Billyball

Looks like our boys have spent too much time reading the sunshine pumpers on here wondering if there could possibly be a team or two in the country that could give us a game. I'm guessing they are figuring it out from Bo's tone. WE have not accomplished a dam thing to this point. Just glad it was an FCS instead of K suck.

We're easily a far, far, far more productive & explosive offense with Tmart than with the other two. "Might" not do as well with the other two?? lol! Yeah, the sun "might" rise this morning.... It has been a very dynamic offense and something of a surprise to opponents. Before assuming we are the greatest because of TM's play, I would caution you to look at how well we looked under Lee in the pre-season against the sunbelt and in our bowl against AZ. If you compare those four games to the three we have played this year, the competition and the great results are strikingly similar. It was in the conference when the O really had it's struggles. Let's hope this O continues the dominance in conference.

So far it is like someone sitting down at a blackjack table. He started playing two dollars a hand and added the winnings to his bet each time and won all three. Our big winner of fourteen dollars then jumps up and down wanting to be sure that the casino brings ten million $ worth of chips to the table cause he thinks he can't lose. It's nice some scribes and especially coaches have us highly ranked. It is great we beat a d1 team-- like the gambler's third hand. But 8 of the 9 hands we have remaining will be tougher I think. I think we had better tamp down the "there are only two teams in the country that can beat us"' until we are six or seven more games down the road. WTF? Is a bad feeling to have when the Husker's get beat, but especially for folks thinking playing these games is only to fill time until our rightful place in the NCG. Right now I'll feel better when we pass the Ksucks test.

Does anyone know if Thomas has thrown any passes at ksu? Sure seems like would be a natural if they put him in the wildcat to have a former qb dump it to someone as he attracts the legit attention. Couldn't be any worse than their starting qb winging it.

I don't think Wash is a very good team. They suck o special teams and defense, not much more than average on offense. I don't think our defense is anything near what it wa s last year. This should be a blowout and might well be, but the Dline doesn't bode well for KSU and. Others.

I am not sure we have the OL right now for the run heavy offenses that many of you think we can. When you face a strong D, if you don't have the top hosses in front no matter how gifted the backs, you'll get shut down. Bo is recruiting such an OL, but I have my doubts that the current line can dominate the trenches for a power running game. Hpoe I am wrong.

I don't think we need a wildcat, unless T Mart's production turns out to be limited to lessor foes as Lee's production turned out to be last year. If that is the case then a different set of plays will be needed and a wildcat with our RBs makes sense. If that would be the case then Burkhead would be my choice until Niles proves he can keep his head in the game and hold on to the ball. Burkhead will hit the hole.

We will have no idea about that until after the game. This team has played no one of his ability. On the other hand they have upset some ranked teams and lost a lot of games. Let's wait till we shut him down before claiming a title of "best" anything.

1). More than 80 yards rushing on less than 10carries by TM 2). 200 yards passing 60% completions no int 3). Over 200 yards rushing 4) hold WU to under 350 yards 5). No more than one turnover

Wait until we beat somebody, a nd then it's still best to stfu. Dissing the opponent is best left to cluless fans.

This isn't too surprising. The more surprising thing for me is why we are ranked in the top ten currently, given our terrible offense last year and huge defensive losses at least on paper. We have gotten no credit for beating two cupcakes on our schedule that we paid to come to Lincoln, nor should we. That last game was a big disappointment. This oft heard excuse that "Bo plays up to the opposition and Washington (any damn game for that matter) isn't a big game".. is just lame. He will have this team as ready and motivated as he possibly can get them. Count on it. One area that has not been settled is whether the offense we are so excited about--TM directed running game--will work against better competition. I don't know that it will and neither does anyone else. That is likely why the three guys are not believers in a Husker Victory. Until we show this offense can control the ball and score without turnovers against legitimate BCS programs, nobody knows where we stand. A good showing and a convincing win will erase that doubt.

You are likely correct that in our current offense TM is going to get hit a lot. Good defenses will try to rock his world on every play, just as Carl and Bo would do against a Tyrod or against Shoelace in Ann Arbor next year. When Tm carries the ball he'll get hit, when he hands off the ball and fakes he'll get hit like the ball carrier, and if it's even close, he'll get hit after a pass. He's a tough athlete but having a backup RTG is more important given the physical game TM leads. And Bo and Wats likely are acutely aware of how last year's pre-season QB play (offense in general) translated once conference season began. If the option offense featuring T Mart rushing gets bogged down in Big 12 play and Cody is the better passer, they want him to have been in meaningful game situations if they have to go to him. I think we'll get a feel Saturday as to how the TM game will go against a mid to lower tier Big 12 defense at Wash. If their defense can shut the run game down and T Mart doesn't execute the passing game to make them pay, expect a switch to Cody and then more emphasis on Cody in our last OOC game. Bo is not going to trust success against the cupcakes this season on offense translating to league play like with Lee last year. You can bet they will go into the conference with a Plan B this year at QB, in case of injury or ineffectiveness.

