especially since this "gauntlet" of a schedule we thought we were playing ended up being far more mediocre than we thought.

and what is very concerning to me is that we never put together a complete game. (outside of maybe Southern Miss/Minnesota). there wasn't that game like Michigan State, or Iowa last year to look to. We literally played like Kansas for 25-30% of the season. We spread it out pretty evenly throughout the season, only putting up a Jayhawk-ish showing for 3 quarter stretches a few times....but still, it was there almost every game. It was there all 4 quarters of the UCLA game, the D in the first half, the O in the second. It was there for 1.5 quarters of the Wisconsin game. For 2.5 quarters of the Ohio State game. It was there in the Northwestern game...where their kicker missed his only field goal of the season. It was there for 2 quarters against MSU, and 3 quarters against Iowa as we cashed in every ounce of remaining karma to get a win, 3.5 quarters against Wisconsin 2.0 where we had no karma left, and 1.5 quarters against Georgia. It was there in our rush defense, and it was there any time our special teams took the field. It was there on offense a few times when we got behind and Beck goes pass-pass-pass to put a gassed defense back on the field after 16 seconds. It was essentially everywhere. Our uniforms turned pink for 35% of the season. That's disappointing.

 
accountability said:
Huskerfan1985 said:
Nevada Husker said:
accountability said:
I agree 100%. We could very well be 6-6 right now. But jeez, you have to be able to play lights out and mistake free for at least a stretch in order to accomplish such comebacks. The thing to me is that I think Bo actually did a very good job coaching this year. You have to look at it as, what were the anomolys? The performances of the 10 wins, or the 4 losses? In my mind, especially the defense-regardless of the competition-was coached and played a bit above their ability in the 10 wins, becuase even in those 10 wins, there were moments of bad exposure of our weaknesses. Then encouraging thing to me is knowing that we can be that good if we cleanup the b.s. on a consistent basis. I dont see it as a hopeless situation.
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I respect your opinion, but what what's stuck in my mind is losing by 39 points to a team (Wisconsin) we had beaten earlier in the year. That's not talent or injuries, that's coaching in terms of game planning, motivation, and in-game adjustments. It's hard to just write that loss off and point to 10 wins...there are some missing ingredients in that overall staff that allowed such a brutal beat down like that to take place.
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I get where you're coming from, but think about this for a second. What was the spread for the CCG and who was favored? Last check, NU was FAVORED to win by 2.5 or 3 points. Obviously, we lost by 39 points. That means vegas was wrong by 42 points, on the wrong team. This is why i look at that game as an anomoly. Even vegas had no clue. In all fairness, we shouldn't have won the game in Lincoln, but did.
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Which pretty much supports my point that maybe Bo did a phenomenal job coaching this year if we found a way to win games that some want to paint as we had no business winning. That's the other side of the coin I see. "Our coaches suck, we had no business winning that game". Well we did win it. Maybe they aint so bad. Alot of the negativity we see is so contradictory to itself from what I see.
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I'm not on the "our coaches suck" side but good coaches / good teams find ways to win. It would have been way too easy to fold on many occasions. However, I can't quite give the coaches a "pass" either, because I think flawed game plans going into games didn't always do us favors either, which put us behind at times. My comment about being lucky to beat them the first time had more to do with Ameer's fumble and Ball's fumble, which was never even supposed to happen. Im just kind of in the middle with this staff i guess. Is Bo a good coach, yeah I'll go with that, but "phenomenal" is a little strong for me.

 
The biggest concern I have going into next year is continuing to hear about all this talent we'll see on the field next year. Cody Green was at one time heralded the next Tommie Frazier. Until this said talent actually sees the field, I'm a bit reserved. I just can't think we'd redshirt this much talent if they could have helped on the field this year. I'm not saying the cupboards are bare, but I'm not overly convinced they're as stacked as some are implying.

 
junior4949 said:
The biggest concern I have going into next year is continuing to hear about all this talent we'll see on the field next year. Cody Green was at one time heralded the next Tommie Frazier. Until this said talent actually sees the field, I'm a bit reserved. I just can't think we'd redshirt this much talent if they could have helped on the field this year. I'm not saying the cupboards are bare, but I'm not overly convinced they're as stacked as some are implying.
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I think we will have the talent needed for a great run next year, but I don't believe we will have "great" depth in talent. DL we will be a couple injuries away from moving DE's for DT's again. The only positions I see us being covered on the defense, are LBs and DBs. Safety is still an unknown, and the heath of our DE/DTs are unknown. Right now, we are mostly healthy. Valentine, Curry, Randle and Williams are all healthy and expected to play next year. I just hope they can stay healthy and give us what we lacked this year, consistency.

