GBRrodney

It is obviously too early to talk about replacing Bo, however if things don't get better by the end of the year, Mr. Eichorst will be getting phone calls from people who matter to take charge of the situation. Taking charge of the situation would include replacing the coaching staff. I think since the Solich firing and all the issues coming out of that, the only reason a head coach would be fired at Nebraska would be if the "The Streak" was in jeopardy or the big money demanded it. The first sign of end of “The Streak” is an apathetic fan base. As a fan, I do not want to negatively impact the players, the young men don’t deserve my negative crap. I think they try their best and they put all they have into the game. I put it on the coaches. I have always been a staunch Bo supporter, but when the fan base, me included, start to become apathetic, his job is in jeopardy.

Nebraska 36 UCLA 30 Pass 275 Run 300

I noticed that Coach Papuchis did not have tape on his fingers during the So. Miss game. Does that mean he was not signaling in the plays? It supports the idea that they simplified the defense for this game. It seem to work better without the tape, so I hope he keeps it up.

Now Wisconsin looks like Indiana. My guess they switch back to white helmets so they look like Nebraska.

Nebraska 53 So Miss 13 Passing 285 Rushing 350

Damon Benning hinted that Bo is holding back on the defense. Like Bo was being sly like a fox. He was basing that on things he saw as the sideline reporter last Saturday. I hope we will see changes to the defense for the UCLA game as it seems as though they were the team to create the template to defeat Bo's defensive scheme that many teams have used since then. If true we will see the same stuff this Saturday against S Miss. Then the surprise for UCLA. The only support for this is the fact Bo closed practice to the media and former players along with the hint from Benning. I can dream can't I?

Let’s lower expectations for the defense but if we don’t dominate these guys we will be officially circling the drain.

Let’s lower expectations for the defense,

This seems entirely reasonable. Bo learned most of his defensive philosophy while in the NFL for eight years. I don't know that he innovated much on any of the basic concepts. When I think of terms like guru or genius in the context of football, I think of great innovation. So I probably wouldn't go that far with Bo. He understood the concepts very well and had the right type of personality to coach defensive players. Combine those with the the amount of talent he had to work with in 2003, and you had the perfect storm for great defensive results. Same goes for 2009 and 2010. But when the talent isn't great, his defenses run into big problems. And he's very stubborn about the way he does things. I envision his output like this: From what I've heard, the big boosters wanted him back in 2008 and TO didn't have much of a choice. This may or may not be true, but it would make sense to me. The boosters emotions are no different than any of the fans', and Bo was very popular because he was the last string holding together our decades of proud tradition that had started to crumble between 2000 and 2007. I remember being at the 2000 Alamo Bowl and listening to everyone chant "We want Bo!". It may not have been the most logical desire, but it made sense from an emotional perspective. Bo's personality fit here and Frank hired him, so (in a minor way) he was the last viable link to Frank, Tom and Bob. Since Frank had already been fired, the fans wanted to hold onto whatever remaining link they could. They didn't want to see an outside hire with a whole new staff to break the 40-year continuity that was so rare in college football. After Callahan was fired, those emotions from the Alamo post-game came rushing back, and the powers that be were set on Bo. As a head coach, he was entirely unproven-- literally had never been in the position at any level. So it was a risky hire. But maybe he was the best available. I don't know. The results have been better than Callahan but still mixed. With great talent his defenses can be scary. With average talent, they can be scary bad. We all laugh at Cosgrove as the epitome of a clueless defensive coordinator, but several of Bo's games have matched or exceeded Cosgrove's worst. We can't ignore that. And Bo's assistant hires have not been home runs by any amount of Kool-Aid. I'm not drawing any grand conclusions from any of this, but it's safe to say that 2012 is not where we want to be. And what we saw against Wyoming is not where we want to be. Maybe Bo has lots of potential for change and improvement. Maybe not. All we can do is wait and see, and hope. And get in lots and lots of ridiculous arguments about it on the internet. Great post. I think it would be crazy to fire Bo right now. But I think it would be even more crazy to accept this as the status quo for another season or two. So if the 2014 season ends and we haven't seen measurable improvement, I think it'll be time to pull the trigger. 9 or 10 wins with a blowout loss or two, an upset loss to a team we shouldn't lose to, multiple games where we give up 600+ yards and the sense that the coaching staff is consistently overmatched and outcoached are not sustainable at Nebraska. Defense: Talent / playmakers or player development/coaching? When Bo's scheme has worked best was when he has had good / great play makers at the 3 levels of the defense: 1) D-lineman that can stop the run. (Suh, Crick, Steinkuler) 2) LB or nickel back that can make plays in space. (Lavonte David) 3) a lock down corner. (Amukamara , Dennard) I haven't seen one for a couple of years. The result of not having a playmaker at any level of the defense has been 600+ yard defensive performances. It has been painful to watch. Any OC seems to be able to devise a plan to move the ball with ease against the scheme. I do see promise in the D-lineman, I see them getting better. I am not sure they can stop the run covering two gaps while getting double teamed, but they sure look good. They pass the eye test so it doesn’t seem to be a lack of talent which points towards scheme or player development. I see promise in the LBs, they are fast but they seem to be out of position and I saw a couple of times where they took terrible angles and trailed the play. This appears to be a lack of experience. If they never improve over the course of the year then it points back to player development or coaching. Lock down corner. Jean-Baptiste or Mitchell seem to be close, but the CBs allowed what looks to be a possession receiver from both Wyoming and Wisconsin catch 10 plus balls against us. Georgia completed passes at will. Talent or player development / coaching? It might be a problem with the scheme or a lack of talent/playmakers or it might be that the scheme doesn’t work without playmakers. So, it seems to me that if you don’t have the players to run the scheme, then change the scheme so these guys can perform. My 2 cents: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time. I hope the coaching staff changes something before I go crazy.

