Husker66

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/football/ncaa/04/01/nebraska.suh.ap/index.html

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- Ndamukong Suh is gone, but Nebraska defensive coordinator Carl Pelini believes he has enough guys to minimize the impact of losing arguably the greatest defensive lineman in program history.

"How do you replace Suh? The answer is, you don't," Pelini said. "If you went by that premise, any time you graduated a great player, you're going to take a step backward. You replace him with a good player and the other guys around him keep getting better and suddenly you fill the hole. You do it by committee."

Jared Crick, Suh's overshadowed sidekick last season, takes over as the main man on the defensive line. Baker Steinkuhler, the third tackle last season, is pegged to fill the Heisman Trophy finalist's spot on the depth chart.

Pelini said two or three other tackles probably will be in the rotation, with Terrence Moore and Thad Randle showing this spring that they are deserving of significant playing time.

"You see a guy leave, it opens up a door, and everybody is trying to rush through the door now," Pelini said.

Even with Suh off to the NFL, Pelini said the tackle position is the deepest it's been in years.

"No drop-off," Pelini said.

The Huskers also have to groom a replacement for defensive end Barry Turner. Cameron Meredith appears to be the front-runner to join returning starter Pierre Allen.

Crick said he and his linemates are taking a business-as-usual approach this spring.

"Suh was a great player for us," Crick said, "but when we take one person out, it doesn't matter as long as the other three are doing their jobs. The whole defensive line will keep its structure and integrity. We won't worry about losing one or two guys. It's about team."

Crick, however, knows he's in position to become the face of the defense after earning first-team All-Big 12 honors from the coaches.

"That's for you guys," he told reporters this week. "For myself, I'm worried about the defense and the d-line. I care about what happens to myself, but as long as we function as a unit and play well, that's all that matters."

The 6-foot-6, 285-pound junior from Cozad is the top returning tackler (73). He had 15 tackles for loss, including 9.5 sacks.

Like Suh, Pelini said, Crick can dominate a game. Pelini said Crick needs to resist the urge to overextend himself.

"If you say I'm going to go take over this game, or I want to single-handedly disrupt this offense, you're going to get in trouble," Pelini said. "Play within the scheme and let the opportunities come. Some games (he and Suh) did take over, some games they didn't. I don't think you think about that. You think about dominating the man over you."

Steinkuhler, a 6-6, 290-pound sophomore from Lincoln, played in 13 games last season and made 17 stops as the third tackle. He concentrated on strengthening his upper body over the winter and improved his squat lift to 500 pounds.

Pelini said Crick, Steinkuhler and others could end up being more productive because of improved depth.

Suh and Crick had their best performances the second half of the season, Pelini said, because they played themselves into shape by being on the field for most of the snaps.

"Hopefully our guys can excel earlier in the year because they're going to be more rested, because they won't be on the field as long," Pelini said. "We'll roll other guys in there and keep them fresh."

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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what is his life expectancy if he plays in the NFL? 50 something? If he applies himself to his business like he has his football, he will make twice as much and live 1/3 longer. Good for him. he doesn't have to tell his kids he played in the NFL, he gets to tell them he played for Nebraska. Way better IMO.

I cannot fathom how this would make sense for Texas. None at all.

 

A source with ties to the Big Ten said that while most people’s attention has been trained on the conference stealing Missouri, the Big Ten has engaged in “preliminary exchanges” with a much bigger fish from the Big 12.

 

“There have been preliminary exchanges between the Big Ten and Texas,” the source told the Journal-World on Wednesday. “People will deny that, but it’s accurate.”

 

Missouri and Pittsburgh have been the most talked-about candidates to fill the 12th spot, which would enable the conference to have the postseason football conference title game it lacks. In December of 2009, the Big Ten issued a statement that the timetable for expansion was in the 12-to-18-month range.

 

Travel costs, in terms of money and fatigue, make Texas seem on the surface like a stretch, but TV revenue would more than make up for the fatigue factor.

 

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you do realize that northwestern makes more money then all the schools in the big 12, save texas right? and you add texas too the big 10/1 they get a whole hell of a lot richer.

and they are going to need every dime of it for travel expense. maybe they can take their fans with them.

If it really came down to it. I could see a "Texas Conference" being formed. Texas, A&M, TTech, TCU, Baylor, Houston, SMU, Rice, UTEP, North Texas, before UT leaves for somewhere else. I know not all of those teams are awesome, but that fits the Texas mentality of everyone having to cater to them.

nah, they already kinda did that with the SWC and it was not good, thats why they came here.

