84HuskerLaw

It appears to me that the areas of the team that seem the most improved (presumably give the coach credit therefor) are: O Line, LBs, QB, WR. All of these areas are improved over prior years in my opinion and also improved this years from game 1 to date. Most glaring improvement is QB play from Tommy. I am disappointed that we have not a clue who our backup QB is or whether or not he can even operate the basic offense, let alone have us compete vs. an opponent. I believe we have a number of players in these areas that are playing at an all conference hon mention level or better. Areas of the team that need the most work: DBs and DEs and perhaps special teams. None are playing near conference honors levels. Hardly have to say much about the secondary of course and the DEs are just not getting a good pass rush and not nearly enough sacks, etc. I know many are happy with our special teams play on this board but I still feel like we are not 'winning' the special teams. I maintain if we were, we'd have at least a couple more wins and things would look much better in the big picture. We are not winning the field position game and this puts great strain on the defense and the offense both, having less field to defend and more field to traverse. Field goal kicking is at 65% (not all conference or even mentionable). Our punter is doing very well but I am not sure he is 'all conference' at this point. Kick offs are OK. Coverage is average. Returns are poor, except for perhaps one punt return so far all season. No points scored in the kicking game except field goals. No blocked kicks as I recall either (on either side).

Seriously? Why would Bo come 800 miles west and then rent cars and drive all over the eastern third of the state to recruit a couple unknown or unrated players when he has a population of 10 million within a tank full of gas in any direction? Bo didn't like to recruit when he was here as it took a private jet being donated to spur his staff into flying around to try to land a half dozen 3 stars out of GA and Alabama and FL. Flights out of Lincoln probably are awful to arrange to many parts of the country. Most coaches in the top 25 schools don't log a third as many hours or miles in recruiting I would guess. Not that this is any excuse of course. Our coaches are being paid outlandish sums of money to coach amateur football! It is really almost shameful considering the amount of unemployment, working poor, poverty, welfare and such as our country is currently suffering. Times for many Americans have never been worse in for most people under 65. Many Nebraskans simply can't afford the luxury of going to a Husker game with a ticket and travel and food and such as they don't have a couple hundred bucks to drop attending a sporting event, even the best sporting event around as the Huskers are certainly. So, coaches should have nothing to say but thanks, thanks and more thanks. In my opinion.

I mentioned before that I thought this play was one that any of our RBs, likely even Jano, could have run and looked great doing so. The speed measure is a little harder to tell. Yes he seems to run as fast as any on the defense but do we know anything about their raw speed? Who was actually lined up and where. I believe we ran a play that Minnesota was not anticipating at all and hit it perfectly. The hole was big enough for someone in a wheelchair to get about 10 yards perhaps. I loved the play of course as it was a very critical time in the game as we were behind and Minnesota was threatening to seize early control. There could easily have been a 3 & out and a second Minne TD would have put the mental 'hex' on the Huskers on the road. We all know the team's mental state had to be at a very 'ify' point. One major falter and being down 14-0 early in the first quarter on the road to a team that had whipped us the two prior years would be very dangerous at a minimum. All that being said, I am not sure I would judge how 'good' Newby is based on this play. He has many carries. I always believe you should take the 2 longest and the 2 shortest runs out of the stats and then compute the average yards per carry and evaluate BOTH the runner and the blocking and play success level from that result. You want to know what the 'typical' running play accomplished and there are often a few plays that can distort the averages so much. Especially the big plays. Many times you can take three pass completions out of the stats and the numbers tell a completely different story. Your pass defense may have been pretty good on all but a couple plays, for example.

If you are correct, then it is not surprising we are not a top ten team. Obviously, if high school football stars (frankly we don't invite any 'non stars' to play for us) have no basic knowledge of the schools, teams, coaches and players (past and present) of the schools they are interested in attending, then it is only expected they really won't care much about winning or losing games. You need some basic knowledge and interest in the team, school, program and coaching staffs in order to make any kind of intelligent decision about which college is a good 'fit'. If kids don't have any idea where they want to go to school, then it is unlikely they will come to play with the kind of desire and passion needed to become great players. Whether a team wins or loses is dependent on a number of things. Among the most important is desire and passion and hunger to win! Coaches can inspire the team somewhat but one can't take a bunch of strangers from all over the country and bring them together and turn them into champions if they don't want to be. To become a champion, you have to want to at an intense, high level; well beyond the level of one's opponents. It is not enough to be a great athlete, you must have a burning desire, a yearning and craving for being the best, playing as hard as one can and making the sacrifice to accomplish lofty goals. A team comprised of players with no clue as the heritage of the program is starting without the important motivating source for the drive and effort to become the best. High school athletes who are stars in the local schools have to understand that what was relatively easy in high school will be very difficult and require the utmost effort and the work ethic common to a very small percentage of athletes, and a passion. You bring 85 scholarship kids in and you MUST ensure they desire and effort is there.

