zeWilbur

1. On any given day it sucks to be an Iowa fan. 2. Bo has no issues playing people to build depth if we can get a lead on folks. 3. Winery tour weekends are a horrible idea. Built some major brownie points for later though. (She has hinted at the Michigan game as a make up gift!)

I don't know x's & o's. So would appreciate some insight. I thought that one RE must have always containment, the one on the weak side. So doesn't it depends upon the offensive alignment? Do they flop slides? I haven't been watching. (ie elephant - a cosgrove term) The offensive formation matters for initial alignment but flow of the play indicates which hole the lineman is responsible for. Different schools of thought but a common thread is that, ideally, you want everything to be contained on both ends to help funnel LBs to the play. However, a typical 2-gap will sacrifice backside contain to plug the hole inside of the backside OT. Remember, the goal on the d-line is eating blockers before trying to make a play unlike a typical contain strategy where the DE is responsible for making the tackle. The DE will try and maintain containment if a play comes back the other way but he now has to fight back across the face of the tackle to get there, making them look a lot slower. This is also a lot of why speedy linebackers thrive in a 2-gap. Our personnel have been pretty fixed with Meredith on the left and a revolving door on the right. They changed that up last week. They did quit a bit of swapping personnel and twisting/stunting early on against Idaho State to help get some pressure on the pass happy offense. It was nice to see as there hasn't been much adaptation on the line in the past two years that didn't involve everyone standing up. Hard to really measure any progress in a game where we tried not to score for 45 minutes of game time though.

They have $600k to wipe their tears with.

This is where we miss David the most. Compton is a good middle linebacker but he is a true middle linebacker. Asking him to cover anything smaller than a TE is setting him up to fail. Evidenced by his coverage of the HB when they went 5 wide. I can't see any reason to point the finger at Comton. Whaley was the man going with the backs out of the backfield more often then not and we all know how that ended up. Zaire Anderson or Santos may have made the situation better but only Bo knows if they are actually ready to play. The only finger pointing here would be for missed tackles. The in game adjustments were effective and the defenders were in good positions, just didn't finish the play. It is hard to pin on BO as well. They were running the ball effectively so taking a LB off the field was asking for trouble. It is also VERY difficult to defend a team that can go 5 wide effectively with their RB and TE staying on the field. Having two OLBs we can bring in when in a situation like this would be a boon for the defense. We might have them now, I just haven't seen them.

