Early expectations for this year.

[HuskerShark]

i think we need to see some real direction and a real identity for the offense. it's time, Beck needs to show up this year.

Several threads already about offensive identity, but I think we already have one: Taylor Martinez and Rex Burkhead operating a dual threat running game, with a willingness to pass 22 times a game.

Also, we're really fast.

I like the balance and hope we continue to experiment. Exploit Turner in certain situations. Bring in a fullback in others. Keep our share of go-to plays but never get predictible.

Identity is over-rated.

interesting, i didn't get the feeling we had any continuity with the offense, from game to game last year............i felt Beck struggled with scheme, play calling and game management, but then maybe player execution was part of that feeling as well.......we were just erratic as hell, as i remember, so yeah, there needs to be some sense of real balance and "bread and butter" plays.

It's called the Belly G. Didn't you hear Urban Meyer say it every other sentence when he commentated our games?

 

[True2tRA]

Some weeks the offense looked great. Other times it sputtered kinda helplessly. Sometimes it changed from quarter to quarter.

But sometimes I think we mistake inconsistency for lack of scheme. Sometimes a good fast defense will take away Martinez and key on Burkhead and we need to become a passing team. And once we complete a few passes, Burkhead becomes a threat again. The sets changed a bit over the season, but we still had our bread and butter plays.

And while having speedy players didn't "work out", we still have a lot of team speed and that's part of our identity, too. Let's hope we use it better.

As Knapple alluded to, continuity starts with the offensive line. When they hold their own, everything works.

And when the defense gives up tons of points, the offense doesn't get to choose its identity. They have to play catch up.

And when players fumble and drop catchable balls, it's not the scheme's fault. Unfortunately, that's part of our identity, too.

As usual, a very good post but I still beg to differ.

We really, really need "something" that we truly excel at. That we're confident using it with the game on the line. When everything is starting to fall apart. Our one, strong ace in the hole we believe can't be stopped.

Everything else I agree with though. Fumbling and dropping passes everywhere simply has to stop. :steam

well said, Beck needs to figure this out.

Exactly, I couldn't agree more and have said the same myself. This team needs to get great at one thing before trying to be mediocre at ten things. Repetition is the only way to achieve this. Reps these guys are supposed to be getting in practice. I think we are working on being "multiple" too god damn much. We need to kick a$$ at something, then add some wrinkles. I hope Beck isn't going to be like Watson and cram a 300 page playbook into the college kids heads. College athletes have enough on their plates. K.I.S.S. Keep it simple stupid.

 

[bshirt]

Some weeks the offense looked great. Other times it sputtered kinda helplessly. Sometimes it changed from quarter to quarter.

But sometimes I think we mistake inconsistency for lack of scheme. Sometimes a good fast defense will take away Martinez and key on Burkhead and we need to become a passing team. And once we complete a few passes, Burkhead becomes a threat again. The sets changed a bit over the season, but we still had our bread and butter plays.

And while having speedy players didn't "work out", we still have a lot of team speed and that's part of our identity, too. Let's hope we use it better.

As Knapple alluded to, continuity starts with the offensive line. When they hold their own, everything works.

And when the defense gives up tons of points, the offense doesn't get to choose its identity. They have to play catch up.

And when players fumble and drop catchable balls, it's not the scheme's fault. Unfortunately, that's part of our identity, too.

As usual, a very good post but I still beg to differ.

We really, really need "something" that we truly excel at. That we're confident using it with the game on the line. When everything is starting to fall apart. Our one, strong ace in the hole we believe can't be stopped.

Everything else I agree with though. Fumbling and dropping passes everywhere simply has to stop. :steam

well said, Beck needs to figure this out.

Exactly, I couldn't agree more and have said the same myself. This team needs to get great at one thing before trying to be mediocre at ten things. Repetition is the only way to achieve this. Reps these guys are supposed to be getting in practice. I think we are working on being "multiple" too god damn much. We need to kick a$$ at something, then add some wrinkles. I hope Beck isn't going to be like Watson and cram a 300 page playbook into the college kids heads. College athletes have enough on their plates. K.I.S.S. Keep it simple stupid.

Amen.

Uncle Milt said the exact same thing endlessly. There's a good chance he knew what he was talking about.

 

[RedRedJarvisRedwine]

Some weeks the offense looked great. Other times it sputtered kinda helplessly. Sometimes it changed from quarter to quarter.

But sometimes I think we mistake inconsistency for lack of scheme. Sometimes a good fast defense will take away Martinez and key on Burkhead and we need to become a passing team. And once we complete a few passes, Burkhead becomes a threat again. The sets changed a bit over the season, but we still had our bread and butter plays.

