Red_Payne

Texas State Memorial Stadium 34-20 Rob Ryan Someone Ryan knows? - idk, Charlie Weis? again; a buddy of Ryan's (no pun intended)... Eric Mangini, maybe. no Gebbia Some 5-star recruit who showed up to play for Ryan & co. Who wants to go pro. def. not.

An observation Ive made regarding strong performances from "New" QBs, college or NFL. Carr, Dak, Wentz recently in Nfl; and D'Arnold, Jackson, Browning in college were young QBs who were able to showcase their talent because they were put behind an already established O-line (it took an extra year for Carr, though). Its been proven that you need to establish your line before you implement your pro style offense.

As a person who didnt take the Oregon loss as hard as others (imo) i would take a close loss to NIU pretty hard regardless of whether its a close low scoring affair; or a shootout... we really should (and quite frankly, need) a nice, cushiony win here.

Agree 100% Langs is a good OC, and seems to understand that a (pass) balanced offense is the most efficient offense in today's football with all the rule modifications and the ways players are being developed all the way down to the big HS football programs. That simply, won't fit for us, though (it "seems" like, but you never know). We can't seem to recruit the top tier linemen needed to run that type of offense, first of all; secondly, we haven't been able to bring in a Pro-caliber QB, ever. Defensively, I, personally, don't believe 3-4 or 4-3 make a huge difference; considering most teams have multiple nickle and dime package groups ready to run on/off the field when a situation arises... Diaco hasn't seemed to implement that (yet, hopefully). I've noticed most teams don't get too cute on D. They rely on their front 6/7 (depending on package) to stop the run, they rely on their front 4 to collapse the pocket; and they typically keep two safeties back and just man up, or run cover 2/3. Wish Diaco would just do this, as our front 7 actually doesn't look too bad against the run... every-time Diaco decided to bring up a safety to help against the run, Oregon went deep on-on-one; and we don't have the CBs to do that.

We absolutely still have a shot at having a great season. Diaco needs to manage the D better, seems like he runs the wrong D against the wrong opponents thus far. O-line is still a little suspect; which scares me the most. Front 7 looks stout, though; thats good. every solid team has that beast o-line, though.... that's how you win. USC and Okla can run or pass only because they have great o-lines. Ala. would too if they wanted to pass. im scared that Riley may be putting too much emphasis on recruiting receivers/qbs here, but they'll be useless behind a mediocre(at best) o-line. Maryland seems to be building they're team the right way.

Lee was put in a lot of obvious passing downs; but it wasn't an overwhelming amount of throws he went out and made. even down by a wide margin; we stayed fairly balanced and cut the deficit fairly quickly. the problem was the fact that Lee made lots of inaccurate throws, even when he had a fair amount of time and space. the picks/bad decision making can be corrected. Accuracy typically cannot. I hope this was just an off game.

We can agree there... Oregon def. capitalized better than we did. I'm disappointed with the inaccuracy of Lee. and the old saying is a QB is accurate or not. Every QB has off days, though. Hoping this is Lee's.

Mich, VT, Fl & UT are all big name programs that are in recruiting hotbeds. Even Washington has a much better recruiting base than Neb. Its gonna be very difficult to get an "it" guy here at NU. It'll take a Saban-esque contract; and that is VERY risky.

Still... a FG that close to his career long shouldnt be considered a break... at least a BIG break... the tip pass to the other Oregon receiver is a HUGE break. i would say you may be right; they may have had the same number of breaks; but Oregon's were much bigger and more game changing. im not sure what penalties were questionable, though. Tanner Lee's play was a factor that cannot be blamed on the coaches. Offensive play calling wasn't bad; QB play was mediocre at best.

I tend to (try and) be an optimist. but i have to agree with you on this one. Lee missed a lot of throws that a "passing QB" shouldn't be missing; and he misplaced a lot of balls that were caught; but yac were minimized because of poor ball placement. Oregon's QB looked a lot more spot on with his throws; even on the throws that were wide open; something that can't be said for Lee... HOWEVER; Oregon did protect their QB better than we did (or we put less pressure on Oregon, either/or).

I wouldnt call a missed FG that would have been a career long a break. I agree; there were a few drops though; however, I would say, overall, Oregon was the "luckier" team today; but that is a part of football, but a coach can't be blamed for that.

Way too early to call for Riley's head; and way to early to analyze coordinators as potential replacements. This is assuming that no big name established/experienced head coaches will even consider this job (which, in all honesty, is probably true; let's be honest with ourselves). Only exception would be Art Briles; but I pray we aren't that desperate for a big name.

Oregon got A TON of breaks; and Neb. made some nice adjustments at halftime; and most importantly; the team showed HEART and GRIT, and didn't give up. no one needs to be fired. the players faught all the way to the end.

