EmeraldIngot

I agree. A one game injury and Fyfe should get the nod. On the other hand, if it had been a season ending injury, you have Fyfe and O'Brian battle it out in practice, or alternate drives or quarters vs Indiana or Purdue. That way the better of the two should win the starting job and POB gets some experience either way.

Coincidence?! How deep does this rabbit hole go!?!?!? https://goo.gl/images/bCMYDA ... posting by mobile is difficult. :/

1. Turnovers. 2. Penalties. 3. Missed assignments. We beat those three and we'll beat anyone we want.

Tl;dr, I really like the 3-4 and wouldn't mind seeing it here at Nebraska. Feel free to skip the long winded X's and O's discussion below. The 3-4 defense follows in a similar philosophic trend as the shift from a 5-2 defense to a 4-3 defense: that is, removing a (relatively) slow down lineman for a faster, more reactive linebacker. In a lot of ways, the 3-4 is able to showcase that versatility at the expense of a stifling run defense. The 5-2 put 5 defensive lineman against 5 offensive linemen, and unless a TE or a FB chipped in on a block, it was a series of one on one matchups. That meant that a difference in skill level (or a size advantage) could seriously impact either side of the ball. A good O-linemen could completely nullify a D-lineman, or a D-lineman could reliably penetrate into the backfield and disrupt plays. The offer sive counter to the 5-2 was the Wishbone and other option offenses, designed to remove a D-lineman from the equation by forcing him to make a choice, and reading that choice to do the opposite of what the lineman was trying to stop. He effectively removed himself from the play, which allowed a numbers advantage at the point of attack. In response, moving a D-lineman from the field and adding another linebacker who is not usually immediately blocked and who could more quickly react to an option attack gave defenses the ability to stop the rush for (usually) small gains at the expense of having a lower rate of tackles for loss. This is how football schemes develope, with innovation and counter innovation. The 4-3 prompted development of the West Coast offense, which in turn was countered by the nickel, which was countered by the spread, which was countered by the dime (or peso, depending on the look of the base alignment) which was countered by the spread option and run/pass option and variable routes for the WR. This is, of course, just an overview without getting into the minutia of Quarters vs Tampa-2 or Sky coverage vs cloud coverage vs robber coverage. Just accept that within each base alignment, there are lots of wrinkles depending on what you're trying to do at that particular time. The 3-4, like most formations on either side of the ball, cannot reliably be proven to have been invented by a particular person. I'm judging the general time period when formations start to be used more widely across the various levels of football. However, the 3-4 only seems to have started gaining steam in the higher levels of football around the mid 2000's. The 90's saw a lot of offensive innovations, such as the spread starting to become popular and a renewal of interest in option offenses, and later on in the early 2000's, the two were rolled into the same system as the spread option. (The two most prominent examples being Chip Kelley and Urban Meyer). Defenses are still in a state of Flux, trying to counter these offensive systems designed to put defensive players in no win situations while also putting the ball into a skill players hands in the open field. Most defenses these days are exercises in limiting the damage as opposed to being the stifling walls they once were. This fact is why I believe that the 3-4 is (currently) the best defensive system to run in college football today. Simply put, it has more flexibility. It can adequately run just about any defensive philosophy against just about any offensive philosophy in its base formation, and additional wrinkles can make it more specialized against certain offensive philosophies. Assuming they are practiced, they can be easily shifted into a more advantageous setup depending on what the opposing offense is trying to do with less substitution than a 4-3 would require. (That last fact is why I believe the NFL, with their limited rosters, are more and more moving to this form of defense). For example, the opposing offense lines up in a two TE I formation. By shifting the DE's closer to the DT, pinching in the OLBs, dropping one or both safeties into the box, you have, effectively, a 5-4 front against a run play or a 5-2 against a pass, assuming man coverage. If the offense lines up in a 2x2 spread formation, your OLBs could split out to cover the slots, or if you want to run a zone, you could run Quarters coverage with the OLBs defensive the flats. If it's a run, you would still have a 7 man front. By simple formation shifts and easy responsibilities based on if the play is a run or a pass (which every defense has) you can have overwhelming numbers defensively at the point of attack. This gives you a good advantage no matter what an offense tries to do. It can be run with either a contain or a spill run defense philosophy. It can be run with just about any form of pass defense (though it works best with a two safety defense, it can adjust to a one high or three high very easily, depending on if you simply want to rotate your coverage or if you want to switch to one of the nickel formations the 3-4 has to offer). As you can see, it is a very versatile system, and given the abundance of offensive attacks, having that kind of versatility is practically required. A 4-3 can do the same, but not without regular substitutions or package plays. And that's not even touching on the wide and varied blitzes a 3-4 is able to do, coming at the QB from nearly any angle while disguising it very well from pre-snap reads. That said, this defense is not perfect. First and formost, it works best when the DL are using a two-gap technique, and your DL will only do more than simply occupy blockers when they are as skilled as Rich Glover. (Look at a replay of '71 NU vs OU and watch how he gets off blocks. It's a great example on how a two-gap technique is run well). In particular, your nose tackle needs to be enough of a threat to force the OL to double team him EVERY PLAY. If not, the offensive guards will be able to climb up and block your MLBs, and run plays will gash you up the center for 10 yards a run each play (hello, Melvin Gordon...). Also, you need transcendent talent at OLB to be able to pass rush, get off blocks, cover TEs and WRs, and have the size and speed to not be outrun or pushed around. Your MLBs also need to have some tremendous combination of skill and athketicism, because O-linemen are going to be trying to block them all game. Not to mention your DBs will have to be comfortable with both zone coverage and man coverage. You need a lot of talent across the board to make the 3-4 a stifling one. The only real upside to that is that if your talent at one spot is lacking, you can usually make up for it at different spots. The last downside to this system is that, being a jack of all trades kind of defense, it will be less effective against offenses that specialize to one extreme or another. This is less obvious in the NFL because everyone is an elite player there, and having a 105 man roster in college does allow you to have a more specialized personnel package for specialized offenses, the lack of regular playing time for some of your package players will be exploited. Mercilessly. So a dedicated power run team like Wisconsin or Stanford, with absolute mountains for all their players will see some success, even with stacking the box with your comparatively smaller, faster players. Also, teams that specialize in the most extreme of spread attacks (like any team coached by Mike Leach...) will find some success in the air, even when you're dropping 8 into coverage. That said, the 3-4, with some wrinkles and personnel packages will be able to, at the very least, slow down specialized offenses, and if your team has an offense with a pulse, you should be able to pull off the shootout win. So, all of that said, the 3-4 is my preferred defense because it can adequately adapt to the current state of the offenses in the college football world. If you read it this far and you want to discuss more of the details, I'd love a chance to debate.

