'SkersRule

Actually the Vegas lines moves up or down to ensure relatively equal betting on both sides so that no matter which team loses the "house" always wins. Which means that if a bunch of Husker fans are placing bets on a 4.5 spread it goes up to get people to place bets on UCLA.

Say what? Zach Weigert, even back in the mid 90's, was 6'4" and 300 pounds. Adam Treu was 6'5" and like 310 by the time he graduated. I could go down the roster from the 90's and point out countless players, who even when measured against today's OL, would be just as big, fast, and strong as what we have today. The rest of the country may have caught up from a strength and conditioning point of view but we still have enough 6'3" to 6'4" kids in state that could absolutely grow into OL just like we used to do in the 70's, 80's and 90's.

This kid is a DE in high school but is absolutely a DT in college. I've seen cakes rise faster than he runs.

So why can't we do that any more? It's something that still works we just don't do it anymore. And just to clarify: I think that Bo and the rest of Nebraska coaches do work incredibly hard at national recruiting. I just think they've neglected and taken for granted the in-state kids-but that's strictly my opinion.

Yeah I know...it's a long holiday weekend...just have some fun with this.

Put a C-note on the Huskers for me to win the NC...I'm good for it...I swear.

The difference is that in conference only Michigan, Northwestern, and Ohio State have agile and mobile QBs that would need this type of defense. And in reality, those teams I mentioned, they already run mostly 10 and 11 personnel. Ohio State can still run 22 and 23 personnel but that is pretty rare any more. The rest of the teams on our present schedule employ mostly pocket passers who aren't a threat to take off and run.

A four and a half point spread? If we don't surpass that by at least sevenfold it'll be the most grotesque display of ugliness the world has ever witnessed...kinda like when I found out I was taking Meg Griffin to prom.

I want to be clear about one thing: I am not suggesting we offer scholarships to in-state players simply for the sake of it.

I think we've found our next QB recruit! http://sports.yahoo....-145248655.html Discuss. I'm sure Barney Cotton is in charge of recruiting.

I honestly don't know. I think our coaches, to some degree, take for granted that in-state kids will just walk-on. I understand that in terms of in-state players we're not going to have elite QB, RB, WR, LB, and DBs every year. But when it comes to positions like OL and FBs, surely we have at the minimum 3-5 players in-state every year to play along the OL. Maybe I'm completely off base here, but I don't think our coaches do enough to find capable in-state kids.

Those lines are from the movie, "Oh Brother Where Art Thou." Nicely done.

lo, It should be noted that DeMorrio was initally a safety who was moved to LB. I think that to get the fastest, most athletic defense possible on the field that Nebraska needs to switch players to other positions as soon as they arrive on campus and then keep them there. For example, DE Greg McMullen to DT and let him grow into a 320-330 pound run stuffing DT. Taking safeties Cooper and Stafford and making them LBs. Converting guys like Ciante and Andrew to safety. The whole point is to make the defense as fast and athletic as possible and clearly Bo isn't maximizing the potential--I think.

Are you sure you aren't confusing Compton with Whaley? I'm holding out hope that Whaley shows improvement and gets better as the season progresses but in the first game he was terrible in pass coverage and missed several tackles.

I think we tend to get pushed around on the DL because we have a LT pretending to be a DT. But also with just two DTs in a 4-3 set, the interior OL can usually double team both the DTs. But you insert a 3rd DT, and have them play a zero technique, it makes it literally impossible for the OL to double team any of the DTs. And you put our DTs in one on one matchups and I really like our chances.

Our offense cranked out 632 total yards while our defense gave up a grand total of 260 yards and 13 points. So "we" don't suck. You on the other hand..... That was the beer talking.. forgive me. Defensive front was my biggest concern coming into the season and will continue to be. People got real high on camstache early on. The more i watch him, the more i think he was mainly an afterthought for opponents whose main concern rhymed blendomaken. Oh it's all good dude. We all at some point have let alcohol override our judgement and posted something where we overstate something. And you are perfectly within the parameters of reason to express concerns about our defense in particularly the front four. While we only gave up 260 yards in total, we did give up 185 on the ground. That is definitely a cause for concern. If that rushing per game allowed drops to about 100 or less per game then we will have an outstanding defense. If it stays in the 170-200 range we could still have a great year but our defense will get abused.

