JJ Husker

You're probably spot on with this observation JJHusker1. If Martinez was hitting open receivers against our 2nd string it possibly could have given Beck a false assessment at Taylor's progress in the passing game. I know we practiced a lot 1's vs. 1's during Fall Camp, so it kind of amazes me that they would go away from that once the season started. I understand you don't want to get your top players hurt in practice, but at the same time you also don't want your players to gain a false sense of themselves by how they perform in practice if they are going up against 2nd string talent. Actually, my intention was to point out that going against our first string, the way they have been playing, probably isn't going change much. Trying to be humorous but unfortunately also realistic. I am currently much more down on our D than I am our QB play. I realize that 3 picks against a team the caliber of Wiscy will kill you but our highly touted D has not lived up to expectations. Based on their hype and last years performance they should have stopped 2 if not all 3 of the subsequent scoring drives. Then maybe Beck doesn't panic and go all Air Correlle(sp) on us. The D needs to start bringing the pain. The real solution in my eyes is to limit putting Taylor in the position where we HAVE to throw deep. I think we get there with much better D, and fewer O-line mistakes. Field position and manageable down and distance. I don't blame Taylor because he isn't that type of QB. Never will be. The people piling on him need to start accepting this fact and temper their criticism with this knowledge. BTW- I enjoy your comments.

I'm pretty sure I understand what your trying to say, I just disagree with it totally. The MO for Nebraska has not historically been to recruit high numbers of nationally high ranked prospects nor do I think it ever should be. You can't just look at what some blue chip report says was a good recruiting class without also looking at the on field results. Even if Callahan could get us the top 20 prospects every year, I wouldn't want them in our program. Those types of players typically (and the Bill years proved this) do not play with heart. I'll take the junkyard mutt over the pedigreed best in show every time. I don't want that clown associated with NU football in any way, shape, or form, even if it is limited to recruiting. He and that idiot AD ruined a dynasty. Period. It's not even funny to imagine it. I don't care how limited you claim his involvement would be. Not cool. Just my opinion of course.

You just denied your son a shot at success... I'm pretty sure he'll be just fine. Denied a shot at success? Simply because he will not be attending Wiscy. Me thinks you exaggerate too much. I went to UNL and I am successful. Not going to Wiscy didn't hurt me one bit. And don't worry, I doubt if I would have got accepted there anyway. You went to a whole bunch of trouble (way too much in my opinion) to prove your point but it had virtually nothing to do with what I was saying. My point was, it doesn't matter how many peace prize winners (BTW if Obama can get one the way he did, the validity of that whole thing is up in the air for me) or your rank in some arbitrary poll of best places to get a burger, if the environment doesn't promote good sportsmanship and basic manners, there are better places for a young person to attend college and learn how to interact with others. I'm not impressed with Wiscy. Not in the least. Just so you know, he has the grades, class rank, and ACT's to go virtually anywhere he wants. Also, very convenient how you list football accomplishments since 2000. How'd you do for the 30 years prior to that? Thought so. And, I'll take Husker fans over Badgers any damn day of the week. We know how to win or lose with class and dignity. Some people struggle with losing and that may be understandable in the heat of the moment but not knowing how to win without capping it off with jerkish behavior is beyond my comprehension. I guess I haven't been exposed to it like those in Madison.

Favorite and best are two different things. Gill and Frazier are my favs but they had help. Crouch did the most with the least. I wouldn't even include Ganz, Steve Taylor, or Zach on the list. Where's Humm and Ferragamo?

Not to be a smart ass but maybe that is why Beck thought we could move the ball by having Martinez drop back and throw from the pocket. Our secondary play has not been anything a person should use to judge their offensive prowess.

WTF huskerfan333157. You can't be serious. Epic? Callahan? All in the same sentence? Without the words meltdown and/or program destruction? I've picked up "epic" piles from my dog in the backyard. Epic is over-rated.

Dillard is way out of line and doing an extreme disservice to his alma mater. Knapplc has this issue nailed to the wall.

