Husker in WI

I forget if it was Chinander or Ruud or who - but before the year they talked about getting guys with length and athleticism, and the margin of error that gives them in making tackles. Mo is exhibit A for how hard it is to tackle without that.

I mean it was Minnesota, and here's another sack from that game: I'm not trying to bag on Hixson specifically, the whole line needs to improve. And they have a lot, there's just room for more IMO. All in all they played really well Saturday, much much better than early in the year.

Got it, I was misinterpreting your 'not the problem' comments to mean literally never, ha. We do have bigger issues than him playing for sure, and I think he's serviceable now. I do think for us to be where we want to be, our line has to be better than they are now - could be the current guys improving, could be other guys surpassing them.

If by outcome they mean wins/losses sure - you can win either way. But fewer plays is going to lead to better defensive and worse offensive numbers, and I don't think it's in Frost's DNA to live with the latter half of that. And that's fine, because I don't think any of us are expecting a top-10 scoring defense. But we do need to be better than ~80th, for sure. And per play, we should be top-25 IMO.

Right, I agree. Playing/practicing hurt is great, but we need to be in a place where the coaches can say thanks for pushing through, but let's get you healthy because in your current state some other player is better.

I guess I don't know if they said it directly, but it's the last offensive snap of the first half (video I posted should start with that play) and he didn't play much if at all in the second. Maybe he bruised his tailbone, but the fan sentiment at the time was it was because of that play. I think you may have missed that play if you're still insisting he was never the problem against Minnesota, but there were a lot of problems against them.

Honestly, 100% yes. Lee was a stud against South Alabama and has not been good since. Sullivan was a cult hero but has also been bad. Stalbird I haven't seen on D, just special teams. Taylor-Britt also cam't use an arm, and Bootle is just undersized. Who do you suggest we try?

It's the reason Bando played the second half at Minnesota: Again, I do like Hixson and I know picking one play is unfair. But he's far from untouchable on the oline, there is room for improvement. That could be Hixson improving or another guy passing him, I could see either.

Definitely not, but their offense does affect it by taking time off the clock. They're a very good defense regardless, but they play a shorter game which helps. Iowa and Temple give up the same yards per play, but Iowa gives up 80 fewer yards per game and a lot fewer points. Some of that is the defense just buckling down when it counts to prevent points, but some of that is just not being on the field as much. We would EDIT: almost be a top-40 defense by yardage if we gave up the same per play that we do now, but only played as many snaps on D as Iowa does. EDIT: Math for proof Iowa 303.5 ypg allowed, 4.9 ypp = 62 plays per game Nebraska 414.3 ypg, 5.8 ypp = 71 plays per game 5.8 ypp*62plays = 359.6 ypg, which would be 42nd. I rounded wrong initially, not quite top-40.

I do think overall he's been fine, and he should continue to get better. But this jumps to my mind every time I hear his name at the moment.

Is Corcoran an early enrollee? I don't think he beats out Jaimes as a true freshman, definitely not if he's a fall guy. I hope he gets his games in though and at least pushes him - Jaimes has mostly been fine, but definitely has some lapses.

Ah, you're right - Robinson started but aggravated an injury. True freshman backup went 3/16 with 3 picks, that'll do it. https://www.espn.com/college-football/boxscore?gameId=323010158 Point is, it's really hard to hold good teams to 10 points. And I'm not sure doing it twice a year against any team is a great measure of success, because Diaco technically did in 2017.

2013 Purdue 14.9 ppg 2012 Iowa 19.3 ppg 2012 Michigan 29.8 ppg 2018 Michigan State 18.7 ppg 2019 Northwestern 14.5 ppg 2019 Northern Illinois 24 ppg 2013 Purdue was no offensive juggernaut either. That 2012 Michigan win was impressive though. 10 points is fairly arbitrary though, I'm not arguing Chins has done as well as Pelini. Frankly Banker probably would have equaled this in 2016-17, we held Fresno to 10 and Maryland to 7 in 2016. We held Illinois to 6 points with f'ing Diaco in 2017, and Rutgers/Northern Illinois easily could've been held to 10 or less. Technically NIU was, if I recall correctly 14 of their 21 points came via Tanner Lee.

We have talent, it's just young talent that needs (and is being) developed. Offensively, we don't have an upperclassman with all-conference type talent, let alone performance. We have some young guys with that kind of talent, there just aren't many who can turn it into all-conference play right away.

I saw more of the first problem than the second on Saturday. I'm not sold on Chinander and I have some scheme-specific complaints, but I don't think scheme is our biggest problem on D.

I think scheme is definitely part of it, but missing tackles and footwork like the clip aren't scheme. Missing gaps could be depending on how complicated/difficult the scheme makes things, but that's more likely players as well. There are definitely plays where the opposing offense knows exactly what we're doing and how to beat it, but there's a lot of plays where our guys just don't get it done too.

Chinander a little more forthcoming about injuries and personnel than Frost has been. Mentioned Dismuke being really banged up a few times, and that Cam is better at slot/CB which is why Bootle is at Safety.

I think it's a better issue to have than guys just standing around at least. And I don't consider Mo all talk - the missed tackles aren't a lack of effort, and I think he's trying to do things the right way. But yes, we will be better when we have better players. He is leading in practice and doing things the right way off the field, once we have guys doing that and performing on the field we'll be very good.

He cannot legally do so until January - that must be why he hasn't.

Agreed. I just wish he was a rotational guy, or the guys around him didn't have similar problems. I think you can get away with one high-energy guy who isn't always where he's supposed to be, but when no one is where they're supposed to be on the second level it doesn't work.

I think they just share the title, but there might be tiebreakers for automatic bids to the tournament. Although in the big ten, teams are making it if they're anywhere near the top of the conference.

He's definitely getting better. Used to be you noticed him on the field because he was flying right by the ball. Now he flashes a few plays here and there, and the rest of the time he's not super noticeable which is still an improvement. Soon he'll jump out by always being around the ball.

Martinez was telling Frost that Baun either hit his arm as he was trying to throw it away, or he thought Baun would have anyway. He was trying to avoid another Indiana situation - obviously he needs to not put himself in a situation where he's 20 yards back after scrambling into the spy, but not getting rid of it was arguably the right move once he got himself into that position.

Some of them are, not all of them. But yeah, it's weird to have comments like being in a better place when Martinez and Farniok are seniors. Which, first of all, will be next year for Farniok and the year after for Martinez so not sure which year we're talking about. Maybe that's all about them growing as leaders in the future, but it's hard not to see it as a dig at some of the current upperclassmen.

Has anything more emerged about that one? Sure seemed like Frost went out of his way to point out it was Carlos saying he wasn't healthy, where normally he mentions the trainers' decision or just says "he wasn't healthy enough to go." Weird that it was specifically 'Carlos said he wasn't healthy enough.'