HuskerNative

I heard this one, too.

The two dirtiest plays in Nebraska games I've seen this year -- the most obvious unsportsmanlike conduct, unnecessary roughness, trying to just hurt the other guy were: The ISU linebacker wrenching Burkhead's head back, twisting and pressing with his arm, bracing himself for leverage with his leg, then pushing with his leg. The Aggie last night gripping and twisting Cotton's junk. What they have in common: Our guys got flagged, in Cotton's case two flags, the second of which is unprecedented in my memory. Bo ripped his player. The real culprit wasn't suspended by the Big 12. Oh, wait, I'm only predicting that about the A&M guy. I wish Bo could calm down a bit. I want to excuse him and give him the benefit of the doubt, but the dude is over the top hot-headed. That's not really my point, and I do understand it. I think if I'd been in his profession I would have been that way; I had enough trouble in my own profession. I wish TO would make a public statement about efforts to injure our players and the conference's apparent unwillingness to do anything about it. It should be grotesquely embarrassing to Paul Rhodes, Mike Sherman and their programs to have such indisputeable evidence of their players trying to hurt opponents.

Actually, his family had a lot of adversity in those years and he stepped up to help his dad. My link This article is a pretty good piece that offers some insight into the kid. Excerpt: Martinez was just 13 when his parents divorced at the end of 2003. His father, Casey, took the split so hard that he slipped into depression. Almost broke, he was in the midst of a career change from teacher to real estate investor. Casey Martinez and his three sons moved out of a two-story lakefront house in a gated community in Canyon Lake, Calif., and into a tiny 600-square-foot house with a rock front yard in working-class Perris, Calif. It was so cramped that they slept two to a bed. The house’s only decorations were the boys’ homework and artwork as well as an inspirational message — “Dreams come true when you work hard and pray” — that Casey had written and taped to the door of Taylor’s bedroom. “We were at rock bottom,” Casey Martinez recalls. Taylor, the oldest son, kept his father going. He scoured the telephone book and made cold calls to help his father find properties to buy. He cleaned the floors with a hand sweeper because they couldn’t afford a vacuum. He took care of his brothers, then 8 and 9, and reminded his father to pick them up from school.

The Blackshirts will have to win this one. Only path I see. A couple picks. Maybe Green gets lucky and hits Paul on a long one.

How NU wins: Hang onto the ball on offense. Don't allow a long kickoff return. Stop aTm's run. We win if they have to pass. I wonder, if aTm gets behind and has to pass, if we'll see E-Mart rush off the edge. I am eager to see that.

Agreed. Let's play 'em on this field.

Really interesting. So I thought I'd see how often was the conference's most-penalized team flagged against NU last weekend. Once for nine yards. I hate to be a conspiracy theorist, but it's hard to believe this is all a coincidence, especially when I think about a couple of the BS interference calls against Amukamara this year.

Just me, but I thought he looked pretty good in the second half. He did turn away from contact a couple times, once seeming to pull off the throttle and jog out of bounds. But it looked like a choice, at least to me. The disappointing thing about the Kansas game, to me, was that the O line didn't simply dominate and enable the backs to have big games.

Gotta stop the run and get a lead. If they are forced to be one-dimensional, our secondary will rule the night. But we've gotta stop the run, a challenge all year.

Odd throwing motion in HS, or now? Is the higher release a change the coaches made? If so, I wonder why? Not an expert on this, but he gets a lot of passes batted down and isn't that tall for a QB. Would a higher release combat that a little?

I can tell by the smooth writing that this is a Big 10 graduate.

It was a ballsy call that would have worked even with the holder making the pass except that NU had a fast, smart, instinctive athlete lined up to guard against it. I totally respect the call. Yeah, the pass was soft and the wind caught it, but even with a bit more zip, Hagg may well have deflected it. It was a great college football moment.

This is right. The coaches are the ones who give him the chance to hurt us at critical times. I say leave him in as a receiver; his blocking is great and, Texas game aside, he usually makes the catches. And, ISU game last year aside, he usually doesn't fumble after the catch. But no more kick returns. Maybe he has too much time to think while that ball is in the air and he's standing still. And he's clearly not a good thinker. I'm not saying he's dumb. A lot of people overthink situations and outsmart themselves. Running that kick out because sometimes you hit a home run probably makes more sense if we are down by 7 than being up by 7. He didn't have the right mindset going into the play. I'm not bashing the guy. I think he plays his heart out and is a good Husker and it's crap that he got jeered by "fans" after the Texas game. But he's not a good thinker. His thinking gets in the way of his talent, however great or above-average that is. I guess I have a hard time seeing him succeeding in the NFL. Anyway, since he can't be counted on to be aware of what's happening in the game, it's up to the coaches to limit his ability to hurt the team at key times.

Spot on accurate. He was pissed, among other things, at assistants who had 12 and 13 guys out there in the huddle and caused us to burn timeouts. I suppose he could have a quiet word about that after the game, but he isn't that kind of manager. I think his assistants and players respect him, and that's what counts more than how it looks to people not on the team. And this prediction of five wins next year? Nuts, just nuts.

