84HuskerLaw

6 QBs on scholarship is too many. You need to be redshirting one each year and have 3 ready to play at the start of the season with a walk on able to run a core of basic plays in an emergency situation. The state of Nebraska should produce atleast one QB capable of filling the role of the walk on player each year. If we stagger them out, then once you have a walk on and four scholarship guys that figures one scholarship recruit each year of a high caliber should be sufficient. ideally, you would have a junior or senior as your starter each year and a sophomore and junior backing them up in the 2 and 3 spots. The order is not critical of course but all three MUST be ready and able to play the position in 'winning' fashion. Your backups are not just 'mop ups' and if they are not good enough to play winning ball in your offense as it is intended and designed, then the coach needs to make changes. Move guys to other positions or encourage a transfer out if they are just not ready/able to be prime time players. Callahan was criticized mightily early on when he 'disbanded' some argued the walk on program by dismissing a bunch of guys shortly after he was hired. The reason was simple. There were 30 or more walk ons and a few scholarship players who were NOT anywhere close to D1 players. I knew of a couple individuals who shall remain nameless that were let go that attempted to walk on at small colleges and were unsuccessful, even at the NAIA level. Those guys had no busines using up coaches time and taking up roster space if they were not D1 athletes at all. If we have some of those types now, Riley and staff need to have serious sit downs with each and tell the truth. It is wrong to let them go on toiling and working with any misconceptions or dellusions of granduer. . Of course there will be some drop off from starters to back ups to thirds and fourths but that drop off should not be so significant that the entire team's ability to win most of their games is in jeopardy. Depth is not just names and bodies on a roster sheet. They are serious players who are working their tails off to win the job and not ride the pine as additional cheerleaders and clip board holders.

Both Frazier and Frost were much better decision makers than Tommy and Taylor in general. But, in fairness, Osborne didn't ask the QB to do a lot of deciding of things as most plays in the pass game were pretty much designed and preset. Rarely did Osborne have more than 3 receivers and usually one of them was a pure decoy and sometimes the other two were sent in to routes that left them 'in the vacinity' of each other so an errant throw might well be in fact caught by the other one. It also meant the QB had less head turning and 'checking down' of course which takes time and puts much more pressure on the QB with the play's design complexity. Often the QB and receivers are supposed to read and ad lib or automatically audible into a particular route and throw based on the defensive alignment/coverages. I believe this to be true. While Tommy and Taylor were the rare exceptions in NU history to play for 3 or 4 straight seasons, even they didn't become very good a 'reading the defenses' and finding the right receivers and then throwing it to them in stride so that the could catch and run. Even with POB and Gebbia and Lee being much better QBs coming in (presumably they can do the mental things of a QB better than some we've had here), they are still raw rookies next fall. It is totally predictable that our QB play will be only marginally better than this year, if at all. As I've noted multiple times before, I feel if POB was in fact a better QB in the usual QB ways and measures, then he should have been at least #2 and have played a 12 to 15 quarters of action this year to get ready for 2017. I hope that all those practice reps adequately replace game experience. But, I believe I am not mistaken to say that for about 40 years of watching now, I have heard many many coaches and commentators say that there is just no substitute for live, game action in prime time. Repetitions under the lights in front of cameras and 80,000 loud fans is a big difference. IMO. Please don't misunderstand: Frazier and Frost were tremendous decision makers in the option game but these are read and react in a split second things based on one or two defenders' actions and formations and play call One is not attempting to look all over the field and quickly assess locations, directions, distances, speeds, coverages, etc all in a couple seconds. You send 4 and 5 receivers down field to scatter around and find the opening, the QB needs to be extra calm and cool and collected with those defenders are coming hard right at him. Coverages are disguised and reading eyes and tendencies and guessing and so on are all over the place. It is very very difficult. Don't understate Tommy Armstrong's accomplishments either. He did a lot of good things through his 4 years.