NW 31 Huskers 27 NW QB has a near record passing day and NW only punts 3 times, with two other possessions ending as time runs out in each half and NU picks off 1 pass and recovers a fumble as well. Huskers struggle to run the ball during 2nd and 3rd Qtrs and Tommy A throws 1 interception and fumbles once himself.

BTW, Feragamo got sacked alot. I would not be surprised to check his career stats and see he finished his two years at Nebraska as our all time WORST rusher with about 500 negative 'net' rushing yards in a career (sacks). He was a statue basically.

I think it is comforting to see a recruit with offers from all of the big boys and we win out and get him. But, I don't really care who is or is not recruiting a kid as long as we are recruiting good football players that want to become great players at Nebraska. Frankly, very few of the most highly touted recruits in Nebraska history have turned out to be great players for us. In my view, our strong 3 and 4 star guys have outshined our relatively few 5 stars historically. Lawrence Phillips being one fo the most glaring exceptions as he was recognized by many as THE BEST in the country when we got him. Mike Rozier was not so highly regarded. Roger Craig, from Iowa, was not highly recruited and is certainly one our of greatest. Tommy Frazier was not highly recruited as most schools would not want him as their QB. He was our very best QB in the view of many Husker fans and certainly among the top 5 QBs of all time, regardless of stats. Gerry Godowski only had one season of playing time and was one of our top 5 QBs in my opinion and many fans don't even remember him. He was a GREAT athlete. Eric Crouch was not highly recruited and won a hesiman playing QB for Frank Solich and mostly ran the ball as a running back taking snaps. He was a fair thrower at best. It appears, based on the press reports and his numbers, etc., that Pat Obrien may be the best all around 'pure' QB recruit to Nebraska since perhaps David Humm or Vince Feragamo in the 1970s in my view. T. Gabbia, if we can land him, would be probably the most highly regarded QB ever to come to Lincoln! In my view. Time will tell as we don't know for sure. I have not read anything reliable about Obrien's running ability (speed fpr example ?). We need to see if he is a 4.55 or 4.8 in the 40. That will tell alot more. A slow QB will be 'ify' at best no matter how well he throws. Vince Feragamo played pro ball and QB'd a superbowl but I don't think he could outrun anyone on the field in the 40, if he could actually run 40 yards.

Sorry but I can't agree that Minnesota is "K State level". This year, Minnesota is more like Iowa State or Okie State or Colorado level in my view. We are playing more in the K State level when we play well. We are playing in the Iowa State level when we don't play well. That is the bottom line. What has so many upset is the realization of these facts, whether they want to admit them or not. Nebraska is NOT playing at a "Nebraska" level anymore. We have not for about 5 years or so. There is a reason Bo was becoming so irreverent and obnoxious. He knew he was not getting it done whether the record was 9-4 or 4-9. We have been slipping downward slowly and fairly steadily for 15 years. The concern is whether we have bottomed out yet or not! I believe we actually HAVE bottomed and, despite our ugly record so far, are actually beginning a climb back up. We have fallen a long way and have a long climb back. But we will get there. Can Mike Riley bring us back to the top? I don't think so as his age is against him. If he stays healthy, he can get us back to a top 20 level program (we are about number 40 now in my opinion). From there, the next coach will have to take over and restore the order. Perhaps one of Riley's assistants as hopefully we won't have to survive yet another 'transition' as that takes a couple seasons minimum.

Yes, exactly. +1. For our constant whiners that are stuck in 1994 complaining about not running enough, another question I have for them is, what do you want to do with Pierson-El, Westerkamp, and Moore? Three seriously talented receivers. Do you want to just let them block and never give the ball to them in space? Nobody on here really has said to never throw the ball. Most in my view are saying we need to quit throwing so many incomplete passes as they are putting is in punting formations way too often and giving our opponents way too much time to run their offenses. Our defense is being put under too much pressure because our offense is way too often 3 quick incompletes and done. We should be throwing the ball about 32 times a game and running it about 45 times a game.

