NUinID

So this is an analytic geek's number crunching. I would rather listen to DiNardo's eyeball test. Was listening to Nick Bahe this morning and he was playing some excerpts from an interview with ole Gerry yesterday. He thinks it is going to be a Wild West this year in the division and after seeing most thinks Nebraska is right in there. Very impressed with Nebraska, less impressed with Wisconsin than he thought he would be, and slightly more impressed with Iowa than he thought he would be.

No doubt Corgan is one of the worst of the lot. I get what you are saying about pushing the band to different levels but I guess I like the guys that can lighten up a little and don't take them selves super seriously all the time. Dave Grohl is the best example of this type of a guy that I can think of, Rivers Cuomo of Weezer fits into that also. I get that Weezer and The Foos are doing different styles of music, but you know what I mean. Les Claypool is another good example.

Sometimes there is a reason they are at a JUCO.

Billy Corgan is a self important wanker, like so many R&R frontmen. Micheal Stipe, Eddie Vedder, Bono, Tom Yorke, Morrissey all fall into that category. There just so deep and serious.

Was watching the BTN bus tour last night at Wisconsin. Last year DiNardo and Griffith were absolutely drooling over Wisconsin and the talent upgrades at WR and loving on the O-line and on Johnathan Taylor. This year it is a little more tempered they do think their offense is going to be very good, but I think they are in wait and see mode on the defense. They are replacing 7 starters. Just the feeling I got from watching it.

QB is really my 1 big concern. Someone who can run this position and do it well is essential to having a good offensive football team. Good QB play is a must. Michigan is good QB play away from being a legit playoff contender. The age or lack of experience at the position really doesn't concern me. If they have it they have it, it doesn't matter if they are Freshman or a Junior. I think the team in general has pretty good talent it has been so underdeveloped for such a long time they are starved to be led. MR and Co did a terrible job of developing this team. I am not sure that 1 off season is enough to push this team to a 10 win season though. I think 8 wins is a max and that would be a great season. Nebraska has potentially 4 great teams on their schedule this year. I think some fans are really drinking a lot of kool-aid and have got some really high expectations. I am not sure those expectations can be met. I don't think you can really get a feel for this team until the Michigan game. I think this team can be vastly improved over last year and still only go 7-5.

Kiss-Destroyer 1976 I was 10. My Kiss phase only lasted a couple of years.

No, that was in 2009. He leaned very heavily on the defense that year.

Comparisons of 2008 and 2018 are interesting. No one knew what would happen there was a lot of ups and downs in that season. I remember watching Nebraska get pummeled by Missouri in about the 4th game of the year at night in Lincoln. I thought man it is going to be a long season. The next week we see NU go toe to toe with a TT team that was ranked pretty high at that time and lose in OT. For there 3rd loss in a row. At one point that team was 5-4 and then they win their final 3 and beat a pretty good Clemson team in the Bowl that was suppose to beat them handily. The defense got better as the season progressed. They really played well in the Clemson game. It wasn't just Suh on that line. Ty Steinkuhler, Baker's older brother played really well down the stretch of that season. I would take a season like that in a heart beat this year. I think overall the schedule is tougher this year, but Missouri, TT and OU were both highly ranked and they also played VaTech in the non conference. I am not sure there is a Suh on this team, but I think overall there is a lot more depth at most positions than in 2008. Which can be a big difference.

Looks more like a LB than a safety. I hope he can stay healthy. I think he is a real gamer if he can stay healthy.

You can't be afraid to run someone just because they were a walk on out of some small town in Nebraska. If he is good enough to play and contribute let him play. Wisconsin is never afraid to play these walk on guys. They had a guy last year, Garrett Groshek playing RB for them with a similar pedigree as Mazour. Walk on played QB in HS just a good athlete that ended up getting 61 carries for about 300 yards last year.

I watched this one with my loudmouth BIL who is from Iowa. He is not really an Iowa or ISU fan, just likes to be contrary and rub salt in wounds. He gets very obnoxious after about 10 beers.

I have a real wait and see attitude about the linebacker play for next year. I think we will see a lot play, I expect to see at least 8 or more in the first 3-4 games getting good snaps. After that I think it really will depend on what type of offense and down and distance as to who and what you will see on defense. Against a heavy run offense I would expect to see more Alex Davis, Colin Miller, Gifford, types on the field. Dixon will play a lot more in space and against spread type offenses. You say Gifford has not impressed you, call me unimpressed with Mo Barry so far on the inside.

Actually not too much hype in the piece.