POB and Gebbia have great H.S. numbers - probably as good as any QBs we've ever had in Lincoln. Perhaps we've never had one with any more potential in the passing game than both of these guys demonstrated in high school. But the college game is a big jump up in complexity, competition and pressure. Hopefully our QB position will retain atleast a modicum of run capability and avoids the rush and can buy some extra time half a dozen times a game as sacks are the one thing we rarely suffered from with Tommy and not too often with Taylor. But for every sack avoided, we had a pick or several incompletes which, ultimately end in failed drives and punts or turnovers. We need to be able to sustain drives by converting 3rd and short to medium. I would not be surprised if our conversion ratio for 3rd and 6 was no better than it was for 3rd and 13. When your success rate is about the same, it becomes tempting to throw even more as the short gains for 2 or 3 on first and second downs seem like a waste. Getting 'chunk' yardage gains as Riley likes to say are great but it is hard to be consistant in this. It is a good sign if you can get one or two between the 30s certainly but early on in a drive you need to 'earn' those first couple first downs the old fashioned way and then again when you get down into 4 down territory it is best, in my view, to power your way to the goal line. Four three yard gains move the chains and put TDs on the board while wearing down the opponent and burning up the game clock. Big plays in the run game are great as they put the mental hurt on the opponent's psyche. Big plays in the pass game do as well but it is not the same in my view. Combine a strong running attack with a good short and intermediate passing complement and you have a champion in the making. There is nothing more frustrating to a defense than being pushed down the field by brute force.

This topic is beyond getting old and it seems few opinions are changing about the firings of multiple coaches, although there is very little defense of Callahan that I have seen. The program has been mired in mediocrity since 2003. The damage which created this mess began even before that really. I like Riley but it is going to be a process of restoring the order of things and recruiting is the of the utmost urgency. This class is absolutely critical and somehow we've got to find a way to win a majority of the games next fall or it will be a case of 2 steps forward and three back IMO. While not on the hot seat, the urgency is clearly there to find a way to get to the top 15 by January 1, 2018.

Well I don't get to watch many of their games. What types of D linemen are thay putting up front? Often times I see 3 down and a LB or two in two point stance playing in the area of where another defensive linemen or two would be positioned. I would assume the scheme would be that you try to occupy the o line with three leaving more LBs to attack and make more tackles.

I believe it would depend on what you mean by 'bad QB' play really. You suggest Tommy A was a bad QB. Was he 'bad' in all the games and some worse than others or were there some where he was 'good' or 'average' or what? I thought Tommy played OK and well at times and then not so well. Blame it on the injuries. Not having a back up QB ready to go is on the coaches. They had to play it safe vs. Iowa because of this. This made us 'no dimentional' on offense almost. Ugh. Yes, poor QB play will make a good team not so good. The question then goes back to what type of QB play you are seeking. Eric Crouch was not a 'great QB' by any means, although he was a great football player and he won the heisman for just that reason. He was extremely entertaining and his running was very very exciting and he made many 'great plays' although dam few were passing. The interesting question might be asked: What would this year's offense have done with Eric Crouch as the QB? Or Brooke Berrigner? Or David Humm? Or Vince Ferragamo? Or Jamaal Lord? Or Bobby Newcomb or Turner Gill (my two all time favorites!) --- I think this team wins vs Wisconsin by 2 TDs in regulation and we battle down to the wire and beat Iowa in OT. Ohio State would still pound us but maybe by 35 instead of 59.

I guess I just don't remember any great 3-4 defenses I've watched in college and as result don't recall who they had for players. Just guessing but woudn't it require someone of Suh's category to play that nose tackle. It seems with just 3 defensive linemen, all of them better be 'double team' type guys to occupy the O line. It would seem to me that just three big guys would be insufficient to stop the power run offenses like Wisconsin and (NU of the past). Teams would likely just chew us up and spit us out. Your LBs are gonna need to be big AND fast both. We don't seem to be able to find those types either - thus Gerry at Safety becomes a leader run stopper. I don't think great run defenses feature safety as the leading tackler spot. Someone please correct me on this as I have seen so little 3-4 I don't feel I am that aware of the pros and cons.