You should go to the Texas boards and see what they have to say about this...the arrogance is remarkable. "They are TU, they can have what they want, they can name their price, they can tell the Big 12 what they want to stay because if TU leaves we are done. the Big 11 would be better with us money money money... blah blah blah....." let m go. Oh wait, dont leave until we kick your ass in Lincoln this fall, then go...Have fun sending every sports program and a few thousand fans 1/2 way across the country to play. good luck recruiting kids who want to play "close to home". have fun spending $1500 bucks A weekend travelling to places like Happy Valley. Have a great time and don't let the door hit you on the way out. take your band, fans, teams, and horns and go. I think a move to the Big 10 will ruin there football team. they have a great deal now at the expense of everyone else in the conference. TU, you think OSU, Michigan give a rats ass about you being TU? arrogance is usually at its peak just before it all comes undone. 5 years from now TU will be 5-5 begging for the good ole' Big 12 days. I am so tired of all this. College sports are going the way of the pros. everything is about $. forget about the student athletes getting an education, having a life besides being on an airplane every week .I was happy with the big 8 before TU showed up and I'd be happy after. We will figure it out and be competitive.

just watched the aTm game. they can play with anyone in the country! outstanding!

I dont think so. If you are a coach and your job is on the line every year in some cases every game, I think you would not care if they are black, white green or blue. you want the best. you want to win, you want to keep your job. If the best is black, so be it. If the best is white, so be it. Don't ask Jimmy the Greek.....he is still trying to recover from this question.

It is so great to see that uniform and helmet in the press again...I remember a day when I took it for granted after we were always in the press for 30 years ....I'll never do that again.

Having been too young to ever see guys like Glover play in person, I have to admit that it does put me at a disadvantage.

 

That being said I believe that that Suh is still the best DT I've ever seen play the college game. He has a great combination of power, athleticism, and a capable set of hands. He was able to do things against offensive linemen that I've never seen in the 10 years that I have closely watched football.

 

Unless somebody wows me more than Suh in the next 20 years, he would still be my pick for the best interior linemen 20 years from now.

I posted a thread about this back in September. I have been watching Husker football since the 70's and with great respect to the past d linemen, I think in my lifetime, he is the best d lineman we have had. I could not comment on Glover, although my dad talks a lot about him...I would also have to say he is one of the best I have seen in the game.

loved it. if you look at a lot of the video out there like this, it was made from tape in the 90's and 80's. great to see the swagger, play, and hits in the 2009 video that looks like the 70's-90's. especially liked the sack at:48 (reminds me of Wistrom) and the broken double team at 2:35.

Good work!

d

by the way, what is the name of that song?

Texas' backup true freshman quarterback almost doubles their point total compared to NU/UT. (and UT goes for more yards against Bama)

 

Roll Tide and GBR.

 

Agreed. We won the only stat that matters on D. If only we had an O. If McCoy had been in TU scores over 30 without a doubt.

Gilbert played damned well for a freshman thrown into that situation. I was impressed. He will be a good qb and grew a lot in 3 quarters. he will be tough in the years to come.

Gilbert , this guy is horrible. Welcome to Lincoln next yr.

 

The kid is a true freshman...give me a break...

 

Yeah, he's somehow done in one half what Cody Green couldn't do all year.

 

 

I think Gilbert is working with a better offense than Cody

Cody never went in expecting to stay in and having to perform. That would change everything. I am Impressed with gilbert

McCoy going out and Gilbert not being ready for prime time is having a huge effect on this game. Texas came out rocking those Bama guys all over the place. It's all come undone now...

 

You don't like teams making excuses, but boy...that was tough.

 

I mean you take any team in the NFL playoffs and say their starting QB goes down. I mean, let's say New England loses Tom Brady against the Ravens on Sunday and Brian Hoyer has to come in and lead the team. What the heck are they supposed to do?

Texas playing well makes us look good and the Big 12 look good therefore I am rooting 100% for TU tonight. Disappointing that McCoy is out . TU was all over Bama to begin with. clearly TU(O and D) is freaked with McCoy out.

what an absolute disappointing turn of events. crappy way to win a game if you are A. Looked like Texas was going to man up and then McCoy is out. what a crappy way to watch the last game of the year...and have to listen to Mushberger and crapstreit open mouth kiss Alabama all night...oh and I loved herbstreit talking about how soft the TU O was and the Big 12 was soft blah blah blah....Hey herbie, did you notice ..fricken Colt Mccoy is out and they have a true freshman in you damned moron. Hell, I am not even a TU fan and I am pissed, but I would like TU to win for the Big 12...dammit!

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/sto...mp;sportCat=ncf

pretty much sums it up for me, even the announcers and the presentation of the game by Fox had a GMAC bowl feel to it. I would LOVE to play Boise.

you bet Ill pull for TX and then we beat them like a rented mule in lincoln next year. aTm and MIZ ZOU have done little to make the Big 12 look good. and by the way, wonder what Mizzou is thinking after complaining about getting into "the right" bowls and leaving to go to the Big 10 and then travelling 6K fans (alledgedly)to that woopin by a very good navy team.

