hoyamannn

I thought you guys may enjoy this: I was talking/listening to Kenny Wilson and another member of the Husker staff the other day and Kenny was raving about how good our QB's are. He was talking mainly about Ganz and Keller but said Witt has looked good as well. He and the other guy started talking about Lee and an argument went on about Lee starting in 08 and beyond. The guy on the staff said that Lee is by far more athletic and later said to me that Lee was on one knee on the field and throwing 50-yard ropes like it was nothing. That got me pretty excited about the future.

What do you like to do? When I was in Vegas we stayed at the Imperial Palace, and the hotel right next door (Casino Royale) has maybe the greatest table game I've ever played. It's called Blackjack switch; you play 2 hands of BJ and can switch your top cards to match better w/the bottom card. Example: you get Ace/Ace on one hand and a 10/9 on the other hand, you can move the Ace/ten around so you have BJ on one hand and 20 on the other. The only rule difference is that dealer can hit up to 22; if he hits 22 it's a push w/everyone still in. ESPNzone is a cool place to watch a game, but you have to pay $10/hour just to sit in their restaurant area w/all their TV's. If you eat it's not a bad deal, but if you and some buddies just want to drink it gets crazy expensive. Don't really know about the buffets/food or the shows, we gambled and drank most of the time.

I do have some information concerning both Lucky and Wilson. On Lucky, he was back conditioning with the team a week after being admitted to the hospital. And I know it's still not 100% confirmed (or at least I haven't read anything stating facts of what happened) but a person on the inside I talked to informed me that my autographed photo of Lucky was still OK to proudly hang on my wall. On Wilson, he's having another surgery in a week and the doctors have said he probably won't be able to run again until late May or early June, but the person I talked to who is close to him said late June or July is the thought right now.

What's this thread about? Taylor not being very good? Callahan being a play-calling genius? Just my opinion here, and I promise if anybody doesn't agree I won't say you're full of poo or anything else. But Taylor did win us some games and was a reason we lost some games. If you look back to A&M, HE was the person that drove us down field and lofted a perfect pass to Purify for the game winner. That drive was awesome, for Husker fans and for Zac. On the other hand, he didn't help us in the OU game (his arm strength contributed to 2 INT's), but if Purify doesn't fumble it could have been a different game. If you go back and look at the game, they took the flat away from Mo and blanketed a safety over the top, virtually taking him out of the game. And he was really our only weapon, as much as I like Swift, Nunn, etc..they're not the same caliber as Mo. Auburn did a lot of the same stuff. The problem was that there's nobody else that garners any attention in our WR corps. Another thing we can't blame Zac for is the pass protection. He did a great job only throwing 8 INT's, and laid it on the line with his SCARY scrambling (non) abilities many times. But our line was still pretty weak last year, though they did improve in run-blocking. Also not having a threat at TE to stretch the D didn't help. Thinking Zac's not good is foolish. He did more with less physical abilities than most people ever could. And I think the greatest asset Zac had was his heart.

Not saying he should be fired here, but I know several people that work in the athletic department and also know people that work for University Foundations and they all say he is one of biggest liars there are. And he is a big reason several former football players and other athletes (Dominic Raiola, Mike Brown, Chad and Chris Kelsey, Darin Erstad) would rather see a Taliban rebel as the AD instead of him. In addition to the athletes he has seemed to anger, there are many big donors (the guy that owns the Arizona Diamondbacks, for one), that have VERY DEEP pockets but will not spend a dime to help SP's cause. I guess you can read into that as being disrespectful to NU, but when he's the man extending his hand for the money and they're unwilling to give a dime, that says a lot. He's also over-stated what has been raised on the fund-raising drive and the program hasn't raised close to what he said it has. I think he has done good things with the program but I don't like how he does some of the things he does. Personnel decisions he has made have seemed to be good but not great---our football team has yet to make a BCS bowl, our basketball team isn't going to the tournament again and our baseball team is still as strong as the one Byrne helped resurrect. I don't know if we'll ever compete with Kansas or Texas in basketball, but a strong showing by the football team could put a lot of people on the SP bandwagon.

