everybody knows my name

1 hour ago, runningblind said:

Who hangs presents on the tree?

Evidently, Hüsker Dü.

3 hours ago, brophog said:

I don’t see the point comparing Johnson and JD. They’re both at the “just let me have one” standard. Phenomenal players in their own right.

 

Now, the Nebraska offense was a whole, that’s going to surprise those that aren’t paying attention. It's going to see a proper year 2 jump, and that jumping off point was already regularly producing 500 yard games.

It's impossible for Nebraska's offensive to surprise anyone, with all the yapping you Husker fans do.  We already know that you have a Heisman-quality quarterback and the best WR in the Big Ten!

Just now, BigRedBuster said:

 

This really is something that is a mistake.  90% of the teams out there really have no clue how good their back up QB is.  So, almost nobody has proven depth at QB.

 

BUT....I believe we have as close as you can come to having good depth without actually seeing it on the field.  We have quite possibly the premier QB in the conference starting.  Behind him, we have  true freshman QB that could possibly be as good as our starter was as a Freshman if he's called upon because of injury.  Behind both of those, we have an athletic smart kid that knows the system very well and can be very serviceable.

 

I'm very comfortable with our QB situation and if 2AM goes down, I'm confident we won't see such a big drop off that we will lose a bunch of games because of it.

This is a reach.  If they're unproven, then the only thing you have to hang your hat on is that you think your backups are good.  I could play that game too, but what's the point?  Both teams have backup QBs who the coaches thought enough of to recruit them and offer them scholarships, but who haven't proved a thing on the field.

15 minutes ago, brophog said:

 

That held Iowa and Ohio St to under 3 yards per rush. Some of those kinds of stats between the two DCs has made me very leery of that explanation as I looked at teams this offseason.

Every defense has better games and worse games.  But when you give up  42, 48, 30, 53, 31, and 55 points in consecutive games, it's a trend.

Husker fans seem to think that hanging 53 on the Gophers last year was something great, but two weeks later Illinois scored 55 on us.  Illinois!  No wonder Robb Smith got fired.  Then they gave up 10, 24, 15, and 10 in the remaining four games.  That's a trend, too.

28 minutes ago, Nebfanatic said:

If you think your CBs improved down the stretch and ours didn't you weren't paying attention. One of my many gripes with this list but its the biggest one. Husker corners performed very well in the last 6 games and I expect them to be one of the best duos in the BIG this season.

 

Aside from that, I think teams will be taken by surprise a bit by our team speed this year. I think we will be a fair amount faster than we have been in some time. 

What you need to do then, is provide your own analysis that shows more knowledge of both teams than mine did.

Just now, brophog said:

 

How in the hell did you only win 7 games?

We had a very, very bad defensive coordinator.  We lost major blowouts to Maryland, Nebraska, and Illinois.

1 minute ago, Husker in WI said:

 

Where is Minnesota better other than WR and S? I think this is a case where neither team has a lot of proven players, so each fanbase is going to prefer their own team. We all believe the young players on our own team are going to be great, and we have no idea who the guys on the other teams are outside of past contributors and a few highly touted recruits.

 

I could see an argument for RB, but I'd call that a push at best. Ibrahim obviously had more yards than Washington, but he just had more opportunities. The YPC is similar and receiving definitely in Washington's favor.

 

Minny probab'y has the best individual d-lineman in Coughlin, but outside of Safety I'd still take Nebraska's position groups across the board. You'd probably do the opposite, but then it's not really "no question." I'd actually even take our safeties (I do love Winfield, but he's really the only guy), but I can recognize that's blind optimism more than anything objective.

Offense

QB: edge Nebraska - no question your guy is a weapon, while our guy (Morgan) is functional.  Neither team has great depth.

OL: edge Minnesota - we were okay for half of 2018, then tremendous when Faalele started playing.  Between the two teams I think the three best OL (Connor Olson, Blaise Andries, Daniel Faalale) are all Gophers.

RB: edge Minnesota - Ibrahim exceeded 1000 yards as a freshman, then there's Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks - those three are all killers.

TE: even

WR: edge Minnesota - I like Spielman a lot, but he's only one guy.  You're going to miss Stanley Morgan a lot.  Tyler Johnson is better than Spielman, Rashod Bateman is better than Johnson was at the same point in his career, and Demetrius Douglas and Chris Autman-Bell both have great potential.

