Duke Silver

Op is right in some ways. Next year we don't play Ohio St and Wisconsin. So that leaves Michigan, Michigan St, Northwestern as the tough teams. Next year Bo will have his senior team of his players. If we go 9-3 or 10-2 then good chance Bo will never get better if he can't do it with his players and staff. If Bo can't go 11-1 or 12-0 next season then that will be below expectations. I don't care that we lost it's the way we lost that pisses me off the most. Yes i did expect of us to win the Big Ten Championship this year. Not mad that we lost just we got a beat down. TO should have been more willng to open the purse strings to get a better head coach than an experiment project. Even if we fired Pelini we would be able to get a good quality coach if the money is too good to pass up. I know somewhere there is a coach who can do what Bo does and not get blown out or even do a better job. There always is.

You represent everything that is not Husker nation and should consider never posting here against. IMHO. Perhaps adopting a win-at-all costs team in the SEC!SEC!?

I

they get the gift of getting another shot at us and the comfort of preparing for us 2-3 weeks in advance

 

The problem with this excuse is; Wisconsin was much more prepared for Ohio State than we were, taking them to overtime. And they were every bit as prepared for Penn State.

 

It's not like they just looked passed those teams and prepared for us. They were prepared for every single one of their games.

I disagree. I do think they looked passed those teams. I believe Bo said himself after the ohio state loss, "This game didn't matter". And at some point you have to accept there are other factors that play into this crazy world of college football, that is why we love it right? You call them excuses, I call it reality. Do you want me to explain how Meyer and gang get to play scott free football because they have absolutely 0 pressure on them this season? That isn't a factor? Review the game, I do recall meyer going for it on 4 and 1 on his side of the field. I may be wrong, but that is scott free football.

The OP is correct special teams are a joke. At the end of the year NU didn't even attempt to return kicks. Imagine how bad NU would have been without Maher. As bad as the defense was against UCLA, maybe NU wins that game with good special teams.

Excellent find OP. Cue the "Nebraska doesnt get blown out-45 points is not 70" crowd.

Cue me then. 70 is much worse than 45, and to make it worse this team gave up over 60 twice. I can stomach 45 if it is a close game, but two epic beat downs surrendering over 60 points is unacceptable.

Not a thread to just complain. But I think most of us can agree that some changes are need. In YOUR opinion, who needs to go?

 

I say:

Barney

Els (At least as a LB coach)

Kaz (iffy here, his first year)

Poopchus (dish out the $$$$ and get someone)

All of the Husker cry baby fans that obviously do not know what is in the best interest of the program.

 

What?????

OP = "But I think most of us can agree that some changes are need. In YOUR opinion, who needs to go?"

OK??????????

And exactly how did they get the three weeks. Your saying they decided to just lose the games on their schedule just to play us.

 

I ask you the same question, did you ever play a sport?

 

Their disappointment of season showed promise, the ability to persevier and move forward, play the game the right way.

 

The only difference between their season and our, the ball bounced our way and not theirs. But as for a team developing down the road they outplayed us from every angle it seems.

 

Take off the extremely dark red glasses and look at reality.

he only difference between their season and our, the ball bounced our way and not theirs.

he only difference between their season and our, the ball bounced our way and not theirs.

he only difference between their season and our, the ball bounced our way and not theirs.

Are you kidding me guy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nu_0EbWvfo

Put yourself int he shoes of a coach, just for a moment, and quit expecting to win the national title every year. You have your division locked up 2-3 weeks, a national title is already out of the question, your next big game is playing Nebraska A revenge game, to play in the rose bowl, do you start preparing for that game or waste all of the time getting ready for Penn St? A game that literally, doesn't matter.

WE DIDNT HAVE OURS LOCKED UP UNTIL MICH LOST TO OSU------ 1 week before the game against wisc??? RIGHT?? They were just as pressured as we were???? NO

OH by the way, WISC had 5 starters back from the previous time we played them, and how many starters had we lost? Do you think about these things? Revenge?

