beorach

I just think we need to cut down on the FB carries. J's not a feature back who should be pushing fifteen carries a game. Set it up with lots of fakes and surprise them, sure, but it was one of the head-scratchers last weekend. Fan service?

Which two are you giving them? If it's stopping the run, I'd argue teams don't bother because they don't need to.

I like to fool around with spreadsheets for gambling purposes. I know enough about statistics to make some basic judgments. What I'm doing to rate a team's performance in nine areas (pass d&o, rush d&o, scoring d&o, total d&o, and turnover margin) is taking averages and standard deviations for all the individual stats within those areas to compare a team's stats to and assign appropriate composite figures on a consistent scale. I'm also coming up with SOS ratings based on the average ratings of the teams a team has played. I get my stats from cfbstats.com because it allows me to remove the games against lower division teams. If I haven't put you to sleep yet, the ratings are below: B1G Overall (w/o SOS) Michigan Wisconsin Ohio State Iowa Penn State Northwestern Michigan State Illinois Nebraska Indiana Minnesota Rutgers Purdue Maryland B1G Overall (w/ SOS) Northwestern Iowa Michigan Illinois Indiana Wisconsin Penn State Ohio State Nebraska Michigan State Minnesota Rutgers Purdue Maryland B1G Defensively (w/o SOS) Michigan Wisconsin Northwestern Iowa Ohio State Penn State Illinois Minnesota Michigan State Rutgers Indiana Nebraska Maryland Purdue B1G Offensively (w/o SOS) Nebraska Ohio State Indiana Michigan Iowa Wisconsin Michigan State Purdue Penn State Illinois Northwestern Rutgers Minnesota Maryland Top 25 for All FBS Overall (w/o SOS) Boise State North Carolina State Michigan Houston West Virginia Alabama Wisconsin Ohio State Notre Dame Baylor Iowa Florida State USC Georgia LSU Duke Florida Utah Oklahoma State Navy Clemson Appalachian State TCU North Carolina Oklahoma Top 25 for All FBS Overall (w/ SOS) Alabama Clemson West Virginia Northwestern Iowa North Carolina Michigan Utah Duke Oklahoma Illinois Louisville Florida Boston College Washington Oregon Arizona State Georgia Tech Pittsburgh Florida State Houston USC Georgia Tennessee LSU p.s. - My SOS adjustment probably needs work as it's too simplistic. E.g., Illinois playing Middle Tennessee counts as positively toward their SOS rating as their having played Nebraska because the Blue Raiders have the same cumulative rating as Nebraska per my calculations. At this point in the season, they've played a pretty tough schedule but that won't be the case by season's end (relative to a P5 team's). I'm thinking I should probably compare a team's SOS rating to the bell curve, like I do with all other stats, and make adjustments to a team's overall rating(s) given its place on it. p.p.s. - Nebraska's highest rated category is total offense. This is because the Huskers have run 304 total plays, which is very close to the average plus one standard deviation (equaling 311). That gives them a value of 0.75 on my scale of 0-1 for this stat. They're getting 6.84 yards per play, on average, which exceeds the national average plus one standard deviation value of 6.81. Their average yards per game is 519.5, which exceeds the national average plus one standard deviation value of 508.5. For the latter two stats in this category, I rate them at 1.0. Ratings are just 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1...based on the range the value falls into. Some categories have more measurables than others. Nebraska's lowest rated category is total defense. The number of plays the Huskers are having to face, on average, exceeds the national average plus a standard deviation. Their average yards given up per play is between the average plus half a standard deviation and the average plus a whole standard deviation...such that I give them a rating of 0.25. The yards they're giving up per game, on average, is within the central range I'm not considering statistically significant (though it's just a little more than a yard off the sum of the average and half a standard deviation). p.p.p.s. - I considered just rushing offense, rushing defense, scoring defense, and turnover margin stats to come up with a category I'm just going to call toughness. Top 25 Toughest FBS (w/o SOS) Navy Michigan Houston North Carolina State Boise State LSU Appalachian State Baylor Wisconsin Ohio State Toledo Georgia Utah Clemson Alabama Florida State Iowa Penn State USC Michigan State Georgia Southern Temple West Virginia Florida Duke Top 25 Toughest FBS (w/ SOS) Clemson Navy Alabama Boston College Utah Northwestern Michigan LSU Iowa Illinois Toledo West Virginia Houston Georgia Arizona State Duke Tennessee Florida State Florida Kansas State Georgia Tech Appalachian State Pittsburgh USC Washington p.p.p.p.s. - Sorry for my misunderstanding on formatting. I guess it's easier to read L-R anyway. I had pasted things in from Excel.