I would say, off top of my head, a likely scenario would be a three way tie for first in the west division between Huskers, Iowa and Spartans, each having two losses in conference play. Since we would have defeated both of them in the course of finishing out the season, we would presumably be the western division champs and be the lucky winner of an all expense paid trip to the Big Ten Title Game where we get the chance to face the all powerful eastern division champs (most likely them Buckeyeds). Ouch. I would give us about a 10% of us getting to the game and about a 10% chance of us winning. Pretty long odds but a better chance than winning a big Illinois lottery which apparently you won't get paid for even if you have the winning ticket (although they will get you a nice I.O.U. in case Illinois someday wins the lottery and can then pay its bills!) LOL

The two primary reasons why you have your secondary guys lined up before the snap further away from the line of scrimmage ('playing off') would presumably be that you feel your players are either: 1 not fast enough to run with the opposing teams receivers and could therefore get burned deep by letting them get behind you if played up close to the line of scrimmage (in tighter coverage so to speak). Playing closer would theoretically discourage a QB from throwing to the receivers because he would appear to be 'well covered' and QBs are taught NOT to throw to 'covered' receivers, or 2 they are not well skilled in the techniques of positioning and defending the throws, etc. Of course, if you are playing 'zone' where a defender protects an area rather than blanketing one particular receiver, then you might be placing your defenders in the zones you wish to defend. You may wish to force the throws short and to the sidelines in an attempt to control the area where passes may be caught to defend against allowing deep completions and other big plays. Some of you guys who are much more expert than I in the techniques of secondary coverages and schemes and playmaking, can correct me or explain further. Not all of us are well versed in the nuances of pass defense.

That's pretty awesome. They were successfully able to disguise the fact that he has a broken leg and two ankles fused. Fine. As long as he can take snaps on that scooter thing. I understand that with the high performance model, you can turn a 4.33 40 forward or backward! They have these ordered for the entire 3 deep and even one for Riley to 'pace' the sidelines with.

I don't see Tommy A getting drafted unless his QB numbers continue to improve. He has about an 80% probability of being All Big Ten QB next year - especially if we make a run and win all but one this year and make a strong showing in conference race next year. I really think he will have the best numbers, etc. He is NOT fast enough to play any other position in the NFL. He would be a great LB with another 20 lbs IF he can tackle. He blocks well so likely but no NFL team will spend the time or money to train and develop a linebacker when the colleges do all that for them. IMO. I am not sure he has time to become good enough to get taken as a QB but I would not have believed he could play as well as he has this year. Another 14 months and 18 games with Riley and Company coaching him, you never say never. He is looking more like a true Quarterback than a RB playing QB all the time.

I am sure 757s can 'glide' from that altitude for about 100 miles but without power they are a nightmare to land. It is not like the fall from the sky like rocks but they problem is you need control of the flight to land safely.

I don't think it matters if a kid is a walk on or scholarshipped, the best players should always play. However, I think what concerns those who write 'negatively' about having so many walk ons in the three deep chart is that it says our scholarships are being wasted really. We should be getting better players with scholarships that without - logically and naturally. If our selection process for awarding scholarships is to use recruiting services 'rankings' instead of actually going out there and finding them ourselves and truly evaluating them, then our recruiting is being done badly - at a minimum. We recruit our walk ons without the aid of recruiting 'gurus' etc. If our coaches are simply offering guys that other schools are offering and they are offering because some 'expert' says so, then it is the blind leading the blind.

yes, I too enjoyed the Deadwood series. I have been to Deadwood many times and it is a unque little town. About 3000 or so residents and roughly 20 casinos and bars and resaturants and shops, etc. Fun place to go and spend a week end really. I think series is fairly accurate historically and the characters are pretty much based on real life people. Deadwood the series depicts the times from when it was first just a gold mining camp site through its light speed transformation into a gambling and other sinful pleasures spot with the gold fever/rush mentality. If you are ever up to Rapid City and vacinity (beautiful scenic area), there are interesting things to do and see and Deadwood would be one of them in my opinion.