It bothers me. Kinda like Roy Williams leaving KU to go to UNC. At some point, OSU is gonna look out there and see Bo in NC games and be done with Tressel. I think its inevitable. and I hope Bo says no...but I could see it happening

Coly McCoy says he will see a better defense against Alabama.......

Alabame is busy building the woodshed they are fixin to take TU behind.

I do not remember the exact date, but it was around 1972 ish. I was with my uncle(who at the time owned a half dozen of the banks in town) so we were right on the 50. I believe we were playing Missouri. I believe Adrian Fiala was with us or in the vicinity-he was a good friend of my uncles. And I remember my uncle had this big cannon thing with the big flanged barrel on the end. He would shoot that damned cannon thing off everytime Nebraska scored and no one around us could hear for 5 minutes. What a bunch of damned hillbillies!(sorta)

How times have changed...if we walked up to the stadium now with that cannon thingy let alone tried to take it in the stadium, the whole place would be in lock down...

I do not want Missouri leaving for tradition or TV revenue and think it would be bad for the conference. Maybe if their fan base travelled better, they would be in better bowls.? I don't know.If I was Dan Beebe I would be very nervous. If those other leagues keep brining in that kind of cash, its just a matter of time and it won't matter who is in this league, we will not have the resources to compete at the same level as these other leagues. that kind of money eventually leads to bigger staffs, better recruiting, better facilities, stronger teams. The Big 12 seems way behind on this and we have a GREAT product. But I am not in all the meetings and do not have all the answers.

I think the Big 12 is great. I think KC should have the Basketball, and the new Cowboy stadium the football. It is a great venue, and for Basketball, people in Texas are aweful, they should leave it in the North. As for NU< the split should be great. The North is way easier. Most of the top traditional powers are in the South, so Nebrasksa should in theory benefit from being the only real traditional power in the North. As for schools like Iowa State who take in a little lless money, thye are still getting proporationally more by a lot than they bring to the table. UT is subsidizing them in the end. I am from KC, hated to see the office move. THat said, the Big 8 kept all it's teams, we just got the best 4 from the SWC (and then combined those with one of the 2 top big 8 programs in football, making the South tougher as a result). I would say we are a GREAT conference. We probably have the best combo in the big 2 sports, which is where all the money and exposure is. We are in the title hunt in football every year, and the same can be said in basketball. All in, we are a great place to be. We could use some more strenght in the Big 12 North in football, so get on it. That is why you all are here.

 

(p.s. we need a better TV deal, though)

I agree with all except the part about NU living in an easy North conference. For years, we were in an easy Big 8(with the exception of OU) and I do not think it was good. for years we ate cake then got to the game against OU or a decent bowl and got beat. I like(no love) great competition in the North. It will make us that much better, get us a lot more TV time and better access to recruiting.

I like the part about playing the Big 12 BBall championship in KC. A bit self serving, but good enough!

double post- why does it do that!

As this big 12 changing business has been discussed in the last few weeks, I have gone from mildy entertained to concerned. I am not nearly as up to speed as some of you on this, but I think The Big 12 needs to get their s%&^ together on this and quick. I think we are playing with fire with MU leaving and us picking up Arkansas(no offense Hogs-small TV market)or someone like that. ive heard CU might like to go to the Pac 10? Some Texas forums are talking about if MU leaves, the coference gets weakened to the point they should bolt to the Pac 10? Even Texas threads are talking about the negative impact of TCU and a Texas heavy conference--harkening back to the events that destroyed the SWC. hell even TX fans would kick one of their own out , BU, for a better market up north somewhere. the markets just don't exist...without adding to the geography....and where the hell is that coming from? Idaho? New Mexico? Arkansas?(maybe)

The big 12 needs to pull it together quick. If I was Dan Beebe I would be walking the halls at night

I know we don't have the number of TV sets but neither does the SEC. The Big 12 is a damned good product . they need to make it is a fair and equitable conference and go for more. The Big 10 is covered by TV's and they have the most revenue per conference, But the SEC has 4 markets in the top 40 markets and is second in revenue ($205M). Nobody will argue the SEC is football crazy.

