TGHusker

Looking at those numbers, I see one GLARING stat not shown. It is this: SUH Crick Prince Haag Gomes David Dennard Looking at the 2009 and 2010 stats and then the D talent that we lost says a lot. I bag on this staffs schemes, but looking at the stats, so long as we have 1st round NFL talent it works pretty well. My issue is that the staff doesn't change to account for talent or in our case lack of. Even in 2011 with David, not having any real talent at the DL really hurt us as did missing Fonzie for like 90% of the year. IMO, the scheme does work, but you need some serious talent, at all 3 levels to make it work very well. As the talent level and depth (DL, LB and Secondary) drop off, so do our statistics. More alarming is the Offenses we faced in the Big XII, 2009 and 2010 were much more high scoring than what we have faced in the B1G. It does show a trend though. A negative one IMO unless we get some serious talent at all 3 levels. Many of the players you note are BC recruits. So is the real issue, the same issue we talked about in 2007 - can Bo recruit?? With Bo's reputation as a top DC before he became our HC, I thought defensive players would be standing in line to get to NU. We have yet to develop the ability to draw the top notch recruits away from the SEC. We desparetly need those JC defensive linemen to commit this month. If we don't beef up the DL, we will most likely go no deeper into the BCS bowl picture then we are now.

If Taylor continues this trend, he would lead the nation for 4 years in a row. Not that I'm a statistician or anything, but has any college player led the nation in a single stat for 4 years in a row? So what is the cure for fumblitist? any suggestions. Each time he runs in traffic I have to hold my breath -- As a freshman and soph - each time he threw a pass I had to hold my breath. He's improved his passing. Maybe this summer he hires a RB specialist to help him wt his fumble issue.

Last night at our Husker Club banquet, we had a NU official speak to us who was on the sideline and went into the locker room at half time of the CCG. He said in all of his years of football (grade school to the highest level) he never saw anything like what he saw during the game. He saw NO player leadership. No one trying to motivate the team and pick up and challenge the other guys. That begs the question - Why Not? Why do we not have a vocal leader like we did wt the Peter Brothers, Wisdrom, Frost, Tommy Frazier, etc? Who would you identify as our vocal leaders on O and D? I cannot identify anyone on D. Maybe TM will become that on O - he showed more leadership in leading back in those 4 come from behind wins.

I would place him 3rd - I think he will surpass Crouch in the minds of most Husker fans. However, Tommy and Scott had that leadership quality that Taylor has yet to develop. Scott was more vocal in that way and I think Tommy did it with his actions (and getting into the face of those who messed up) - perhaps not as personable as Scott by what I hear. We did see shadows of Tommy and Scott in Taylor's efforts to bring us back from behind in those 4 games. He was Crouch like (Crouch's run vs Mo) in how he broke that 76 yard run against Wisky. If Taylor can win a CCG and help us to a top 5 or so finish next year - I think he deserves to be mentioned in the top 3 or 4 (Turner Gill will always be regarded in that top tier as well). He will have the stats to be on the top, but the leadership qualities and a trophy would cement him as one of the all time greats at NU.

I had your optimism a couple of weeks ago. I thought we could be 11-1 going into the ccg next year. Not anymore. I began to analyze our come from behind wins - they were against teams wt not the best rankings. Our wins were against average at best teams - thus we were barely average ourselves. I'm sure spring football will come along and we will all begin to drink the kool aid again - always thinking the best. I see next year as a good offensive year but again erratic due to turn overs. I see the D, even with new players, a step back due to inexperience. 8-4 again or 7-5. I'd like for someone to get us out of our misery, Bo needs to win the CCG and a BCS game or go 2-10 (thus a new coach and system that can take us to the top) - so we get out of this 'a little bit above average' rut. Yea I know - a 9 or 10 win season is not misery - but it is for us fans who were fans before 2002. We've been nothing but average or worse since then. We've had a few good moments - Big 12 championship game 3x and Big 10 once - buit 0-4 in cc games during the last decade.

Sounds like Management 101 to me.

