Knoxville Husker

Let's not be so quick to write off TA. As far as him panicking, I did not see that at all. I see a kid who was probably TOO confident, and thought he could take anything he wanted in the passing game regardless of whether it was there or not. TA looks to me far better than TM ever did in the pocket, at least on a consistent basis. Prior two games, I thought TA was clearly better than RK III. However, the fact that we have gotten some excellent (at times) QB play out of both of them is nothing but a positive overall. I also don't see it harming us to continue to rotate QBs between the two of them, though in the tougher games we may need to stick with the hot hand a bit more.

The Jerry Palm BCS Projections are pretty good: http://www.cbssports...ll/rankings/bcs There you can see we are #33 in computers and project to #24 in the BCS minus only the Wolfe computer poll. This seems to be a reasonable outcome all around, when you take MOV out of the formula. I have commented that we seem to be pretty decent bullies against very weak teams with healthy margin of victory. It's when we play opponents on par or better than us that we seem prone to the melt downs. No question our brand has taken a hit for over ten years now as we all know we lack any real "signature" type wins that would repair that decline. The only team that stands out as overrated is Oklahoma St at #36 in the computers, but #21 in BCS due to inflated poll rankings. OU was another I noted, but at least they have beaten some relative name brand teams (West VA, TCU, Notre Dame). While I don't think ND is all that great, they were able to beat Michigan St and winning in South Bend by two TDs is rarely easy. Hard to say NU would be unscathed with OU's schedule, beating all those teams + Texas.

I'd say a conference championship losing NU at 9-4 will not beat out a 10-2 Wisconsin team due to the rationale that the top 2 B1G teams were in the WU/OSU division. A 10-3 NU loser to OSU is a "maybe" and it could depend on style points, for example an abomination like last year's title game would likely get us passed over. An 11-2 NU team, as you alluded to by winning out then losing to OSU, would likely get us the bid I would agree.

Here is a pretty good article: http://athlonsports....idseason-review Michigan has a pretty tough schedule, so chances that they lose two more conference games while we lose two total are decent. Michigan St and Penn St are the type of offense we usually handle pretty well. I don't disagree with anyone that says we could run the table, but we could also go 2-4. Let's assume we win the division. Is the Ohio St matchup one we want? At first blush it appears no, but I'd say we have little to lose. With the right mindset, we can come in a lot more eager to play that game than OSU. Regardless off whether we have 9, 10, or 11 wins OSU could very well be unbeaten. Matter of fact we want to play an unbeaten OSU in this game. There is so much football to be played, an 11-1 NU team beating a 12-0 OSU team could possible put us in the BCS title game.

If you look back yes, we ran some great trick plays time and again, especially in big games. After the loss I recall punching the wall in the shower and yep I shed many a tear over that one. It toughens you up though a bit, having your heart ripped out like that. The '83 season will always have a special place in my heart though, I saved all the newspaper clippings of the Husker's basketball-like scores and summary articles. One was folded over and said Heisman winner "Rozier Would Like a Tit" prior to the Orange Bowl. That was purely accidental, LOL. Alas it was not meant to be...

+1 - that is one thing I noticed as well. It seems that TA can feel and see the pressure in ways TM can't & moves to avoid it. TM can get happy feet a bit to quick. I was wondering about Turner's drop pass - perfectly thrown into his hands. Didn't look like Turner stretched out for it - he was later out of uniform - what kind of injury does he have and I wondered if that contributed to that dropped TD pass. I think that was the most grievous drop that hurt TA's day, and the Enunwa drop was pretty ugly too after Tommy bought time and found him. Overall those two drops turned a potentially dominant performance on offense into an average one. The 3 TA picks were pretty awful too, but fortunately did not harm us too badly due to the defense's stellar day. Hopefully he will learn a lot from those, and perhaps he had a couple "stored up" after clicking so well with the WRs the prior 2 games. RKIII is a very nice steady hand and insurance policy, but perhaps the slowest QB I have seen in a long time. Agree that the Purdue run defense was not shabby, though perhaps a little more creativity in the run game (e.g. more option) could have been attempted. Or that play action off the option that used to work so well.

The play call was ok and it was the execution that was a hair off. However, I wondered why we didn't run option again against a tired UM defense and the maestro Gill with the speedster Smith. NU probably had their 2 point conversion play decided prior to the game. I am still surprised they TO went with a pass, but can't go wrong with the ball in Gill's hands to decide the game. Yes but the ball was not in his hands anymore when he threw it! I would have felt much better seeing an option pitch to Smith than a forward pass!

In 1981 against Clemson we had a great shot to be the first two loss team ever to win the championship. We lost by a TD to a great Clemson team with the Fridge and Homer Jordan at QB. Pretty sure we would have won had Freshman Gill not been out injured. This was all happening when I first moved to Lincoln, 1980-1982 seasons was when I lived there. You used to be able to go into the locker room if you said you were a team relative, at least if you were a 10-11 year old kid. I still have a program page with tons of autographs including Roger Craig.

