Captain K

Jared is getting a lot of hype because he's good. He's a different kind of animal than Suh, but he's still a top notch DT in his own right. Those two really fed off of each other. I would go as far to say that if Crick doesn't have a 60+ tackle season, it's as much because he doesn't have a Crick to his Suh this year more so than because he was a just overhyped. That, or because Eric Martin isn't leaving anyone alive for him to tackle . There's a lot of pressure on Crick to be Suh-like this year. If he doesn't handle it well, he could have a rough season. He just needs to be himself and play. Not try to do what NS did last year.

Who's moderating this debate? David Brinkley? Oh wait, he's dead. Commenting on youtube=waste of time. Probably the tightest game of that year, so I too remember it as a nail biter.

Hope he got Bo's permission or Sam Keller and his attorneys will be all over that place!

Forget the pics, send the hot weather. 65 the average high here this bummer..er.....summer.

Also, I'd prefer to win games by more than .43 points a game. The cardiac wings of Iowa City hospitals were overflowing on game weekends last year.

Best post ever!

cap K, my opinion is that Zac is a talent that hasn't lived up to his potential on the field for a variety of the reasons, the injury being one of them. His performance suffered from the offense suffering as a whole, and the middling stats he put up last year are an indication of that more than a pure indictment of him. We can go over the OL and WR issues a million times, but they were what they were. I think also, that being a talent, knowing the offense, and knowing how to make the throws - you can STILL struggle to put up a good year. It happens all the time. Football is just a team effort and what Zac hasn't quite shown yet is clutch performance and being a gamer. This doesn't mean he isn't a good QB. Keller, of course, was a great QB with all the skills and physical tools - and yet he played relatively poorly for us. The team didn't play for him, he didn't have that 'rare' it factor that leads to huge success at the position. With Lee, it's not the same situation - I am just pointing out that being a good, talented QB doesn't translate into monster stats (see Josh Freeman!) But, some are pointing to the struggles last year and saying "He sucks, he locks onto receivers, he doesn't know how to run the offense, he doesn't have a good arm." I'm just saying these things aren't true. Talent never translates into stats. But it's got a lot better shot at doing so than lack of talent. I hope Lee is ready to make a Taylor-like jump in his second year. I think Lee is supposed to have a real good grasp of this offense, but maybe not the razor-sharp expertise of Ganz or Taylor yet. But from where he is he is the most likely to evolve into that QB we all need him to be. So to me it's both "He's the best QB we have" and "He's a good QB in his own right." It's not "He'll have a better year than say, Freeman in '08" though. Zoogs, I hope you are right and I'll be elated if you are. I just haven't seen anything that tells me he can do this.

Looks like the computer "generated" a few extra pounds on #32 there. But wait until you get a load of some of our high fructose corn syrup generated fans.

"Mr Pelini...has revived Nebraska's physical defensive tradition." Yeah dude, like twice!

Zac Lee was co-player of the year for St. Ignatius Prep in the West Catholic Athletic League. He played qb in high school.

This is the major disconnect in this thread. Not really. Two separate arguments are happening at the same time. The major disconnect is that the pro Lee people are not saying how they really feel about Lee's ability at qb. You just finally said it for yourself. We don't think he is great, but we are supporting our guy. So will I and so will bshirt and Plan Nine - on Saturday! The title of the thread is about Lee will start. That doesn't leave much room for argument. Who knows? That is out of our hands. What the OP said is that after re-watching ZL from last year, he can do this and he can do that. Then some of us said, "not true, he stinks, he can't do much of anything!" That is something to discuss! What most in this thread are doing, is countering he stinks with, "he's the best we have, we have no one better," which is a different argument. This isn't a he will start vs he won't start thread or a he's the best we have vs we have better anymore. It turned, rightfully so, or was hijacked into a, can the guy play or can't he thread. The opposition to his ability to play is being met with ''his elbow hurt'', or'' the line stinks." Well we say HE isn't any good. What say you?

