84HuskerLaw

NU - 42 Illinois 24 Passing 285 235 Rushing 275 165 Huskers return a punt or block a block for a TD

I said we need to wait until after Wisconsin game to make an assessment of where the teams stands generally. However, I really expected a much better outcome Saturday vs. SoMiss. That one was a real downer for my expectations. I felt going into the season we could win at least 3 or probably all four of the non con games and then could win all but Michigan State and felt that one was win-able at home. Now, I would say the games are at best all toss ups. Nobody on the schedule will be a gimme anymore as we have demonstrated we can play top 10 caliber football for a quarter or even a half at any given time and then play bottom ten level football the rest of the game. This is NOT a recipe for winning many games in the Big 10. Every team on the schedule will take advantage of the bad football lapses and put points on the board and put us in a hole we may not dig out of easily. Making a prediction today: I will pick us to win 5 more and lose 3. That leaves us at 7-5. Amazingly, I will also say that that conference record may be good enough to get us into the championship game which would almost certainly give us the brutally ugly, painful blow out loss we all desperately wish to avoid! Ugh. the big ten is full of upset possibilities every week. I will be very surprised if any Big Ten team goes through undefeated and may only be a couple with just two losses. Balance and parity all over these days. Upsets will happen.

Satistically we are playing well enough on offense to be averaging about 45 pts a game and if we could exchange about 75 yards of passing for 75 yards of rushing we could push 50 pts/game. That would be top 5 in the country level offense. The numbers as they are would suggest at least top 15 offense. I think we are very close to that with a mediocre level of line play. I do believe our offensive line play is slowly and steadily improving. We need much more depth and a new left tackle as Lewis is getting far too many penalties for a senior. No excuses for seniors to make mental mistakes. They should be settiing the good example, not the opposite. But, offensively, just imagine how good we could be with a couple all conference level linemen and a all conference tail back. I believe it will come. Patience on the offense will yield results. Our recruiting is the key and we can't afford to have our defense fold up on us this year. We need to cut opponents production down a 100 yards in passing. If we hope Big 10 teams under 100 yards rusing, we will win some games. Finally, we need special teams to make dramatic improvement. Strong punt and kick returns is critical and add another 6 yards to net punting average and avoid any punts less than 35 yards and we need at least one or two inside the 10 each game. Special teams determine field position and field positiion determines the winner in relatively evenly matched teams probably 75% of the time. Turnovers have been much less disasterous than in recent years so that is helping too. Avoid more injuries, get more turnovers, better special teams play and improve pass defense. The rest of the game will suffice.

Correct me if not correct but I do believe there is a rule against jumping and or hurdling over would be tacklers ? I recall some rule on this.

The logic of the post is good except that it assumes that the Big Ten passers will NOT be as good as Southern Miss today because if we give up 400 plus yards passing and several TDs to ANY of our Big Ten opponents, we will NOT win. They won't let us throw for 400 and run for 200 more. We don't want to play 'barn burners' every week and those are not likely as the Big Ten doesn't have those kinds of games often (like in Pac 12 and Big 12). Big Ten will be 10 pts or more per team lower typically in the high score games. We will have to score 40 or more to win Big Ten games if we give up massive yards in passing. The problem is that the Big Ten teams that pass for 350 yards against us WILL also run for 175 and couple TDs. They won't abandon running game - just use it to slice and dice on key plays. They will also have bigger stronger O lines than SoMiss and SoBama and likely as good or better than BYU (ala Michigan for example). Going to be tough in the Big Ten if we can't cut the opponents to less than 275 passing and 135 rushing while we get 350 and 225. We also MUST win special teams and so far those have not been nearly as good as required to win in Big Ten.

Still need a couple more games to make a reasonable assessment of the team generally. However, I have to say that this game was disappointing in that we saw no meaningful improvement in any area today. I don't think anyone would argue that S. Miss is nearly as good as Miami. I assume that BYU must have finally succombed to the grueling first four games of the schedule and probably injuries piled up. Even so, losing 31-0 to Michigan is not a good sign. That suggests our BYU game may not be as 'good' despite being a loss as we may have hoped. Not sure how Miami did or will do today. The next two are BIG for sure! If we lose both, we are facing a very long, dismal season. We win them, we continue to have a chance at a decent season. But I have to say that today was a 'downer' for me and I am usually more optimistic and was going into today's game.

