Mort Blort

NU 37 UW 24 passing - 172 rushing - 350

Not really Harvey's fault re. the Med Center not being part of UNL. That was done way back in the early seventies when the system was formed. The Med Center was removed from UNL (it had been a part of UNL for 70 years at that point). This has all been apparent to the system and Regents for many years; that the way they'd organized things was putting UNL in a very vulnerable position w/r/t AAU membership. Really more of a Milliken/Regents deal if you want to find blame locally. Perlman made good arguments; no one could have provided better leadership for UNL in the AAU review. Check the documents at http://chronicle.com/article/Documents-Related-to-U-of/127360/

Combining UNL and UNMC would be the makings of a great university system that would greatly improve the college's national reputation. Plus, I think the system as whole would get more of the CIC's research dollars, because now the medical center has zero chance at that money. I love football and our national football reputation, but I would like to see the University build itself as a whole package: academics and sports. But can we even add UNMC to UNL? I am wondering the b10. If the university system(s) wised up decided to make a super university, would it have to be reapproved by the b10? First, CIC isn't really about money, though. It's about research collaborations that lead to research grants. Regarding whether we'd be 'allowed' to (re)combine UNL and UNMC? Sure we would. The CIC would welcome that; certainly welcome it more than when CIC schools have to drop programs due to declining state support. The B1G/CIC is in all likelihood, though probably not publicly, going to want to see a plan from UNL to regain the AAU membership. The splitting of the national research components of the system (UNL and UNMC) from the metropolitan (UNO) and regional (UNK) parts of the system are the ONLY way to make that happen that evens the playing field with other universities in the AAU membership. Regaining AAU status without making that move is a near-impossibility, like being in the national championship conversation in football while under scholarship restrictions. It's one hand tied behind your back. Internally, you make a great point about CIC. Whatever the egos involved, UNMC deserves CIC stature, and reorganizing to give UNMC the association with UNL would give them that.

The way to rise in the criteria of the AAU and other rankings is well-known to those running the NU System. That is to find a way to be able to bring the two research-intensive institutions, UNMC and UNL, under a single administration, as they had been at the time of the university's induction into the AAU in 1909. The 'University of Nebraska' at that time was the school in Lincoln, and that university had bought a little down on its luck medical school in Omaha in 1902. It is not important that the 'flagship' institutions share a home city. What is important is that they share an administration. For an example, look south to Kansas. KU is in Lawrence. The KU Medical Center is in Kansas City. They are, for reporting purposes, the same institution. If you want a really opposite example from the other end of the Big Ten, Penn State's President Graham Spanier oversees the whole 22-campus operation from the flagship campus in State College, and reports all of the 90-some thousand students, all the research dollars, everything. This is all about small-minded Nebraska politics, Omaha-Lincoln sibling tensions, entrenched interests in the administrations at UNL, UNMC and perhaps most important, the system office. Now we'll see if they can do the right thing for the state, which would involve rejoining UNL and UNMC (at least) as a single University of Nebraska. In the end, you can hardly blame the AAU, as we effectively had a ten-year warning. The fact that both the AAU president, Berdahl, and the guy running the review committee, Faulkner, are former presidents of UT-Austin doesn't escape notice, though.

Yup. I'd say it's way past time to get off of Martiez's back. Not a crime to be an introvert, though it's hard to be a leader if you are. He worked hard, he's got a lot of work yet to do. But player development is as much on the coaching staff as on the player.

That's a powerful part of the reason we need to go our own way on offense. We won't win championships with a finesse offense that requires that we out-recruit the local schools in California, Florida and Texas. AND we just plain need an offense that's adapted to, or adaptable enough for, our weather extremes. Nebraska/Big Ten weather is just great for a finesse offense in September and most of October. November's cold and wind sometimes dictates that you need to have a smashmouth capability in your offense.

I'm completely undazzled by Watson's razzle. That smashmouth stuff was the most beautiful thing ever ... those first two drives after the half against Tennessee in the 98 ('97 season) Orange Bowl, for instance. Both drives started inside the Husker 5-yard line, and if memory serves, the first consisted of 12 consecutive rushes, the second 13 (?) ... those drives utterly destroyed Tennessee. Some people say it wouldn't work again. Options to the outside don't work against fast defenses, they say. It certainly is true that zone reads/read options to the outside did not work this year against Oklahoma. That we know.

I guess that's what bugs me about the current "offense" ... that it's primarily a "style," as if it were the width of a tie, or one of Watson's endless pairs of sunglasses. The Nebraska offense of old was a machine. What we have right now is a friggin' mess, of questionable value as a primordial ooze from which anything decent can evolve.

Call me old school. Call me hopelessly out of touch with football as it's played in this millennium. Go ahead. Resurrect the old idea that the Husker offense that built the program -- the product of ~30 years of refinement to fit a particular situation of available athletes and weather extremes -- the offense that Callahan abandoned -- can't be done anymore. People say it with conviction: "We can't go back." And I wonder ... Why The Hell Not? Bring back Rathman. Bring back Frost. Start here (http://trojanfootballanalysis.com/?p=25); add in a few things based on experience to make it better, just like Ozbo did every year. BE IT RESOLVED: The wheels fell off when we abandoned the old playbook like it had leprosy.

To me, the inability to stick with what's working, and the strange insistence on sticking with what ain't. Zone read is predicated on the offense having two equally-scary rushing threats. After Martinez was hobbled, defenses could just key on Burkhead or Helu. Martinez wasn't much of a threat. I still just don't get why we didn't go Huskers/KSU '94 and ride Rex to victory. It seemed to me that we didn't go that way because it ain't cool to go no-frills and beat the middle of the defense to death. Not flashy enough, or something.

Yup. The kid's quiet, people fill the silence with their own insecurities and project that on him. OTOH, his dad needs to take a little more distance and let his son grow up a little more on his own.

After cooling off ... I don't think it's fair to put this one on the kids playing ball for us. They all try their hardest, but sometimes, whether because of injury or inexperience or talent level, their hardest isn't enough to match up with the team across the line of scrimmage. There were a lot of mistakes made in that game, obviously. But the inattention to the fundamentals of protecting the ball (or catching it) is a condition that we see across the team; it's not just one player. Helu dropped one, Caputo/Burkhead another. It wasn't just Taylor. And when there's an issue that fundamental that's that widespread on the team, and it's something that doesn't seem to be an anomaly at all after this many games, but just what's expected, well, that goes back to coaching. Biggest problem tonight: turnovers. Second-biggest, craptacular playcalling by a coach that wouldn't know how to ride a horse (Burkhead) if he were velcroed to the saddle. Third, yeah, Martinez had a bad night. But clearly the kid didn't have his mobility and probably should never have been out there. Especially with a healthy Cody on the sidelines. And that's back to coaching.

hat tip on the mention of fstream. Went down the list of affiliates, googling each until I found a pls stream coming out of rogers, ark. In fstream, enter http://8570.broadcastmatrix.com/listen.php?type=pls When creating a new favorite. I put mp3 in for format and guessed 96 k. Needs to be easier, but it's working for me.