It would seem best for the Rams to hire Harbaugh and Meyer and Saban to put together a great staff. Add in most of the assistants from Penn State and Wisconsin and maybe bring in Dantonio for a front office man. 'The Dream Team" - that would be best. Get this done ASAP before the bowl games and give them time to put together a super bowl team by next fall. Just the latest rumor I am hearing here in New York. Time will tell.

Great coaching of great players produce great teams that often win titles. See about 90% of the last twenty five national champsions. Good goaching of great players produce excellent teams that now and then win titles. See about 75% of the top ten teams that won their bowl games the past 25 seasons. Great coaching of good players produce excellent teams that have a chance to pull off upsets and win a title once in a while. See the other 25% that finished in the top ten the past 25 years. Good coaching of good players produce good teams that pull off upsets of many teams included above Nebraska falls here lately. Good coaching of average teams win about half their games on average and eventually their coaches are hired by another program as an 'upgrade'. Average coaching of good teams finish in the upper half of their conferences and play in bowls typically played before New Year's day. Average coaching of average teams play in the lesser bowls frequently and win more games than they lose about half the time. Below average coaches of below average teams lose more than they win most of the time. Eventually these coaches are replaced by other similar coaches. These coaches end up on lower division programs or become TV sports commentators or change professions altogether.

Biggest fake news story yet: Russians hacked the election and helped Trump! All bogus and this was completely fabricated by NY Times and a couple liberals 'news' reporters claiming CIA 'leaks' says it may have happened. No evidence of anything anywhere of course. This entire story was completely refuted by FBI and Oblama himself recently. But 'maintstream' media simply running this BS nonstop. Another obvious illustration of liberal media bias run amuk. Pure nonsense. Of course, the only logical basis for even suggesting the idea that Putin would have wanted to mess with our elections is that Hillary had the CIA hacking into Russian elections when Putin was elected in attempts to undermine their government. The U.S. has no business manipulating other established nation's governments and their elections, whether or not they are legit elections. Hillary is notorious for her attempts and successes in overturning foreign governments and engineering coup de etahs vs them. Turkey. Libya. Ukraine. Egypt, etc.

At this point, nobody is on a 'warm' seat, let alone hot. The Indiana coach already fired. Nobody else in serious threat now and certainly not Mike Riley. The Big Ten and all its members are on the rise. SEC coaches got some explaining to do I am sure. Big 12 got issues. Maybe handful in Pac ten. But no Big Ten it would seem.

There are many valid points on the 'talent and or coaching' question in here. There are always coaching 'errors' and misjudgments and strategy and scheme issues in every game. Adjustments in the alignments, blitzes, reads, etc etc etc are a part of every game, whether going well or poorly, for both teams. Sometimes, though, talent or the lack thereof are the biggest reasons that schemes, strategies, adjustments, alignments, blitizes, etc etc don't work or are not even attempted. The coaches recognize, after careful analysis and scouting of their opponents, what may or may not be viable in the upcoming game. Riley and his staff have been around a long time and, while nobody would argue they are the best of the best, they certainly are not the worst. We have some good players on our team but clearly not enough to win championships (we haven't won any for two decades and literally dozens of highly paid coaches. Solich certainly was of t'he "Osborne" tree and had many years of experience as his right hand man and assistant HC to learn all he could possibly learn from him. He was handed the team on a golden platter with the best, deepest, most 'talent laden' team, maybe ever!. He had a tremendous staff of assistants with many years of experience and players with all the confidence in the world. Yet, somehow it didn't work out. He failed to maintain a top ten program and in just 5 years, the best ever become 'mediocre' according to many football experts inside and outside the program. We saw it on the field in a -7-7 season and a bowl trip to Shreveport! Following that disasterous season, Solich opted to fire most of the Osborne legacy staff members - apparently to try to shift the blame for the lack of talent on the staff. Maybe there were health issues etc but the big problem was Frank was not paying attention to business and was not 'a closer' and often didn't recognize talent when it walked in his office. Frank's problems were mostly 'talent' but of course not bringing in and developing that talent is coaching. So it was both back then. Callahan, it was hoped, would provide an immediate rush of recruiting of the nation's best once again to quickly restore the order before the Nebraska brand and 'legacy' of greatness was lost on a whole bunch of H.S. players. About 7 years is as long as H.S. seniors will likely recall a given program's on field product personally. We are now facing nearly 2.5 times that long and most high school players don't have any personal clue what Nebraska football really was like. Callahan didn't understand the college game and never really would have figured it out. He had a pro mentality and while he was exceptional skilled as an offensive line and play calling coach, he didn't pay any attention to defense. Defense wins championships while offense sells tickets. Now we have to make the long slow climb and will have to find that magical mix of a handful of special players (the Fraziers, Phillips, Peters, Wistroms, etc) that can take us back up the steep slope. In the end it is recruiting, recruiting and recruiting - speed, size, strength, desire and HEART - are required. Husker heart is brought in from the local recruits (scholarships and walk ons). It is essential to get the effort to win the games against opponents with comparable talent. We lack all of the above.

