Mavric

Just now noticed that Freedom was our second-leading tackler on Saturday with six including five solo stops. I knew he had our only sack. Not saying one game means he's the answer but consider the following: Six tackles per game would extrapolate out to 78 tackles over a 13 game season. 78 tackles last year would have been the third-most on the team. Two years ago, Randy Gregory had 66 tackles. 78 tackles would be the most by a Nebraska defensive lineman since Suh had 85 in 2009. Now, I'm not by any stretch trying to compare Freedom to Gregory or Suh. And it's pretty unlikely he'll get that many tackles this year. But it does show two things. Even getting a modicum of production from a defensive end is actually a pretty good contribution. And it's at least promising that we have a redshirt freshman that is getting out there and putting some production on the field. Freedom has the frame and the talent to be a productive DE. He's pretty raw but that means there's room for improvement. And our defense could definitely use some more games like that.

So, I'm guessing academics won't be an issue.

Player: Stuart Head Hometown: Woodstock, Georgia School: Etowah Position: Safety Height: 6-4 Weight: 190 40 time: Offers: California, Clemson, Duke, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Nebraska, North Carolina, Stanford, Vanderbilt Visits: Twitter 247 Composite: #49 S; .8444; Rivals: 247: Scout: ESPN: Hudl

Yeah, I'd say it's 4% or less after all the finagling but the current team is actually the one with the lower percentage. Basically a wash which probably means there's nothing to that argument. Pretty sure Nyatawa is right. I think 13 redshirting freshmen got left at home plus, when you're including former walk-ons, that's 8 more scholarships plus any injuries that got left home. That only leaves 64 minus the injuries so there's going to be a chunk of walk-ons that make the trip in any year. Perhaps you could say we have too many former walk-ons on scholarship but we always have some. Maybe not quite that many but probably never 0.

I wasn't sure which thread to put this in but I put it here as I was comparing to the 2008 class. It might have been better placed in the thread about the current talent. But I think it shows at the least judging by how many walk-ons are playing probably isn't that big of a deal, right? And I think the top end of the 2008 roster was more talented - for sure on defense, not convinced on offense - but we don't appear to have much more depth if you're judging by the walk-on metric. And several of those scholarship players listed above were probably not any more talented than the walk-ons. I don't even remember hearing a bunch of those names and they were pretty low-rated coming out of high school. I guess signing big classes really only helps if you're actually getting quality kids with those extra numbers. Simply filling out a class with whoever you can get probably isn't that helpful.

Huskers.com A quick count - and anyone please fill in the gaps - gives me Cassidy, Hays, Lawson, Wesch, Grove, Wortman, Burkes (?), Cammack and Henery. I don't think Teafatiller was a walk-on but he doesn't show up on Rivals or 247 so I'm not sure. Leaving him out, that would be 9 out of 31 or 29%. Edit: To be fair, two of those are kickers so you could argue that 7 out of 29 would be a better number to look at which would be 24% That's not the full participation report for the 2008 Texas Tech game. Todd Peterson isn't listed and he caught a TD with 29 second to go to send it into overtime. Nate Swift caught five passes for 70 yards and he's not listed. Here's the actual participation report for 2008 Texas Tech: Nebraska POS ## OFFENSE X 87 Swift, Nate QB 12 Ganz, Joe TE 44 McNeill, Mike Z 17 Peterson, Todd LT 65 Smith, Mike LG 68 Williams, Keith C 67 Hickman, Jacob RG 70 Slauson, Matt RT 76 Murtha, Lydon R 18 Holt, Menelik I 5 Lucky, Marlon POS ## DEFENSE LE 98 Potter, Zach NT 93 Suh, Ndamukong DT 43 Steinkuhler, Ty RE 95 Allen, Pierre RC 5 Lucky, Marlon DB 23 Thorell, Lance MIKE 35 Holt, Matt DB 28 Hagg, Eric LC 6 Murillo, A. SS 4 Asante, Larry FS 33 O'Hanlon, Matt Other contributors: 1-Brooks, Chris, 3-Thenarse, R., 5A-West, Anthony, 7-Washington, L., 8-Cassidy, Austin, 10-Helu Jr., Roy, 11-Gilleylen, C., 15-Dennard, A., 19-Castille, Q., 20-Kunalic, Adi, 21-Amukamara, P., 22-Wald, Mason, 24-Paul, Niles, 25-Reed, Kyler, 30-Hays, Mike, 34-Glenn, Cody, 36-Lawson, Thomas, 37-Wesch, Jake, 40-Lawrence, Blake, 41-Grove, Thomas, 49-Young, Dreu, 52-Dillard, P., 53-Wortman, Tyler, 56-Barfield, S., 61-Huff, Mike, 72-Burkes, J., 78-Jones, Marcel, 80-Hill, Ryan, 82-Cammack, Wes, 88-Sievers, C., 89-Teafatiller, H., 90-Henery, Alex. That's 54 guys, not 31. Nine out of 54 is 17%. Thanks. I thought that seemed short but didn't look enough to see why. I see now those are the extra participants in addition to the starters. But Peterson, Thorell and Holt were all walk-ons as well. So it's 13 out of 54 for 24%

Knapp asked McKewon on Twitter about the number of current and former (now on scholarship) walk-ons on the travel roster and participation report for Miami. He had it at 33% of the travel roster (24/79) - which is closer to 30% but who's counting - and 20% of the participants (10/51). I don't know where to find a travel roster but here's the participation report from the first road game (Texas Tech) in 2008. Huskers.com A quick count - and anyone please fill in the gaps - gives me Cassidy, Hays, Lawson, Wesch, Grove, Wortman, Burkes (?), Cammack and Henery. I don't think Teafatiller was a walk-on but he doesn't show up on Rivals or 247 so I'm not sure. Leaving him out, that would be 9 out of 31 or 29%. Edit: To be fair, two of those are kickers so you could argue that 7 out of 29 would be a better number to look at which would be 24%

On this one, did the Miami WR check with the line judge? That's basic football. Agree with that. Most of these are easily preventable. But I didn't ever see him check. In the first one I posted, we were confused about how to line up. Reilly steps up at the last second and kind of puts his hand out like he's trying to check with the official but he never turns his head to see if the official says he's OK or not.

