Husker in WI

I enjoy watching Colorado struggle as much as the next guy, but I'm surprised they got high school QBs committed in the first place. That will be a portal-filled position as long as Deion is there. I'm sure they want to develop a guy or two as the backup, but commits know they are bringing in an experienced QB every time the starter leaves. Why go there when they will be actively calling every starting QB in the portal (and many not in the portal) each year? It may still work at Colorado, but it will not be a place where paying your dues over time is rewarded. They'd take an elite HS QB if they could and were sure he could start, but their HS QB recruiting is most likely going to be along the lines of their 2023 signee - low-mid 3 star you hope can be passable when your starter goes down. They won't do much this year, and then when Shedeur is gone (if Deion stays) they'll recruit every transfer QB they can.

He's probably shorter, but also just may have to do with general athleticism/footwork when talking about Guard. I think Lutovsky is a legit 6'6 on our roster, but no one is trying him at tackle - height/length only gets you so far.

2/16 is still not a lot, those will happen. 14 INTs is still way too many, especially given the fact that we attempted the 5th fewest passes. Our INT rate was ridiculous, and only slightly less so when controlling for WR issues.

I think it's: Anthony Grant Joshua Fleeks Billy Kemp IGC and Marcus Washington (could likely get injury waivers) Nouredin Nouili Luke Reimer Quinton Newsome Phalen Sanford Marco Ortiz But the list of guys with only a covid year left is much more extensive and many of them will choose or be encouraged to move on.

The big piece of that is they transferred form places with very little talent to places with a ton of top end skill players. We are not that school, so a talented QB looking for a jump in their surrounding cast is probably not looking hard at us. I'm optimistic about what our WR room will look like in 2 years (and even much improved next year), but I'm not the one who needs convinced that the talent is here.

It would make sense (same defensive coaching tree), but I really get the impression Rhule will promote from within. Was very vocal in the press conference that there are coaches here ready to be head coaches and/or coordinators. And he seems willing to hire based on what he thinks you can do, not what your experience is - see the McGuire's for example.

That one felt like they just swallowed their whistles in the second half - I think all 7 of Michigan State's called penalties were in the first half? Someone probably just chewed them out for "ruining senior day" or something and they just stopped calling anything. I agree though that game the bad/missed calls seemed heavily in Michigan State's favor, despite the 7-0 penalty differential. Still don't think there was anything beyond general incompetence and probably some senior day slack behind it though.

No, there is nothing to it in my opinion. It's easy to remember the calls that didn't go your way (and there have been too many), but every game has missed calls. When you put yourself in close games, they become magnified but I don't think any more common. There have been missed calls that benefit us, but those don't tend to get asked about in press conferences and circulated on twitter amongst the local media. Don't get me wrong, the the refs and replays officials have been very bad. But I think they're just bad all around, not intentionally bad to spite anyone. Compton is fun, but he also knows playing up the conspiracy stuff drives engagement.

Rhule said Ru'Quan Buckley (who has seen a fair number of snaps at NT behind Nash) is moving to Guard. Most schools were recruiting him as OL out of high school, and there are definitely spots available next year at Guard. I'm assuming Scott leaves and JEJ takes over at Center - Lutovsky has some experience but has work to do, and I dunno what Piper's status is.

Fidone referred to himself as "technically a freshman" to Rhule, so I don't think he's on his way out yet.

I would very, very much like for us to win this one, yeah. I mean obviously that's true of all of our games, but watching the local fans dislike/hatred turn into pity over the years has been rough.

No no no, we have to outsmart them - first drive, only long developing play action passes!

No you're right - he definitely said we should have had Kemp for a TD. He just also pointed out that the receiver Haarberg chose was open too, and all he had to do was make a decent throw. From one of the press conferences, he's being taught that if they get a man look on that play Fidone is the first read. Seems like Haarberg is at the stage where he can read man/zone and pick the correct route or route combination, but the additional reads like whether that safety actually stays over top in the middle are still beyond him. But I do think there's an aspect here where the coaches are trying to simplify the reads (man = Fidone, zone = read the safety) too much. A QB should be able to account for where the safety goes after the initial man/zone read, but the impression I got from the comments was he is not being asked to do that. If it's because they've tried in practice and he can't do it, that's on him. If it's because Satt just doesn't think he could do it so doesn't teach it, that's on Satt.