No worries Enhance. I like talking about this stuff and hopefully the thread will not derail completely as I have no ponies to share... As long as a team like Alabama exists the talent level and what can be done with it will always be in question. Regardless, we do have the personnel to run Pelini's defense now. It just isn't a scheme predicated on pressure. Once you get that then the rest makes sense. First, if we tackle better then a LOT of the existing concerns go away. The first two games looked like people were trying so hard to get to the ball they were not in position to make a tackle when they finally did they were checking to make sure their shoes were tied. This was much better Saturday. Hopefully it continues. On a related note, Alonzo Whaley is giving me an ulcer... The key to my argument is the line all doing their assignments to not leave rather large escape routes. Collapsing the pocket is more desirable than flushing QBs from it. We have not collapsed it well recently and will not without a stud tackle. I'm sure Pelini cares but that is like focusing on the cherry rather than the sundae. There are quite a few stunts and blitzes that get called to help with this once we know the secondary is doing well but not until then. We've seen the aggressiveness increase within games as the last few seasons have gone along. I expect this year to be the same. Martin's pass rush ability seems to exceed our other tackles and ends to the point that when he is set loose and doesn't get there it leaves large holes on the left side. If the coaches were just letting him go and having everyone else play patty-cake then then you would likely see the others shifting during the play to cover the hole. I haven't seen much to indicate that is the case. I can't find a game clip from last Saturday to illustrate but I'm still looking. That is what I meant by mentioning him as a liability above. It is a very interesting problem to have. If he(or any pass rush for that matter) is effective enough that other teams start keeping a back or TE in to block then life is good. One less receiver to cover leaves LBs to sit in zones and help with the underneath routes that NW burnt us with last year, bring extra pressure, spy mobile QBs, etc. However, we have yet to do anything to make teams respect our pass rush by design. Offenses in the last few years have gone away from extra protection in favor of spreading the field so more pressure is rarely the answer. Most people don't like to hear that. Southern Miss dropped a few screen passes that would have gotten huge yardage when we kept bringing heat on third down. When teams spread you out then you have to rely on your front four to contain the QB. We have absolutely struggled in this. But being beaten to the sideline is usually preferred to being beaten up the middle with no LB support. Which can happen when one of your lineman is seven yards further downfield than everyone else and only taking up one blocker. Ultimately, there is no right answer, only end results. The defense has given up a lot of yardage but not a lot of points(relatively) and played well enough for us to win every game so far. Yes, even at UCLA. They will continue to get better as they always do. Now if only the offense/special teams would stop giving up points too... My guess(as I don't have an aquarium guy) is that the intent is a complicated coverage scheme will buy time for our pass rush and get QBs to make mistakes with safeties used as run support. That is why a young secondary made last year painful. It does work well against pocket passers but has obvious pitfalls. Switching to a 3-4 would probably result in more of a dedicated pass rush from a LB spot but as long as Pelini is involved I doubt we will see a fundamental shift away from what we are doing. As far as recruiting athletes for the system, I think he brings in enough that we won't change philosophically. Last year had some issues with athleticism(read: Blatchford) but that seems like a one year roster management issue. Every Saturday this year we all hear about the challenges of getting kids to come to Lincoln(and the damn roller skating museum). Pelini seems to do a decent job at getting solid to really good guys, just struggling on the whales like Peat. While they would make life easier it seems to point to talent development being more important and I do not see enough of the younger guys to be able to comment either way on that. He does seem to bring in some pretty good DBs though and those are the backbone of his scheme. He might change schemes because he is evolving as a coach but I don't see him doing it out of necessity. Sorry for the essay.

I doubt that any other scheme would help Meredith. I think he is more useful against running teams than spread teams and we have hit a bunch of the spread recently. I understand the concern for the d-line and their lack of playmaking ability. I also get that pretty much everybody wants an aggressive/attacking defense. The reality is that it just isn't Bo's defense right now. The d-line has been a playing less aggressively to make sure and keep blockers off of our linebackers who have not been great at shedding blockers. I think this is the actual crux of the problem(David was GREAT but you need more than one decent LB at a time). If our recruiting pans out then we will have some darn good LBs over the next few years and can let the line be more aggressive. Until then I would not count on it. You are absolutely right that we are in a pick your poison state. Pelini would rather choose to make the offense do it right 10-15 times then risk the big play. I'll admit it can be very frustrating to watch at times. Most of what I have seen indicates that teams are going to continue to put the ball in the flats and try to beat our guys in space. It looked like we started using safeties to spy the RBs rather than cover them with a LB so that could open up some more aggressive options. I know that would make some people on this board happy. We'll have to wait and see what happens. Side note. Is it possible that 2009 is actually useless as a comparator? Was Suh so dominant that the numbers skewed to the point of anomaly?

Quite a few of our DE's get caught looking inside and Meredith does not have the wheels to overcome a mistake like that and still be able to chase someone to the corner. That being said, containment is NOT his job. In 2-gap the sun rises and sets with eating blockers and having a uniform push across the line. He does this pretty well. I would love to see him not get beat to the sidelines like everyone else but I would like to see our linebackers doing their jobs too. Full disclosure, last game was definitely an improvement in this regard albeit against Arkansas State. Unfortunately, Eric Martin is a liability. His aggressive play is great but he runs himself out of the play and only eats a single blocker in doing so. He can get better about not getting too far upfield, etc. but I just don't think he is there right now. This, combined with the DT's not getting much push, leaves a gaping hole for a QB to run through when the coverage is good. Yes, the downside of a 2-gap is that you need a DT that can beat 2 guys consistently and we are lacking that. But "unleashing caveman"(or anybody really) is just not an option without significant scheme revisions. And that is why Meredith will not lose his job.

