Danny Bateman

Haha, good call man. I just about went "cough, cough... TEXAS" in Tevin's thread.

I should say I don't feel comfortable regurgitating other people's takes wholesale on what he is doing wrong here. But they are a lot more supported than assumption. We probably have Milt to thank for the wheels not coming off on the OL this year, though. Barney was the guy who came in here spouting off in news articles about how OL just need to be fiery and aggressive, screw technique and all those things the old staff foolishly emphasized.......never mind that Callahan as an OL guy and Barney is embarrassingly not close to a contest. That told me Barney didn't have a clue, and I don't think he's really gotten much of one in 3 years. I agree that this year, the results have been passable to decent. But Barney is still Barney. I will also agree that a lot of the sacks we saw against OU were on Taylor pure and simple. Anyway, I just realized this is the Givens Mordi Price thread. Sorry for taking it off in another direction. Nah, it's cool zoogies. Hopefully Givens doesn't come on here, or he'll see he got threadjacked and his thread is now another Barney discussion thread. Hopefully, he sees all the complementary stuff we had to say about him beforehand . Anyway, in regards to your first paragraph... I'm in total agreement. I ALMOST brought it up in one of my earlier posts, but I just wanted to make a few main points about Barney and thought it might've been rambling... I had no idea it'd turn into a total BC beatdown. What I mean is... I almost brought up the fact Barney preached intensity and fire as opposed to technique. I remember reading an article about how the lineman loved this, and in the beginning Barney preaching getting the job done by any means necessary was fine, as opposed to bogging the guys down with worrying about technique. The problem is, that eventually caught up to us and bit us in the @ss. Now, our linemen don't understand good technique and consistently cost the team with penalties, which shows a lack of discipline. So we've got undisciplined, streaky linemen who love to pull the old Jekyll and Hyde act when it comes to taking games over or completely embarrassing our offense. Great. Just what we were shooting for.

Haha, well, I hate your brother. I graduated from Denison last year... They kick our @sses in pretty much everything. Anyway, assuming this kid somehow qualifies, I cannot vouch for his talent level being better than Wegher's, but let's hope he has more staying power... Denison? My pops is from Denison Really? Wow... small world. We moved there when I was in 2nd grade from Omaha. Now I'm back for school... but the family is still up there.

He was in Rex's class, and I thought the similarities between the two were really uncanny and weird. 4 star white RB's with ridiculous amounts of potential, and both really tough runners. Since I played against Wegher in HS, for a while I kinda wished he woulda gone N and helped us out, since he seemed to be a pretty good player. This was before we got Rex's commit, though, and after that, I always got the feeling Rex would turn out to be the better player. For now, looks like I was correct. Guess Wegher could still prove me wrong though. BTW, FWIW, a lot of my friends from HS went to Iowa, and I talked to one who is as big of sports fanatic as I am (he bleeds Gold and Black like I do Scarlet and Cream), and he told me the deal with Wegher was that he got TWO girls pregnant and thus had other commitments to deal with this year than Hawkeye football. Idk, though... I THINK he said two, but I could have heard wrong. One seems a hell of a lot more plausible. If it is two, that is literally the biggest boner move I have ever heard. In my life. My entire life. '

Haha, well, I hate your brother. I graduated from Denison last year... They kick our @sses in pretty much everything. Anyway, assuming this kid somehow qualifies, I cannot vouch for his talent level being better than Wegher's, but let's hope he has more staying power...

Wow... So tomorrow's D-Day huh? Well, here's hoping our boys goes in and handles his stuff on this test. Good luck buddy.

I'm sure it's quite the ride for you guys out there, man. It is fun. I'm a freshman in college right now, and one of my buddies from high school got recruited to play offensive line at Iowa, Iowa State, NU, KU, K-State last year... he was a behemoth. He ended up going to Iowa. It was interesting to follow it, though, and to get to talk to the guy throughout the whole thing. Thanks for offering to keep us updated. I wouldn't want you to push NU anyway, so you being neutral is a good thing. We'll all just be curious how the kid's recruitment plays out... whether it be in our favor or not. We'll still be interested. Thanks though.