And while having speedy players didn't "work out", we still have a lot of team speed and that's part of our identity, too. Let's hope we use it better.

As Knapple alluded to, continuity starts with the offensive line. When they hold their own, everything works.

And when the defense gives up tons of points, the offense doesn't get to choose its identity. They have to play catch up.

And when players fumble and drop catchable balls, it's not the scheme's fault. Unfortunately, that's part of our identity, too.

As usual, a very good post but I still beg to differ.

We really, really need "something" that we truly excel at. That we're confident using it with the game on the line. When everything is starting to fall apart. Our one, strong ace in the hole we believe can't be stopped.

Everything else I agree with though. Fumbling and dropping passes everywhere simply has to stop. :steam

well said, Beck needs to figure this out.

Exactly, I couldn't agree more and have said the same myself. This team needs to get great at one thing before trying to be mediocre at ten things. Repetition is the only way to achieve this. Reps these guys are supposed to be getting in practice. I think we are working on being "multiple" too god damn much. We need to kick a$$ at something, then add some wrinkles. I hope Beck isn't going to be like Watson and cram a 300 page playbook into the college kids heads. College athletes have enough on their plates. K.I.S.S. Keep it simple stupid.

Amen.

Uncle Milt said the exact same thing endlessly. There's a good chance he knew what he was talking about.

. dedhoarse

 

[True2tRA]

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

As usual, a very good post but I still beg to differ.

We really, really need "something" that we truly excel at. That we're confident using it with the game on the line. When everything is starting to fall apart. Our one, strong ace in the hole we believe can't be stopped.

But we have that. It's called handing the ball to Rex Burkhead. I'm not sure a Husker team has relied on a single play more. Rex carried the team for entire games. When we won it was awesome. When we lost we were too predictible and Burkhead reliant. Or too far behind for slow, grind it out drives. Martinez was scaled back into a dual zone-read option with Rex Burkhead. It was a good call. It got better with execution last season. It will continue to be our bread and butter this season.

Obviously we couldn't hand it to Rex EVERY play, although I get the feeling some folks on HuskerBoard wish that was our identity. As I said before, you can't declare yourself a smashmouth football team until you go out there and smash mouths. That's an attitude, not an offensive scheme.

Maybe I just have a problem with the word Identity. Not sure I can name many teams with a clear offensive identity. Maybe a couple teams that overwhelmingly commit to the run or pass, like an Air Force or a Texas Tech. Oregon has the riverboat gambler identity from their coach. The Top 10 teams are usually credited for having offensive balance with the occasional new wrinkle, and no one accuses them of trying to do to much.

Winning cures everything. Aggression and discipline would make our playbook look brilliant.

 

['SkersRule]

Lack of recruiting, lack of development, poor line play, inexperienced coaches will lead to the worst year of the Pelini experiment. This will be the beginning of the end for Bo I am afraid. Could end up being very embarassing down the road.

Hope I am completely wrong on this, but I do not buy the hype, the coach speak, the players running their mouths. My guess is we lose more than we win, no bowl game.

Dude, do I need to call the suicide watch program and have them start looking in on you?

All Bo has done in four years is win 9, 10, 10, and 9 games each season so CLEARLY he's NOT getting the job done.

:ahhhhhhhh

I love how the pessimists, sorry "realists," only see the negative and bad.

:dunno

 

['SkersRule]

I could see where you'd argue there is a lack of development after watching last season.

- Look at the OL. W're all hopeful it's fixed now...it's not something that was going to happen overnight. It will take Garrison/Stai/Cotton a couple of years. Last year was a year of learning. This will be a year of improvement there...but not necessarily a breakout year.

- The secondary...we can only hope that depth will help there. Marvin's departure was felt last year, and it will still be felt this year. A lot of those guys (Evans, Osborne (injury), Stafford, Dennard) were no better in the last game than they were in the first game of the season. I'd say Evans/Dennard actually regressed. Green progressed, but he was certainly the exception.

- You could even say the same thing about the DL. Stein quietly had a nice season - but you didn't see vast improvement (either as a unit or individually) as the year went on. We thought were deep, and quickly realized that wasn't the case after 1 injury? You develop depth...we obviously must not have been developing depth here. Our thought that this was a deep unit was based on talent and potential and that theory was quickly proven flawed (kind of similar to the reasoning behind our "OL depth" for this year huh?) Kaz was brought in to address that, but it's going to take a big jump in year 1.

