knapplc

Yeah, agree about the mess. I have no idea why people continue to use 90s-era board technology. Baffling.

I could see the Rams and Browns taking a QB. The Rams have Bulger and Boller, the Browns have Anderson and Quinn. None of those four have been impressive. Why would the Rams say they aren't interested in Suh? Is there something about LaJuan Ramsey that I'm not aware of that makes him more attractive than Suh?

I would like to see him go #1, and he's certainly worth a #1 pick, but I would hate to see him go to any of those teams.

LINK Clemson fans griping that we're cheating. Gotta love it.

We get up to two suns rising, feed our flying pigs and get aboard our flying saucers for a ride to the planet zeta reticuli where we all watch our new favorite team the Gzzzzzzbmmmmmwiiiiipiiiii Hoooobalazalalmalala Fighting Wolfpack in their game against Betleguese in the sport of P%ssy foot. Known to the Betleguesians as Soccer.... Betelgeuse

The Second Run of Rex In Carrollton, Irving and Euless. Flower Mound, Allen, Wylie and DeSoto. All the way down in Duncanville, out to Keller and of course, in Plano. Rex Burkhead was a known property. The Metroplex version of a made man. Wherever Nebraska running backs coach Tim Beck traveled in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, the high school football coaches – many of them Beck's former peers - loved this kid they used to call Superman on the field, in part for his Clark Kent persona he possessed off of it. “It was unique,” Beck says now. “Anywhere you went, people would talk about him and what a great football player he was...when he played, he played hard. And people saw it.” Varsity as a freshman. Starting quarterback as a sophomore. The kid with Barry Sanders on the wall and Walter Payton on the ceiling above his bed. Sweetness before bed every night. “I'd rather run over somebody,” Burkhead said Tuesday. As a junior and senior at Plano High School, he amassed 3,530 yards rushing and more than 60 touchdowns. Ole Miss wanted him as a Wildcat quarterback. Rich Rod wanted him a scatback and - Well, hell – if you're in the DFW, you already know all this. Most Nebraska fans who count recruiting stars as they go to sleep know it, too. The Huskers got the loot, nabbed one of the biggest names out of the Lone Star State, and needed a bevy of position coaches – Beck and Mike Ekeler and John Papuchis to do it. “I felt most comfortable here,” Burkhead says of NU. “Felt like this was the place.” Head coach Bo Pelini tested him straight away in fall camp. Gave him the “rookie ball” for 24 hours. First day. First guy. Burkhead wasn't supposed to fumble it, and every member of Nebraska's top-shelf defense tried to pry it away. “Who better than him?” Bo said of Rex's selection. Indeed. Because Burkhead didn't fumble. And he didn't blink an eye when, after the dismissal of Quentin Castille, he shot up to No. 2 on the depth chart. When he played well in the first five games of the season. When he converted a crucial third down at Missouri, taking a poorly-thrown swing pass from Zac Lee, planting hard with his right foot, and jutting back to the middle of the field for a first down. Decisive. Quick. “He hits the hole downhill,” offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said. “He doesn't waste time. He doesn't over-analyze or read. He gets north and south and gets skinny.” Three plays after Burkhead's clutch play, Lee hit Niles Paul for a NU's first touchdown. The Cornhuskers won, but starter Roy Helu jammed his shoulder something awful on his second-to-last carry. Burkhead would likely have been the guy for Texas Tech. And Iowa State. And possibly Baylor. Then – pop! A simple little cut in practice four days after the Mizzou game. Gone awry. “It wasn't a extreme pain, but I knew something wasn't right,” Burkhead said. Foot fracture. Sit down, Superman. Time to take a lesson you haven't yet learned – how to lose time to an injury. Understand the difficulty here for Burkhead. After high school football, he would transition directly to basketball. He didn't slow down. When he arrived at NU, coaches and teammates noticed quickly: He's way ahead of the game here. How hard has this kid been working? And Burkhead had learned so much, he said, in his short time in college football. The mental game, blitz pick-up, setting up defenders, using your blockers. It was close, you sensed. Burkhead seemed small on tape but bigger in person. And he runs