TonyStalloni

Does anyone else have a feeling that this is a weekend most people would not want to be at Penn State and play a football game due to the circumstances there? Talk of the child abuse issue is far overshadowing the actual game. It would be difficult for their players to focus I'm sure and possibly it could filter down to our players. This is a very uncomfortable situation to be in for fans of both teams. My prayers go out to the kids.

Saturday was the first time I've been in Memorial Stadium in about 5 years. I was surprized at the small area of what I'm guessing was the student section. I would say it held no more than 2000 students? This is after all their 4 years of time to spend at college. Students should be able to see the Student/Athletes!

It's a shame his long career will end with this black stain. You are probably right.

The more I read about the situation the sicker I get. I don't understand how any institution could allow one man to be alone with young minors. That is a major no-no in todays world and opens them up to millions of dollars of liability plus the complete ruin of their reputation. The biggest damage is the emotional fallout to 40 some boys who have to live with those thoughts the rest of their lives. I have my doubts PSU can recover from this. I fear the worst is yet to come for their program.

While I somewhat understand Bo's hesitation to use the freshmen in crucial situations for fear of failure, it is disappointing to see how little they are used since burning their redshirts. I see other schools using freshmen RB's and wide receivers quite often. The only way they will redshirt now in the future is if one or more has a serious injury. Abdullah seems to be the first backup. Green and Heard have not been seen for weeks. I'm sure the coaches would like to see them in the weight room for a year. Really it's a shame Heard didn't come in with last years class (10).

You are 100% right in your assessment of Texas and many of their fans. I have visited several Texas football sites and each one is the same in their vitriol for any other team, most of their coaches and many of their players. Scarce few ever see the writing on the wall that they themselves have caused the destruction (partial or otherwise) of two major conferences. I liken them to the beautiful, egomanical woman who uses friends and disses them behind their back and for whom nothing is ever good enough.

For the record I am not on the bandwagon that thinks crowd noise is a major determining factor in the outcome of this game or any game. Players should play the game with pride and effort for themselves, their teammates and their coaches. Maybe it did years ago before teams invented ways to get around it on offense.

Something I think needs to be discussed about fan noise. For the OSU and MSU games I'll bet most in attendance were the owners of the season tickets. I'm sure yesterday probably 50% of the seats were filled by people who were given the tickets and don't go to the stadium on a regular basis. I know the lady behind me had to learn about the game from the young guy sitting next to her. To her it was an event to attend not a chance to get behind a team she loved. Multipy that by 30 to 40 thousand and no wonder crowd noise was down.

The plastic statues who didn't look like the person the statue was made in honor of? I loved their thread about the Oklahoma cheerleader. While it was too personal for my taste several of the posts had me in stitches.

I think that is mostly what has happened with the scholarship limits. Only the teams with large numbers of 4 and 5* recruits near them are getting a team well stocked from year to year on both sides of the ball. The top SEC schools, USC (till they were nailed by the NCAA), Texas, Oklahoma. Boise State is the only aberration in that statement as they have a team full of 2 and 3* guys. They have a system that works for them and a great coach who puts them in the best position to win. Sorry I digress from the OP. Few teams do a good job of stopping a talented running Qb with a good enough arm to be a serious threat throwing the ball. Yesterday I saw the #2 Qb from NW consistently make 5 to 15 yards on our D. They spread out 4 receivers forcing our D to cover outside. Giving him that much room to operate was a killer.

We think we have it bad! Look at the junk happening at PSU this week! As a fan I hate to see such terrible info apparently happen. Great info LadyHawke!

It does puzzle me that for the most part our freshmen fail to get any meaningful minutes at Nebraska. I see them playing and even starting at other universities and doing well. I thought Kain showed good poise and toughness taking over for the starter. He even played wide receiver to start the game didn't he? Our D could have gotten to Persa a few more times during the game. Kain was another story. Wind sprints to the player who hurt Persa's shoulder!

Can LaVonte David consistently make open field tackles if he was installed as the spy? What is our best chance to contain a qb like Michigans Robinson and keep him from killing our D?

By the time I got home from Lincoln the LSU/Alabama game was in the 4th qtr so I didn't get to see much of it. I saw Jefferson make the one good run to the right sideline. Tv games rarely show the whole field so it's hard to see how the defenses cover a good running qb most of the time. Also... finding a high school qb who can run a big time offense....make the necessary passes and hitting receivers on the run plus be able to gain long yardage and first downs running when needed are as hard to find as hens teeth. Otherwise every school would have one.

