Guy Chamberlin

Just because you want a sustained drive rushing the ball doesn't mean the opposing defense is going to let you. You can go three and out running the ball, too, especially if you announce your intention to do so. When Armstrong burned Miami with a long ball early, Miami refused to commit to a run defense. So Nebraska ran wild that game. Most coaches, yes, even Tim Beck, would love to run the ball and exhaust the defense, but good defenses adjust to that. And we don't have the Monster O that lets you exert your will, regardless.

I think we all agree that Tommy's on the short leash, and needs to step up, but he's a pretty nice place to start the season. He has a lot of the good qualities you can't coach, and new coaches to (hopefully) make the necessary changes. I don't worry about Riley insisting on Tommy if Tommy isn't working out.

I don't think Tommy looked overwhelmed at all last year. He was a monster against lesser teams, and got thwarted against better teams, but he always looked up to the task. In every game where fans - including myself - started looking longingly to the sidelines and Ryker Fyfe, Tommy dug down and showed why he is the starter. I don't think his self-confidence was shaken at all, and I think he understood the playbook perfectly. He needs to get better or someone else might start this year. But he's a gamer and a leader, in need of a few mechanical tweaks.

I think all of these linemen are strong in the category of potential nicknames.

Fun facts from the Super Bowl and Pete Carroll's worst-call-in-the-history-of-sports: During the regular season, Marshawn Lynch had five carries from the one yard line. He got one touchdown, two no gains, and two tackles for losses. During the entire 2014 season and post-season, 66 touchdown passes were thrown from the one yard line. Only one pass from the one yard line was intercepted, and that was in the Super Bowl.

As I recall, you lean towards zero percent passing on 3rd and short. Depends on your definition of "short" but every successful football coach has multiple passing and running options for third and short, and running the ball does not enjoy a statistical advantage.

If Ronald Reagan was alive today and running on his record, the current Republican Party would have nothing to do with him. Eisenhower would be considered a dangerous leftist. And going strictly on his record, Barack Obama would be considered a moderate Republican in virtually any other era of American politics. No matter how old you are, the media is doing a lousy job of putting the news in context.

"I never could get this Monica thing out of my mind?" Of the problems I had with Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinksky was nowhere on the list. If you can be surprised and hurt that a President had an extra-marital affair, you haven't been paying attention to American history. If you were an adult in 1991, before the man even got elected, you knew he dug himself some extra-curricular trim. The reason that blue dress hung over Bill Clinton's head is because Republican operatives literally paid to hang it there. The government ground to a halt but Clinton's approval rating actually went up a tick.

For the record, I like Tommy Armstrong and the skills he brings. I'd just like to see the scenarios I mentioned in post #16. Which, now that you mention it, is pretty much the way Andrew Luck plays quarterback.

True. And that's great if success in the college game is all you ask in life. But for the handful of college players being scouted for professional careers, it's pretty important that their skillset translates to the NFL. One of the reasons few college teams run the triple-option anymore is that it required different disciplines and reps of the QB, the RBs and the Offensive Line. Good for a season of college glory, but makes you a question mark coming into the NFL. Some highly touted recruits may avoid a college program that runs a college-only offense.

I know we're talking about college football, but the dual threat conundrum has a lot to do with the NFL. These athletically gifted QBs and Heisman Trophy winners are coming into the NFL and making their mark. Kind of. For a couple seasons. Then they get injured. Or defenses figure them out. Or OCs pressure them to pass first and run second. Or run only in an emergency. And some of them lose their edge and mojo, like Vince Young or RGIII. And then you look up and realize it's still a game ruled by classic drop back passers. Maybe Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick aren't the future. Marcus Mariota may do just fine in the NFL, but as extremely talented as he is, the number one concern at the combine was whether he could run a pro-set offense. Top college football players, the handful with NFL potential, raise their stock signifcantly by working in offenses familiar to the NFL. I can see the zone read living on like the old triple option before it, or a WR reverse, or a fullback counter. A play you pull out every game or two, but not your offensive system.

He would look great in a Raiders uniform, but only if the Raiders start playing like they did 30 years ago.

I think the issue is that the zone read option has gotten so popular that it's earned the full attention of every defensive coordinator in football, and they've gotten better at defending it. A great weapon, still, but maybe not your bread and butter. If you're referring to the Nebraska glory days of the 1990s, that was a perfect storm of talented skill players and a sh#t-canning offensive line. Even then, I think 20 years of stronger, faster defenses would make it hard for that vintage Nebraska offense to dominate as it once did.

A lot of times the past few years, even with Martinez IMO, that the QB just stayed in the pocket or backfield instead of hammering down. It was as if Bo and co had no faith in the backups and told them not to run. (IMO). I would like Riley to give the green light to tuck and run if its open. I am hoping that Langsdorf can help with this. Kind of hard to see the open expanse of the field when our QB's have seemed ill equipped to even make reads. A QB who can keep the D honest with their feet can really open up the game for us. They didn't tell Martinez not to run. He had 1,300 years in 2012. But they did tell him not to get hurt, which made it even weirder. That's when you saw Martinez hit wide open field and instead of turning on the burners he started anticipating the safest place to go down.

And some were griping about the fans via Twitter. If we're talking about repairing the Nebraska culture, I'd rather have the players griping about the suits in the AD office than blaming the fans in the stands. Eichorst blowback will help some players defend Pelini and support Riley at the same time. It's not a troubling sign. To my eye, the players had already bought in at the Holiday Bowl.

