H2h

And on top of that, B12 plays a round robin schedule now, so OU every year.

The politics aside, I miss the easy road trips. I miss the gameday atmospheres at K-State and at Mizzou. I miss the Thursday night games. I miss NIGHT games period. I miss our rivalries. I'm not liking the "country club" feel of the B1G.

 

I'm not sure about the country club thing but I agree with everything else that you said. I would probably be a lot less annoyed with the B1G if I didn't think our schedule for the next 2 years was crap.

 

Also agree with kchusker_chris 100%

More like the next four years

If I recall correctly, CO had concussion issues.

I've heard that as well, but I saw him on the field late last year playing special teams. I'm not saying that he didn't have concussion issues it just seems strange to me that they'd put him out there on high speed situations such as ST?

Scout had us around 11 last year.

Double standards? I have seen you recruiting "experts" for years saying 'scout sucks.'

Guess they don't suck when they have us the highest of all sites.

I thought he was just paying homage to Ndamukong Suh.

 

Suh was my first thought while watching the Borland play too. People didn't get their panties in a bunch around here when he brought a lil excessive force, and like you (I think), I see no reason to get worked up by what Borland did.

The difference is Suh could have only broken Gabberts leg, Borland could have broken Taylors neck. The differnce between not walking for a couple of weeks versus not walking ever again.

I just look at it like this, if that was Compton tackling some Wisconsin player in the same manner and he got flagged for it, I'd be mad. So when it happens the other way around, I can't be mad if there's no flag. As long as your consistent then I can agree to disagree.

I thought he was just paying homage to Ndamukong Suh.

Suh was my first thought while watching the Borland play too. People didn't get their panties in a bunch around here when he brought a lil excessive force, and like you (I think), I see no reason to get worked up by what Borland did.

Threads like these are a cop out. Nebraska fans love to claim that being a husker fan is ingrained into their identity. When things are going well. Now when things go shitshow south the kool-aid drinkers say it's just a game. Which is it? I'm upset, not surprised nor shocked. Anyone that's non-biased could see the glaring flaws in this team. But the kool-aid drinkers claim we'd win the big 12. Right.

We were a top 20 ranked defense going into this game. Maybe our defensive ranking is a reflection of the terrible offenses we see in the little 10. Take a step back and see the big picture. Our offense isn't nearly as good as people want to believe. We are sub-par on both lines. You can't win titles with sub-par line play.

Showed some wheels too in out running Luck, who had a pretty good angle.

 

So has Dennard been starting for the Pats? I know Talib is going to be their #1 CB, but has anyone else really impressed? Also think about that 2010 secondary. Gomes was starting (not following the Redskins enough), Amukamara has started, Hagg has started, and now Dennard is being very productive at New England.

He was hurt early in the season, he's only been playing for 5 or maybe 6 games. Has 3 picks already, so I would bet he's fighting for a starter spot.

If we score 35+ on more than 1 of those teams count me pleasantly surprised.

 

Ok, how does my quote of your post have UCLA in it, but your original post does not?

 

That would be because you were correct, my original post didn't have UCLA in there, so I edited it. Apparently I was doing that as you were quoting me.

 

Regardless, we didn't have three FCS opponents in our last 11 games, which was actually what I was pointing out. I'm not sure at all what that stat Callahan was trying to point out was, or what it meant.

I believe it was non-BCS or FCS. I take that to mean not a BCS conference team.

The defensive coaching staff got the their asses handed to them. Simple as that.

 

What about the offense that handed them 14 points in the 1st half and put up 7 meaningful points in the 2nd half? And the special teams that gave up a punt return for a TD? Defensive coaching staff? The entire coaching staff more like it.

You're not wrong their fella. I agree, It was a TEAM LOSS....BUT WTF happened to the defensive scheme that was working so well in the first couple offensive drives against the FU@$EYE offense!??? Urban adjustments? Urbans love for Braxton got stronger???! I don't know....

Couldn't agree with you more there. I mean why even bother trying something that was working perfectly earlier? I honestly think coaches just think they're too smart for themselves.

And a random side note, has a Bo Pelini first half timeout on 3rd down (in this case 4th down) ever worked in our favor? It just seems like the other team constantly gets a first down (or a back breaking, inexcusable TD) in these situations as of recently.

Why did we stray from the blitzing attacking defense we had in the 1st quarter. We were stonewalling them and then we totally changed our scheme for the rest of our game. Im dumbfounded.

