Husker in WI

19 minutes ago, knapplc said:

 

You mean JB and Lauren? The folks on the radio?

Probably the BTN announcers, I know they can't get enough of Schwarzenblock - which to be fair, is an awesome nickname. The worst I've heard was "Sun rises up for a kill!" I mean I like puns and everything, but it was too much kinda like Ozigbo's "divine" touchdown run. If Davis was a setter they would have figured out Capri Sun, there just aren't that many opportunities since they rarely touch the ball in that order.

Looks fast, likes to hit, and Larry was awesome - I like it, maybe he can be our smaller OLB. The Gifford/Ferguson role, not the Alex Davis/Caleb Tannor role.

Best of luck to her, she should dominate at South Dakota. I'm extra disappointed because her name is phenomenal - at least we still have Jazz Sweet and are adding Kenzie Knuckles.

4 minutes ago, Moiraine said:

How often when we didn’t sign the top 5 was it because 5 players weren’t worthy of a scholarship, and how often was it because the coaches made bad choices or couldn’t keep them here?

 

I can think of at least 2 huge screw ups by Riley in 2 different years so I’m definitely not questioning that part of it.

Using 247 for the rankings:

2002 - RB Stevie Hicks (NE #4) signed with Iowa State - not sure if we wanted him or not, he did have a decent career I think. We did sign another in state RB in David Horne (NE #1).

2003 - K Sean Douglas (NE #4) signed with Washington. We did sign the other 5 players in the top 6 and he was a kicker, so this one is close.

2004 - RB Brandon Gunn (NE #2) signed with Iowa State, QB Allan Evridge (NE #5) signed with K State. I don't think Evridge was a fit for Callahan, and we had Marlon Lucky so Gunn likely wasn't a priority either. Evridge played as a frosh at KSU then transferred to Wisconsin, can't find much on Gunn.

2005 - TE Nate Prater (NE #2, KSU) FB Jake Behrens (NE #3, Colorado) WR Brennan Gleason (NE #5, Houston) - seems like a case where the talent wasn't there, no really surprised we didn't sign these guys.

2006 - WR Derrick Russell (#3, ISU) S Jeff Tarpinian (#5, Iowa) - similar to 2005, although Tarpinian played some for Iowa.

This is where we start missing talent we should have kept, IMO

2007 - G Harland Gunn (#1, Miami) QB Philip Bates (#3, ISU) K Josh Cherry (#5, KSU) - Gunn was the first #1 player in NE to go elsewhere in a while, that was a big deal.

2008 - G Trevor Robinson (#2, ND) TE Tim Biere (#5, KU) - we at least wanted Robinson for sure.

2009 - T Jon Lechner (#1 Ohio) DE Tyrone Sellers (#2, KU) G James Davis (#5, Ohio) - Not a ton of talent, but I think we wanted Sellers? People didn't like QB Daryle Hawkings (NE #7) going to Oregon either.

2010 - T Bryce Dietz (#3, Ohio) - Not a great class.

2011 - LB Cole Fisher (#4, Iowa) WR Teddy Lampkin (#5, ISU) - Fisher was a miss, and while a lot of people wanted Lampkin I don't think we ever offered.

2012 - QB Tay Bender (#1, KSU) DE Drew Ott (#2, Iowa) DE Cory Rahmings (#4, Tulsa) WR Terry Grigsby (#5, Miami OH) - 4 and 5 probably didn't need offers, but we should have grabbed the top 3.

2013 - DT Christian LaCouture (#2, LSU), S Michael Minter (#3, nowhere?) DT Nathan Bazata (#4, Iowa) TE Casey Sayles (#5, Ohio). LaCouture doesn't really count because he moved to Lincoln his senior year, but we had him committed at one point. Bazata and Sayles proved worthy of scholarships, we just lost on Bazata and I don't think offered Sayles.

2014 - DT Harrison Phillips (#2, Stanford) Big miss because we couldn't decide what position he would play.

2015 - OT Adam Holtorf (#3, KSU) WR CJ Johnson (#4, Wyoming) RB Calvin Strong (#5, South Dakota) - Holtorf panned out better than Gaylord in the same class

2016 - TE Noah Fant (#1, Iowa) TE Jared Bubak (#2, ASU) 4 and 5 went to SDSU, but the top 2 were big misses.

