Dr. Strangelove

Our best husker team in some time lost to their worst longhorn team in a long time. At home.

I see Nebraska losing 3 games against that schedule. At K-State, Texas, and either OKST or TAMU. Just to many tough road games there.

All 13 predictions on 247 have him staying in state and attending LSU. Hopefully we can land this kid and complete what would be among the best secondary classes in the country.

Run game: B+. He's been effective in the run game when he decides to keep the ball, and has made pretty solid reads for most of the year. There are bad reads here and there, but his running game has improved significantly from last season. He's lost one fumble this year by my count, which isn't terrible, considering how often we've fumbled the ball in the past.

Passing game: C-. His deep ball has been pretty good for the most part, sadly, the deep ball by design is a low percentage play to begin with. It's a good weapon to have, but chucking the ball 35 yards down field isn't a passing offense you want to make a living on. His short routes are inconsistent, and his swing passes are very poor. He also doesn't read defenses well and tends to lock into a guy without surveying the whole field. His mechanics are inconsistent, but fixable. His INTs are down this season, but he's been on the good side of some drops by DBs and LBs.

Overall, I'd give TA a B- on the year so far. He's got to get better at throwing the ball for Nebraska to truly compete with Michigan State or Ohio State in Indy though, otherwise I don't know if you can win the conference with our passing attack at this point.

 

Note from Bo's presser today: Kalu had basically practiced CB none. They threw him in their because he busted his butt all week at his Dime/Nickel spot and the other CB's behind Davie didn't. Kalu played pretty good for being thrown into the fire, something that will pay dividends down the road.

Saw that as well. Probably doesn't bode well for Rose. Possibly Joseph either.

 

Kalu might give Pierson-El a run for impact freshman of the year on our team. It's nice to see him get some playing time and that he's busting his but in practice.

I did have high hopes for Rose after he transferred in, but if he's being beaten out by a true freshman, so be it.

Dodged a bullet here. He was just charged with rape and has been dismissed from the team.

Ill say one thing, I'm surprised by the Spartan fans, that stadium was a quarter empty for most of the game and half empty towards the end.

It's a primetime game on ABC, ranked opponent, built up as the Big 10 game of the year going in, and they couldn't manage to get the students and other fans to fill up a stadium that isnt terribly big to begin with?

Your team is the defending Big 10 and Rose bowl champions, how pathetic is that?

Great chance to accomplish some things we haven't managed in awhile. Our division is wide open and there for the taking, we can hopefully get a rematch and get a different result. Even still, Nebraska can aim for an 11 or 12 win season (regular or with a bowl victory), which is impressive.

Crystal balls flying in now must be something goin in

Hopefully this means a #boom is going to happen with this kid.

 

 

 

Currently we are ranked the 5th best conference. Who ever wins the west in the SEC is going is my guess. I don't think the east winner can play with any of the top teams, being Bama, Auburn, A&M, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. But someone has to lose out of that group. That is a murders row it appears. Oregon and UCLA seem to be the power on the west coast, if Oregon wins, that will drop the Big a slot unless Nebraska beats MSU twice. Florida State gets through its games undefeated, no way it does not go. Baylor/Oklahoma winner goes with one loss or less.

 

Our conference is considered so far below the others is the problem. Not saying we are but not much there to prove anyone wrong at this time. And no real chance of changing the perception. Weak assed schedules are going to have to end. McNeese state will haunt us if Bama is undefeated and one of the others has a single loss to the SEC champion.

 

It does not look good either way. Currently the only real chance for the Big to get a representative is for us to win out. If not, and things go as most think they will (who knows) the Big will be looking in and that in a way is good thing for the future. The first time one of the Big guys, not the ACC is setting out of the playoff, there is going to be screaming! 4 is not enough with 5 major conferences.

B1G is ahead of ACC now...

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/96256/conference-power-rankings-big-ten-is-up

I prefer the playoffs to be the winners of the power 5 conferences, and three additional teams chosen in a way that makes everyone mad.

