4skers89

Kids that think a coach (that could lose a million dollar paycheck) won't do whatever it takes to win are delusional. The coach will and should bench players if they aren't performing. After last week's performance, these changes shouldn't be unexpected. They need to hike up their black skirts and get to work. After all of this offseason noise about family, unity, blah blah, I'm starting to wonder if Bo isn't coddling these guys too much. The coaches need to provide direct feedback during the game when they screw up. If they are changing starters it shouldn't be via posting of the depth chart. They should be straight up and tell them one on one that they aren't happy with their performance and are starting another player. If the player has a problem with it they should argue the decision at that time. The coaches can play the game tape and objectively show them where they failed and what was expected of them. If they agree they'll stay and work harder. If they still disagree and feel they would be better off elsewhere, they can quit. The decision to bench someone should be explained clearly and I hope Bo and his staff are doing this. Someone mentioned watching Chase in the first half of the game and he looked fat and ineffective. I remember an article about Chase and how he was trying to gain weight by eating a lot. That's not how to put on what God left off. You've got to have the correct frame and put on muscle mass which takes years. Wisconsin O-line and Bama D-line player are large muscular dudes that carry their weight well and look athletic. Reminds me a lot of our teams from years past. Our current linemen look flabby. Unless they are freaks of nature, I'm skeptical that freshmen or sophomores (18-19 y.o.) are ready to play. It takes a while to put on the correct weight.

Last year it seemed like our mush rush would leave gaps and the QB would just run through it. One thing I've seen good DE's do is push the pocket on the edge just enough to seal off the outside. When the QB runs to the gap, the DE is able to spin back to the inside and tackle them from behind before he can take off. I think it is just a matter of technique using leverage and shifting their weight properly. It looks like they are strong enough to push the pocket but are out of position. The o-lineman will let them push too far so the DE is too far upfield. If he tries to spin back, he'll be a yard or so away from making the tackle. It appears that the DE did his job since he didn't lose outside containment but in reality his responsibility is also to make it difficult to go to the inside. I don't know what is going on with the DT's but I'm starting to appreciate what a beast like Suh can provide. We're probably just lacking size, strength and athleticism at the DT position. Someone commented that we looked smaller and slower than UCLA in the game thread. I had the same thought. In general when pass rushing, shouldn't the strategy be to shed blocks? If you're tied up with an o-lineman you aren't going to tackle anyone. I was trying to figure out if that is how our defense is designed such that the D-line is supposed to occupy the o-line and the linebackers are responsible for tackling an escaping quarterback (or a rb draw play). If that is how it's designed, I can see the problem. A quarterback like Robinson or Miller is going to start with 3 - 5 yards separation when he escapes the pocket and can easily juke to elude a slower linebacker. If a DT gets an o-lineman off balance and leaves him behind, it's not like the o-lineman is going to block a linebacker and prevent him from making a tackle. I don't see our d-line doing this. Meredith should cut his hair or get a better fitting helmet. He's constantly pushing it back up because it's getting pushed down over his eyes. There's probably a reason old-time coaches insisted their players be clean cut.

I think he was more tentative than slow. He'll hit the holes faster with experience. I didn't see the whole game but the holes weren't always there but he still gained yards. I thought he played well from what I saw. Announcers said he did 41 pull ups. Impressive arm strength so he should be able to hold onto the ball.

I was thinking exactly the same thing about their defense. Like the 90's blackshirts, they are physical, aggressive, talented and seemed to be playing with 12 men. They were always in position to make a play. Well coached team. Their offense is impressive too. Nothing complicated, just sound blocking and moving the ball at will. They were getting 8 yards by running straight up the middle. They manhandled a good Michigan team tonight. I will be surprised if they lose a game this year.

The temptation to watch a game in the shoe will be too much. I'll probably decide last minute like last year with Michigan and Wiscy and drive down from chi-town. OSU can't be worse than those games, right? I stayed in Dublin when travelling for business and thought it was a nice area. Not too far away from cornfields so i felt at home

Helu running loose reminded me of watching teams from the '80s. Very good defensive performance. However, did anyone else think that Gabbert scrambled for a lot of yards? He was often sacked or stopped for short yardage but he had a couple of long runs and made some critical first downs. It was almost like a preview of '11. Maybe I'm just overcritical but I'd like to see improvement in this area.

Honey Badger don't care http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8255988/lsu-tyrann-mathieu-kicked-team-violating-rules

If I was a PSU player trying to leave Creepy Valley I would be annoyed at PSU. First the coach tells you that the NCAA cannot impose sanctions since there were no rules broken. Then the Freeh report that was commissioned by the BOT takes 7 months to compile their report. I wonder if the NCAA had to pressure PSU to release it before the season started. I know they looked through a lot of documents and interviewed a lot of people so 7 months might be reasonable but you have to think that PSU would have preferred the report to be released after the season started. Once released, the NCAA acts promptly, imposes sanctions and you find out that they made transfer easy. But there isn't a lot of time to evaluate options and make your escape. Practice starts Monday and if you attend you are locked in for the season. Your coach is saying that he wants players to be "all in". I am assuming that means if you don't show up for practice he'll kick you off the team. Kind of a big decision on your football and academic future in a short amount of time.