Oh fun fact, Did WISC defeat a team with a B1G winning record? Just as tired as we were??? The ball didn't flop their way?

WE RAN THE GAUNTLET. Literally, these first 2 years were to designed to negate us from winning the b1g, and you cry baby all day because we didn't

You refuse to look at the facts. 70-31 OMGZ FIRE FIRE FIRE WE SUCKZ! Depth bop bop bop bop bop

Oh my god the preasure of winning six games, it is just tooooo much. But last year when we trounced Michigan State it had nothing to do with that.

 

Give this crap a break. Bama, Oregon, ND, Florida, Georgia, Kansas State and a few others went more than 6 straight. My god can we look for any other excuses for getting our butts kicked. We got beat by a better team it happens, not blow out proportions but it happens.

 

According to the players we were ready. If it is not stated after every loss we need to win out by every coach in America I would be very surprised. I am sure they don't say well maybe we can win some more.

Have to agree. Kids need to be ready to play week in and week out. Wisky was just as tires as us after having 3 of their last 4 go into OT IIRC. We simply got out coached and beat like we stole something. excuses just make it worse. The kids trained with SEALS in the off season. Went through the "Program" run by a former Recon Marine. All of these guys are SOF and tough. Mentally and physically. One thing that I am sure was stressed was that the mind quits way before the body. Their interaction with these guys would have included a healthy aspect of the mental side of things.

 

No excuses. Out coached and flat out beat. no moral victories because we were tired, worn out, mentally exhausted etc...

You just don't get it do you?

Wisc was just as tired as we were?

WISC cemented their division 2-3 weeks before we did? Really???? Just as tired?

WISC was awarded for having a dismal season-- they get the gift of getting another shot at us and the comfort of preparing for us 2-3 weeks in advance

Husker cry babies are hard learners

You did make a good point though, these are just "kids" out there

Oh my god the preasure of winning six games, it is just tooooo much. But last year when we trounced Michigan State it had nothing to do with that.

 

It was bullsh#t then, and it's bullsh#t now.

Have you ever played a sport?

"Bye, bye, bye." He better hire someone who can coach the defense, and one for special teams. The offense, even with all the TO's, was clearly not the problem. The Huskers scored enough points to win 12 games this season. Out of 13 games, the offense scored less than 23 points, once!

 

The defense and special teams were horrible! In our loses, teams ran through the blackshirts like they were starting an all Snickers candy bar team on defense. Our kicking game: punting, FGs, kick coverage, and return game miscues were very unHusker-like.

 

We played most games by giving the opponent the edge on defense, and special teams. And you wonder why TM played like he did. He knew that he had to do it all for us to have any chance to win. If we had an average defense/special teams we would easily be 12-1.

did not read, looks interesting

So, our favorite stirring agent / divisive hack (depending on your point of view) from the Weird-Herald has made his case that the 9 win benchmark is no longer a valid one. Let's play point/counterpoint...

 

Point:

 

9 games is a far less meaningful accomplishment now than it was then, because it means you are 9-4 or 9-5 instead of 9-3. And the schedules are padded with extra home games against FCS cupcakes now because the university has to have 7 or 8 home games a season and is less inclined to take on tough non-conference foes. Plus, the B1G is a joke and any mediocre hack should be able to scrape together 9 wins in most years if they load up on cupcakes and get enough conference games at home.

 

Counterpoint: (Jane, you ignorant....)

 

9 wins is 9 wins and they are arguably just as hard to get now as they were then. While you play one or two extra games a year now compared to 30 years ago, you also play extra conference games in conferences that are much more even from top to bottom than they were. Gone are the days of Oklahoma and everyone else. In the last days of the Big 12, we had KU, K-State, and Missouri all flirting with national titles. That was unthinkable in the 70s. Not to mention the burnt orange and their in-state brethren.

 

What does everyone else think?

