Wistrom Disciple

- Illinois might be in the coaching search business sooner than later. Bert doesn’t look happy and his team looks bad in all phases.
 

- the Bye week comes at the absolutely perfect time. We need to heal up a whole host of players

- Haarberg survives another week as the starter. I cannot tell if he’s improving or simply improvising. Each step forward seems to be followed by a step or two backwards. Ultimately we are winning which is most important, but man are we getting lucky. 

HIP HIP

Just now, Micheal said:

What is Satterfield thinking that drive. Just run the ball, chew up the clock, win!!!! 

Haarberg dropping the snap on the first play put us behind the chains. I understand the frustration with Sims, but HH does not look like he's ready to be the starter and finish games. Plenty of opportunities today and has looked largely unimpressive.

1 minute ago, Micheal said:

Why aren't we using Haarberg the right way?!?!?!

You mean as a tight end?

Just now, TGHusker said:

D comes out strong

Gotta love when that happens! 

1 minute ago, huskerfan74 said:

Why aren’t we using kemp more?

Why aren’t we using kemp more?

Haarberg couldn't hit him with the passes in the first half. They're trying to find ways to get him the ball with a limited passing threat.

1 minute ago, PaulCrewe said:

Nope as in it was on the coaches for reasons I mentioned.  YOU DON'T PUT A QUESTIONABLE THROWER in that position when he showed the series before that he lacks so much in regards to throwing downfield.  So that is why I am more on the coaches over HH.  Even if Sims was playing you take that to the half.  As you said no QB to execute a two minute drill

I didn't mind the play calls as receivers were open and the line was giving him quite a bit of time. I did not like the decision making coming from the gunslinger. And based on Rhule's reaction after that third down pass, he also didn't like Haarberg's decision-making. FWIW, I didn't mention Sims or 2-minute drill. 

Haarberg is going to need to hit some more passes if we hope to get our run game going. They have stuffed Grant and Johnson as the first half progressed. If we hope to be able to continue running, we need some of the passes to connect and soften up the defense.

1 minute ago, PaulCrewe said:

Nope.  You get the ball after half.  Have a QB that IS NOT a 2 minutes drive passer who has made bad decision in every game.  Are going into the wind.  And your line has proven to be a sieve more often than not.  Coaching.  Take it to the locker room up 10

Which part was nope? The coaches being unhappy or HH making bad decisions? 

That said, I agree that we should have ran, but the play developments looked decent. We just didn't have a QB in who could complete those passes.

Just now, lo country said:

Throwing into the wind is hard.  With no OL, poor receiver play and sidearm is harder.  Take the lead into the locker room.  Satt is an idiot.

Let's not blame the wind for poor decisions by the QB there. Overthrew Kemp twice and the sidearm motion is just asking for the defense to pick him off. That said, the coaches should have taken the ball from his hands and just run it up the gut to get to halftime. 

1 minute ago, HuskerInLostWages said:

Satterfield is working real hard to be considered the biggest F'ing idiot coaching for Nebraska right now.  We used what, 30 seconds on that 3 and out.

That was more on HH... coaches unhappy with his decision making.

2 minutes ago, huskerfan74 said:

Beautiful…Haarberg is playing with husker heart. He grew up a husker and you can see he plays harder than everyone else.

 

SIMS who??

2 minutes ago, Terrabus said:

HH deserves to be in the Heisman watch. I don't say that as a joke and I don't say that sarcastically. He has stepped in at the last minute despite very little prep to take the reins of an offense that was struggling and he has been successful.

You two gave me a good laugh back to back. He's made some good plays today, lucked out on a few more. We're very lucky Illinois looks more NIU and not Michigan.

Just leaning on the goal line... HH needs to keep the legs moving, that is a basic.

Just now, Cornbred said:

Broken play. You'd think they'd have their stuff together by now

I don't think that was broken, I think that was by design. By HH never pitches it so the defense is keying in on hitting him. He hesitated and they hit him at the line.

A lot of drop back passes in a row. Need to keep running at them and not fall in love with the pass. 

Just now, Terrabus said:

Yeah but in all fairness he kind of went about it in a different way. I was thinking more we stopped them.

Fair point, our defense did have to regularly face 80+ plays a game so the new clock-eating offense this year has helped us a lot this year on defense. 

Just now, Terrabus said:

We need to get our defense off the field for a longer period of time. Otherwise they are going to be gassed and out of fuel. 

Erik Chinander strongly approves this message. 

Extending that steak without being shut out... looks like we've already won the day fellas (and ladies)!

Just now, Micheal said:

Offensive line is utterly dumb. 

Both penalties on Teddy, otherwise they've been looking solid to start today.

Haarberg looking more confident to start today, nice to see.

Van Poppel getting some early PT, nice to see some of the new guys getting in and making some impact plays. I think Rhule might have some of Bo's eye for talent in him. Cam, Van Poppel, Princewell look very promising at this stage.

12 minutes ago, Matty said:

Check out this link (set it to show 100 rows instead of 10). https://graphics.wsj.com/table/NCAA_2019
so Nebraska is 15th. Too far below the top teams but still a player. 

Still significantly better than +90% of the country and most of our opponents. So the NIL argument is essentially a moot point. Comes down to the coaching and development. 
 

Thank you for the link though, pretty neat stats.

5 minutes ago, JJ Husker said:

It’s other people’s money, who I am to question anything about it?

Bingo! 

Anyone thinking NIL is the reason we have not been winning at the level we expected is looking for the easy answer. I would have thought last year's Texas A&M NIL program would have taught some lessons as they bought the top rated class only to see a disappointing season followed by a lot of players transferring. To win anything of importance, football still comes down to coaching, development, and game strategy. 

We have enough talent, size, speed, etc. on the team to win +80% of our games in any given year. Where we have been falling short is in the development and coaching of the talent on the roster. I believe Rhule & Co. is in the process of correcting this, but it will take time. NIL alone will not solve these issues and bringing in mercenaries is not a sustainable strategy. 

On 10/1/2023 at 7:20 PM, BigRedBuster said:

While we are changing things at the stadium, can we please switch sides of the field so on a 95 degree day in the fall our ram is the one more comfortable in the shade and not the one still in the blazing sun?

I've never understood why we are on the East side. I get that for the one, maybe two games a year where it is cold and the sun is out, it can help keep the team warm. But for the other 5-6 games, especially the early season games, we're looking into the sun and/or getting blasted from the heat without shade. Looking up at the West skyboxes is a pretty cool visual for recruits, but otherwise I don't see a lot of value in sticking to the East side. 

Additionally, it seems more logical to put the opposing team closer to the louder area of the stadium near the students. 

32 minutes ago, JJ Husker said:

My excuse is, I understand there are limits to what NIL can accomplish and, until proven otherwise, I will assume that our NIL collectives and big time donors are doing all they can and, since it is not my money, I won’t cast aspersions on what they are doing.

Texas A&M approves this message.

2 hours ago, Mavric said:

Other than all the long TDs that he's run for?

 

Sorry.  I'll try not to let any facts get in the way of what you insist on believing.  

I've acknowledged the long runs, they were impressive. If he continues to be the starter, I hope that he can replicate those more often the rest of the year. Short of that however, he will need to significantly improve his passing and/or ability to create plays outside the pocket when a play breaks down.