TheSker

Can you will a player to hold onto the football? If a division 1 coach making three million dollars, with his hand picked assistants, can't teach his hand picked players to not drop the ball then they're sh**ty teachers. Are you referring to Pelini? There are several coaches that meet the above criteria, so I thought I'd ask.

I'd be the first to say I think we'd have been better off today had Abdullah got more carries.

Same thing was heard between 1973 and 1993 It may be a valid argument, but out of curiosity do you consider Bo and TO in the same league at all? I'm not seeing it. I know, they said the same thing about TO vs Devaney. Osborne's legacy was cemented by the last 5 years of his 25 years as head coach. During Osborne's tenure, such things happened as being blown out by Oklahoma, didn't win the conference (which was comprised of less than 12 teams) and lost 7 straight bowl games. Yet, Osborne was very consistent in his approach. That's how I think most coaches are similar.

Same thing was heard between 1973 and 1993

Im happy with the players we have been recruiting the past two years, which is the point of this thread, talking about Ross Els. Gregory, Rose, Valentine, Curry, Moss, Westercamp, Moore, Stanton, Newby, Taylor, etc. And those guys are all sophomore and below. Are you blind when you watch these games and not see these kids have a bright future ahead of them? Newby fumbled. Westercamp is a joke returning punts. Props to him on his mustache and catching a tipped prayer Taylor hasn't played yet Ditto Stanton I'm curious how I'm blind and I'm annoyed that NU turned the ball over 5 times, gave up 40+ on national tv again, and gave away a game they had no business losing and I'm not ok with it? Explain that to me. Please. No explanation necessary. Turnovers are annoying.

Now if only we'd RUN the friggin option. I like the idea of playing option football at Nebraska--call me crazy--but you have to commit to that style of ball. Beck's 'system' or whatever you want to call it is a mutt. Plenty of athletes, no vision. Fix that problem, add an experienced, talented defense, and we're right where we need to be. I agree.....good post.

The only time he went away from the ground game was the last two drives, in my opinion. I thought he showed great restraint not getting cute throughout the game until that point - we took some shots in the passing game, sure, but we established the run and we kept running it. I'd be curious to know what our run/pass ratio was on 2nd down.

I agree......defense was great. My biggest complaint about Beck is going away from the ground game. I understand it's speculation on my part, but I think we got away from the ground game too quickly, especially on 2nd down.

If you think this pasture is green then that's your opinion. I like Bo. I want him to get better but he needs to hire competent people around him that can improve the staff. This team reminds me of the last 3...sloppy, sloppy, sloppy...that's our identity... I will agree with you 1000000% on the assistants...I am NOT fond of Beck at all. What frustrates me more then anything is the players not being aggressive enough, especially on offense. I don't like how Beck gets away from the ground game so soon. Too many 3rd and longs due to incompletions on 2nd down. I believe we could have ran the ball well on Michigan State had we stuck to it.

I've felt like our offense has struggled all season. Pelini mentioned his disappointment in the offense as far back as the UCLA post game presser. It's disappointing how many incompletions we have on 2nd down. I don't like how Beck gets away from the running game so quickly.

This is a really good post. The defense has come along very well. Our offense has issues and it's more than just injuries. We could have ran the ball very well on this Michigan State team. The first team who sticks to the ground game will beat Michigan State.....it might be Minnesota. We passed way too much on 2nd down today.

Agree.....as our defense continues to come around, the quarterback taking care of the ball might be the thing that helps our offense take the next step.

You are absolutely right EZE. I am getting very impatient. I have not been satisfied since prior to sitting in Folsom Field and watching the debacle in 2001. I recognize that Bo has accomplished much and much of it came quicker than it probably should have, considering where we were. You're right, we're at that last hump, and more difficult point but, it just drives me nuts when I see coaching decisions and actions that keep us from getting that leg over the hill. My qualms with some on this board, not referring to you at all is that they look at things in this program as if they are black and white. They aren't. There are so many factors that play into these past 5+ years some of which fall at our coach's feet. For example, the 2010 DL recruiting class. That's just one example. But there are others that simply can't be blamed on one person. EZ-E, I do not think most people see this as a black and white issue or believe there is a black and white solution. There is so more here than just wins and losses! By the way; Borrowed this link from Rolling Rock post under Tressel thread. Just listened to it and wow, game-point-match! http://soundcloud.co...er-on-game-time So a Michigan State media personality would like to see a former Ohio State coach at Nebraska? Good for media ratings I guess.