A silly topic at this point in time. Not relevant to today.

This is the worst problem with the team. Started with Bo, and up to Riley to fix. If this team could put together 4 consistent quarters of football, they could be dangerous. See if we play 4 consistent quarters as good as the 4th of Miami, we could win the National title game; OR if we play 4 consistent quarters as bad as the 4th quarter today, we won't win another game this year! This team has many of the characteristics of the teams of the last several seasons with too many penalties, too many bad plays, poor execution, mental lapses, etc. Turnovers have be relatively low, fortunately, or we would be 0-4 or 1-3. The REAL 2015 Huskers need to please stand up and step forward and playing with heart and determination and confidence each and every play of the game. They are capable of great things but if they don't play their very best each and every snap, they will find the season ends with a very bitter ugly impact. No reason to let that happen. The future is all up to these players to make it what they want, or not, as they ultimately control their own destiny.

Sadly there really is not excuse for the awful secondary play by NU. We can again say the run defense was good but really how much did SO.MISS try to run. We seem to say to every offense we line up against: "Ok, let's see if you can pass it for over 400 yards again this week?" Dare ya! Double dare ya! Triple dare ya! Uh! Well, bet you can't do that again?! Hmm. Guess you did. Well, we are going to just keep playing the odds you will eventually drop the balls or they will be overthrown. It is funny that a Head Coach who so strongly believes in the passing game and the gaining of 'chunks' of yards 15 to 25 yards at a time, is so willing to gamble that his opponent can't do exactly what he wants to do. You also would think that with as much passing as we do ourselves, we would have plenty of opportunities to practice pass defense. We are being killed by the very same plays that we are hurting our opponents with. Penalties anyone? If the rest of the season plays out as these first four games, we will set all sorts of NCAA penalty records by our team and our opponent! Why?

hm? Strange as I metioned last week that our special teams were the worst part of our team and should have been the best and I was called 'ignorant' for saying something about special teams mistakes, etc. Today they seemed to be better, but for the on side kick and a chip shot FG. Still, disappointed in the punting. Only averaging about 42 per punt from our 'great punter'. We need to add about 6 to 8 yards to the NET PUNTING AVERAGE and add considerably to our kick and punt returns. Certainly don't give up any more fake punts (just a poor throw from a good one and on side KOs).

The season just keeps getting longer and longer! Good grief! Prescription heart meds gonna be in short supply this year.

Budget? He has already made enough money to pay cash for three houses! Didn't Callahan live in a hotel for the entire time or a bunch of it and his family never did move out to Lincoln? Maybe that was an assistant but I recall something about that with a coach.

Hastings College grads do excellent in medical school admissions and attendance and graduations. I would not be afraid to consult with an advisor / professors in the Biology/Premed departments at Hastings about your son's interests, majors, and grad school plans, etc. They will be happy to discuss and no doubt advise him as to the programs, courses and other advantages and disadvantages of Hastings College vs other schools, large or small. As I said above, Hastings is a very good school and I do not believe you would regret his attending there. It is a small liberal arts college that is very friendly, personal and dedicated to educating students. They care and you son can be as good a student as his mind will permit. He will enjoy sports and be safe and comfortable. It is not a big city obviously. They care and he will be able to truly excell if that is his academic future.

You are so wrong it is painful. Nearly every kickoff from us was a touchback, Westy returned punts very well. Kickoff returns weren't bad. Punt coverage was great. This post is ignorant. Kickoffs out of the end zone are expected and the norm. Holding teams inside the 25 are better than the norm and should be our expectation there. Punts. I believe you need to check out the crappy punts we had in our first three games and compare those with the punts to us. BYU buried us with a couple monster punts we didn't even field the ball! One was 77 yards into the wind against us and completely changed the field position. Our field position has been horrible basically. Have we returned any punts over 25 yards - ? Maybe one but I don't think so. We have played three games and should have had at least 10 punt returns even assuming a number went out of bounds or out of the end zone, etc. How many have we actually returned? We missed two glaring field goals in game one and everybody wanted to lynch our kicker. Not me but I believe we should do better. Thus special teams is a failure (a D minus at best. The offense and defense are at least a letter grade of C so far. dont' tell me I am ignorant. I said the post was ignorant. Not you. Our punter is injured. Our punt returner is injured. Your post makes very little sense. Consider this for a quick second: the Blackshirt Defense has not played well at all, taking into account the sheer lack of forced punts from a defense giving up over 400 yards a game, the fact that our punt returner is fair catching a lot of those because offenses are trying to pin us deep with hang time punts, and the fact that fair catches are more and more the norm in football with the focus on stopping game changing returns from the punting team. That should make sense to you, but considering your last two posts, I don't like your chances. Obviously you are a jerk.

