Toe

Every Husker coach since Devaney has either won or played for a conference championship by his third year. Even Callahan managed that mark. If Riley can't do that, I'd probably consider it a major failure....

For those of you saying we HAVE to make the ccg this year....what if we go 11-1 and our only loss is to Wisconsin who goes 12-0?

...but playing in a major bowl (which we haven't done since 2001) would do a lot to placate me.

You presented a rankings argument, not specific stats surrounding a player. Nebraska went from being the 76th ranked passing team to the 33rd ranked passing team after Bo left.

 

Now, explain to me why you can also diminish more passing yards 'purely from more attempts' in 2015 while seemingly ignoring that we had more rushing yards in 2014 while having more rushing attempts. You do see the obtuse nature of that argument, yes?

*facepalm* Alright, fine, how about the bigger picture on offense? #14 scoring offense in 2014, #43 scoring offense in 2015, #79 scoring offense in 2016. Any volunteers to put a nice sunshine and roses spin on that?

If you're going to criticize the rushing, then you should praise the passing game turnaround in 2015.

What turnaround?! Armstrong went from being a 53.3% completions/12 int/24 TD/133.04 QB efficiency rating. passer in 2014 to 55%/16 int/22 TD/128.64 effic in 2015. Yeah, he had about 300 more passing yards, but statistically that's almost purely from more attempts, and it came at the expense of about 300 rushing yards. He had slightly fewer picks in his senior season, but the rest of his stats went downhill in 2016, completing a career-worst 51.4% and only 14 TDs. Tommy left Nebraska as pretty much the same YOLO bomber that couldn't complete a screen to save his life that he was the day he set foot on campus, and in the process he lost half of his rushing.

 

Funny how 'lazy Bo players' produced the #19 rushing offense in the country in Bo's last year, but could only manage #73 under Riley, ain't it Chimi? (Oh, I'm sure that was all Ameer, and not the guys who had to clear a path for him. Nevermind that it continued to go downhill from 2015 to 2016 with basically the same players...)

You are talking about 2 different schemes that produced 2 different results.

 

Players are more likely to be lazy in practice then they are in games. I witnessed first hand a number of players being lazy during S&C sessions. Dobson didn't hold them accountable and Bo didn't really give a sh#t.

 

Which side are you even trying to argue? "Dobson didn't hold them accountable and Bo didn't really give a sh#t"? So you're saying that Riley & co 'fixing' the problem is what made it nosedive? And don't feed me some BS about different schemes when Riley himself said he wanted to be a top 3 rushing team - he sure as hell ain't trending in the right direction for that!

Funny how 'lazy Bo players' produced the #19 rushing offense in the country in Bo's last year, but could only manage #73 under Riley, ain't it Chimi? (Oh, I'm sure that was all Ameer, and not the guys who had to clear a path for him. Nevermind that it continued to go downhill from 2015 to 2016 with basically the same players...)

Therefore, the last two years, the OL which played the majority of the snaps for Mike Riley, were in fact Pelini recruits.

 

They were recruited by Pelini, brought in, experienced the culture of laziness, liked it, and have carried that attitude forward to today.

One of the biggest things a coach (or any sort of leader) needs to be able to do is take control. You might have good players and be a good coach in every other respect, but if you can't be The Man in the eyes of the team, it's not gonna be pretty. Frankly, Turner Gill at KU is a good example of this: good guy, good coach, but he never really took control of his players and he was rightly fired for it. (Granted, KU is a good place to go if you want your career to die, but still.)

News flash: this line didn't play for Pelini. There's a grand total of one guy on this line that played in a game under Bo. If Cavanaugh and Riley haven't taken control of this group and coached them up, well...

 

 

From what I can tell:

 

Michigan only has 2 4* QBs on their roster.

Stanford has 2 4* QBs and one committed for 2018.

Clemson has 2 4* Qbs and a 5* committed for 2018.

Alabama has 3 4-5* Qbs on the roster.

And this season Nebraska is likely to start a 2* guy with only one single in high school!

 

And he's starting ahead of two 4*s. tell me, did you think he looked like a 1-2* on Saturday?

 

I have no idea, I didn't get to watch the game.

My point is that stars aren't everything.

Only one single in HS? So we shouldn't try and get him on the baseball team?

Derp, one single *offer* in HS.

From what I can tell:

 

Michigan only has 2 4* QBs on their roster.

Stanford has 2 4* QBs and one committed for 2018.

Clemson has 2 4* Qbs and a 5* committed for 2018.

Alabama has 3 4-5* Qbs on the roster.

And this season Nebraska is likely to start a 2* guy with only one single in high school!

I still believe that if you are an elite team, you can show whatever the heck you want for opponents to tape and study film,

Or just flat out tell the other team where the play is going...

My real gripe is how little pass rush we saw until late in the game, and only against the 3s and 4s on the o-line. Though whether this is an indication of a lack of pass rushing capability of our D-line or a statement of how much improved our O-line is I can't tell.

Or if they called off the dogs so that the O-line wouldn't look so bad...

I just heard the announcer call him "Jebbia"...I've been calling him "Gebbia".....we need some kind of symbol to designate whether it's a hard or soft G. Like G'ebbia.

Yeah, the 'g' in Gebbia is pronounced like in giraffe, gerbil, and GIF.

Football is a game of rough and tough collisions and not a 'contact' sport such as basketball might be called.

Jay Foreman on Diaco: “From the first practice I saw to the last one I was at last week, I watched the outside linebackers,” Foreman said. “What I saw was drastic improvement. Whatever he’s doing, it’s working.”

And that's with a coach that's only been here for a few months, not a few years. Has anyone heard anything similar said about the O-line's improvement this spring? Anyone? Because I'd sure love to hear some.