I agree that it is not time for wholesale changes. In fact, maybe things turning totally to st in this game really was a blessing in disguise. Wiscy is good enough that we would have had to play completely flawless to beat them. It was most assuredly a 7-14 point loss to begin with. So I guess we took advantage of that L by getting to deal with some very real problems before they cost us an L in a game we should win. Being totally serious that is the bright side of this debacle. Losing is losing whether by 1 point or 31. We basically got a free education in that game.

This, to me, seems a little irrational. You're indicting the university's ability to produce high-quality kids because they get drunk? You're muddling the university's reputation as a fairly high-ranked educational institution because the football atmosphere is hostile (which it is). I'm not telling you where to send your kids, but I can at least tell you you won't be disappointed with the education they receive. The drinking atmosphere is relatively widespread in Wisconsin as a whole. If you're not comfortable with that, that's fine. I don't doubt the quality of the class room education students are being offered at Wisconsin. That is why they were one of the schools on our list to begin with. And, being totally honest, some of the reason they are now off the list has to do with the out-of-state tuition cost. Our son will be getting a fair amount of scholly dollars but not enough for him to justify attending Wiscy. I have always been a firm believer in "well rounded" developement. There is much more to a college education than just the education part of it. Sports play a huge role in teaching people how to deal with others, accept personal responsibility, and in learning how to react to adversity. In my mind, these things are more important than getting a piece of paper that somehow qualifies you for a supposedly better paying job for the rest of your life. One thing I know for sure is that 18-23 year old yound adults will have a lot of their social behavior shaped these first years out from under their parents wings. Becoming a loud-mouthed, foul-mouthed poor sport and using the excuse of alcohol to justify it, doesn't seem to be the way to go to me. When I went to the Univ. of Nebraska (early 80's) we also drank too much and very often. I doubt I was ever sober at a home game. We would sneak in Yukon Jack, Southern Comfort, Jack, whatever, into the games and we had already been partying for hours before kickoff. But we still managed to treat the visitors with the respect a guest deserves. I'm not sure what or where things have gone wrong in Madison but that doesn't seem to be the case up there. The one caveat I have in making these claims is that "I have not been there myself". I am basing my opinions on the opinions and accounts of others. I usually try to resist this as many times it will cause a person to look stupid. But considering you and other seemingly reasonable and hospitable WU fans have admitted this is in fact the norm for your student body, I feel fairly safe in accepting it as the gospel.

Yet another post rationalizing and justifying the lack of sportsmanship and poor behavior of this large student body. It seems many wiscy fans are embarrassed by it and would like it to change but just can't get beyond the reality of it. We have been going through the process of selecting a college for our HS senior son. Wisconsin was one of the schools we were looking at. It's off our list now. It is apparent wiscy is not properly helping to develop well rounded people. Hopefully you get a handle on dealing with your problems. You've at least made the first big step in realizing there is a problem. Now you just need to do something about it.

NU 17 OSU 10 Passing yds 29 Rushing yds 326

I always thought I wanted to attend a game at Camp Randall someday. I'm not so sure after reading through most of these home team accounts of the general behavior that one can expect to be subjected to. It's not my or any other Husker fans place to tell you what should be acceptable or unacceptable behavior in your house. I am simply astonished at the huge amount of justifying you guys do to explain the poor behavior of your students. Saying that's just the way it is, is no excuse. Saying you used to be terrible at football and therefore it is now simply a party first and throw respectable behavior out the window attitude is no excuse. Telling the guests that they need to get thicker skin and basically bow down and accept verbal insults and taunts without letting it bother them is only a wishful request. Somebody gets in my face hurling insults and I'm probably gonna drop em. But you make it sound like that would be my fault for not just bending over and taking it. This is the same type of mentality that places the blame for a rape on the cute girl. I can take a group A-hole chant and off color language but if it gets personal up in my grill, there's probably going to be a problem. One thing is for sure; the behavior at Camp Randall is all your baby. You can blame visitors all you want for being the real problem but that doesn't change the facts. I am reminded of an episode of the Sopranos where Tony and his son are in a very dilapidated crackhead neighborhood and a couple locals come up to them and tell them this is their neighborhood, Tony looks around and says "I can see that". This diatribe is mostly directed at Panthers post on the previous page. I doubt things are that much different with the general fanbase but I do get the idea that your students might need to be brought in line with some acceptable social behavior norms.