Dumbfounded is the perfect word for it! I'm no football expert, but generally, in any sport, you wanna take away what the other team does best right? Well I think anyone with eyes knew that their best was Braxton running the ball. Make him beat you anyway possible besides with his legs! That's the most frustrating thing of all! We've seen teams make Taylor throw the ball to beat them, sometimes he can sometimes he can't. But come on at least don't let him do what he does best to beat you. Makes no sense and that is exactly why people should be frustrated.

The defensive coaching staff got the their asses handed to them. Simple as that.

What about the offense that handed them 14 points in the 1st half and put up 7 meaningful points in the 2nd half? And the special teams that gave up a punt return for a TD? Defensive coaching staff? The entire coaching staff more like it.

Our offense is supposed to be the strength of the team this year. In 2010, when our defense was clearly the strength of the team, it got ripped to shreds (by this board) for giving up 6 points in the 2nd half to one of the highest scoring teams in the country in Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game.

In 2012, our offense, the perceived strength of our team, has scored a combined 10 meaningful points in the 2nd half of our two losses.

The defense isn't that good, don't we know that? The offense has to carry us this year. It's been talked about all off season!

Was Martinez responsible for the loss? Hell yes he was! He's the leader of the strength of our team! If Aaron Rodgers turns the ball over 4 times (should have been 5) then it is damn sure his responsibility!

Is it entirely on him? No way. We're not that good, talent, coaching, fundamentals, we are lacking.

But come on, his play tonight was unacceptable. He's a 3rd year starter. Four turnovers can't happen. What did you guys see on his picks (honest question)? I saw two throws where he stared down his wideout and one throw where he was caught in the middle of throwing to two different guys (anyone who has ever played football or basketball knows what I mean when you see a guy, then at the last second you see a different guy a little more open and you think about switching the throw/pass to him and it ends up somewhere in between.)

I know the Taylor defenders and Bo defenders are one in the same, but come on. It's the same thing over and over and over. It's gotta stop, and people need to stop making excuses and expect it to change. When the strength of the team hands the other guys 14 points on a platter and 2 more turnovers to go with it, they deserve to be scrutinized.

Wisconsin's Montee Ball was not touched on 19 of his 33 rushing touchdowns last season. He was contacted in the backfield by the defense on only 26 of his 307 (8.5 percent) rushes last season. On 28.0 percent of his runs, first contact was not made until 5 yards past the line of scrimmage.

Just saw these wonderfully insightful numbers on ESPN's Big 10 blog. It's why I think I think it's a dumb argument to compare RB's on different teams. I'd love to see Burkheads percentages, I imagine they'd be strikingly different.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten

I say secondary. They started to play pretty well towards the end of the year at times. Flashes of brilliance if you will. Even without Dennard (who I feel was never himself anyway), there's plenty of experience. I think with the energy of a new coach and Bo's finger back on it a bit guys like Osbourne and Smith are ready to explode back onto the scene. Throw that in with Green and Seisay and a little help from the D-line, they get my vote.

I don't mean to call you out for this, but I see people say this fairly commonly. Maybe he wasn't ever 100%, but his play on the field was still excellent. He still managed to be 1st team all conference, totally shut down B.J. Cunningham, shut out Marvin McNutt. The only time I really thought he was hurting was during Wisconsin when he appeared to be pulling up a little, but that was his first game back. Sorry to rant, I just feel people are misremembering how good Fonzi was last year.

For the record, TMarts motion dramatically improved from year one to two.

 

 

 

I personally thought it got worse due to the ankle injury and turf toe.

 

At any rate it certainly wasn't dramatically improved.

I'm with you guys. Improvement? Debateable. Dramatic improvement? No way.

Again . . . I hope that you're right but I don't think someone who expects Nebraska to win the Big 10 this year has much room to accuse others of being disconnected from reality.

 

You do understand that if Nebraska would have beaten Northwestern last year they would have been in Indianapolis playing Wisconsin in a rematch for the inaugural Big 10 championship...right?

 

Of course you do being so grounded in reality as you are.

 

That's not even true to start with. MSU went 7-1 in conference, that still only puts NU at 6-2 if we had beaten NW. Or still 3rd place in our division. (Tied for 2nd but Michigan won the head to head so I count that as 3rd)

To me, the latter doesn't seem probable--there are too many good things going and the difference between 10 and 12,13, and 14 wins is a small one. It's a small step, but it takes a lot of effort to climb that step. With the experience of last year, I don't think the team is going to allow that to repeat itself this year.