It's nice to know that Riley is going to be taking a firm stance on misconduct. Being a football player should not mean getting your crimes covered up just because you play for the school. But on the other hand, a lot of colleges are removing due process for people accused of rape and sexual assault, in some cases even expelling them with only the alleged victims word as evidence. Holding your players accountable for their behavior is good, and cooperating with police to ensure a thorough investigation to determine the truth of the matter is the best way to do that. So long as it doesn't turn into a witch hunt.

Honestly, Jano could be used in a lot of different ways in the Broncs offense. He could be a TE, an H-back, FB, or even an I back in power or heavy sets for short yardage or to run the clock out. Not to mention his utility in special teams.

I gotta admit, even if you don't like this hire, even if you don't think very highly of Mike Riley's skills as a coach... you have to admit that he and everyone else on this staff, from GA to AD, are at least putting some serious effort and cash towards building a winning program. The new DL coach is a former Husker with a long career in the NFL, even if his coaching resume isn't the best. Even if he is a sub part coach, he at least knows the Nebraska culture. Even if he can't teach technique, he knows what it takes to play on both the college and NFL level. The results over the next few years will tell if he's a good hire at DL, but I've got high hopes. Now, this DOPP... 30 years in the NFL is a long time. Despite some poor showings on two different teams, you dont have an NFL career that long if you can't do something right. Helping with roster management (which might also include working with the recruiting department to help identify positions of need...) will help this team. From possibly helping to schedule drill or rep stations to get maximum results for both starters and backups (which would help maximize the limited practice time the NCAA allows) to identifying and organizing lineups and two-deeps, which could help smooth out the substitution process. The less time HCMR, OCDL, and DCMB have to spend on subs, travel rosters, package management and so on is more time they can spend studying film and creating game plans. It's a lot of background work, so it wont directly impact the product on the field, but it should help the coaches focus on the Xs and Os. If we'd had a person in this position last year, maybe a few of those late-game losses could have gone out way... (Wisky, Illinois... those games had clock and substitution mismanagement all over, maybe a DOPP could have smoothed that out...) So even if HCMR isn't a great coach, he's at least building a good support network around himself and doing everything he can to win games. Maybe he's not a great coach... but I think he's proving himself to be a good leader, and a B1G championship or CFP berth could make him a great leader.