Offense is much improved I agree. However, our defense gave up 13 points defensively and 260 total yards yesterday. By comparison we gave up 230 yards to Tennessee-Chatt in our first game. So while one strictly looks at the raw numbers it would appear that we are worse. However, Southern Miss is way better, faster, and more athletic on both sides of the ball than a school like Tenn Chat could ever hope to be. UCLA will be a good test to see if in fact we are better, the same, or god forbid worse defensively.

That doesn't work because there's not enough beef on the DL to defend the zone read. That's why you need those 3 DTs inside. Those DTs stuff the inside running game (hopefully) and the DEs set the contain edge and the LBs clean up. I think my defense would work, maybe.

About the only thing I really disagree with is your grade of the special teams. Yes Maher missed two FG's and we gave up a kick-off for a TD. But Maher did make seven extra points and aside from that one kick-off return our coverage (on punts as well) was solid. Overall, I'd grade the special teams as a C. You forgot a shanked punt and a shanked kickoff. The special teams units aren't on the field long enough to have that many blunders in one game. Anything above an 'F' seems disingenuous. Maher was Mr. Reliability last season, I expect him to shake off Saturday and have a decent season though. An F seems to be unnecessarily harsh and overly critical.

I concur.

Well according to Kenny Bell he is supposed to one of the fastest guys on the team. A walk-on being the fastest-I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

About the only thing I really disagree with is your grade of the special teams. Yes Maher missed two FG's and we gave up a kick-off for a TD. But Maher did make seven extra points and aside from that one kick-off return our coverage (on punts as well) was solid. Overall, I'd grade the special teams as a C.

With all the talk about what Southern Miss did and the natural concerns about facing Braxton Miller, Dennard Robinson, Cain Colter, etc I've been thinking about how I would defend these guys if I was NU's DC. Here's what I would do: I'd run a variation of Buddy Ryan's 46 defense. I'd run a scheme with 3 DTs, two DEs, one or two LBs, and four or five (depending on the down/distance/scenario). The three DTs would be placed head up, or a zero technique, over both guards and the center. The two DEs would be widened out to set the containment edge. The LBs would be charged with running sideline to sideline to defend the running game. The four or five DBs would have one responsibility-to cover their guy and do not let him get open In summary, the front six or seven would stuff the run and apply pressure in passing situations and the back four or five would cover. And oh, my DBs would be up on line playing tight press coverage. None of this off playing 10 yards off the line of scrimmage crap. Thoughts?

You do realize that Southern Miss: a) Had a grand total of 260 offensive yards, b) Scored 13 points on offense, c)Had a brand new coaching staff and Nebraska had absolutely no film to study to learn any of their tendencies, d) Kept switching QB's each of whom had a different skill set, and e) Is a solid team that always plays hard for 4 quarters? Of course you do, what am I thinking? I'm more concerned with the lack of fundamentals I witnessed. Poor/miss tackling, lack of intensity. That's what concerns me. That front four looked just like last year and last year we were burned quite a few times. That was something we all hoped would have been addressed and seen a marked improvement this year. I guess I/we were wrong. Alford is a good QB who will only get better. But Braxton is going to torch that front line when head to the Shoe. So will Robinson when Michigan comes to town. Stay in the nickel and dime and tell Ciante to follow Braxton/Dennard follow them wherever they go. I think we will be ok.Not saying we will win for sure, but we have a chance. Actually against QB's like Braxton Miller and Dennard Robinson Buddy Ryan's famed 46 defense is the best front / scheme to use.

Not really. I like Baker Steinkuhler but he is not, repeat not, a DT. He is, or at the least could have been, a franchise worthy, 1st round draft pick, and consensus all-american at LT. Instead, he opted to play DT and he'll be lucky if he's drafted in the 4th round. We currently have slightly above average talent at DT and terrible talent at DE. I love Bo but his ability to target athletic DL is woefully inadequate. Now that being said, both Curry and Moss (true freshman DT and DE respectively) played yesterday so maybe that's a positive sign that we're slowly getting better talent for our interior DL.