TheSker

It's about personnel. A lot of the pieces are looking good. The LB needs settled.....and it will be the one who shows they can tackle.

Missed LB tackles are a nemesis of a Pelini defense.....but good tackling in Pelini's system will put up All-American numbers......the Barrett Ruuds, Demorrio Williams and LaVonte Davids. If that is not in place, we can struggle, like last season. That's why it looks like Bando or Rose may be given an opportunity. It wasn't that he missed it, it was that he was literally held in the hole. Clean play by WYO and we stop it for a 1 yard gain at most. I didn't really care too much about the missed calls, but that was a big one. I hear ya. As a LB though, they have to get off blocks and not get held. Getting off blocks was an issue at times for Will Compton for example.

Missed LB tackles are a nemesis of a Pelini defense.....but good tackling in Pelini's system will put up All-American numbers......the Barrett Ruuds, Demorrio Williams and LaVonte Davids. If that is not in place, we can struggle, like last season. That's why it looks like Bando or Rose may be given an opportunity.

I agree......Pelini's defensive trademark stats have historically been in three areas....pass efficiency defense, turnovers and scoring defense. The good news is when you rank high in scoring defense it means you're winning some games. The upgrade in talent will help as it would help any coordinator. It certainly helped Charlie McBride.

I think perhaps Pelini's biggest shortfall has been recruiting. The staff has addressed that the past two years. I think evidence of that was on the field Saturday night. You say you support Pelini and don't want him fired because the program can't stand it......if you read your post again, your support for Pelini doesn't seem very firm. At least not to me. As far as this board being a representation, it's a fun board....but there are 14 posters on here right now.

Apparently he won Saturday without doing so......though several posters seem to be realizing it wasn't so bad after re-watching the game.

I understand about Pap. As far as your other point, I remember very well what it was like having Cally and Cos here. I remember losing records, missing a bowl and the stadium emptying at halftime when Okie Lite was destroying us. Yes, I'll take Pelini over that any day of the week and twice on Saturday. And despite the grumblings about the 600 flippin' yards, I saw talent on defense that Pelini has lacked bringing in until the last couple of seasons. So pardon me if I'm not that worried about where Pelini falls on some silly Cosgrove chart.

Correct. At this point, Pelini and Pap are figuring out the combos that are most productive. And as one of the coaches said....seeing who performs once the lights in the stadium come on.

So you're not saying fire Bo, or you are saying fire Bo? What are you saying? You should probably also compare Pelini to Callahan and not Cosgrove......or compare Pap to Cosgrove.....since one is HC and the other is DC. That aside, while all this yardage stuff is fine to bring up, Pelini has made corrective steps that we could see against Wyoming. Pelini and staff have done a better job recruiting. One other thing with this Pelini and Cosgrove giving up a billion yards debate......let me know when Pelini has even one losing season (Cally/Cos had two) or if Pelini misses a bowl....such as Cally/Cos did.

Wyoming was punting rugby style which gives them time to get downfield and also makes the punt more dangerous to field. Our ability to get a defensive push on the line was much improved. Injuries and lack of depth were an issue, and Stein was undersized. Our size and depth at DT is youthful, but it's got potential. Cross looked like our best back......he will get his carries this season. We have it very good with Bell and Enunwa. Bell can really stretch the field, and Enunwa has as good of hands as anyone.....apparently as does Westerkamp. Martinez called the INT a miscommunication.....receivers coach Rich Fisher said Burtch's route was good. It's on Martinez. I'm still not seeing a big improvement with rushing 4, but a lot of people seem to see it so I'll take them at their word. Let's hope the perceived added pressure is making some sort of difference by the time UCLA comes to town. If the INT was a miscommunication, and Burtch was supposed to go where the ball was thrown, it still would have been a matter of Martinez throwing into coverage. Either way, it seems like it's on him. But again, a lot of people are seeing something else, so I guess it's up for discussion. Last season our undersized d-line would at times get blown off the LOS. Injuries and guys scooting over from DE just made it tough. We have some better size and depth now.....it's just young but looked pretty good for a first game. A lot of people who were seeing something else assumed Burtch ran a bad route and I think a couple of sportswriters wrote it was a bad route also. I'm going to assume Rich Fisher is the accurate one.