2017 -  TE Logan Strom (#4, Lousiville?) C Brett Kitrell (#5, Ohio) - not an amazing class, but Kitrell is playing early for Frank at Ohio

2018 - DT Masry Mapieu (#2, Louisiana) DT Bryson Williams (#3, Wisconsin) OLB Zach Schlager (#4, CSU) OL Bryce Stai (#5, Ohio) There are lot of strong feelings about this one. Slager and Stai are both playing already, albeit at smaller schools

So overall there were definitely years we wouldn't want to sign all top 5, but we absolutely started missing on the top in-state guys in the last 10-15 years.

3 minutes ago, Nebfanatic said:

Man we could use a saftey...

I'm actually cautiously optimistic about our current group of safeties, but you'd always love a kid this talented. Although no one seems to know exactly what the issue is - I was looking around on some Georgia boards, he was away from the team a year ago with medical issues but Smart said it's different this time. A lot of random speculation mostly involving weed or grades, but mostly people are impressed at the lack of actual information. Nobody even claiming they have the real scoop.

1 minute ago, Moiraine said:

Not relevant to Nebraska recruiting but Justin Fields is said to be looking at transferring to OSU.

I don't understand that at all. Dwayne Haskins is a Sophomore.

Well he has to sit out a year since he's not a grad transfer, and I think the general consensus is Haskins is gone after his junior year at the latest. Then Fields would have to beat out Martell who was almost as highly rated.

2 minutes ago, BlitzFirst said:

He was also not getting any first or second team reps in the weeks leading up to his start...he was an after thought...Until Gebbia left.  Then he suddenly was thrust into a role he hadn't prepared for.

 

I think he did as well as someone could in his situation.

They were talking about Bush, I think most people agree Bunch did as well as can be expected. I thought it was Bunch initially too, but the "playing against a below average defense" made me re-read it since Troy was actually pretty solid. Our defense was definitely below average though, and Bush had some ugly passing numbers.

1 hour ago, HuskerNBigD said:

 

If Sean Lee is blocking David, that is ridiculous. The guy has been hurt half the year.

I guess I doubt he blocked him this year, Lee's just mentioned as one of the guys making it a tough competition in general. This year the  NFCOLBs are Mack, Barr, and Ryan Kerrigan - I can see the first 2, but even with 11 sacks I have a hard time buying Kerrigan as a top-3 OLB in the NFC.

That is pretty dumb, David and Khalil Mack shouldn't be up for the same roster spot. The competition at LB is an obstacle to a pro bowl nod too, but I'd absolutely take David over Sean Lee (mentioned in the article as one of the guys blocking David). Keuchly and Wagner I'll give them, but the only reason Lee is considered that good is because plays in Dallas. I hope tampa figures something out or David gets a chance to move on, he deserves to at least make the playoffs. 

37 minutes ago, The Dude said:

This one's weird because he had to know he was going to be a career backup when he transferred here.  Everyone knew.

True, but maybe the taste of playing time was enough to rethink that plan. He played well enough against Troy, and even the experience practicing against a D1 defense will have him well prepared to play down a level.

2 minutes ago, TGHusker said:

Did I say the wrong name  - who was the Wisc RB who ran all over Bo's D??

 

Well I thought you intentionally butchered the name to be funny - Marvin Gorman, Melvin Gordon, same difference. But if that was unintentional now I have to ask, is it supposed to be "(Lavonte) David, (Randy) Gregory" or did you call Randy Gregory "David?"

44 minutes ago, Moiraine said:

 

 

I don't really get it. You talk about the people who signed with you. He would just treat Gates as if he didn't sign. It's really not that hard.

All he has to do if asked directly is say that Gates has signed with a school and doesn't want it revealed yet. All he has to do is have a poker face.

I think technically saying that would confirm he signed with us - I don't think you're allowed to comment on other schools' signees, so any comment about Gates is off the table. But yeah it's pretty easy to basically say 'no comment right now,' and move on from there. Any other coaches bitter about losing him can't really spoil it because they won't be able to comment on him specifically, and future recruits/coaches wouldn't like them undermining his plan. Only potential problem I see is a staffer leaking it, but you'd hope they're better than that.

2 minutes ago, Moiraine said:

It might have been scarier but I don't see how it could've been uglier. We lost both games where he got snaps before the game was over.

As embarrassing as losing to Troy at home is, they might have shut us out without Bunch. Record-wise we're probably the same with or without him, but he also saved Martinez some hits against Michigan - maybe Martinez gets hurt again if he had to stay in, who knows. Probably would've been the same amount of ugly, but I could see it going much worse.

