Danimal

That is one recruiting area where BC fell-flat, which is funny because I first-rate TE would have cleaned-up. What I find weird is that we've had so many overly bulked-up guys but not one of our TE's have any size. Hetzer is the only one and he is a JUCO-tran.

What I find interesting is that he didn't get love from Air Force, Wyoming, Colorado State, ISU, KSU, or KU either. No 1A or (to my knowledge)1AA offers. You'd think he'd at-least get an offer from Wyoming.

We need to win one out of the three vs VT, Mizz, and TT otherwise otherwise we could go into '07 flashbacks and backslide. Alll three will be very tough. Mizzou will likely be a top10 squad, they'd be the biggest win we've had since OU in '01. Having a biweek beforehand and homefield will hopefully carry us over the top vs VT. TT will be made worse by coming off two tough weeks and playing in a hostile environment.

What interests me is that Taylor didn't face this much doubt and if anything I'd say he was working with less ability than Ganz. Neither has a particularly strong arm but Ganz has enough wheels to be truly dangerous on the scrambles and spread-option. Taylor wasn't Bernie Kosar, he was good for the occaisional nice scramble but I woudn't run a zone-read with him. Plus Ganz has been in this system a long-ass time, in our system that is big. Ganz may not be Chase Daniels and be up for the heisman, but he is no shmoe either. He'll get the job done.

As was already shown in the CU and Spring-games we can do some spread-option stuff without totally going with that system. We may evolve more in that direction over-time, Bo even said-so, but for now we are still a WCO team. The WCO can work, hell it has worked for us, just not quite consistently enough. It just needs to be a little less BC and more like Norm Chow's O, which is like a college-developed version of the WCO.

There is definitely defensive talent here, too many solid recruit classes for there not to be. Reminds me of early in the BC era when folks were going-on about how bare a cupboard Solich left. Then you look at how our 2004/2005 D's put a ton of guys into the NFL, those claims look like a lot of crap. We had a fundamentally unsound, unagressive, unmotivated, overweight, and poorly schemed D. When you have that you aren't going to have production. Reminds me of John Blake's OU teams. I remember watching them and thinking there was plenty of talent, they were just piss-poorly coached and lacked discipline.

It was a freaking Spring-game. We weren't using the sorry BC-system to cover stuff so chinks in the armor were going to show. We aren't going to go from a total-suck defense to stalwart overnight. I expect us to have a fairly average D(horrid to average is a nice jump) that improves over the season and is above-average in creating turnovers. As long as a couple youngsters in the receiving corps step-up the O should be nasty, and with the improved rushing-attack, more consistent. I stand by my 8-4 prognostication.

I know he had Lane Kiffen line-up to be OC. I imagine he'd have tried to keep Cotton on as o-line coach. Carl would have been worked-in somewhere. Jimmy and Turner would have been kept. Not sure which out of Albin, Downing, and Jamrog would have been kept. We'd have had a hell of a staff, the kind that could really help a new HC get through. But that is water under the bridge.

I would still like to see them do something different with the green jerseys. This one-hand touch = a tackle is overkill. IMO they should have to be in-position to make a real tackle for it to count. It wasn't particularly exciting but I found it moreso than BC's lopsided, dog-and-pony-show system. I found the blowouts boring and frustrating. Generally the Red-White game isn't exciting, IT ISN'T A REAL GAME, it wasn't exciting before BC or Bo either. We were just pumping this Red-White game up because of the sellout. I was pretty satisfied with the game.

I disagree somewhat. Ya he wanted to see his brother play but I'd say we are in the game for him. He wants to see what we put on the field before taking Neb seriously, I can understand that.

A lot of what was wrong in '07 was quite fixable, we have talent. Plus if you look at our sched how can you consider 6-6 good? We have three gimmies noncon plus Baylor in Lincoln. That is four you can pencil-in. ISU and KSU we should beat again. With ANY D we'd have beaten CU in Boulder, I like our chances in Lincoln. That is seven wins. If we beat just only one of the five better teams on the sched that is 8-4. 8-4 is what I predict. Maybe we lose to CU or KSU but maybe we step-up and beat a couple of the better teams. I see us no worse than 7-5 unless bad-luck really hits, with good luck I can see 9-3.

Ganz was not recruited by Bo, or even Watson for that matter. Plus he is going into his senior season, he'll only be a starter for one year. Why would be there be bias in his favor? If Watson had bias towards him wouldn't he have gotten a shot before he HAD to be thrown out there last year? Whether Ganz is all-that or not, I'd say the coaches have every reason to believe he is out best chance of victory in '08. Ya like I said earlier maybe Witt or Lee will be better down the road but not now.

Ganz is going into his fifth year with this system. Witt and Lee are going into their second. I'd say he has as much ability as Witt(little less arm but definitely more agility) but less than Lee. But Lee can't even keep up with Witt in terms of system-knowledge/understanding, let-alone Ganz. Lee is VERY dangerous but he isn't ready to start unless we are willing to piss-away a win or two breaking him in for '09. Witt doesn't bring anything more than Ganz except in his recruiting-ranking. I could see Witt or Lee ending-up better than Ganz. But I'd say Ganz is our best option this season, and Bo said he is looking to win now write '08 off as a rebuilding-year.

I could consider 6-6 acceptable if we were having a "hard luck" season where we are consistently compeititive but can't quite win the close ones or if we have a rash of injuries. But considering we have four gimmies, three more we should win with ISU, KSU, and CU, and all except OU would should have a solid chance I would have trouble being satisfied with 6-6.

