Husker_in_Tarheel_land

I respect Tom and all the things he's done at Nebraska. However despite Pelini's record our team is ranked below the Duke Blue Devils football team. Basketball yeah but I never thought I would see a Nebraska football team ranked lower than Duke in my life time.

It only would have been illegal if TA was past the line of scrimmage. Technically, it was a pass. Yep same concept as a shovel or Utah pass.

Jeff Monken from Georgia Southern. The guys a darn good couch and knows the triple option as well as anyone in the country. He could get Nebraska back to it's roots. I'd love to see what he could do with the type of tallent Nebraska has and can recruit.

The Husker played well today. Yeah there were mistakes, yeah our defense is the worst it's been since the Billy era, but you have to give these kids credit. They hung with a team that was just seconds from playing in the national title game. This game even though we lost showed us that there may be light at the end of this tunnel. Next year we have a serious shot at the Rose Bowl provided we do some serious development over the off season. I think 2013 could be a very good year for the Huskers. 2014 though will turn out to be a nightmare that will make Bill's worst year look like a dream season. Mainly because Bo hasn't developed any tallent over the last couple years that can step up once next seasons seniors are done. Seeing this game really gives me hope for breaking 10 wins next season.

Good deal now I'll have to listen to all the Dawgs fans at work gloating every time I wear my Husker gear. Bad enough I have to listen to all the FSU and Miami aholes. Hmm 8 hours of incessant barking noises outside my office door.....awesome. At least we can all come to an agreement and point and laugh at the Vols fans.

Ok lets just for a second travel to Pelini fantasy land where Bo is a defensive genius and gave his kids the right calls to stop Wiscy and their complicated tricky offensive scheme (which was kind of like the Konami code of college football: sweep left, sweep right, run up gut, first down, rinse, repeat). Ok Bo if the kids aren't executing at what point and time do you pull them and sit their butts on the bench and teach them that this type of performance isn't acceptable? If the back ups can't handle coming in for a few plays to teach the starters a lesson then what are they even doing on the team eating up scholarship money? If you don't execute you don't play...period. This debacle rests completely on Bo's shoulders. The buck stops with him. Basically his players aren't executing and he does nothing to discourage it. For all his yelling and other antics Bo needs to learn a thing about applying discipline. Bo take a lap then come back and do up downs.. go move it, move it.

Hmm Georgia, aTm, or LSU. What is the NCAA record for most points scored on an opponent in a single game? Two out of the three might have a shot at breaking that record based on our defensive performance yesterday. I'll wager the first play out of the gate by these teams will be a sweep.

Who's the best high school coach in Nebraska? Pay him a fraction of what we are paying Bo and I bet that high school coach could make adjustments to stop the jet sweep.

I don't have a problem with Wisconsin "running up the score". If these players and this staff don't like it then feel free to stop them. Oh wait we still have our starters in the game and we haven't been able to stop them all night even with a "defensive genius" at the helm. Personally I hope Wisky continues to lay the hammer down and finally show everyone that this coaching staff especially Bo is inept.

TO wasn't making millions either. It's different today. We pay these coaches a ton of money to win NOW, not in 3 or 4 or 20 years. Why can't we recruit SEC type players? LSU, and Bama keep reloading, OU stays in the hunt every year, and so should we. Bo needs to step his game up before we start losing all of our recruits to Ohio St., Michigan and Wisconsin. Also, if it's a 5-10 year upward battle then what happened to Turner Gill at KU. They too want to compete and win NOW, not in 10 years. We can't currently recruit SEC caliber players for multiple reasons at this point for multiple reasons. For starters blue chip type players want to be on teams with current winning traditions in the hopes that they too will be able to be on a bowl, conference champ, national champ winning team. That pretty much counts out our program. The Nebraska of the 90's is no more. I live in SEC/ACC country and in the 90's teams here loved to hate us kinda like Nebraska fans hating teams out of Florida back then. Back then I always heard comments when I would wear my Husker gear. Now I walk into to a sports bar and not a single comment is made unless they want to ask me about our move from the big 12 to the B10. We as hard as it is to accept have slipped into mediocrity. Second how can we expect truly talented players to come to Nebraska when they aren't gonna see play time (even when were beating down a FCS non-conference team). Bo doesn't play enough of his non-starters to encourage incoming players. That is if that potential player even follows Nebraska football. Which is doubtful unless they come from a transplanted Husker household. However once they are recruited I bet they pay attention to the fact that Bo simple doesn't play anyone off the bench. Up coming players also want to play in systems that are going to give them a better chance at making it to the next level of play. So with our current offensive scheme it will be extremely difficult to recruit players wanting to move on to the next level. High end QB recruits are not going to be interested in an option style offense because they have almost no chance of moving on to the next level as a QB. WR's will be reluctant to come here because they will not be playing in a system that will show case their talents. Also I would say that once they begin to pay attention to our football program Bo's antics on and off the field are going to be a major turn off for many recruits. Who wants to play on a losing team with a coach that clearly can't control his anger? No thanks, I'd go play for Dabo Swinney at Clemson or any number of ACC/SEC coaches/teams before I would play for Bo and the current Husker program. Oh and yes at 9-4 and possibly not ranked in the top 20 or 25 makes Nebraska a losing team by SEC fan standards.

