Husker in WI

Frost also mentioned USA had a lot of defensive changes the staff didn't really know about what of time. So seems like the staff thought they knew what to expect, planned specifically for that, and wouldn't /didn't adjust. Which is fine first game of the year against an inferior opponent, and I don't expect it to be the norm moving forward. They spent all offseason prepping a new defense, other teams on the schedule won't be able to make huge changes in a week, and hopefully it also reminded the staff to have more adjustments ready. I thought we were at the point they could call things not specifically in the game plan, not sure if that isn't true or if they didn't feel the need to do that. As people have pointed out, some of the calls were great and just not executed.

Thought this was the big ten week one thread, and they are actually beating UMass now. But yeah, that would be gross. Wisky looks good, but I have no idea what to make of USF. They've been really good recently, but completely bombed the second half of last year.

It turns out Rutgers may be even worse than we thought..

Tunnel screens could be dead as well, a pretty big piece of those is somebody picking off the trailing corner and/or pursuing LBs and it's almost always a block like the gif above. Used to just yell at the corners for not warning you, now I guess you yell at the ref to throw a flag. I thought the rule could make sense, but not officiated in the way it has been so far.

I'm sure he knew you were referencing a different metric, just replying with one that doesn't favor your point. I think both ratings have issues, but the person defending Morgan's performance is going to prefer QB rating and someone criticizing it will prefer QBR. In either case he was somewhere above average to very good range, and I thought just from the eye test more towards good - very objective, I know.

I don't really love QBR, I suspect he was dinged for sacks that weren't his fault and a potentially harsh opponent adjustment against a probably decent SDSU defense. One or two of the sacks I think he was part of the problem, but several he wasn't and I don't think QBR actually differentiates between sacks - could be wrong there. I think it's better than regular passer rating, but it still has significant flaws. But to your point I don't think anyone is claiming he's a "wow" player.

Fixed it, still impressive but slightly less so. Morgan definitely wasn't the problem though, he looked pretty good. I still don't know what his ceiling is, but he's tough, mobile, and made some nice throws. Question, I got the impression from the Minnesota board that drops aren't actually that unusual for Johnson - kinda the TO issue where he's really really good and makes crazy catches, but also randomly drops catchable balls. Is that actually the case or did the drops come out of nowhere?

They called one in the MN/SDSU game as well, it was pretty similar. So I'm definitely more concerned, these guys are not "outside the field of view," the defenders are just looking past them to the ball carrier.

I think a lot of their struggles were basic first game things - vanilla scheme, rust, and probably overlooking the opponent some. But there were definitely concerning things for them, as others pointed out. Defense looked pretty slow overall, Coughlin was quick off the edge but didn't really show any pass rush moves and frequently ran himself out of the play. Offensively, Faalele was bad but the RG Dunlap was atrocious! Proof that size isn't everything, reminded me of Toniu Fonoti's ill-fated NFL comeback - seeing a 400+ (360 for Dunlap) lb man reverse pancaked by a much smaller d-lineman is a sight to see. Bateman had some great plays, but SDSU did a decent job on Johnson and he dropped a couple balls as well. Smith looked like a running back with multiple knee surgeries in his past. They'll clean it up and be better than that for sure, but the line is a major concern until they prove otherwise.

That's a game changing holding call. Instead of SDSU up 14-13 and getting the ball its still 13-7 Minnesota. Seemed borderline, but the returner did run right by it.

SDSU also figured out that a ton of Johnson's yards come on RPO slants and picked one off. For all the talk of their 750 pound right side of the line being impenetrable, they haven't looked great. Faalele has been run around a few times, and the 360 lb Dunlap got knocked on his @$$ by an undersized DE on a stunt. Minnesota still have more talent and I expect them to pull away, but if I know Minnesota fans they're already throwing in the towel on their season.

Yeah, but commentators bring up a lot of random crap and I don't think the average viewer pays that much attention. Especially first game of the year, most teams have a list of guys suspended/currently working through legal issues. I would bet they mention Hunt, LeGrone, and Washington altogether (maybe even mentioning the earlier pot citations for a few guys), and I would expect the focus to be more on Hunt/LeGrone since they're definitely suspended.

USA DB Tyrone Legette: Former Nebraska CB Tyrone Legette: I don't actually see a lot of similarity there, but yes that's Tyrone Legette's son. Jordon Beaton: Forest Whitaker:

Could just be "in-house" for now before charges are pressed, who knows. I agree if it is totally in-house it's probably not a legal issue, but it seems like the point Walters was making is he would not be providing any details. I don't know if it means the entire issue will stay in-house forever, we'll see.

In fairness to Neal, I thought he played well early last year before they shut him down with a shoulder injury. If we're actually going to roll 9 deep, he could still contribute this year. But he hasn't been mentioned by Tuoti from what I remember, so that may not be the case.

Not to mention the entire o-line 2 deep. Offense will be scary this year, terrifying next year.

The one where we had no other scholarship running backs healthy/clear to play?

+1 for the joke in there, whether or not the Phommachanh/sneeze correlation was intentional.

A blindside block negating a kick return touchdown, leading to a complete meltdown in that thread. You heard it here first!

There is a difference between being low on the WR depth chart and being left off completely. I'm sure all 9 listed and more will play, but I think it is safe to assume those are the top 9 right now.

I'd consider the entire d-line 2-deep startes. I'd bet the second wave of guys will play just as much as the starters, but you might as well roll the Davis's out there together so they can feed off of each other. Anyone else notice Allen did in fact catch Stoll? That's an OR as well, didn't really expect that.

People keep saying that, I'm sure he'd be a good guard. But from what I remember both us and Wisconsin offered him as a NT, so I'm assuming he'll stick there. The staff hasn't been tentative moving guys around though, Banks and Piper both moved from DL to OL.

Like brophog said, bad math. I can only assume it's the home field thing, but Minnesota can't give away tickets at the moment. Despite some real reasons for excitement, the overall fan buy in is just dead at the moment. If they start winning that could change, but any kind of home field advantage for Minnesota (outside of not needing to travel) is a joke.

I think it's similar, but it's a little different because I don't think there's a chance Coan starts over Mertz next year. So with McCaffrey we're fine stalling at least until Martinez is gone, but if Mertz takes off and appears to be better by midseason I don't know how they would keep his redshirt. It'll be an interesting situation, I expect him to be their best QB at the end of the year - obviously could be wrong, but that's my guess. Do you get his feet wet early in the easy games knowing it may be hard to keep him off the field (and preserve the redshirt) late in the year? Or do you hold off playing him until you have to, and hope that it's the last few games of the year and he could still redshirt? Unless they drop out of the West division race early, I don't think he redshirts. That's possible too, their schedule is tough! A doosmday scenario would be an ealry season fluke loss to an ok USF team, losing to Michigan and NW which they somehow always do. Then all of a sudden you're 1-3 and have Michigan State, @OSU, Iowa, @us, Purdue, and @Minnesota, with a couple easy games in there too. So 3-3 (Kent State and Illinois), and every one of the other games is loseable. I expect them to start 3-1, they'll squek by USF and finally beat some sense into NW. But their next 3 B1G games are the crossovers, and that could take them out of the race.