Have we really not talked this to death enough that we have to talk about hypotheticals that didn't happen and won't happen? Apparently the BOT hasn't finished talking about it. http://www.usatoday....cree/56485674/1 They're what?... they wouldn't...could they?... maybe they will We might find out how the B1G will react.

I would make the phone call. Because we can promise him the opportunity to play in bowl games. Seems like the humane thing to do.

I thought this was interesting: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/penn-state-football-goes-damage-224229589--ncaaf.html Players such as incoming freshman offensive lineman Anthony Stanko from Warren, Ohio, can transfer out with no restrictions at any time during their careers. Stanko's mother, Julie, said the family was shocked by the NCAA's decision to sanction the program. ''We feel that the players and current coaching staff had nothing to do with the situation,'' she said. ''We came to try to be in a healing era for Penn State and all its victims, and I feel as a parent that my son is being punished for the ignorance of others.'' PSU really must have sold these recruits and parents on the idea that there would be no NCAA sanctions. She is right, her son is being punished for HER ignorance. They came a little early. The healing might start sometime in 2017... 2018... OK... 2019.

Some of the chuckleheads are no longer going to support PSU. NCAAs corrective measures are already working - FACT http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=157&f=1395&t=9166693

Whatever it ends up being, I seriously doubt there will be any Goldilocks endorsements. It will either be too lenient or too harsh, I have a feeling no one will say "this one is just right." Count me in the too lenient. I was thinking something more like this as appropriate: 1. 2 year TV ban 2. 5 year postseason & bowl ban 3. loss of 10 scholarships for 14 years 4. 10 year probation. 5. Vacating last years wins - Give the record back to Robinson Oher thoughts: Should be interesting to see how the B1G reacts to the sanctions. If PSU is no longer a revenue generator will that be what motivates the B1G to cut ties? It doesn't seem like what PSU perpetrated was enough to consider expelling them. NCAA is not acting too fast. This has been going on since November. Will PSU fans still want to donate football profits to charities after the NCAA sanctions don't require it? Paterno family statements are just getting more absurd. Shouldn't expect anything else from a family who's head was a pedo enabler. I need to turn off TV if BTN is going to repeat their special presentation. I could watch the statue come down all day and it wouldn't get old.

It sounds like he is OK when not playing football. He can still workout. UWBadgers has a better article explaining the injury. http://www.uwbadgers.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/072012aaa.html It's funny how some players suffer concussions and migraines and others don't. Just luck or something to do with a person's brain anatomy? Glad we have the research facilities to look into this. Kaz should re-examine his technique that he's teaching. Given how strong these players are, they can generate a hell of a lot of force. If the main point of contact is the head and absorbs a lot of the impact energy, I don't think any kind of helmet can adequately protect the brain. Don't want to be losing DT/Es to injury or have them suffer long term damage!

That's really dumb. Making contact with the head, hello concussion and more head injuries. Also, allowing a OL to get into your body makes it easier for them to hold you and get away with it. Our DL should be firing off the ball and using their hands to keep blockers off of them. It's no wonder our DL essentially sucked last season. I don't think our DL did that last year. Also, if that technique worked for the likes of Clayborn and Klug, I'm game to give it a shot. I'm not sure how many concussions and head injuries those guys got from doing it. Kid has a good attitude about the situation. May not be a wise technique. http://www.uwbadgers.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/072012aaa.html Cognizant that there has been an heightened awareness to head injuries in football at all levels, Kohout said, “I’d have a migraine and we’d kind of wonder if it was concussion-related.’’ It’s pretty difficult to ignore head contact on the line of scrimmage, he acknowledged. “Playing D-tackle, you’re hitting a big dude every single play,’’ Kohout said. “You’re getting your hands on somebody and you’re bringing your head in there a lot of times. “It was always something I did to gain extra pop; maybe I shouldn’t have, but that’s just the way I’ve always done it. Extend your hands out and pop with your head; every single play usually.’’

I stopped for gas in Iowa along I-80 somewhere between Des Moines and Omaha. The station had a lot school related stuff for sale like coffee mugs, t-shirts ...etc. They probably had a 5' wide section of shelves for Hawkeye stuff, an equally amount of shelving for Husker stuff and a much smaller section for Cyclone stuff. I was suprised since I really wasn't that close to the Nebraska border.

True that, this is the moment for the NCAA, will they be a weak excuse for a governing body or actually step up and do their job. It is a sad story but shouldn't be ignored. Fans should question whether their own programs are governed properly to ensure that coverups can not be perpetrated. Question the wisdom in building a statue of a coach to worship at. I read that OSU's board did not let their team go to the Rose Bowl back in the 60s because football was detracting from the true mission of the university-academics. When did football programs begin to run universities? Fans and alums need to insist that the power structure at their schools is not out of whack. Such changes make it unlikely something like this will happen again. We need to examine the scandal and learn from it. The story is a football scandal and fans should feel outraged toward this injustice in our world of football. The NCAA is there to right the wrongs and maintain the integrity of college athletics. It really doesn't matter if specific rules were broken. If I was a PSU fan (in some backwards demented world) I would be thrilled with a 1 or 2 year ban and no other sanctions. PSU is not a small university like SMU whose conference disentegrated. Given the large alumni base and the large donations flowing in, once the ban is over it's business as usual and winning football games is paramount. Play the martyr card and have a convicing "healing" underdog story to get the recruiting back up. Playoffs within a few years. If that scenario plays out I'm not feeling a sense of justice (as a non-PSU fan). The NCAA needs to consider the possible outcomes of whatever sanctions they impose. Justice in the football world usually means that your program is placed in a state where it is difficult to win on the field. Given how long the coverups lasted that state should persist at PSU for a long time.