Defense

DL: edge Nebraska - but only slightly.  You have better talent overall, while we have the best individual player in Coughlin.

LB: edge Minnesota - our boys are going to excel this year.  Thomas Barber and Kamal Martin are experienced and both will probably see the field in the NFL, and Thomas Rush looks like the next big thing.  Your LB corps is pretty good, could be very good, but not equal to ours in 2019.

CB: edge Minnesota - this wasn't a strength for either team last year, but we cleaned up our schemes and got much better in the last few games.  Your CB performance needs to improve; ours already did.

S: What you said is fair.  Winfield is probably the best Safety in the B1G, but nobody knows it yet.  The balance of this group favors Nebraska, but Winfield is a huge wildcard.  edge Minnesota.

Special Teams

Correct me if I'm wrong, but your kicking game is nothing special and neither is ours.  But we excelled last year in the return game.

2 minutes ago, Nebfanatic said:

Y'all are going to have a great year but I would hesitate to say you are a step ahead. Coaches at least equal we have better QB and better team talent. We are both in year 2 since Fleck needed year 0

When you say you have better team talent you're going by recruiting rankings, not performance on the field.  I think if you stacked them up position-by-position, based on performance, Minnesota comes out on top.  You do have a better QB, though.

13 minutes ago, Nebfanatic said:

The sentence you leave with elipses points ends with "it just seems like a matter of time until the pivot to greatness is made" lol

Yeah, there's no question when you read it that the "but" is going to be that Nebraska is turning it around.  I think that my Gophers are a step ahead of Nebraska in building something special, but we have to work extra hard to stay ahead, because Nebraska is (not this year but maybe next) going to turn the corner and be great soon.

MSN: Nebraska Sucks and Watch Out for Minnesota (or something like that)

"Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska.

The college football world is having a love affair with a team that went 4-8 last season and has massive question marks on defense coming into the season, but..."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafb/college-football-2019-five-dangerous-teams-no-one-is-talking-about/ar-AAFJrar?ocid=ientp

On 8/9/2019 at 11:18 AM, Toe said:

 

If you're not drinking red Kool-Aid, can you really call yourself a Husker fan?

I cannot.

20 hours ago, B.B. Hemingway said:

Maybe it's the kool-aid talking, but if there is one team that could run away with the division, I think it's Nebraska.... I expect it to be a tight race, however.

It's almost always the kool aid talking, but that's okay.  We just drink different colors of kool aid.

3 hours ago, BowedButNotBeaten said:

Yes, Tyler Johnson is an NFL-bound receiver. But in the blowout wins over Purdue, Wisconsin and Georgia Tech, Tanner Morgan threw for 139, 124 and 132 yards.

 

Minnesota became primarily a power running team, and will continue to be that this season.

Needless to say, the goal is to do all things well.  If we don't have a balanced attack this season that'll be a huge disappointment to up-and-coming sophomore receivers Rashod Bateman and Demetrius Douglass.

4 hours ago, BowedButNotBeaten said:

Morgan played really well the last six games of the season, which coincided with the Gopher resurgence. That said, the coaches saw something in Annexstad last year to give him the starting job until he was hurt, and there was a good chance he would have gotten the nod this year as well.

 

Either way, Minnesota is going to primarily be a power running team.

23 minutes ago, Nebfanatic said:

Don't see anything about their defense in this post...Minnesota is returning alot of production on offense, but personally I don't think they went from awful to lights out on D over night like some of their fans like to talk about. Their results at the end of last season are a bit of a mirage to me. They will be tough, don't get me wrong, but I just don't think they have the pieces on defense to stop us effectively.

Of course we can't.  You're Nebraska.  Nobody can stop you.

On 8/2/2019 at 9:06 PM, brophog said:

@everybody knows my name, all fan nonsense aside, what do you think about Minnesota this year? In my opinion, they’re picked far too low (and Iowa too high). Very favorable conference schedule, very soft non-con (Fresno loses a ton) yet basically everyone is picking Minnesota 5th or 6th in the division. I understand some uncertainty at QB, which explains some of that, but not enough in my opinion to so grossly offset the enormous amount of returning production and experience. 