10 minutes ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

 

That would mean there's no good reason for a competent quarterback to back-up Adrian Martinez for the next three years. 

I agree for the most part. Vedral is unique because he's a Nebraska kid, so he's probably ok being the backup for the rest of his career - with how we run the QB and ideally a lot of blowout wins, the 2nd string will play. Very few good QBs would do that, and I don't think any would stay as 3rd string. McCaffrey, Smothers, and anyone else we recruit won't be behind him their entire careers like Bunch/Vedral are. McCaffrey redshirts year 1, then is a backup years 2 and 3 and in position to start the next two. Who knows if that's how it works out, but he has a path to playing time that Bunch doesn't

19 minutes ago, Landlord said:

 

 

I thought it was interesting how thus far there was no criticism of Bunch, and thought I could make fun of it and also maybe prevent some further legitimate criticism by sarcastically referencing it early and making anyone that comes after think twice about actually holding thoughts like those.

Guess it didn't work

6 minutes ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

I think the difference is that Gebbia stands a good chance at being a P5 starting quarterback, and Bunch not so much.

 

Does this mean that any current back-up quarterback should start looking for a less-competitive school where he can start? And that the second and third stringers willing to hang around have accepted their mediocrity?

I think Bunch showed he could play (maybe not P5), and it's hard to fault a kid for wanting to play. It's also one thing to stick around when you're the backup, and another to stick around when you're third-string and an out-of-state walk on - you're not one play away anymore. It's not like other positions where you can work your way into a rotation or play special teams, if you know you're not going to play there aren't a lot of reasons to stick around.

He could also feel he earned a scholarship, the general rule of thumb is if you're on the 2-deep you've probably earned it. He was only the backup because of a transfer and Vedral's eligiblity status, but still. I don't know if that factors in at all, but being a walk on behind 2 guys in the class below yours sure does. Best of luck to him, this season could've been a lot uglier without Bunch.

11 minutes ago, Fru said:

 

I don' t see how having tempered expectations and a "I'll believe it when I see it" attitude is completely unwarranted.

 

Are there signs of improvement? Absolutely. Are there issues that need to be addressed with special teams, defense, replacing a thousand yard rusher, replacing a thousand yard receiver and replacing several starters on the offensive line? Yes.

 

I think the W/L column improves in 2019, but unless there are seismic improvements in several areas, I just don't see this team getting to Indy next year. I see 2020 as a more realistic season for a B1G title game appearance. 

I agree with everything except the bolded. We lose a lot of pieces, but the West is just not great at the moment - who is going to go to Indy?

Wisconsin's defense regressed a bit and they lose key players on all three levels, and they figured out what everyone else knew - Hornibrook hasn't shown he can win them games. Northwestern loses Thorson, Nagel, and a few of their best defenders. They always play tough, but no way I'd pick them to repeat what they did this year. Purdue will definitely be dangerous, but I see them similar to us - they've improved dramatically and have a lot of weapons, but lost 6 games and won't have Blough and Knox. Iowa is probably the favorite, and we showed this year that we can hang with them. Whether we will is a different question, but the West is wide open and I think even a moderately improved Nebraska has as good a shot as anyone.

1 hour ago, suh_fan93 said:

Michigan DC interviewing.

 

 

That's really interesting, I would not mind him going somewhere out of conference. I feel like schools bigger than Temple would be interested, he won a lot as a lower level head coach and his last 4 defenses have all finished top-3 in fewest yards per game allowed.

16 hours ago, Cdog923 said:

 

I'll be That Guy: the offensive line is more responsible for the 1994 National Title than Tommie or Brook were. 

I don't disagree, but if we're splitting up the credit of course the o-line as a whole will have more than any single offensive position. A great QB is going to be more valuable than any single o-line position, bar none. Probably more value than any 2-3 lineman combined. But once we're talking about 5 players on the o-line, I would hope they have more value combined than any single skill position player. I don't care how good a player is or what position he plays, if one of your players on offense is more valuable than any other 5 starters, you're not a great team.

12 minutes ago, Warrior10 said:

As it pertains to good commentary and fun, yes.

 

Update from ASU boards after Herm (ASU) & Tosh  (Bama) in homes last night is there is still no clear favorite.

 

Silently committed to Bama in June but made it clear he was going to hear others out. 

 

Pros for each school:

 

Bama- Dominant, Db's to league, prestige.

 

ASU- Play early, family can watch.