I wouldn't get all excited by the coaches comments lauding our Huskers. If you heard Lou Holtz in the day of his best teams or before that Bear Bryant, their public comments about the opponent seemed that they didn't even belong on the same field as their powerful opponent. Most often they won, usually in a rout and then say the same thing the next week. He has reason to be concerned facing the Huskers, but you can bet he is looking forward to it and thinks they can win. Any wise coach will speak highly of the team they are about to play. It's also the classy thing to do, don't read much into it.

Tmart & Green both blow chunks and Lee comes is to save the day? I think the odds of that happening are about zilch (unless injuries occur) but if it did most probably Lee would be the starter. Otoh, via "injuries" to Tmart/Green I could easily see Lee coming in and saving our bacon. Imo a far, far more likely scenario. It actually wouldn't surprise me at all. If we're down 24 at the end of 3 as in your scenario, the D has "done quit". If you have gone that far with T M, why throw Lee in to chuck it up and watch more INTs pile up? Now if TM is not getting it done and they are containing the run, going to him earlier might make some sense. If you are depending on Lee to save your bacon down 24 with a quarter to play, he should have been starting. I don't think we'll be down that much but I will not be overly surprised if we are behind in the 3rd quarter. If one team gets turnoveritis is the only way I see this getting out of hand early.

Then why did we have to pay Idaho and Wash not pay Cuse? Stumper?? If you are right Saturday it won't even be close to a contest and we will put their lights out In the first quarter. Why not wait and let the team prove it? not much of a stumper at all to a common college football fan. you dont pay out for home and homes. washington ventured to syracuse in 2007. idaho was a one way ticket. If you don't understand the difference in a paid beat down and a home and home series; I can't help you.

Then why did we have to pay Idaho and Wash not pay Cuse? Stumper?? If you are right Saturday it won't even be close to a contest and we will put their lights out In the first quarter. Why not wait and let the team prove it?

Again I do hope we don't have to swallow any Crow when claiming vast superiority over a program that has played two legit FB teams while we paid teams to come to Lincoln for a whuppin and had issues in both games. This is the first game of the year that we are not paying to be a scrimmage beat down. While I believe we have superior athletes on an overall basis, we have done noting zero nada zilch to confirm that superiority this season. Why not simply wait and see what kind of a team we have rather than claiming we are a great team after beating two payed bozos and Wash Is crap?? I've eaten my share of humble pie this decade as a Big Red fan, why set it on the table early??

Nope, just going off last year where people were saying we had the best offense to ever be assembled in Division I football during our first few games, only to sputter and completly stall during Big 12 play. Great. We have an explosive running QB. What's going to happen when teams put eight or nine in the box and stuff the zone read? Will he be able to pass effectively enough to move the ball? Based off the last two performances, I don't know that, so I'm not just going to assume everything will be okay. The offensive coaches, unlike the defensive coaches, have shown me nothing to make me think everything will be fine on offense. I don't know..maybe I'm missing something. Maybe suddenly we have really great offensive coaches. Sorry buddy, but you should almost always be able to gain one yard when you need it. We got stuffed on every power running play we tried including two plays where we only needed a yard. This was IDAHO. If we get stuffed by Idaho, what's going to happen when the defenders get bigger and faster? And you act like our offense was great against Idaho. It wasn't. Yards are great but they don't win games. Sure we were up 38 to 17, but 14 of those points were from our defense. Our offense put the ball on the ground EIGHT times, but luckily only lost three of those. Who knows what would have happened if Idaho players were lucky enough to be in the right place for the other five fumbles. Sorry, but that's unacceptable, and we won't win many games with that many turnovers. We have more than the option? Really? All of our offensive scores were from the zone read option. Most of our big plays the last two weeks were from the zone read option. Taylor maybe had two or three passes that were for over 20 yards. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but I was just curious what you saw that tells you we "have more than just the option now". Is Watson just sitting on some great plays that are waiting to be unleashed...just like he did last year? Sorry, but with this offense it has become "I'll believe it when I see it" for me. Basically what I was trying to say is that through two games, it's the same undisciplined offense I saw on the field last year, but we have added a fast QB. This can obviously change, but I can only go off what I have seen, not what might happen. I dont get it, when was i ever talking about one play. Last i checked the option read is "multiple options" mulitple formations, that we can run muliple plays and looks from...take one wrong step and T Magics gonna burn you. All im saying is we have shown glimpses of what our running game is about, sure we got stuffed on 4 and short and that looked bad. All you guys do is harp on a few bad plays....look at the postitves....helu looks better and faster the ever rex is bigger and faster and tmart can be a gamebreaker at any second. Im sorry but im really excited about our running games potential. Put 9 in the box go ahead and try and stop us. The "old option" was line up and try and stop us as well. We are running right at you what are you going to do about it. I dont get how we won chanpionships even when teams would put 9 in the box, they knew what was coming and still couldnt stop it...yet this years option read wont work? Sorry im just not buying it. But hey i like to think postive. We havent even run the wildcat except the one try with niles. Again why show it against Idaho. Why give Helu tough carries between the tackles with the game in hand. Its common sense. We are building up to it, and getting playing time for the excellent young talent we have. Before we dare anyone on defense to do anything and claim that we will demolish them: can't we at least see how we stack up against a foe that has some 3 and 4* players rather than those that would not be considered by a Big 12 school? To date we have played what amounts to a good caliber Junior college team that one would expect us to beat badly, just like the Sunbelt championship we earned last year. At that time many of you started measuring Lee for the Heisman and extrapolated the great offense to the "real" games. It didn't even come close. If we are predictable and cannot hit medium range passes; I think teams with good D will shut us down. On the other hand I could well be wrong and this offense with T M in charge will re-write the record books. The point is; only a fool gets too high over what they see in practices or chump games. There will be time enough to book our air to the NCG if things are really that good. We have not proved anything yet. If we hang 50 on Washington and shut them down to a couple scores, that is significant. Of course so is getting beat or eeking out a win over a team that has major problems outside of QB. The season is here. We don't have to BS about the future, just watch it unfold...and if there is more work to do, they'll have to do it.