even bigger than that. “He's explosive,” Watson said. “It is surprising.” For five weeks, NU lost its spark plug. Helu wasn't right for at least half of that time. Still isn't 100 percent, frankly. The Huskers had to burn Traye Robinson's redshirt in the process, and endure that awful 9-7 loss to Iowa State, in which Robinson and Helu combined for three fumbles. Would Burkhead, who held on tight in the toughest of conditions during fall camp, have been so careless? Often in a black puffy coat on crutches, Burkhead would sit back from practice and watch from afar. It got to him a little, he admitted. It took teammates – especially Helu, who doesn't let on much but is a kind of joyful mentor to Burkhead – to bring him around. Also, for a broken foot, the doctor's prognosis was good: Back for the Colorado game. Of course, Rex being Rex, he was back a week early, for Kansas State. “I was little hesitant at first,” Burkhead said. “I didn't feel it at all, but just knowing it's down there and the possibility of re-aggravating it.” That changed once Burkhead got into the flow vs. the Wildcats. “It was a nice bonus,” Pelini said. Losing that trepidation was crucial, as it turned out, in the following week, when he rushed 100 yards on 18 carries in a 28-20 win over Colorado. Nine times for 55 yards and a touchdown on NU's penultimate drive, the one that made Husker fans party like it's 1979, all power sets and inside counters and Burkhead's churning legs. It wasn't so much that Burkhead gained the yards as how he did it. One cut – and go. He bounced off some tackles and crawled past others. In all, 67 yards of the century were after contact. It's one thing to see a guy like Castille bull moose his way through a defense. Another to see a man of Burkhead's size even try, much less succeed, when NU made no secret on that drive of who was getting the ball, and where he was going to go with it. “Whether he made the right decisions or not, he made them and ran with them,” Beck said. “He ran down his pads and kept his feet moving and accelerated through contact. He wasn't dancing around trying to make the big plays.” Most backs – like Helu – are trying to “make every cut,” Beck said. They see three guys on two levels of the defense, and want to create a path around all of them. Helu, possessing rare peripheral vision, often makes sudden, almost inexplicable cuts parallel to the line of scrimmage. Where's he going? Helu doesn't always know. He just feels the pressure, and turns away from it. Sometimes, it works beautifully. Sometimes, Roy's just running around. “That's not Rex,” Beck said. Burkhead makes the one cut and then - well, come what may. In this case, a homecoming in Arlington, Burkhead's old stomping grounds, against Texas, the home state team. He played at least ten games inside the old Dallas Cowboys Stadium, and he'll have a hefty fan club for his first game in the new one, including some friends who are UT fans, and lobbied him to stay in-state. Burkhead doesn't have much of an ax to grind with the Longhorns, mind you. He grew up in Kentucky, not Texas, so he wasn't wearing burnt orange out of the womb. Texas did put forth a mild recruiting push for his services. Burkhead made a few visits, saw a game. But UT had already had two running backs – Vondrell McGee and Tre' Newton – with Burkhead's build and skillset, so there was some question as to what position he'd play for Mack Brown – and whether he'd even stay on offense. “It was back and forth deal,” Burkhead said. “They really kind of left it up to me.” UT was the wrong fit. No hard feelings. NU is the right one. Burkhead, Pelini said, meshes with the new attitude of Nebraska football perfectly. As a bunch, the Huskers are humble – but Burkhead is unusually so, even for a high school star in a state where being one really means something. “You can't let everything get to you,” Burkhead said. “You have to stay down to earth.” That's what caught their eye in the DFW. It's certainly grabbed Pelini's attention. “He’s just a football player,” he said. “He’s tough. He’s a leader. He exemplifies all the characteristics that I want in football players that come into this program.” The invaluable ranch hand, to borrow an image from Burkhead's adopted state. Knows the land like the laces of a football, does his job with a little fuss, and occasionally makes your jaw drop. Or, Superman, when the shoe fits. Right Rex? “Aw, it's all right,” Burkhead said. “I guess.”