My guess is the injury happened in fall practice because it was obvious he was injured or in pain the medical staff didn't even look at it or ask him about it. Everyone just looked the other way and tried to ignore it because Bo said it was "fine". "He's fine" means the bone is not protruding through the skin, if he was "a little nicked up" the bone would be protruding from the skin and perhaps he might miss a couple of practices, but he "will be fine" which means they can push the bone back under the skin. I think the injury is why Martinez didn't go to the press conference because he would have to lie about it and he didn't want to get into it. I don't think he missed the press conference because of the team's performance, if that were true he would have missed half of last year's press conferences.

I agree completely. DL back peddle to contain, but opponents put up record numbers against us. This D has been figured out. It is time to get aggressive. The only time the contain D worked last night was on the last play when Smith sat in the pocket for 20 seconds and ran out the clock. I agree, the best defense of the night was when they were blitzing every down. The QB made some bad throws. The base defense is ok but they have to get much more aggressive more often. I thought the d-line started out going hard for the QB but then he busted a couple of long runs, one for 60 + and they went back to the passive keep in the pocket until he completes a 25 yarder to the "possession" receiver. The d-lineman seem stiff to me, they make it back to the QB and wave their arms as he steps up and throws or runs, is that a conditioning thing? Is the strength and conditioning making these guys strong but they can't move laterally? I hope they blitz more in the future, I would rather see us getting beat that way than the slow agonizing pain of watching the QB pick the secondary apart.

Total buzz kill. Nebraska looked ill prepared, with the typical mental errors on the O-line and coaches. There was some positive stuff especially Newby and Bell, but good grief. Letting this team back into the game was a joke. I need a pill.