It seems unlikely that Bo will be a coach at a major conference school - there seem to be plenty of other options and no school wants to hire a high dollar coach (million a year plus) that might blow up and have to dump him. He's gonna need to go about 8 years or so without a major issue at YSU or some place similar. Face it, he got that job because it is his home town, AD is an Ohio State guy and so on. It was more 'who he knew' than 'what he knew' in his getting to coach again. IMO

As far as QB recruiting goes, certainly it appears, on paper and H.S. highlight films, that Riley has been recruiting honest to goodness quarterbacks with POB, Gebbia, Lee (I admit I have not seen him on film or stats but people say he is good). Tommy Armstrong and Taylor Martinez were certainly fine athletes by any reasonable measure that never really became top level quarterbacks. Despite many attempts, it seems both were unable to develop good footwork and passing 'form' etc and neither really developed good passing skills in reading defenses and finding the open receivers. This is not to in anyway be overly critical as I realize that 95% of all quarterbacks are unable to do these things. If being a great QB were easy, the NFL and colleges would be full of them and they'd be a dime a dozen instead of the most highly paid players on the planet.

Collegiate Women's VB is so predictable it seems. Those are certainly 4 of the top 8 or so teams and it is almost never that a cinderella type team gets anywhere near the final four. Sort of the 'usual' suspects really. Used to be Hawaii, UCLA, Washington, Stanford, and so on were to top dogs as the volleyball was dominated by the west coast. Steadily, the midwest and especially Nebraska of all places got better and better. Now the great plains and great lakes states seem to be dominating the volleyball realm. Not sure why - maybe the taller 'rangier' women from the northern European countries historically? Idk. Glad we are among the best - Husker volleyball is very fun to watch live - like football it is much better in person. I have only watched a couple games they have played in Devaney and much preferred the coliseum confines - that was a rockin' home court advantage - a well choreographed over lording crowd that had to be intimidating to many opponents. As much so as any venue I have seen in any sport.

Come on Huskers! Final Four is yours to own! The regional was the championship in many ways.

Nebraska 27 Rush yards 175 Pass yards 275 Tenn 21 Rush yards 216 Pass yards 165 Just can't bring myself to pick against us so Go Huskers!

Really sorry to hear this. Not the way a 4 year starter senior ought to go out. I enjoyed watching Tommy and really hoped his senior season would be a follow up to the bowl game vs. UCLA. We just lacked the push up front and the power in the run game needed to help balance out. He didn't play as well I'd hoped (though I admit I did not really expect a Joe Montana like season). I wish we had him another year as I am very fearful for next year. Maybe Riley sees something in practice that is the biggest secret since the hunt for Bin Laden ended but if we have soomeone better for '17 we should have seen him this year (Lee couldn't play I realize but ????). This will be Fyfe's final time to shine as well. I wish him and our team all the best. Maybe Fyfe will prove us all wrong. God knows we need this win badly to save our recruiting class from a major meltdown.