The Triumph of Bo's Will The day began, in my memory, with two images: A picture of that beefy-faced Chase Daniel, just imagining that Heisman Trophy he never won, and the visage of a grim Kirk Herbstreit, his eyebrow cocked like a “serious journalist” imparting the scoop of the day: That LSU coach Les Miles, whose team still possessed an outside shot at the national title, was about to head to alma mater Michigan. We're talking championship week 2007 here, and that Saturday afternoon when the Tigers knocked on the back door of the BCS after getting tossed out the front. What you may recall is Miles' impromptu press conference to debunk Herbstreit's news, the “have a nice day” signature line, and LSU having to start a backup quarterback so irrepressible -Ryan Perrilloux – that Miles booted him before the 2008 season even began. And – oh yeah - Bo Pelini, then the LSU defensive coordinator, was about to be named as Nebraska's head coach the following afternoon. Bo was smack dab in the middle of distraction. And he pushed it out to the edges of his mind. And his defense secured a 21-14 win over Tennessee, and a berth in the BCS national title game. Just. Like. That. “That day – somebody told me there was a press conference,” he said. “I was in the locker room reading a book. Kind of what I do every game.” *** Question: Where is Bo's sentimentality, his grasp for this moment – what it means to the fans, to the Big 12, hell, even to the media, which is ready to get back on the stage, to cover a game of this magnitude? Answer: Not where reporters can get at it. Bo locked down in Tuesday's press conference. He's getting friendlier about it as time goes on, but it was his shortest Tuesday session of the year, and less insightful than six-pence pulp fiction. It's fun to watch, in a sense. He didn't cop to anything in regards to Saturday's Big 12 Championship. He conspicuously donned a black hooded sweatshirt for the first time this year – don't read a thing into it – and brushed off any notion of the intangible, as it pertains to Nebraska v. Texas. Is NU an underdog? “I don't even know what that means,” Bo said. “That's for the bookies in Vegas.” The spoiler role? “That's up to you guys,” he said. “Say what you want to say. Build it up how you want to build it up.” And so it goes. We're used to this now. Or at least we should be. In moments of high pressure – and NU has plenty at stake, as does the Big 12 North, if not in the immediate sense – the Cornhuskers' coach dials in, talks tough, and tips his hand only far enough to see the white of a card's corner. The bigger the stage, the quieter and grimmer Bo seems to get. He's been through plenty of career-altering situations by now – the 2003 Alamo Bowl, Hurricane Katrina – to know he wants to approach it. And, as always, he returns back to a word. Process. It's his catchphrase. No fewer than four players and coaches I've talked to this week refer to it. “There are certain things you have to do to keep your team on task,” Pelini said. “There’s a certain approach we take. If you do that and you stay with it, and they feel you staying with it, then they stay with it. They are going to follow the lead. There are certain ways you direct their mindset and you direct their focus.” Said offensive coordinator Shawn Watson: “Every game here is a one-season game. That's part of the process. It permeates through all of us. Bo sets that table for all of us and sets that tone. To a man, to a coach - we're similar. We've adopted that same philosophy.” It goes beyond brassy speeches, although Bo gives them. It is about guts, and it is not about guts. Individual plays – fourth-down on the goal line – define backbone, sure. The larger structure is more corporate in nature, and by that, we don't necessarily mean, as most football pundits do, business. Modern football is written by men who are architects as much as generals, working from elaborate blueprints – housed in notebooks or folders or Blackberries, enriched by personal experience - that they tinker with only in fractions, as if to distinguish Bauhaus from Louis Kahn. Kahn, the modernist who left one of the great architectural wonders of the world - the Jatiyo Sangsha Bhaban - partially unfinished at his death, used to offer a cryptic lecture to his Yale students that began and ended with “Light - is!” Match those two words to the building itself, and you won't see the connection. Walk though the building and peer inside-out, and my sense is, you will. Not so different from Bo's vagaries, which mask a much deeper plan and ideology from our perspective, but need few words from his own. The blueprint – the process – isn't going to change this week despite the surroundings. It's the biggest game of Bo's career, really. A chance to stride over to the Big 12's giant landowner, Texas - which lords over fertile recruiting fields that Big 12 North teams have to beg just to sharecrop – and say “I'm a rich 'un, Mack.” Most years, it's just a game, for sure, with ordinary, linear benefits and consequences, all that. But these are the Big 12's two principals (and two principles), you see. Yes, of course, Oklahoma has its camp, pleasurable as it is. But Texas is to speak Latin to Nebraska's French. One is a grand gesture that leaps its way onto dollar bills and t-shirts. Hook Unum! The other is carefully-manicured cultural artifact, wrapped in a rich bacon of pride that doesn't allow an inch of light into its economy without meticulous inspection. If, on Monday, we laid out the programs' commonalities, what's at stake for each underlines their differences. For UT, another accumulated crown, a title to stick somewhere inside its luxurious campus for todas las mujeres bonitas to walk by on their way to Sixth Street, ignorance of its existence. For NU, a kind of a confirmation that vibrates like a signal of warmth, Ponca to McCook, Chadron to Superior. Each is a vision – of success amidst glamor, of home seen through the poetry of a red balloon, lifting in a night sky – crucial to the development of the program. In words and action without allegory, Bo is peppered with the stakes constantly. Just to get to this game, Nebraska had to lurch to the finish, and, amidst plenty of (warranted) criticism, he cut off the hand of his offense to stop its theft of a Big 12 North. He's put his defense in a weekly position to break, only to watch the Blackshirts rebuff its opponents, again and again, inside the red zone. There is a will there, you see. Almost Luddite in nature. “The message has gotten across to our players,” Watson said. “They understand: They have heart, and they have some fiber in them. They have something they're made of.” This will is a room in the Bo's blueprint. Nebraska's best-laid plan is for it to be the difference on Saturday. Bo is no more or less driven, per se, than his coaching peers, but he brings a zeal to transforming daily drudgery. The “compete” ethos is broken down into mini-games with practice, test within tests, mental or otherwise. Each day after practice there is at least one player – and often many more - doing wind sprints, rollovers, up-and-downs or some other penance. It was uncommon-to-rare during the Callahan era to see anyone serving that kind of punishment. And no Husker has been spared. This blend of accountability and, frankly, works-based righteousness has NU on a five-game winning streak. The blueprint may have a tear or two in it, but the vision remains intact. It seems wishful that such a formula could work Saturday night, but, then, it was wishful thinking for LSU back in 2007. Bo didn't bother measuring the possibilities then, and he won't now. The process reigns.

