TheSker

I think Bo and Dabo came in about the same time. Bo has brought in friends with little experience over and I think he has needed good help since he got here. Dabo runs the ship, he hired top end Coordinators, nearly if not the highest paid in the country. It is working for Clemson, why not here.

 

2) Clemson is in a much weaker conference and has still plateaued each year the same way that we have with Bo.

 

 

Plateaued? We lost two games last year, both to top 10 teams (SCar & FSU), and started the 2013 season with a win over #5 UGA and Clemson is now ranked #4. Go on, tell me how Clemson has plateaued. Nothing against Bo, but Dabo took over a non ranked team and now has them consistently ranked in the top 15. That's a pretty damn good job if you ask me.

 

If we plateau around #4, I'd be ok with that.

Bo took over a non ranked team....Callahan was 5-7 in 2007. Dabo has done a great job at Clemson as has Pelini at Nebraska. Dabo's past two seasons have been very good. Pelini hasn't won less than 9 games in any season. Dabo has a 6-7 season in 2010 and Nebraska won the bowl game between the two schools. They have done things differently with assistant coaches, but both head coaches have done well at their respective schools.

Something I havent seen mentioned is the heat. Lets' not undersell that Saturday was one of those few days where it was simply not fun to be playing football. These guys are not robots playing for EA sports. Until the sun finally went behind the west stadium, it was not fun to be there. And heat doesnt tend to bother me much, but friday and saturday were ridiculous. It was pretty horrid just sitting there.

 

South Carolina was hot too and they were rocking that stadium on Thursday.

 

Spurrier's visor keeps everything cool

Taylor Martinez was 17 - 22. One was a bad interception. Another one should have been. A couple were brilliant fade route touch passes for TDs. Another was an absolute laser for a TD. Another was an absolute laser that the receiver dropped. One was a lucky deflection when Taylor was trying to make something out of nothing after a bad snap.

 

If you were to plot out the 63 running plays and detail the fumbles, short gainers and no-gainers, you'd have a similar mixed bag, but nobody ever argues for running less because the Huskers have generally been running the correct amount.

 

I trust Taylor will be throwing on some third down situations and the Huskers will be running on others. That's the game of football.

I agree, and the Huskers certainly have as talented a group of receivers as any team in the country. Whether running or passing, turnovers are a key statistic.....and because he's a dual threat quarterback, Martinez turns the ball over both ways. There's also the old adage, when you pass the ball, one of three things can happen and two of them are bad.

Also, given the reasonably successful Husker offense, one begins to wonder what the offense is really thinking/saying about their defensive teammates.

It would be great if they pointed the thumb and figured out how to maintain possession of the football

and finished with 5 or 6 losses a season I would be satisfied and never complain. The record is not the point.

I'll confess to being a bit skeptical of this claim.

a complex Defense

If we say this enough, will we start to believe it? Pelini defenses are complex enough that they were learned well in fall camp in 2003 and 2008. Is it possible Pelini recruited poorly and our talent level dropped? I can think of at least two positions now where the returning starter may end up giving way to a more talented underclassman. And yes, the recruiting issue is on Pelini. The good news is swift and immediate corrections seem to have been made.

I miss the days when NU had a participation count over 100.

The formation of the Big 12 changed that

Yes. And Rich Fisher said Burtch ran the correct route. So here's what I know. Burtch ran the correct route and the ball was intercepted. Taylor said there was a miscommunication. I'd say so.

 

And we know that Taylor Martinez is the worst quarterback in the history of football, so there's that.

 

I like Martinez. His turnovers are frustrating.

but we were very good in points allowed.

Which is a good stat to be good in

Basically, we saw a continuation of the 2012 season. 2012 was plagued with terrible defense and lots of turnovers.

Well, except in 2013 we won the game where we gave up 600 yards. And we needed more speed and better athletes on the field on the defensive side of the ball. Pelini and staff have done a good job of taking care of that in one offseason. I'm with you on the turnovers. Those have to stop.

The problem was, Burtch wasn't looking for the pass.

The problem was Martinez threw it to the wrong team. Like many others, I thought Burtch ran the wrong route, but after seeing what Rich Fisher and Taylor Martinez said about it, the INT is on Martinez.

Well, TM might have had a bad pass, but the ball almost hit Burtch so it was definitely within arms reach. But Burtch wasn't looking so it went right passed him to a defender. Was that on the QB or the WR? I certainly can't tell; I'm not sure why you're so confident it was the QB.