I thought we'd see a change in the level of organization of our team right away with a seasoned HC. I remember how different Brian Kelly's Irish looked in their first game under him. I remember how much better UCLA looked in Mora's first season versus our Huskers, under Bo, in the fifth (?) year of his tenure. Given the amount of penalties and my perception the kids look sluggish (mainly thinking on defense), it seems my hopes were ill-founded. On a positive note, our QB play has been much improved. I had thought our offense might stink for a full season, at least, given how these things usually go. The negative is this Pac-12 transplant's system may not play well in the B1G nor to Husker fans in general. I like that we got an experienced HC this time as opposed to the last hire but I think it's fair to say that a team gunning for a NC needs to be more physical than I'm guessing we may ever be under Riley. I fully recognize this judgment may be premature. If our kids are winning nine a season in a couple years and not getting blown out, well...we've upgraded in two ways. At Riley's age, I'm figuring we're not going to see an evolution a la TO during his tenure. I'm just hoping he can put us in better position ahead of retirement.

Well, how is it?!! For violence, the Old Testament makes Medal of Honor video game look like a Disney movie. Much like the Middle East today, in fact. Ha! The violence is abundant in the good book, for sure.... Yeah. I guess the violence stands out because I didn't remember how much killing the Jews did back in the Old Testament days. Life was pretty brutal back then. I guess it goes without saying that there's a lot more in the bible than violence. I'm looking forward to reading the prophets following psalms/proverbs and then getting into the new testament. Slaughtering villages in the name of the Lord. Seems a little hypocritical of them, but as you said, there is much more to the bible than that (Revelation is terrifying!) Pardon more necros but I think it's important to consider that much of the world isn't so advanced as we such that it's fair to judge them for being removed, to a lesser extent, from Biblical times. Couple that with how central violence is to our interactions within our spheres of influence and humanity's plight in the world makes more sense.

Orson Scott Card sort of did that in Ender's Game, too, but I've never tried to look up whether any one person deserves the credit. I read something recently that gave William Gibson credit for coining the term, cyberspace.

I just finished Skagboys by Irvine Welsh. I have read a lot of his stuff but never Trainspotting (though I loved the film). I think I had read one of his books before seeing it, too, but now I'm not sure I want to read it because of having seen it and already getting this prequel of sorts read. Marabou Stork Nightmares and Crime were probably my favorites aside from the latest. The Scottish/British slang takes some patience but I think it adds something. On a recommendation from some fantasy authors, I'm going to start Diana Gabaldon's Outlander today. I placed a hold on it several months ago and am sure there's still a line so I probably won't even get to finish it before it's due and they don't allow you to renew in that circumstance.

To get a reach around, you know you generally have to be giving something else more...valuable...up, right? NTTAWWT!

Was it because you left it for them to guess what it grew like a fungus on of yours?

This ^ I like Shatel all right but his articles don't focus on what interests me (w/r/t Nebraska football). The rest of these guys haven't made an impression. To elaborate somewhat on Sipple, it just seems like he doesn't know football and he's afraid to commit to having any opinion that might be unpopular in the least. Some of that opinion comes from having listened to him on 1620 fairly often. He likes to play the Sgt. Schultz card whenever it's allowed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmzsWxPLIOo p.s. - The Tunnel Walk of Shame dude is great and everyone loves Faux. That Huskers Gameday handle was associated with some choice Twitter stupidity, iirc - speaking to taking sides over Bo.

I'd hate Michigan a lot less if I thought you guys hated Michigan enough. Overreact?

The more reasonable argument was that TCU finished with the same record despite having played a tougher schedule, of course. I mainly wanted to chime in to say I appreciated the insight on CS's TD, though.

