Hayseed

Urban Meyer lost to us last year with a complete defensive meltdown....obviously he should've been fired or at least replaced his entire staff.

It's possible that Bill Byrne will be available soon. The entire process and future expectations are a mystery to me.

I don't remember many people being crazy about Bill Byrne and he turned out to be an outstanding AD. I have to admit this hire surprised me unitl I read about Barry Alvarez' endorsement....that's a pretty big Husker endorsement. And I agree with Pearlman that the last guy with close Husker ties before Osborne turned out to be a big disaster. Don't kid yourself, Dr. Tom knew what was going down, is staying out of the "debate", and is asking you to be a fan and give the new guy your support.

 

 

Good ol Bill Byrne ... He got us into the Big 12 ... and hired Frank Solich! I hope this new guy is at least that good.

Tom Osborne recommended Frank Solich and where did you think we would go besides the Big 12? Byrne was a great AD and fundraiser for ALL the sports. I thought he was a snob at the time, but in hindsight his record speaks for itself.

I don't remember many people being crazy about Bill Byrne and he turned out to be an outstanding AD. I have to admit this hire surprised me unitl I read about Barry Alvarez' endorsement....that's a pretty big Husker endorsement. And I agree with Pearlman that the last guy with close Husker ties before Osborne turned out to be a big disaster. Don't kid yourself, Dr. Tom knew what was going down, is staying out of the "debate", and is asking you to be a fan and give the new guy your support.

Shouldn't we wait a while until we start the harikari routine?

Wow, this is unbelievable.

I'm not getting too shook up unless Martinez keeps coming out looking like the chokemaster.

We're really looking forward to our very first visit to Lincoln! I can't wait to soak up your campus & traditions and meeting members of your great fan base down there! Best of luck, Huskers!

Hope you have a great time and tell your friends to come next time. I'm looking forward to a good competitive game.

He's alright...he has character in his voice like the late Howard Cosell. All he needs now is a memorable phrase like "Look at that little monkey go!!"

Tommie Frazier

So let me get this strait....

 

little ol Nebraska just can't compete with the sec, Texas and USC so little ol Nebraska should just be satisfied with competing for conference championships and leave the NC to the big boys.

 

Pardon me.......I need to go puke.

 

Not at all what I mean. WHat I meant was, in terms of recruiting, you guys are not gonna compete for the same guys. You need a solid coach who can develop players and scout REALLY good 3 stars. When you start winning, you'll get more 4 stars. BUT, you guys are never going to CONSISTENTLY get a top 3-5 class. I absolutely think NU can compete for the NC with the right coaching and system.

I don't believe this is true. If we show that we're capable of playing Top 10 ball then recruits will be drawn here just like they are to West Virginia, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, or anywhere else. The notion that Lincoln is some hick town with wagons and injun attacks is easily dispelled with one visit or just a look online. With two top D linemen and two top LB's on board right now (I don't know whether we have them and don't know it??), we'd have beat UCLA and everyone would be talking about a potential NC. I think we took a hit when two of the D coaches decided to spend their time chasing girls instead of recruits.

FWIW, this is from an outsider's perspective. (LSU fan)

 

I see a lot of worrying about recruiting. Well, you guys really need to look at recruiting as it relates to your conference. The only teams in the big 10 that can consistently out recruit Nebraska is Michigan and Ohio State. With good coaching/scouting/development, you guys should be competing for a big 10 championship every 2-3 years.

 

You shouldn't worry about recruiting at the level of an SEC team or USC, as you're just not going to consistently get better classes than them due to location. (I know Lincoln is much better than many SEC cities like BR, tuscaloser, and Auburn, but kids like to stay close enough to home so their parents can see them play).

 

If you guys are able to hover between 15-25 consistently in recruiting rankings, then you should be able to be getting into BCS games often. The key is not recruiting, as I think NU can recruit itself. But the key is going to be running a consistent system on BOTH sides of the ball and recruiting players to that system. Right now, I don't see that happening. I'm confident Bo can fix it, but he needs to decide if he is spread (air raid) or spread (option). On defense, he needs to play more speed.

 

I know you won't have the talent or stars of the USCs, Texases, Alabamas, or Floridas of the world, but you never recruited that many stars in the 90s and still whipped some consistent ass with good scouting, consistent systems on both sides of hte ball, and a 15-25 ranked recruiting class.

 

Welcome to the board. I pretty much agree with you. If we can maintain our recruiting and stay in the top 25 every year we'll be able to compete with anyone.

 

I just wish we could drastically oversign players and summarily cut the ones who don't pan out from our roster like certain unnamed (cough.....Alabama and LSU......cough) schools habitually do.