Although I didn't agree with CM that often, it was certainly his right to have opinions and to express them. He did that well so I hope he has not left or been banished? Yes, we need to voice our concerns and the coaches need to stay sharp and be aware of the issues we blind, ignorant 'amateur' fans have with the progress and lack thereof of the program and team and players, etc. But, we need to all be realistic and under some basic control in our thoughts and statements. It can be frustrating all the political and non sports stuff on here. Those topics are fine and I have opined aplenty with regard thereto. We need Coach Riley and his staff to find a way to get this bunch of players ready to give some kind of strong effort vs. Tenn or we're gonna face yet another sound beating on national TV. I am concerned that the players may have simply tuned off this season and checked out. Hope not but ? We will know more when we find out as to whether Tommy A is ready to play. I am not an expert on a pulled hamstring but it seems a month of rest should be sufficient for the guy to play in his last 'ever' fball game? Huh? Somebody advise otherwise?

Somebody explain Tommy's 'injury' status. It has now been basically three weeks of resting and the one game of partial activity. Now, with three more full weeks of no activity, it doesn't appear he will be able to play? I find this just "ummm?"

I was optimistic this year as we returned so many starters and, in my view, had a 'veteran' team that returned a 4 year starter at QB with excellent athleticism, a bevy of good receivers and pretty decent RBs. We lost a bunch in the def line but we managed to hang in there marginally OK. But, the offense, which should have scored at least 10 to 15 points a game and another 100 yards a game in rushing. It didn't happen obviously as the o line let us down majorly. Now, looking to 2017, I would say our coaches are going to have to perform 'coach of the year' levels to somehow take the bunch of redshirts and rookies and turn them into conference title winner. With everybody thinking that simply playing Ohio State, Wiscy, NW and so on in Lincoln makes that much difference, I just don't see it. We better have a whole bunch of 'great' players in the cupboard ready to explode on the scene and dam quick. In a way, I will be pretty irritated to learn we had this much talent on the bench this year after we played to within one complete pass of the Big Ten title game with Wisconsin and struggled to an ugly loss to Iowa because we were so injured and depleted while their subs set on the bench watching. I don't think we have the 'beef' yet. Two more years of recruiting classes IN ADDITION to last year's and this years, and we should be much more ready to compete. I don't agree with 95 Redux that 2017 is now Riley's finished product and 'team'. At this point, he will be putting Pelini's redshirt seniors, seniors and juniors mostly along with some of his own true sophomores, freshmen and redshirt freshmen.

Let's be real here people. Mike Riley has demonstrated he knows a great deal about football through each of his press conferences. He does a very good job of summarizing the game just ended and what went well and what didn't. His diagnosis of the various aspects of the game and both teams' successful and not so successful schemes and performances. This strongly suggests to me that Riley qualifies as a very good football coach who understands the game and sees the 'big picture' and can break it down and describe it to the arm chair guys and gals in the media so they should understand too. Riley doesn't simply get up in front of the reporters and cameras and offer the 'we just didn't execute' excuse. That one got old fast. It seems to me that Riley explains in more detail, without embarrassing individual players that failed to do their part, repeatedly. While this may be true, the reaction by many would be to call that scapegoating. He does not do that, atleast I have not observed it. The issue then is determining if Riley is capable of 'fixing' the problems his team has so the team gets better and does less of the wrong things and more of the right ones thereby helping them to play better and perhaps, if capable, winning games thereafter. Of course it is essential that Riley have enough skills and abilities amongst the players on his team to put a winning team on the field against the opponents they must play on their schedule. This is where 'talent' comes in. I think he knows what he needs to win against any opponent. I think he knows whether or not he has what he needs. I think he knows where to find what he needs. I think he is trying to recruit and develop what he needs. I don't know if he will be successful in recruiting what he needs because the resistance and difficulty of getting the requisite players to come to Nebraska as opposed to accepting the offers of well established, very attractive programs elsewhere is substantial. Can it be done? Yes, but it is VERY VERY difficult and not many coaches can do it. Washing the family dishes after an in home visit might be a nice touch in the right household. Praying for devine intervention might be helpful but only God will make that judgement. My experience with seeking God's help is that God is pretty busy with much more important things. Just my experience.