If your son is a good student and you can afford it, you will not regret choosing Hastings College. It is an excellent school. Along with Creighton, it is easily the best academically in Nebraska. As a Hastings grad, I am no doubt biased but I can confidently say that if he pays attention, he will learn and be successful. He will be expected to attend classes and will be a name, not just a number. His professors will be professional and will know him personally. I can't speak to the track program but Hastings College has a serious commitment to excellence across all endeavors in my opinion. Obviously the Osborne family helped to build some exceptional facilities. The campus is relatively compact and user friendly. Hastings is a nice small city with good services and convenient access to most things students might want or need and just 30 minutes from Grand Island's mall and additional services and about 1 hr and 40 miuntes from Lincoln.

You are so wrong it is painful. Nearly every kickoff from us was a touchback, Westy returned punts very well. Kickoff returns weren't bad. Punt coverage was great. This post is ignorant. Kickoffs out of the end zone are expected and the norm. Holding teams inside the 25 are better than the norm and should be our expectation there. Punts. I believe you need to check out the crappy punts we had in our first three games and compare those with the punts to us. BYU buried us with a couple monster punts we didn't even field the ball! One was 77 yards into the wind against us and completely changed the field position. Our field position has been horrible basically. Have we returned any punts over 25 yards - ? Maybe one but I don't think so. We have played three games and should have had at least 10 punt returns even assuming a number went out of bounds or out of the end zone, etc. How many have we actually returned? We missed two glaring field goals in game one and everybody wanted to lynch our kicker. Not me but I believe we should do better. Thus special teams is a failure (a D minus at best. The offense and defense are at least a letter grade of C so far. dont' tell me I am ignorant.

I think the question is very intriguing indeed? Another way to ask it might be "Did joining the Big Ten change your expectations?" or another aspect could be "Has the Big Ten Changed since we joined it to the poiint where it has changed your expectations for Nebraska's success in football?" I answer both Yes but there are differences certainly. I felt when we joined the Big Ten we were dropping down a notch in the level of conference status wise. That is, the Big Ten was a lesser conference in football terms than the Big 12 and SEC and even the Pact 12. I felt the Big Ten was the fourth best conference overall and in that sense we moved from an elite football conference to a mediocre one. This could have been, arguably, a mistake from a national image and reputation standpoint. It was like we moved into a run down, poorer part of town. At the time, I felt it should have helped Nebraska to immediately become more likely to win a conference title because the competition was significantly weaker. Initially I think this was true so my expectations for winning a title immediately went up but realistically having a chance for a National title went down, although I felt Nebraska still had a strong underlying reputation and that image carryover from the Big 12 would give us the benefit of the doubt. I also felt getting away from Texas was best because we were not going to get a fair shot at winning in the big 12 with Texas running the show generally. That was then, and this is now! Today, the big ten has grown stronger without question. I personally believe Nebraska joining the Big Ten immediately changed the overall perception of the Big Ten and helped all teams in the Big Ten to recruit, etc. Conversely, Nebraska (and other teams thereafter leaving the Big 12 weakened it and as a result hurt their overall standing nationally. Now the Big Ten has overtaken the big 12 nationally in overall strength and perception. OU and Texas falling down has also reduced the status of the Big 12 as teams like TCU and Baylor (dormat teams a decade or more ago) are NOT UT or OU or Nebraska image wise. The Big 12 is not as good as it once was in terms of national image and power perception. Thus, OSU gets in the playoff and Baylor/TCU does not. Perception matters. So, ironically, I believe Nebraska would have a better chance to win the conference title in the Big 12 nowadays than the Big ten. Isn't it strange that wherever Nebraska goes, good football comes; even if Nebraska is not the team actually playing it! Isn't that ironic?