There are posters who minimize the 9+ wins per season under Pelini.....and my guess is he may be in a class by himself as far as a coach who did it while switching conferences. As you've said before Mavric, if it were easy the list of coaches who accomplished it would be a lot longer.

I understand where you are coming from with this thought, but there are other factors that are very important. Three of these factors are turnovers, starting field position and red zone defense. As an example from this season, UCLA put some points on the board against us, but they didn't need to rack up a bunch of yardage to do so especially in the third quarter. Their drives were starting at mid-field.

One game at a time. This defense is becoming fun to watch. We are starting to make some noise in the opponents' backfield.

I agree, blitzing has its risks.....especially when you have a defense that can tend to give up the big yardage play as we have been guilty of. I think we're seeing some of the coaching mind of Pelini with our blitzes though, as he brings them in different ways at different times. How many different defenders got to the quarterback last week and again this week? Gregory, Moss, Evans, Cooper, Randle, Ankrah.......

I'm not writing this to defend Beck's play calling per se......but part of what we needed from Beck was to help protect Armstrong from turning the ball over. Armstrong did not turn the ball over yesterday. That's a big deal on the road and something we've struggled with from the quarterback position.

Excellent post. Armstrong is now 5-0 as a starter, including road wins at Purdue and Michigan. We were minus two in turnovers yesterday and neither came from the quarterback position.....which Included snaps for both Armstrong and Kellogg. Something clicked for the Blackshirts in the second quarter of the Northwestern game. Enunwa has struggled a bit lately with drops and the turnover.......Westerkamp had his muff yesterday, but it was great to see the team rally around him. Not committing turnovers helps the cause in any game, but especially on the road.

And his pal on the other end, Avery Moss, is coming on strong too. Having these two for the next 2-3 years is pure awesome. ......and the same with Curry and Valentine in the interior line. Not to mention the depth with others including McMullen, Collins and Maurice. Good things happen when defensive line is a strength.

I learned that something did seem to click in the second quarter of the Northwestern game for our defense. And I learned there might be some truth to us recruiting better.

You forgot to put I am skersfan and I endorse this message

McBride got plenty of criticism at times. Especially when we lost 7 straight bowl games and had trouble containing the speed of Florida teams. Recruiting differently helped a lot on the defensive side of the ball.

Depends who the W's and L's were vs. To some extent, yes. But twice as many wins with as many losses is a totally different level of success. One of 4-5 schools with 9 wins in the last five years is not mediocre. Three CCGs in four years is not mediocre. As I said, not great. Not even as good as we would like. But far from mediocre. Perhaps the results dont appear to be mediocre, but between resources and scheduling, 6 wins are just about a given. Its about the other games. And he's losing 4 of the 7-8 other games every year. Ah....the old weak schedule spin. The old Big 8 is chuckling.

Yes. The important thing to remember is that it's all the players faults. They just aren't good enough, or fast and tough enough like you said. Either way, they just aren't good enough to execute what these coaches want. Sorry ass players..... It's just too bad that these players are holding these coaches back. It's really not fair to these coaches. I mean, here these coaches are busting their butts, just to have these players not be good enough. And I mean really, we have heard multiple, MULTIPE former players say this scheme is not complicated. So what the hell is wrong with these guys? These guys just can't execute it. I mean we hear Bo constantly blame them that they just didn't execute so at this point it is clearly not a scheme problem. Yep, someday Bo will get these players he's been searching for. Once he has four Suh's across that defensive line, then things are going to work great! Then we will see what a great scheme this is! All these naysayers will have to eat it. Clearly these players are just holding this staff back from furthering their careers and becoming head coaches at other universities. Damn players...... Our recruiting needed to pick up from Pelini's first few years. There was an emphasis put on recruiting the past couple of years. It looks like there could be a lot to look forward to. At times we play two frosh and two sophs on the DL.....Gregory, Valentine, Curry and Moss. We're getting there.