I actually expected this team to lose 5 or 6 games this year so they did better then my expectations. However this team has a long ways to go to get to the level I'd like to see the Huskers playing at. Yeah I dream of another 90's TO like dynasty but realistically I'd like to see us at least compete for a conference title and finish in the top ten. I question if this team and this coaching staff are capable of that in the next 2 to 3 years though.

I think the major thing with T-Mart is the fact that his fundamentals are not there. The guy is a pure athlete (would make a good receiver, corner, safety). Even his harshest critics can't deny that. However T-Mart is completely lacking in the fundamentals he needs to be a great QB in any system. As has been pointed out his throwing mechanic is the worst I've ever seen in a starting QB on nearly any level outside pop-warner football. His pocket awareness is sub-par and his ability to read a defense has improved but is still not to a level that is expected of a top 25 starting D1 QB. He is fast north south but has no ability to shrug off tackles or move east/west to elude defenders. On the plus side Taylor is improving, as has been pointed out he has a lot to learn about being a QB. His numbers are what they are because of his pure athletic talent against less athletic teams. He is the type of person that at the high school level would be a coaches dream to cultivate. The problem with D1 FBS football is you can't really use the starting QB position to cultivate that kind of raw talent and expect to win big games against talented teams. Sure against less talented FCS schools your pure athletic ability can win the day but not against solid FBS schools (I don't count Ohio St. and Penn St. this year to be solid FBS teams). No T-mart is not the biggest problem on this team. The biggest problem this team has is the basic fundamentals (penalties, blocking assignments in pass protection, reading offenses/defenses), and controlling the emotional aspects of the game (penalties, giving up in the face of adversity). So T-mart becomes a clear target because he is one guy that fans can clearly point to as an example of the teams lack of proper fundamentals. He's not the only one. The entire teams lacks it with a few notable exceptions. This teams problems are not about talent imho (we have plenty of it), it all comes down to coaching. Bo can come up with a good game plan and that's great for the first quarter. However in every game we lost this year our team lost because the other team had players that were obviously better coached and the teams coach during the game simply learned our initial game plan and out coached Bo and Co after the half.

PSU-21 NU-13 Pass: 110 Rush: 105

Well the poor performing Nitty Lions offense did score 34 on Northwestern and win that game. That being said it's their defense that is going to win this game for them. Their defense in my opinion is the best in the B1G. Other then LSU they are the only team to hold Alabama below 30 points. That and the Offense was able to put up the second most amount of points against Alabama this year. I have a feeling that our offense is going to have a very hard time moving the ball on PSU. So far our D hasn't shown me anything special. The MSU game we won not because we beat MSU and our defense stopped MSU. It was because MSU imploded after having all those high profile match ups with OSU, UM, and Wisc and winning. If the MSU team that played in those games had shown up we'd be sitting here with 3 loses right now. PSU is going to score on our D plain and simple despite how "bad" they are. Our O is going to struggle unless Martinez suddenly becomes a passing threat, as PSU has shown they can stop national title contender running teams (Alabama). Stack the box and make Martinez beat you with his aweful throwing machanic. I honest think PSU can stop our running attack. Not saying totally lights out but they will shut our running down just enough that we will have to throw to keep up. That and sure PSU has a lot of distractions going on right now, but like IlliniHusker said. This is going to be Joe Pa's last home game. That is huge and that team is gonna pull out all the stops to make that last game a W imho. PSU 21 NU 13

Texas: So we can give them the beating we should have given them last year. However given our record against them they'd more then likely beat us and even if we did beat them their fans still wouldn't shut up. Clemson: Simply because that's my wife's team so she'd be in a good mood after a bowl win and she can console my bruised ego. *wink* Florida St.: Because they are the only team I hate more then Texas, and surely to God after we beat them in a bowl, pollsters would stop putting them in the freaking top ten after a 5 loss season. Any SEC team that's not LSU/BAMA and win: Just so the SEC fanboi's will stfu. I get so tired of UGA/Tenn fans talking about how great the SEC is when their team sucks.

I'll gladly eat crow, and will continue to do so as it will mean we are winning games. Martinez had a good game I'll give him that. However I reserve the right to criticize his performance after he self destructs and has bad games at Michigan St. and Penn St (who I feel have better D's then OSU). My biggest thing with the OSU game was that the team finally showed some heart. They dug down and got it done. Something that imho this team hasn't shown in a very long time.

The Huskers will need to make some serious improvements before even being in consideration for winning the B1G or even making it to the B1G championship. We still need to get by Michigan and Michigan St. Given the teams play this year I'd be happy if we make it 8-3.

Not a chance in hell Michigan puts a beatdown on us like Wisconsin did. Robinosn is not Russell Wilson, and never will be Russell Wilson. Michigan's D might not hold us down like Wisconsin did but Michigan's O imho is going to rack up as many if not more on our defense then Wisconsin did. Michigan more then likely beats us by 14. Provided Michigan doesn't collapse between now and then like they did last year. All in all we have 3 games left that are potential losses for us.