Wow, thanks for the heads up and welcome to Huskerboard rdt. Do you know if the kid has any favorites as far as where he'll go to school? I know it's a bit early, but sometimes they have a dream school. Also, any idea how serious his interest in NU is? I'm not advising doing anything recruiting violation worthy , but it'd be cool if you could poke around and get any kind of inside scoop for us.

our OL has improved significantly since cotton got here, including a pretty big step up this season. it's certainly not where i want it yet, but now that we're starting to have some depth and competition, i expect it will continue to improve. We might be building depth and competition, but I don't think our offensive line has gotten better under Cotton. We can do better for an OLine coach. Too bad he has NU ties... makes it so hard to let him go. We've shown flashes, but no consistency. One awesome pull block for a huge touchdown, followed on the next drive by totally inept pass pro leading to a sack. Spot on, one area they definatly have imporved on is pass blocking. In the CCG there were 2-3 plays were Martinez had 7 seconds or more to throw the dang ball. That is more than sufficient time to either check down, or throw the damn ball away. Run blocking is so hot and cold with this line it drives me to drink heavily on gamedays. Good call, Speed. The most damning evidence that we can't just line up and run block our way to a win when we want to... SDSU. We had those guys beat on talent in probably every position, and definitely on the offensive line. While we did have a young QB trying to force things in his fourth game, there's absolutely no reason we shouldn't be able to line up and run up and down the field on that D. It should've been like moving the sled on the practice field, and yet, we failed to open up any good holes. They did have a lot of fight, and heart, that is admirable. But NU should've plowed straight through those guys. On a lesser note, we also failed to take over the ISU and KU games, both defenses I have the same feeling about.

Lot of volume on this guys offer list. A lot of good teams sprinkled in there too... Florida, Alabama, Tennessee. Sorry, too lazy to go back to the last page and check the rest of them. And of course, the holy grail of any offer to any kid anywhere... Dear Ole NU. As stated, he would be a great get for us. Do we for sure want him at ILB? I could see them keeping his weight down and plugging him outside if he's fast enough. However, I get the feeling he's a tad on the slower side, which would lead me to think ILB. For some reason also reminds me of a young Phil Dillard. Ahh... 700th post.

our OL has improved significantly since cotton got here, including a pretty big step up this season. it's certainly not where i want it yet, but now that we're starting to have some depth and competition, i expect it will continue to improve. We might be building depth and competition, but I don't think our offensive line has gotten better under Cotton. We can do better for an OLine coach. Too bad he has NU ties... makes it so hard to let him go. We've shown flashes, but no consistency. One awesome pull block for a huge touchdown, followed on the next drive by totally inept pass pro leading to a sack.

I don't remember Martinez fumbling very much running the ball. His fumbles come when the pocket collapses and he has to be decisive...which he isn't. We've seen it when he's scambling and makes one of those rediculous underhanded throws. How many times did you see him throw a ball away this year? 0? 1? That's almost ENTIRELY on the QB coach. To see it in his first few starts is one thing, but the 10th? Not acceptable. But I personally wouldn't label him a fumbler when he's rushing the ball. No more so than I'd call Rex or Roy fumblers. martinez fumbled more than a few times when running the ball. I remember a few, but most of his fumbles that I remember came when he wasn't completely committed to the run. A running back gets the ball...they are running the football. When Taylor has it he's got a million things going through his head. Early in the season his fumbles where mostly in the zone-read exchange, which IMO is just ripe for a fumble, and I personally don't care for it much. Cody on the other hand had some bad fumbles after a 5-8 yard scramble, etc. I respectfully disagree. I don't remember how many times I saw Taylor *try* to take off on a run, carrying the ball like a loaf of bread, get smacked from some odd direction he may or may not have seen coming, and then had the ball pop out. Probably lost years off my life this year on that alone. And also, not to bag on the kid, especially since Cody has this same issue, but if we're going to retain Watson and continue to run this godforsaken zone read attack on offense, we cannot have a QB running the show who can't run our BASE PLAY without fumbling... no matter what it is.

Does anyone else think maybe our insistence on having receivers that are blocking studs could be hurting us in the passing game? I just realized this... I had always been for a tough, hardnosed receiving corps that knew they had a big part in creating long plays in the running game by throwing solid blocks, but only letting guys on the field who excel at blocking? Not every receiver is hard wired that way. And if it keeps Taylor and other "finesse" receivers off the field who could actually greatly benefit us through the air by stretching the field with their speed, isn't that kind of borderline keeping our offense "one dimensional?" That'd be the most ironic slap in the face conceivable, considering Watson's feelings on multiplicity Seriously, if not being the best blockers keeps our speed guys off the field, that hurts our offense. Some even think it got Antonio Bell banished from the WR corps. I'd hate to think our best pure "receivers" (i.e., guys who are good at getting open and catching the ball, not blocking on the perimeter) are stuck on the bench because they're not physical enough. I know we want complete receivers, but cmon.