IMO We played a conservative-based defense. Our front 7 actually played fairly stout and that should fair moderately well against an offense that looked to be explosive on the ground, albeit, against a Div. II team. Offensively; Our offense looked balanced, Lee looked composed for the most part. Tre looks like an upper tier back. And most importantly; our O-line looked improved. I expect us to compete... maybe not win; but these coaches will look to put together a gameplan that, at the very least, allows us to be competitive

When you don't have the talent to match up very well; the Bend/dont-Break defense gives you the best shot at being competitive with a more explosive offense by not allowing big plays. This D will make sense when we play Penn-St., Wisc. Mich, etc. However, it made NO sense against Ark. St.; and we really should have allowed our DBs to practice man-up D against (probably) lesser talented WRs. When you have superior talent on D, Bend/Don't Break allows a lesser offense a chance to compete. Look at the A&M/UCLA game... 1st half; A&M pressures rosen and is constantly behind the line of scrimmage --> result: 34 point lead.... QB goes down so they decide to protect lead and play "conservative defense." --> result: Rosen magically has time to throw; 10-15 yard routes are open downfield (much like our game), and Rosen goes off to lead the best comeback of the season in all likelihood. Point: DON'T bend-but-dont-break, under (almost) any circumstance, if you don't have to. we may have to against the big boys, though.

I think the D ran cover-3 the majority of the night... saw man a couple times (the few times that we blitzed); but for the most part, I saw a team that was content giving up the 10-15 yard pass in exchange for giving up no big passes or runs, and not over-pursuing on tackles. we basically ran a "bend-but-dont-break/prevent" hybrid. and, in all honesty, I think that's what we can expect the rest of the year.

In all seriousness... We have had trouble finding dominant front 7 players the past couple years. We have, however, had an easier time finding LBs over DLs. However, w/ a 3 man line, it seems the DLs need to be more specialized; I'm confident Diaco can find guys with the right build and mold them into proper starters. 3-4 can only help us beat Wisc, as I cant see us performing worse defensively against the badgers.

I don't think these pundits are "lazy;" I just think they have to make predictions for over 100 teams, so they are not going to go into depth regarding every position change for every team. They (for the most part) are CFB pundits, not NU football pundits. The biggest thing they see regarding NU is that we are losing a 4 year starter who is NU's #1 passer in yards, TD passes, completions, and total offense. That, alone, would lead one to think that we are losing a MAJOR piece to our offense; however, I doubt they realize (or even cared to research; considering they have to get to 120+ more teams) that he didn't exactly fit Reilly's offensive scheme, and he was often prone to making bad decisions as a passer and wasn't exactly an overly accurate QB. We are also switching Defensive schemes, which usually doesn't lead one to believe that your players will perform better, having to learn a new system. Many reasons for a non-NU fan to believe we will have a mediocre, or even bad season. However, I think many of the changes will improve this team, and I expect at least 8 wins; which, with all things considered, would be a good season in my eyes, as long as we are not getting blown out in any games (although a 21 point loss to OSU wouldn't make me cringe too hard, in all honesty).

Obviously; everyone should be ecstatic if Oklahoma joined. I think its the "cool" thing to be against Texas joining; and certainly there are legitimate arguments to be made that would make one skeptical of Texas joining; but I would honestly be ecstatic to have Texas, as well. I feel an animosity, of sorts, towards Texas, and it would be adding a rival that feels like more of a rival than any of the teams currently in the B1G (besides maybe Wisc, but even that is close).

IMO, the only reason we should have a game on Friday is if we somehow find a way to come up with a "ND-USC, Fla-FSU, Clem-S. Car." like agreement w/ Oklahoma. Iowa-Neb. just doesn't have that kind of appeal, and doesn't justify a Friday game day. In all honesty, Iowa-Neb. doesn't exactly feel like a true rivalry game and I don't feel like it even HAS to be the last game of the season for us.

Anything that helps recruiting ... well, as long as we aren't doing anything that can lead to sanctions.

I don't like creating threads; but on NSD, this has been running through my mind. Where do you guys think Neb's recruiting classes should be ranking in order to perform at the level where you'd be satisfied with. Where should we rank among B1G teams, as well as nationally. Personally, I would like to see Neb. compete for a CC at least every 3 years, and be in the hunt for the CCG every year. (finishing 1st, 2nd, maybe 3rd in their div. & having the Iowa game be meaningful) In order to do that, I think Neb. Should be pulling in recruiting classes ranked at least 25 nationally. More importantly, I think Neb. should pull in the 4th or 5th best class in the B1G. I never expect to beat OSU or Mich. but we should be able to compete with Mich St., Penn St., Wisc., and apparently Maryland. What are your guys' thoughts?

I have a feeling the staff will try and add weight to Freedom and have him play end at around 270 lbs. J. Clowney plays end for the Texans at 270; but then again, he is a physical freak.

Lots of talk about finding a "great recruiter". My question is, is there actually any coached out there who have consistently been able to bring in top level talent regardless of the program they were at? I feel that the program, itself, has a lot to do with how well a coach can recruit. I just hope that MR does his research before making a hire.