Wyoming was punting rugby style which gives them time to get downfield and also makes the punt more dangerous to field. Our ability to get a defensive push on the line was much improved. Injuries and lack of depth were issues last season, and Stein was undersized. Our size and depth at DT is youthful, but it's got potential. Cross looked like our best back......he will get his carries this season. We have it very good with Bell and Enunwa. Bell can really stretch the field, and Enunwa has as good of hands as anyone.....apparently as does Westerkamp. Martinez called the INT a miscommunication.....receivers coach Rich Fisher said Burtch's route was good. It's on Martinez.

The quality of our depth on both sides of the ball is as good as it's been in a long time.

Me. Looked like Santos was thinking too much...while Bando did that some, not nearly as much. Lets be honest... The only reason Santos is playing that position is because he knows the defense the best. He sucks there in comparison to his more natural OLB position. If Bando takes over do we see Santos move to OLB? I wouldn't think so......Santos would become what we call "depth"

Interesting quote from Rich Fisher (seems to me Fisher is defending his guy without specifically calling Martinez out)......"Fisher said. "Burtch was fine. He ran the right route. I wouldn't say it's on anybody. Burtch did the right thing."" I think he zigged when he should have zagged on that one. Well, apparently Martinez threw the zag on a zig route.

Based on his comment about it, I'd say Pelini thought Bando outplayed Santos.

Hey if you think Dabo's the guy that can make it happen better than Pelini can here, you should start trying to get your appointment with Eichorst.

You would think so.....signed, Hawkeye

I really believe over the next couple of games it will become clear talent was an issue.....too undersized at DT, not athletic enough at DE and too slow at LB. Undersized at DT? VV is 320 pounds. He had 30 pounds on every Wyoming lineman. And Gregory is one of the best athletes I've seen at DE in a long time. And we're quicker than I've seen in forever at LBer. Are you talking about last year still? Because my issue is currently with this years team. We've had vastly different spectrums of talent and experience, and the only thing consistent is performance. I'm finding it harder and harder to believe anything other than the 1 constant (coaching) throughout each era is the issue. Yeah, sorry......that's why I said over the next couple of games it will become more clear. I think our performance will improve quickly because we have the components in place like you mentioned in your post. I think we need more production from the other DE spot, but our talent on the front 7 is improved over last year. We'll get better defensively each game with these chess pieces in place.

I really believe over the next couple of games it will become clear talent was an issue.....too undersized at DT, not athletic enough at DE and too slow at LB.

Houston Nutt has wondered "what if?" he had boarded that plane. We might be able to get him now.....if we can overlook his 24-26 record during his time at Ole Miss.

The freshmen and newcomers on this defense give us plenty to be excited about. Our DTs were getting a push that we were simply too undersized to get the previous couple of years. Gregory has the athleticism we have lacked at that DE spot. Ankrah I believe only has 3 career sacks, so it will be no surprise if McMullen's snap count increases. We could easily have two speedy true freshmen out there with Gerry and Bando. Pelini and Pap have the tools on the field to do things we were just too slow to do because of our previous recruiting.

The Nebraska freshmen stepped up very well. And were on the winning team.

I would rather have seen Nebraska play. I'm a Husker. Clemson would be favored and likely beat the Huskers today. I don't dispute that. I could care less what the talking heads have to say. Our recruiting has been very good the past two seasons. It needed to be. If I want to slobber about how good Clemson is, I'll go to their fan board. I'm glad we have Pelini.

? We huddled on the Enunwa TD. So Enunwa was supposedly shaking his head about a play call that he scored a TD on???? I would hope it's referring to the TD catch where he was shaking his head because he was originally ruled OOB.

A team doesn't win 9 or more games each year of a coaching tenure if things are seriously dysfunctional. You just keep hanging your hat on that absolutely worthless stat while we keep ending the season ranking in the 20's with our 9 wins. (of course people like you who keep pointing this out always leave out the 3 or 4 losses aspect of the 9 win season. I suppose that's not important to what you're trying to sell though, is it?) In this age of parity where there are two million bowl games and it only takes 6 wins to get there a 9 win season is admirable. It's admirable enough that only 5 schools have accomplished it. It's not a hard sell since so few coaches have done it. Osborne did it and more. Solich didn't do it.....and Callahan's name isn't even in the same paragraph. So yes, it's a good accomplishment.