I went to the Pflugerville Hendrickson game last night with my friend from Oklahoma. Hendrickson won 28 – 0 and the game was not that close. Hendrickson has 4 players that have D-1 scholarship offers in hand. Trai Mosley (CB)– Nebraska, Samaje Perine (RB) – Oklahoma, Chance Waz (S) – Colarado, Latrell Martin (WR) – Houston. They were playing a team from one classification lower than Hendrickson, Hendrickson is a 5A school (largest in Texas) and Leander Rouse is a 4A school. Rouse beat them last year. Nebraska commit Trai Mosley and the Colorado commit Chance Waz were the best performers on the field last night. Trai had a couple of pass break ups but he was also a very aggressive tackler. Trai had a couple of tackles where he hit the guy, drove him back, lifted his legs and put him on his back. Chance Waz hit the QB just as he was going out of bounds so hard he didn’t come back for several plays. The QB from Rouse put up big numbers last year and he is expected to do the same this year. However in last night’s game he was limping around by the middle of the second quarter. The Hendrickson defensive LBs and DBs put a number of big licks on him and he didn’t do anything in the second half. He tried to throw the ball but there was rarely anyone open. If he pulled the ball down and ran he got hammered. Samje Perine, the OU commit didn’t do much last night. He normally has a couple of long runs, but Rouse would not let him run much. He ended up with only 69 yards rushing. The WR commit to Houston did not play, he was injured. Here is a link to the Austin American Statesman newspaper with a recap. Not sure if this is allowed but here it goes. http://www.statesman.com/news/sports/high-school-football/hendrickson-blanks-rouse-for-first-shutout-since-2/nZhwY/

Nebraska 51 Wyoming 16 Air 275 Ground 320

Depends on if she has large Poms Poms.

Westerkamp and Alonzo Moore in your wideout group and Quincy Enunwa listed as an "And either?" For reals? Now I know why Bo doesn't let the media in to practices.

How would you like to be a DC and see this 5 wide set combination Martinez at QB Bell A. Moore Turner Western amp And either Abdullah or Enunwa or T. Allen or Wuellenwaber or Evans How do you defend this? Can't wait for the season to start.

I toured Memorial Stadium this summer and noticed a small building on the top of the South end zone seats. Does anyone know what the building is or what it is used for? Is this a place the coaches video the game? I was there on July 5th and the turf was not back in as yet.

It looks like we are ranked 31 by Rivals and 12 by Scout. Why the big disparity?

Unfortunately, the DT from Katy is going to Oklahoma. The QB and WR from the other team (Cedar Hill) are going to Texas A&M. Another kid, I forget the position is going to Arkansas St. There one other D-1 prospect that is uncommitted. Not bad, 6 D-1 prospects in one State final game.

Adam Taylor plays at 4pm today in the 5A Div II Texas Highschool Football Championship. They play at Jerry's World the game is on Fox Sports Southwest. Adam plays for the mighty Katy Tigers.

Time to implement my standard two part plan in situations like this. (1)Wet my pants and (2) start bawling. Part 1 completed, decent.

Am I wrong or is T-Magic's Brilliance overloading his Bonehead at this time? I have to confess I thought he should have been replaced earlier in the year. Also I have to confess I thought TO should have been fired after the 7th straight Bowl loss. So I am an idiot. GBR

Here is my take on what I saw from the defense last night. Bo didn’t recruit any defensive difference makers the first 2 years of his watch and it shows. Not sure why, but it obviously didn’t happen. For example: When Suh and Co was on the line. Ball was snapped, Suh would push both of his guys (double team) 3 yards back into the back field, Crick would push his one guy back 2 yards, ends held their ground. If they tried to run the ball they got stopped at the line of scrimmage or tackled for loss. Normal worst case was a 3 yard gain. Of course there were some sizable gains mixed in, but for the most part they couldn’t run on us. If they tried to pass, Suh and Co would push their guys back, keeping their 2 gaps covered so if they QB tried to run he would have to guy wide. The QB would look down field and no one was open because of the NFL talent in the back 7. So the pass would be incomplete, the QB would run, or he would dump it off and the receiver would be tackled immediately. Without the NFL talent you get, well, you get what UCLA did to us, put more yards put on us than anyone since 1956. So some of the issues you can say, It ain’t the Xs and Os but the Jimmys and Joes. But we either have to play more freshman/sophomores or change to a system that will allow the talent we have to make some plays.

You are correct sir. Mora and his coaching staff just taught everyone on our schedule how to best beat us. I would add without athletic LBs any mismatches we have on the DL are wasted with the 2 gap technique. Minnesota just circled our game on their schedule.