As for Green, I was never sold on him. I was sold on Carnes, but with his inability to adapt to understand the defenses and understand how to run the offense under Beck, I was disappointed. He is a great QB, and I was impressed with him in the 2011 Spring Game. Thats as far as it got though lol.

 
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junior4949 said:
The biggest concern I have going into next year is continuing to hear about all this talent we'll see on the field next year. Cody Green was at one time heralded the next Tommie Frazier. Until this said talent actually sees the field, I'm a bit reserved. I just can't think we'd redshirt this much talent if they could have helped on the field this year. I'm not saying the cupboards are bare, but I'm not overly convinced they're as stacked as some are implying.
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Agreed. I also have reservations about all the hype towards Armstrong and Stanton. I guess we have just been burned too many times. People tend to fall in love with players before they even see the field.

 
Huskerfan1985 said:
junior4949 said:
The biggest concern I have going into next year is continuing to hear about all this talent we'll see on the field next year. Cody Green was at one time heralded the next Tommie Frazier. Until this said talent actually sees the field, I'm a bit reserved. I just can't think we'd redshirt this much talent if they could have helped on the field this year. I'm not saying the cupboards are bare, but I'm not overly convinced they're as stacked as some are implying.
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Agreed. I also have reservations about all the hype towards Armstrong and Stanton. I guess we have just been burned too many times. People tend to fall in love with players before they even see the field.
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Hit the nail on the head. :yeah Ever since BC days we've been hungry Husker fan waiting to bit on any positive red meat news that we think will return us to 'elite' standing. Most of us are now on kool aid overdose and are trying to withdraw from it and be a bit more cleared eye about things. I think most of the 'negative' posters (so labeled by those who never want to hear a discouraging word) on the forum fit this mode. They are true Husker "patriots" but burned by misinformation, hype, and the reality they see on the field :dunno .

 
Here is the full article that this tread is based on

2012 Improvements Hard to Swallow

Mod Edit - please don't link to other forums here. Thanks.

 
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Huskerfan1985 said:
junior4949 said:
The biggest concern I have going into next year is continuing to hear about all this talent we'll see on the field next year. Cody Green was at one time heralded the next Tommie Frazier. Until this said talent actually sees the field, I'm a bit reserved. I just can't think we'd redshirt this much talent if they could have helped on the field this year. I'm not saying the cupboards are bare, but I'm not overly convinced they're as stacked as some are implying.
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Agreed. I also have reservations about all the hype towards Armstrong and Stanton. I guess we have just been burned too many times. People tend to fall in love with players before they even see the field.
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I don't even think it's a given we'll see all the best talent on the field.

I'll be kind of surprised if there isn't at least a few high character* guys who work their way into the starting lineup because of their playbook knowledge.

*slow, white

 
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TGHusker said:
Huskerfan1985 said:
junior4949 said:
The biggest concern I have going into next year is continuing to hear about all this talent we'll see on the field next year. Cody Green was at one time heralded the next Tommie Frazier. Until this said talent actually sees the field, I'm a bit reserved. I just can't think we'd redshirt this much talent if they could have helped on the field this year. I'm not saying the cupboards are bare, but I'm not overly convinced they're as stacked as some are implying.
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Agreed. I also have reservations about all the hype towards Armstrong and Stanton. I guess we have just been burned too many times. People tend to fall in love with players before they even see the field.
Click to expand...
Hit the nail on the head. :yeah Ever since BC days we've been hungry Husker fan waiting to bit on any positive red meat news that we think will return us to 'elite' standing. Most of us are now on kool aid overdose and are trying to withdraw from it and be a bit more cleared eye about things. I think most of the 'negative' posters (so labeled by those who never want to hear a discouraging word) on the forum fit this mode. They are true Husker "patriots" but burned by misinformation, hype, and the reality they see on the field :dunno .
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A "REAL" Husker "patriot" would never overdose on the kool-aid. Nut up butter-cup! :restore2 :wasted :wasted :restore2

:sarcasm

That said, I do have faith in Armstrong and Stanton as well as the redshirts that I hope will become blackshirts. I hit my days where I get pessimistic, but I have faith that Bo & company will turn this around! GBR!

 
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The Dude said:
Huskerfan1985 said:
junior4949 said:
The biggest concern I have going into next year is continuing to hear about all this talent we'll see on the field next year. Cody Green was at one time heralded the next Tommie Frazier. Until this said talent actually sees the field, I'm a bit reserved. I just can't think we'd redshirt this much talent if they could have helped on the field this year. I'm not saying the cupboards are bare, but I'm not overly convinced they're as stacked as some are implying.
Click to expand...
Agreed. I also have reservations about all the hype towards Armstrong and Stanton. I guess we have just been burned too many times. People tend to fall in love with players before they even see the field.
Click to expand...
I don't even think it's a given that we'll see all the best talent on the field.