The offense also helps us come back when we're way down. Bottom line is, we fix this defense, and the offense is fine. This defense is atrociously bad at times, though. For whatever reason, Bo seems afraid of attempting to disrupt the opponent's play before it gets started. He seems fascinated by allowing them to set up their play, diagnosing it on the fly, and preventing it from executing (to use a Bo-ism). But Wiscy exposed the major flaw with Bo's philosophy in that, if you get into your play FAST, it's too late to diagnose and defuse it. That jet sweep killed us because the guys weren't attacking. A rush end blasting upfield on that play totally disrupts the flow and timing, and is the best remedy to stop the runner. We never, not once, had our end get around the tackle to get to the running lane on that play. In fact, more often than not on that play, the end was crashing down into the tackle, taking himself totally out of the play. I don't know if that's on Papuchis or Bo. I have no idea whose defense this is anymore. Does Bo scheme everything during the week and let Pap make the calls in-game, or is Bo still the de facto Defensive Coordinator? If it's Bo, the myth of his "defensive genius" has to be completely gone by now. If it's Pap, he either needs to get better as a DC fast or get out of the position. That last paragraph is so true. or or Not sure how to react.

+1 Richt almost reminds me of Tom Osborne in a way. If we go our separate ways with Pelini, I'd love to see Richt get some consideration if he's ready to try something different. As for who's on the list, Petersen seems like the obvious choice. I don't think we'll get an opportunity to hire him, though. You got my 1st 2 if available and interested.

I disagree. That is an old arguement for maintaining 'the average'. Good grief, NU footbal is worth more and deserves more than the average status quo. Things are different. NU has shown much more patience wt Bo then we did wt Frank. I think a rising star HC wouldn't think twice about NU wt our upgraded facilities, stadium growth, loyal fan base. Urban Meyer must have thought OSU and the Big 10 had potential. We have every bit the tradition as OSU. We now just need a coach or a coaching staff who can keep up wt Meyer - Bo won't unless he makes some dramatic changes. Past performance is a predictor of future performance if nothing new is added to the equation.

So is the rub: he can't recruit? If so, how long do we give him to recruit better players? These were his Seniors. If next year isn't much better wt this year's Jrs and Soph and Redshirts - I don't think we string the experiment out any longer.

WHAT WAS WRONG WITH THE ARTICLE? Not necessarily the article, rather his entire body of work. For example? I can't say that I have ever read a bad Shatel article. " Agree. I think EZ-E is drinking some kool aid.

Good post - I agree. Funny how 5 years ago we thought Bo was that guy to fix the D as it was needed in 2007. Now we need a DC to get us back on track. Any idea who that could be?? Mike Dika, channel Bud Grant??

It appears Bo has a couple of good QBs in the pipeline - Armstrong (redshirt) and Straton (sp?) (recruit). If they stay they will have a year to develope during TM's senior year.

Big 10 is the right spot for us. $$ better, academic better, tradition better. Football strength will cycle back around to the Big 10 eventually. We may be the "SEC" in 5 years. OSU hire of Myer will force other schools to upgrade their coaching talent (perhaps NU is next) to keep up. That will only strengthen the conference.

But when do we bump up against the 'Peter Principle" here? It is like saying NU is destined to always be average. I can understand 2004 - Frank just went 9-3 and coaches were gun shy to come here. But I think we have better facilities now and we have shown a degree of patience with Bo - we didn't fire him after his 1st 4 loss season or after loosing 2 cc games in the Big 12. We allowed him to change the staff. I think NU should give Bo the opportunity to make some changes this year. But if we end up wt the same issues of under performance next year, a year that has a easier schedule, then we need to start looking to see if there is a rising HC star that can be lured to NU. We have to keep up wt U Meyer at OSU. He must have saw potential outside of the SEC to develope something special. He will dominate if we don't upgrade our coaching (either via better assistants or by better HC). Better staff will recruit better, develop players, and game plan and adjust better. While players win games, it is up to the coaches to put them in the right position (recurit right, develop right, execute right) to do so.

I agree - I think this was the worse of the big game disasters. This article by Dirk. I'm not a great Dirk fan - I think he tries to hard to make a name for himself wt Bo bashing - but this article sums up my feelings. It addresses the 'average' issue and expectations. He notes that we are in that 'no man's land' of indecision - Bo isn't bad enought to be fire but not good enough to win the big one - unless he was in the SEC - he'd been fired because of the competitiveness there. http://sports.omaha....-chatter-dec-3/