Six huh? haha... I'd recommend sidetracks the night before as one for sure.

Travis, I like your thought process, and can't say that I disagree with your point. However, I would like to counter a few of your thoughts. First, there's no way Asante is playing LB this year. He lost interest in schools that were recruiting him as LB because he believes that to get to the next level, he needs to play safety. That's also a more natural position for him. And this staff is excited to see him get on the field like they were last year with Kenny Wilson. Kenny came in and was really regarded highly because of his frame, and Asante is equally well structured. Second, I'm with you in that I don't want to see mediocre players on the field, but when you mention guys like Ruud, Peterson and Swift, you don't say who you would rather see in their place. I think Ruud would have had diminished playing time had Octavien been healthy, just like I think McKeon's time would have lessened had Dillard not gotten hurt. But Swift and Peterson constantly made big catches and always were reliable options. It's no doubt that neither has the same talent as Purify, but after Mo there is a drop-off, and you could pretty much group Nunn, Swift, Peterson and Hardy together. We have guys coming in like Niles Paul and Meno Holt that should give us more talent down the road, but they're going to have to develop and learn the offense before they're major contributors. This team has come a long way from the blow-out at TT in 04 and the weak games we had in 05 against KU and Missouri. We hung with some of the best teams in the country in 06 which tells me the talent gap is narrowing. My main concern is the coaching. It seems like when we play great defense our offense doesn't show up (Auburn, Oklahoma) and when our offense is on sometimes our defense is just weak (OK State, ATM). I'd really like to see the Huskers dominate on both sides and put games away in the 3rd quarter.

Here's why I think that several JUCO guys will either start or get considerable playing time next year: this staff is very good at evaluating talent. Look at who we've brought in that have contributed immediately: Bowman, Dagunduro, Cryer, Octavien, Hardy, and Taylor from 2005 (Wilson, Spain, Tomerlin, Picou, Pasteur, and Moore didn't work out). In 2006, Jones, Purify, Wilson and Nicks all contributed and Brandon Johnson was limited because of injury or he may have contributed also. In 2005, we had Bowman, Octavien, Hardy and Taylor all start. It was obvious why Ola and Cryer didn't start; they were backing up very solid players at their positions. In 2006, we had Jones and Purify start and Wilson and Nicks both contributed considerably. So of the 17 players that we brought in over the course of 2 years, 6 started their 1st year and 8-9 started at some point, so that's well over 50%. Next year we have Asante, Barfield, Lee, Dixon, Murillo and Townsend coming in. Lee probably isn't starting at QB but the others will likely get considerable playing time. I could see Asante starting at S, Murillo possibly getting a chance at CB or Nickel, and Barfield, Dixon and Townsend contributing quite a bit. The 85 scholarships limit the amount of kids that can come into a program, develop for 3-4 years and contribute as Juniors or Seniors. Almost every team in college football recruits JUCO's now to assist with depth issues.

Consider also that when Green announced, he came from a run-only offense and didn't know a thing about picking up a blitz, really hadn't proven he could catch a ball and had some issues with fumbling. Jackson has proven effective at not only showing the patience to hit the hole, but he can be used in numerous ways because of his hands, power and speed.