Right now Robinson is on a whole different level than T M. A better comparison would be with Illinois Freshman QB. Sheelhause. I cannot believe that after last years dominance of the Sunbelt Schools by Lee, that fans would fall into the same trap after wins over programs that are paid to come here and take a lickin. Kentucky is not going to be a power and handled WKU with more ease than we did. Huge difference going against Notre Dame than our opponents, regardless of NDs fall from the elite. NU and T M will get there first chance to play a bcs school. Nothing can be projected from our first two games anymore than was the case last year. If we don't take better care of the ball and do better in the red zone, the result won't be the same "big win" as our first two games.

I did not see WU's game. Just based on our performance yesterday and WUs,I would be interested to hear an objective assessment if they think we would have won yesterday and why from those who watched both games.

I don't know how your plan for TM would work out against our more worthy opponents and we'll just have to find out. Your premise to encourage TM to bail out of the pocket quickly if a primary receiver is not open; will compound what is our biggest deficiency now--an inept passing game. The hardest thing for a young qb to learn is to go through reads while stepping up into the pocket. What you suggest is that TM has shown gifted rb skills against the patsies, Wats should encourage him to have happy feet and look to run scared quickly. Good opponents will put a spy on him and negate much of his running talent when they realize he is no threat to pick a defense apart. He would be fine in a GT or Navy option offense. I'm not sure happy feet will work In the Big 12.

Well I'm not sure we can't win the north, but we are going to lose a lot of games unless we improve immensely. And watching the zero u game, we will get killed if we make it to the CCg. Contrary to some optimists we do NOT have a capable D1 QB. Decent football teams will shut us down as a one dimensional team. Some of our sloppiness may be correctable, but don't look for us to have a decent passing attack.

Anytime you play against the best RB in the league in his house only a fool has no concerns. I really fear many of our fans have taken the idea that we are an elite football team because media idiots deem us so pre-season too seriously. We have issues on both sides of the ball that need clarity prior to playing a real football team, which I suspect KSU will be this year. They defeated a much better opponent in their opener than we have played. You can bet BP is concerned about it. Texas should be far from the only worry for this team.

Unlikely, mostly because we don't have and almost certainly will not have a qb with anything near the talent of the BSU kid. But I also think that if BSU were in the big 12 south they would not be talked about as NC material. This year it is also folly for NU IMO.

I'd guess 33-17, with it close far too long for playing a minor league opponent when ranked in top ten BCS. But we'll look better in the 4th qtr. After the game there will be controversy about who should start at qb and serious concerns on the Defensive front. Indeed Bo said there was little daylight between the three candidates. He spun it in the best light saying they could all do the same job. my guess is that the staff is quite concerned with all three and that is the reason for no definitive decision. I still don't think we know much at all about this team until after WU and perhaps the KSU games. Hope I am wrong and the sunshine pumpers are right.