I appreciated that Rhule pointed out the intended target Fidone was open - it's easy to point to the wide open guy, but sometimes that route might be intended to just clear out the safety and be the last look in the progression. The biggest issue with this one wasn't even missing Kemp, it was picking an open guy and just making a terrible throw. A more experienced QB would hopefully see the safety coming down and at least check the vertical routes, but sounded like Fidone's route is the "man-beater" on that play so not a bad read. You'd expect the safety to stay over the top when it's man, but it's been a long time since we've had a QB who can see what's actually happening and not just what they think the defense is doing. Which is admittedly harder than it sounds, but not impossible.

Gonna be tough to put Woche in when he's not traveling, they're bringing Longval. Who will not see the field unless the 3 others are all hurt. My guess is Sims with a quick hook to Purdy if necessary - which will almost certainly be necessary. But Sims is the only healthy QB we have, so unless they've just decided Purdy is healthy enough and gave him the reps all week I'm thinking Sims starts. Would love to be wrong, I'd rather see Purdy get a shot from the start. It is possible practice Sims finally shows up, but he's had a lot of opportunities and screwed it up each time.

I agree with your premise on not living in the portal year to year - but we're taking another one next year anyway. I don't think we can count on any true freshman saving us right away. But hopefully down the line we can avoid constantly needing to grab a QB from the portal. It's also more difficult than it sounds to keep a homegrown QB room. I don't think Martinez was among our biggest problems on the field to be honest, but any 4-year starter is going to make QB recruiting more difficult. If Kaelin wins the job and looks good, that will negatively impact our 2025 and 2026 QB recruiting. Or with the one-time free transfer, at least make it more difficult to keep those guys after they don't win the job. As far as number of QBs and their qualifications (recruiting ranking and/or play at previous schools), honestly we've done well since Frost's second year. Just through misevaluations or poor coaching, too many have underperformed what you'd expect from their pedigree and experience.

Can we still get those Chip Kelly odds?

It at least makes a punt return TD less likely!

This is definitely still unlikely, but Illinois's backup QB coming in and throwing for 500 last week has me at least keeping an eye on Illinois/Iowa this weekend. Minnesota will lose to OSU, so it's really down to us winning out and Iowa losing out. Both teams have been doing the opposite against all odds though.

Yeah, Rhule has mentioned it a few times - it was not going to be a successful run though, Johnson got lit up. I know one or more of the columnists were trying to point to that as a lapse in judgement that should have made Satt realize Purdy was making bad decisions, but honestly he saved us a few yards there. I don't like the pass call and didn't at the time, but I don't think that play had or should have had much bearing on the 3rd down call.

No disrespect to him intended, but he was also a walk-on at Ole Miss and essentially a walk-on in high school at IMG. Threw 9 passes his senior year of high school - although I imagine he played on their B-squad, they field several teams. #4 is probably Luke Longval from IWCC, although he also hasn't really played - he redshirted his one year at IWCC. The best high school QB we have on our roster is probably Gage Stenger.

Couple other interesting things - DL slanted the wrong way on the run Maryland broke on the final drive. You could definitely tell there was some kind of bust, but I figured it was alignment. Also talked about Gabe Ervin being 240 lbs and running people over this time next year, which would be fun to see. And pointed out that not only was Kemp open up the seam on the first INT, but Fidone was too and the throw just sailed.

Maybe somebody said this earlier, but I thought our pass protection was actually really solid. Even the one sack we gave up looked to me like issues with the TE and RB, not the OL. Unfortunately the good pass pro (and run blocking for the most part) made the INTs even more frustrating - no real reason to mitigate blame on the QB for any of them, except maybe Purdy's. Not sure what the receivers are supposed to do but I don't think they did it on that one. Still can't throw it right at the guy though.

Regarding slack for Rhule, Sims also appeared to be trending the right direction with protecting the ball heading into the year. Fewer turnovers each year, and in 2022 had just 2 fumbles (1 lost) and 3 INTs in a combined 275 attempts which is pretty good. This year has not been that. We don't even need a good QB, just one who won't throw it directly at the other team or drop it at their feet.

I don't know if you can treat Purdy's experience equally when it was under a totally different staff asking him to do different things. Personally, I'd like to see him get a shot for at least a series or two - I think Rhule said something along the lines of "he throws the ball the best" in the fall. Our offense has just been so deficient in the passing game that I think even if Purdy is worse than Haarberg overall, if he is a step up in the passing game I would buy that the offense could be better. I'd trade some of our run game for more of a pass game. That being said, I'm sure the coaches have considered that and don't feel Purdy's edge in the passing game outweighs Haarberg's in the run game. I'd still like to see, but rotating QBs is tough.