Being very familiary with a number of different sized gas station operators (Mom and pop stops to large chain C store operations from being in the banking industry), I can say that in my experience, most gas stations until the last few years operated on about a 5 to 10 cent margin depending on the local competitive market. In the past several years though, margins at stations have increased considerably to as much as 20 or even 30 cents a gallon. So, I would say that even though there is an 14 cent variance, the EZ go may still have sufficient margin for some profit but would also need some good C store sales and exceptionally low overhead costs to be sustainably profitable longer term. Whole sale prices can vary widely week to week in the fuel markets as well as supplies move up and down and so on (often not publicized widely so you might not ever hear of the swings in the wholesale fuel prices). You would expect in a large city market that prices would be pretty close across the competition as well but consumers are less price sensitive (a dime a gal is not such a large sum when you only buy 10 gallon as many people have become trained to not fill up because the total cost exceeds their funding). In other words, many drivers simply cannot afford to fill clear up, opting to put in $20 worth and not simply pumping until full and topping off as in the good old days. Just my thoughts and experience.

I always felt to have a good indicator or 'feel' for how the running game or passing game is really working as a practical matter, it was best to take the total yards and attempts and take out the top 10% and bottom 10% and recompute the average so that the 'statistical average' really reflects the average (think - "typical" as a definition). In other words, throw out the outliers and look at the core data. By way of quick example, if we had a set of running plays with gains as follows: -1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 22, and 45, you come up a mathematical average of 10.7 yards per carry on the ten runs. However, if you throw out the bottom 10% being the -1 and 2 yard carries and the top ten % being of course the two long runs, then you come up with a 6.5 yard per carry mathematical average. While both are pretty good averages, the 10.7 arguably is bumped way up by just one single play being a 45 yard gain. Likewise, a big loss of say 19 yards on a QB sack can make otherwise decent running yards by the quarterback's designed runs look poor. Obviously, we can say that with a sample size of just ten carries, each carry can have a substantial effect on the statistical average if it is an outlier (really high or low). Likewise, a team with only a dozen passes per game and 6 completions will have a modest 50% completion rate but if two of those passes are long TDs, the yards per attempt and per catch yards can be very high. The larger the number of attempts (whether runs or passes), the more typical or average will be the statistical averages. To be most meaningful and indicative of the relative success of the running game, a team would need to attempt perhaps 30 or more runs per game and similarly for passes. Osborne's teams often did not pass enough to fairly indicate the strength of the passing game, although most also agreed that NU passing was quite effective in generating yardage and keeping the defense somewhat honest in their schemes. We all would surely agree that Riley's offense is predominantly a passing attack with significant number of running plays mixed in. Osborne was the opposite by general desription with the bulk being runs and a limited number of passes mixed in. Ultimately, the more effective the passes are for Riley, the better the runs should become as the defense will attempt to adjust and adapt itself to limit the passing attack and become more susceptible to runs. It was vice versa with Osborne's run oriented attack as defneses focused on crowding the line and loading up the box to try to overplay the run. Beck's idea was to keep the defense guessing constantly by sometimes over passing and sometimes over running, seemingly on a randum basis. I believe Beck's plays were often called as randomly as drawing them out of a hat rather than sequenced plays where one or more plays are intended to set up one or more other plays that follow. Random is NOT, in my view, an ideal way to call plays, although it may be more unpredictable than any other way to select plays. One can keep the defense honest by random play calls IF the defense fears your playmaking ability. Often, it seems defenses are not afraid of our offensive power.

I'm not saying we are lining up correctly. I'm saying MAYBE they're calling it more. The question is, have they always called this and we've always lined up correctly before, or is this a new focus for officials this year? It isn't only Nebraska they're calling it on; they called it on BYU more than Nebraska in the first game (twice for them, once for us). Perhaps someone needs to inform me but I believe, if I look at the picture that we are lined up OK We have 4 behind the line of scrimmage (not 5). That is perfectly legal. There is no requirement that Westy need be on the line. you can have 4 in the backfield (aka the wishbone for example) but no more. The rest must be within a yard of the LOS. I believe that is the rule. We do have more than 4, the WR on the left side of the formation is off the line as well, so he counts as 5. These types of penalties also occur if there is a shift and I wide receiver doesn't move off the line or on the line. Sorry but I beg to differ: IMO the WR to the left of the formation IS within 1 yard of the LOS - basically his front foot/toe and head are at the one yard point. If a referee is using a tape measure, I think he would find it is 35 inches: LOL but, it certainly close enough for a football game that NO PENALTY should be called. As far as whether a TE is ineligible because the receivers is also lined up on the LOS, that is NOT what the penalty was. That would have been ineligible man down field and I recall we had one of those called on us as well in the game. Maybe another example of this mysterious illegal formation epidemic. I think it is basically a simple rule than you MUST have 7 players within 1 yard of the LOS at the snap and 4 at least 1 yard behind it. Hopefully some offiial or rule or coach can explain the rule in detail IF my simple was of stating it is NOT correct. I think this basic 7 to 4 rule applies on ALL snaps, even extra points and or field goals or punts. Correct?