Do the Huskers finish better than 9th in rushing this season behind this group after last year's dismal finish? Was that the worst Nebraska's ever finished as far as rushing offense in their respective conference?

Someone can double-check the records on this, but I'm pretty sure we never finished 9th or worse back in the Big 8 days.

You can put whatever subdomain you want on that link. http://nebraska.247sports.com/Article/247Sports-Rating-Explanation-81574

Checking CFBStats, in their records for the last nine seasons, there hasn't been more than five teams averaging more than 300 rushing yards per game in any year. In 2008, there were zero teams that reached that mark. The teams that usually top that list are pretty much what you'd expect: Army, Navy, Air Force, and Georgia Tech. Last season, Auburn was the only team with a top 10 rushing offense to finish the season ranked in the AP top 25.

400 rushing yards per game ain't happening. 250/game is a more realistic target, which would yield a top ten rushing rank most years.

Recent national champions and their ranks in passing and rushing offense:

2016: Clemson, #71 rushing, #7 passing
2015: Alabama, #32 rushing, #62 passing
2014: Ohio State, #9 rushing, #52 passing
2013: Florida State, #28 rushing, #14 passing
2012: Alabama, #16 rushing, #76 passing
2011: Alabama, #16 rushing, #69 passing
2010: Auburn, #5 rushing, #66 passing
2009: Alabama, #12 rushing, #92 passing
2008: Florida, #10 rushing, #61 passing

So certainly, recent national champions have tended to have stronger rushing attacks. Only two of the last nine champs have finished with higher passing ranks than rushing, while the other seven didn't even finish in the top fifty for passing offense.

Recent Big Ten champions and their ranks in passing and rushing offense:

2016: Penn State, #66 rushing (#7 B1G), #36 passing (#3 B1G)
2015: Michigan State, #94 rushing (#9 B1G), #55 passing (#6 B1G)
2014: Ohio State, #9 rushing (#2 B1G), #52 passing (#3 B1G)
2013: Michigan State, #59 rushing (#8 B1G), #84 passing (#7 B1G)
2012: Wisconsin, #13 rushing (#4 B1G), #115 passing (#12 B1G)
2011: Wisconsin, #11 rushing (#1 B1G), #61 passing (#4 B1G)

Here it's a little more even. Two teams with a higher passing rank, three with a higher rushing rank, and one split (higher national rushing rank and higher passing B1G rank).

It is extremely baffling how poorly we are at running screens - especially for a coaching staff that claims they like to run screens.

 

We have literally looked like a Jr. High team for two years - the timing is almost always completely messed up.

 

And apparently it's not getting any better:

 

But the crispness, especially on the offensive line, isn’t there yet. NU tried another screen play Saturday to a tight end that looked like a mess from the start. It gained 4 yards — which is an improvement over last week.

 

OWH

Sigh... At this point, I'm almost hoping Riley drops the axe on Cavanaugh after spring.

I absolutely agree with you on lack of creativity in the run game. We ran probably less than 10 gap scheme plays with power or counter last year. I don't like it but cav has said on a few occasions the OL struggles with pulling and they don't do it much. Hope as our OL improves we see more power and counter. His 1st year we saw trap but that was to feature Jano.

Riley was just talking about having to 'protect' the line with scheme. That says a lot, and that's why I was saying I don't think it would even matter a whole lot if Ameer were still here - there's too much else holding back the running game.

Yes Nebraska has a pretty tough schedule, but outside of Oregon and Penn State, literally all the other tough games are in Lincoln: Wisconsin, Northwestern, Ohio State, Iowa, etc. (Assuming of course the Huskers don't slip up against Illinois, Purdue, or some other scrub team that, on paper, has no business even being on the same field with the Nebraska.)

I'd keep the Gophers and their hot new coach in mind as well. It's in Minnesota. In November. Might wanna have a running game ready for that.

http://journalstar.com/sports/huskers/sipple/steven-m-sipple-with-o-line-comments-riley-brings-dose/article_e43bcb9b-0ece-5a78-825e-5436edc80e36.html

Too early to talk about candidates to replace Cav?

Calhoun's the same coach T-Mart worked with his last couple offseasons.

 

 

Well we haven't had an Ameer for a couple years now...

Somehow, I don't think it would matter much if we did...

 

Jumble of Imani Cross/Devine Ozigbo/Terell Newby/Mikale Wilbon/Tre Bryant. Or, Ameer Abdullah.

 

I think it makes a rather large difference.

 

With the line and offensive scheme we've had the last couple years, I don't think Abdullah would've been nearly as great. Or to put it another way, I don't think those other four are as bad as they've been made to look.

 

So you're saying Gebbia is actually Manziel in disguise?

lol he had to get back in college, the only place he can be a 18 year old 26 year old.

 

Hey, he did at least acknowledge that he's a douchebag...

Well we haven't had an Ameer for a couple years now...

Somehow, I don't think it would matter much if we did...

Fifteen players listed on Michigan State's spring roster were left out of the spring game, at least ten of whom had been seen in sweats before the game.

http://www.mlive.com/spartans/index.ssf/2017/04/fifteen_players_not_in_uniform.html

Moving on, Trump quote about what happened: "We learned a lot about loyalty."

 

Hearing words like that from our president continues to be scary. The only loyalty a politician should show is loyalty to the good of the country. Politicians don't need to be loyal to the president, or to each other, or to their party. A politician should do what is right. Also, a politician should do what is right even if it's unpopular to their constituents. Sometimes doing the right thing is the same as doing the unpopular thing, and then even though you did the right thing you get voted out of office.

"The modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation ALL the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it." - Mark Twain