84HuskerLaw

Apparently saving the freshman season for POB is worth much more than building for the future. Or, as you suggest, maybe he is a bust. It will be interesting to find out which is true. We should know by the spring game. If POB is not the 'real deal' in April, then we have our answer. Assuming Gebbia and POB and Lee are all all conference caliber Big Ten QBs next year, and they do have a real QB battle royale to win the job next fall, then arguably we should be even more upset with Riley not playing POB this year. Why not try to win a couple more this year? Armstrong could have been even better had he been able to rest a couple series a game and we could have had a big time passer come in. Armstrong could have run the ball 7 or 8 more carries a game too. All would have helped the offense be much better, even with a mediocre O line performance.

Looking back, I think the biggest areas of disappointment (or that I expected to play much better anyway) was the offense and special teams. Special teams can easily be improved or should be so. Find a better punter and PRACTICE differently. Offense is another story though. I was quite confident that we'd see another 10 points and 100 yards a game of offensive output. I thought we'd have several 30 plus point wins and the close ones would have another TD or so of seperation. I didn't expect to win more than about 9 or 10 so that came in at about where I expected. But I didn't see ANY bad losses, much less 30 to 60 point blowouts. Those are stinkers for me. They need to take a couple extra showers after this one to wash the disgust off before the bowl game prep begins. A whole new attitude and renewed desire to play hard for 60 minutes and to play their best MUST be adapted by this bunch of players and coaches. A serious fire in their belly must be rekindled. The 'quit' factor must be immediately stomped out before it grows into a chronic issue. If Ohio State had not let off the gas, that one would have been 2 4th Qtr TDs worse. Another quarter yesterday and Iowa would have put 60 on us. Iowa! They are not exactly a scoring explosion nor are they even top 20 level. They played well in Nov while Nebraska is heading south. Why? Injuries and attitude and competition playing harder that we are capable of apparently. I hope it is true that we are really redshirting a bunch (fifteen or so starters) of guys (O line, TEs, WRs, RB, QBs, DL, DE, LBs, DBs, PUNTER) because we need them to be prime time ready to play out of the gate in September, 2017 or 2017 will be the longest season in about 50 decades. Is there a statistic kept for 'playing time' accumulated for underclassment each year? I have been critical that we have not been playing our younger guys enough for since Tom retired. I was hoping Riley had the greenlight from the AD to rebuild and not repeat the same mistakes as prior coaching staffs. Many dismiss the value of live game experience but I think it is very important.

All very interesting and many of us will find a good deal of common ground but I am absolutely scared about next year at this point. Can you enlighten me as to what and who you see on this team as a two-deep (we need three but let's hope and pray for a minimum of two) group that can actually win even half their games?

The Music City Bowl will be a new low for the program and it is certainly closer for the fans traveling by motorcoach tour! LOL But, I am not sure one would sell that many seats so the travel agencies (are there any left out there btw?) may not want to pre-purchase many tickets. The Holiday Bowl is a 'been there done that' too many times to care to remember so we need to keep looking. A win over Colorado is meanngless nationally. Why take the chance of a loss? Outback is a nice destination but we want to be careful to find a team we have a chance of competing with and NOT get blown out again. Twice a year is God's plenty of those. Cotton Bowl vs U Texas would be good but I don't think they will qualify and their graduation rate (if they have one?) is too low probably. LOL How about we play in the 'Snow Bowl' in Minneapolis - they have a new Dome stadium and we got a good chance of beating Minnesota again.?

We didn't join the Big Ten to win BB games people! In fact, we should have dropped men's BB altogether instead of building the new arena. Nebraska has NEVER won anything in BB since the game was invented a hundred years ago and the chances of winning a conferene championship, for example, now are less than NONE. They need to schedule another 8 non-con games vs. D3 teams etc so that the overall record looks better. Unfortunately, we joined the Big Ten to win football games and look how that turned out. LOL Best laid plans!