I'll be kind of surprised if there isn't at least a few high character* guys who work their way into the starting lineup because of their playbook knowledge.

*slow, white
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Aren't we running out of kids whose parents work / have worked in administration or are coaches on the team......oh wait there's a pelini and a few cotton kids. Jk, from what i've seen the pelini kid and cotton's kids have played well. I admit, i got a chuckle about your high character comment. seems we have one of those at safety far too often. Then again, maybe i just can't seem to forget about Cassidy :dunno

 
TGHusker said:
accountability said:
I agree 100%. We could very well be 6-6 right now. But jeez, you have to be able to play lights out and mistake free for at least a stretch in order to accomplish such comebacks. The thing to me is that I think Bo actually did a very good job coaching this year. You have to look at it as, what were the anomolys? The performances of the 10 wins, or the 4 losses? In my mind, especially the defense-regardless of the competition-was coached and played a bit above their ability in the 10 wins, becuase even in those 10 wins, there were moments of bad exposure of our weaknesses. Then encouraging thing to me is knowing that we can be that good if we cleanup the b.s. on a consistent basis. I dont see it as a hopeless situation.
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Good take on it. More of a 'glass half full' view. An earlier poster mentioned the loss of talent on the D before the season started. Perhaps that was the major reason we were so poor on the D side. With all of the redshirts and medical perhaps Bo sacrificed this year to make a run next year. That is my hope. I have no doubt the O can score - it needs to be more disciplined and not place a inexperienced D into bad situations. If the O can clean up the penalties, the sacks, and the funbles and the young D can learn quick, then next year may be much better than this year.

At this point, I don't know if I'm half full or half empty guy. I don't want to be a kool aid drinker and yet I've been a Husker fan since 1970 - therefore hard to get real negative on them - eternal optimist.

From my 2013 prediction post:

The Dark Side of me says the following:

I predict we lose to UCLA (we are too young on D that early in the season to pull it off), Michigan ( I see their QB giving us fits - he seems to have gained some confidence filling in for Robinson), NW - again our D will be the reason for the loss and OSU if we make it to the CCG. We've yet to prove that we can win the big game in the national spot light. Our offense has the ability to make us undefeated if we lower the turnovers. Our D will be young (perhaps more athletic) but untested. I see us loosing 3+ games per year until we do the following on a consitant basis:

1. reduce turnovers - many turnovers aren't so bad if you have a great D - we had a lot of turnovers in our Option years but we had a great D that could 'erase' those errors

2. Develop speed and experience in the D (1990-1992 all over again - this is when we realized we need speed on D. The championship run of 1994-97 was the result)

3. Have dominate DT play that can stabalize the line & free up DE and LB to rush the passer

4. Recruit the talent & develop it. It seems Bo developed players that BC recruited but we've yet to see dominant defensive recruits on the field. Hopefully the redshirts will be that talent next year.

5. Coaching staff showing they can outcoach and make adjustments on the big stage

The Optimistic side of me says this:

1. We lose one regular season game to one of the 4 above.

2. The young D shows that talent and speed make up for lack of experience

3. TM learns how not to fumble wt a coach this summer

4. Bo gets the monkey off his back and he wins the CCG

5. We get into the NCG
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Not to beat a dead horse, but in response to your defense comment, I honestly think that we see A LOT of 3-4 next year. What happened between '92 and '94 after we had gotten beaten by faster, more athletic teams in bowl games? We moved away from the 5-2 and transitioned to the 4-3. With all of the young, athletic talent at LB and HUGE 3-4 style DTs that we've picked up/are trying to pick up, I feel like the next defensive renaissance could be on the horizon.

 
There better be a defensive renaissance, or we're in huge trouble in the years to come. A rush D like we had this year won't do very well in the run heavy B1G.

 
TGHusker said:
Below is a link to an article by "Angry Dad". He removes the rose colored glasses and calls it as he sees it.

It is hard to argue with his statements. Our come from behind wins this year kind of shields us from

some of the issues that made us 'behind' in the first place.

My hope for next year is that the redshirts and juco players on D will be as good as advertised. But, I've

heard the kool-aid talk before (and believed it and was burned by it) and will reserve belief until the UCLA game.

Mod Edit - please don't link to other forums here. Thanks.
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So let me get this straight.........You cruised through the board, read the threads, absorbed the content, and decided that you needed to add to it. So, the thing you decided this board needed more of was negativity, Bo bashing, Taylor Martinez criticism, "harsh realities", and glass-half-empty thinking, so much so that you went to another site to find content to match this description?

 
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