 

My feeling is that you can make a case either way pretty easily... I think you do have to look at all the seasons in context. You have to look at the losses in context. There are years where Nebraska won the Big 8 and still went 9-3. There are years where a 10-1 regular season (with one loss to OU) was only enough for second place. Some 9-3 seasons are better than others. 1978 and 1981 were pretty fun years. 1974 and 1990 were both pretty pedestrian.

Yes.

This team has got to have an "us against the world" attitude going into the bowl game. When Bo first got here, he brought that attitude. I haven't seen that out of him lately.

 

We are going up against a team that was less than 5 yards away from playing for the National Championship. This is this team's chance to prove that the Wisconsin game was nothing more than an embarrassing blip that cost them the conference championship. It should absolutely piss off every coach and player in our program to go out and prove something. After the OSU embarrassment Bo challenged this team to win out and they did it. After this embarrassment, he needs to challenge them again. They need to come out and prove that they are a better team than that.

 

To me, the SEC needs to prove that they are the top dog in the country like so many people think they are. Last year they won an NC without having to go out and earn it outside their conference. The BCS basically gave handed the conference the championship...it was just a matter of which team.

 

This year, they are being made to go out and earn it by playing someone else. I for one will be rooting for ND even though I can't stand them.

Nebraska needs to hold up their end of the bargain and prove that their second place team isn't better than the second placed team in our conference.

 

The SEC very well might prove once again they are better. But, Nebraska needs to put up a fight and MAKE them prove it.

I am guessing they have a "this is likely the last game of football I will ever play" attitude.

Not a thread to just complain. But I think most of us can agree that some changes are need. In YOUR opinion, who needs to go?

 

I say:

Barney

Els (At least as a LB coach)

Kaz (iffy here, his first year)

Poopchus (dish out the $$$$ and get someone)

All of the Husker cry baby fans that obviously do not know what is in the best interest of the program.

There have been a couple of over confident proclamations during the past decade:

 

GWB: "Mission Accomplished". We know how that turned out

 

Bo after beating Arizona 33-0 in the Holiday Bowl 4 years ago: "Nebraska is Back"

 

Well after 4 years of being back, what do we have to show for it:

 

1.No Championships (Bo said he came here to win championships)

 

2. Defense not fixed - Bo was hired to fix the D. Thank God for Suh and L. David, Prince and Dennard -

 

3. Undisciplined: Turnovers, penalties, missed assignments, have been trademarks of Bo's teams the last 3 years. Bo was thought to be a disciplinarian but fair coach when he was hired.

 

4.No big game prizes: It was expected that we would win our share of big games. We have now lost every big game but one during the past 4 years: 3 conf championship games, our first Big 10 game, the last time we played texas at home, every big national TV game - the only exceptions I can think of is the comeback last year against OSU, our win over OU at NU. Typically, the bigger the exposure the worse the performance. We hired Bo to be a motivator - our team appears to be unprepared for the national stage.

 

5. Win games: Since the KSU road win we are 8-9 on the road or something similar. We appear to be on our way to another 4 loss season.

 

6.Restore the Order: We are no closer being in the national championship conversation then what we were when BC was fired. This is Nebraska, when schools like Northern Ill are ranked ahead of NU, there is something wrong, seriously wrong - after 5 years of the Bo reign NU fans deserve a greater return on their financial and emotional investment.

 

7. Stop embarrassing NU: BC had too many embarrassing loses during his year 4 at NU. Bo said that would not happen. In the past few years we've been embarrassed 2x by Wisky, 1x by OSU, 1x by Michigan, 1x by S. Carolina, 1x by S Dak State ( a win but an embarrassing win), Washington in the Holiday Bowl (the score not so much just the loss to a team we blew out earlier). Bo's sideline demeanor while better this year has been an embarrassment (think Texas A&M esp) The media loves to focus on Bo yelling at someone - it has become the face of NU football

 

8. Competence: We got on BC because his loyalty to an incompetent DC in Cosgrove. It appears Bo has the same blinded loyalty. Cotton and others come to mind. Ron Brown is the only assistant with long term experience. As one journalist said, Bo wasn't hired to teach a graduate course in coaching - shown by his hire of relatively inexperience and lower skilled coaches. Is Bo personally threatened by guys with greater experience? NU deserves better. Perhaps we made a critical mistake: We hired a head coach with NO head coaching experience. NU deserved better 5 years ago - we put ourselves in the position to have a very long learning curve because of it.