Exactly right. Tommie is a tough kid and a TERRIFIC teammate, but he's no QB. He's an athlete playing QB. I'm looking forward to somebody else behind center. Our running backs are okay, but not stellar Our O-line makes our QB and running backs look worse than they are. We need a talent transfusion here ASAP. Our receivers were a big let down for me. I thought this was the best position on the team, but not very good numbers this season. Probably because Tommie isn't that great, and because the o-line didn't give always Tommie enough time. I love Westy and I'm going to miss him. Our D-line was who we thought they were. The interior guys are young and learning. They'll be good. Our ends are one walk-on and one converted tight end. Our ends stunk like a lot of us knew this year. No pressure on the QB all year except via the blitz. Our linebackers weren't too shabby this season. But they stunk today. Bando was awful and overran plays left and right. They got gashed by good Iowa backs and tons of missed tackles. Our secondary was a pleasant surprise considering last season. I think they got a little full of themselves early on and Ohio State brought them back down to earth. Still, I think this group will continue to grow and be a good unit next season. Time will tell. Our kicker is a good one. No complaints. Our punter will get better. He hit some good ones this season. He also hit a few that may be some of the worst punts I've ever seen. That 5 yarder today was awful. That minus 2 yarder he hit a few weeks back was awful too. The expectations from the fans on this board are too high. This program is devoid of talent no matter what people say. The All Big Ten teams come out soon and you'll see just what I mean when just few Huskers will be on the list. I wonder if anybody will be second team or better?!?! We also haven't won a conference championship since 2001. Let that sink in. 2001. While many fans make fun of the new comers like Oregon, we haven't won crap in 15 years. A lot of us have become those irritating Notre Dame fans who act like Notre Dame is still relevant. Sadly, they're more relevant than we are. Good summary. We have seen so few back ups and so on it is hard to even guess at how we will do next year. But, frankly, with the November games, there is a strong indication that our team next fall will be nothing but third stringers or less (Drew Brown excepted). Yes, maybe the punter will get better - God help us if he gets worse! - he is the nation's worst punter right now so the sky's the limit for him! Normally you would be concerned if you lose seniors off your O line but in this case, it is time to upgrade. Hope there are a dozen or so guys just redshirting and ready to play better. Three or four injuries and we became the worst O line in the conference, easily. Yes, we are a lot like Notre Dame and they too have loads of talent based on the recruiting gurus but lose more games than we do and have also changed coaches several times. One has to wonder about the real heart and effort - to lose by 62-3 and 40-10 as we have in the past few weeks, even a decent team has to quit long before the game is over. Iowa ran up the score because we quit. Ohio State ran up the score because we quit (mercifully, Ohio State also quit in the 4th or it would have been 80 plus). Husker teams just don't quit (or they should not imo).

With a quality offensive line we can run whatever offense we want. It all starts in the trenches, on both sides of the ball. I'm sure our coaches are aware of that. Still, we are 9-3 in our regular season and going back to MSU last year we are 12-4 in our last 16 games. And we still have the opporunity to go 10-3 this year after the bowl game. Heck, even if we lost the bowl game, 9-4 is a far sight better than the 6-7 we did last year I thought maybe we were making 'progress' but what it appears to me is that for our first couple seasons we've driven around in the parking lot and have not actually left on our long road trip across the country. All too familiar as the last several bus drivers have been making U turns and searching for the on ramp as well. Somebody needs to reset the gps and let it recalibrate. We are driving in circles and find ourselves right back where we began (yet again). Feel like the Griswald family Christmas and Groundhog day all mixed up together?

Assuming it happened, as I am sure it does in each and every game each and every weekend across the country, it is certainly nothing shocking. Locker room talk and name calling and a bunch of three, four and five plus letter words are gonna be hurled all over the place. This is not badminton or tennis at Wimbledon. It is f-in football for pete's sakes. LOL

Can one of you numbers guys or gals please tell me exactly how many 'players' we have on the team as of last night's game? I am using the number 140 (althouogh I believe it is higher?) and maybe also tell me how many of these 'players' are really only 'uniform wearing mannequins'? We have a bowl game up next and then it will be once again time to start over in the 'rebuilding' process for next year. We are graduating 30 seniors and a bunch of them seemed to be on the field for a bunch of the time in the last few games, presumably because they are the best we've got. I hope that is what it means and not that we play seniors because they are seniors and as such have 'earned it' and it is their turn to play. You earn your spot because you are the best not because of time served. Since they were not getting anything done in this game, the gap from the starters to the second string must be huge as we seemed to have no better luck with any subs if we had any. I am looking for some kind of assurance that the almost empty talent cupboard is not now empty. This is my fear. Will we go O for 12? We will be the most inexperienced Nebraska team in a decade I bet.

So - what is your point? He has a ton of poor punts and leads the nation as the worst one! That is my point. No excuse. We should have a second string punter that is NOT the nation's worst(er) punter. We are NEBRASKA - Lincoln campus (not Kearney or Curtis). This is a coaching issue - Lightborne is not doing well after 12 games. Replace him! That is my point.