The boys on USC were just interviewing Mitch Sherman from the OWH and they brought up something that I think most eloquently and effectively sums up Wats' big problem: When asked why he got away from using the Wildcat Saturday night when it was clearly effective, Wats responded that he "didn't want to get too one-dimensional." This is the man's fundamental problem. We all understand you want to look like an offensive genius, Shawn. We know you want to drop points like the Washington game (part 1) or the K-State game on teams every time our team takes the field. We understand your infatuation with "multiplicity." However, when you put up as BLATANTLY TERRIBLE results against good defenses as you have, don't you think maybe you should stop trying to get cute and out-think your opponents, and DO WHAT WORKS? If you don't understand this concept after this long in the business... give up. You're a blockhead. Anyone who can't understand that if something works and you don't continue to go to it while everything else you try fails, you are an absolute moron and should not be wearing a whistle, on a sideline, in a press box, or anywhere else. Also, I'd just like to point out, Rex may have fumbled once running the Wildcat, but that could've been put more on Caputo with a bad snap than anybody, and I guarantee you running that formation the rest of the night wouldn't have netted us the four fumbles Taylor alone did. Another of Wats' flaws: He continues to let this team fumble. When we're leading the nation in fumbles... by far. Unacceptable. So, why, Watson backers, when is it ever acceptable to choose the principle of being multiple as an offense, as opposed to doing what works? If you can answer this, I'll go away. I'm just curious. I know I'm not Bo or Dr. Tom or anyone else relevant in the decision making process about whether our offensive staff stays or goes. But seriously: Wats, Barney, Gilmore need to hit the road for this offense to start off on the long, winding road to recovery.

Dude makes Spellcheck's head hurt. But he did make a somewhat valid point... I think...

Vandy: Please.... take....

Really? Cuz I was thing the exact opposite. If Carnes is as good as people are saying (and I'm fully aware of the fact that everybody's favorite player is the backup QB), then I expect him to come in and put up good competition, if not supplant Taylor as the starter, with Taylor then seeing time as a receiver, assuming he doesn't transfer. My reasoning is that Carnes appears to be the better passer than Taylor at this point in his career, and Taylor's fumbles are really a giant detriment to this team. We could at least mask this by not putting the ball in his hands every play on offense and only some of them (hence, him as a receiver).

You have a valid point, but you broke a cardinal rule of having a successful thread: No good thread ever has "pwned" in the title. Waste of a thread.

Gomes did a good job reading that one. Didn't make the tackle... but that was a good job diagnosing the play and forcing the gang tackle

Offense. Da Bo hired kept a young an old OC and he hasn't shown he can produce w/o CJ Spiller T-Mart. There, Cacti, I fixed it so you have a lot of our gripes, pre CU game, of course. That game silenced some of the critics... FOR NOW Wats...

This is a Husker basketball thread, I'm afraid, Emperor. We don't really fact check... it's Husker basketball. You could tell me Doc is implementing a new Supersoaker defense predicated on shots of water to the face of the other team, and that our leading scorer this year is a frosh Doc recruited from the moon, and I wouldn't bat an eye. Typos easily slip by.

Not to sound like an ass hat here, but I had my eye on Thad ever since he got here and was looking for the kid to breakout eventually. I knew right away, when he made the All-Texas team his senior year with Burkhead, we could expect big things from this young man. From what I hear, he's a quality dude too. Rock on Thad Carry on the tradition.

Big props to BigRedNetwork, who pulled this gem outta nowhere. I seriously think this might be the only time I use this emoticon in the same sentence as OU, but this is also the only time I've ever agreed with them on something: Dead on, Boomer. http://www.oudaily.com/news/2010/nov/30/column-dan-beebes-leadership-continued-cause-big-1/

I saw that while I was working out and thought the same thing... After they zoomed in on Rickey, I totally disregarded the segment. Shows how much they really research stuff... Guess they didn't know he's been keeping the bench warm LIKE A PRO for a while now.