 

,

 

Frank Solich was fired for going 9-3 because he lost to KSU 31-10 ( I believe that was the score) and not bringing us closer to the NC game. Does NU need to apologize for firing Frank? We fired Frank for lesser issues than what I note above.

 

I do not want Frank back as I don't believe he was going to get us into the NC game - NU was above his 'paid grade'. Now I'm wondering if Bo is over his head and is also above his paid grade.

 

I began to drink some kool-aid turning the 6 game win streak. Yet, in looking back, I can see that just below those comeback wins were the cracks in the foundation that have never been addressed - turnovers, lack of discipline, emotional instability (hot and cold play - reflective of the coach?), lack of team speed on the D. Saturday night proved that while comeback wins are great, they are not a guaranty that the foundation was fixed.

If you're not iN get out.

"Bo isn’t good enough to get over the hump. He isn't bad enough to fire. Nebraska is stuck in purgatory."

 

As awful as it to say this, these three sentences sum up our current situation perfectly.

 

The rest of the article here.

One hair off Pelinis ass has more knowledge about football than Dirk

I don't like it. When I played football in HS the coaches kid was the featured back and got more than his share of the carries. We had a good team, and other guys got the ball, and we rushed for a zillion yards, but in the back of my mind I know that most of the guys on the team (including me) thought that the only reason that coaches kid got all those carries was because his father was the HC. The kid was a good kid and a decent player, but he was by far not the best back on the team. There were 3 guys on the roster that were better than him.

My Son went to HS and played football. The program (and all the athletic programs at the school) practiced nepotism to the extreem...."if you had a reletive in a position of power you were pretty much penciled in an employee, or you were given preferrential treatment if you were an athelete. That school is the worst in their conference at just about everything. They totally suck, and have sucked since I moved here (Chicago suburb) in 1990.

I see the Pelini kid got the start at center on Saturday...over the other kid he was competing against. I wonder how the team feels about that?

I like Ben Cotton as a TE....through his career he has been a steady performer - I'm glad he's a Husker. Aren't there some other Cotton's on the roster? Scholerships?

IMO....kids should go out and make their own mark in society. Don' be following parents or uncles around...it just doesn't look good. The purpose to growing up is going out in the world and taking what your family tought you and use it to bring a positive experience to others.

Seriously? How many ALL AMERICAN NFL players have we had that have "followed" their uncles fathers cousins around?

With all of the money we and other schools are starting to cash in at some point we need to join the arms race of the SEC. They aren't afraid to go after anyone and give them anything to get the job done. Helll they even poach each others coaches. At some point the B1G has to start investing the money they are raking in. Personally I would love to see NU get ahead of the curve by going out and poaching the best coordinators and position coaches and start writing checks. Granted I don't think Bo would go along with this, but eventually it's going to have to be done. Why not be the ones to start it?

Really? ATM punches bama in the face@ home the first year in the SEC. Shut off the ESPN.

I'm one of those people that has been a sun shiner. I've always been a Bo supporter. I went to the game, and left stunned, just trying to figure out what was going on. It wasn't until today that I had what could be a useful insight. What if we're framing this completely wrong. We knew that our D was bad this year, that wasn't really a question. Losing Dennard, Crick, and David and having no amazing underclassman or Juco's come in to replace them was going to be ugly. Do I blame Bo for the bad talent around at the moment at the upperclassman level? Yes and no, I don't think he recruited great his first year or two, but there was also the usual attrition and people not playing out. So we could still frame it as his fault.

