seaofred92

Nebraska has outscored their opponents this season 227-168.

Oh yeah, that QB coach would Steve Calhoun, the same coach that helped Martinez with his improvement between his sophomore and junior seasons. Have we ever given thought to paying this guy a heck of a lot of money to have him be QB coach at Nebraska?

Just speculation but with all the attention we seem to be paying attention to at LB lately one has to wonder where we sit with Alexander. That being said love Goode's size. Seems to be an emphasis of the staff to have taller, more imposing LB's. Should fit well in the B1G.

"I didn't have a stance on Keystone until I took a stance on Keystone"

Very good point, obviously passing against SMU and Tennessee Tech is a little different than Miami/Wisconsin/BYU etc Even against Louisville though, 23-33 236 yards 3TDs and 1INT. in 2014 he had a 69% completion percentage, 29/33 against Temple (top 10 defense), 27/45 against Cincinnati, and 15/24 against Pittsburgh in the bowl (with Illinois like weather) for a combined 902 yards, 5TDs and 1INT. Just think its very interesting since he started last season as a WR and Tommy is now in year 3 of being the starting QB on this team. Is this more schematic differences, competition level differences, or both?

This is a player that I would very much like to see wind up in a Nebraska uniform.

I find Ward's development absolutely fascinating. He played QB in high school, then moved to WR at Houston. He was moved back to QB midway through the season last year and now in Tom Herman's offense is completing 72% of his passes. SEVENTY TWO PERCENT! This is absolutely astonishing to me considering that Ward has been a QB at the FBS level for a little over one year now. My question is, what exactly can our offense do to make Tommy's completion percentage rise? He will never be a 70% completion guy, heck he may not ever be a 60% completion guy, but there has to be some concepts we can take from Herman's offense to raise Tommy's percentage, no? EDIT: Wanted to include Mandel's Heisman Top 5 snippet and what they said about Ward Jr. "Cougars coach Tom Herman's Braxton Miller-like clone continues to shine. Thursday against SMU he was 16 of 18 for 243 yards and rushed 14 times for 82 yards, with all four of his touchdowns coming on the ground. He's completing 72.3 percent of his passes on the season." This stat line is ideal for Tommy IMO. The concepts seemed to be there in the beginning of the season with a lot of various WR/TE/RB screens but I feel like all of these plays have been scrapped for deep balls. Is it as simple as scheme that leads to these differences in completion % or is it something more?

I know it isn't really a part of the playbook anymore but I kept waiting for a zone read on that last drive. That or the QB power play that we had been running very successfully all day long

Move Langsdorf to full time QB coach and hire a real offensive coordinator. The defense will look better if we are able to upgrade the talent in our secondary. You get a guy like Darnay Holmes out there and instead of dropping 5+ interceptions today maybe we catch a couple.

3 terrible play calls there. not sure how you don't use that QB power run thats been getting you huge chunks of yards all day

we need a zone read

having a heck of a game today. great to see the development from this position between him and Webber. Was nervous when we lost Banderas and MRI but these guys are playing very well. Kudos.

Also, just listened to his interview from back in July. What an incredibly impressive young man, seems to have taken the whole situation in an extremely mature manner. Great kid, wishing him nothing but success.

Couple of thoughts here: 1. Seems kinda dumb to pull the RS 6 games into a season that isn't going to be a championship year. 2. That being said, Jordan would appear to have the ability to be a good receiver out of the backfield, utilizing his quickness and elusiveness in the screen game. I think this is where he will eventually (hopefully now, but definitely in the future) helps us the most. 3. Wouldn't be surprised to see him used on the jet sweep runs either. So I think he could carve out a role that is different from Janovich, Ozigbo, etc

the 2016 season and 2017 recruiting class could really really be something by the end of it. If we can get the Calabasas squad on board early it could lead to the best Nebraska class in a long time that would be following a really good season potentially. A lot to like coming up if you're a Nebraska fan

Obviously you take this guy if he wants to come but wouldn't that pretty much shut down our LB recruiting class? Would really love to get Mique Juarez here too with Jaleel and the rest of the LB class but we have a crazy amount of LBs at this point

Wisconsin is the closest thing that Nebraska has to a rival in the Big 10 in my opinion. They have beaten us in the regular season (by a TON), we had an epic comeback against them, and they ruined our first conference championship in 15 years with a team that went 7-5 in the regular season. To me it feels like this team is fired up to play these guys and put a whooping on them for what they've been able to do to Nebraska the past few seasons. They have injuries and difficulties, we have injuries and difficulties, yet I still expect both teams to come out and play at a high level, because of the respect that both have for their opponent. I think NU is going to come into this game HUNGRY for a win, to shut the haters on Wisconsin, to shut the haters on Riley, and to shut the haters about being eliminated in the division- for at least a week. Nebraska does have some injury issues that need to be addressed. Will we see Givens Price at DT now that Maurice is out? Will McMullen slide inside and/or we pull the redshirt off Carlos Davis (I really really hope we don't do this- would be so short sighted in my opinion)? There are story lines all over this week, and yet for the first time since we came into the B1G and went to that top 10 matchup in Madison, I feel like we are going to beat these guys. Anyone else feel a strange sense of confidence for this game?

