eoltmer

We all have heard the typical rants and raves of the fan base this year. What I want to know from the fans and even this board is, what is our standard for this team to be considered successful? Period! We entered the year with rose colored glasses and pitchers of kool aid because of how our schedule was laid out. As usual of any football season things have not played out perfectly for this team by any means. After every game our perseptions change and we reevaluate this team from top to bottom, some more harsh than others. I personally believe that if this team can win out the rest of this season and win the bowl game it will have been successful. I think the biggest key will be the bowl game. The teams over the past few years have been fairly competitive in the bowls but have not dominated in any real fashion. If we can win out leading into next season then that might just be the step needed in the right direction to help ease this quarreling fan base. I honestly do not think that firing anyone(this year) will answer this issue as continuity in a coaching staff allows for progression/growth. Mind you that I have not been a Cotton fan since the hire but he is pretty much been replaced by Garrison. Before you go off on a rant about firing people stop and think of who we can honestly get to replace them. Be honest with that one as UNL is not a top tier coordinators dream unless your good ole buddy is there to lure you in.

Does NU have a chance, Yes I would say its 1 in 22. Just look at last year in Auburn did anybody of worth really think they would go MNC and no Heirbstreet?sp doesn't count.

Didn't we think the same thing, about the same time last year, about Mr. Lee? Lee did have the upperhand to start, but his injuries slowed him down. All I'm saying is that it will be very tough for one of the young guns to unseat him, no matter how talented they are The people clamoring for one of the newcomers to start might have their dreams come true. Every Husker fan saw what happened to this offense once Martinez was injured - it sputtered. If Martinez has another leg or foot related problem this year that hampers his running ability, he could sit out again for an extended period of time. This will be especially true if his pocket presence and passing accuracy don't improve over the off season. Given this, we all know how the coaches have toppled from one side to the other on Green. I don't think any of the young guys would supersede Green, but it's possible we could see one of them late in a game if Martinez does get hurt again. I'll say the same thing I said early in 2010, however - I want the best guy for the job to start. I don't care what his name is or the number he wears on his back. Not to throw out this old quote but "Competition, Leadership, Ownership" is gonna be key here. Even with Martinez having the year of experience and Green having plenty of "game adversity" experience. I can see this years QB competition being that this is our new offensive system and each QB will compete for who best fits that system. Don't get me wrong the coaches will want to tweak the system for the QB's but you want to find the one that best fits the mold your trying to run. I mean really its an offensive clean house scenario for this program even though we only had 2 offensive coaches leave. They have openly said they want to run an Oregon type offensive system. Oregon has been good offensively due to plug and play avability of the positions. There offensive system dosn't require game breaking athletes but when you do get a couple of those the offense is running wild. They have also been consistent towards developing the players to that system. That right there is what I think NU has been lacking for the past 4 years.

Yeah I don't think so, two things here. 1. He is not leaving unless his FAMILY convinces him too. He is the Brook post Brook as far as the team before self. 2. The only way he would swap positions is if the staff asked him too. I REALLY don't see that happening. This year is the purfect opportunity to come out and prove his worth Both as an athlete and as a QB. A new offensive staff and a clean slate to start with, we will see post spring what the plan is.

Voted TMart and will remain that way untill after Fall Ball.

As stated on a previous thread and a side from the official presser it looks like we have narrowed the list of hires. Just a quick rundown of predicted staffing in case you haven't been following along. So how long will you give this current line up and what are your expectations from each of them?

Post the photo or it didn't happen j/k....but seriously congrats and its just one of lifes little pleasentries that make us smile.

Found this little tidbit interesting. I wonder how much this is going to effect team chemistry and timing when you have spring break cutting your training at the mid point. Especially when you are going to have 4 new coaches added to the team and they need all the time they can get heading into a new confrence.

I honetsly do not see any of the QB's swapping postitions, not to say that some will not see the field either. Just look at RB and the depth problems we have had over the years. If the coaches learned anything the past couple of years its that you need a solid #1, #2 and #3 otherwise you have to change everything when #1 goes down. Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket.