 

My question is this, what if Bo's been coaching lights out all season and Wisconsin/tOSU were just games where coaching could not overcome? This team could have been the running equivalent of Okie State (when they were really bad) and instead they went 10-3 despite having huge holes at two defensive levels. This is essentially the flipside of the 09 team. I think that if Bo ever has a team without holes (doesn't need to be amazing, but without holes) it'll be a team in the national championship conversation.

 

Take it for what you want, this could just be the ramblings of a sleep deprived person.

You're seriously going to say this defense is bad overall?

I went on to Rivals and looked up all of the depth charts for each opponent for next year, and the three B1G teams we don't play. Some of these were created earlier in the year, so they may not be completely accurate. I listed how many underclassmen are on offense and defense and labeled them as returners. Obviously some could leave the program or enter the draft. I also listed the QB and what year they are this year. The number in parentheses is the total offense and total defense from this year. This is yardage, not scoring. I listed DONU first.

 

Nebraska

O: Return 8, including JR QB Taylor Martinez. Abdulah a returner (24)

D: Return 3 (22)

Total returning starters: 11

 

Wyoming

O: Return 7, including SO QB Brett Smith (76)

D: Return 8 (108)

Total returning starters: 15

 

Southern Miss

O: Return 5, including FR QB Anthony Alford (106)

D: Return 8 (83)

Total returning starters: 13

 

UCLA

O: Return 7, including FR QB Brett Hundley (20)

D: Return 6 (72)

Total returning starters: 13

 

S. Dakota State

No depth chart

 

Illinois

O: Return 9, including JR Nathan Scheelhaase (119)

D: Return 5 (55)

Total returning starters: 14

 

Purdue

O: Return 6, QB is third string JR Rob Henry (59)

D: Return 7 (70)

Total returning starters: 13

 

BYE

 

Minnesota

O: Return 10, including FR QB Phillip Nelson (111)

D: Return 6 (29)

Total returning starters: 16

 

Northwestern

O: Return 7, including JR Cain Colter & SO Trevor Siemian (63)

D: Return 6 (51)

Total returning starters: 13

 

Michigan

O: Return 6, including JR QB Devin Gardner (80)

D: Return 6 (11)

Total returning starters: 12

 

Michigan State

O: Return 9, including JR QB Andrew Maxwell (89)

D: Return 8 (4)

Total returning starters: 17

 

Penn State

O: Return 8, QB is backup SO Paul Jones (54)

D: Return 6 (32)

Total returning starters: 14

 

Iowa

O: Return 6, QB is backup FR Jake Ruddock (114)

D: Return 8 (46)

Total returning starters: 14

 

Other B1G Teams

Ohio State

O: Return 9, including SO QB Braxton Miller (48)

D: Return 6 (36)

Total returning starters: 15

 

Wisconsin

O: Return 9, including FR QB Joel Stave (62)

D: Return 7 (13)

Total returning starters: 16

 

Indiana

O: Return 10, including SO QB Cameron Coffman (36)

D: Return 9 (104)

Total returning starters: 19

I would hold off on setting your expectations for next years team at least until the UCLA game.

Let's get this out of the way....

UGA's OC can sometimes be a real braintrust, but I suppose that is common thought amongst CFB fans. Mike Bobo, was a UGA QB baci in the 90's. He set a few records, and played retty well. this year he has been able to execut what he wants to do though, and that may have been a job saver for him.