This always makes me laugh. Flying is literally the safest form of transportation in this country, and probably one of the safest things you can do period. I always get nervous flying because I'm not in control, I hate not being in control of thing. That said I love the rollercoaster feeling of being scared during turbulence! It takes A LOT to bring those birds down. I have flown 4 times in my life and this is my biggest reason I hate it. I understand that it is the safest way to travel but think of it this way. If you get in a car wreck, you have a 50% chance of living. If you get in a plane crash, you are f*cked. I am actually looking into flying lessons. My boss has a pilot's license and said it helped him tremendously get over the fear of flying. He even bought a small 6 person plane and has said he would take me up and fly but I haven't got the balls for it yet. The problem with flying some of the 'fly by night' airlines such as Malaysian etc. in my opinion is the presumed lack of regular maintenance. Airplanes require tons of technical maintenance, particularly of the small variety, to keep everything in tip top shape. Obviously any kind of simple engine operation problem (electrical, lube, etc) and you have a major problem. Unlike a car on the thighway, you don't just coast to a stop somewhere. You need to be lucky enough to have engine power of some kind as planes don't glide so much as slide to a crashing stop. A dam good pilot might get the plane to the ground right side up! Beyond that, you are just hoping and praying (depending on the problem). If you have a structural problem, then you most likely have even more troubles. There are not very many 'unnecessary' parts on planes as weight is kept to the absolute minimum in order to achieve flight. LOL You don't have any 'extra' wings or flaps or wheels or motors or props or any of those little doo-dads. LOL But, statistically flying is very safe. I don't subscribe to the notion it is the 'safest' because the only industry that says that is the aviation industry trying to sell you planes and tickets, etc. Everyday, about 100 million Americans get into motor vehicles and travel to work. A few are in crashes or accidents of one sort or another. Billions of people around the world as well. Exactly how one determines which is 'safest' is difficult. Injuries in plane crashes as compared to injuries in car crashes as a percentage is one thing. The risk of death in a plane crash is surely higher than a car crash. Bus ? Train? Boat? Who knows? Numbers crunchers can play games.

I am not sure, beyond its most simple and obvious response, that the answer to why winning is so important is all that easy or a 'slam dunk' as stated. Beyond something like "that's why we play the freaking games!" lies a very philosophical and deep subject that may require a great deal of thought and discussion, beyond a message board poster's time perhaps. Society is wrestling with this very issue with all the movements afoot to take score keeping and 'winning and losing' out of the game altogether with prizes and awards for participation and attempts to turn competition into an exercise class.

how about play calling, game management, Newby, completion percentage, big plays with pierson el ect, penalties, finishing a game. But outside of that I pretty much agree with you Play calling: it was better this week yes but not better than the first three games in which it was OK as well. It was poor in first couple big ten games. Is it improved since the beginning of the year. I don't think we can fairly say that. Game management: well we didn't really blow it although I am sure we could find plenty of little things to do better. I guess you could say 'improvement' which I consider to be a general not specific term. In general, game management has not been bad or exceptional good. Average. We had serious mismanagement at times but NOT overall in my view. So, I don't see much improvement. Newby? well he ran through a hole wide enough to drive a U Haul truck through straight up the field for a long TD run and average about 3.4 yards per carry on his other 12 or so runs. Improvement? I don't know. Any of our back could have made that long run - any I believe. Maybe Jano would have been caught from behind IDK. completion percentage? 69% is better than some of the prior game numbers but the weather was absolutely perfect for throwing and we three quite abit less. So - improvement? Maybe. He has done well, except in bad weather for the most part. Big plays? We had two or three I suppose but that is about normal isn't it? Punt return was much better but Pierson El also failed to catch one and let it roll all the way to the one - after which the offense was forced to make a 99 yard drive. I believe the ball rolled about 25 yards to get to the one and should have been fielded to avoid Huskers being pinned on the one. Improvement? Maybe. Finishing the game? Yes, better than several but 'improvement' in general. We had a couple times in the early 4th quarter when the team was teetering on the brink of failure once again. We had a series of three incomeplete passes in a row that left the Gooophers with plenty of time to come back and they mounted one. Had the on side kick worked, who knows how we would have come out! Then, we had another series where we three a completed pass to Westy on his back apparently (I only get to listen to the games and can't watch when working) to keep a drive going when we needed a few yards we three for 20 or more? High risk and almost flopped it. We were much closer to making that game another "hail mary ender' than many want to admit. Improvement? Maybe.

