Husker 93

This is Turner's second spring which I think is overlooked by some, and will be huge....I really think the light turns on soon for him...I know he sits behind a hard working senior but I am hoping Turner really busts his butt in practice to earn the playing time, if he does our offense will definitely be more dangerous!!

Yes I believe those were post season rankings, and I think other than the OL.....pretty accurate.

The size of our LB's were not the problem for our defense last year, David was a Stud. The issues.....The secondary was way behind the previous senior laden secondary......We had two inexperienced CB, and one talented, albeit gimpy CB, who only played at 100% or close to it, late in the season. Green came along great, and SJB showed excellent promise, but replacing Gomes, Haag, and Amukumara was not going to be an easy task and it wasn't. Having said that...... Fischer, is NOT the answer at LB.....I was and will continue to be one of his biggest critics, he looked bad last spring and he looked equally bad this past season. I was ecstatic to see Whaley FINALLY see playing time. At LB I also really like Compton, and I feel an average LB could come in and outperform Fischer on his best day. I am hoping Pelini is not too stubborn to let us see the best athletes see the field at LB this season, if they do we won't miss David as much as we missed the trio of secondary guys we lost the year before...if Bo goes with the safe senior route at WILL his seat gets much, much hotter. The Biggest issue was the defensive line ..................This group was EASILY the biggest letdown of 2011, and injuries played a role.....but what a letdown it was, as I watched Fresno State manhandle Crick play after play I realized he probably was injured more severely than led on in the Fall....and later he was out for the season on an injury that probably occurred before the season started IMO. The DE play was so subpar for a Nebraska defense that it absolutely provided no threat at ALL for a pass rush or any sort of containment. The Two Gap is great when you have dominant players...in 2011 our best lineman and only potential dominating lineman was not 100%, while others were good (Stein, Meredith), alas not great. IMO if we don't see a BIG improvement in our pass rush in 2012 you can bet on 5 losses. The good news is IMO it can't get much worse. Lastly down the road I would like to see some 3-4 being employed with three Big Lineman, two David type OLB, and two Compton type Middle backers. Either that or we need to get back to going with smaller DE's who can actually run down a QB.

The two most important traits we need for a replacement is 1.....we need a good recruiter....secondly we need a good communicator, which is what makes these guys good recruiters.....Minter would be a good option....IMO

Oh, yes. Many people do. They are still the minority, but they are serious, and some of them are quite vocal. Bo is not everyone's cup of tea. Some folks really, really do not like him. Some of those people have a lot of money and even get honored at halftime of Spring games for their huge donations....

Iowa not only loses Coker, but also their top backup at RB(McCall) along with Rief coming out early.....even though it is in iowa City...I would say we will have a tougher time with PSU and NW as well. Iowa's offense next year could be in BIG trouble. So maybe 8th is the correct spot for them with UCLA also presenting a better challenge.

You're right, however if we had their DL and they had ours we win IMO. Just my .02.

I understand our two gap assignment ...however once 4 or 5 seconds have ticked off and our DL are still locked onto the opponents OL there is a problem...sadly I am not exaggerating. Blocks need to be shed for the two gap to work...neither gap can be handled if you don't win at the point of attack, and we are so slow at DE that the contanment on the edge is never held. Also in Pelini's scheme with 7 guys often in coverage there are no LB's to knife in, they are out of position at the second level covering, and mobile QB's and opposing coaches scheme to exploit this against us...... We just do not have the athletes on the DL to run this type of scheme against a mobile QB, if we depend on just our front four to contain the QB, they better be guys who can run and change direction fairly well right now our DE are not that type of athlete. Bo was 0-4 this year against mobile QB's and will continue to look foolish defending it like he has. The two gap scheme works great when you have Suh, or a healthy Crick, Barry Turner, Pierre Allen, etc...not with the talent in 2011. None of our current DE are up to the standards needed, this has to be fixed by recruiting or by slimming down our current DE and changing the scheme.

If anyone wants to see some issues with our team's performance compare those two units...If not for David's ability to knife thru and make plays.....I would take every Big 10 DL over ours, every single one we played, with the exception of Minnesota's...pathetic. I have to say that I am so looking forward to our safety play next year since the only options appear to be good athletes. I also won't miss a certain senior WR who dropped more passes than he caught...Bell, Turner, and hopefully Westercamp could finally be a trio that would make defenses respect our passing game. We were young at key positions, and our seniors with the exception of David and Dennard for four of five games, did little for this team....Next year's senior class needs to have a bigger impact for us to make a run at any championship, and I think we do have better class in 2012. Our DL was a total joke this season...I hope to God that Kaz isn't just a whipping boy for Pelini to control....as we need someone to "teach" these guys how to get off blocks and get pressure on the QB. We might be one of the worst teams in the country at rushing the passer with our front 4. Next year is going to be interesting...Martinez will have more weapons with experience, and we should have a decent OL as well. Recruiting is the key.....focus on that guys...the finish is pivotal and we sure didn't scare off recruits thinking they have no chance to play... GO BIG RED!!!