Illinois - What Did We Learn

[MyBloodIsRed16]

@Undonethey try to get Fidone invovled.  So much so that HH tries to throw him the ball when there is a guy standing right in front of him and a guy right behind him

 

[The Dude]

Wild people can get themselves worked up about the offense every week.  We know going in to every game the offense is going to be lame.  It's an easy prediction to make.

And it's like maybe 2% Satterfield's fault.  You'd suck too with this roster and questionable assistant coach hires/retention.  Rhule did him no favors by making several headscratching decisions.

 

[Hayseed]

One from an Illinois board:

I'm surprised by this too. Last year everybody was singing the praises of Bielema.

 

[MyBloodIsRed16]

I'm surprised by this too. Last year everybody was singing the praises of Bielema.

They should just come to terms that they haven't been a football school since the guy with the statue out front was playing.  Focus on basketball 

 

[Hayseed]

@Undonethey try to get Fidone invovled.  So much so that HH tries to throw him the ball when there is a guy standing right in front of him and a guy right behind him

That's the problem with targeting receivers....and meanwhile a guy is standing wide open somewhere else. If they want to target a receiver let's target Kemp on a short slant or target Grant on an outlet pass when nobody is open downfield.
 

 

[Micheal]

Satt has done an incredible job working an offense with a lame duck EVERTHING.  Haarberg is the worst QB in NU history. Not sure how you can say “just call better passing plays,” for a QB that can’t literally not pass. 
 

Satt may prove to be wretched, but it’s not fair to blame him for not having magic to overcome ineptitude at the QB position. 

No way is Haarberg the worst ever. He can run, that has to be worth something! 

 

[The Dude]

It's good people are now getting mad about ugly wins against bad teams, instead of getting mad about close losses to bad teams.

Trending the right way. 

We'll be mad about 10 wins again in no time.  :koolaid2:

 

[PasstheDamnBallGuy]

It seems like his short sidearm passes are better, like what Mahomes does on the run....it's the long pocket passes that look kind of bizarre. I bet they've actually considered all of these things we're talking about.

Oh yeah there is no doubt the coaching staff is aware of the issue and if there was a fix they could do for this year they would. Yeah I think his sidearm is better because that's natural to him now, but it's causing too many knocked down passes. 

 

[Mavric]

Some like to pretend that they didn't just watch Haarberg put the ball on the turf, including a snap...

I've said a couple of times that I'm not as bothered by Sims dropped snaps because I don't think they will continue.  But Sims dropped two perfect snaps while HH dropped one at his knees.  Not exactly the same.

And I also have said that I don't think the fumbled exchange at Colorado was Sims fault.  Similarly, I don't think the fumbled exchange last night was HH's fault.

 

[Toe]

I think I need to hang on to this reaction pic.

 

[Husker03]

No way is Haarberg the worst ever. He can run, that has to be worth something! 

I’d argue he is. We’ve had QB’s that are pure runners.  We’ve had QB’s that are pure passers. As a pure runner he’s far down the list of pure runners. As a pure passer he’s bottom. As a guy who reads a defense deciding to pitch or keep or which route is open and best to throw to, he’s near the bottom of all time as well. I literally CAN NOT think of a QB in the past 35 years of following Husker football I think is legit worse. 
 

Really do like the kid. Needs to be a taysom hill type guy.  Not THE guy. 

 

[runningblind]

@Undonethey try to get Fidone invovled.  So much so that HH tries to throw him the ball when there is a guy standing right in front of him and a guy right behind him

HH is already staring down receivers so hard it is borderline stalking.  He will throw quite a few more INT this year because of this.

 

[olddominionhusker]

At some point there will be a middle backer that can actually pick off a ball against HH. I think in every start there has been a ball thrown across the middle that he completely misses the linebacker dropping back into coverage and he throws right to them. Haarberg needs to learn how to read a defense a bit better.  Zone defense confounds him to no end.

This. I know HH hasn’t had the turnovers that Sims had but he threw no less than 4 passes last night that most competent players would’ve intercepted. He has been extremely lucky and that’s not going to last. 

 

[Undone]

If HH was from another state, fans would not defend him like they do.  We all know how this goes.

I'm not saying you're wrong that there's at minimum some kind of subconscious bias towards Ricky because he's from Nebraska. But just a couple thoughts.

When your team wins, the post game commentary from fans will generally trend more positive than negative, right? And when you lose, it's the opposite.

Well, Sims is 0-2. Yes, he maybe played 2 better teams than Ricky has. But still, Heinrich is 3-1 as a starter so it tends to change the bias. That said, we probably wouldn't be winning any division titles with Haarberg having been the starter from week 1 anyway, he'd have a long ways to go to be a "good" or "great" QB.

 

[BigRedBuster]

Coaches routinely spend off-season time with pro programs and learn how they do things.  I would love in Rhule spent time with Andy Reid and how they incorporate the TE into their passing attack. 

He was the target on 25% of our passes. And he was open on most of those. Don’t know how much you can improve on that. 
 

What would help is have a guy like Palmer in the WR room and a qb that can throw deep.