At least he still knows the Jimmys and the Joes!

The time zone excuse is not lame because it is a prime time game. You can only adjust practice schedules so much to offset it but when the game ends it will feel like 1:30~2:00 in the morning to our guys. That is a big deal.

Bring on Washington! We have lots of tape on them. Apparently that makes a difference...

Under - 2 2.5 - Number of times Rex is called 'Superman' by the announcers

Over. Total carries by nonstarters 20

Pretty close. The peso really used another safety(or REALLY well tackling corner) as the nickel back. Anything with 4-2-5 personnel running a 4-3 base is going to be in the "peso" arena.

A lot of the 'complex/creative' takes a long time to install in any system. Those types of plays are successful because they build on the 'simple' stuff so you have to install things in order. Hence, you won't see a few bells and whistles until mid to late season because they need enough practices to get them in without having to concentrate on fundamentals which should be the bulk of fall camp. The other side is that if it isn't on film the other team can not prepare for it(see double option against Michigan last year). If your team is good enough then you can keep a few tricks up your sleeve for the more challenging games where one or two big plays could mean the the game.

It's just that he won't know what has actually stuck until the bullets start flying. No different than any other technique work. I expect it to see a slight-to-decent improvement over the first game but keep getting a little better as the season goes along.

Quick add-on. Officials can only be on campus 48 hours. Unofficial can be as long as you like since it is on your own dime.

I don't really care for the mindset of JP but his voice drives me up the wall. So how about this for a solution... a filter that gives him the Stephen Hawking voice! Now he will sound as smart as he thinks he is (so everyone will think about his arguments rather than thinking he is just bashing the program) and I can listen to the entire show without needing a break during his rants. Everybody wins!

The schools testing is basically trying to catch things before they become NCAA issues. The NCAA runs 3rd party testing and the prevalence is by sport. Throwers on the track team get it the most, football is second, wrestling is third, etc. They give you less than 24 hours notice and it is mandatory. Missing it is equivalent to a failed test. Whenever the lady would come around to tell us (This was not an UNL) about the testing everyone would scatter. Mostly because no one wanted to be up and whizzing in a cup at 0600 the next morning. It was a "convenience" at that time so it didn't interfere with classes. Still a little bitter about that one...

Agree. It just wouldn't be a good story. The 30 for 30 stuff usually focuses on the underpinnings of the team/athlete and how it affected the greater society. Miami's episode was pretty good about showing a team's rise to prominence and how it was able to unify a city that was on the brink of race riots. The Huskers were a great dynasty but the greater impact just isn't there.

We have a winner! Doesn't make it any less idiotic. Sure it does. Confidence, the ability to read people. the ability to separate yourself from competition and all that. However, that is not a conversation to have on this kids page. There was a big how-do-you-do about it when it came out and all of this was hashed out. If I had any idea on how to find it I would dig up the link for you.

He was not talking about that at all. He was referring to "skills", for lack of a better word, in marrying a beautiful woman and how they correlate to the ability to recruit well. Coaching ability was never in the context of this comment.

Interesting side note on his possible return. Assuming this is still the case, if someone transfers from a FCS school to a JUCO then they are not eligible to participate at an FCS without sitting out another year unless: 1. They graduate from the JUCO -OR- 2. They transfer back to the FCS they left originally. So, if he plans on making a decision this winter coming back to Nebraska would be a MUCH easier path than playing ball somewhere else. I don't know about his academic situation but at this point he has 4 years to play 3. If he can graduate from the JUCO in a semester/year then his options are wide open. If not, then we have a little more incentive to offer.

No. You have to participate in team competition (against some other team) to lose a year. Doesn't matter though since his clock has already started so it will cost him a year or a RS. This will be a redshirt year most likely.

Ourselves. Every week.

Whats it say? FWIW: He doesn't say top what... "@S_Morris12 how long do you think that last Michigan spot is going to be open ? There in my top" @pwillisjr3 we got 2-3 spots left... I'll messaged you coaches number @S_Morris12 ok cause if there isnt any left i didnt want to wste a visit or anything