Travis, when the O is "gotta score now" mode you will see more picks. You are passing more, the D is playing the pass, and you will tend to press and force stuff more. I still say BOTH his td's and picks were increased by offensive-mode we were in. It is illogical to ignore the good or the bad. As far as Keller being better and there being no bias goes. Why did the O take-off under Ganz? Just coincidedence? I think not. Joe doesn't have Keller's arm but he knows the system better and can keep drives going with his feet. If BC wasn't biased he'd have given Ganz a shot in the Mizzou or OSU-game.

KU needs to make the jump to where they are not a stepping-stone job. KSU could never do that, but then coaches didn't tend to love working for Snyder. After the biggest year ever for KU we and Miami were able to raid the KU staff. It is hard to stay good if others can cherry-pick your coaches away. But KU has definitely turned a corner. The players and the state now really believes in Mangino and the way he does things. Fortunately for them Mangino already makes a nice wad of cash, I think they'll stay a winner as long as Mangino is around. Maybe not a power but a winner.

Ya we are homers. But we also know more about the program. We know how many problems from last year that are quite fixable. We underachieved BIGTIME in '07 because meh S&C, no motivation, crappy D-schemes/position-coaching, lack of husker-pride, and BC being pigheaded. That can't be completely reversed in a year but major headway can be made. We have talent and should win in '08, not win big but win.

That is just dumb. The td's are inflated but the picks weren't? Come on. Both came out of us being in "gotta score now" mode, not just one. Ganz couldn't win the job and only played because of Keller's injury? That is called BC bias and stupidity, we saw it before with the Lucky/Jackson situation in '06. Ganz obviously should have gotten a shot sooner since the O took-off as soon as he came in. That Ganz didn't get a shot in the Mizzou or OSU games in ridiculous. Seems to me Ganz is dead-on when he says he was a victim of *-system.

Ummm I would agree but he only had maybe two interceptions that came down to hurt us, one for sure against Colorado. But I would take Ganz's 16 TDs and 7 INTs against Keller's 14 TDs and 10 INTs any day of the week. Just remember, if you take out the KState game (7TDs, no picks), Ganz had 9 TDs and 7 INTs. I think his stat line is a little misleading because BC kept throwing all over KState even after the game was in the bag and the opposing defense had shut down. The 9 TD's to 7 INT's is probably a little more accurate in terms of trying to project his stats over the course of a full season and in cometitive games, which makes him pretty comparable to Keller, statistically at least. I don't think it is fair to take out the KSU-game because BC had us in "gotta score now" mode the whole time Ganz was in there, not just against KSU. Ya Ganz's stats were inflated against KSU but his pick numbers were inflated by BC being so balls-to-the-wall in-general I'd say it balances-out. Ganz likely won't be throwing as many td's per game next year but I'd bet he isn't throwing as many picks either.

This is freaking stupid, whomever at the DN wrote this knows jack. Christensen is already a member of the team so he got suspended. WILLIAMS IS NOT ON THE TEAM YET, you can't suspend him. Bo would suspend Williams if he could. All you can do is yank his schollie, and yanking it ignores the fact you are SUPPOSED to be considered innocent til proven guilty. We gotta wait to see how this Williams-business plays-out, from what I understand the charges may be trumped-up. It should also be noted that Bo likely knows significantly more about Christensen's incident than Williams's, so he has more from which to make a judgment on.

Don't forget that BC ran a heavily starters-oriented practice-system. Ganz spent more time standing-around and little time with the first-string. He'll be getting more quality practice now which should up his game. To me the only major qb-issue is whether Lee or Witt can establish himself as a clear #2. Right now it seems the same, Witt has a slight lead due to superior system-knowledge but they like Lee's upside more. Maybe Ganz will disappoint, I remember when Carpenter at ASU was supposed to tear it up for me in fantasy-league after kicking ass when he got his shot in '05 but laid a huge egg in '06. I think we'll run a more conservative O that won't repeat Ganz's gawdy '07 numbers. But I think he'll average a couple td's per game and have a very respectable year. Let's face it, if Ganz had been one of the big recruits he'd have gotten a shot sooner and folks wouldn't be so quick to doubt him.

I'd take Ganz over Lucky. I'd say Castille and Helu are more ready to start than the back-up qb's. I wonder how the coaching is going to go will Watson call all the O and Bo call all the D or will the staff be split-up?

Uh, we totally pissed the game away with turnovers in Boulder and we had no D then. We should not be dogs or losing in Lincoln. It will be a tough game but we should beat CU. The other losses I can see predicting. I see us at 8-4. We gotta win one in the VT, Mizzzou, TTech series, otherwise we could see '07 flashbacks and a major loss of confidence. I see the % this way W. Mich 90% San Jose 90% NMSU 95% Va Tech 55% KU beat a better VT-team than this and it is in Lincoln Mizzou 35% TTech 45% This will be Leach's best team ISU 75% Bay 85% OU 20% KU 50% KSU 70% CU 70%

I bet they didn't say **** to their recruits about their stadium being packed with freebies. Us filling much of our stadium while charging was more impressive than that, us filling the stadium while charging is way more impressive. Ya the tickets aren't expensive but $8/$10 is way more than $0. Props to 'em though, most programs still wouldn't sell-out their Spring-game with free tickets.

I know they sometimes interrupt their school for the mission but I'd think they'd try to get it out of the way then go to school so they wouldn't waste eligibility. Omaha was one of the first cities to jump-on when Rome went to national syndication and they represented heavily, topping his affiliate "power ratings". I think he's always had a place in his heart for us since then.