Football is played with 11 guys on the field at a time. If you think the other ten guys don't matter, the defensive unit doesn't matter, field position, clock management, down & distance situations, etc. all don't matter; well then you are missing a whole lot of football. Sure 3 picks and ineffective throwing play into it but this ain't a one man rodeo. The team lost. Accept it.

Any team that does not have the intestinal fortitude to overcome some bad/missed calls does not deserve to win. Period. I saw no slant to the officiating whatsoever. Sometimes you will get near perfect officiating, other times it can be pretty bad. The key is if they are being consistently good or bad with both teams equally. I have seen the complaints about holding our D- linemen. Well, if they aren't calling holding then you get your O line to do a bit of it too. The punch in the head was nothing that should've been flagged but it could've been without it being a bad call either way. Personally, it looked to me like our guy was still trying to tackle him well into the endzone so I really don't blame the Wisc players reaction. Officiating had not one thing to do with the outcome or even the momentum of this game. Once in awhile you will get a game changer like years ago in the Penn State game but those are rare now with replay. And of course you can get cheated for virtually a whole season when you are leaving a conference but, that won't happen very often.

On when the Blackshirts should be handed out, I have tossed this around too, and I think there could be a way where you combine both the way Osborne & McBride handed these out to the way Bo does it today. My suggestion would be at the end of Fall Camp Bo and the defensive coaches would get together and decide who would be the starting 11 on defense going into Game 1. Whoever those starting 11 are will get the Blackshirts hung in their locker. Now after Game 1 if a few players didn't measure up to the Blackshirt tradition than they would be stripped of their starting role and Blackshirt status for Game 2 and new players would take their place wearing the previous starters Blackshirt. It's a combination of both ideas: You want to be one of the starting 11 on defense for Nebraska....earn it! Earn it every week! What do you Husker fans think of this combined approach for handing out the Blackshirts? I like the idea. If our defense is to be known as the blackshirts then the starting unit should have them. I don't think we can get wrapped up in the subpar play of the whole unit and simply say no one has earned it yet. I realize it is a team game but there are those who are deserving of the blackshirt right now. The "blackshirts" should be the 11+ best we have to offer and should not have to meet some subjective criteria compared to other teams or group results. If our top defensive unit is not very good then it will simply tarnish the mystique of the blackshirts. Some non-starter situation players and substitutes may also be deserving. But, if you slack off and don't earn it every week then it goes to your replacement.

I have mixed feelings on the blackshirt issue. I sort of think that if you make the starting unit after fall camp then you should be considered a blackshirt. But, when that unit plays as they have the first 5 games of this season, being called the "blackshirts" kinds of loses it's luster. At this point in time I am simply for whichever method will get them playing more like a blackshirt and less like a doormat. Along with many others, I just wish I knew what that method was. I have a very strong opinion about the captains. They should be elected by their teammates. 2, 3, 4, 5 however many they deem worthy. Team captains should not be appointed by the coaching staff. The players themselves have a much better idea of who these true team leaders are. Maybe there is a senior "Rudy" type who busts his hump every day but just isn't that gifted. Captains are not necessarily your top stat guys or starting QB. They should be the guys everyone else respects for their work ethic and attitude. If Pelini or other coaches are simply plugging in 4 new names every week, that alone could explain a whole bunch of problems. Maybe they should give them participation ribbons while they're at it. Next thing you know it will be equal playing time for everyone on the team.