In sports, there are important characteristics about your players that you have to be aware of. Height, weight, quickness, agility, speed, how lanky or stocky the player is, strength, instinct, reaction time, knowledge, understanding, vision... the list goes on and on. But things like race, ethnicity, religion, and political or sexual orientation have no impact on the players on field performance. So such things shouldn't matter to a coach. Or to fans for that matter.

Man, if the rest of our position coaches are half as good as Coach Williams, we will be in damn good shape.

I just hope he's 100% by fall camp and is ready to show what he's capable of.

Well, if we do gain the perception of being the premier school for WR, it'll make recruiting in that area a lot easier. Hopefully with a perception of good recievers will come a perception of good QBs, and also might draw good DBs, because to be the best you have to beat the best, and competing every day against the best WRs, DBs will get better. And everything snowballs from there. Hopefully.

Here's a little anecdote that some of you would appreciate. I spent some time in Colorado, a failed attempt to move there more permanantly. At a temp position at a warehouse, one of my co-workers, named Donald, told me about his experiences as a football player. He grew up in south central Los Angeles, just outside the worst parts of Compton. He played a lot of highschool football against some of the best players produced in southern California. Coming out of high school, he was a 3 star linebacker, and although his dream was to play at USC, he was never offered a scholarship there. One of the places he was offered a scholarship was at Oregon State. Though most of the recruitment was done by the position coach and the DC, he got an in-home visit from Mike Riley. The conversation between his mother and Coach Riley was the deciding factor in him signing with Oregon State over other offers. The anecdote that I wanted to share as it had been shared with me was in his sophomore season, during spring training. Donald had missed a few classes, including a test in one of them, and had also missed two days of conditioning and one practice. Coach Riley had called Donald into his office for a chat. The chat started off with Coach Riley asking if everything was ok, and Donald cited some home sickness and some issues in his personal life (he and his girlfriend at the time, who he later married and is still married to, were going through a rough patch). Coach Riley gave him some advice that, in Donalds own words "I wish I had listened to more closely, or I might not be working at a beer warehouse right now". I might be paraphrasing this a bit, but as best as I remember as it was told to me, Coach Riley told him, "The largest part of being a man is taking responsibility. That means doing the things you have to do now, so that you can do the things you want to do later. You're a bright kid, Donald, and you've got a hell of a future. So this is what I want you to do. When we are done here, I want you to go call your mother and talk to her for a good long time. Then I want you to hit the books and get ready for your make up exam. Then I want to see you in practice tomorrow. And I want you to do this every day, day after day. And whenever you can, do a little extra, push a little harder, study a little longer, and eventually, you'll be the best. That's the only way to win, either in football, or in life." Now, Donald didn't follow through, as you can tell, but I think this says a lot about the kind of person Coach Riley is. Also, coming from a former player who played for Coach Riley, having Donald tell me that the Riley hire was an excellent decision by the Nebraska executives, makes me belive wholeheartedly that, given time and a little support from the fanbase, Coach Riley can make things work here at Nebraska. I can't tell you when it will all come together, nor can I tell you exactly how successful he will be, but I believe Coach Riley does things the Nebraska way. "Not the victory but the action; Not the goal but the game; In the deed the glory." GBR.

Maybe I'm just being optimistic, but it seems to me that they are going to play whoever is better. POB may have better mechanics and be more accurate, but if Tommy knows the system better and can execute it better, Tommy should start. That said, what an amazing story it would be if POB came in, got the system down, and lead us to the B1G championship... but again, I'm an optimist.

There's some interesting research being done in material engineering to find ways to reduce the severity of impacts on a helmet. Most of it is being funded by DARPA for use in military helmets, but could be easily adapted to football and hockey helmets. Rule changes can only do so much to reduce head trauma in an impact sport, but some rule changes are necessary. Better still is research into improving helmets. Now the reason why concussions and head impacts are so bad is because a hard enough impact will cause rapid acceleration of the head in one direction, followed by rapid deceleration, and sometimes a re-acceleration in the other direction. This literally compresses the brain against the skull, resulting in bruising or worse directly to the brain. A helmet that is able to redirect or disperse the kinetic force in a way that lowers the acceleration applied to the brain could drastically reduce the severity of concussions and greatly reduce the damage caused by non-concussion causing hits.