 

TM said that it was miscommunication. He thought Burtch was going to break off his route earlier than he did. If so, then his ball was thrown pretty accurately and it is understandable why Burtch wasn't looking for the ball yet.

 

Yes. And Rich Fisher said Burtch ran the correct route. So here's what I know. Burtch ran the correct route and the ball was intercepted. Taylor said there was a miscommunication. I'd say so.

The problem was, Burtch wasn't looking for the pass.

The problem was Martinez threw it to the wrong team. Like many others, I thought Burtch ran the wrong route, but after seeing what Rich Fisher and Taylor Martinez said about it, the INT is on Martinez.

Well, TM might have had a bad pass, but the ball almost hit Burtch so it was definitely within arms reach. But Burtch wasn't looking so it went right passed him to a defender. Was that on the QB or the WR? I certainly can't tell; I'm not sure why you're so confident it was the QB.

 

Because like I said in my post....I read what Rich Fisher and Taylor Martinez had to say about it.

(3 consecutive 300 yard games), and yet Bo is afraid to put anything new on film. Was he afraid to show something against Wisconsin? Was he saving something for the Rose Bowl?

I thought it was 600? A lot of the play calling was due to the effectiveness of Cross and Newby. If Martinez doesn't commit turnovers, we're not even having this discussion.

The NU defense has been running aroung trying to aligned prior to the snap for 3 years now.

This is in part due to the pre-snap motions OCs are utilizing now.

The problem was, Burtch wasn't looking for the pass.

The problem was Martinez threw it to the wrong team. Like many others, I thought Burtch ran the wrong route, but after seeing what Rich Fisher and Taylor Martinez said about it, the INT is on Martinez.

This game the O seemed to use basic run plays (many times over and over the same play) and didn't throw a pass more than 15 yards down field. Why?

Pelini and Beck both said they probably should have went downfield more......but Beck also answered this question with two last names.....Cross and Newby. I don't think many Husker fans will complain about an effective run game.

The thing that keeps me optimistic for this season is we don't play the schedule to have a 2007-type collapse. We just don't. We play 2 decent offenses in UCLA and Michigan, and probably no elite offenses. Okay? Maybe 2 blowout losses (assuming things don't go awry vs. Northwestern). That's the status quo around here.

 

If being fine means keeping our heads above water, yeah, we'll be fine.

 

the easy schedule we have had these last years and will have this year masks the reality of the quality of the team. NU has been winning 9 games a season for a while --- where 4-5 wins come against teams that 90% of the major conference programs would go undefeated against. That is, more than 1/2 the NU wins are against absolute fish... teams that anyone of quality would beat. Teams like Wyoming of this year. Against decent teams, NU over the Pelini era is playing about .500 football. When NU plays good teams, NU loses 80% of the time... and often NU gets obliterated by such teams.

 

Those who trumpet the "9 win thing" seem (at least as I interpret their posts) to think that that is fine. But is it really? Is 1/2 our wins against fish... and then playing .500 against decent teams and getting ripped by good teams really fine? My point is that the 9-win thing is largely a function of a great deal of games against weak teams. Look more closely at the quality teams NU has played and the record is very much not fine. NU has just been fortunate to play schedules where the competition is not that great (really the B1G has only 1-2 good teams a year here recently and only another 2 or so that are even decent... the rest are less than decent).

 

All is not fine. Being .500 against decent teams makes NU well.... merely decent. Given the history of NU football, being merely decent --- even if it is consistently decent and no less --- is not enough.

 

No... things are not fine.

 

Pelini's record vs top 25 is not great.....valid point. Solich's was not good either and Callahan's was the worst of the three. When the Big 12 was formed, Tom Osborne felt the landscape of college football was changing. Many of the changes were designed to create parity......I'd say that's happened. It's only one example, but it's a recent one.....Bill Snyder is famous for scheduling a cream puff pre-conference schedule starting in the late 80's. Well, oops Bill, it's 2013....watch out for NDSU.

IMO you run your offense full speed, full attack all game. The only thing you ever change is who is executing it. If you get up big, you substitute the backups. But, I don't see the point of limiting your best players or your offense for the sake of being secretive. Nothing wrong with throwing some wrinkles in here or there, of course.

I agree completely with this. I've mentioned in several threads that the "vanilla" game plan and secretive coaching just drives me crazy.

 

I'm not sure what all this "secretive" stuff is about. We came out in the second half and ran the ball very well. Beck stuck with that until the Martinez INT. We probably should have stuck with our ground game at that point, but I wouldn't call anything about our offense "secretive". It's widely known we have a lot of offensive weapons......and it's widely known we are quite capable of turning the ball over.