Sounds like they are getting serious about confronting this. I liked that he acknowledged that it is a football issue and a culture change was needed. Maybe they'll get creative and impose a loss of 10 scholarships for 14 years. One scholarship for each victim abused while they were covering up. The culture will naturally change with a losing program.

I don't think you'll get any defenders. Shutting down the program for a year or more is necessary. I wouldn't feel too sorry for the masses. The masses elevated Paterno to this god-like status which allowed him to cover this up. Too much corruption beyond their school administrators and football staff. I read that the police replied to Paterno inquiries concerning the '89 incident that no crime needed to be logged. Strange wording. I think people must have bought into the squeaky clean image and decided that it was in their own personal/professional interest to do their part to maintain it. I still think there is something rotten that the scandal hit the fan right after Paterno got the all time win record. That needs to be investigated. Watch the movie "Art of the Steal" to get an understanding of how the PA government works and how $40 billion of art could be taken. Take down the statue, strip the wins back to 2001, remove the name Paterno from anything related to football. Leave Paterno name on the library so that people are reminded of the good things he did. Suspend the program for a while and let the fans contemplate the relative importance of football. Hopefully people will find the Nit slice of the pie too tainted to swallow.

I understand that interrupting someone's dinner to taunt them is rude... but this made me laugh anyway, because the horrible thing that the fan said to them was "Go Big Red." In response to the Wisconsinite posts, no, Nebraska fans will not be assimilated or get used to it. We will remain the same and have every right to continue thinking that rude behavior is rude. It was worse than I described it. The Missouri guy had his back to the aforementioned fence and he intentionally yelled it a few feet from his ear. A couple of more feet away would have been OK and I would have appreciated the enthusiasm but it was obviously directed at the Missouri fans and was just taunting. It is kind of funny in contrast to the rude behavior of Wisconsin fans I experienced. Better to just ignore them. I had no problems at Michigan game. They seemed more like real fans of football and people you could discuss the game with. Maybe a little arrogant but given our performance...

I've worked in the heart of Big 10 for 15 years. When I heard we were joining the B1G the first thing I thought was that a culture clash was coming. There is definitely a difference between people in the Great Plains states and the midwest- outside of sports. It won't do any good to complain about rude fans from other teams. That's how they are as people. Our behavior as fans resembles how Nebraskans are all the time (we aren't jerks). I hope this difference keeps us from being assimilated for a very long time. Unfortunately our younger fans will probably pick up bad behavior from our new conference mates. We shouldn't be shy about confronting any rudeness from our fans. I was home for the Roy Helu dominating Missouri game. While eating after the game I struck up a conversation with some Missouri fans when some idiot came by and yelled something like GBR to them. I was shocked. Disbelief and a fence kept me from reacting properly. Of course I apologized to the Missouri fan. Next time I will run our fan down and calmly explain to them that it shows a lot of disrespect for the game and is not what being a Nebraska fan is about. I'd also ask him to remove his Nebraska garb if he wants to act like a buffoon.

I've wondered the same thing and came to the conclusion that you really don't know what is going on behind closed doors. When you see how big college football has become it's easy to imagine rules being broken. I've recently heard several college football players (not N) refer to something as "part of business". Not in a way I'd expect to hear from an amatear athlete. That being said, I would be suprised if Nebraska were doing something illegal. If there was something going on wouldn't there at least be some rumors out there? I don't have any inside connections to the program and it's rumor mill but things would eventually come out in the media.

More passing to balance out the run. Not the "shock the world" type passing. <-- me @ Wiscy.

Finally!! Someone in this thread interested in the actual research. This could be the beginning of the end of football as we know it...(Probably j/k), but it is one of the reasons I haven't pushed my own Son into the only sport I ever loved. I value the sportsmanship and teamwork the sport has taught me..But between that and the countless "mini-concussions" that occured anmost every play that I wasn't able to fend off blocker's headbutts, and the hazardous chemicals and semi-volitile organics I've inhaled over the years as a prescreening tool to identify unknown wastes..uh,,where was I going with this?..Oh yeah!..most of the holes in my braim were probably avoidable. I'm afraid you might be correct about the beginning of the end. I really hate to see it but if there are long term unavoidable injuries to the brain, I would feel guilty watching football. From what I've read it's going to be a difficult thing to solve with equipment and rules. I don't think most fans want to talk about it. Very depressing topic.

Glad to see UNL taking the lead researching this issue. Seems to be getting a lot of press lately.