Here are the remaining formation penalties from the Miami game: Miami's WR at the bottom is clearly not on the line. From our kickoff - we have at least three guys who are not touching the 30 like they're supposed to. One guy is over a yard too far back. This is similar to the one on Gates. You can call it a little nit-picky but the right tackle is quite a ways back. The top two Miami players both look to be off the line. Miami only has 10 guys on the field for this play - they're missing their right TE.

They are getting called more in our games, perhaps. I don't see any difference in the calls in our games this year compared to watching other games over the last few years. And the Gates one is the only once that's nit-picky. All the others - on the Huskers and opponents - aren't even close. The receiver who was supposed to be on the line clearly wasn't. The other one we got called for I could see myself before the snap. Maybe we're not as good at lining up correctly as we've been in the past. There were five or six called in the BYU game alone, about equally between us & BYU. I remarked about it in the stands, how the refs could, apparently, see too many men in the backfield but they couldn't see a targeting hit or late hits out of bounds. Maybe I'm just sensitive to it now after that game. Here is one of the other Illegal Formation calls from the Miami game. We clearly do not have a WR on the line on the right side of the formation. It was the same way for BYU. So there may be more being called. But the assumption seems to be that the refs are just calling it more. It seems to me that we just aren't as good at getting lined up in the correct formation.

If it turns out he has a head injury, then sure. But if he was medically OK, there's no reason not to play him. Not understanding the disappointment. Problem is you can't know if he was medically OK right after the hit. Here is what I know from watching TV. BR takes a helmet to helmet hit. Wobbles a bit and can't make it off the field. Is back on the field 2 plays later. I have a lot of questions. Was his given a concussion test? Is 2 plays even enough time to go through a concussion test? Did the trainer just ask "you ok"? This is 2015. When it comes to head injuries, teams need to start being proactive instead of reactive. I agree. It definitely looked more like a head injury both from where he was hit and how his head snapped around. But now that I watch it again, he may have gotten a shoulder to the chest as well. He didn't look to dazed on the sideline with his helmet off so maybe he got lucky.

About firing Banker.... Nebraska held Miami to 19 points after Davie was benched. How was this not the proper defensive adjustment that should cost a D-Coordinator his job? Unless you fire him for making the decision 3 series too late? When was Davie pulled? Did it coincide with Al Golden going full-Golden? Oh. Okay. So even when Banker makes a coaching decision it's just because the other coach f'd everything up. You win, I don't think it can really be argued that Miami's game plan changed significantly after they scored on the first possession of the second half. That was well after Davie got pulled but their entire demeanor changed then if not earlier. They were taking their time calling and running plays and - I'm pretty sure - weren't taking near the number of shots down the field. So, yes, pulling Davie was an adjustment. But that wasn't the only reason we played better after that point. We got some help. And when you consider Banker's comments from last week - that they could have given him more help but didn't - I think it's fair to ask why we still weren't giving more help.

3 games 5 Qb's. 2 for BYU 2 for S. Bama and Felicia for Da U. If I remember right the 2nd team Qb came in for S. Bama and completed a long strike on Davie as well. Then they pulled him. Yep, you're right.

Not necessarily playing like the top unit in the nation. We are as "talented" and athletic as anyone we'll play. I don't know what "most" is - Top 25 at least. Being the most athletic doesn't make you the best. But we are athletic. Banderas ran all but step-for-step with USC's blazing WR in the Holiday bowl. Young's numbers from one of the Nike Combines last summer would have mostly been Top 10 among LBs at the NFL Combine. We are definitely athletic. That needs to translate to the field but we're not lacking for athletes there. We just haven't gotten to see much of our LBs yet because no one runs against us and our scheme has rendered the LBs basically useless in pass coverage.

They are getting called more in our games, perhaps. I don't see any difference in the calls in our games this year compared to watching other games over the last few years. And the Gates one is the only once that's nit-picky. All the others - on the Huskers and opponents - aren't even close. The receiver who was supposed to be on the line clearly wasn't. The other one we got called for I could see myself before the snap. Maybe we're not as good at lining up correctly as we've been in the past.

And another good stat on us running the ball. OWH Opponents have something to do with this but the complaints about our running game struggling are exaggerated. For the year last year we averaged 5.3 ypc.

Here's a stat that shows that - for whatever reason - teams really aren't even trying to run on us. At the very least, they haven't had to try. OWH

Sorry that this is off topic but it's from the same article. I don't get why everyone (and by everyone, I'm mostly talking about Nebraska media guys) is so hung up on the alignment penalties. They're acting like they've never seen it called before. Link This literally gets called a couple times in almost every game you watch and has for years. It was called a few times in the BYU game and "everyone" was asking if the refs were being picky but when you actually look at it, they were totally legit - receivers not even close to being on the line. I admit that the call on Gates was nit-picky but that gets called with enough frequency that people shouldn't be hung up about it. Tackles try to cheat back as much as they can for pass protection and sometimes they cheat a little too much.