I disagree with this entirely. This is one of those posts like "Mike Caputo was awesome". The difference between 10 and 12 wins is major. 4 BCS teams had 12 or more wins last year, while well over 20 had 10 wins. 1 BCS team got to 13 wins, and they didn't even win the MNC. And the difference between 10 and 14 is the difference between a 20ish ranking and a National Championship after an undefeated, completely dominating season. There can only be 1 of those, and a lot of years there isn't any.

 

There is not a single, proven thing that supports a 12 win prediction. Words like "should" and "potential" are the only thing that you can use to support such a prediction, one based entirely on "hope". Doesn't mean it can't happen...we've see weirder things, and bigger turnarounds (Auburn 10'). But T-Mart isn't Cam Newton.

 

Well duh, Who the hell is another Cam Newton?

 

Your saying that unless you've got easily the best player in all of cfb (at qb to boot) that you can't predict anything? Newsflash Chris, there's nobody in the Big10 that's even remotely proven to be that good. Nobody.

 

If it makes you feel relavant & a big stud ripping our qb because he isn't that good then more power to you. Par. But it's essentially meaningless as nobody else has one either. Or a Bo Jackson, Barry Sanders, Dan Marino, etc.

 

There is not a single, proven thing that supports a 9 or less win prediction. Words like "shouldn't" and "can't" are the only thing that you can use to support such a prediction, one based entirely on being "negative".

 

However, we "do" have experienced & talented offensive skill players reurning everywhere (qb, rb, wrs, te) as well as boatloads of highly recruited big uglies that will play this year. A returning OC as well. There's LOTS of good reasons to be optimistic about that side of the ball.

 

Defensively we have returning players at all three levels with a proven good defensive DC/HC. Yeah, 2011 was a let down but 2010, 2009 & 2003 were simply great & 2008 was excellent relative to the previous year under another HC. I think Bo has well earned a one year mulligan on that side of the ball.

 

Of course nobody knows for sure but to state we're doomed because we don't have a proven Cam Newton is just stupid.

 

GBR!!

Lol where do you get this stuff from, it's like you see someone mention T-marts name in a bad light and just go blind with rage. Where did he say anything remotely close to that?

As far as the season goes, I think anything less than 8 wins is pessimsm, but I wouldn't think an 8 win season is impossible. 8-10 wins depending on lucky breaks and who our bowl opponent is.

As to our OL and its problems, we cleaned up a lot of problems we used to have with stupid peneties ie: false starts and holdings. We also implimented a new offensive set and joined a new conference. I am willing to forgive some of the problems last year to those changes. This year barring any major player hiccups I think we will see a major improvement from the OL, it appears we have depth at every position. Almost the whole 2 deep has playing or starting expierence except center. The center position is obviously in flux right now but I think the to likely starters look to be able to play the position. This is also the year we hopefully see the difference a year under two OL coaches has improved rep count and overall understanding of positions by 2nd and 3rd stringers.

 

That's not true at all. Moore, Sirles, Choi, Arod, Long - those are the only guys with any game experience on the O-line.

 

Come one please you will lose that argument every time. Your perception is not based on fact.

That is 5/8 in the two deep that you mentioned. 2011 stats not all updated on official website. But I found at least 3 more with multiple games played in 2010 and 2011. That doesnt include players like Moudy, Price, Reeves, Sterup, Klachko, or Ash. Although Ash appears to be destined to never get real playing time, I am kinda surprised he hasnt moved to TE, 275 isnt likely to cut it as a OT.

 

Qvale

2010 (Redshirt Freshman)

Qvale played in all 14 games as a redshirt freshman as a reserve guard behind Keith Williams and Ricky Henry, and also as a member of Nebraska's PAT and field goal units. Qvale helped Nebraska rank atop the Big 12 and in the top 10 nationally in rushing offense.

 

 

Jake Cotton

2012 (Outlook)

Sophomore offensive lineman Jake Cotton continues to work toward returning to the field after suffering a season-ending knee injury during the 2011 season. The 6-6, 295-pound Cotton should be full speed for summer conditioning and fall camp and will give Nebraska a versatile lineman capable of playing both guard and tackle.

2011 (Redshirt Freshman)

Cotton played in Nebraska's wins over Chattanooga, Washington and Wyoming, helping the Huskers rack up more than 300 rushing yards against both Washington and Wyoming. He suffered a knee injury before the Ohio State game and was lost for the season. Cotton moved from defense to the offensive line during 2011 spring practice.

 

Brandon Thompson

2011 Season Outlook

Junior Brandon Thompson is among a group of offensive linemen who are looking to move into a position for significant playing time on a young, but talented offensive line this fall. Thompson served in a backup role at offensive guard behind seniors Ricky Henry and Keith Williams in 2010, but with the graduation of those two starters, Thompson is among the leading candidates to push for a starting spot this spring and fall.

