drmathprog

"@ Va. Tech: W 28-14" Not saying that you can't beat us - I think most of us in Blacksburg recognize the improvements under Bo and those of us that follow our team closely know that anything can happen when two good teams meet. BUT, it does not happen too often that we lose by two TDs at Lane Stadium. It is a loud place for visitors and I really don't think we will get outplayed too badly by most visitors. I just can't wait for that game. Is everyone in Blacksburg as nice as you? I might have to try to get tickets if so. My daughter graduates from VT next month. I have seen a dozen or so VT games at Blacksburg with her. I didn't attend last years VT game at Nebraska, but she did. She marveled at how nice, polite and considerate the NU fans were, even when things weren't going well for NU. In contrast, while VT fans were voted as exhibiting the best sportsmanship within the ACC last year, that only leads me to marvel at what the other ACC school fans must be like.

1) How long have you been a member of Husker Nation? 1962 2) What/who led you to The Nation? Parents, grandparents, etc. 3) Where are you from originally? Fremont, NE 4) Where do you live now? Chesapeake, Va 5) Favorite Husker memory? Dean Steinkuhler's 1984 Orange Bowl fumble-rooski 6) Worst Husker memory? Nearly any involving Bill Callahan 7) Number of home games attended? 0 8) Number of away games attended? 0 9) Favorite Husker memorabilia/apparel? 1964 Big Red T-shirt signed by Wayne Meylan. (It's now "Big Pink") 10) Favorite place to watch a Husker game? (section in Memorial, bar, friends house etc.) Home 11) Favorite all time player? Wayne Meylan 12) WCO or Option? ? 13) Stevie Pederson or Billy Byrne? ? 14) Lil Red or Herbie Husker? ? 15) Favorite Husker play? Fumblerooski 16) Favorite game-day beverage? 17) How did you find HuskerBoard? (referral source) Google

I don't know if I'd call it "love" when we're listed seven spots behind the ECU purple pirates! But at least we're getting back on peoples radar. Sounds like someones been coming to this board for there scoop. The Matt May hype has now officially gone national! Well, last season ECU beat Virginia Tech, and VT beat... well, you know.

Not too shabby! Early Rankings

Unhappily, even good players made history-making bone-headed plays sometimes.

VT is a notoriously slow starting team, and I don't picture them capable of hanging with Alabama that early in the season. However, at Lane Stadium in week 3 NU is going to have it's hands full and then some.

If he does, prepare yourself for an emotional roller coaster ride. For each precociously great play there will be another play that will break your heart.

I regret I've never attended a NU game in Lincoln, but having seen many VT games at Lane Stadium at Virginia Tech, I can say that it's a pretty tough place for a visitor to play.

Yes, in fact, you do.

If it's a helpful data point, my daughter attended the VT/NU game. She's a senior at VT and has attended every VT home game since she's been there. She has always taken great pride in how loud the VT fans are at home. When I talked to her this morning, she said she had never heard anything even half so loud as the NU stadium yesterday!

As an example of a call going the other way, take another look at the replay of the McNeill TD pass catch. On that play, Young, the TE lines up on the right side of hte offensive formation, opposite McNeill. Young is apparently attempting to run some sort of route over the middle, probably with a bit of a pick for McNeill. Given how wrong things go for Young, it's hard to tell exactly what he is trying to do. At any rate, the VT linebacker with responsibility for covering Young drops back into exactly the spot Young is trying to run through. Unable to adjust, Young runs into, and then over, the VT linebacker. Young then falls and rolls twice down field. After barely missing tripping McNeill, he rises to his knees just in time to tackle the VT corner back who is covering McNeill across the field in man coverage. The VT corner back goes down. The end result; McNeill is wide open for a TD catch. It's easy to see how Young could have been called for one, or even two, offensive pass interferences.

I think the team is about on schedule. They played hard to end, they didn't quit when it would have easy to do so, they played pretty good run D until they got worn down, they are coached with passion and they played with passion. Four games into a new era, I think this is pretty good. Since I live on the East coast, I haven't seen many NU games the last few years, but the ones I saw often made me feel embarrassed for Nebraska. The players often seemed confused about assignments, especially on offense, and they played like they were too worried about making mistakes to execute cleanly. The coaching seemed clinical, passionless and overly complicated. I've always believed the best thing that can be said about a team is that its performance exceeds its talent. I think that was true of NU last night, whereas in the last few years, exactly the opposite seemed to be the case. Callahan seemed to take good players and form a mediocre (or worse) team. To poor even more sadness on the NU case, I attended the VT vs. Ohio U. game last year. Ohio U. is coached by Frank Solich, of course. That Ohio U. had that same good team quality I mentioned; it was a far better team than the quality of its players would lead one to expect. While I'm glad NU has found a good new coach, I still believe it had a quality coach in Solich to start with.

In the interest of full disclosure, although my grandfather, both my parents, my aunt and one brother all attended UNL and I have rooted for them as my "backup team" for 40 years (I graduated from the U S Naval Academy, which doesn't win all that much in football), my daughter currently attends Virginia Tech. That being said: I can't comment on the Bo call, since I didn't hear what was said between him and refs leading up to the call. On the Suh call, however, I have watched my Tivo of the play in slo-mo several times, and the following things are obvious: 1. No one pushed Suh; there was no VT player near enough to him to have touched him, let alone pushed him. He jumped on the VT quarterback of his own accord. 2. When Suh left his feet, he (Suh) was about 1 yard from the sidelines; 2. At the moment that Suh left his feet, the VT quarterback was lying on his back about 1 yard out of bounds. I might be able to argue that big calls like this shouldn't be made with the game on the line; i.e., the "NBA rule" against big calls in the final moments of a game. However, it is unhappily obvious that Suh made a totally unnecessary and boneheaded play that is a textbook example of "Unnecessary roughness". In most circumstances, he would have been lucky to have gotten away with it, and last night, he wasn't so lucky.