LSU after Bo.

Husker_x said:
ray233 said:
I think when we look at the staff changes here, we are focusing way too much on schemes. Don't discount how poorly our defense was 'coached' during Callahan's tenure.

Was Cosgrove responsible for everything that was wrong with Nebraska the last few years? Certainly not. Was Cosgrove responsible for our horrific defenses? Absolutely.

  • He did NOT adjust.
  • He did NOT scheme appropriately for the variation of offenses he faced.
  • He did NOT motivate players to play with passion.
  • He did NOT teach players fundamentals.
  • He did NOT develop players.
  • He did NOT create leaders.
Adjustments: How many times did you scratch your heads when Cosgrove's scheme would get destroyed by the same plays over and over again, quarter after quarter?

Schemes: How many times did Cosgrove open up with a scheme that in no way matched up with the opponent we were facing? How many turnovers did we create?

Motivation: I remember more Huskers with mugshots, than I do with awards. The guys who were self-motivated, did okay. The guys who needed a push from the coaches, not so well. Where was the driving, the pounding, the screaming, the 'hair on fire'? I miss it.

Fundamentals: Missed tackles. Enough said.

Development: Barry Turner was a freshman All-American. He's been largely ineffective for 2 straight years. McKweon was a promising Sophomore. He would not have played for most schools the last two years, let alone been a starting MLB. Suh has the talent. Dillard has the instinct. Our walk-on program made nobodies into All-Americans like it was a bad habit in years past. How many walk-ons did Cosgrove develop? How many kids got molded? Coaching is what truly levels the playing field between star ratings.

Leadership: This is sorely missed. Aside from the 'Zack Bowman turns in his Blackshirt' story, can anyone really define the leaders on these past few teams? Adam Carriker? Scary man-beast, but not a field general by my standards. Ricky Thenarse? Passionate, but not a grab you by the facemask kind of guy just yet. Corey McKweon? Promising early, but did not play at a high enough level to be bossing other guys around. Courtney Grixby? Played with a lot of heart, but did not inject it into his teammates. He was a quiet leader when someone needed to be screaming. Maybe you saw something different, but I saw a group of guys, with no leader and no consistency.

Cosgrove could not build kids into better football players. Promising players have not been coached to success during his tenure, in fact, most of them had lost the passion they started out with. He had a penchant for being inflexible and playing favorites. His inflexible schemes were the cause of many yards gained, many games lost and ultimately his job.

From the outside looking in, his approach was a wildly optimistic hope that the kids on the roster would simply "get it". If not, better luck with the next set of recruits.

That's NOT coaching; that's management.

You can get away with that in the NFL, mainly because if a multi-million dollar contract won't motivate a kid, not much will. The only currency you have with college kids...is passion. Let them acquire it in buckets and make them spend every cent.

When I think about Bo Pelini in terms of adjustments, schemes, motivation, fundamentals, development and leadership, I see exciting times. I see talent becoming each kids starting point, not their peak. I see flexibility and adjustments saving yards and preserving wins.

I see Bo doing the little things. The little things that matter. The basics of his philosophies. Tackle or be replaced. Go hard or go home. Be a leader or we'll make one.

Expect Pelini to bring small changes with big impact. The coaching mentalities between him and Cosgrove alone will reshape this defense immediately. I can't predict numbers or stats, but I predict VAST defensive improvement with confidence.

Don't be surprised if Bo's staff changes just as much within the players as he does schematically. As a team, a change in attitude can take you from the bottom to the top faster than any X's or O's.

GBR
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Absolutely fantastic post. I don't think the LEADERSHIP angle can be stated enough times. When any organization, a football team or some other group, doesn't have proper teaching, motivating, listening, and preparedness to assist the team in meeting a standard, what can you expect from them? I don't think the "we never had as much talent as we thought" rationale is valid. I don't think there's any possible way to determine how much talent we really have. You absolutely cannot use last year's games for some of the very reasons you just mentioned.

I watched Jason Peter break down some USC game film once, and from the four or five plays he critiqued, it was obvious nobody had any clue what they where doing. If Cosgrove was so incompetent he couldn't even teach tackling or filling a gap, how could you expect him to develop a believable game plan to bring down the star-studded USC Trojans?

