Husker03

Anymore I'd say the one that actually stays on campus?

This is exactly what I heard, but I also heard that the individual in question may or may not actually decide to leave.

Here's the real rub. Any offense that doesn't come out dominating and churning out 600 yards/game every game is going to be open to judgement and dismissed by some diehards around here. If it doesn't dominate and look like the 95 offense, there is something wrong with it. Its run the ball guy over and over and you'd think, after 25 years, we could have that guy just calm down and at least keep quiet. We haven't "run" enough under any coach since Solich and run the ball guy can't be satiated because the obvious answer to a sub .500 team is to just run the ball more like we did in 95. You can't win a rational argument with run the ball guy. His world is power I or die.

Surely not.

It may not really be so hard to fathom when an entire group decided to come here do to a movement called Calibraska?

Because mediocre with a good attitude and 5 years of experience and leadership is the best we've got.

I'm not sure they are, I guess. He seems slow and his lateral movement is meh. He's not overly strong. I really feel he excels at getting to plays late and then strutting around like he's King Kong when he actually makes very little impact when he's on the field. I think his attitude is awesome and he's a hard worker with a lot of passion, but I have seen nothing that makes me believe he has the gifts to be any better than the mediocre linebacker he has become.

Yes. Yes to all.

I've never heard any coach ever say anything like, "Man, I am starting to have some questions about the coaching ability of my LB coach." They just get the axe.. That is how you know there are some questions. The pink slip comes.

They will. They always do.

At least now we know that it is not about Frost being unwilling to punish him, he obviously is willing to put a team on the field without Mo. That leads me to believe, as I have all along, the legal advice NU is getting from all over is that the charges do not look to merit an indefinite suspension for the kid. There are things, however, that must warrant that, including being an entitled teammate with a bad attitude. Goes more to validate Scott as a coach with a backbone than undermine him in that, imo.

The problem I see with this argument is that there is no argument in many positions as far as depth and alternatives. There are none. There is no depth. There are no serviceable Jr/Sr backups at LB or DLine or O line. So, when you say play somebody else, you are saying play Freshmen and Sophomores. That solution is fraught with issues as well, among them being even if those guys are more talented, they are young and will make mistakes and the games will still be ugly and everybody will still be frustrated. The other thing to consider is, throwing in young talented players before they are mentally or physically ready can do more long term damage to them than good. A few snaps here or there, maybe not. But putting them in the fire and letting them get burned over and over isn't good for the athlete either. So, in some places, Scott is literally stuck between a rock and a hard place for now.

This is all true to some degree, and may end up being for the best. Scott knows football there is no doubt about it, so if he see something in a Chinander or Austin or Ruud that he thinks is worth working with, no better time to work through it than with the crap show that was in that locker room last year and again this year. The biggest thing we miss on in this situation, imo, is the name brands needed in recruiting. Recruiting is the first thing we as fans like to make excuses for, as in, oh kids will never come here. But kids will come here, we've seen it with Cally and we've seen in with Frost's name brand on O. We need a D and we may need some big names that enable us to get that D in place.. But for now, I can handle Frost's dance with the one who brung you philosophy.. Its the kind of thing that can pay off huge if the guys in place really are capable but young.

The entire situation just is horrible. I liked Mo a lot. I wanted the 30 for 30 ending here. I was hopeful that getting him into a stable and supportive environment would allow him to succeed in life and was so thankful when he finally made it to campus last year because I believed it would be the big break he needed to get his life completely turned around and on a path for great things. I defended him over and over the Cali charges because they are trumped up BS and I wanted him to be vindicated from all of that as well. On top of all of that, I love watching him play ball. I mean, who doesn't? When the kid is on, he is on. Would have loved to see what a college degree and a shot at the NFL would have done for him. Maybe we still get to see it, here, or honestly, anywhere, but 18 months in the program leading to this, I guess I feel I have to let the "what could be," dream die.

May need to start looking for the nearest dredge..

Thank goodness there were no nearby dredges.

I did this last weekend and it is surprisingly similar. They have a couple of 0.92 type guys and so do we. They have a two unrated guys that have been in the program for awhile, while all of ours are rated, we have at least one that is rated at a completely different position playing o-line for the first time in his life. They have an upperclassman D line as do we, they have some youth on their o-line as do we. Honestly, it was a wash but Minnesota did seem to have a slight edge when adjusted for years in program. I've been meaning to post the breakdown but just haven't had time yet this week. I can try later today but no guarantees.

I still think it comes back more to a culture issue. This is the third coach now that we have heard something to the effect of scheme being the issue, of them trying to fit square pegs into round holes, etc. At the end of the day, either none of the coaches know how to coach a lick or there is something more to it. I thought it with Riley and I think it a bit with Frost. If there is no consistency, there is nothing you can fall back on and trust it is going to work. If you have a QB that isn't super accurate on the quick outs and an O-line that can't even buy him 2 seconds in a decent sized pocket nor reliably open any run lanes, I am really not sure what magical offense you can scheme around that. If you have slow timid linebackers, I am not sure how you expect them to fill gaps reliable and make plays. Barry gets credit for all these tackles, which I am glad he is making, but these are usually tackles that could of/should have been for little to no gain that are instead 3-5 yard pick ups by the time he gets there, is dragged a couple of yards, and brings down the ball carrier. Mostly, I think our guys really feel they are going all out when they are on the field. I don't feel like it is intentional laziness.. I just don't think they really know what it feels like to give 100% effort on every play like there is no other next play. They have a constant, "that was ok, and hopefully I do better next time attitude." Over and over.. I don't know how you fix a weak mentality, especially when it is unintentional, until you have 2-3 guys at each position that can perform at a similar level and you can start sending real messages that force some soul searching.

I'm skeptical that it might just be more that nobody else is out there making any tackles.

Any tea leaf reads on this?

You sure about that?

At the risk of opening pandora's box of debate, I can't help but think about this in terms of recruiting rankings. Lamar is one of the highest rated recruits we have on campus. Initially, he looked like maybe a bust and that was probably due some mix of coaching and attitude. However, after 2.5 years of arguably bad play, the light came on and leads to a possible first round draft status. I think that speaks huge volumes about baseline attributes and abilities that make that kind of path even possible. To me, recruiting rankings are about trying to evaluate top end potential in high school juniors. In the case of Lamar, the fact that he had the ability to basically "turn it on," in terms of learning from coaches and putting in the effort in his jr/sr years of college to vault him into a 1st round category indicates the services that said this kid had a world of potential as a junior in high school weren't smoking dope.

And the best news is, he's only 100% committed so its got a great chance of standing.

Meh, go easy here, he's not wrong. The reality is if we had a recruiting class all ranked 0.9 or above we would all be much more pumped for it than we are with one loaded with 0.85 average. The other reality is we are not going to get a 0.9 average now, and maybe never, so that leaves the rest of us making up reasons that these lower rated guys have been overlooked. It's based mostly in hope because that is all we have when we fill a class with 0.82 star guys. I have no doubt that Frost and staff will do more with the 0.82 guys than previous staff's have done, but I do have plenty of doubt that the majority of those 0.82 star guys will ever be able to go toe to toe with 0.9 star guys. But, as Frost says, we are where we are along this journey.

Also, if you look at the other D-lineman to the left in front of him and think they are adequately blocked then I've got some oceanfront property for sale.