The 6-6, 300-pound Thompson appeared in nine games last season and helped the Huskers rank first in the Big 12 in rushing offense.

So nobody with extensive playing time other than the 5 I mentioned. If you want to count guys getting in on special teams or playing a handful of snaps as proven depth then your right we have proven depth. But good catch on finding that those 3 do infact have some blip of experience.

As to our OL and its problems, we cleaned up a lot of problems we used to have with stupid peneties ie: false starts and holdings. We also implimented a new offensive set and joined a new conference. I am willing to forgive some of the problems last year to those changes. This year barring any major player hiccups I think we will see a major improvement from the OL, it appears we have depth at every position. Almost the whole 2 deep has playing or starting expierence except center. The center position is obviously in flux right now but I think the to likely starters look to be able to play the position. This is also the year we hopefully see the difference a year under two OL coaches has improved rep count and overall understanding of positions by 2nd and 3rd stringers.

That's not true at all. Moore, Sirles, Choi, Arod, Long - those are the only guys with any game experience on the O-line.

I would love to see SJB start at the nickel. As I have been preaching. Perfect size to step into the box for run support and has the hips and speed to not get abused in the slot *cough* Ciante *cough*

That would be handy but I would think he'd be more suited to the outside. Tackling would be good but usually taller players aren't known for their change-of-direction trying to cover slants, outs and other quick routes you get out of the slot.

I agree, I have a hard time seeing SJB covering the slot, I can't imagine it going very well. Maybe he does have the hips for it, but judging by the amount we've seen him, I'd say that would be a blind guess.

I never understood why it was thought that our DB's would be flagged more in the Big 10 than the Big 12. You always hear that the Big 10 is more physical so why would they call PI closer? It very well could be true, but it always seemed backwards to me that you'd be allowed to maul a WR in the pass happy big 12 and not be as physical with the Big 10 Wr's without getting a penalty. I guess I always assumed it was more of Raymonds way of teaching than the actuality of it. Regardless, I'm happy to hear our DB's will continue to be physical.

I've seen a few people say they think Beck's offense is better formulated for our current line coaches. I'm interested to see a more developed opinion on this - why do you guys think so? Is it because of Cotton's background the run game, and his assistant's backgrounds with running the football?

 

Not saying I disagree or agree, just curious where this line of thinking comes from and if you think it will still matter given that Pelini wants to run a more balanced offense this next year.

 

Callahan and Watson offensive scheme rarely if ever blocked the LBs and DBs. The west coast offense, as practiced by Callahan and Watson, was predicated on blocking the DL and then it was the RB's job to get through the hole and make the LB or DB miss to gain extra yards. Barney and Bo's offensive line scheme mirrors Tom and Milt's in that they account for everybody on defense or at least the front seven and possibly the SS or FS depending on which side the play is going. I want to stress that this is strictly my opinion here formed by reading articles from the Omaha World Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, and other sources on our coaching staff both previous and present, combined with my knowledge of x's and o's and watching the games.

Not that I know anything, but that seems completely ridiculous to me. You got five offensive linemen, add a tight end or two depending on the formation, and all those guys are only blocking the 3/4 guys on the dline? What are the wide receivers doing instead of blocking the corners standing in front of um?

What we need to avoid is what happened in the MSU game, where Martinez didn't complete a single pass in the first half and had one interception. Attribute that to what you will. I don't think that was all Martinez' fault, but it's definitely something that can't happen.

 

I still think Martinez plays well enough to win us games. There isn't a single game we played last year that we lost because of Martinez. He had rough patches like every other player. He obviously just gets scrutinized more because he's the most prominent player on the field and the one easiest to critique.

 

 

it's a team sport, no doubt about it..... and Rex is the only one i can think of that brought his A game consistently through out the season....

He was banged up, but Rex fumbled away a TD against Northwestern. So did Enunwa.

 

 

true, they played him half to death before the NW game.....he gave his all, he was beat to hell and still played hard.

 

Sure, when Rex has an off game it's ok because he "played hard" (like Texas 2010) but when Tmart does it's because he s*cks. I get it.

 

Just like when the Oline plays well it's due to Garrison/Stai and when it doesn't it's because Barney s*cks. No problem.

Rex gets a pass because he used up his quota of 1 fumble the entire year against NW. I think most fans can look the other way when your workhorse takes the beating he did all year and only coughs it up once.