southernoregonhusker

I hope this was sarcasm because he's the one who put us in the toilet in the first place. That's crazy talk. We lost a Hall of Fame coach and now we can't get the type of recruits we used to.

Nebraska should expect to win every game, I would hate to see that happen in Lincoln. I hated seeing that this afternoon from my fellow Beaver faithful. That wasn't a big win. It's not like beating Oregon or USC.

I think the consecutive timeout rule is in the NFL.

One of the guys in a UCLA alum.

I hate to say it, but they're going to be very good and very, very fast. Whichever QB emerges will be an improvement. Thomas left early because he knew he was going to get beat out. So goes the rumor. I think it may be true. James was a great back, but Barner and Thomas are scary. Alliotti loves the speed of the defense. I think they could be better than last year's team and the game at USC will be a doozy.

In Oregon State's defense (my alma mater), they started a true freshman QB. I think he threw less picks than Taylor. The defacto division champ finished 6-8. Obviously USC was the class of that division.

Okay, I'll play. Nebraska in your scenario because they have the better team and will probably continue to have the better team. That said... Who do you think has a better chance of winning a national championship in the next five years, Oregon or Nebraska? Nebraska has a much better history. So does Harvard and Notre Dame. The answer is Oregon. In fact, if UNL played UO head to head, who would win? I'd give 17 points and take Oregon if the game were in Lincoln. In Autzen? Pffft, 28 maybe. As far as last year's poll, I think all three highly ranked Pac 12 teams were ranked higher than Wisconsin or would have been had USC been eligible. The media darling thing is BS too. 1 in 4 televisions in this nation reside in Big 10 country. If anything, the Big 10 has been overrated for years and most Nebraska fans agreed with that statement prior to joining the Big 10. What's sad is we Nebraska fans are sounding more and more like Notre Dame fans. The longer we stay mediocre by our standards, the more we will hold onto past accomplishments. The Pac 12 is a much better baseball conference. Arizona won the College World Series this year. My Beavers won it back to back in '06 and '07. UCLA, USC and ASU have won it also. Academics is an interesting topic, Bucky. One of the reasons the Big 10 and Pac 12 have stuck with each other is because they respect each other's academic institutions. You say the Big 10 is better. I think Stanford, Cal, UCLA, Washington and USC speak for themselves.

Perhaps we're seeing the first wave of answers to last month's question, "Will teams schedule tougher opponents so they will make the playoff?" Does this mean the PAC decided that it's more important to get to 11-1 than to reach 11 or 10 wins with a quality SOS? Everybody wants 7 home games. That becomes more difficult when you play a 9 game regular season and have a home and home with another BCS school. Much easier to schedule a smaller school and guarantee a home game or even two.

Because of the California Four. USC, UCLA, Cal and Stanford were split up with two in each division (allowing the California recruiting to still be equally advantageous to the other non-California based teams in both divisons) BUT all four still want to play each other every year. To accommodate that, the conference uses a 9 game schedule. This is 100% correct. Also, it was a real challenge to add Utah and Colorado because the northern schools had to take a hit in their recruiting of southern California.

If you run into him.... He will knock you down!! He was bigger than I thought he'd be.

After shopping at my favorite golf store in Eugene, I was getting into my car when I saw Scott Frost walk past my friend's car. I hopped out and asked if I could shake his hand. I told him I was a huge Nebraska fan and he was one of my favorite all time Huskers. A lot of times when you meet somebody "famous", it's a let down as many turn out to be jerks. Not Scott. Scott was very gracious with his time and shared a few thoughts regarding Pac 12 football. A great day to be a Husker!

I'm not so sure about that. RB has used his celebrity as a Nebraska coach to speak about religion. He wouldn't have the audience he gets without his affiliation to DONU football. He also used Memorial Stadium as his address, which speaks volumes. Like it or not, RB uses UNL's influence for purposes that are his own.

It was the ridiculous influx of Nike money, which bought the coaches, the uniforms, and all of their new facilities. Bellotti was there before the "influx" of Nike money and Chip Kelly came from a powerhouse school known as the University of New Hampshire. Oregon is Kelly's first D1A job. Give credit where credit is due. They built that program into the powerhouse it is today. Sure the Nike money helped, but they were on their way prior to Uncle Phil's big money.

It's smaller this year. I've ordered a few shirts online and this year's XL is last year's L. I haven't found a decent sweatshirt in years, but this year's tee shirts, specifically the B1G stuff, was pretty good.

How many of Robinson's linemen are scholarship linemen? 3 of our 5 were former/current walk-ons. Something else I haven't seen mentioned deal with the wideouts. Not only did they drop way too many passes, but these guys aren't talented enough to get open. Couple that with poor line play and it's a miracle TM's stats aren't worse than they are. If DONU doesn't get more talent on the lines and in the skill positions, they will continue to flounder against the good teams.

I agree. Name one Husker on the offense who would start for Oregon?

Is it that we "can't" find proven OC/DC or that we won't?

It starts with recruiting. We need players on both sides of the ball. Besides Burkhead, how many of our offensive guys would be on the two-deep chart of any team in this year's Top 10? The answer is none. We gotta get players.

If somebody wants to leave, let them go.

