knapplc

@HuskerExtraBC Jamal Turner said he understands why he hasn't been playing. Says he was "going through the motions" too much in recent weeks. #Huskers

It was Bell and Abdullah back for every kick.

And all the while, an entire legion of Fitzgerald's best troops waited for us in ambush. Where the HELL was Admiral Ackbar when we needed him?

I heard it. I was listening but not watching. I figured Bo was fidgeting with something. Clearly someone was.

I definitely would. Why wouldn't you? And if the signals are capable of being figured out, that's our fault not theirs. The more I think about this, I recall thinking in the stands how odd it was that a team that was so horrid on defense could be stuffing us every play. That first possession where we went three-and-out was shocking to me. They had more guys on the ball than Michigan State. This would explain (partially, the line still played like crap) some of what happened, but it's OUR fault that they figured out our signals, not theirs.

KoolAid, I think you're taking this one point way out of context. I posted it as something to talk about, not because it was presented as an excuse. It was a very minor part of Taylor's presser today.

The coaches knew. The whole offense knew. Just because you're just finding this out on Monday doesn't mean this is the first moment they discovered what was going on. Did you think maybe there was a reason why, suddenly, we started moving the ball later in the game? They figured out what NW was doing and changed signals.

I always get a kick out of the concept that the players or coaches or whomever finds out about things at the same time we find out about them.

I'll definitely agree with that, skers. I think he's working at it. It doesn't come naturally to him, but you can see he's trying. He's even laughing more and more, which is a good sign.

I don't disagree with any of that. But that's not what you said I read what from what you wrote earlier (so if that's not what you meant, nevermind! ). What I replied to is the notion that Bo has to be nice to the press. The press has no say in anything regarding Bo's job. But Bo is not on any shorter leash than Tom was, or Solich, or.... well, I can't remember any other coaches in the past 20-ish years. But all of them have had expectations to meet, just like Bo. Bo's temper is not going to get him fired unless there's a Woody Hayes incident. And the boosters are not going to run Bo out of here. When the boosters make the program fire a coach who's had the success Bo has had then you don't ever, ever, ever get good coaches again. EDIT - Made a change to my first sentence

Taylor said in today's presser that Northwestern's defenders were watching our plays being signaled in from the sidelines and they figured out our plays by stealing our signs. Rich Kaipust says:

You can. It's called The Woodshed.

They passed a card around the Penn State athletic department after hearing about the Grand Jury? Amazing. LINK Here is a decent run-down of the victims and allegations against the various parties involved. LINK

I'll agree that he needs to keep the fans happy, but even if we showed up in Lot 8 with torches and pitchforks, Bo's not going anywhere. The need to keep the press happy is vastly misunderstood by the majority of fans. People tend to have this overblown belief of the importance of the press because the press is most peoples' conduit of information on a program. The press isn't going to get any coach fired, and certainly not Bo.

Don't know. Not watching - Bo's take up too much time as it is.

That's it for Bo. NOT the same Bo from earlier in the year, or from losses last year. He has clearly made an effort to be more congenial to the press, and it is working. He started the presser in a near-jovial mood, joking about an inside joke from the Saturday post-game presser with one of the reporters. He's really working to not bite peoples' heads off, and he's working on giving good answers to most questions. Not one "what do you think" answer, or anything anywhere near it. I thought he could have done a "Bo Special" answer to the Penn State/Sandusky questions, but he answered them quite nicely. I'm not overly concerned with how Bo treats the press. I think it has very little to do with his overall job. But it is very nice to not have an openly hostile attitude from the head coach.

Part Two: Bo isn't worried about the state of the program. He is not always a results-oriented guy. There's a lot of things that go into it, and you just have to keep working to get better. Who's to say what's going to happen as the season ends. The challenges we're facing right now are different, and every year is different and you have to persevere and just go. This loss hasn't worn on Bo? Bo promises us that the loss wore on him. The way he's wired he takes it hard, but yhou have to move on, move past it. There's no sense in crying about it, you have to move past it. That's what he's paid to do. He's not going to sit here and cry about it, but believe me, it wears on him. When you've been coaching as long as Bo has, you learn that you have to have respect for the game. He talked to the team all week about this. When you don't take advantage of opportunities, losses like this can happen. Cotton said earlier that it was dead at practice last week. Bo didn't see signs that this loss was coming, but you're always concerned about it. You hope the players listen to you, and that they take what you say to heart. You can't buy into the hype and be ready to come out each and every week with a type of fire that makes you special. You have to mentally focus to make yourself special, and we didn't do that. Therefore there were missed opportunities, and we gave them hope. Bo knew it would be a tough game. Knew they were really good offensively, and that it would be a tough game. Penn State is a good defense. They have a good front seven. They play physical. Every week is a measuring stick. Every day is a measuring stick. We knew what the schedule would be like before the season started. There's not much difference playing in front of 100,000 people. Bo was there years ago. When he was in High School. This loss doesn't eat at Bo any more than any other one. Bo thought we could get off the field on NW's last drive, but we didn't execute. If we had executed earlier in the game it wouldn't have come down to that, either. Ganz' contribution: He does a lot of things. Multiple role. Spends a lot of time in the offices. Biggest contribution is in the weight room. He does a good job, and we have a good group of young guys. He's helpful to Taylor when he comes off the field. Taylor has respect for Joe because he's been there, done that. Joe does a good job of communicating what Beck wants to Taylor. The line isn't blocking because of focus, concentration and execution. It comes down to guys preparing and playing the way they've been coached. You have to bring it to the field every Saturday. It's not one particular thing or one particular guy. All of the November stretches are difficult. You have to fight and persevere through this. Our guys will come out ready to play Saturday. Marlowe – He's doing a lot of things well. We've used him a lot of different ways. He's running good routes and he's blocked well in the perimeter.

