Husker71

Both Tim Beck and JP are extremely loyal to Bo. They were obviously deeply concerned for him. When the coaches have a lot of mutual respect and trust among them that can be very powerful in the long run.

Hope you feel better Bo! It was good to hear Bo's statement that he is okay and will be back soon.

Proud of Solich. Like him as a person and no question he turned his program around. Bo is better now and has the better long term potential.

Nice article. This game is a great opportunity to erase the doubts created last week. Just what we need.

I am glad there are posters who honestly say what they think and don't fold even when a lot of people pile on them. I respect that. Just makes the conversation interesting for me. We may lose 3 or even 4 games this year but I predict we will improve noticeably. I look at this as a learning year as well. As long as there is progress I enjoy watching it. I have trouble predicting any losses for us, have always had that problem. I would say the teams harder than UCLA are Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Michigan St. in that order. Maybe in the face of all logic I still think we have a shot at the B1G championship and until I can deny it no longer that's my story.

Listening to it a couple of times I think he handled it pretty well. The message was focus on what you can control and also taking exception to lowered standards which I liked. I liked that he didn't talk down to the guy or dismiss him personally. Like talking down a drunk guy he matched his intensity at first and then calmed it down at the end.

More posts before this guy^^^ understands this thread- 4 Under. number of points we surrender on defense- 21 I predict we still have some UCLA flashbacks, but our tackling will look much improved. okay, okay, I meant the above. Duly noted, thank you. I guess your 4 post prediction also came true, so you should be feeling awesome right now.

Under. I predict we still have some UCLA flashbacks, but our tackling will look much improved.

Hilarious and true. That and the he-man "what's going on" vid (can't remember which thread that was) cracked me up today.

Interesting article. Agree tackling is teachable and fixable. Couple things interesting to me. Coach McBride didn't seem like it was time to be drastic. He also seemed to say in his defense the players were very "live" with the tackling in practice. Makes me wonder if our defense has enough opportunity in practice to realistically tackle and finish plays.

This analysis matches closely what I feel. I'm not ready to sound the alarms yet. I don't interpret the recent drama as Pelini losing the team. I am trying to take a step back, trying to take a long term view. When I do that I see progress despite all the problems we have had on both sides of the ball. I couldn't detect any crisis of confidence after Southern Miss. I thought I was hearing the defensive players sound more upbeat like, "they are turning us loose more, we can attack more" before the season started. Very experienced posters are saying this is different, this feels serious. That probably worries me more than anything else. But I had completely given up on Martinez to improve as a QB and Beck's ability to improve as a coach. I feel I was so wrong about that if anything I want to see a lot more before I reach any premature conclusions again. We are probably way behind where any of us would like to be but I am still of the mind we are headed in the right direction with Bo and this staff.

I think this is tying a lot into the complicated scheme issue. I think guys are spending too much thinking about where theyre supposed to line up and reading this and reacting that that they get themselves just a smidgin out of position by taking the play a half step slow. Go back to the great defenses of '09 and '10 and them guys in the secondary were shootin like missles into ball carrier like it was 2nd nature. O-Hanlon. My land he would fly out of nowhere to make plays on extremely talented guys like Shipley, Broyles, Murry and so on. And all he was was a walk-on from podunk Beatrice, Nebraska. I would agree with that. That's funny, I grew up in Beatrice.

I'm not totally worried personally yet. I'm tired of the roller coaster, but my theory is that Pelini got spread too thin with concerns on offense and went on autopilot on the defense fundamentals. For much of Bo's tenure the defense was the lesser concern. Despite the disappointment with Beck and Martinez toward the end of the UCLA game, to me the progress is undeniable and this allows Pelini to get back to the basic and his passion for defense. I'm betting that in the long term this gets fixed. The only thing that nags at me is that EVERY year we talk about tackling issues like it is a new problem we've never seen before. That is getting old.

It's happening. Right before our eyes. They are "weeding out" the bad ones. This team is moving forward with this family concept. Youre either all in FOR THE TEAM, or youre out. Plain and simple. DUN. Great point. When the unhappy ones move on,doesn't take many, the culture changes dramatically.

Well said. I hope that now Bo can finally be less distracted by issues on offense and focus more on defense where he is most effective. Totally agree if it is a battle of wills with players, let the chips fall and take the short term hits no matter how painful. Just keep thinking back now on that UCLA game and how different things might look if we just would have made those tackles, especially in the backfield.

I feel the same way. 2 gap is way over my head, I am an armchair quarterback, but I do not understand why we are so far off the ball. I too see this the old-school way where half a step is the difference. I get the rationale of keeping it in front of you, but it just seems too extreme to me. There was a thread I can't find earlier about how far off the ball we are and it just seems like we are too far away. I don't believe Bo forgot how to coach defense. I can totally see Bo as the head coach chasing the offensive issues especially with the recent o-line drama and get caught assuming we know how to tackle before it got exposed. I think and hope that can be corrected. Just surprised the fundamentals aren't there by now, was football 101 ever emphasized enough?

Good points but I think college football will always have a unique niche here. Obviously we have Volleyball and CWS but basically this is it and no matter how bad we think it gets the absence of it will seem worse. I hope that will always draw the right kind of coaches and players here. I see droughts, but I would be surprised to see us fade away for good.

lol o boy this really IS a family

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. Thanks Bucky for the links. Ha ha you're right, I'm not a lurker anymore. Now if we can just get our defense to come out of hiding! GBR!!

5+ tackles for loss, getting off blocks in any way shape or form, and sound fundamental tackling. Holding to 24 points or less.

My first post. Born in '71, followed the Huskers throughout. I try to be a fan in good and bad times. I support Bo and staff in general. I did not see the UCLA debacle coming. For whatever reason joining the forum now seemed like the right time, like buying a stock when it's really low. Love this forum, I've followed it for years.