But now that he has his own staff, the dysfunction just continues.

A team doesn't win 9 or more games each year of a coaching tenure if things are seriously dysfunctional.

 

I respectfully disagree. It's possible that the dysfunction only shows up at certain times, such as when they're matched up against a superior staff and challenged to make adjustments on the fly. That's when the dysfunctional nature of this staff becomes apparent. And it's a recurring theme during the blowouts. It was also on full display on Saturday.

 

No worries. I don't think I'm interested in debating if we are situationally dysfunctional. I really like the upgraded defensive talent.....and it was done quickly, so I'm excited to see what happens the remainder of the season.

Regardless, Gerry'd identification of the play and his closing speed on that play was a major eye-opener.

Definitely. One of the things Pelini and Pap were looking at during the Wyoming game is who performed once the lights were turned on and the stadium was full. Game 1 gave Pelini and Pap good insight into personnel decisions.

I also think the proclamations of imminent destruction are coming in way too soon.

 

1. This defense does not have to be great or even good in September/October. It has to be mediocre, create a few turnovers, and focus on improving.

 

2. We played against a fantastic QB. Yes, it's Wyoming. Welcome to the age of parity. Not only was he good; he was on fire. He was playing in an extremely effective system run by an extremely effective OC (or HC in this case). Lots of 1-on-1 matchups in space against young, inexperienced LBs.

 

3. Our young defense needed a good punch in the mouth. Anyone on that team who had any illusions of relying on talent should now be blissfully awake. There is so much work to do. But then we all knew that--it was all anyone could talk about all offseason.

 

4. We had that game put away when Beck went full retard and called up a Taylor Martinez interception when we were up 18 and in field goal range. Had we run the ball like we were doing, we either get a first down or three points, thus making it a three score game and likely deflating Wyoming for good. At the very least we'd have gotten field position instead of a giant interception return. Long story short, we let the bastards back in when we didn't have to. The Wyo D was gassed, plain and simple, and we decide it's time to throw the football. That's on Martinez. That's on Beck.

 

This is a make or break year for Pelini. If I have any reputation it's probably as a doom and gloomer, which I'm not. I prefer the term "realist." Realism tells me that as long as we keep winning in September--and early October--there is nothing to complain about. Having true and redshirt freshmen as a regular part of your rotation at a half a dozen positions means you're going to get points put up on you by experienced, talented players, especially in spread systems with so many one-on-one matchups. It's just going to happen. As long as we win and the defense continues to learn and improve, I'd say we're on schedule. The only thing that matters is winning and getting this defense to grow up by November. It's still possible--even likely. If it doesn't happen, the coaching change conversation is inevitable, no matter what the sunshine pumpers union would like to believe.

 

Now I'm not happy about the Wyoming game, but we didn't lose. That's something. On to next week.

I consider myself a kool-aid drinker & I agree with most of this. The only thing I don't agree with is blaming Martinez for the interception. That was on Beck & the WR. If you rewatch it you will see it was a timed route & the WR ran an "in" when he should have ran an "out". Like you said though it sould have been a run play anyways.

 

Here's what Rich Fisher said about it......Fisher said. “Burtch was fine. He ran the right route. I wouldn’t say it’s on anybody. Burtch did the right thing.”

If being fine means keeping our heads above water, yeah, we'll be fine.

In Pelini's tenure, being fine has meant being in contention for conference championships in two different conferences and consistently winning a number of games that only a handful of other programs have done as consistently as Nebraska.

agree, the unproven buddie picks have not helped him move ahead...costly, actually.

Yep, Callahan did it with Cosgrove too......yet somehow Pelini wins games and makes bowls. Callahan can't say that and even Dabo can't say that.....Dabo has a 6-7 season in 2010. Pelini has nothing less than 9 wins in any season.

But now that he has his own staff, the dysfunction just continues.

A team doesn't win 9 or more games each year of a coaching tenure if things are seriously dysfunctional.

so far this year is starting out like last season ended...where is the improvement?

Yes, the yardage given up against Wyoming was an issue and a reminder of Wisky and Georgia. With that said, I would hope most could see the potential in our defensive personnel. Randy Gregory is an improvement over Meredith. Nathan Gerry made an immediate impact with speed that we were missing last season. Jean-Baptiste has stepped his game up. Santos may well lose his starting spot to Bando soon and if Ankrah doesn't pick his game up, McMullen is ready to go. We are much better athletically which we really needed to be.