I'm not saying we are lining up correctly. I'm saying MAYBE they're calling it more. The question is, have they always called this and we've always lined up correctly before, or is this a new focus for officials this year? It isn't only Nebraska they're calling it on; they called it on BYU more than Nebraska in the first game (twice for them, once for us). Perhaps someone needs to inform me but I believe, if I look at the picture that we are lined up OK We have 4 behind the line of scrimmage (not 5). That is perfectly legal. There is no requirement that Westy need be on the line. you can have 4 in the backfield (aka the wishbone for example) but no more. The rest must be within a yard of the LOS. I believe that is the rule.

Huskers 52 225 rushing 315 passing SoMiss 0 87 rushing 169 passing

There is nothing wrong with walk ons and they can certainly help a program build and remain strong as they create numbers allowing for more practice teams, etc. You need to be able to practice against people comparable to those you will play against in games. TO used walks on primarily for practice players but some walk ons became starters. The Macovicka boys were shining examples. Small town Nebraska guys that grew up big time husker fans in a husker family. They were also great athletes who didn't want to go anywhere else and because they came from such small schools, were not going to be recruited for scholarships anywhere major. It doesn't matter if walk on or scholie, the player should play and travel, etc. based on merit as a player. You don't reward those you gave a scholarship to by giving them playing time too. They earn it. All players should have equal shot at all aspects of team participation. You don't guarantee playing time to get a player unless you intend to back that guaranty up with playing time. And, of course, that is very risky and foolish. They player may not be the player you had wanted or expected. Never make promises you will regret. That is the danger of the Big Ten's new guaranteed scholarships for 4 years to athletes. Athletes need the incentive to perform while in school.

This is a very interesting thread and many comments with differing views but much more friendly and 'agree to disagree' in it. That makes this one read through much more comfortably. I tend to remain optimistic about the team's prospects. While a loss is still a loss in the record books and for purposes of bowl standing, ratings generally, etc, I think you have to judge a football game by so much more than the final score. That's why they keep all those statistics. The numbers indicate how things are going in the game within the game so to speak. The old saying of "it's not whether you win or lose but how you play the game!" still holds true for me. I see us playing some of the best football in husker history for 10 minutes of the fourth quarter of the Miami game. If somehow these guys can replicate that effort and focus (aka 'execution') for two quarters of each game they play the rest of the year, we will win our customary 9 games and add a decent bowl game on top. On the other hand, if we play like we did in the first quarter of the same game, we won't win more than 4 games this year (OMG!, Sh t, f ck holy crap!). But, fortunately I don't see the latter happening. The team is learning and getting better. Again, as I have offered in several other comments the past few days, we will know much, much more after we play the next three games. Half way through, you no longer have freshmen playing without any experience and they players normally know nearly all the plays etc. without much problem in the knowledge area. You have also identified the 'best' players that sometimes haven't revealed themselves in the spring and fall preseason camp. Some guys lack confidence and or don't get enough reps being down on the depth chart to really show the coaches they have the skills to get it done. 6 games is usually enough to provide some opportunities to see live action for everybody on the travel roster. Of course all teams are 'improving' as well. But, in key areas such as QB play, we are seeing dramatic rises in quality of play with far more good plays and far fewer bad plays. I remain optimistic about this team and our crystal balls will be much clearer by the time we discuss game 6. i will predict we are 4-2 after game 6 unless we see another rash of injured starters.

this will be your best visit by far and you won't need another as once you're Husker, you're Husker forever! The opportunity in Lincoln is almost limitless. Suh!