Its not the players or schemes

[NPhusker]

I have heard so much talk about how the coaching staff has lost this team and how the players have quit on these coaches and how the coaches have stopped coaching. None of this is true, before i continue i want to make it clear that i dont really like Callahan and i think he will and should be gone at the end of the season. However i dont think Callahan and trying to lose or whatever, and i truly beleive that these players really like this coaching staff. You here it in every interview about how they loves these guys, these coaches and what not and i have actually talked to redshirt walkon who said he loves COZ and Callahan. If a kid who doesnt even suit up for away games is treated that good just think how much better the players that play get treated. Given there are excpetions like Octavien for example who i have heard doesnt see eye to eye with coz, but these players and coaches are all working really hard all week and are truly ready to play come saturday.

So preparation is not the problem, but i think it is the attitude of everyone when something goes wrong. I think when a team goes down and scores on us early, like they have the last 5 games, this teams jsut kinda looks at the score board and says well here we go again. Then it is like a disease that jsut spreads throughout the team and everyone starts looking down and blaming themselves and there is no one on this team that will step up and say "get your head up and start kicking someones a$$". This is where Callahan and co. fail in college football, no one on staff and none of these players really are raw raw, get in your face kinda of guys. Look at our team leaders, Bowmanm Ruud, and Byford are all guys who are quiet and lead by example.

What has made Nebraska football great for so long is an attitude, we didnt always have the most talented team. But our guys would stand at that line of scrimmage look at the guy lining up accross from them and say you might be little faster, a little taller, or even a little stronger, but i am going to give you 110% on every play and even if you do beat me once or twice because you have more talent at some point you are going to quit on one of these plays and that is when i will get my sack, interception, or touchdown.

 

[InOmaha]

College football is about scheming mismatches. The staff in charge doesn't get that.

Watson does. He ran a freaking reverse that almost scored. Hardy is fast, the A&M D isn't. Watson would have had a much better chance of keeping the game respectable in the second half. He made a couple of errors here and there, but not enough to warrant taking away the play calling. He understood that Helo could get to the edge and Castille could get 5 yards with or without blocking.

On D; they should have loaded up the box and forced McGee to throw. That was the mismatch staring them in the face. The 4-3 was ok, with an extra linebacker roaming the line or two larger hitting safeties moved in closer for run support (one set up to spy the QB and another to look for the TE over the middle on play action). Maybe a 5 man front occasionally with a 5-3. I liked the Defense being set this week and not out of position on the snap. But the front was getting pushed around, so I would have put them in a little closer and minimized the gaps to force the runs more to the sideline and hope for safety run support to string the play out of bounds.

This staff doesn't adjust the schemes to get the best mismatches as the game progresses. It's frustrating. Like I said in the other thread, my 9 year old looked at me and asked, "Why don't they tackle that one guy who keeps the ball all the time?". I don't know dear, 85,000 in the stands wanted to know the same thing. Send Potter for Lane on each play like they were and run blitz the linebackers and safeties to try and get McGee in the backfield with a LB or Safety spy at the line. Do that until McGee passes the ball and assume he can't based on his 55% completion percentage and the wind.

 

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

College football is about scheming mismatches. The staff in charge doesn't get that.

Watson does. He ran a freaking reverse that almost scored. Hardy is fast, the A&M D isn't. Watson would have had a much better chance of keeping the game respectable in the second half. He made a couple of errors here and there, but not enough to warrant taking away the play calling. He understood that Helo could get to the edge and Castille could get 5 yards with or without blocking.

On D; they should have loaded up the box and forced McGee to throw. That was the mismatch staring them in the face. The 4-3 was ok, with an extra linebacker roaming the line or two larger hitting safeties moved in closer for run support (one set up to spy the QB and another to look for the TE over the middle on play action). Maybe a 5 man front occasionally with a 5-3. I liked the Defense being set this week and not out of position on the snap. But the front was getting pushed around, so I would have put them in a little closer and minimized the gaps to force the runs more to the sideline and hope for safety run support to string the play out of bounds.

This staff doesn't adjust the schemes to get the best mismatches as the game progresses. It's frustrating. Like I said in the other thread, my 9 year old looked at me and asked, "Why don't they tackle that one guy who keeps the ball all the time?". I don't know dear, 85,000 in the stands wanted to know the same thing. Send Potter for Lane on each play like they were and run blitz the linebackers and safeties to try and get McGee in the backfield with a LB or Safety spy at the line. Do that until McGee passes the ball and assume he can't based on his 55% completion percentage and the wind.

They were using Culbert as a spy on McGee and seemed to have A&M figured out by the end of the 2nd quarter. Then for some reason went away from that in the second half and they had their way with NU running just those two same plays over and over.

 

[InOmaha]

They were using Culbert as a spy on McGee and seemed to have A&M figured out by the end of the 2nd quarter. Then for some reason went away from that in the second half and they had their way with NU running just those two same plays over and over.

I also remember getting a linebacker in the backfield in the first half which in turn also led to a D-lineman or two in the backfield.