Old argument but to sum it up....continuity after all the offense wasn't the problem THE D WAS!!! Osbourn suggested that keeping the offensive staff would help with the transition during a very turbulent time for Husker Nation.

You mean the same player that Gundy stuck up for and that same player later interviewed that Gundy wasn't protecting him and Gundy was just putting on a show?

Oh no's it's an Omaha reference...better take it seriously. (insert sarcasm). If the hoopla is over thank god, if not then they better get a hurry on it. Practice starts soon and the coaches clinic is in march. I need to know who I'll be talking to lol. I'll admit barney was a good guy and knew what he wanted to do it just didn't translate to the field.

How does that stack up against the rest of the big XII, or even the country? Knapplc your assignment if you choose to accept it!

So in a nut shell you want BO to do to the offense what he did to the defense when he first came here. Ah the irony! As to how much time should he be given? Well, For what it is worth, here is my take... Immediate expectation #1 --- that the whole team... not just the D but the O as well... that the whole team shows up to every game, focused and ready to play with effort (last season, there were but perhaps 2-3 games where both sides, D&O, played hard all 4 quarters; several games, the O never showed up at all, played w/o emotion, w/o effort, w/o seemingly being prepared.. being confused, clueless --- and most games were a mix). You never knew which NU would show up --- would it be the good NU, the modest NU or the crappy NU? It was not a function of the opponent... it was a function of how well the coaches had NU prepared, focused and motivated (or not prepared, focused and motivated). It was just a guess... and it was entirely a coaching thing whereby they (the coaches in general) were horrible at motivating the players. This must change immediately. Immediate expectation #2 --- that the offense not play like an undisciplined High School team. That is, cut stupid OL penalties in half, cut the unnecessary sacks taken (never throwing the ball away) by 90%, cut the number of fumbles by 50% or more, cut the number of dropped passes in half... and cut out entirely the massive number of times the team scrambled right before the snap trying to figure out who is doing what. Now, those are the immediate expectations. Even if we do meet these expectations, we have limitations in our OL, with our QB's and with our WR just in terms of balanced skills... so, no one should expect an excellent offense any time soon. No one should expect even a really good offense either. But... play with some heart for a change (Immediate expectation #1) and remove the mistakes (Immediate expectations #2) and we could have a decent to pretty good offense... enough to hang in most games given our defense. If we do not play with heart... immediately... if we do not cut out the mistakes... immediately --- then evaluate the progress after next season and if there has not been at least solid tangible progress in these areas, then the experiment is over... get a new staff... they all should go, starting with Bo. We cannot expect offensive excellence in the nest 2-3 years... but if you cannot get them playing with heart and w/o mistakes immediately... then what is the likelihood that you'll ever get excellence? So... my take is to measure the heart and the mistakes after year one and then decide what to do then. The metric is heart and mistake-free offense... not excellence (yet... as excellence is not a realistic expectation given where we are currently). This can me measured a year from today. Definitively.

First off sorry for the bad spelling Mod please fix, Thanks. None other than good ole Mr. Beck, congrats to him and its nice to have some positive national press. Rivals Article

HI.com Link The rumor/word from the coaching convention is Steve Stanard and Ross Els were the two names that have emerged as the front runners to fill the opening.

Add a POLL!!! Seriously though I think the 20-25 range but wouldn't be surprised if we are left out gaging on our performance and SOS next year.