I had hoped we would have a group of about 21 or so 'committed' and pretty well locked up by now and only be waiting, hoping anxiously for a couple of those 4 stars to finish the class. At this point, though, we need a solid 6 to 8 or more. To finish out, we are gonna have to win this bowl game certainly. We need ten wins and a nice finish. These 3 losses have been rough on the national image no doubt. They have also been rough on the team's psyche although it is troublesome to me that today's young people seem to not care so much about winning or losing. 10 or 15 years ago it seemed that most of the players would really be upset about a loss like this. The few I heard interviewed on the locker room radio show seemed to be talking about it like it was the spring game. Just quite shocking. I know we as fans are far too used to these beatings when we should really be boiling mad, the 'pain' is all but over by five minutes after game's end. I have not been in the locker room after a game in 10 years so I don't know and never was after a bad loss. At one time, the radio interviewer didn't even go in after a loss because of the upset players and nobody being in a frame of mind to be interviewed 'safely'. Now, one can hardly tell by tone if it was a win or a loss. This is as I say troublesome for me. Am I the only one seeing this?

No, I have never heard the term but would guess you are just being a a-hole and making a snide remark once again being critical of my repeated complaint that we don't have enough QBs on this team. Many seem to justify having one and somehow have no problem with our second and thirds leaving to go somewhere else. Frankly, exactly what has happened the past several weeks I predicted back in August. Crazy party is there are still many saying we should not be playing our young QB?

"Rented' a QB is presumably intended as some sort of snide/funny remark. I am don't see anything funny about not having a back up QB. I don't want to be unduly hard on Fyfe because he is a good young man who has given 5 years of effort and blood sweat and too many tears to be a Husker. But, that being said, he is NOT a second string Big Ten championship caliber QB. This is just not worth debating. He would be a fine 4th stringer and maybe a scout teamer. Nebraska needs several of those who can study hard and simulate the opponents. This is an important role for a guy with a decent arm and book smarts to learn and run on a few practies a new offense. This is a tough job. I don't care if we use 5 scholarships, (I don't think that is necessary but??) we MUST have a serviceable game manager to play QB for every game. Each game is worth somewhere around $4 million in ticket revenues and of course is worth lots more in the 'big picture'. If we are to be a top program, we must put top players on the field for every snap and certainly at the most important position of QB. Dump three WRs if need be because we can find walk ons to catch passes as d4th stringers too.

The problem remains: we do not have enough good football players. Our depth chart is terrible. It is not just about the starters - it is the three guys behind each 'starter'. We have to get more - good - players and not walkons from small towns who are deciding between walking on at Hastings College or Doane or even Kearney or Lincoln. The team needs a dramatic upgrade. This is just not debatable. It has been that way for 15 years or more. We were outclassed in talent in the 2001 Rose Bowl and we have not been talented enough since. I feel this team got better in significant ways this year over last, but the talenty is at best only slightly better. Our offensive line is just NOT good. I am sorry but we have maybe one or two 'starter' quality players for winning the Big Ten west. Rest are third stringers. Compared to Iowa's line, we are not as good. Iowa's line is better and stronger. We were almost 'outclassed' today. This is due to both lack of talent and lack of proper coaching and game planning and failure to adjust and adapt. Our talent was not out there tonight fior sure.

All I needed to know about our line was Sophmore Jerald Foster coming back from a knee injury 3 games ago and starting after a week of practice since spring. Our O-line could be 8th year seniors but they'll struggle to be starters next year. Good thing for graduation. I agree completely. The change of a coaching staff is always a tough thing for players that were recruited by the discredited staff. They feel like there's an asterisk after their name, and it crashes down on them when the going gets tough. It's not unusual, especially when you consider the circumstances of Pelini's departure. NU sucked tonight but this season is a vast improvement over last year, and I expect we'll continue to see good improvement in the years ahead. Think of how different this season would have been with a decent OL and even an average passing QB . . . Not true at all. Good coaches turn programs around very quickly. If we didn't have Tommy Armstrong, we would have lost 3 or 4 more games. yes, indeed without Tommy Armstrong, this year's team would likely have won about 3 games (maybe?). Seriously, there is THAT much drop off from Tommy to Fyfe (apparently and we will never know for sure because no other QB has been seriously tried over Tommy). Presumably both this staff and the last one were correct in their judgment of who the QB starter should be as both thought Tommy was 'the man' for 4 years. In fact, Tommy was apparently so 'good' he is the best ever at Nebraska having now played in more games and thrown for more yards and more TDs, etc than all the others in history. But in reality I don't think there would be anyone on this board who would make the argument that Tommy Armstrong is the greatest QB in Husker history. He is not even close to being one of the top ten in my view. He is a lion and a warrior and plays hard! But he is not a great QB although is perhaps a good QB. He just does not fit this type of offense. He could very well run Osborne's offense from the 90s but he can't run a passing offense well. He is at his best, whatever that may be, in running and rolling out, etc. But he is not tall enough to stand in the pocket and 'see' the whole field and the be patient enough to find the most open receiver.

