USC: What Did We Learn

What is the best way to build a roster in this NIL era? Buying transfers from the portal or spending on high schoolers in hopes you retain 70% each season? Regardless, we have to spend nearly $20 mil in order to construct the line up needed to compete for Big 10 titles. I would like to believe that you get pieces from the portal and recruit program players from HS, but is that realistic right now? I guess I am saying that I don't see the players on the field that wow me from a portal side of things. Are we not identifying the right fits and talent levels? Are we not spending enough? Texas Tech reportedly spent $25 million on this current roster, you can see the difference makers on both sides of the ball. Where are we falling short at?
 
Then we get the ball back immediately on Marshall's pick at the 34. Run for 7, incomplete, run for 4 and a 1st down at the 23. Then try the play action for a home run (not a bad call imo), 2 man route and both covered, so Dylan needs to just throw it away but he holds it too long and breaks his ankle.

This is where I disagree though. For me, the percentages say to play it as four-down territory. Run it on first with the best player on the team and save the throw for third down if you want the FG more than going for it on 4th down anyway.

“He holds it for too long and twists his ankle” can be countered with “we should have ran it.”

It’s not really about how he got hurt, though. And if he just throws it into the fourth row while he’s inside the tackles he might get intentional grounding.

I don’t like what Holgorsen has been doing inside the opponents’ 35 yard line ever since the Maryland game.

Yes…we did score on the fade to Key on the first drive. But it’s a low percentage play for us this year - so using it on first down as much as we are doesn’t make sense to me personally.
 
Unfortunately this team really did get that bad. Remember how awful it was? Remember the blowouts?

There are many things that have been fixed and many more that need fixing. We are seeing progress. It takes time but we are seeing progress. This team is going in the right direction.

I have faith. This might not be our year but I can feel that our year is coming.

It is better to drink the Kool-Aid rather than piss in somebody else's.
 
Unfortunately this team really did get that bad. Remember how awful it was? Remember the blowouts?

There are many things that have been fixed and many more that need fixing. We are seeing progress. It takes time but we are seeing progress. This team is going in the right direction.

I have faith. This might not be our year but I can feel that our year is coming.

It is better to drink the Kool-Aid rather than piss in somebody else's.
I think your partially correct in assuming that we are showing signs of progression in the right direction. I will counter back with the quality of teams in the Big 10, like a lot of conferences has huge gaps from top to bottom. I think we are going in the right direction, but are we closing that gap between us and Ohio St? I don't think so yet. I think we have closed that gap between us and the likes of Illinois and Iowa some, but not when comparing us to Oregon and Ohio St and Indiana for that matter. Perspective. Indiana progressed from basement to penthouse over night and we still can not get past the 2nd floor yet. So I guess it matters in what you call progress in relation to what your measuring or comparing it too.
 
DH can't get away from his air raid roots. Just like a tiger cant't change its stripes. He is what he is. And IMHO, the air raid will not work in the B1G with the weather....

Where has Carter been? I know he was in on ST's...

I am all for letting Dana, Satt, and Thomas go after this season (and Donnie tbh). I can't imagine trying to run the air raid in the B1G. Just look at the last windy game we had in Lincoln vs Mich ST. 2 quarters the O didn't work...
Im confused. First of all, the Air Raid offense was ran in west texas, where its windy as hell.

Secondly, are we implying that we passed the ball too much yesterday? You realize we rushed 40 times (20 per half) and threw it 23 times (completing 17). This isnt in defense of the offenses performance, but please check the team stats before falling back to ‘run the damn ball and we win’ argument in every instance
 
If someone knows the answer to this let me know. When or how many times in our history have lost a game when having a guy rush for more than 150 yards? I am to lazy to look this up, but I am guessing not many losses while having that production from a back.
 
DH can't get away from his air raid roots. Just like a tiger cant't change its stripes. He is what he is. And IMHO, the air raid will not work in the B1G with the weather....

Where has Carter been? I know he was in on ST's...

I am all for letting Dana, Satt, and Thomas go after this season (and Donnie tbh). I can't imagine trying to run the air raid in the B1G. Just look at the last windy game we had in Lincoln vs Mich ST. 2 quarters the O didn't work...
It’s hard for me to justify firing Satt or Thomas. Satt has done fine as TE coach. Donnie is certainly a viable argument. Need to let Dana be Dana.
 
What is the best way to build a roster in this NIL era? Buying transfers from the portal or spending on high schoolers in hopes you retain 70% each season? Regardless, we have to spend nearly $20 mil in order to construct the line up needed to compete for Big 10 titles. I would like to believe that you get pieces from the portal and recruit program players from HS, but is that realistic right now? I guess I am saying that I don't see the players on the field that wow me from a portal side of things. Are we not identifying the right fits and talent levels? Are we not spending enough? Texas Tech reportedly spent $25 million on this current roster, you can see the difference makers on both sides of the ball. Where are we falling short at?
Tech has incredible defense with D-Line and LBs. Their offense has very good O-Line talent. They added more studs to the roster and made it even better. Their QBs are from the program, as are a lot of their players.

As for Husker NIL, I am not so sure we are simply getting out-bid. Sometimes yes. But sadly, I don't think high-quality transfer studs want to go play at Nebraska. Not until we are capable of being 9-3 or even 8-4 routinely. That's just my personal opinion. The midwest teams are not exactly moving the needle for studs in the transfer protocol, esp if the team is hovering around 5 or 6 wins a year.
 
Ballin' out against Akron's 2nd string defense doesn't necessarily translate to Big Ten play. After all the hype, Lateef Time was a huge disappointment.
And the Lateef lovers/anti Raiolians are making stupid excuses about his play.

Wasn't it Lateef that tipped up EJ on the 4th and 1 to end the game?
 
What is the best way to build a roster in this NIL era? Buying transfers from the portal or spending on high schoolers in hopes you retain 70% each season? Regardless, we have to spend nearly $20 mil in order to construct the line up needed to compete for Big 10 titles. I would like to believe that you get pieces from the portal and recruit program players from HS, but is that realistic right now? I guess I am saying that I don't see the players on the field that wow me from a portal side of things. Are we not identifying the right fits and talent levels? Are we not spending enough? Texas Tech reportedly spent $25 million on this current roster, you can see the difference makers on both sides of the ball. Where are we falling short at?
didn't colorado try the buy all your players schtick? how are they doing?
 
Yep, and looking at it from the perspective of percentages/odds has been my critique of Holgorsen; why did we call so many sideline throws on 1st down?

Over and over we had an incompletion on 1st down and then we ran it on 2nd.

Now Emmett bailed us out all night. So it’s a moot point, just to get ahead of that angle.

But our coaches have struggled with doing the high-percentage things this season, IMO. It was a-w-f-u-l against Minnesota.
Also, the use of TE is unacceptable. You pass it to Lindenmeyer behind the line once, which is pure stupidity, and then the second time you pass it beyond the line and he gets a very good chunk. Then crickets… look at how much the packers use Tucker Kraft. With Dana it seems it is all or nothing. Either pass it long and hope your guy is better than theirs or passes before the line to gain. When that does not work, you give it to EJ and hope he does his thing. That is not a good offensive scheme. If EJ gets injured, we are done. On that last play, had TJ kept the ball, he would have gotten 20 yards. We just keep doing those little mistakes that keep this team from getting to the next level. A win against USC would have done a world of good for this team in terms of confidence in the process. Instead, we are back to 0-29 against ranked opponents, which is the only stat that anyone keeps talking about and the reason why we are not ranked top 25.
 
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