Which KSU road win? The 2008 one? We are 14-6 on the road since that game, if my counting skills hold true. Or are you lumping our CCGs and bowl games into the road games category? Because CCGs and bowl games aren't really like road games where you are playing on the other team's home field. If you are looking at an earlier KSU road win, I'd point out that those games were under the previous coaching regime. Sorry it is 8-9 - I'll fix in the post. 2009 Road Games (4-1) 09/19 Virginia Tech Blacksburg L 15-16 10/08 #Missouri Columbia W 27-12 10/31 #Baylor Waco W 20-10 11/14 #Kansas Lawrence W 31-17 11/27 #Colorado Boulder W 28-20 2010 Road Games (4-1) 09/18 Washington Seattle W 56-21 10/02 #Kansas State Manhattan W 48-13 10/23 #Oklahoma State Stillwater W 51-41 11/06 #Iowa State Ames W 31-30 (OT) 11/20 #Texas A&M College Sta. L 6- 9 2011 Road Games (3-2) 09/24 Wyoming Laramie W 38-14 10/01 #Wisconsin Madison L 17-48 10/22 #Minnesota Minneapolis W 41-14 11/12 #Penn State State College W 17-14 11/19 #Michigan Ann Arbor L 17-45 2012 Road Games (3-2) 09/08 UCLA Pasadena L 30-36 10/06 #Ohio State Columbus L 38-63 10/20 #Northwestern Evanston W 29-28 11/03 #Michigan St. E. Lansing W 28-24 11/23 #Iowa Iowa City W 13- 7 Total since KSU road win in 2008: (14-6) I'm not sure where you're getting 16-17 or 8-9. /edit: I'm not trying to pick on you or be too nit-picky. I'm just trying to include the facts into this thread. I don't have a problem stating I was wrong and eating humble pie. At my age I shouldn't go 'by memory' of what a story said!!

I should have verified Sam McKewon's statement if you are correct: http://www.omaha.com/article/20121202/HUSKERS/712029905 Bo must know — and if he doesn't, here's his notice — that Nebraska hasn't been a good road-neutral team since the 2010 Kansas State game. It has been a snowball perched on a peak, liable to roll either way. In the 17 games away from home since beating KSU, Nebraska is 8-9. The Blackshirts are giving up an average of 30.3 points and 400 yards. The Huskers' turnover margin in those 17 games is minus-27, with 40 turnovers. That's 2.4 giveaways per game.

Good for them. We aren't "most teams". In what way? We appear very average these days. Which is the crux of the OP's original post isn't it? We are an average team, and Husker fans are not satisfied at being average. People can cite the nine and 10 ten win stuff all day long, but the bottom line is we are not a team that is even remotely close to contending for the MNC, we were fortunant to contend for the title of weak conference, and then couldn't even finish that. I certainly don't know the answer, and at this point am not calling for a head coaching change (mainly because I don't know who we would get), but I do have serious doubts that Bo can get us back to that elite level. This quote is the intent of my original post. This is my initial response and thoughts after the game and disappointment as a fan. I don't think it is time to fire Bo but it is time for Bo to make some big adjustments IMO. Frank got one more year after his 6-7 year and he made some coaching changes (our introduction to Bo being the most successful change that Frank made) My list, is a list that show where I think MY expectations have fallen short as a fan. If 9-10 wins - being average is a realistic expectation, then call me unrealistic. The basic issues of my post are true - we are still turn over prone, we are inconsistant, we aren't ready for the big games (and normally stink on national TV), and our D isn't very good (good against 2nd tier Os during our 6 game run but it was again exposed Sat night). Can we celebrate a 10 win season and 4 come from behind wins, YES - but I was hoping for more in year 5. By more I mean more that a CC - I mean consistant, disciplined play on both sides of the ball.

Which KSU road win? The 2008 one? We are 14-6 on the road since that game, if my counting skills hold true. Or are you lumping our CCGs and bowl games into the road games category? Because CCGs and bowl games aren't really like road games where you are playing on the other team's home field. If you are looking at an earlier KSU road win, I'd point out that those games were under the previous coaching regime. Sorry it is 8-9 - I'll fix in the post.

Maybe you should consider whether or not that's the only thing you've overstated in your attempts to show everyone else's overstatements. Good catch - I'll gladly eat humble pie after that. I don't mean to knock Bo as a person either. I just think our (my and perhaps most fans) expectations were that we'd be much more advanced in year 5 in our team's performance.

No. There were other issues involved. It's not always only about football. Yes, that is true - there were other hidden issue not fully known at the time to fans on the outside. So... if you know that, why even put that in your OP? It's inaccurate, and doesn't make the point you're trying to make. I forgot about that side until you mentioned it. When I think of Frank, I don't think of his personal issues.

Sure they would - but is that the standard now? Do we accept this as all the higher NU football can get?

No. There were other issues involved. It's not always only about football. Yes, that is true - there were other hidden issue not fully known at the time to fans on the outside.

This could not be further from the truth. I'll agree - I over stated that item - Let's say we are not any closer since the day we beat Arizona in the Holiday bow.