UGA loves the play action out of a single back pro-set. Seldom will you see two backs in the backfield. Todd Gurley(#3) is a stud TB that has almost FB size at 6'1" 220, but runs like a WR or a DB...a solid 4.3...his #2 is Keith Marshall, that is like Gurley minus 5lbs, but with more speed. Marshall is an outside guy though, and tends to not get the yards between the tackles. Gurley will bruise you for sure. If Coach Bobo, can et any semblence of a run game going, then he will ride the horses for a bit and then turn Murray loose with the pass game. UGA lost theior two leading receivers at mid-season, and have been relying on some younger, but just a talented WR's in Conley, and Mitchell...Tavares King is the lone Sr. WR, but he is good and can hurt you with decent speed, and great hands. Since losing two WR's, UGA has been going to the TE's with some good success....Jay Rome is a rsF, that has great ability, and decent speed, but needs to work on blocking some. Sr TE Artie Lynch, is more like having a fast tackle with good hands at the TE slot...both willplay a lot. I figure Bobo will try to work the play-action pass to loosen up the run game---I know what you are thinking, but I have seen it work before. The offensive line IS FAIR....not great. We have a trFr at RT, but he has played all season, and done so admirably...here is the OL line up as you should see it....

 

RT 71 John Theus (6-6, 309, Fr.) RG 68 Chris Burnette (6-2, 322 Jr.) C 61 David Andrews (6-2, 295, So.) LG 64 Dallas Lee (6-4, 300, Jr.)

LT 72 Kenarious Gates (6-5, 318, Jr.)

 

Y'all know what type of defense we have. I can't tell you anymore than you already know. Expect to see Jarvis Jones run a lot of inside stunts...Alec Ogletree will spy Martinez....Ogletree may be the fastest guy on defense, and he is an ILB! He is about 6'3" 230...and came to UGA as a SS...hard hitter and almost as good as Jones. Linebackers are our strength and our best depth position. Jordon Jenkins, and Amarlo herrera are two tFr to watch here too. The DL is big...Did I say they were big? Pretty atheletic too. NG John Jenkins (Sr) is 6'3" and 365lbs...his back up (who is on the field with him quite often at DE) is NG Kwame Geathers(Jr) is 6'6" 360..both can run too. The actual ends are Garrison Smith (Jr) 6'3" 300 and Cornelius Washington (Sr) 6'4" 270...Ray Drew is a rFr that rotates in here at 6'5" 280...maybe the weakest spot for us is at DB....All American Baccari Rambo is a ball hawk, and S Shawn Williams is a big fast hard hitter ( 6'2" 220 Sr.) as is Sanders Comings (Sr 6'2" 220) but after that we can be a little young and not ver deep....DC Todd Grantham will try to stop Martinez from running wild, and make him want to stay in the pocket so the LB's and the DL can work....out DB's should be able to run with your WR's and cover decent enough to slow down a passing game so the LB's can get to him in the pocket....the guy is too fast to give him any room.

 

So thereya go...that is basically what we have. I am sure there are some better understanding Dawgs out there that may be able to go into more technical detail than I can ...describing "cover two" schemes, and route running ailities of WR's and all that stuff, but I just watch the game and see the hits.

Did not read, but I am going to guess they will try a Jet sweep at some point. Just sayin'

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.

This is a great point to be discussing heading into the bowl game.

Account I think a lot of people really have a hard time understanding why a team can't be up and mentally ready for a big game like the CCG. It is tough to understand. I mean if people don't think our players wanted to win and wern't giving there best effort that is just silly. That six game stretch really took it out of them. The whole motivation was to win out. That was the goal. Mission accomplished. Maybe there wasn't anything left.

The people who have a hard time understanding this aspect of the game, are those who have not played it. On any level.

I don't know if this was true but Taylor looked like he didn't feel well. Like maybe he had a bad cold. He was really puffing alot during the game. Fatigue, both mental and physical can just strip you. I felt badly for these boys. They played so hard for the past 6 weeks and to get kicked in the teeth like they did was just so sad for them. I'm hoping that they can come back and play an excellent game against Georgia. They may or may not win but if they are competitive that will be good enough for me.

You can sit here and say Taylor, Stafford, bop bop bop bop, it was a breakdown on every level. I would say Taylor was the last one to look terrible, IMHO. What can he do when he throws a tight pass to arguably the best WR in the B1G and the WR not only blows the catch, but tips it over into the D's hands.