Rank Designated Market Area (DMA) TV Households % of US (http://www.tvb.org/rcentral/markettrack/us_hh_by_dma.asp)

1 New York, NY 7,493,530 6.524

2 Los Angeles, CA 5,659,170 4.927

3 Chicago, IL 3,501,010 3.048

4 Philadelphia, PA 2,955,190 2.573

5 Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX 2,544,410 2.215

6 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA 2,503,400 2.179

7 Boston, MA (Manchester, NH) 2,410,180 2.098

8 Atlanta, GA 2,387,520 2.079

9 Washington, DC (Hagerstown, MD) 2,335,040 2.033

10 Houston, TX 2,123,460 1.849

11 Detroit, MI 1,890,220 1.646

12 Phoenix, AZ 1,873,930 1.631

13 Seattle-Tacoma, WA 1,833,990 1.597

14 Tampa-St. Petersburg (Sarasota), FL 1,805,810 1.572

15 Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN 1,732,050 1.508

16 Denver, CO 1,539,380 1.340

17 Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL 1,538,090 1.339

18 Cleveland-Akron (Canton), OH 1,520,750 1.324

19 Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, FL 1,455,620 1.267

20 Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto, CA 1,404,580 1.223

21 St. Louis, MO 1,249,450 1.088

22 Portland, OR 1,188,770 1.035

23 Pittsburgh, PA 1,154,950 1.005

24 Charlotte, NC 1,147,910 1.000

25 Indianapolis, IN 1,119,760 0.975

26 Raleigh-Durham (Fayetteville), NC 1,107,820 0.964

27 Baltimore, MD 1,093,170 0.952

28 San Diego, CA 1,073,390 0.934

29 Nashville, TN 1,019,010 0.888

30 Hartford and New Haven, CT 1,010,630 0.880

31 Salt Lake City, UT 944,060 0.822

32 Kansas City, MO 941,360 0.820

33 Cincinnati, OH 918,670 0.800

34 Columbus, OH 904,030 0.787

35 Milwaukee, WI 901,790 0.785

36 Greenville-Spartanburg, SC-Asheville, NC-Anderson,SC 865,810 0.754

37 San Antonio, TX 830,000 0.723

38 West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce, FL 776,080 0.676

39 Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York, PA 743,420 0.647

Television Revenue - got these numbers from a Texas website.

Big Ten (214,000,000)

Southeastern (205,000,000)

Big XII (79,500,000)

ACC (66,857,143)

Pac Ten (53,150,000)

Big East (40,000,000)

Mountain West (23,714,286)

CUSA (11,300,000)

Western Athletic (4,000,000)

Mid American (1,400,000)

Atlantic 10 (1,000,000)

Total Revenue

Big Ten (280,628,952)

Southeastern (272,116,806)

Big XII (139,306,532)

ACC (126,608,527)

Pac Ten (103,053,427)

Big East (93,149,910)

Mountain West (48,022,000)

CUSA (36,081,537)

Mid American (21,279,716)

Western Athletic (19,674,348)

Atlantic 10 (12,416,499)

Sun Belt (11,912,222)

Colonial (10,109,737)

Missouri Valley (9,756,408)

Horizon (6,219,609)

I think Texas is concerned and that is significant. We need to hold this together, make it more equitable and build the brand. I do not want to end up with a conference lacking 29M viewers(losing Texas and Missouri) more if more teams like CU leave.

I went to a few Texas boards today to see what they think about all of this MU leaving business. I may be wrong, but my sense is we think they are down there hoping to get TCU in etc., expand the Big 12 South with Texas, MU leaving, etc ... but I think its the opposite. the feeling I got, and I certainly do not speak for the longhorn nation, was they are nervous that if MU leaves and/or any more texas schools get in(TCU), the conference will weaken dramatically. some said maybe they even think they should bolt for the PAC 10 if this happens. they say will be back to the SW conference days. they themselves believe they will go back to being in a crappy conference They contend no one will want to carry a bunch of texas teams playing each other and the kids will want to bail for NU, Florida, etc. I thought that was intersting.

one of them posted these numbers( I do not know where they came from or how they were calculated but they seem right) below and why a big 12 school might bolt for an equal share of this money! an equal share of $214M vs an equal share of 1/2 $80M and partial share of rest.

Big Ten (214,000,000)

Southeastern (205,000,000)

Big XII (79,500,000)

ACC (66,857,143)

Pac Ten (53,150,000)

Big East (40,000,000)

Mountain West (23,714,286)

CUSA (11,300,000)

Western Athletic (4,000,000)

Mid American (1,400,000)

Atlantic 10 (1,000,000)

Total Revenue

Big Ten (280,628,952)

Southeastern (272,116,806)

Big XII (139,306,532)

ACC (126,608,527)

Pac Ten (103,053,427)

Big East (93,149,910)

Mountain West (48,022,000)

CUSA (36,081,537)

Mid American (21,279,716)

Western Athletic (19,674,348)

Atlantic 10 (12,416,499)

Sun Belt (11,912,222)

Colonial (10,109,737)

Missouri Valley (9,756,408)

Horizon (6,219,609)

again, I do not speak for either NU nation or Longhorn nation, but I think there is a lot of concern all the way around about if this league is about to really weaken....

I like playing the old Big 8 schools and do not want to leave. I do not want MU to leave. Maybe the big 10 coming and calling sends some kind of message to the Big 12. I would love to know what the Big 12 thinks of all the MU leaving talk. thats a big market.