I am not going to defend MR at all, he did a piss poor job at Nebraska. He did some very good things at Oregon St. He had started to lose his mojo at OSU and thought a move to a traditional power would help him get it back, it didn't. I will also put about 30% of the blame on our ex AD SE. He thought he could micro manage everything. I think a lot of bad decisions were made at the top that MR had to live with. Number 1 on the list was the hiring of Diaco. Now as far as talent goes, I think our talent has been woefully underdeveloped. That is about to change, but it will take time. Raw talent wise NU is probably only behind OSU, Michigan, and PSU but that can be overcome. Iowa and Wisconsin really maximize their talent with development. They also recruit pretty well to their style of play vs just raw talent. Nebraska even in the glory days never had as much raw talent as Miami, FSU and Florida it was just better developed and they recruited to their style of play very well. I really believe that Frost will get things going at Nebraska and we will get back to being talked about on a yearly basis. It is just going to take a little time. Things will be better this year, but don't expect 10 wins.

Saw Ant Man and The Wasp. Liked it a lot, fun movie to see. The step dad played by Bobby Cannavale might as well as not been in the movie. I like Micheal Pena's character a lot. Good post credit scene basically ties it to the recent Infinity War movie. Also really like Incredible's 2.

Micromanage is a little strong to say about Barry Alvarez, but I am sure when he is hiring he is looking for someone that will do things the way he would. If you want to call that micromanaging than I am OK with that. Does Barry like to watch practice, most likely. Does Barry like to give advice about the team, most likely. BA probably just like TO did retired too soon. He probably misses a lot of the coaching aspect. He knows what has worked for Wisconsin and knows it will continue to work. Most likely BB and Anderson chafed a little under his thumb, that is why he left. You have to remember though that Anderson brought Dave Aranda to Wisconsin so that was a good thing. Chryst is a Wisconsin guy, he played there, coached there under BA and BB and understands the formula, he isn't going to change it too much.

He was definitely a project coming into college, but very athletic. Hopefully he is a contributor.

Yeah, I forgot about DeSean Neal who I think will be in the mix, if he is half as disruptive as he was in the spring game he could have a good year. Some linemen just take longer to get going. Some guys take till their Jr year before they really contribute.

Yeah, I guess that is the big question, will they do more when they are allowed to. Stolt is a space eater that is what he does, but the Davis twins are very athletic and I loved what Stille did when allowed to rush the passer.

It was good, the next segment with Mike Schaefer I found interesting also. Not so much what he said, but more what DB said. They were discussing position groups and best and worse type stuff. Schaefer really felt the D-line had a long ways to go, and Benning pretty much disagreed with him. I take that to mean DB feels the lack of production out of our d-line last year was more to do with scheme than personnel. I agree with that assessment. I am not saying that the d-line is going to be lights out great, but I expect it to be solid and improve throughout the season.

Very good points. The complete shutdown only giving up 10pts a game is most likely a thing of the past, just by the nature of the way teams play offense today. To add to this, don't expect miracles in year 1. The defense was terrible last year, ranked in the 100's, don't expect to be top 10 or even top 25 next year. It they can statistically move into the top 50 that will be a great accomplishment. I expect to see a much more attacking defense, we saw quite a bit of that in the spring game. They are much more willing to take chances and that will pay off to the tune of more sacks, TFL's and TO. You will also see them get burned sometimes, it is going to happen. Getting burned 2-3 times a game for big plays if mixed in with 8-9 negative plays is much more preferable to the slow death of 7 yards per play we saw last year.

That schedule is almost as tough as Nebraska's this year. They are assuming a lot if they find 8 wins. They are saying Iowa and Nebraska are wins for them, which I don't think is any kind of a foregone conclusion. They needed OT against a 4 win Nebraska team, and they should have lost the game if they just play it safe and kick a FG. Thorson is coming off ACL injury they don't have the RB. There defense should be ok but lots of ifs. I could see a 5-6 win season, which is has been their MO a lot, good season followed by a mediocre season.

He was probably a great asset to Alvarez at Wisconsin and Alvarez thought he would make a great AD. SE probably did a lot of s#!t work that Alvarez didn't like doing and probably did it very well. It doesn't make you a leader though. You can't lead from behind a closed door.

This is probably a very good position for SE. He is a lawyer/accountant that likes to work in the background. That is why he was a poor AD you can't work behind the scenes with your door closed looking at a spread sheet. You have to be the face of the athletic program, he didn't like doing that. There is nothing wrong with being an assistant AD and doing a good job at what you are good at. He just aspired to be something more than what he was comfortable doing.