What fires me up about Bo is that he is fundamentally a different coach. During the Spring Game he was on the field every play, watching, teaching, correcting. Same during Spring Practice. He teaches core principles about effort and accountability, things that obviously never happened in our wanna-be NFL combine under Callahan.

I don't think our defense was fundamentally sound but lacked execution last season (like Callahan believed). I believe they were fundamentally flawed and therefore played poor football. What they are capable of, however, with the best defensive coordinator in the business, is something that remains to be seen. And I hope it's something spectacular.
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sorry for the long quote, but I absolutely agree! what I don't get is why we think we have no talent??? OK, well, watching the games last year, I can see how you might come to that conclusion...BUT...If it was lack of talent, then I guess Cosgrove must not have been THAT bad of a coach...yeah, right.

 
In the middle of the season last year some fans just kept saying we didn't have the talent. But the previouse season we had enough talent to make it to the Big XII championship game. We didn't make it to that game by coaching alone. We have some talent. The USC game I believe broke this teams will, coaches included. I don't ever see Bo backing down after a defeat. He will have this team ready to play week in and week out, something the last coaching staff could not do. Bo has grown as a coodinator and will grow even more as a head coach. Unlike the previous staff. After the Missouri game last year all you had to do was look at coaching. It wasn't if we could match up talent wise, it was whether we could match up coaching wise. We had the players to win last year, we did not have the coaches. Now, I believe, we have the coaches.

 
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I truly think the loss of Carriker and Moore destroyed the defense. We all thought they were being misused during the season, but after watching last year with absolutely no pass rush, Cosgrove may have had the right idea.

Poor coaching and a lack of specific talent hurt us last year. Slow LB's always a step to short. Do we have an aggressive rush end this year? Time will tell. I do believe though that Bo can make some one into what we need. But will the talent be there to do the job we need.

I just want to see some snot bubbles on the field, I want the other teams to know they played Nebraska, and not what we have put on the field the last 4 years. If nothing else I believe that will happen. Big hits, maybe not big wins, but playing with reckless abandon and punishing the receiver or ball carrier. Bo will deliver that I am sure, but will there be enough of it.

VaTech can not get here soon enough.

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
I have nothing to add to this conversation. Just trying to bump up my post count.
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then this is a useless post, add something to the thread or don't post in it.

With Jay and adam we should have had a top 10 rush defense but instead we had one of the most anemic dlines in college football. cosgroves time as a coach has passed, we all realize this, now if only bo was here with them...i might die from happiness.

 
If you think you're going to intimidate anyone on this board with what you have to say then you have a lot to learn. For the most part everyone respects everyone.

 
robsker said:
hack said:
... so, is Bo missed at LSU?

here's a hint...

“We lost a great coordinator in Bo Pelini,” Peveto said, “one of the best I’ve been around.”

So good that Peveto said he and Mallory still occasionally call Lincoln to pick Pelini’s brain about this formation or that coverage. So good that the defensive system Pelini left has remained essentially intact since the Tigers smothered Ohio State 38-24 in January’s BCS national championship game. A defense that finished third nationally last season in yards per game allowed.

“It’s a great system,” Peveto said, “especially when you look at where that system comes from. Bo’s got a pro background. He’s been around Monte Kiffin and Pete Carroll and the Stoops brothers.

“Why fix something that ain’t broke? The game changes, there are wrinkles year in and year out. That’s why we visit with Bo and make sure we’re staying on the cutting edge.”
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plus a little be of commentary from an LSU booster...

A lot of people complained last year (myself included) that we played too much zone, played too passively, and generally didn't use our speed enough. But then the season ended and the NFL scouting combines occurred. Lo and behond, we really didn't have all that much speed. Both Jonathan Zenon and Chevis Jackson were slower than we thought, and Ali Highsmith was MUCH slower than we thought.