This is the PROBLEM! Why is a guy who doesn't belong in this league our starter. Why are people so happy he is our best? How come only a few of us are outraged that a decent qb can't be coaxed into wearing a husker uni? I don't want to hear how ''he's our best guy, so we are supporting him.'' Everyone on this board was complaining about his play last year. Now it's all forgotten? Good luck thinking that elbow surgery is going to transform him. As for the folks who say Plan Nine, bshirt, or myself have no credentials to be suspect of Lee and that the coaches know everything and we know nothing - wasn't a guy with 1yr eligibility and 1 yr remaining brought in for a look before last year ? I don't care if he was the No. 1 recruit 4 years earlier. The only schools that gave him a look were desperate! Now we know why we were one of 'em. I also remember Lee didn't get a ton of recruiting interest in football because baseball was his #1 sport. I don't see MLB teams knocking down his door. Now he is leading our team in what was sport #2 for him. Don't we at least deserve a qb who will be looked at next April? Grab the battering rams and torches and head to north stadium now! I never said we have a better guy, I just have to assume so. That guy needs to see the field. I know Lee is incapable of getting us to where we want to go. Put someone with the raw ability out there and give them the chance to succeed. Lee will fall short of maximizing our teams potential and then we start anew next fall with someone else. I say, have some growing pains this year and hit the ground running the next.

How about picking a qb who could complete a pass, then everyone would be a target. I'll go with T. Gill on O. He was an exceptional leader. Suh or Minter on D.

Of course there will be kids that will be affected by the conference. Some will not consider us now because we don't play in their home state, others may look at us more than before, because they want to get away. Some, it won't matter at all. We could sign nothing but Texas players if we want. I do think if we average 5 Texas signees each year, the overall quality will suffer slightly because of the switch. Another thing to consider is, didn't our coaches sometimes visit high school kids while on road game trips? Not going to be too easy to visit a kid in Dallas Fri afternoon when you are in Madison Wisconsin.

You're right, your post is ridiculous. The stats aren't lying. Lee was the QB of the team that demolished Arizona. He was a key component in that game, as he was in the Oklahoma game, the Virginia Tech game, the Texas game, the Missouri game, etc. I'm using dispassionate statistics based on mutually identifiable factors like pass efficiency and SOS, and you're using emotion. Sorry, stats trump emotion every time. What does seeing a guy with no talent to be a good qb have to do with emotion? Who said anything about emotion? You have nothing more than a brilliant way to build the illusion of making stronger arguments. I will from now on refer to you as knappic Copperfield. I'm actually reading David Copperfield (the book) right now. How's that for ironic? And I saw the magician David Copperfield at the Orpheum about 22 years ago. His assistant was hot, but the show... not so much. But I digress... You have nothing to base your opinion on other than just that - opinion. That's fine if we're only talking about something unquantifiable, but we're talking about both quantifiable and unquantifiable things: Quantifiable - Zac's stats/record as a starter vs. the competition he faced in the conditions in which he faced them and compared to others in similar situations Unquantifiable - Zac's level of talent We can draw more definite conclusions from the quantifiable than the unquantifiable, which is why I prefer to use them. Unquantifiable things are based on opinion, and opinions vary but cannot be proven. I am not trying to dissuade you from your opinion, I'm trying to show that what you're basing it on is not factual. It's not like we are "stuck" with Zac Lee because we have zero choice. We went out and recruited him with the intent of seeing him lead this offense. We recruited others at the same time to hedge our bet, but bottom line is, Zac Lee isn't a Husker by accident. He isn't a Husker because the guy recruiting him didn't understand quarterbacks. In fact, quite the opposite. EDIT - so we're clear, the "your post is ridiculous" was supposed to be funny. I didn't mean to come off like I was cracking on you. Actually, I didn't know you were joking, but no offense taken. I don't think (more opinion) that you can judge a guy by his #'s even when comparing them to other guy's #'s, in, what you call, similar situations. Also, I believe if we would have landed some of our other qb targets, someone else would be leading our team. Enough of this debate. I believe, in the end, that either ZL will not be the starter, or, if he is, he will lose the job.