First off I voted Solid AD, and thats my opinion. Even though people worship TO he is just a man and is capable of mistakes like you or me. I personally think that he has done an outstanding job as AD and is trying to shift the focus back from a Corperation mentality to the Student/Athlete mentality with the added emphasis of Student first. The only reason I'm responding to a thread like this is basicly because the season is over and I like to discuss stuff, lol. What was the one common theme amongst TO's coaching staff...Continuity. He even stated hiself that the O wasn't the problem...the D was and that a whole sale change in coaching staff was not what the University needed at the time. Now granted its year 3 going on 4 for BO and TO as AD and its time to evaluate the staff and find the problem with the decline in offensive production aka Scheme, Philosophy, Athletes potential, etc. If there is one thing TO knows how to do more than most coaches its know how to run a successful coaching staff. Now Im not saying BO is a puppet on strings but this is still his first Head Coaching job at a Major College. Give him time to develope his coaching staff and the program how he wants it run. I'll take 10 wins a season over the alternative. Remember when TO would take us bowling every year and how long it took him to develop the program to compete nationally. Alot of people are up in arms and demand the "What have you done for me lately!" mentality but just sit back and take a look at overall perception of what you as a fan can do. Allow the team to perform and cheer them on. Don't be over critical if you see these kids out there busting there buns to perform for you. His vision has remained the same since he took over. Just put yourself in his shoes, walk into a job where your output is the worst it have ever been, public outcry is at an all time high, a review of all althletics is in order. Not even 3 years later after getting the internal fires quenched along comes an even bigger storm of several monopolies all saying they are going to expand even further and that your going to be left out of the fold. Then the group that you are associated with says oh well and we will wait to see what everyone else does, and several of them have already started plans in the event the group falls apart. What would you do?! Protect the interests of the University as a whole and make the best move avaiable and thats what I believe TO did at the time. We will see where the Big 10+2 will take us later down the road I have a feeling 10 years from now we will be in a good position of stability. You reference Solich but give no explination of what you wanted to discuss. I'm sure we could all go on and on about TO's decision to stick with Solich but the fact of the matter is that its in the past and Solich gave his all for the University only to be treated like $}{!+.

I had the privledge of attending the Coaches clinic at UNL this summer. Now I worked with mostly the O-line and D-line during that time AKA, Barney and Carl. Barney explained a few things that they did change as far as technique goes and that pre-Arizona game they went to wider gaps and a different pulling technique that were successful. So this year has been a learning experience for not just the new recruits but also some of the veterens. Now I know that this shouldn't even be an issue this late into the season but you can see the effects of the constant playcalling and game plan changing that takes place week to week that these kids cannot get into a constant rythem when you put all your eggs into one basket AKA making the zone read your bread and butter. One thing that got brought up post Callahan is that the offense was a jack of all trades but a master of none. You can see that still today, this offense lives and dies by the big play. You've seen it in every game this year, we break a long run/pass for a big play. We fail to have a big play and we get held to little to no points. We do not have a smash mouth footbal team that can pick up the tough yards without the obvious pass play. I'm not trying to bash Watson or Cotton but when viewers at home can tell what you are calling before you even call it then your game plan is pretty predictable. This O-line of ours is better in pass protection than run protection, fact. How many times do we really see the O-line dominate past the first level? How many times does a Guard pull and not get to his block fast enough? That is one thing that Osbourne really excelled at was the O-line dictating the play of the offense. Do I think the coaching is the issue, yes. Do I feel the players are an issue, yes. Do I think it can all be fixed without someone being fired, yes. But this is something that can be fixed in time as long as the STAFF comes together and identifies the issues and come up with a way to resolve them. Staff consistency breeds success, its a fact we just need to be patient and allow them to learn and develope properly.

After reading an article from HI.com, my curiosity got peaked with the thought of T-Mart being the starter. I.E. HI.com article For those of you that don't have an HI account there were three occasions that players were quoted with praise for T-Mart and his improvment especially after the Saturday scrimiage. Yeah I'm thinking normal info but then HI just had to add this little tidbit about a Supposed T-Mart tweet. I know I know don't read to much into this but I thought eh what the heck lets ask the board some questions. With the rumors flying about Martinez what will your reaction be if he really does start over Lee & Green? What will your expectaions be for Martinez for the first few games of the season?

Woot, blocked out Belgium....but I'm the only one /sigh

I know I know its not a good reference but "linky dinky do"

It all really depends on what this staff does with this offense in the spring. Is the outlook rosey, no, but I have faith.

LW is an athlete...shame SW doesn't know what to do with athletes this year.

Sounds like last years bowl preview, "Two programs looking to take that next step"....wonder how long this song will play out.