Or do six teams. Power 5 champs and an at large bid. 1 and 2 get a bye. They don't want 8 because they think it will water down the importance of the regular season which I tend to agree with

 

I agree. What makes college football special is the excitement of the regular season. Expanding the playoffs to more than 4 teams begins to take away some of that excitement in my opinion.

I like having a 4 team playoff, 6 is the absolute limit. If you start to have 8 teams, you'll have some teams that are in the running for a national championship with 2 losses, which I really don't like.

^{The SEC bias is showing yet again with this week's polls. I'm not saying they are not a strong conference, but they definitely are getting the benefit of the doubt. Just take Georgia as a prime example. This week they are ranked 12th and 13th, while Nebraska is 17th and 19th. Georgia has one loss to South Carolina, who has two losses, including one to Missouri, who lost to Indiana at home (aren't they in the Big Ten?). Georgia also needed to comeback yesterday to be Tennessee at home, and on top of that, they have many returning players from last year's team that we beat in the bowl game.}

 

^{This is just one example of the strong SEC bias that continue to permeate the polls. It's not to say that there aren't good teams in the SEC that are deserving of a high-ranking, but I'm not buying 7 teams in the top 15 at all.}

I agree with this. Plus, if you have half of your conference perpetually ranked in polls, you basically only lose to other 'ranked' teams. So instead of falling from #13 to #24 (or unranked), you 'fall' from #13 to #15 and the team that beat you rises from UR or #24 to #14 or something.

It's the nature of the polls. The conference is good at the top but no better than other conferences in the middle and bottom.

He did visit but I haven't seen anyone that's talked to him yet. Perhaps he hasn't left Lincoln. Could use a LB....

I agree. I think topping this class off with two LBs and a DE would fill out the class nicely. Of course, any other talented player is welcome... but finding at least one LB is a must at this point.

It appears national college football analysts are much more impressed with Tommy Armstrong than most Husker fans.

I will say that going into this season I was very unimpressed with TA. However, I think he has improved on his game considerably since last season. The biggest difference, by far, is his ability to run the ball. The improvement in that category has made him a really nice QB in our system. I went from thinking anybody should start over him going into the season to really liking his game, particularly his option/zone read game. He's made beautiful reads for the most part this season.

I'm not sure he's progressed much as a passer, however. I think he can throw an accurate deep ball, but lacks some touch on the shorter passes. But if he can limit his mistakes next week, our running attack can win us the game if we can force some 3 and outs while controlling the clock on offense.

 

 

 

 

Because MSU's other three opponents are 100+ and two of them are 190+. Stanford's other two opponents are 130+. Miss St.'s other three opponents are all 110+. Our worst opponent is Florida Atlantic at 115, the other two are Top 100.

 

I get that, but the reality is if we played the 'easier' schedules of most of those teams (like MSU), we'd have 1 loss.

 

It is amazing the extent Husker fans will go to to prove how bad their own team is. So...you have just declared that you KNOW we would have a loss with their schedule. Watching games with you must be a real treat.

 

Woah, I'm not out to prove how bad our team is. My point is simply that I don't agree with Sagarin that Michigan State's schedule is 'easier'. Unless you think that Nebraska would've beat Oregon on the road in week 2, it's my belief that we'd have 1 loss with their schedule. So calm it down a bit there buddy.

kchusker_chris's point is a good one.

 

 

 

It's quite possible Nebraska has the worst/easiest schedule of any of the top 25.

Not sure if you mean to-date or for the year but so far (according to Sagarin) aTm, Baylor, Michigan St., Notre Dame, Stanford, Mississippi St. and Arizona St. all have easier schedules and Wisconsin and Ohio St. aren't ahead of us by much.

 

How has MSU (Oregon), Stanford (USC), and Mississippi St (LSU) possibly have easier schedules than us? That's one thing I don't like about Sagarin, sometimes the stuff he presents is strange.

 

Earlier this year after Rutgers beat Washington State on the road, he still had Washington State ranked much higher than Rutgers...

 

 

Because MSU's other three opponents are 100+ and two of them are 190+. Stanford's other two opponents are 130+. Miss St.'s other three opponents are all 110+. Our worst opponent is Florida Atlantic at 115, the other two are Top 100.