 

Neb- Trusts staff, potential playing time, NT cousin can join. 

Does "silently committed" mean "wanted to commit but was told to wait?" I don't have any inside info but seems like there's a lot of talk that he's not a Plan A player for Bama - I just wonder which side was requesting that the commitment remain silent.

In either case it was great for us, we have a shot at least.

9 minutes ago, Hedley Lamarr said:

I wonder what it feels like as a bama fan to do that, I also wonder what it feels like to be the only 3 star in a class lol 

He's a kicker, and he's actually the #1 kicker by 247 - so they must just not do 4 star kickers. That's insane though, the only sub-4 star player is the top at his position anyway.

I don't believe the Heisman is explicitly "most valuable," I think it can be seen as "best player." It's like this with any award though, how do you determine most valuable? Do we give points for being on a worse team just because that means the player is responsible for more of their success? That penalizes players on good teams, and by that logic Tua shouldn't have even been a contender this year.

George was not undeserving, but I do think Frazier was a better player and the better choice - I am obviously biased there. The Heisman just cycles between "best player on  best team" (which Frazier would have won), or "most valuable," which tends to favor players on good but not great teams. If Frazier played for OSU and George for Nebraska, people would say Frazier was more valuable. I don't like deciding value based on who they play for. Unfortunately there's not a great way to measure "best," especially across positions.

43 minutes ago, Red Five said:

Looking at the roster and here are guys who have been in the program at least 3 years and never saw the field this past year:

 

Avery Anderson

Christian Gaylord

John Raridon

Pernell Jefferson

Tony Butler

Jaylin Bradley

Quayshon Alexander

 

 

Raridon and Gaylord played against Michigan, and I think against Bethune Cookman as well. Still potentially guys who could leave, but they haven't completely fallen off the depth chart. Raridon leaving would surprise me - he comes up in the conversations around the strongest guy on the team, and seems like they're just waiting for the consistency to show up. Gaylord is the #2 LT, but if he loses that job in the spring I would understand looking elsewhere.

34 minutes ago, KingBlank said:

Dome is literally the worst idea.  This is Nebraska we don't need a dome ever. Ya weiners, buy a coat.   Plus snow games are fun as heck to go to. 

 I get where you're coming from, but we did have a game canceled this year and that messed the season up pretty bad - a dome would've changed that. Exactly how different the season goes is debatable and we'll never know, but that's a bigger argument for the dome than just not liking bad weather. Now we may never have another weather cancelation without a dome, but it has more supporters because of that. 

With that being said I'm not really a fan of domes - I just think this year brings up an interesting case. 

8 minutes ago, NebraskAddict said:

This is was my high school, we used to run an option based O. They now run a spread which is stupid bc they didn’t have the speed to then or now... Perhaps I can reach out to him and let him know what Nebraska is really about!!! 

Appreciate the effort (and fans definitely interact with recruits on twitter), but it's still probably not a good idea compliance-wise. If you know the recruit bringing up your team would be fine, but if you just went to the same high school and contact him out of the blue to talk about a school, probably not kosher.

https://www.huskerboard.com/index.php?/topic/16811-message-from-the-nebraska-athletic-department-compliance-staff

I'd be willing to open up my argument to teams other than Nebraska, I'm just not really familiar with other teams walk-ons. So far I've really only found 2 great walk-on Tackles, both in the late 90s - Brian Burlsworth at Arkansas and Levi Jones at Arizona State. It is a fair point that Nebraska has had very few TE turned Tackles or walk-on Tackles. Kind of an interesting subject if this gets split off into it's own thread but since we're potentially taking both this class, I'm not really concerned. I'd rather use scholarships for the higher ceiling, although obviously you have to balance that against how likely it is.

So it is possible, but I think it still boils down to Fritzche having athletic potential that the nearby lineman prospects do not. Add in the fact that they will walk-on and he most likely wouldn't, and I'm ok with the offer.

I don't disagree, it's good to get some nearby projects and I think they're more likely overall to contribute. Aren't 3 of those guys committed as walk ons? They're willing to join the the team and work for a scholarship, a kid from SC isn't going to come halfway across the country without one. This way we get both.

There's also a difference between a project that could turn into a great tackle and a project who can only play Guard. Fritzche is athletic enough to be a great Tackle - obviously that's not guaranteed, but it's a possibility. Nothing against the walk-on commits, but who was the last walk-on Tackle who contributed in a big way? We've churned out some really good Centers and Guards, not any Tackles that I can recall.