Enhance

It's basically going to be a game time decision, according to Rhule. We probably won't know for certain until they release the roster two hours before kick off.

I agree they are not game breakers, but they were the 2 of the 3 best runners behind a shaky offensive line, and that’s the scary part more than anything. They absolutely will be difficult to replace.

Unfortunately, as far as true running backs go on the roster, that's pretty much true.

Despite the 1-2 start and the loss of Ervin/Johnson, I still feel like Nebraska is probably a fringe bowl team which is where I had them pre-season. I think 6-6 is a reasonable best case scenario, but 4-8 or 5-7 is feeling more like the appropriate landing spot now. Looking at their remaining schedule, this is how I feel at the moment: La Tech: W Michigan: L Illinois: Coin Flip Northwestern: W Purdue: Coin Flip Michigan St.: W Maryland: Coin Flip (this is a tough one because they're undefeated but have played three inferior and/or bad teams) Wisconsin: L Iowa: L So, that's three more W's I feel fairly confident about, three games that I think are coin flips, and three L's that I'm just expecting based off of precedent. I'm not necessarily married to some of those coin flips and L's at the moment and they will assuredly fluctuate on a week-to-week basis now.

FWIW, nobody (specifically, myself, whose post drew the attention of Loebarth in the first place) is calling for teams to treat their QB's as "fragile." It's football, not Jenga. But, there's a lot of value in playing physical and smart, and knowing when it's time for one vs. other. He'll gain that experience over time. It's a bit bizarre to me that this viewpoint would draw consternation. I don't know about you guys but I'd rather not have my QB shatter his collar bone on his 15th run of the game in a situation where he didn't need to AND could've slid/run out of bounds to fight another down.

FWIW, I don't think you're wrong. I think it's just a crappy situation. While I think we can make a cogent argument for why Grant/Ervin shouldn't be in the game up 24 with 6 min. left, I also think it's a freak injury and there's a possibility that the coaches were using it as a way to get more reps and continue to build confidence for the team. It looks bad in hindsight because a player is now out for the season, but I also don't recall sitting on my couch at that point in the gaming thinking "man, they really shouldn't have Ervin in there." It felt appropriate/normal. And they were probably on the verge of that being among his last carries for the game. I guess my point is that if Ervin hadn't been injured, I don't think many of us would be sitting here on a Monday wondering why Ervin got a carry with 6:30 left in the game. We're hyperaware of it now because of something bad that happened. So, I try to judge the decision based on the moment and the situation as opposed to the result, and in the moment, it didn't necessarily feel wrong or inappropriate to have him in there. Just my two cents though. Love that show.

Agreed. I can think of several times over the last 15-20 years where we had starting running backs in the game with about that much time left and we were up by a few scores. That's a circumstance where I think most coaches will still have a large volume of their starters in, especially for a program like Nebraska that's trying to rebuild itself and grow confidence.

I'm going to make a very surface level body comparison and come to a ridiculous conclusion because of it. Prepare your butts. Ameer Abdullah was 5'9" and 180 lbs as a freshman. Emmett Johnson is 5'11" and 190 lbs. Based on that metric and that metric alone, I say play him. Oh, I'm laughing to hide the tears right now.

Looks like just a freak injury based on that angle. So frustrating.

Sims to RB? Joking. (kind of).

I don't remember if it was the last drive, but I do remember seeing him walk off the field holding his hip near the end of the game. That really sucks. My best to both of them. Hopefully the coaches/players can identify some opportunities to work around this news and find other players who can step up.

Precisely. I remember T-Magic suffered an injury as well (think it was a high ankle sprain) and Adrian also had an injury that sidelined his playing time/development. I wager the coaches don't think 20 carries are ideal, and I imagine they'll be talking to him this week too about making some safer decisions with his body. As a teammate, I appreciate a physical QB who isn't shy of contact, but I also appreciate a QB who wants to keep himself healthy for me and my teammates. Both can be signs of a good leader and a good QB.

It would depend on the circumstance but I think that's comparing apples to oranges a bit. T.O's teams didn't regularly feature quarterbacks that ran 20+ times into the teeth of defenses. Frazier averaged only 8 carries per game his senior season. Assuming HH remains the starter, the chances of his body holding up running the way he does for 15-20 times a game are very, very low. We also know that T.O.'s teams had more talent, depth, and could sustain injuries much more efficiently. There are times to be physical and fight for the extra yard, and there are times to be a leader and do what's right for your team. He's a young guy and he'll likely figure it out if given the opportunity.