 

I think you mean pay them under the table like the SEC.

I think there's a snowball effect either way depending on what you show recruits. Location has little to do with it unless you're in a really dismal place, which isn't the case at NU. Recruits want to play with a winner and for a coach who knows what he's doing. If you look at the situation and results, KSU Coach Snyder is probably one of the all-time best.

I learned: that our defense appears to be improving (I think) each week since the UCLA game. Hopefully enough to win us the rest of our games.

 

That Braylon Heard is a beast. No lie, I really just learned this. He ran well.

 

That we could probably plug in Marrow, Zimmerer, or Janovich and see pretty much the same result. Good or bad? IDK. I'll say this though: based on what I've seen, I think Legate was a better fullback than the guys we currently have. I have big hopes for Janovich at that position though. Beef up son!

Heard has an extra gear.....a Reggie Bush gear.

I learned that ....nevermind, I didn't learn anything. Glad Chase Rome is back though.........and it was good to see a bunch of players get time.

Since when has Nebraska strived to be compared to Oklahoma State?

It said cowboys....I thought it was about the rodeo and you could understand why they'd get tired of being thrown from bulls.

9th ranked offense....mid-major conference....the defense did great. They played with a lot of fire and made it easy for the offense to stay with what they do best. I think the coaches recognized something had to be done and got off to a good start.

Martinez has to take care of the ball, on the other hand. It didn't matter this time but he's capable of some crazy stuff when it counts.

I trust that Beck knows what he's talking about. The thing that bugs me is that Beck should know Martinez isn't that great under pressure and account for that. Not one screen to Heard or Abdullah?

I don't remember the 90's being such a well-oiled machine. The three championship years we had a lot of depth but plenty of injuries to the point where the O line had to carry the team. At the beginning of the 90's people were jumping from buildings worse than now and if I remember right Osborne might have been considered a bum. I think we need to live here and now and put illusions of the 90's to rest.

The offense looks damned impressive at times ,mostly due to Beck and Martinez .....and a joke at others, mostly due to problems with Beck and Martinez that are completely fixable. The defense is in serious need of intuitive playmakers. How many interceptions can we drop, tackles miss, lose contain, no pass rush ,loose coverage, etc etc etc etc....

Bo is a really good defensive coordinator. Look what he did his first year as our coordinator under Solich. Look what he did at Oklahoma. Look what he did at LSU. All great jobs as coordinator. But look what happens when he has to choose a staff, run the team, oversee recruiting....it has not been pretty. I really like Bo a lot and I really want him to be successful. I am just not sure if we will ever be more than a 9-10 win team that always loses big/important games and always has that one game where we lose to someone we shouldn't lose to.

I think it's the same problem Solich had and the majority of coaches have....inability to land enough big recruits. They do a fine job with ordinary players but I have news for you, they could coach me for a hundred years and it would never make me a top athlete.

Lets see what happens. We played horribly and lost by 6. We'll most likely win a few we should've lost and lose a few we should've won....that's our team. Until we get more talent on D it'll be like this......we're officially a west coast team. If the D keeps us out of trouble our O coasts to a win...... the entire offensive game plan would change.....we'd probably play some fresh young talent who are itching to see the field and not even think about the disaster a bad D would've imposed on us.

When in the last four years have we 'won one we should've lost?' That has not been Bo's make up. We always lose at least one we should not have lost though.

2011....Ohio State, Michigan State, Penn State?? 2010.....Oklahoma State?

Lets see what happens. We played horribly and lost by 6. We'll most likely win a few we should've lost and lose a few we should've won....that's our team. Until we get more talent on D it'll be like this......we're officially a west coast team. If the D keeps us out of trouble our O coasts to a win...... the entire offensive game plan would change.....we'd probably play some fresh young talent who are itching to see the field and not even think about the disaster a bad D would've imposed on us.

When in the last four years have we 'won one we should've lost?' That has not been Bo's make up. We always lose at least one we should not have lost though.

But don't you start the season with high expectations despite the reality of this horrible defense? If you expect to win every game then I won't be able to find any, but I think there might be a few.

We have a good coach at work on the D line but he couldn't work on them last year because he was working for someone else. Let's give him a chance. We're gonna need some serious recruiting victories on that side of the ball....the O side just needs to pull it's head out and keep its composure.

I think we're running a 6 gap and our secondary is running a grab and pray.

Next game the Weinerslinger will be back in business.....you could be one of the lucky ones to catch a weiner.

I'd play Abdullah and Heard about 40/40 and Cross about 20.