I don't think Sam is mobile, but his dad posted an article the other day that he was one of the quicker players in the shuttle drill at ASU. Basically he's got quick feet so he's able to step away from defenders easier or step up into the pocket to buy some time. Not sure how ZT's quickness is. Also, this offense is not suited to any particular style of QB. The staff recruited Logan Gray (from Missouri?) and he was a very fast, mobile QB. The biggest thing is being able to learn the playbook and being able to make the necessary reads. Intelligence and accuracy are more important than mobility, but mobility would never hurt. As far as next year, I think we'll be much better than this year. I know I sound like a Cub fan, but think of these scenarios (barring injuries, of course...) Keller will be at least as good at QB. RB's and WR's will be better because they're all back. Can TE's be worse? Probably not. Our O-line SHOULD improve. We only lose Mann which hurts, but he's undersized and small for a big-time college center. On defense, we'll have a much better secondary with Bowman and Jones starting at CB and Grixby playing the nickel. Green, Culbert, Wilson, (others?) at S (no Shanle, so I think we improve by default there). Suh is arguably our best interior D-lineman and help should be there with the Beast, Steinkuhler and probably a JUCO or two. The last two years have shown that JUCO D-linemen can come in and make an impact. DE is a question mark but Turner looks to be solid, unknown at the other side. The big thing on D that I'm concerned with is LB. I believe Dillard would have been our best linebacker this year, and will be very solid next year. If Octo can learn some discipline and stay healthy he should be solid to awesome. I'm not sold on McKeon, and Ruud's honestly the biggest sissy we've had at LB in the past 20 years. There's not much help on the way right now, and I'm not very excited about the recruits we have now. But having Octo and Phillard healthy should make us at least as good with the possibility of being much better there. I think we'll end up going to the big 12 title game and losing to Texas again. We'll go to another Alamo Bowl, or something like that. I just wish we were at the level we were in the 90's, but after Saturday I don't think we'll be there for another 3 or 4 years.

This guy sounds like a stud, looks like a stud, and apparently is going to be another 4 player out of Nebraska next year. It's VERY important to wrap up the top in-state talent first. We've done it this year with Niles Paul and next year now with Okafor.

I'm saying someone will get 100 in Ames next week. Their D is not good.

You point out about every negative in that game. You fail to mention that we went into Boulder, rolled up 497 yards passing (392 in the air), did score on 5 of 6 redzone attempts, maintained posession 38 minutes to their 22, held them to 212 yards on 60 plays (3.5/per), forced 9 punts and sacked their QB 5 times. We may not scored TD's on every posession, , may not have run for 200+ yards and didn't force 5 TO's, but we beat them handily in every facet of the game. I guess my definition of complete and yours may be different, and I respect that. Heading into that game (after losses to KU, OU and MU and a near loss to a bad KSU team) and being a 2 TD dog, and coming out of the game like we did, basically spells complete to me in capital letters. The difference is that now we expect the results, and were surprised last year at the CU result.

I don't know about you, but if you can't call the CU game last year complete than I don't know what your definition is. We've been rolling (other than in Compton) since we played that game.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. 3 years ago, we had a problem at RB because we had no talent. Now we have a problem because we have too much talent. What? C'mon, be HAPPY that we have the depth and talent, and don't worry about a certain guy here or there being angry at not getting carries. They're all four pretty talented and dependable, and I wouldn't be upset at all to see any of them carry the load. Thank goodness for that! Now let's go crush some Chickenhawks!

The reason we're not getting sacks is because teams know that is our strength and are playing away from it. Nicholls State only threw the ball 3 times all game. From the press conferences with the coaches, it doesn't sound like we'll have much nickel defense today. It's going to be a lot of cover 2 and Tampa 2 with the LB's dropping into coverage.

The bad thing about a hamstring injury is that there's really nothing you can do to prevent it, and it's even harder to recover from. The only real way to prevent the injury is to strengthen the hamstring, but most athletes are constantly lifting and are in tip-top shape. I've had two and they just take time to recover from.

