Guy Chamberlin

I dunno. Reminds me of people who showed two, maybe three games worth of patience for Shawn Watson's rebuilding offense before grabbing the torches and pitchforks. Yeah. The parallels are uncanny. Except for the fact that one school's standards are high and above the other's.... And the fact that one school's season is imploding while the other's is still capable of a BCS bowl. And the fact that one school is playing with one of its best teams ever while the other school is rebuilding. And the fact that one of the coaches has been on scene for eight years while the other has yet to complete his second year. Aside from that, it's almost exactly the same. Well considering that the entirity of my point is that losing creates short term memory problems, I accept your compliment.

For now I'd like to see us beat Kansas State, and look comfortable doing so.

Holiday Bowl is - for whatever reasons - always one of the most entertaining games and San Diego is a good January vacation. But boy, you don't want to be playing Stanford right now.

The 30 - 3 beatdown in Boulder followed by a come-from-behind bowl win against Michigan had us feeling pretty good about the direction the team was going in the coach's second year. Signature loss could have been the first USC game where he didn't play to win. They may not have won anyway, but it was a slap to Zac Taylor who was game to take it to the Trojans. But I'd probably have to go with the Oklahoma State homecoming game in '07. Never has a Husker team showed so little pride and failed so completely. Although Texas Tech and Iowa State this year are pretty close.

I dunno. Reminds me of people who showed two, maybe three games worth of patience for Shawn Watson's rebuilding offense before grabbing the torches and pitchforks.

Tom Osborne never let his emotions show. On the other hand, he needed a quadruple bypass. Such is the choice in coaching.

I like firey with a sense of humor. The guys who aren't afraid to smile when they win, or use some profanity in the locker room because hey....it's football. John Madden and Devaney come to mind. Anyone watch Bill Bellichick's press conference today? Dude is a helluva coach, but one of these days I think his head is going to explode.

Several points: • Tom Osborne's old triple option offense required more precision than the WCO. • Last year's offense "got it" and it's not like they were rocket scientists. And as you pointed out, several of them returned this year. • A good high school team can master as many plays as the Huskers have been running. • The problem wasn't as obvious as some like to think. Zac Lee and the offense looked good as they were learning the first four games. And we all felt pretty jazzed about that fourth quarter in Missouri. Then the wheels came off in the Texas Tech game. Nothing worked. In the Iowa State game, the playcalls worked just fine, it was 8 pathetic turnovers - four in the red zone - that killed the offense. It says a lot about team discipline, but what does that say about the playcalling? Hard to say, but by now you're pressured to "do something" so you put in the QB everyone is clamoring for. Of course he has a different skill set and it turns out he might not be ready for primetime yet. So you're back to your old, slightly demoralized quarterback and easing him into a comfort zone, putting the weight of the offense on Roy Helu. Which worked just well enough to win. Then you loosen the playbook back up a little as Lee regains his confidence and Helu appears healthy. The alternatives are only "obvious" in hindsight. If Shawn Watson listened to the bulletin board gurus he'd be kicking field goals on any first down inside the 40. • The WCO is not a passing scheme. It's a high-percentage offense that is more than happy to run the ball if that's what's working. This does not appear to be an offense equipped to ram the ball down an opponent's throat, especially if it has announced its intention to do so. • Anyone who doesn't understand "taking what the defense gives you" shouldn't be offering coaching advice.

So.....uhm......what would YOU like to talk about? Its just not me but a lot of others here are sick and tired of the complaining and so forth. Do I think that hit by Asante was bad on his part not really but he did get penalize for it right. If you watch the youtube video of the hit, Asante was already in the air when Reesing went to slide. Just because Asante had one bad hit everybody wants to label him a thug.....please if you want to see thugs play watch Miami I was listening to 1620 the Zone on the way to work and they had I believe a journalist from Kansas on and they asked him on what he thought about that hit. He said that he believes that Asante didn't do that w/ intent to hurt Reesing but went on to note that it was a bad hit but it didn't upset him that it happened because its football. He also stated that he hates it when you see a QB slide like Reesing did and its frustrating for a defender not to tackle him because the QB wears pads just like that defender. So not all Kansas fans are upset about that hit. Its done and over with so move on and lets talk about K-State. So......umm.....what do YOU want to talk about now? I guess we could talk about unicorns that piss rainbows and non-controversial affirmations of the Nebraska football program. Geez, Huskerjock. It's the internet. If needless discussions about things that don't really matter were eliminated, the whole thing would disappear.

Everyone supposedly in love with smashmouth-at-any-cost defense might want to ask the Pelini's how inspiring those 15 yard penalties are. Especially in those situations where the other 10 guys had been stopping the opponent using more conventional means. And a TV commentator who noticed Asante had a tendency to be a hothead in previous games is simply a commentator who's been paying attention. Slap a Colorado helmet on Asante, put Zac Lee on the ground and there's no way this board celebrates the aggressive style of the defensive back.

So.....uhm......what would YOU like to talk about?

For the past few years the pollsters have seemed willing to give NU the benefit of the doubt, and then they get burned by our inability to beat a ranked team. We haven't earned it yet. And forgetting potential Top 25 opponents for the moment, are we anywhere near a lock against a K-State or Colorado? The upside? I think this particular team plays better with a chip on its shoulder and the pressure backed off a tick. Or has anyone else noticed they're better on the road than at Memorial Stadium?