 

I get that, but the reality is if we played the 'easier' schedules of most of those teams (like MSU), we'd have 1 loss.

 

It's quite possible Nebraska has the worst/easiest schedule of any of the top 25.

Not sure if you mean to-date or for the year but so far (according to Sagarin) aTm, Baylor, Michigan St., Notre Dame, Stanford, Mississippi St. and Arizona St. all have easier schedules and Wisconsin and Ohio St. aren't ahead of us by much.

 

How has MSU (Oregon), Stanford (USC), and Mississippi St (LSU) possibly have easier schedules than us? That's one thing I don't like about Sagarin, sometimes the stuff he presents is strange.

Earlier this year after Rutgers beat Washington State on the road, he still had Washington State ranked much higher than Rutgers...

If there's a place to lose a recruiting battle, it's to the Ivy League. Cant fault a kid for choosing that.

I learned that the running game can be dominant. It was unstoppable last night, the only time it was truly stopped was due to turnovers. Scoring 41 points with having 7 minute scoring drives is pretty incredible.

As far as Tommy A is concerned, he's showing us that he can make great decisions on option and zone read plays. He's running the ball great this year and has improved tremendously from last season. As far as throwing is concerned, he still has much to improve upon. He still doesn't go through progressions properly and decides where he wants to throw the ball before the snap. The interception yesterday really hurt, particularly with Kenny Bell wide open on the play with no Hurricane near him. The passing game will have to be better when we play Michigan State to take some pressure off of Ameer.

The offensive line continues to have penalty issues, which is understandable considering the amount of times we ran the ball yesterday. Two weeks ago it was Cotton, last night it was Lewis. Hopefully those can be limited going forward.

Defensively we played poorly for most of the first half. Our best defense was our offense dominating time of possession in the 2nd quarter and into the 3rd quarter, giving no real opportunity for Miami to score. They got a bit better late in the 3rd quarter by getting some pressure on the freshman QB, which caused him to make some mistakes in the passing game. Otherwise they were exposed a bit by Miami's speed, and got bailed out by two Miami turnovers (on drives that were likely to lead to points) and by an offense that kept them off the field.

I know the turnovers we had were also on likely scoring drives, but I still didn't like the defense playing poorly against a good but not great Miami offense. Still, dominating a team like that was incredible to watch. They knew what was coming and still couldn't stop it.

Im shocked. (Sarcasm)

The f'ing Illinois game is on espn 2, where is the Nebraska game starting?

I was just wondering this. Hopefully ESPN News or something.

All week Miami players & fans have been running their ****suckers nonstop. How about this for trash talk?

 

Miami is the most overrated team in college football. They are a ****ing joke. They haven't won anything of significance on since 2003. Yet they are possibly the cockiest team in college football. Hey Miami, get ready to get your **&es tore up prison style tonight, you're going down!!

Most of the boards I've seen think they're going to be blown out/lose...

It's true.

 

Nebraska and Miami come into this game in near identical situations.

 

A good chance neither will be relevant at the end of the season.

 

But this is still a battle for relevance.

 

The only other angle out there is that Nebraska vs. Miami remains one of the last chances for a Big 10 team to beat a name brand from a Big 5 conference.

 

My take?

 

This is a must-win game for Nebraska.

 

7 years into the Bo Pelini era, it's also a must-win game for Bo Pelini.

This is absolutely true. A loss means another year of being an afterthought. If we want to generate positive buzz about Nebraska, we must win this game.

These are the kinds of recruiting battles we need to start winning. It's a long shot, but he's shown legitimate interest in us for awhile now.

After watching these highlights, I really like what I see from Marcus Newby from the rush LB position. He was in the backfield quite a bit last Saturday.

I think he'll commit to ASU.

Hard to disagree. Most of the 247 predictions are trending heavily in their favor.

It's going to be tough to pull the kid with his hometown offer of LSU there. Hopefully having Kendall in his ear causes him to take a longer look at Nebraska.