No, it is not the Big Ten as such - Nebraska's problem is Nebraska. The refs didn't beat us badly today - Iowa just beat the hell out of us. We were NOT competitive in any way. We were taken out in the first quarter and never really made a serious threat to get back in it. I have been a big Riley fan but this one is hard to reconcile. The coaches did not prepare us and we SHOULD NEVER be without a decent, able bodied, QB who knows and can run our basic offense. Period. End of story. We are so thin at so many spots. I don't put all this on Riley as he really can't fix all the talent deficiency across the team. Good grief - we don't even have a 'three deep chart' that is three deep of guys with D1 playing ability. Barely have a 1 deep chart with a number of injured guys. This is just not f---- ing acceptable. There is NO excuse for a program of Nebraska's stature not having enough players to field a competitive team in multiple games in our conference. This punting was pathetic today/tonight - I guess I don't put all the blame on Caleb as he is only a freshman and was thrown into the fire without a year's development. Yes, a car accident took out or superb senior to be but no excuse as he died in July, not in October. It doesn't take 4 months to find a decent punter from over 100 top football players on our team. Find another walk-on surely. Again, just no excuse.

This game is easy to diagnose for Riley: Huskers made no good plays and Iowa made lots of them. Huskers played about 1 quarter of something a little like football while Iowa played 3.5 quarters of something very much like football. No excuse - just no excuse. We are not 30 points worse than Iowa and talent may be slightly deficient but not more than 8 points.

Injuries to our '1-deep chart' have finally taken the toll and as a team we are simply worn out. Without sufficient substitutions on a regular basis both during the course of each game and during the course of the entire season, we simply run out of gas. We still have NOT played a true 4 quarters of good football, except perhaps the UCLA game, in two seasons. The bowl might be explained because the starters and a handful of the guys who do get to come in and out, were pretty fully rested before the 'one game season' which was a bowl. But I believe we have to substitute more to keep guys fresh and healthy and get development to build for the future. This kind of 'no subs' approach is exactly how we got into this 'funk' of mediocrity, way back during Frank's tenure. Special teams are just putrid! Sorry but putrid might be too nice a term. OMG! Bad punts. Bad punt fielding! Bad punt coverage! Even mediocre kick offs and poor KO coverage. Ugly. Special teams are as bad, this year, as I can ever remember. This is now 22 months into Riley's tenure and the end of two springs and two falls, etc. There has been more than enough time to form decent 'special teams' units, etc. No doubt losing your starting punter hurts BUT we have no back up punter obviously because Lighborn now 'leading' the Nation as the worst punter in the country. Anyone can understand a freshman making a handful of 'tough' kicks but this is just terrible. As a former punter and QBd myself at the high school level, I did much better than this and got no scholarship offers and that was 38 years ago. I just can't understand how we can be in this situation. Nebraska high schools have to have had atleast a dozen better punters than this last year. Recruit one. We should spend one scholarship on kicker each year (especially one who can punt and place kick decent). This is so sad to watch happen to another hard working team. How many seniors who played more than half of this game will graduate and the 'back ups' therefor have had very little real experience? There are a bunch! I remain very concerned about not playing our younger guys. We are trying to build the program. Yes, I wanted to win this game badly but I want to get back into the top ten (and deservedly so - we were overrated earlier certainly). We are suffering another 'blow out' of sorts. This is sad. We are the more mature, older team as compared to IA. They had only 14 seniors while we graduate 30. I wrote elsewhere on this board that we absolutely must have more QBs ready to play. Tommy was not himself. Not able to lead this team. Fyfe has broken had and obviously Darlington not ready to play. No back ups. Somebody challenged my statement that we had 140 players on this team. We had about 165 in late 90s. I know Callahan dumped a bunch but I thought, mistakenly I guess, that recent coaches had rebuilt our numbers? If not, why not? 13 of 35 by Tommy passing. Unacceptable and he was not good at any point really. Change something - please!