The play call was ok and it was the execution that was a hair off. However, I wondered why we didn't run option again against a tired UM defense and the maestro Gill with the speedster Smith.

That I cannot remember - I'd have to go back and look at the articles. It looks like there were 2 missed FG's by Nebraska. But, back then, FG's of any length were far from sure points. I am pretty sure NU's kicker was a "straight-on style" kicker. http://www.huskermax...83/13miami.html I was an excellent "toe jam" style kicker. Had I learned soccer style at an early age I might have played well into my adult years. I had one heck of a strong left leg!

In 2016 if all goes well Armstrong will be a senior and the clear second coming of Frazier. We will have a pretty seasoned defense as well, along with Newby and Adam Taylor at RB. I don't really know where we'll sit at WR, we can hope Westerkamp blows up but obviously that's a long way out.

Looks like some tough upcoming schedules. 2014: at Fresno, Miami 2015; BYU, at Miami 2016: Fresno and Oregon at home, but Wisconsin and Ohio St both back on schedule and on the road Fresno and BYU are real flies in the ointment, those are teams dangerous enough to lose to, but probably not ones that get you much credit. Oh well, as fans they should be fun to watch regardless. If by some miracle we ran the table in 2016, surely we'd be in the playoff. With one loss not so sure about that.

This royally sucks, was really looking forward to the home and home with Tennessee for obvious reasons. Tennessee is much more beatable too.

Predictor ratings are not much better, numbers 7-10 ranked teams there are Washington, Wisconsin, Stanford and Arizona St. Sort of reinforces my theory that Sagarin places too little emphasis on a loss, with respect to ratings, in favor of SOS. And just when you think you have any handle on his SOS rankings, you see an anomaly such as Wisconsin's #8 ranking, 0-2 record vs. top 30, and #99 SOS. So I guess they beat someone really good but not quite in the top 30, like #53 Northwestern? Bring on Northwestern, I think we handle those guys easily too! (I realize that Wisconsin lost a couple of close games, but putting them #8 right now is garbage in, garbage out at its finest. Side note: Wisconsin is favored to go 10-2 and to the Orange Bowl now instead of NU, based on OSU in Rose. All on the strength of beating NW, LOL).

Here's some more Sagarin weirdness (I will quote all rankings as the ELO CHESS used in BCS): Baylor #4 despite #105 SOS (why would they be above #7 UCLA who has #92 SOS and beaten Utah and NU?) Louisville #9 despite #125 SOS (why are they ahead of unbeaten T Tech, Miami, or Ohio St who all have a better SOS?) Wisconsin #14 despite #99 SOS and two losses?!? Overall my critique of the Sagarin rankings is that he doesn't seem to care much about losses, and places an excessive weighting on relatively small and subjective differences in SOS. Then he goes in and makes some random adjustments just to play with people's minds. Another example, he has N Illinois and Fresno St ranked #49 and #57. Good for him, sniffed out those unbeaten teams from weak conferences and gave them no credit. Then he destroys the credibility of his rankings by putting two-loss Boise St team #29 (vs. NU #37 as a comparison). I guess that was on the merits of Boise's #83 SOS, loss to Fresno St, and 38-6 drubbing by Washington.

I can remember even in our heyday, we were penalized for close wins against KU and MIzzou in 93 and 97, despite being undefeated and by 97 a very well proven national title caliber commodity. Yet when UGA survives in similar fashion against a bad Tennessee team and loses two other games they are #16. Really?!? A team with 2.5 losses ranked that high? Sadly the rankings, in addition to being biased, take several weeks sometimes to correct those biases (if at all). You get no argument from me. It's just difficult to complain when we get beat down by 20 at home. Regardless of what other teams have going on. I feel bad that they are not ranked but this whole debate would be a non-issue if we would have taken care of business against UCLA and not looked so bad against Wyoming and South Dakota State. We would be Top 10-12 right now. I think the gripe has been the lack of accomplishments by some of the teams above us still in the ratings. It makes it hard to argue for or against them or us in relation to rankings. The funny part about NU is we tend to be pretty good at beating up on weak opponents, then we flop miserably against teams that are slightly better than us and make them look like world beaters. That is the sign of a team that just needs to get mentally tougher, surprising considering we have such a fiery leader. Back to the rankings, with us sitting at a #22 poll average and #33 in the computers, I think you have your answer. While a ten-point win over Pitt is not that impressive, it's better than anything we've done. Margin of victory means plenty in the voter polls, so it's ironic that anyone thinks taking them out of the computer polls reduces running up the score. The resultant computer polls at least do a decent job measuring relative accomplishments of a team, and it's hard to argue against our #33 rating there. We have played one of the weakest SOS in the country so far, outside of UCLA. UCLA was a tough lesson. No reason we shouldn't have played them closer, but at least we exposed some flaws that hopefully make us better down the stretch run (e.g. more QB depth/health, more attacking on defense). It was yet another example of making a good team look like world beaters which was unfortunate for us, but that is what you often get when a high end coach goes against one who is still learning (and we can only hope) growing on the job.