First of all, you do not want Scott Frost or Eric Crouch anywhere NEAR the teaching of quarterbacks how to pass. Great competitors and leaders, but even as seniors they didn't seem to grasp the basic fundamentals or mechanics of passing. That Frost has become an astute defensive coach suggests Bill Walsh was right. Keep in mind that while Scott Frost was a small town Nebraskan, his father had played for Devaney/Osborne and his mother was an all-American track star at UNL. If there was a "diss" to the program, it was by a couple savvy parents and UNL sports alums. In fairness to them, when Bill Walsh comes to your kitchen table in Wood River or wherever and offers a scholarship to one of the finest academic universities in the country, your loyalty to your son might weigh heavier than your loyalty to your state. I think there was also some scuttlebutt that Mr. and Mrs. Frost did not think UNL was giving Scotty enough love and/or had some older slight they held against the athletic department. And since we have a thread with Bill Walsh in it, might as well point out yet again that the WCO was never a pass-happy offense. It was designed to be a high-percentage offense. And the legion of coaches who went on to adopt and fine-tune the WCO would be perfectly happy to have 200 yard rushing days if that's what's clicking

Yeah. Hitting a guy on the ground. A lot to love there. If you're a dick. The best defensive players are as smart as they are intense. Cheap shots hurt the team.

Keep in mind that it was Frank Solich's rather adventurous off-field life that made him a liabilty more than his coaching record. I never liked Callahan, even as the Raiders head coach, but I hope Nebraska keeps the WCO, a playbook that can be exactly as big or as focused as a team needs.

Gray is the color that symbolizes both black and white, the ash of a burning fire, the sky on the cold misty morning of battle, the skin of a shark. It is the.... .....oh wait. It's just a sweatshirt.

One night when Bob Devaney was too drunk to back his Cadillac up my street, I helped guide him out.

Here's my bet: One or both quarterbacks play pretty well in a win against Kansas and it settles absolutely nothing.

A lot of things happen in practices and locker rooms that we don't see that influence coachs' decisions. Some quarterbacks are lousy practice quarterbacks and better gameday quarterbacks. Some qbs aren't good in the locker room and don't have the full faith of the players. Coaches see this. We don't. But coaches always know enough never to appear panicky, which is why they rarely throw out the third stringer when the team is 6 - 3. Knapple's right. Waaaayyy too early to have the book on Cody Green. Would have loved for him to step right in with the poise that matched his confidence, but I don't see why we had the right to expect that of a true freshman on a flawed offensive squad.

Something that would really help the program is for Nebraska to play well on national television. In fairness, the Huskers actually did look like a top tier team against V-Tech. For that matter, playing possum for three quarters and exploding for four TDs in the fourth quarter against Missouri made us look like cold-blooded gunslingers. Wow. Was that really only five weeks ago?

Wait. Why DOES a QB have to start? Can't we just hike it directly to Roy Helu and tell the Offensive Line to get out of his way? SIMPLIFY PEOPLE!

I think Crouch kinda hurt his own legacy. Everyone knew he was a player, but he wasn't a quarterback, not in any kind of pro football sense. When the NFL wasn't able to accomodate him, he came off as a bit of a whiner.

The Heisman is always going to be flawed, but I think Tommy Frazier actually got a lot of respect in '95 and continues to get it today, despite never having a pro career. In '95 Frazier had 604 yards rushing and 1,362 yards passing, hitting 56% of his passes. People like stats and Frazier's weren't eye popping, but he was clearly a leader and he vaulted passed players with better stats for second place. Actually, Frazier's 31 TDs were a pretty good stat. But Eddie George got the Heisman curse, losing his last two games, and Tommy got his second National Championship. Worked out fair enough, I think.

I think the offense would be better if it just got a little mojo back. Green and Lee are both better than they've been playing. Not much, but better. Enough to make a difference. Same with the receivers who got wide open on those WCO routes and simply dropped perfectly thrown balls. Obviously the talent is limited, but sometimes a funk takes over the whole team. The most inept and porous defense I've ever seen in major college ball was that '07 Husker Defense. The '08 squad, which started slow, toughened up considerably as the season progressed. Many had been on that same inept '07 squad and all of them were Callahan guys. Chemistry and confidence can be fragile things. A big part of Bo Pelini's job is not to let the second guessing by fans, reporters and internet obsessives infect the players.

I'm too lazy to scroll up and see who mentioned the change in guys running the option, but the tough QBs were always willing to take the hit AFTER the pitch, and the moment of hesitation it caused the lineman stringing out the play often sprung the trailing back when the QB finally pitched. Or kept it. Guys like Frazier and Frost and Crouch would also use that moment of hesitation to slide inside on the keeper. For the record, this was a more demanding and fine-tuned offense than the WCO. And yeah, we've been seeing a stripped-down WCO for a few weeks now. Those screen passes were supposed to be a low-risk option for a QB who was wasn't keen on crossing patterns and too impatient (or engulfed by defenders) for deep routes. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if Watson opened Zac Lee back up a little against a weaker D. Just might work. As long as Helu gets 20 - 25 carries to go with it.