I would say 'pics or it didn't happen' but you thought ahead. Well, at least the pics prove you were at a football game on field level and Mike Riley was there. The content and or length of the conversation can't be proven, but considering your other evidence (namely the pics) I'm inclined to believe you. Riley sounds like a nice guy, and nebraska can be a national contender under him and his staff (yes, his entire current staff) if he can commit to a solid run game (all I'm asking for is a 60/40 split in favor of the run unless we are two scores behind). Sounds like he's still putting in the effort to get those recruits, which is definitely something we need. I'm hopeful for the future, even if this season wasn't as good as I'd hoped.

I debated with myself about whether or not to post something in this thread. It's a delicate subject to talk about because simply hearing the word 'rape' creates strong feelings and strong opinions in nearly everyone. That said, it appears that the incident took place at Armstrong's current residence, Armstrong himself is not likely involved, he knows the person accused, has spoken to said person, and was told by said person that the incident in question was consensual. Armstrong, Westerkamp, and Foster were interviewed by the police, apparently as potential witnesses and not as suspects. Armstrong was then interviewed by the press, where he implied that he was not involved with the incident in question but was told it was consensual, and said that the police told him and his housemates that they will be fine. Assumptions can be made that, as part of the police interview, DNA samples were taken, even though the alleged victim has given a name to the police. Most likely to rule these young men out as potential suspects. Given the fact that public opinion can sway the verdict in a case where there is not definitive proof, and that a mere accusation of rape can lead to immediate and permanant expulsion, revocation of pending student loans and disqualification of future student loans, and because of the marks in the accused's student records, said student can be denied entry into other universities... Armstrong probably did the right thing by implying to the press that he is not a current suspect. Under recent Title 9 amendments and the current trend of instituting 'ongoing enthusiastic consent' standards in rape and sexual assault cases on universities, the definition of what exactly constitutes rape is becoming much more broad, the definition of consensual sex is becoming much more specific (and as implied, requires ongoing enthusiastic consent for the incident to be considered consensual sex, meaning that if one party initially consents but decides they do not want to continue, or in some of the broadest definitions, the victim can withdraw consent after the fact, especially in the cases where alcohol is involved. Usually in cases where the victim doesn't recall giving consent, even if consent was given before and during the act. Also, in some definitions, any amount of alcohol is enough to removes ones ability to give consent, so even if both parties consent, if one or both has consumed alchohol, it is considered rape.) Given all the strong feelings about rape, sexual assault, and accusations of these acts, and the strong feelings is invokes in those that read about them in the news, distancing ones self from the situation publicly is the only viable defense against rumors, accusations, and Title 9 or NCAA investigations. I hope that the alleged attacker is not a member of the football team, because this team does not need the distractions, this staff (already accused of fostering a rape culture) does not need the distraction, and the university does not need a reputation of having a dangerous campus. I hope that the police take the alleged victims claims seriously and investigate with all due dilligence. I hope the alleged attackers rights to due process are not violated. I hope all possible evidence is legally gathered, that the jury is not unduly swayed by the press, and the prosecution and defense argue their cases fairly under the law. I hope justice is done and the truth is found. GBR!

This is Nebraska. We have a long history and long memories. It's hard sometimes to be positive about the team when many of us personally experienced those glory days when we were on top of the college football world. Compared to the surety of our victory back in those days, not seeing that kind of dominance is disheartening. We will never forget, and all current and future teams and coaches will be (perhaps unfairly) compared to those heady days of glory... But those days are gone. They left when Dr Tom Osborne retired. They were further removed by the tenures of Solich, Callahan, and Pelini. At times we have been good, but not great like we used to be. Seeing a team struggle to beat teams that the guys in the old glory days would have steamrolled is hard. It doesn't match our expectations, there's a mental dissonance watching our team struggle when we expect them to make it look easy. Regardless of the reasons and justifications we all come up with to explain, in our own personal worldviews, just what exactly is wrong, be it the players, the staff, the changing landscape of college football recruiting, or all of the above. Every team, good or bad, will be compared to our mental images of what we believe the team should be, and many of our mental images of our beloved huskers are memories of one or more of our 5 national championship teams. But it's not fair. Not to the players, who in the days of rising tuition costs chose to come to Nebraska either as walking (at great personal expense via student loans) or as scholorship players. It's not fair to the coaches who have all desperately tried to fill the giant sized shoes Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne left behind. It's not fair to us as fans who, every offseason, drink the kool-aid and get our hopes up of having another national championship team just like the ones we used to watch. It's not fair because we are so overshadowed by past greatness. Scheme isn't the problem. Coaching isn't the problem. Player's talent isn't the problem. It's the expectations. For years, under several different coaching staffs, with completely different rosters, we have had one consistent problem: playing scared. Playing to not mess up, to not give up that big play on defense, to not give up that sack, to not get tackled in the backfield, to not get tackled before moving the chains, to not whiff on that block, to not be too slow firing off the ball and getting beat by the other guy, to calling conservative plays in the 4th quarter, to letting up off the gass, to scrambling desperately to get that much needed 4th quarter stop, to scrambling desperately to get that 4th quarter or overtime game winning touchdown... They, players and staff, have played scared. Since the latter years of Solich through today. Scared that they won't live up to seemingly impossible and unfair standards, such as the greatest college football team of all time like the 95 huskers. So I'm giving up, but not on this team, not on this coaching staff, not on any of the players, but only on my own expectations. I don't care about the score, I don't care about the Winn loss record, I don't care about conference or national champiinships... all I want to see is good, solid, fundamentally sound and we'll executed football. Win or lose, high scoring or low, shutouts or shootouts. And it may sound trite, or soft, or coddling, but I don't care. I just want Nebraska to be the best they can possibly be. I'm behind you, guys, win or lose. 6-6 or 3-9. I'll be there, cheering you on. GO BIG RED!