- At QB - Martinez's development was kind of puzzling. He was more consistent, but not nearly as game-changing. With the exception of the Wisconsin game...you couldn't even come close to arguing he was anywhere near the reason for a loss or even really a bad series. Some of his better games where when the rest of the team was struggling. But overall I wouldn't say he was that much "better" than he was the prior year.

There could be "development" issues...but I don't think we can pin them on development entirely. The OL maybe. But QB was more a change of scheme. The secondary/LBers was youth/conference change, etc. other arguments to support the "lack of development" thing would center around the backups not getting on the field enough. Which is an entirely different can of worms.

Good post Chris. I think this is another solid 9 or 10 win team. If we get a few breaks along the way a 12-0 regular season isn't out of reach.

 

[Haspula]

Bo needs to win something prestigious. BCS bowl game, a bcs natl. championship game, or a conference championship. Something.

 

[Excel]

Bo needs to win something prestigious. BCS bowl game, a bcs natl. championship game, or a conference championship. Something.

Heroes Trophy?

 

[skersfan]

When he actually wins something of value, I will listen to your BS. He has accomplished nothing, no CC, no BCS games.

Yea and you were one of the guys saying once he got here we would be winning every game, would win the Big 10 due to our intimidating speed. Blah Blah Blah.

He is lost as a head coach, his temper or lack of control of it, is what Nebraska is known for around the country. You can swallow all the hog wash you want to.

when the end of the year is here, when wins and losses are counted, I hope you are right, I hope I am wrong, but my guess is I will see exactly what I expect this year. The wheels will come off and badly. He is not a head coach, has no clue of how to use the talent he has and how to get the most out of what he has

When he actually beats a team of value, meaning a top five, hell even a top ten team at the end of the year. I will give him some credit.

when he finishes a season without totally falling his pecker against an unranked, bottem feeder in our house, then he deserves some credit.

Until then I will remain a Nebraska fan, but I will not be expecting BCS games, or CCG, until he actually learns his job, is not teaching an unqualified replacement how to do his, and we actually sign a top 10 class.

Let me know when you think that is going to happen. Oh I know it was going to happen the first year, the second year, the third year, the fourth year according to most. I have said it would be a long journey since day one. You see a lot of improvement, I see very little since year one.

Keep drinking the kool aid, I have had enough.

 

[bshirt]

When you have the moral "or" intellectual authority to ridicule our coaches I'll listen to your BS. Sorry, posting negative drivel on a free internet forum just isn't that impressive. Until then just b!^@h, whine & sob until your heart's content (or it's your bed time).

 

[skersfan]

It is a free site, I state what my expectations were. A bad season, I was attacked, I responded. You don't like it, let me tell you how much it concerns me.

 

[Saunders]

When he actually wins something of value, I will listen to your BS. He has accomplished nothing, no CC, no BCS games.

Yea and you were one of the guys saying once he got here we would be winning every game, would win the Big 10 due to our intimidating speed. Blah Blah Blah.

He is lost as a head coach, his temper or lack of control of it, is what Nebraska is known for around the country. You can swallow all the hog wash you want to.

when the end of the year is here, when wins and losses are counted, I hope you are right, I hope I am wrong, but my guess is I will see exactly what I expect this year. The wheels will come off and badly. He is not a head coach, has no clue of how to use the talent he has and how to get the most out of what he has

When he actually beats a team of value, meaning a top five, hell even a top ten team at the end of the year. I will give him some credit.

when he finishes a season without totally falling his pecker against an unranked, bottem feeder in our house, then he deserves some credit.

Until then I will remain a Nebraska fan, but I will not be expecting BCS games, or CCG, until he actually learns his job, is not teaching an unqualified replacement how to do his, and we actually sign a top 10 class.

Let me know when you think that is going to happen. Oh I know it was going to happen the first year, the second year, the third year, the fourth year according to most. I have said it would be a long journey since day one. You see a lot of improvement, I see very little since year one.

Keep drinking the kool aid, I have had enough.

You were wrong last year, and more than likely, will be wrong again this year. I'll leave you with this.

And while Nebraska fans wanted more last season, Pelini is still only the 6th BCS head football coach to win nine or more games his first four years.

​

link

Man he sucks....

 

[kchusker_chris]

You were wrong last year, and more than likely, will be wrong than this year. I'll leave you with this.

And while Nebraska fans wanted more last season, Pelini is still only the 6th BCS head football coach to win nine or more games his first four years.

​

link

Man he sucks....

haha - there it is. really surprised it took everyone so long. yup, Pelini joined what...about 25 of his BCS peers and won 9 games, yet again? /golf clap