Ozigbo still in the doghouse. Grades? Insubordination? Who knows but clearly we've lost the 'power' running we had last year without Cross and Zig. Newby runs 'hard' sometimes but just gets nothing way too often. Those 1 yard and 'no gain' runs just kill us. The force us to throw too much as we really have little hope of running 3 times for a first down very often. Of course we don't play the FB enough to really know if we can 'force' things at all. You just have no power without a second RB back there to fake to or lead block. Of course Tommy is hobbled today as well.

I would say it is time to try something new. We need three scores to win as chances are slim or none we can score to TDs and 2 pt converts with no scores by IOWA. So change things. It is time to 'shoot the moon' or this one goes down ugly and we look so 'mediocre' yet again. We all know it is a lack of talent across several positions but still let's be creative and see if we can surprise attack them and get back in this.

The usual sorts of things to focus on woud include: - keeping our turnovers to one or less - getting a couple INTs or maybe even a honest to goodness fumble recovery? Have we had one lately? - Playing our best defensive games in the past couple years (pitch a shut out would be awesome - we are due for that) - Avoiding any more injuries and keeping our gimpy and one armed QBs in the game and doing good things for US - find a way to win one more time - maybe actually have a 'great' game in special teams (all phases including having over 100 yards in punt returns (we should get some punts if the Defense is playing well enough to win). - be ahead by 18 pts at the start of the 4th quarter and not having to try to run out the clock starting from the middle of the third quarter

Interesting but I would say that only a couple weeks after the election and 2 months BEFORE he has even been sworn in (something Obama never did btw), it is a little early to start talking about "promises' unkept. We might have some fun taking about all of Obama's promises / representations over two campaigns and elections and 8 years in office with de facto control of the courts, DOJ, FBI, and Senate. Really in some ways Obama has been excruciatingly 'successful' in carrying out his agenda (mostly hidden and not publicly 'promised' before he was elected). In other ways, one can certainly state accurately that Obama has accomplished almost nothing positive for the country and or kept his promises. I don't think he really promised to double the national debt but he did it. I remember he vowed to close Club Gitmo and he has basically done it by simply emptying it out for the most part, releasing the worst and the badest of the terrorists we managed to capture over 8 years prior to his taking over. He's not done yet so I expect a few more 'pardons' and releases of the remaining ones although perhaps the ones that remain are pretty happy and comfortable in their island paradise and are not looking to be evicted any time soon.

We need the entire team to play their best to win. Most importantly: - Punter - Brown kicking all times - QB play must be excellent and error free - Defense must stop their run first and force a bunch of 3-outs and the offense must score 14 points per half minimum - Ozigbo may be needed to push the pile as we will likely not be able to do a lot with just Newby. Need a fullback to block some as well. -WRs need to catch 20 passes for atleast 200 yards and 3 TDs

The buffaloes in the Rose bowl sounds strange but it would be kind of neat to say the old Big 8 teams win the Pac and BigTen the same year. LOL Odd but neat. I think we could handle those buffies in the Rose. I attended Nebraska's Rose Bowl appearance and it was NOT a fond memory. They don't even know how to tailgate in California in my view. There were 20 thousand Canes and Huskers fans at the stadium hours before the game and maybe 40 porta-pots ! Lines were about a block long. You basically had to drink and visit while standing in the 'pisser' lines as you'd need to go by the time you got through the line again. And while it was nice to find beer sold in the stadium during the game, they literally ran out of beer in the first quarter and during that game, Nebraska fans needed all the beer you could drink in order to just keep watching as painful as it was. LOL We had fun except for the game I suppose. Still it was a little odd in southern Cal.

Root for the Huskers, the Goophers and the Lions. I think we'd like to play Penn State in the CCG. Winning the Big Ten would be a complete 'coup' as none of the serious pundits, except maybe the Dr. Pepper guy (I'm a Pepper btw) picked us to win it all! As Big Ten champs we get a darn good bowl game. Though I want to face a team we have a chance to beat. We need wins this year to recruit - recruit - recruit and maybe land a few more recruits. Let's get a bunch and find 25 3 star walk ons. We 'need' them all over the field so we can once again have a '3 deep chart instead of a 2 deep chart with holes and duplicates all over it going into next fall - loaded with lots of underclassmen.