Your other two choices are 1) kick it out of bounds and let Texas start at the 40, or 2) kick it to two-time defending Junior World Long Jump Champion (and Junior World 4x100 meter relay champ) Marquise Goodwin, who just returned a kickoff 95 yards for a TD in his most recent game. That play was over SO FAST. That kid has ridiculous speed. He hit the last hole and as he broke into space he turned on another gear that normal humans don't have. That poor kicker wasn't even part of the play.

Suh needs a tremendous game just to get invited. He's been held in check for a few games, against not-so-good opponents. Plus, the things that make him so amazing - the INTs, the passes defensed, the running plays, the blocked kicks, the QB pressures/hurries - none of those things are standard measurables for defensive tackles. People don't track those stats, and if it's not on a stat sheet in front of a guy, often it gets overlooked.

+9,100 Let's bump this over 10,000 before voting ends at 12 noon Eastern on Friday. Overnight Spiller got 455 votes. Suh got 1,462 votes. This is a done deal if we keep it going. VOTE!

Considering I just had this conversation with a guy on TigerNet when I saw spanky's post, I didn't find it that hard to believe that spanky may have been serious. But don't worry about things like that. You just continue to come in after the fact and be Master of the Obvious. Good on ya'.

Look under my avatar to where it says "From..." I'm getting proactive in my fight against "knappic." Soon everyone will know it's an L! EVERYONNNNNNNEEE!!!!!!!!!

I don't have much of a gripe with your method, Fro. Clearly any weight added would be subjective. It would also have to be varied, not across-the-board, because there are times when a 50-yard punt doesn't do much, as in, punting from your end zone, but your opponent still gets the ball in plus territory, and there are times when it does, as in when you kick it from your 45 to their 5. All punts are not created equal.

The reason for his firing not occurring immediately after the season is because they are "conducting an investigation" so that they can fire him with cause and therefore not have to pay his buyout The reason that investigation is still ongoing is they're not finding enough dirt to avoid that buyout, too. My guess is, if they don't fire Mangino in the next couple of days, he's going to be around again next year.

The problem is, Bo hasn't earned a top job yet. He's only been a Head Coach for less than two full seasons. He's accomplished next to nothing. Nobody is beating Bo's door down trying to pry him away from Nebraska. But let's just pretend that they were. You think Nebraska's pockets aren't big enough to put up a competitive offer for Bo? With fans like Warren Buffet and a guy like Tom Osborne sending you letters asking for help? Our boosters aren't poor. We didn't put $50 million into Memorial Stadium and another $46 million into the Tom and Nancy Osborne Athletic Complex in the past ten years because we're poor. We can hold our own against other schools.

PACT!

I cruised it. It's funny. I'll have to read it in depth later. Thanks for sharing.

Please tell me you're joking.

Does it make sense to weigh each category the same? Are all the categories subjective? For instance, shouldn't a punt that pins a team inside their 5 count for more than a 50 yard punt? Good point, SoCal.

I think there isn't much chance of that happening. Since Spiller got put back on the ballot a few hours ago, Suh has out-gained him 2.5:1, or, for every vote Spiller is getting, Suh is getting two and a half. We have to see this through, though. 67 hours until this vote is done.

In other "not supporting your conference" news, check this poll out: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/fp/flashPol...mp;pollId=81446 Oklahoma Fan - who do you hate most?

B)--> QUOTE(Husker B @ Dec 1 2009, 02:52 PM) 530459[/snapback] GFY means Go F Yourself. Go Find Yourself? That can't be it. Go Forget Yourself? No... Go Follow Yourself? That would just be silly. Go Flagellate Yourself? Kind of kinky, but whatever.... Go Forge Yourself? Why would you tell someone to make illegal copies of themselves? Go Fly Yourself? Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Go Florida Yourself? Is this some new code the kids are using these days? Go Floor Yourself? Sort of an abbreviation of this motey? I am totally stumped here. I am not knowledged at all.

read my response on why I voted... I would have voted for Colorado. Just sayin'.

Gotta love the fact that every Big XII state votes for Nebraska.... except Colorado. Way to support your conference, d-bags!

Sounds good to me.