TonyStalloni

I too am in a quandry about this team and possibly this coaching staff. To begin the year our defense had 3 of the top position players in the country and a good number of returning players or players with experience. Those players would get coached up by the Pelini brothers and all would be good in Husker land. Our offense had only Russ Burkhead as a star player plus a few returning starters on the offensive line I don't remember that any of the returning players were even honorable mention All Big 12. In reality our defense has had only one complete game this season. Jared Crick went out in the MSU game (though I think he was seriously hurt 3 or 4 weeks before that). We have one linebacker play well all season though Compton has been better the last few weeks. Dennard was injured early but has come on well the last 4 games. No other D Back has stood out consistently, however Stafford has done some good things. What bothers me about this team, and I see it in all phases of the game, is their apparent confusion on the field. They appear slow getting to the ball on defense, slow getting separation on offense. I can't for the life of me understand why our D backs are unable to cover other teams receivers consistently. Our D Line rarely bothers the passer and he often has 5 to 8 secs to find an open receiver which answers the previous question. If we blitz David then there isn't another sure tackler in the backfield. The only answer I can find is the first 2 years of recruiting when Bo was hired. His first class was just the leftovers of what other schools didn't want. His second class was somewhat better but not outstanding. I hope we have good kids redshirting now that will fill some of the holes we will have next season. Even so they will be green and make freshmen mistakes. Bo seemed to be able to coach up Callahans players but is now playing with his own recruited players. Next year will be telling as to whether Bo can recruit well enough to make Nebraska a good top 20 team and eventually a top 10 team. Right now we don't have the talent and the team does not appear to want to play hard week after week. I hope it happens but I'm not betting the farm.

This is just one of those years when there are 5 or 6 teams with close skill sets. Alabama and LSU have their best athletes on defense. OSU and Oregon have theirs on offense while Oklahoma has a decent mix. A pretty good offense and a good defense. On any given saturday any of those teams could win. I think OSU was reeling from the tragedy that happened with the plane crash. It had to affect their focus and that feeling of invincibility that a good team needs to have. Iowa State gained confidence the longer they stayed in the game and OSU could feel it slipping away. Given 4 weeks to prepare probably LSU could still shut down any of them so what we have is the makings of a low scoring national championship game.

Thats a sad piece of news. My prayers go to the families of the coaches and pilot.

That was one of the best 10 minutes I have spent in months. Great read!

Ditto LadyHawke.

I mostly quit watching NBA basketball 10 years ago. I'll confess I did watch the finals last year but mostly because Dirk N was there. It's not really basketball so much as professional wrestling in a gym. With the non-traveling calls, protection of top level players and strange ref calls at critical points in the game, it's a deal breaker for me.

A willingness to fight at the drop of a hat. Knowing where every camera is in the gym and showboating at every opportunity. Not focusing 100% of the time on the game and more interested in putting on a show. Not basketball players....just athletic actors.

It looks like John Calipari has 5 new freshmen recruits that could compare on the thug scale with the Fab 5 from Michigan. Good....someone for me to cheer against.

Probably because we rarely have more than one solid offensive player on the floor at any one time. The last few years there was only one decent offensive player on the team. Jeter last year and Spencer this year. The other players are serviceable and can have a good stretch occasionally. Besides Spencer, what player on our team would even get a sniff at UNC, Duke, UConn or Kentucky? I see a couple decent recruits have committed for next year so perhaps we're on the upswing at UNL.

I think there may be only 2 or 3 juco's in Nebraska that have basketball programs. Western Nebr Juco has been decent through the years but I doubt there is much if any Division 1 talent year in and year out.

The SC cheerleaders looked fine as always. It was nice to see the Huskers win this game!

I thought you were refering to the good that could come out of the actual tragedy. I do hope our team has learned a lesson in preparedness and does their homework this week.

This. Can we have both? I'd like to have a 9-10 win clean program for most years but every so often win a couple of championships and then choose to remember ourselves as a clean program like we did in the 90's. Exactly! I want to see Bo keep the program clean and make it a place where parents of good/great athletes want to send their kids. There is nothing that says the 20 best kids each year who can keep their nose clean can't enroll at Nebraska. Too often we think the "good" kids aren't competitive or don't have a killer instinct. I give you Rex Burkhead.