I think they would have done better in the second half just blitzing on every play and trying to get 2-3 players to the QB/RB exchange area to overload the hand-off. They couldn't have done worse.

That's the main problem with this staff. They don't make small changes to things that work with the personnel they have available.

 

[ssfranny]

College football is about scheming mismatches. The staff in charge doesn't get that.

Watson does. He ran a freaking reverse that almost scored. Hardy is fast, the A&M D isn't. Watson would have had a much better chance of keeping the game respectable in the second half. He made a couple of errors here and there, but not enough to warrant taking away the play calling. He understood that Helo could get to the edge and Castille could get 5 yards with or without blocking.

On D; they should have loaded up the box and forced McGee to throw. That was the mismatch staring them in the face. The 4-3 was ok, with an extra linebacker roaming the line or two larger hitting safeties moved in closer for run support (one set up to spy the QB and another to look for the TE over the middle on play action). Maybe a 5 man front occasionally with a 5-3. I liked the Defense being set this week and not out of position on the snap. But the front was getting pushed around, so I would have put them in a little closer and minimized the gaps to force the runs more to the sideline and hope for safety run support to string the play out of bounds.

This staff doesn't adjust the schemes to get the best mismatches as the game progresses. It's frustrating. Like I said in the other thread, my 9 year old looked at me and asked, "Why don't they tackle that one guy who keeps the ball all the time?". I don't know dear, 85,000 in the stands wanted to know the same thing. Send Potter for Lane on each play like they were and run blitz the linebackers and safeties to try and get McGee in the backfield with a LB or Safety spy at the line. Do that until McGee passes the ball and assume he can't based on his 55% completion percentage and the wind.

Can you be our next DC??

 

[InOmaha]

stuff

Can you be our next DC??

I don't think any competent coach would consider me Coordinator material.

Sadly, given NUs 2s on O & D for a couple of weeks, I'd like my odds against this staff.

It only took A&M 3-4 plays to beat this D. On O, I could come up with at least 5, maybe 6. Plus, I would have Castille.

On D, I would play tight coverage, fake the blitz or blitz often, and look for the safety valve; focusing on man coverage and open field tackling for 2 weeks.

 

[Redman]

stuff

Can you be our next DC??

open field tackling for 2 weeks.

Practice in pads? What a concept.

 

[Da Man]

I have heard so much talk about how the coaching staff has lost this team and how the players have quit on these coaches and how the coaches have stopped coaching. None of this is true, before i continue i want to make it clear that i dont really like Callahan and i think he will and should be gone at the end of the season. However i dont think Callahan and trying to lose or whatever, and i truly beleive that these players really like this coaching staff. You here it in every interview about how they loves these guys, these coaches and what not and i have actually talked to redshirt walkon who said he loves COZ and Callahan. If a kid who doesnt even suit up for away games is treated that good just think how much better the players that play get treated. Given there are excpetions like Octavien for example who i have heard doesnt see eye to eye with coz, but these players and coaches are all working really hard all week and are truly ready to play come saturday.

So preparation is not the problem, but i think it is the attitude of everyone when something goes wrong. I think when a team goes down and scores on us early, like they have the last 5 games, this teams jsut kinda looks at the score board and says well here we go again. Then it is like a disease that jsut spreads throughout the team and everyone starts looking down and blaming themselves and there is no one on this team that will step up and say "get your head up and start kicking someones a$$". This is where Callahan and co. fail in college football, no one on staff and none of these players really are raw raw, get in your face kinda of guys. Look at our team leaders, Bowmanm Ruud, and Byford are all guys who are quiet and lead by example.

What has made Nebraska football great for so long is an attitude, we didnt always have the most talented team. But our guys would stand at that line of scrimmage look at the guy lining up accross from them and say you might be little faster, a little taller, or even a little stronger, but i am going to give you 110% on every play and even if you do beat me once or twice because you have more talent at some point you are going to quit on one of these plays and that is when i will get my sack, interception, or touchdown.

Actually I was talking to 1 of the player's mother's yesterday, she said they (the players) pretty much don't believe in Callahan or Coz anymore. He told his mom the reason they did so well w/Watson calling the plays is he mixed it up and was making it more unpredictable. More fun. They were pumped going into halftime only down by 2 points. Then when BC took over the play calling leaving his buddy Coz to run the defense that's when things went to ehll again.

He also said they will never come out in public (other than maybe Octavien) and say they don't believe in their coaches. You just simply don't do that (especially if you are 1 of the younger guys). Although the coaches have no probs placing blame on the players. Well at least BC doesn't anyway. This player also said that Fall camp was a breeze. They don't work them very hard which is why they don't have any stamina and end up getting squashed. It wasn't until the public found out about the kids not wearing pads and hitting each other in practice that the coaches started having 1 practice a wek in full pads. Kind of sad it wasn't until Husker fans got wind of it that they then change to appease the masses. What a bunch of losers these coaches are. These kids deserve better.