This was in the World-Herald today: "Pelini said Lee has a sore arm, but looked fine in practice Thursday." Doesn't mean Lee isn't hurt. Does Matt Turman have a son on the team?

NU is averaging 51 (nearly 52) points a game on the road. Take away defensive and special teams touchdowns and it's 47 a game. ISU is as bad a defense as we've faced. Nebraska has held every team on its schedule to fewer points than the team was averaging going into the game. ISU averages 25 points a game. 55-17 sounds about right if T-Mart is full speed, 45-17 if he's limited and maybe 38-17 if he sits. I think I'm being generous to give ISU 17 because I think the defense gelled against Missouri and will come out with real swagger. Wouldn't be surprised to see him sit. Cotton wouldn't say anything about him yesterday, and Niles Paul said he didn't practice much on the day that Watson was calling him Superman. The coaches clearly want ISU to have to prepare for him. He'll dress, they'll tape up the ankle and have him at least run pregame drills, I'm guessing.

Some Detroit press: My link My link NFL-caliber players this year: Amukamara, Dennard, Haag, Gomes ... to name a few.

He lost to them in '76, too. (Vivid and painful memory of the third Husker game I attended in person.) Osborne also lost his first two games to Missouri in '73 and '74. So at one point, he was 1-3 against them, then 2-4 after the '78 loss. But he ended up 21-4. Nice little run.

Exactly right. His first two throws were off target, but, geez, he made three throws and the third one was clutch. Lee was on target against Texas. Iowa State has a terrible defense. Worst thing we could do is turn the ball over. We don't know how badly Martinez is hurt, only that the X-rays were negative so it's not a long-term thing. If he can't go this week, we go with the senior who has starting experience and has shown ball security.

Pelini just said in post-game news conference that the captains screwed up. We won the toss and were supposed to defer (so we'd get the ball to start the second half) and the captain(s) said, "We want to kick."

I hear what folks are saying about the wake-up call, about being vanilla before conference play, all of that. A couple of frets from a guy who really believes this team is well-coached with immense talent and can run the table: Last week, Watson was promising how we'd see that Martinez could make the throws when he had to and was talking about how Martinez might be the best QB Watson's been around. Wow, did that not happen. Even the long passes to open guys were badly underthrown. The Jackrabbits of Brookings put more pressure on our guy than we put on theirs. Carl Pelini was crowing about how the defense fools quarterbacks into feeling like the pocket is collapsing. Opposing QBs rush throws and step into sacks, he said. Bo seemed relaxed, like the program had arrived, and talked about how we don't want to play this level of school anymore. I thought this coach talk was unusual for three games into a season and for having just given up 21 points to an unranked opponent. Correct me if you've heard that kind of thing before from top programs. I never heard Osborne or McBride talking like that. I think the coaches let the guys lose their edge and hunger. I worry that the linebacker injuries are a bigger deal than we've acknowledged. I think the D lacks leadership and fire, particularly on the line. Crick seemed to just be standing around at times last night, not stepping up to set a tone. I LOVE our secondary. It's an NFL secondary. But if a team makes them tacklers after breaking through the D line, great coverage is pretty irrelevant. K State is an undertalented but gritty team that keeps winning in the fourth quarter. They have the nation's leading rusher and are going to be very encouraged by what SD State did to us. They also beat UCLA, which beat Texas in Austin which is no small thing, turnovers aside. Texas is super athletic on defense. I think we can handle their QB pretty well, but I am not sure we can block them. I hope my worries are for nothing. I think the talent is there for Nebraska and SD State may be a wake-up for the coaches and the lines.

Is there a better secondary in the nation? Locker got to go up against an NFL secondary today ... 4 for 20, including the blown play downfield, 2 ints. Now we know why he didn't go to the NFL last year. He can't handle good coverage.

I live in Detroit and can make only one trip home, realistically, so I'm going to choose between Missouri and Kansas.

Hey, guys, what was Stoops' experience before he because OU's head coach? Same age as Pelini when he took over at OU, more college experience than Pelini who has NFL experience Stoops didn't have. And Osborne passed on his buddy Gill because he's black? Ridiculous. I'd say TO passing on Gill means that he was pretty wowed by Pelini and really believes in him. I'd also say Tom Osborne knows more about football than I do or anyone else on this board or, probably, all of us put together. There's no more Cosgrove defense, no more Callahan play-calling and weird personnel use, no more trying to freeze a 14-point lead halfway through the third quarter. There's hope. GO BIG RED!!!!!!

unbridled optimisim. come on now, we haven't even hired the new staff......7-5 is real, anything more is a gift. we have lots of work to do here, a ton of it! I'm very optimistic. Not this optimistic, but I think we'll see that the players were better than they were coached this year. We'll beat either Missouri or Kansas at home. San Jose St W N Mexico St W V Tech probably a loss, but I'm hopeful we will be competitive West Mich W Mizzou L Tex Tech W ISU W -- are you kidding? We'll win this game Baylor W at OU L Kansas W at KSU W Colorado W 9-3, plus decent bowl, top 15 finish. Could have a shot at conference championship game.