Given that the overall athleticism was not as high as we thought it was, Pelini's reliance on zone and less frequent blitzing was perfectly understandable.
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i'm gonna throw this out to you in the peanut gallery: do the prospective blackshirts we have right now have the speed to do all the things that bo wants to do? could it be possible that Nebraska have an even better defense this season than LSU had last season?

i yield the floor to you.
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These comments really validate the notion that Bo knows defense. He seems to have his players play within their limits and maximizes what they are able to get done. As to your two questions --- do the Blackshirts have speed? Tough to tell. Seems that the speed in the secondary is at least good and maybe very good. At LB the speed is really, really not there. The OLB's Blake Lawrence and Wortman and Glenn are very limited. In the middle, a slimed down Dillard may be average in speed. But, the overall speed at LB (and skill) is very limited. Maybe the freshman Compton can help, who knows. But help is needed. As to can the NU defense rival the LSU defense --- well,..... no, no, and no definitely not, not close, and not even within the realm of comparison. I do not know where the LSU defense ranked last year --- #6 or so?. Anyway, NU was what, lower than #105. If the NU defense improves to say # 50 that would be a monumental improvement (while LSU will be a top 20). Remember NU loses Grixby (a three year contributor), Green, Jones, Ruud, Octavian, McKeon --- six starters (yes you can argue that they were not that good --- but do not discount that group, they were the best we had at the time). To expect that the # 105 defense would improve at all losing, arguably, 6 of its top 9 defenders is really being optimistic. But with Bo in charge I think we can improve a great deal --- to #50, maybe --- but to LSU stuff...... no.
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WV went from about #107 in D in '06 to the top 15 or so in '07. So that's what I keep in mind when I think about NE's D for '08. We lost players, but maybe that's a good thing if you know what I mean. I think the players on the field for us in '08 will be better and now all of those guys--Thenarse, Assante, Murillo--etc have some experience under their belts.

The key is BO. Well, he's one of the best in the D biz, so I'm expecting great things, a major turn around in performance. :restore :bonez

 
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zE bOp said:
WV went from about #107 in D in '06 to the top 15 or so in '07.
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Do you know the background on this? Were there a lot of injuries, many underclassman, difficulty in adusting to a change in D-schemes in '06? Or in '07 did they get a couple a great recruits/transfers, a KU-esk schedule, a Cosgrove-clone get fired in the off season?

I want to know if there are any parallels to our situation? Don't give me false hope, bro

 
huKSer said:
zE bOp said:
WV went from about #107 in D in '06 to the top 15 or so in '07.
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Do you know the background on this? Were there a lot of injuries, many underclassman, difficulty in adusting to a change in D-schemes in '06? Or in '07 did they get a couple a great recruits/transfers, a KU-esk schedule, a Cosgrove-clone get fired in the off season?

I want to know if there are any parallels to our situation? Don't give me false hope, bro
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Uh, I haven't researched it yet--bro--but I think they probably had most of their players returning. Will look into it when I get some time.

Another example from the world of roundball is the Boston Celtics. Yes, they brought in some stud players, but did anyone really think one of the worst NBA teams over the last 10 yrs would now be sitting on the champion's throne? Not me, believe me, I live out here(MA). Needless to say, I am tickled pink about that.

I think Bo is our 'ace in the hole', he's good enough to cause a radical turn around in the D. Plus, I really think we will have better players on the field, the D line can't help but be better. The LB position(s) is still kinda iffy though, in my mind. Dillard must take over. Blake Lawrence had a bunch of hype, but now they are saying that he's pretty average(just read that somewhere). Cody Glenn??? Very athletic but he's never played the position before.... Will Compton will be seeing significant time it appears.

I said this before on this site, our D last year didn't lack so much in talent, they just had very poor chemistry/attitude/understanding of what the heck they were doing, plus inexperience as a unit. The D line was the weakest I ever seen if Red too, but I think Bo can get those guys playing much better.

I remember reading some short interviews with BO back in '03 when he was just getting started as the D coach and he said something about having a sort of 'non-negotiable rule' with his players: that is, they basically do what he says, what is expected of them or they just don't get on the field--PERIOD!

Bo's old school like that, just what is needed, the way it should be in football.

p.s., U and only U are responsible for your hopes.......jk, dude.... :)

 
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