Stopping Denard is a lot easier said then done. Lets not forget until Braxton Miller got hurt he ran for 91 yrds and threw for 95 yrds against our D. Personally I think if Miller hadn't been injured we very well could have lost that Ohio St. game. Braxton Miller isn't in the same caliber as Denard either. True, but Dennard has been turnover prone for the last two years. Some of his throws against NW were just awful. It is easier said than doen, and I never said we ARE going to stop him. But like I said I have faith in Bo to put together a good game plan for UM. True Denard does cough up the ball a bit. Live by the sword die by the sword. We have the same problem with Martinez and imho Martinez isn't near the caliber of Denard. Maybe in a year or two he will be, but he's not there yet.

Being a critic of Martinez I agree these types of option offenses play to his strength and to the strength/depth of our RB corp. Also to give Martinez some credit he did start checking down to Rex on pass plays. Something that was completely missed in the Wisc game.

Hemingway is a pretty good receiver and Toussaint is shaping up to be a pretty good back this year. His running gets over shadowed by Denard's yardage but his average is on par with Rex and surpasses Martinez.

Stopping Denard is a lot easier said then done. Lets not forget until Braxton Miller got hurt he ran for 91 yrds and threw for 95 yrds against our D. Personally I think if Miller hadn't been injured we very well could have lost that Ohio St. game. Braxton Miller isn't in the same caliber as Denard either.

The Minn game should be a no brainier for us but keep in mind Michigan held Minn scoreless and then racked up 58 points on them. So the Minn game could be a good litmus test for us in regards to Michigan. Lets also not forget we have to play Michigan St. and Penn St. Michigan St. held Ohio St. to just 10 points so we better show up prepared because we very well could have lost that Ohio St. game if not for some second half heroics by Levonte David, and our O line stepping up and allowing Rex and Martinez to break open some runs. Penn St.'s D is gonna own us plain and simple. The good thing is their offense is rather low scoring. I predict a rather low scoring game that will depend on the foot of Maher to win. Before anyone says well Penn St. hasn't played anyone. Remember they held Alabama to just 27 points. In all honesty Penn St. stayed closer to Alabama then both Arkansas and Florida did. So that's 2 potential losses before we even make it to the Michigan game. The talking heads picked us to win that game early in the season because they expected our D to be on par with it's past performances. Our O has improved slightly from last year but not by much. Our D on the other hand is no where near the level it was last year. Michigan's D on the other hand has improved greatly from it's performance last year. They have held opponents to 10,31,3,7,and 24. Our D on the other hand has been letting opponents like Fresno St. sustain drives. The only opponent Michigan had trouble with on D was Notre Dame. Notre Dame soundly beat Michigan St. It's going to be an interesting game but I don't believe our D as it's playing right now has a chance at stopping Denard Robinson, and our O is going to have to bring it's A game to keep up. Michigan's D isn't playing at the Pop Warner level this year like last year. Their D isn't great but against our offense they don't really have to be. Also this game is going to be played in Ann Arbor. That and I think the B1G teams have some extra incentive in beating the new guy on the block and attempting to put us in our place. I wouldn't be surprised if we walk out of this season with 3 or 4 losses. Wisc, Michigan St., Penn St., and Michigan.

I just read the article's in question here. The Barfnecht article is a bit childish, but he does bring up some very good points in his article. The article by Chatelain is pretty spot on actually and isn't much different then what a lot of fans and Husker Board posters have been saying/posting about Martinez and the couching staff decisions.

I don't think it's the one loss to Wisconsin that is particularly alarming. I assumed the Huskers would lose by 20 in Madison. What is alarming is the play our D has shown in every game since Chattanooga. The offense compared to last year has improved in some aspects but lets face it Martinez is a skilled athlete who doesn't have the exact skill set to be a QB. I would say based on the performance we've seen from the Huskers up to this point we as fans had better start expecting 3 loses this year. Penn State held Alabama to 27 points and scored 11 on their D. The Huskers aren't playing any where near that good when we're letting Washington and Fresno State rack up close to 30 and 40 points on our D. I would expect I serious loss in Happy Valley. Penn States D will shout our offense down and if our D doesn't shape up quick fast and in a hurry I'd expect another 20 point + loss. Then after that we'll be in the Big House trying to stop Denard Robinson. The way the D is playing I would expect Michigan to score close to 50. Michigan's defense isn't the paper wall it was last year. They have actually improved. Michigan was kind of the antithesis of Nebraska last year. We had a stellar defense and absolutely horrible offense. However this year our offense is slightly better (in comparison to last year), but our D is no where to the level they were. Michigan on the other hand still has a stellar O being lead by Robinson and the D has improved greatly from last years pop warner division play. So unless there is great improvement on both sides of the ball ya might as well mark those 2 games as a loss. With Nebraska's current level of play based on our performances starting with Fresno St. onward I would say we are looking at a possible 3 to 4 loss season. Yes we are currently 4-1 but there were plenty of red flags and early warning signs going off well before Wisconsin embarassed us.