I love the BTN. Not having to PPV 3 NU games a year is well worth the extra $6 monthly it added to my cable bill. Some of the programming is maybe repeated too much and there can be a slight hint of low budget but I'm sure it will get more professional as it comes along. It really isn't fair to compare it to an ESPN. I just wish our local cable provider offered the HD version in our area.

I would tend to agree. The 2 gap looks brilliant when you have a guy like Suh getting double and triple teamed and still making plays. As good as Crick and others on the D-Line may be, they simply aren't THAT good (few are). With the 2 gap system we are not getting any D-Line pressure on the QB. To get pressure we have to blitz and when we face a well coached team with a good QB....well we have seen how that defense works sans a Suh.

We were the only college football team to win 5 national championships in the last 3 decades of the last century (1970-2000) Only 3 other teams (Bama, USC, Miami*) have won 5 NC's in the last 41 years. The Big Ten has only won 5 NC's combined in that 41 year period (PennSt 2, OSU 2, Michigan 1- the other 8 members 0) Sorry, ever since the Callahan era, when I need to force myself into a positive mood I have to go back to that period of time when I became a Husker fan. It's not bandwagon hopping either. I was born in Nebraska early-mid 60's. I got Johnny Rodgers autograph when he was playing. Went to UNL early 80's. Gave Jamie Williams a ride to Roziers place one night-met the triplets. Would see Remington on campus virtually every other day. Not name dropping or bragging but trying to give some of these youngsters an idea why some of us have so much trouble accepting the adversity of the last 10+ years. Cut us a little slack when we boil over and complain.

I think Pelini should bar Martinez from talking to the media. These pressers are not doing him or the team any favors. On one hand, he and the whole team do need to move on and only concentrate on tOSU. On the other hand it would be nice to see/hear him acknowledge and explain the mistakes that were obviously made. I was not impressed with his curt, say nothing answers and they shed no light whatsoever on what the real problems might be but, in the end, it really is an unwinnable situation for him. There are only 2 possible solution; 1-Get him a personality transplant or 2-Shut off media access to him. And it's not just Martinez. Bo's coaches show is also a total waste of air time. "have to prepare better" "need to make better decisions" "the process" blah blah blah. Nobody is learning anything about this team from either of these 2 guys. I think they show a high amount of disdain towards a very loyal but also highly critical fanbase. I think a lot of the criticism for them feeds off of the attitude they exude. The fans and media can be cruel and stupid at times but I sense Pelini and Martinez would rather neither one existed.

Seriously, that made laugh till I had tears in my eyes. Or....maybe those tears were left over from Saturday's debacle? Based on how both teams have been playing, I wouldn't say a "decent" game but probably a very close one.

Wow... Guess I should clarify... didn't go to work b/c I have the option to work at home as well (it's not like I called in sick). Guess sarcasm and humor are difficult to get across on the boards. Just had to post something to my fellow Huskers out there who may be feeling the same. I always stand behind the Huskers and wear my N with pride! Just a more difficult loss than usual for me... that's all. If you added a forward slash on the front of that N it would become a W. The color scheme is right.... Does that help?

I wouldn't worry too much about your pathetic offense in this contest as it is a match made in heaven for our pathetic defense. I watched both OSU-MSU & Neb-Wis games this past week. Your QB Bauserman looked just about as bad our QB Martinez throwing the ball. I don't think either of them could hit the broad side of a barn at 15 yards. Neb is not going to throw the ball unless they have to. Hate to give ya pointers but if I was the DC at OSU, I would put 8 to 9 in the box and force NU to throw. And if I was OC for you guys, I would air it out deep on offense. If you threw a hail mary every play you would burn our secondary 30-40% of the time. Unless things change drastically for one of these teams, this could be a very ugly war of futility. Would not surprise me if neither team scores double digits.

Wilson earned his Mushy bj. That's what should happen when a team gets out played and out coached in every facet of the game. There sure were no positives about NU for him to talk about.

Shave my balls with a 4" Jointer/Planer from Sears. Have Muhammad Ali perform Lasik surgery on BOTH my eyes.