If you take the SEC teams remaining schedule and just assume the higher ranked team wins remainder of season, you have: Florida 6-6 Auburn 8-4 The other 5 ranked teams 10-2 (A&M, LSU, Mizzou, USC, UGA). The moral of that story is cheer hard for Florida to pull a couple of upsets, Auburn to pull one, and for any team to upset those other 5 ranked SEC teams. The latter part of that is obvious, but you probably didn't know you were such a big Florida fan I'll bet.

I can remember even in our heyday, we were penalized for close wins against KU and MIzzou in 93 and 97, despite being undefeated and by 97 a very well proven national title caliber commodity. Yet when UGA survives in similar fashion against a bad Tennessee team and loses two other games they are #16. Really?!? A team with 2.5 losses ranked that high? Sadly the rankings, in addition to being biased, take several weeks sometimes to correct those biases (if at all).

Let's take a closer look at these 8 ranked SEC teams. First off you have a group of 4 teams that haven't beaten a single team currently ranked in the top 25: Auburn, Florida, South Carolina, A&M That leaves two-loss UGA and Mizzou who only has beaten overrated UGA. From there we have Bama and LSU. LSU split games against UGA and Florida, and otherwise has not played a single currently ranked team. Why the AP thinks LSU is the #6 team in the country I have no idea, but then again when you look at the options there aren't many. UCLA will have a couple of chances the next two weeks to prove their mettle (Stanford, Oregon). I do think this speaks towards my contention that the SEC is top heavy with Bama clearly the only top 5 caliber team. Let's hope and pray another conference is able to step up and win the national championship this year, that is the only thing that will put a little crack in the huge rankings bias we are seeing towards SEC teams. I find it funny that A&M and Mizzou are suddenly world beaters after joining the SEC. These were a couple of mediocre to good Big 12 teams, but never elite. I understand that Manziel is all that is keeping A&M in such lofty status lately, They were a clear second fiddle to underachieving Texas in the Big 12 most years, though the SEC move was wise to get a little recruiting boost.

I just like that we are attacking more on defense. Also you may have noticed in the Purdue game Valentine running down a Purdue RB all the way on the sideline. That big boy can really move! As I expected, our front 7 depth and talent are light years ahead of last year. Now we just need them to become consistent, play as a unit, and keep that swagger. After what I saw from Northwestern this week, 7-1 heading into Michigan and a top 15 ranking are withing our grasp. The points about other team's rankings and lack of credentials are well taken. I think that is the point, many of us our frustrated with the arbitrary slights like Oklahoma, OSU, and the two-loss SEC teams. Those teams haven't really beaten anyone either, unless you want to debate that South Carolina (UGA) is some kind of powerhouse. Remember this is the same UGA team that needed a miracle comeback and fluky OT fumble to handle my pretty weak local Vols team the week before.

Here is the Harris ratings: http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/10/13/4833768/harris-poll-college-football-rankings Unfortunately they largely just parrot the coaches rankings (SEC superiority), although that is better than the AP for us.

Ranked #31 % by the computers this week. Still might have some work to do with you light schedule. But as always, it also depends on what the teams ahead of Nebraska do as well We are #24 right now in the BCS projections, which now include the first Harris Poll ranking us #23. Computer polls have us #33, which is only one third of the equation. http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/rankings/bcs

Yep Armstrong had a tough game, but I recall two bad drops for about 80 yards and a TD. I'm not convinced, with those kind of obvious gaffes, the WRs didn't have a few more on some of those routes where TA missed wildly. I do appreciate RK III more for being a very steady hand on the road while TA was shaky. However, to the poster that said RKI III is mobile at all: HUH?!? I should answer the question though, with TM still in a walking boot I am not anxious at all to see him play. At least now we know he can be pulled from a game without the world ending.

Oklahoma and Oklahoma St are the teams I see as overrated. Also I am not even going to bother doing any analysis on the AP poll, obviously they just don't like us. The arbitrary VA Tech move by coaches above us I didn't appreciate. Fresno should be easy to leapfrog and their resume (two one-point wins, close win over Hawaii) is checkered. We'll find out soon enough whether UCLA is a "quality loss" when they plan Stanford then Oregon in the next two weeks. If UCLA gets ranked really high, some folks might actually go back and realize we about had them beat with that 21-3 lead, then our young defense collapsed after over achieving to get to that point. Main thing is we don't have any quality wins, and while I think AP is worthless you can't really make a strong argument to ranks us. I have us #16 though behind T Tech, if its any consolation.

We will be in the Top 25 once the BCS comes out next week and that is all that is used after that happens. That is when the AP poll will fade into complete irrelevance, and why they ever run score tickers with it I have no idea.