100% agree. I think that's where I tend to push back a bit against Rhule's narrative from the last week or so. I'm sure he's not technically wrong when he said that 'things happened that weren't Jeff's fault' which helped lead to turnovers, but there's a fine line to be drawn there. For example, is he suggesting that Sims threw interceptions because maybe a receiver ran a wrong route and/or the line didn't pick up a blitz correctly? Because yes, that is a bad situation going against your QB, but to your point, your QB can't then go and make a bad decision on top of all of it. That's where the ball security and mindfulness as a QB has to come into play.

If HH keeps the starting job, and keeps running 15+ times a game, I hope he got his proclivity for bruising defenders out of his system. I think he can sustain 10-15 runs per game but not if he's going to truck stick linebackers and DB's every chance he'd get. If he runs 15 times a game it'd be nice if he gave himself up or ran out of bounds on at least 5-6 of them.

I think @Undone just had a really good post on this, but it's my understanding that one of greatest strengths of the 3-3-5 is it allows you to create nearly endless blitz packages, but then also allows you to put 8 into coverage in obvious passing situations out of what is effectively your "base defense." But, it is pretty dependent on those blitz packages creating pressure and confusion. Without it, you get the 3-3-5's weakness, which is the creation of passing lanes and gaps in the defense, potentially allowing for some big chunk plays. I think Nebraska's defense has done a pretty good job of creating pressure this season and playing pretty decent coverage. This may not be statistically accurate, but it feels like they're doing a better job of controlling the LOS and creating pressure than in some previous seasons. Urban Meyer had a segment about Nebraska's defense last week on BTN. I think this is the correct clip but can't watch it at the moment to confirm.

And with that, you proved why this thread is serving little to no value. I'm not sure which group of people gets triggered more easily - the Deion haters, or the people who can't handle the Deion haters.

Nebraska hasn’t been consistently good against any level of competition for a long time, particularly at the QB position, so it’s really bizarre that we have fans waving off HH’s performance because it was against NIU. We LOSE to teams like NIU. I agree the circumstances for both were not apples to apples. There were also 8-9 months of things that happened we didn’t see, including Sims’ teammates voting for him as a single digit. They must’ve had good reason to.

Hey friend, people are well within their rights to feel however they want to feel about him. Doesn't mean the same tired conversations need to be brought up time and again in the wrong forum. I don't see much perceptible difference between the people bothered by Sanders and the people that are bothered by the people who are bothered by Sanders. Seems like they're all just bothered.

Is this post supposed to be clever, witty, or clairvoyant? Because it is none of those. Nebraska hasn't been a bowl game since 2016. It lost at home to NIU in 2017. They also lost to Troy and Georgia Southern within the last five years. So, it is a bit silly that some of our fans are 'laughing their asses off' about good performances against perceptibly less talented teams. One would think this fan base would've moved beyond that type of vanity.

I agree - the amount of people who have insisted about bringing him up on this board over, and over, and over again in the last 12 months is astounding. He doesn't belong in the Husker football forum unless it's Colorado week. And if people really want to have a debate about whether or not they'd prefer him over Rhule, power to 'em - here's their feeding ground!

At one point, I may or may not have verbally lamented that I wished Ervin/Grant had just that little bit of extra speed to turn those 8-yard runs into 15-20+ yard runs. I thought back to what it felt like watching Abdullah, where defenders would have promising angles and Abdullah's speed would be just too quick for them. I think Grant and Ervin are good players but it does look like they're a quarter or half step slower than what would make them a true difference maker.

Against my better judgement, I didn't kill the thread, but I did move it out of the football forum. It should have never been in there in the first place. It's a low brow topic largely serving as a way for some people to self-gratify over Deion Sanders. It's also an irrelevant hypothetical. So, if you want to keep discussing the topic, welcome to your new home!

This post is such a mic drop that I'm half tempted to close this thread. +1

It's a good problem to have. I think Sims on paper is the more talented of the two, and he obviously did some really good things in the last 9 months to not only earn the starting job but also a single digit jersey number from his teammates. I think it would be unwise for anyone to expect that Haarberg won the job yesterday. The coaches probably aren't going to push Sims aside like that. Haarberg on the other hand showed good command of the offense and the only turnover wasn't his fault. I think a lot of his teammates were inspired by his tough running and general lack of costly mistakes. I also have very low tolerance for any argument against Haarberg that has to do with the quality of the opponent, as if this isn't the same program that lost 24-19 to Troy, 45-42 to Georgia Southern, or 21-17 to NIU all within the last six years. So, to quote Kendrick Lamar, you can miss me with that bulls#!t. Winning and winning well are lost commodities around this program, regardless of the opponent.