First installment: Rex physically – he's beat up. He took a shot early in the game. He's not always going to tell you how he feels. Bo thinks he'll be OK. Nicked up a little bit and he'll rest up this week, reduce his load a little bit. He'll be ready to go. Anybody can be an armchair quarterback and talk about how much we use Rex. We could have rested him a little more, but it was a culmination of things that happened in the game, not the plan going into the game. The freshmen didn't play more, but that wasn't much of a thing to do with Rex, it was about the line not blocking well. It wouldn’t have mattered who was in there. Overall physicality, new programs. Bo doesn't know about the physicality of it, but it's a challenge of playing a new opponent every week. It'll be a little easier next week. Not easier, but more familiar. It's a challenge, but not unbearable. You just have to play. We didn’t play our best football for whatever reason. Didn't execute the way we were capable of. Coming out of the first half 7-3 was concerning. We didn't take advantage of opportunities presented to us, and it cost us in the end. Punting on fourth and short a couple of times. We went for it once and it didn't work. There's also a difference between being fourth and one and fourth and three, and with hindsight being 20/20 we could have done something different. You lose a game like we did the other day as a coach you think about a lot of things. Jamal Turner was sick last week. We have a lot of confidence in Jamal, but he has to perform well in practice. We need him to perform well in practice, but we'll see him more going forward. He's got a lot to learn and he's still growing. He's really talented but we have to keep him growing. No question that we're nicked up at D Tackle and it hurt us. We should have Chase Rome back next week and that'll help. But you have to go with who you have. We're going to move some guys inside, but we have to keep working to develop guys, like Jay Guy. It didn't help us that we were chasing two really mobile quarterbacks around. Our guys got tired by the end of the game. In the situation we're in, we're going to try to keep reducing their workload, but at this time of the year when you have injuries, you have to step up. Thad Randle not coming back any time soon. Jackson moved over from O Line a couple of months ago. Doesn't know anything about the Sandusky situation. Not something for Bo to comment on. Bo has no idea if that's going to distract Penn STate. He has enough problems of his own. Can't comment on it. Seems to be an unfortunate situation. Doesn't know Sandusky. Bo has gotten to know Paterno, but doesn't know him well. He's very cordial and happy to have another Italain in the Big Ten, so Bo has a step up on a lot of other guys because his last name ends in a vowel. He's a great football coach and a classy individual. It's an honor to know him. It's amazing that Paterno is 80 years old and still coaching. He's wired different than Bo and Bo doesn't think he could be doing this when he's 80. It takes a lot of hours to do this job. Bo would be out of gas if he was still doing this at Paterno's age. Bo sees him on TV and thinks it's amazing that he's still able to do this.

I doubt the coaches read these boards much, but the players do. Are you sure? Perhaps team rules? Unlikely but ........ Quite sure. And there are no team rules prohibiting reading message boards.

I doubt the coaches read these boards much, but the players do.

John Cook just announced that "nothing has changed" regarding Lauren's playing status as of now. He's not going to reinstate her "until this gets resolved." The takeaway - It's Team Root for the long haul. Lauren's hearing is now set for tomorrow, 11/8/11, but that's only to find out what they're going to charge her with. If they attempt to prosecute her on the felony then she's done for the year (based on John's "resolved" statement) because her trial won't be set for a while. It all depends on how the DA views her record with the previous tickets and the fact that she was driving on a suspended license. Absent those issues, I'm certain there's no felony on the table, that it would be pled down to nothing. But if they're still on the table... I don't know what they'll do. I have a very hard time believing they're interested in prosecuting Lauren Cook on a felony. She's not the kind of person we need to have behind bars. She needs a nice big dose of "Wake the F up!!!," not jail time. We'll find out tomorrow, I guess.

Rex Burkhead is the world's greatest magician. He made all of our other running backs disappear.

Both games will be at 11am. Penn State will be on ESPN. Michigan will be on either ESPN or ESPN2. We already knew Iowa was scheduled for 11am the day after Thanksgiving, so that's three straight games to finish the season at 11am. Bah.

Here are Northwestern's ranks in the four major defensive stat categories, year-to-date: Rushing Defense - 84 Pass Efficiency Defense - 103 Scoring Defense - 88 Total Defense - 96 That's after our game. They were worse before - prior to our game, their highest rank in any of these four categories was 90th in the nation. This is a team that entered the game 3-5 on the season, 1-4 in the Big Ten. They lost by double digits at home to Penn St. and Michigan, and at Iowa. This is a team that LOST TO ARMY. I should not have to stand and scream all game long to "pump up" the Huskers to win this game (note: I did anyway). We have talent advantages on this team all over the field. It is absurd to point a finger at the crowd for this game. I cannot stand the griping at the crowd for being non-energetic when our team is losing at home to Northwestern.

Paterno has culpability because Pennsylvania has an automatic-reporter law. Once he was informed something like this happened, he is bound by state law to report it to the police. He was, allegedly, informed by the Grad Asst, and did not go to the police. Not sure what the statute of limitations on this is, but I don't think Paterno is being prosecuted for anything. But he certainly didn't do everything in his power to protect these children. That's where he's (justifiably, in my opinion) taking flak.