Are you equating troublesome 18 year olds to "selling its soul" as a university? LP, P. Christian, T. Farley while ranging in trouble from stupid to what a waste and an embarrassment hardly fit the mold of soul selling to win at all cost. I remember Bo in the first year of his tenure here after several players got into trouble on "O" St declared that the "O" St bars were off limits and anyone caught in those establishments were no longer going to be part of the team. What I am saying is that in the mid 90's for whatever reason players were regularly in trouble with the law for reasons ranging from theft to discharging firearms in a public place. The only thing that moved them off the team was a long stint in jail and a charge with a serious crime. While it wasn't the dumpster fire that Oklahoma was in the 80's, there were times I wondered if our program "sold it's soul".

Maybe my paranoia is showing but did anything happen on the national scale this week that stayed under the radar because all the news was about Penn St?

LaVonte David will have to step up big and limit Robinsons running yardage. We need to make him beat us with his arm. Michigan is beatable.

How many remember the firestorm we had around here in the last years of Dr Toms tenure? The program very nearly sold its soul to acquire the elite athletes needed to win 3 national championships. I won't say there was money under the table or athletes parents were suddenly driving new cars but hardly a month went by when one of our players was in the news and in trouble with the law. I realize many if not most prominant programs are in the same boat and that 18 to 22 year old gravitate to trouble like a bear to honey. We were all 18 once!

What I remember about Ron Browns interview with Stanford was them asking him if he would temper his outspoken attitude and he assured them he would not. They were well within their rights to not hire him, and they did not hire him. Their loss is our gain and I'm thankful he decided to come back on staff after Bo was hired. I can say with certainty if anything corrupt transpired at Nebraska (pray that it doesn't), Ron would be on the front lines to see that it was corrected. He wouldn't sit on it for 10 years and look the other way. I have met him before and don't think there is an ungenuine bone in his body. I also don't think Bo would put up with anything even close to the tragedy at PSU. He has shown a willingness to work with players and coaches who step out of line but if they mess up again or won't change they are done.

I watched some of the Michigan game yesterday and don't think their defense was nearly as impressive as Penn State's. Let's hope Taylor does have a big day both running and passing.

I think most Nebraska (midwest) people would want to follow a program that is run well and clean. If Bo continues to recruit good kids (physically skilled and morally upstanding) and holds them accountable for their actions I'll be happy. I might moan and groan at times but I certainly don't want a win at all costs program like Oklahoma had in the late 70's and 80's.

On that 4th down pitch right call I wanted to see a reverse to one of our speedy wide receivers. I think it might have gone for 10 to 20 yards.

Choi is an anomaly for sure. I doubt the coaches could see he had that much upside when he was asked to walk on. Who knows when the light finally goes on for a player in college football. He played in C1 high school, was just learning the game and can only get better as he gets more experience. He is fun to watch as he blasts D linemen like a bulldozer. I hadn't noticed he was in the game till late and realized why we had more success running over the left side.

As much as I am enjoying this year and the new look offense, I'm not sure this team has one strength it can hang it's hat on and make those tough yards every time. As the Oline improves, and I have seen improvement from last year and quite a bit during the season, we may be able to line up and knock people off the ball. I can see the reasoning for Beck to mix up the play calling and try to keep the D off balence. A better call might have been a play action pass to Reed or Enunwa. Freeze the linebackers and let Reed find a place on the field. He'd been a vaccuum cleaner all day, catching everything thrown his way and Taylor had done a great job hitting receivers. (The passes Taylor missed badly I'm not sure were his fault and could have been the receiver going the wrong way.) Even if the pass missed we still had 3rd down to make the first down and the pass to me would be worth the gamble.

Number 71 was definately a beast. In the first half their Dline owned our Oline. In the second half it was more even. The better runs where Rex was flying through the line was over the left side. I thought Long had a poor day blocking. Several times his block would have sprung the runner for decent yardage. I understand he is inexperienced and before this year was a no name and he will improve with age for next year. Unfortunately a team never improves enough for us fans. We want perfection but with their age and skill level it won't happen anytime soon.

It really depends on how deep the investigation goes and what it uncovers. If there are several levels of guilt and big names are associated I can see the worst happening to the university. What coach would want to take over a program on the wane with all the liabilities involved? I doubt many students would feel good with a degree from PSU if the corruption is widespread. I fear there are sad days ahead for them and it will taint the Big 10 whether we like it or not.