Dang, people saying that gameplan was set up not to get blown out are either retarded or ignorant. The score in the FOURTH QUARTER was 21-10. Texas was down to USC 38-26 with 6 minutes left to play in the 4th last year, but the difference was that Texas got some defensive stops and was able to score to win the game. When we got down 21-3, the offense started to open up and we started to move the ball, but it was pretty easy to see that our momentum really dropped when Lucky fumbled the ball and they scored on a short field. We get a stop after we make it 21-10 and we have a chance to win that game. The gameplan up to then was to limit USC's posessions and that worked very well. And if you think that penalties didn't kill us you're mistaken also, because our penalties took away 1st downs and gave them 1st downs, their penalties simply pushed them back and they were able to overcome them. They stopped us on 4th down, they converted turnovers into points. Had we stopped the 3rd and 20 or gotten one of the 2 INT chances we had, the outcome could have been much more favorable. If anybody could honestly say that our talent was on par w/USC's they're drunk or stoned as well. Even though their secondary was depleted, their front 4 handled our offensive line with ease and basically made it possible for USC to put 4 DB's and 3 fast, talented LB's into pass coverage. That was basically the reason that of the 21 pass attempts (I know Zac was 8-16, but he dropped to pass 21 times), 5 were not even attempted because Zac was running for his life or getting sacked, and even some of the completions he made were scramble attempts. And their receivers were greatly superior to the players we had in pass coverage, no matter what the scheme. Say what you want about the gameplan, but every coach in the country would take the choice of walking into the Coliseum, holding USC to 28 points total and still being in a position to win in the 4th quarter. Fact is, USC made the plays, NU didn't. But NU proved they at least deserve to be on the same field as possibly the best team in the country. But let's quit beating the dead horse and beat the hell out of Troy tomorrow!

Skersfan, my friends and I all wanted to let you and Rawhide know how much we appreciated the hospitality and entertainment you provided. That was definitely the most fun we've ever had before a Husker game. I can't wait to hang out again at the Texas game when we whip some Shorthorn A$$! As Larry would say, "Get er' done!"

In no way can you fault Marlon for not having a long run this year. A RB can't get a 75 yarder all by himself. The difference I've seen from Marlon between this year and last is that this year he is running with some authority and confidence. He hit the holes fast against La Tech and when he knew he couldn't run away from someone he would try to run over them. He didn't have quite the burst against Nicholls for some reason, but still went to the hole strong. He didn't do that last year. He ran almost timid at times. This year it doesn't appear he is afraid of contact. I think when you look at the entire package Marlon has to offer, you can see that he has what it takes to garner his 5 status. I don't think he's there now, but I think with time and work that he will be. As far as the other backs, I think the coaches see Wilson having a combination of Lucky's speed and Glenn's toughness. He's a bit bigger and stronger than Lucky and I think that's why he was used more in the USC game. He hits the hole quicker than any back we have, and we couldn't afford our backs to get stopped for losses against USC. What I'm confused about, though, is why we aren't seeing our linemen drive block and our RB's blast thru the hole immediately. Instead the run plays are zone stretch plays and counters. Guess I'm more a fan of smash-mouth, run it straight at the defense football than I am at the running play 'developing' like we're seeing now.

DJR, I can get 3 for a little over face. Let me know if interested (probably $180 or so for the 3)

Dude, I think you were just dreaming about the Alamo bowl again!

Florida/Tennessee is a primetime game too I believe. I could see gameday going there. They'll be in USC for the ND game for sure later this year.

This same depth chart will probably be listed all year. Callahan had Ross Pilkington listed as the #1 WR a few years ago and he didn't play in 3 or 4 games in a row.

I tell you, the thing that sucked on Saturday night was watching USC and NOT seeing them missing 2 Heisman winners a bit more. Everyone talks about a new QB, but your Booty boy has been there a long time, and everybody knows how a good system (Texas Tech) can make a new QB look great. USC has that system under Carroll. I think the Huskers will be competitive, but if they can't run the ball and force Zac to throw 40 or 50 times, USC's backups may get a bunch of time in the 4th quarter. The Huskers are bringing the talent back, but USC has it and will showcase it. NU can't replace a 5 star CB and a 4 star LB like SC can. I'm a homer and can't ever pick the Huskers to lose, so I'm calling it 28-27 NU.