We need more threads like these. Threads whining about things like Lee being a good qb or not are so annoying!

You're right, your post is ridiculous. The stats aren't lying. Lee was the QB of the team that demolished Arizona. He was a key component in that game, as he was in the Oklahoma game, the Virginia Tech game, the Texas game, the Missouri game, etc. I'm using dispassionate statistics based on mutually identifiable factors like pass efficiency and SOS, and you're using emotion. Sorry, stats trump emotion every time. What does seeing a guy with no talent to be a good qb have to do with emotion? Who said anything about emotion? You have nothing more than a brilliant way to build the illusion of making stronger arguments. I will from now on refer to you as knappic Copperfield.

But the facts don't support your argument for "well below average." He was almost exactly average last year, in spite of a myriad of obstacles stacked against him. Look at my stats post in this thread and tell me where he should have done better. For 25 years the benchmark of a good Tom Osborne season was nine wins. If nine wins were good enough for T.O., why aren't they good enough for Zac Lee? Numbers alone don't tell the story. If wins or stats alone were the measure then you could argue that everyone on a 33-0 high school baseball team should get drafted to the pros over a 5 tool player that is on a 5-27 team. Or, a guy with crappy arm strength on a run based team, who throws the ball only when the defense should be looking run and has a 7-2 td to interception ratio is a great qb. As ridiculous as that sounds, your using stats to support Lee is just as bad. You base it on talent. I saw the guy play. We all did. He's not good. We need better to have the kind of year we all hope for. I don't know if we have better. I just hope we do. It is imperative.

If it is a Missouri guy writing, I wouldn't be surprised to see the '78 Missouri/Nebraska game in there. The combination of how old I was (football being the only thing that mattered at the time) and just having finally gotten that big win over OU made that one the bitterest pill to swallow. Still #1 on my list.

If you read my posts, you will not see where I said anyone should start over anyone else. All I've said is Lee sucked eggs last year. I also don't believe the surgery will help him make huge leaps in his progress for this year. I say only that if he starts we will be well below average at qb. Maybe we make it up in other areas, maybe not. I'm going to cheer for whomever they put on the field, but if no one is better than the guy out there last year, most of that cheering will be in vain. P.S. If you are a natural leader, you will exhibit that leadership from the outset. You don't need to develop it, which is not to say that it can't be developed, but the guy didn't show any last year. Maybe he took a summer school class on it.

I'm not in the ''he's probably not a superstar, let's try everyone else on the roster" camp. I'm in the "the guy can't pass and the guy can't run camp." I'm not going to give him a break unless someone can show me where the ligament affecting his arm runs all the way down to his leg. And, you know what else, the guy didn't show any leadership either. You also need to show me where "commanding" this offense can be accomplished by a qb who has no leadership ability, no legs and no arm.

I, on the other hand don't mind sounding like a broken record. Lee stunk last year. If I hear about those damn elbow ligaments again, I'll puke. If it hurt that bad, he wouldn't have been throwing, he couldn't have thrown, he would have been sitting. No one I know of even saw him grab his elbow after a pass. I don't care if you are trying not to act hurt, if it hurts enough, it will show. Maudfather was right about all of the other questionable skills. He CAN"T run. He looked in over his head, because he was. If he does start, it only means all of our qb's stink. We will need Brion and Jamal to get ready quickly then. We also need to convince Bubba to play football over taking the $$$. As for TMart not being ready, who knows about his maturity level? It does take a rare guy to start so soon and play well, but Robert Griffin did it and did it well. Maybe TMart can do it too. I hope so. Again, if Lee is our qb, our D WILL have to be better than last year. No mistakes!

Front runner.

:laughpound That guy got off easy!

All four Texas players refused to take part in the poll. UT is on spin control. All of their players have been told what is ok and not ok to say. They are puppets. UT is trying to make themselves look good in all of this conference realignment and they don't want their players screwing it up. But no one else will notice.