Welcome. Great post. We'll be a lot better in 2016. I suppose a top 10 final rank would be a breakout year to me and while that is always possible I don't expect it. A great step forward would be a teens ranking and that does seem doable. We'd need 10-3 to achieve that. Thank you for the kind welcome! It's obviously difficult to define a "breakout season" because everyone's definition of that is different. Some people think it won't be a breakout unless we win a CCG, some people more and some less. Honestly for 2016 to be a breakout season for me, it would mean not only what our record is, but how we do it. I think a lot of these silly penalties and tendencies, i.e. illegal formation, false start, misalignments, breaking the huddle late, etc will wane tremendously once the offense and defense understand what they are doing. I am NOT bringing up the previous regime to start an argument in this thread- but one of the biggest reasons people got upset with the previous regime was that these issues never went away. The schemes were so complex that people who had been in them for 5 years still didn't know where to line up. That is no longer the case, which should lead to less mistakes as time wears on and this staff settles in. If we are 10-2/3 before bowl season in 2016 and are a clean football team, I believe 90% (or higher?) would qualify that as a breakout year. My point of this post was to highlight what is coming back and the fact that it is extremely attainable next season. Nebraska might finish 6-6 or 7-5 this year, which honestly would be good for the program. Get us the extra practices that come with a bowl, put us in a lower tier bowl and give us a good chance to win it. If Nebraska finishes 8-5 this year after a bowl win, there will be a lot of positive momentum to work with as we head into the offseason. You saw it at Michigan State early in Dantonio's career, and there are examples of it all over the country. Heck look at Temple and Memphis the past 2-3 years. Sometimes it takes a couple of years for things to get set into place and I really believe that things for the Huskers will be extremely positive in 2016, no matter how frustrating 2015 is as we all want and aspire for more.

Agreed, it is often difficult to separate accurate projections versus sunshine pumping. I just find it difficult to not be excited about the potential of this team in year 2. The roster sets up for a big year and statistically speaking the jump a team makes from year 1 to year 2 under a new staff is usually the biggest improvement you're going to find. Recruiting Collins back for his Senior year would be absolutely massive, just not sure how realistic/unrealistic it is at this point. There's some publications that have him as a top 10 player in next year's draft lists and some that don't have him even in the first round.

If you look at it we would be returning ~8 starters from the offensive side of the ball and ~9 from the defensive side of the ball. All 3 people leaving from offense would be offensive linemen (Lewis, Reeves, Kondolo), one of which just bastardized the Husker fan base for the 2nd time in 3 games and the other two seem to be in the way of Jerald Foster, who I believe is going to be a stud lineman. The only true questions for next year's team is the secondary, but given the way our upperclassmen have played against the pass this year it might be an addition by subtraction type of deal.

It's great to see him planning a trip here. If we're going to be running this defensive scheme, where corners are often in 1 on 1 matchups with no safety help over the top, these are the kinds of DB's were going to need to pull in somehow. Would be our highest DB recruit in a while I'm assuming, no?

Hi guys, first time poster here but wanted to chime in on the potential for this team as it relates to the 2016 season: I really think next year has all the makings of a breakout year. Tommy, despite the one play at Illinois, clearly has progressed as a passer and decision maker this season. A lot of the 50/50 type balls that you would have seen in the past are no longer being thrown. Running a multitude of screens and timing routes will help Armstrong develop even more next season, including another offseason with Langsdorf. I think it is extremely reasonable to expect Tommy to be around 63-65% completion percentage as a Senior next season, who would've thunk that after the 2014 season? Not only will Armstrong be better, but you're bringing back every play-maker on offense sans Jamal Turner. I would expect for Ozigbo, Wilbon, and Stevenson to make jumps as RB's both running and catching the ball. WR's will still be led by Westerkamp, DPE, Morgan, Reilly, and then add in guys like Alston, and we will more than likely see Grimm on the field as a freshman. This is some of the best overall talent we've had on offense in a long long time. Looking to the defensive side of the ball, Who do we lose that we will really miss? The biggest challenge Riley faces in his first full season is convincing Maleik Collins that he should stay for his Senior season, something that I think we may actually see as he becomes an even more complete player than he currently is. Watching Kevin Maurice last week really excited me to see what he can do as a Senior and we will need to see some growth from guys like Stoltenberg, Davis, etc. Freedom looks like a player that has an extremely bright future and I really think that you'll see an emphasis to move McMullen inside full time after this season. There isn't a Sr. Linebacker on the entire roster, and we start a true freshman in Dedrick Young. These guys could go from being a question mark before this 2015 season to the strongest point of the defense in 2016. It really comes down to the secondary to how the Huskers will fare in 2016 in my opinion. Bringing Gerry back obviously helps but we lose both Davie and Rose this offseason. Will Kalu be the #1 corner? Will we see guys like Mosley, Lee, or Anderson step up and have a large role on the team next year? Specialists look to remain strong as well. Foltz will be a senior (and fully healthy, something he isn't right now) DPE will be fully acclimated and healthy again, and Drew Brown will be an upper classman. If you look at that roster from top to bottom, it is really set up for a big year next year. Suffering through these learning curves and setbacks now helps bring a team closer together and should motivate them to be great during the offseason. The non -conference schedule next year looks to be much more manageable, as even Oregon doesn't look to be as daunting as we maybe thought when we scheduled them. I was livid after the Illinois game like everyone else but lets have some patience with this new staff. Adjusting from Oregon State to Nebraska is a completely different ball game, especially when the personnel in place isn't meant for what the coaches want to do. I think we could be in store for some big things next season in a division that should be fairly wide open. Let's finish 2015 strong and ride a wave of momentum into 2016, GBR!