I'm late to the party and saddened myself. Sounds like a banning episode on a non-sports board I used to frequent. Strong personalities and well-meaning administrators were involved. We were asked, even begged not to question the decisions made, but when the facts came out there was indeed some thin skin, inconsisitency and personal agendas involved. It was understandably maddening that the banned posters weren't allowed to explain themselves on the board, and had to accept "they know what they did" as an explanation beyond reproach. Some otherwise very nice people were not exactly honest about stuff. Maybe that didn't happen in this case. I don't know. But banishments, censorship and secrecy end up making a lot more work for mods and admins than cool down periods and self-policing. If personal privacy was wittingly violated and liability issues involved, that's another story. That other board continued. Some welcomed the banishments. Some thought it opened the board for more civil discourse. But it turned out those banned posters and their friends were a lively bunch, and the board got a whole lot less interesting and active without them.

Years to overcome? We have a new coach. He's totally different. The staff, the players the recruits and the fans have already bought in. The results will be displayed on the field, as always. They will be compared to Bo Pelini's results -- for better or worse -- as Bo was compared to the coaches before him. Just the way it happens at every football program. It's okay to mention his name. He's not exactly Voldemort. The culture recovered when Shawn Eichorst finally dropped the hammer. Many embraced the change within seconds. Some took a few days. Or weeks. But we're all feeling better about Nebraska football right now. Come join us.

That may be the single most dumbfounding thing of Bo's tenure. If that's the VT game, I remember a really nice Zac Lee touchdown pass that got called back on a BS call (the same BS call that cost Dallas a TD against Green Bay this year), a couple BS delay of game penalties when the Blacksburg crowd got deafening. Certainly a bit of a meltdown, but that maligned offense actually did what it needed to do to win that day. And so did the defense, except for two total meltdown plays of their own to finish the game. Somewhere in there Lee had another perfect TD pass called back. In hindsight, that 2009 team was mentally tougher than the Bo teams that followed. Say all you want about the :01 against Texas, but Nebraska was supposed to be out of its league in that game, but they played big when it mattered and had Texas on the ropes.

I'd like to see running quarterbacks utilized the way they were before people called them Dual Threats. Give the ball to your running back on running plays. Drop back to pass on pass plays. But if you look up and see 10+ yards of wide open space, you take it. Quickly and decisively. Hook slide if you need to, but you're not afraid to cut inside and take (or give) a hit, because you're tough as nails yourself. Not a designed play, but not a scramble. The quarterback makes a defense pay for sagging coverage. Just do it a couple times in the first half and you've helped both the running and passing game, and the QB might not have to run much at all.

I thought we entered the Big 10 at perhaps the weakest point in conference history. The Big 12 is full of streaky, imperfect teams, but they're deep in teams that would cause the Nebraska defense trouble. Out of 10 current Big 12 teams, I would have pencilled in a W for only two of them. Five years ago we would have had Colorado instead of TCU, which sounds good except even the crappiest Colorado team tended to give us fits.

And that was a resilient well-coached Ohio State team that overcame four fumbles to win the National Championship. You can overcome a lot with mental toughness and resolve. That wasn't a Bo Pelini strongsuit. Turnover margin is the visible result of larger issues. And that not being a strongsuit of the Pelini years is also mind boggling when you look at the guy's hardnosed personna. You'd think resolve and mental toughness, just by knowing the guy from the outside and his no bullsh#t personality, would be traits he could easily instill in his team. He was the Angry Dad you hate to disappoint. Because he might start yelling at Mom. That can make you more skittish than hard-nosed. Even if you loved the dude. And when you blame fans and World-Herald reporters for results on the field, you just gave up your no-bullsh#t personality for a totally-bullsh#t personality. But i'm talkin about pre-"f#*k the fans". You know, back when everyone still loved him. The team still had the "crumble at crunchtime" aura about them. I'm thinking Bo was always the same guy.

And that was a resilient well-coached Ohio State team that overcame four fumbles to win the National Championship. You can overcome a lot with mental toughness and resolve. That wasn't a Bo Pelini strongsuit. Turnover margin is the visible result of larger issues. And that not being a strongsuit of the Pelini years is also mind boggling when you look at the guy's hardnosed personna. You'd think resolve and mental toughness, just by knowing the guy from the outside and his no bullsh#t personality, would be traits he could easily instill in his team. He was the Angry Dad you hate to disappoint. Because he might start yelling at Mom. That can make you more skittish than hard-nosed. Even if you loved the dude. And when you blame fans and World-Herald reporters for results on the field, you just gave up your no-bullsh#t personality for a totally-bullsh#t personality.

And that was a resilient well-coached Ohio State team that overcame four fumbles to win the National Championship. You can overcome a lot with mental toughness and resolve. That wasn't a Bo Pelini strongsuit. Turnover margin is the visible result of larger issues.

Here's the anomaly: The 1999 Nebraska team that went 12 - 1, beat 5 teams in the Top 20 and finished the season #2/#3, led the NCAA in fumbles, 49 fumbles/25 lost. The '95 Team had 28/9 The 2012 Team, Martinez's last full season, had 35/22 The 2014 Team had 32/16, a decent improvement. Interceptions go up when we pass more, but there's no guarantee the running plays in their place would be fumble-free. Although the low-percentage passers of the Osborne/Solich years were given much safer pass plays and better protection. The difference is generally on the other side of the ball. Nebraska Defenses picked up the slack with takeaways.

The rash of turnovers in big games, and the panic on the defensive side, suggest a team that didn't have its head in the game. Reversing a couple turnovers probably changes nothing in these games. Wisconsin 2012 CCG, Martinez has a nightmare first quarter. Quick turnovers put us in an immediate 14 - 0 hole. Taylor's famous scramble followed by a sustained drive put it back to 14 - 10. Offense has calmed down. Nebraska is back in the game. Except we're not. Wisconsin runs all over our defense. Wisconsin is a better team.