A chance to do or dare.

I think I'd be ok with giving up 300 passing yards per game if that also came hand in hand with 2 or more interceptions.

I'm sure you've seen me say it before, but all the ingredients are in place for a good run game. We've seen speed option once or twice, and combined with Jano's belly option that's two of the ingredients for a classic triple option. Even if you dont run an actual triple option, if you call the FB trap followed immediately by that speed option, we can throw off a defense pretty well. We've seen a Power O off tackle run go for good yards, add in a counter trey for balance and misdirection and we'd be rolling. I'm kinda ambivalent about the zone runs this year, without a trancendant talent like Abdullah to run them, they aren't as effective. The passing game, when it's working right, is a thing of beauty. Those first 4 games looked really good. Developing the run game by putting together those plays we've seen that work well, and put a greater emphasis on the run game, and we'll be much better off. If the run game is getting stuffed, well have a good passing game to fall back on, and vice versa. The run doesn't necessarily set up the pass, and the pass doesn't necessarily set up the run. Rather, the two are complementary parts of an offense, and you need both to be successful. When a defense adjusts to counter the run by stacking the box, that's when you pass. When they try to counter the pass by going with a nickle, dime, or peso formation, it opens up the run game by taking people out of the box. That's why you have to be good at both. And we could be, if we just dedicated ourselves to the run a little more. About 10% more. A 60/40 run to pass ratio would be just about perfect for us I think.

Mods, any clues on who hacked this account? Joking. On a more serious note, put aside the past coaches, the state of recruiting the last few years, the talent, excetera, and think on this: In 2012, Michigan State was running a 4-3 quarters defense and a pro style west coast offense. They went 7-6, 3-5 in the B1G. All but one of their losses was by less than a TD, hard fought tough losses. But the coaches weren't fired. There was some grumbling in the fan base, talk about how their players weren't as talented, excetera. And the next year, in 2013, they didn't change their schemes, they tweaked them a bit, but the philosophy was the same. They didn't panic and fire their coaches. They put their faith in their players and staff. In 2013, MSU went 13-1, 8-0 in the B1G, and had a very nice win over a good Stanford team. Nebraska runs the ball a little tougher, and we'd look a hell of a lot like that MSU squad. And if they can break out after a bad season with tough, close losses, I'm sure that we could as well.

Yeah, but are you sure you'll be able to ask me to step down after I win conference and national championships?

Can you recruit fast people? Sure can! Aside from the great facilities, good tradition, and a scheme that should transfer very well to the NFL (if more suited for the college game environment) I can always promise some early playing time as long as they can put the work on memorizing the scheme. Early playing time will translate to early stats, and the possibility to go to the NFL earlier. It will cause some roster attrition, but of we work with the players to get them drafted, we will know when they'll enter the draft and can plan accordingly.

I'll be your OC. I'm real creative with run plays, blending power run with traditional Nebraska option and some of that newfangled read option (which is just a classic veer out of a spread formation...) and I know when to call play action passes. I'm sure I could teach these guys to pull and block, and I'd make sure to put the fan favorite RB in each week, whoever that happens to be each week. Now we just need a defensive genius and a few position coaches and we're set!!! /satire over.

The battles we go through life.