The out of control spending by colleges in the athletics departments in general is the direct result of the most intense competition amongst those colleges in general. Perhaps there were times when schools competed more heavily for students and athletes in the past (30s, 40s or 50s perhaps?) but I am not sure it exceeded today. Look at the sums being spent on arenas, locker rooms (a place to change clothes?), stadiums to play about 7 freaking games a year in?, coaches, scholarshps, uniforms of a different color or style to play about 13 games a year, etc, etc. Step back and take a 'big picture' look. We have 40 million unemployed and another 30 million underemployed and millions more living in poverty. We have government budgets so deeply red that most number crunchers project nothing but red ink indefinately until the big crash hits. The NCAA and its membership have created a bunch of this by allowing far too many schools to become 'big boys' in the top divisions of the sports. I've said we need to limit the top division to 64 schools in 4 - sixteen team conferences. There would be incredibly good football played with intense competition and relative balance as there are enough H.S. players with the talent to play at this level for all the stock up and field strong teams. As it is, there are too many colleges competiing for too few athletes. The result is schools trying to out recruit the others by building lavish facilities, offering other 'benefits' and treating their players like rock stars instead of college students. Competing for coaching talent is of course is likewise a part of it. Once you can't get the winning edge with players, then you have to try to find that special coach with some mystical formula for out smarting his opponents - football is a game of chess in many ways. Some coaches are better than others - it is true. The 'arms race' will continue as long as the competitors are willing and able to race.

They all matter although maybe some games matter more than others. Frank and Bo were fired for things not directly determined by the winning percentage. As Osborne said its "More than winning!" You have to do things the 'right' way by being publicly honest and sincere and having integrity. In addition, you have to respect the fans, the University and its administration (your employer) and the people beneath you. You have to endear yourself to the fans and the big boosters and keep them from being too unhappy by winning enough games that matter. Now and then, even once a year or so, you can lose one you maybe wouda', coulda' and shoulda' won but don't get blown out and let that become a habit. The context of the losses, how bad the losses are under the circumstances, and of course the recruiting and so on. Callahan recruited but was entirely focused on offense (his mindset) and the defense just fell apart without the requisite talent. He put most of his recruiting eggs in the offiense but without the superior QB (for example - playing Joe Daily), the results were 'firing bad'. Riley is ahead of the hounds but not that far really. He better keep running as hard as he can because one slip and he's in deep trouble. I like Mike and I suspect that most of the players do as well but being liked is always easier than being respected (you earn that over a longer period of time). Hopefully, he and his staff will work their butts off and get lucky and finish this recruiting class out with a bang and not a loud thud. Winning the Music City Bowl (lol - imagine that your future and 'legacy' depended on winning that one? LOL) is very important as a boost to the recruiting finish and to re-energize the team going into the off season. I believe that challenge facing Riley in 2017 may be the most difficult for any Husker HC since perhaps Frank's challenge after 2001. The cupboard is not bare but it is very low and needs a major restocking. We are going to have to play a big bunch of young an or inexperienced (same thing to me) guys all over the field. Just finding team captains may be tricky. I know many on here seem to think somehow 2017 will be easy and 11 wins is expected. I am just hoping we can find a way to win more than we lose. How long does Riley last? 2017 has a bunch of games 'that matter' and winning them won't be easy. It's more than winning but winning is still 'job one'.

108 pages on a Husker sports talk site about the dam election? LOL You people are literally INSANE! You liberals are just plain bonkers. You need to spend the next 6 months watching only Fox news and reading honest news sources and listening to conservative talk radio. After that time, you will be cured and no longer filled with panic and dread and lunacy. Freakin' nuts!