I was just thinking about that too... Crouch's 1999-2001 teams weren't that lacking in offensive talent. In 2000-2001 he didn't have a great RB or great defensive play, but that was it - there were still plenty of weapons around him, and some very good offensive linemen (those were the last offensive lines that even remotely resembled the lines of the 90's). You put Crouch on one of those mid 90's teams and he'd have been a great player, but his numbers would have been worse than in 2001, not better. He would have had less playing time (just like all the starters did in the mid 90's, because they were up by 40 points heading into the third or fourth quarter almost every game), and he would have had less touches (because we had better RBs, and because Osborne didn't run the QB nearly as much as Solich did). would that philosophy been altered though, due to the capabilities of Crouch? No. Osborne would have used Crouch differently than Frost, but I don't think he would have gotten more touches than Frost got - not with Ahman Green in the backfield, and Sheldon Jackson, Matt Davison, Bobby Newcombe, Brendan Holbein and Shevin Wiggins running all over the field. That team had a lot of great playmakers, and Osborne distributed the ball in a way that put a lot of stress on defenses - that's part of why his offenses were so much more effective than Solich's offenses. And as good as Crouch was, his ability wouldn't have dictated that he receive more touches than Frazier from 93-95. Anybody who thinks differently didn't watch Frazier play, and they don't realize the immense amount of respect that is still held by non-partisan fans who watched Frazier play. I was listening to a local radio talk show in Eugene, Oregon a couple weeks ago, hosted by two hard core Ducks homers, and they were discussing Tebow-mania. Anyways, somebody called in to say how amazing it was that Tebow didn't have more respect from NFL pundits since he was the best college QB of all time, and after the call ended the co-hosts started discussing how they thought Tebow was amazing in college, but that Tommie Frazier was actually the best college player they'd ever watched (they even took Frazier over Jim Brown). That's from two Pac 12 homers who have probably never attended or covered a Nebraska game in their entire life. What's really nuts is that it's completely possible that Crouch would have been third string QB on that 1995 team. Had he been on those 93-95 teams, he probably would have been one of the best slot receivers/kick returners ever to play at Nebraska. Pac-12 homers? Brooklyn John's accent didn't throw you off a little? He's an older feller with lots of old school knowledge. He's a great listen if you're a Yankees fan as I am.

Eh, what? What would Green and Mackovica have said about their combined 37 yards on the season if Crouch were their QB? I'm not a big Frost fan, but the guy RAN THE OPTION a heckova lot better than Crouch. Still, I don't really blame Crouch as much as most. His head coach warped our unstoppable offense into a 1 man show that, the next year, became easier to shut down than most High School offenses. I could not have said it better myself.

Obviously a better athlete? Really? Apparently you and I have differing views on what makes an athlete. My definition covers more than just straight on speed. For the record, Frost is my favorite QB at DONU. He ran the option to perfection, was fantastic with the play action pass and didn't shy away from any hits. I still remember him flattening out Dat Nguyen in the Big 12 title game. Frost also played safety in the NFL and never quit the team.

Let me begin this by saying I hate the Ducks. That said, Oregon's strength is running up the middle. Our weakness is defense up the middle. I'm sure the Kool-Aid drinkings will disagree, but Oregon is 3 touchdowns better than DONU in Lincoln and 5 better at Autzen. Our boys are not in their class. Not even close. Their last three bowls: Rose, National Title Game, Rose. Their losses this season: LSU and USC. They don't lose to the Northwesterns of the world. They beat those types of teams by 40. I love the Huskers as much as anybody on the board and have for 30+ years. Our team has lots of problems. Our team lacks in player quality, coaching quality, player execution, etc. All of which have been documented before. I would love to hire a big time, big name defensive coordinator. That kind of guy in a player's living room delivers good players. DONU will not hire Stoops or Zook because they don't want to pay an assistant that kind of money. Bo may even be a little gun shy about hiring a guy with head coaching experience. I'm still holding out hope. Promoting somebody from the current staff will not help in the delivery of good recruits. Our team needs a couple of years of really good recruiting as well. I've often read on these boards that Osborne didn't have highly regarded classes. Osborne had a system and plugged the right players into it. He was a Hall of Fame coach and he knew what he was looking for. He had a terrific staff too. He also had advantages that are gone today: Partial qualifiers and unlimited walk-ons. What isn't mentioned is these recruiting services are a lot better at evaluating talent than they used to be. Our last four classes haven't been highly regarded and it showed on the field. Our team lacks the talented athletes they had during Callahan's era. It hurts to say it, but the poster above who said it is correct.

I said this last year and I'll say it again now: Brion Carnes stinks. That's why he's not getting PT. If he wanted to transfer, it would have to be to a small school because nobody in FBS is going to want him. That's just the harsh reality. Somebody will tell me I'm full of it and talk about the spring game. Well, we've seen precious little of him this season and it's obvious he's not good enough to play at this level. Bo sees him everyday in practice and there's a reason Bo doesn't use him. For us older guys, remember playing Techmo Super Bowl and your star would get hurt? You had to go to your backup and he never caught the ball or was only fast enough to gain one yard rushing? That's Brion Carnes. There's a reason he was going to Western Kentucky before we offerered.

which is exactly why we're seeing the "youth and inexperience" take its toll on this year's defense. If he never plays the backups, we're going to see the problem every year when seniors leave. Come on, these guys get reps in practice. It's not like they've seen a football before. Lack of talent took its toll on the defense this year. Throw in a lack of aggressive play calling from the coaches and it's obvious why our d struggled all season.