Teams move in and out of the "elite" category over the decades. Some fall hard upon coaching changes or NCAA infractions. Oklahoma in the 90's comes to mind. Michigan, Florida, Florida State and Miami are others that slipped and are trying to reenter. It is much easier to fall out than get back in. During the Callahan/Petersen years our program nearly went under. Only our reputation in the minds of media and fans kept us in the national picture. I too had hopes that as soon as our offense caught up with our dynamic defenses in Pelini's first few years we'd be well on the way to consistant top 5 finishes in national polls. We've made the jump from a 5-7 team to consistant 9-3 records. I'd say we are in the 3rd tier of college football right now. The step to elite level on par with Alabama and LSU will require better recruiting, better coaching and a lot of good fortune. I'm afraid if we cut our losses now with Bo and staff we'll face the same problems Petersen had in finding a high level replacement. Who wants to take over a program where they fire 9 to 10 win coaches? I'm confident Bo can become a better head coach just like TO did. As much as we like to think TO always fielded dominant teams that was not the case. Yes we always seemed to share the Big 8 Title but in bowl games we often struggled. Of TO's 25 year head coaching career we were in the top tier maybe 7 or 8 of those years. The great 5 year run from 93 to 97 has us blinded to reality. We as Husker Nation will have to support our Huskers the best we can. The flip side has far more serious consequences than holding on to what we have and making it better.

Probably every coaching staff has a somewhat similar set of requirements for players seeing the field. Performance in practice probably being the main reason. I don't think our coaches are playing Thorell and Blatchford because we need to have a certain number of walkons on the field at all times. If we had better 4 year scholarship players on the team I'm sure they would be in the game. I sat in the stands and had the same frustrations as you. I saw Thorell making lots of tackles but mostly because his man was receiving the ball so often. There is a reason opposing coaches pick on the weakest member of another teams secondary. They also picked on C Evans a lot. We trust the players our coaches recruit are quality and play at a high level at all times, but youth and inexperience seem to be hurting us this year.

I am not a football guru nor claim to be. What I have seen with our style of defense and especially yesterday when NW's 2nd Qb came in was his ability to scramble. In man to man coverage our defenders have their backs to the line of scrimmage for the most part. They don't see the Qb till he is 5 to 10 yards past the line of scrimmage. This problem was evident even when Pelini was D coordinator in the 03 season. Do we need to make LaVonte D the spy that always seeks the Qb at the line of scrimmage? I didn't see many blitzs yesterday as I sat in the north end zone. I understand blitzing against a decent running Qb can burn us however. I'm not blaming our coaches as they have forgotten more football knowledge than I know. Do we not execute man to man very well as a team? Our D line doesn't seem to pressure Qb's (the running variety) that much nor do our linebacking corp. I probably worry more about Michigan than I do Penn State.

If we can stretch the field against their defense (something we didn't do well against Northwestern) then we should do well against PSU. Congrats to Taylor M for what was probably his best game since OSU last year. He made good decisions for the most part and I can see him maturing nicely. I'm not sure why Beck didn't try to go deep against NW more often. Perhaps the wind was a factor. We mostly had one on one coverage since they were overplaying the run. The one time I remember going deep we benefitted from pass interference. I don't think PSU's offense is nearly as potent as NW's was. The 2nd Qb they used was able to run effectively against our D when the pass wasn't there. Running Qb's have been the downfall of our defense since Pelini arrived and even in the 03 season when he was D coordinator. From what I have seen and read, PSU has one Qb who is a pocket passer and another who is somewhat effect running. Guess which one we will probably see this saturday!

I'm not sure fans today are much different than fans in the Osborne Era. The difference being we now have social media to vent our frustrations. All the frustrations being expressed today are what was being said in coffee shops and cafes in the state 30 years ago. Instead of Joe and Harold hearing us around the table at the Mom and Pop Cafe we can now have dozens or even thousands read what we have to say. All to often it is the ones who wear their emotions on their sleeve or get their sense of self worth through the game day exploits of 20 year old football players. They make statements they are feeling (rational or not) minutes after the game. Try not to comdemn the whole of Husker Nation over the actions of 10 or 15 posters who may or may not have had a bit too much to drink. The sun will come up today...just an hour later!

This is my first post so I want to wade into the deep water very slowly. I don't attend many home games but was able to be there yesterday. My seat was in the north end zone. Of the three games I've seen in the last 10 years this one had the least amount of noise level (the other 2 were both Texas games so maybe that was understandable). That being said I thought most of the people around me were making noise while Northwestern had the ball. My observation was that maybe the team wasn't the only ones emotionally spent from the last 2 home games. I think OSU and MSU took a lot out of this team and this crowd. Players are taught, though not always successfully, to try to overcome negative emotions on the field and not let the previous play affect affect the next play. Probably fewer than 20% of fans have ever played in a real football game. They see the game like a movie, where you can let your emotions run the gamut from elation to extreme frustration. When a few bad things happen, fans too often let the fear of being let down again affect their decibel level.