AA is about 2.5-3 hours from Cedar Point. Lincoln is probably 3.5-4 hours from WOF. Been to both parks, CP is so much better than WOF, its not even fair. Their Millenium Force makes the Mamba look like the little alligator roller coaster at Fun Plex. You Omaha people with little kids will know exactly what ride Im talking about at Fun Plex. damnit. They never shoulda closed Peeny Park. That ruined Husker Football. We just didnt know it yet. I know this is trivial but "Peeny" made me laugh more than I probably should have. It's Peony. Like the plant. Lol. I knew it would. I couldnt remember exactly how it was spelled. I went there once. I was 5. And it was cloudy and rainy. Wow. Peony Park. We are really bringing up the old days now. I dont know when it closed, but like I said, I was about 5 or so. late 80's. Research says it closed in 1994. Pretty safe to say that though we didnt know it then, that was the beginning of the end of Nebraska football. Hasnt been the same since. It's obligatory to mention that Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, and Red Hot Chili Peppers all played the same show at the PP ballroom back in the early nineties. I don't think I had heard of Pearl Jam at the time but still enjoyed their contribution.

All's fair in love and war but, with respect to the matter of kids making stupid decisions, black football players are less likely to graduate from Michigan than Nebraska. Looking at the past four years of graduation success rate calculations (http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/federal-graduation-rates-search), Michigan's numbers average out to 53% for them as opposed to 78.5% for white football players. Nebraska's numbers over the same period are, respectively, 69.75% and 80.25%. Things can always change, of course. Harbaugh wasn't exactly beloved for recalling how he was discouraged from pursuing a degree in History while at Ann Arbor. If this doesn't make sense, perhaps the story linked below will refresh your memory: http://www.mercurynews.com/sportsheadlines/ci_6533498

W/r/t the concern about travel, let's have the first round feature home games for the higher seeds. Everybody should have a dome if football's greatest prize has to be played in fair weather.

This thread is getting pretty long. What's the argument against just taking the P5 conference champs and maybe adding a qualified independent (or two...or three?) from the rest of the 128-team FBS teams? A team that can't win its conference doesn't deserve to play for a national title. A smaller team shouldn't be left out if its deserving. An undefeated Boise State should get a chance to play for all the marbles, too, for example. If we're going to have a system like that, the power 5 teams should break away from the rest of the FBS (or Division 1 or whatever we're supposed to refer to it as anymore). Considering the number of new Texas teams alone, the break makes more sense every year. p.s. - I like to fool with stats and determine spreads from them. I had the winner right, using this method, for every CFP game. If I put TCU up against the playoff teams, the only one they wouldn't be favored against (in terms of my spread calculation) is Ohio State BUT that would have been the smallest spread of all the potential Ohio State games. If I put Baylor against them all, the result was the same but the spread in favor of Ohio State would have been slightly greater. This is not to say that the two Big XII teams that were left out were the legitimate #2 and #3 teams in the nation but that's just how it looks on paper to me. To pick on my method, in hopes of showing it's a bit silly, I'll take this a step farther. If we just wanted to throw out records and take the teams that posted the best numbers, one from each P5 conference and one at-large team from outside the P5, the playoff would have included these teams (in descending order): Michigan State TCU Georgia Memphis Clemson Oregon That's without weighting any stats nor applying any factor to account for strength of schedule. It's just the result of a straight evaluation of all the figures posted within nine categories - pass d/o, rush d/o, scoring d/o, total d/o, and turnover margin. The top 25, by the rationale described above, is as follows: Michigan State Ohio State TCU Wisconsin Baylor Georgia Mississippi State Alabama Memphis Marshall Boise State Kansas State Oklahoma Clemson Louisiana Tech Houston East Carolina Ole Miss Nebraska Auburn Louisville Oregon Colorado State San Diego State Georgia Tech

Good on you folks who believed and won some dough. I calculated Ohio State -8 (thread's still up in the other sports forum) but didn't place a bet.

That was a classic Rose Bowl type of game last night. Coming from where we do, that means less to us than the B1G and Pac-Ten blue bloods...but I hope it resonated with our new coaching staff.

I love that story...especially considering how rough the previous home and home were. I wasn't living in Nebraska at that time and was the only Cornhusker fan where I watched those. Johnny Mitchell was a bright spot, though, as I recall.

It sounded like some Husker legends didn't work so hard for Frank. I want to say that had a lot to do with recruiting, too.

Exactly!

Thanks - I'll get the hang of hanging out here eventually.