 

 

Trying to be realistic here, not a pollyana...We won 7 last year with a bad DC and a young roster.  Aside from Cashman and the Huff brothers, we have almost everyone back on offense and defense.  Tyler Johnson is #1 or #2 WR in the conference, Rodney Smith is arguably top 3 among RBs.  Carter Coughlin is a monster at DE, and our LBs are stellar.  The OL is gargantuan and rapidly improving.  If Antoine Winfield Jr can stay healthy he'll finally be recognized as the best safety in the B1G.  I guess Annexstad's foot injury means we know who the QB will be.  If we win fewer than 8 this season Fleck should be flogged.  Nine is to be expected and more would be nice.

After trying to tamp down expectations his first two seasons, Fleck is talking the team up now: "I haven't been this excited in a long time."  He knows all this is true.

7 hours ago, BowedButNotBeaten said:

It's simply one of the best, most organic trophies around, and a real callback to the trophy origin stories of old. I love The Chair.

Well I like it, but I don't get quite that excited about it.

Oh, you said organic.  Never mind.

9 minutes ago, MyBloodIsRed16 said:

Thats way better than Purdue and Iowa..two schools I dislike very much..  ever been to Bimidji?

Bemidji is a nice town.  Pretty close (120 miles) to where I live.  Home of the Bemidji State Beavers D1 hockey program.

3 minutes ago, knapplc said:

 

That's crazy. Minnesota Football was one of the biggest powerhouses in the 50s & 60s (off the top of my head, correct those dates if I'm wrong).

 

It's sad what happened to your program. And it's sobering to think that could be where we're headed.

Three national championships in the '30s, two in the '40s, and one in the '60s.  Our last Big Ten title was in '67.  So you're pretty close.

3 minutes ago, teachercd said:

I grew up in Big Ten country with two big ten teams in my state...never once was that jug mentioned.  

That's inexcusable on Minnesota's part.  We should have made that rivalry meaningful, but we couldn't.  For many years starting in the '60s our administration was at war with the athletic department.  We even had presidents who wanted to discontinue athletics altogether.  There's no reason a huge school with gigantic resources should be a 98 lb weakling.  Thankfully we have moved on from that dark period.  But it's taken many years to get back to the point of expecting to win.

Just now, teachercd said:

NU beats Minny:  Husker fans don't really care

Minny beats NU:  Minny fans write down the date/score and have T-shirts printed.

Beating Nebraska is nothing compared to winning the jug.  Tragically we don't get to play for it every year anymore.

13 hours ago, nic said:

I like the smack talk from a Minnesota Gopher fan. In the last 50 years they have won the little brown jug 4 times....and lost it 38 times.

You don't need to concern yourself with someone else's trophy.  Since 2013 Minnesota and Nebraska are 3-3 head to head, smug guy.

55 minutes ago, Nebfanatic said:

Hope you stick around if yours is crow flavored.

I am always around.  If things go badly for the Gophers you can use my pride to light your cigars.  But if the Gophers beat Nebraska, look out.

8 minutes ago, BlitzFirst said:

 

I have high doubts that this will happen.

 

You have a returning stable of backs that got 125 yards vs Nebraska last year...leading rusher 49 yards....with one of our crappiest defenses in the past 10 years.  Let's say your backs get better this year with another year of experience...I'd say our defense will make a similar jump in getting better.  I don't see them gashing us a lot and if you have to focus on passing versus us, you're going to have a rough time against 2 of the top corners in the conference. 

 

Good luck, because you're definitely going to need it to pull of the win.

We didn't run on the Huggies last year because we fell behind early.  Instead we passed, and I think we scored 22 straight on Nebraska, but our defense was a train wreck.  Talented players with no idea what to do.  So we fired our DC, promoted a new DC, and played better defense while running poor Purdue, Wisconsin, and Georgia Tech into the ground.

But the proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating.  We will see what actually happens on the field.

1 minute ago, Undone said:

 

I like your optimism and it's fun banter but it's kind of funny that we were a 4-8 dumpster fire last year but still blew your team out. 

 

I guess we should thank the Huskiers for that.  If we hadn't lost to Nebraska and Illinois in embarrassing fashion we wouldn't have fired our DC and finished strong like we did.