As for a contract extension: I think we just gave him a no cut contract. I see no reason to even consider ANY extension UNLESS it includes a buy out clause the requires any team he works for in the future before the contract is fulfilled to pay the University the remainder of his contract if they choose to hire him away from us. Certainly, you don't extend the contract for a minimum of three years. When it gets down to 2 years left and we have a Big Ten division or champ trophy in the case, we can give him another year or two. No automatic rollovers. Period. Let him EARN IT!

LOL I am assuming this one is tongue through cheek! You can't possibly be serious! There were no A+ performances yesterday. Period. I would give the coaches a solid B. Tommy an A-. RBs a B-. O Line B+. WRs B- (not many yards after catches it seemed from listening). Special teams - B -. Still struggling in kick returns. returned a couple duds certainly. Punt returns - we didn't field a couple again! really hurt us in field position by about 60 yards or more. DL - B- good run stops but very weak pass rush as usual. DEs. See DL LBs. B. Some good but need to see a few more big plays to get an A. Overall, gameplan and management: B+. One of our better ones so far. Playcalling = B+. We had a couple series and perhaps a 'dirty dozen' snaps that were NOT good and out of rhythm and sequence. One key series in 4th Qtr was very close to letting them back into a game.

Do you think it's talent level or just the way they're taught to watch the receiver and try to knock the ball out at the last second? The huge cushion and blind coverage is a mystery to me....it's not how any of our corners who went to the pros played. Or maybe these corners are always getting beat and trying to play catchup? I would say the thing our secondary guys and to some extent our LBs and DEs lack is 'closing speed' and quickness. You can call it 'talent' or not but if your defenders can't cover and close as the ball is coming in so they have a legitimate chance to break up the pass or knock the ball loose with their hands or a solid hit well timed, then you are at best following the receivers around and tackling them after they make the catch. In such defenses you are going to basically only have incomplete passes IF either the QB throws a poor pass or the receiver drops it or there is a miscommunication as to route or something, or perhaps wind or weather make the completion tough or you have a strong pass rush who hit the QB or deflect or make the throw go awry. You are very limited in your pass rush if you are fully dedicated to stopping the run as your front seven have to focus heavily on making sure it is not a delayed action run such as a draw or option or other slow hitter running design or a screen pass or other similar play which is designed to take advantage of hard rushing DL / LBs after the QB. Thus, you are only going to get heavy pass rush from either brute force or outstanding play by your DTs or DEs or by gambling with blitzes and sacrificing in your pass or run defense / prevention schemes. Riley and Company have chosen to play pretty basic, 'honest' defense whereby we are attempting to force the opponent to 'execute' their plays successfully and repeatedly and to score in so doing. We are focused on stopping running plays primarily. We remain in our base 4-3 alignment a lot even in obvious passing 3rd & longs and or running 2nd and shorts plays. Keep it simple and stop the run first, and defend the pass with the mindset of giving up the short completions as opposed to the long ones. That in a nutshell is our defensive philosophy. At least as I 'see' it from reading and listening since I do not get to watch the games on TV or live. I personally feel this is a good approach and would concur. I, however, think there are times when the defense ought to change up and go into a 'pass defend first mode' and dare the opponent to run it, in 3rd and over 12 cases when we are playing on the opponent's end of the field. Dare them to run for big yards against the pass defense alignment. Or at least substitute LBs for your speediest DBs and Safeties to flood the passing areas with extra quick bodies. Yes a safety is not as tough a tackler as the LBs but he doesn't have to stop the RB in his tracks, just bring him down before he gains the first down. Make 'em punt. All this is of course pretty elementary and I would not presume to have anywhere close to the X & Os knowledge of the coaches or many others. I am also assuming these basic approaches are what we are trying to do - perhaps just not very well. Players make mistakes and sometimes are not quite fast enough or tall enough or strong enough or something. Sometimes opponents execute well and we get blocked, tackled, fooled and out guessed in plays. That is football!

I am happy with the outcome certainly but we need to be very careful. The Gophers are not very good this year!

Well, I am not sure we saw a lot of 'improvement' except of course in the 'win' area. Certainly, played well enough to win.

Agree. Riley almost let Minny back in the game. If we had let them get that on side kick, we likely lose the game in OT. Amazing. No reason we let them get so close. The game was a nail biter than ended with a large point margin but the game was about 'even'.