cornhuskersftw

I understand why people criticize the past players for the "this is how we did it, so this is what's best", but I don't think that was Frost's intentions in this blog. He seemed to be receptive to change but questioning why all of the change was needed. Why replace every coach on the staff, why not form a team to help find an acceptable HC replacement, why change our mascot, slogan, every tradition the Huskers have always had. Our walk-on program was part of what made Nebraska different and some of the talent found, that nobody would have seen otherwise, has been amazing!! What is the point of ostracizing Huskers of the past. Our link to the past and continuing the traditions of the past, that the Huskers and fans, held near and dear is part of what made our program so successful and why it resonated so deeply with so many. Once you lose any link to the past, you lose a lot of the things that made Nebraska special! I have always looked at our program as different and special and a lot of that was destroyed during the Callahan era! It's heartbreaking that he could destroy so many of the records that had been built through the years... or how he changed so many peoples view of the Huskers!! During Callahan and Pederson's reign, they made the Husker program below average, destroyed the Huskers tradition and way of life, and made our program look like every other football team in the nation. Why come to Nebraska when you can stay in your home state and play on the same kind of team? Bo, TO, and building some coaching stability are going to go a long ways into taking Nebraska back to where it used to be... which is going to go a long way with recruiting all in itself!! It definitely makes this Husker fan exuberant to see that our HC, AD, and players understand this tradition and how it important it was and always needs to be!

Bo is in the learning phase. While he's been coaching for quite some time, being DC and HC are two different things. All the pressure is riding on him, good or bad, and the high standards that Nebraska holds for the football program has to be adding undue stress. Growing up, he was coached the same way... with intensity and yelling. It's something he's carried with him and probably always will. But just like Stoops has learned to control his outbursts, for the most part, I think Pelini will too. He has a great mentor to learn from in TO, and it he will grow into his role. I don't think his outbursts really affect coaching in a negative aspect... although I think it may have taken awhile for Callahan's coaches to transition from a laid back coach into a emotionally intense coach. I think they have, respect Bo and know if they want to coach there, then it comes with the territory.

Yeah, I went into this game thinking that our defense had to be hurting. When you take something around 86 snaps during a game, play your heart and soul out, and still find an inner reserve to keep going... well the defense had to be feeling it. I can't imagine waking up the next day and feeling that hurt. Then they had to practice all week and play a pretty tough game. They deserve the credit they have been receiving. But KU did hold the front four pretty well. It was shocking in some ways. It was the first time, this year, I felt kind of "disappointed" in our D. Suh and Crick were both double/triple teamed the entire game and just couldn't break through. And I thought our secondary did just ok. I thought Reesing got a lot more yards then he should have on QB keeps. But overall KU has quite a bit of talent on offense, and the D was owed a week to sit back and let the O pick up the slack. I just hope KSUx doesn't take any notes and do the same thing next week. This, inevitably, will be the most important game of the year and the Huskers need to be clicking on all levels.

I don't know how anyone could possibly be able to say that Green isn't a good QB. He's played one full game. And in that game against Baylor, the play calls were terrible and weren't called to the strength Green's athletic ability. Other than that, we really haven't seen much of the kid. But regarding Lee, we have several games to critique. I was hoping that after being benched that Lee would have a fire lit and go out there and produce. But it looked like every other game this season. At this point, I would like to see Green getting more play time. I don't really care who starts, but I want to see our offense get to the redzone more than once a game. And it would be nice to know that we didn't get there simply because of the defense - although I like seeing that too. But the offense has to produce something!! If it comes down to giving both of them snaps, so be it. But I think it's hardly fair at this point to say that Green is a terrible QB. We just haven't seen enough to know....

They played lights out all night!! Way to go defense!! GBR

I would like to forget the eight fumbles against ISU! But the defense and watching the younger players learn from all the talent and amazing coaching has been quite the experience. And most of this talent will be returning next year!! And of course Suh is a pleasure to watch each week!!

I think he will stay around for awhile. I don't know if he feels like he needs to be by Bo's side... but I do think they work well together. Carl seems like the polar opposite of Bo, and it seems to work. It seems to me that Carl wouldn't be ready to branch out on his own yet. Here's hoping!

Lol I guess I should calm down before I post but still hugw win none the less I'd like to thing hugw is a neologism that means Huge + Win. In that case it was on puroose I guess I'm a genius You must still be excited!

Actually it looked like Bo blew a gasket on Watson first and still had some left over for Lee! And it didn't look like Watson took it too easy on Lee either. Like the saying goes, "sh*t runs downhill!"

Yup. Don't expect any insider info ever, I'm just here to provide some extra Husker enjoyment. Amazing video! Just spectacular work!

Uncomplicated? I don't know how much more scaled down an offense can get?!?! What was the stat they showed in the 3rd or 4th qtr on ABC. Of the last 16 plays....15 had been runs and 1 a pass....and we ran it following that on screen stat!!! I would argue that tonight was Watson's best game. He did exactly what he had to do to put the defense in a position to win the game. That may sound facetious, but it is genuine. He called a conservative game with limited mistakes; we had enough ball possession and yards to win. Our real problem is our redzone offense we left probably 14 points on the field. We definitely needed to be more conservative in this game. I loved that he called more running plays, but I question how they are running some of those plays. Our most successful running plays were right through the middle with holes created by the OL. The rest of the running plays seemed to "fancy" for lack of better words. Some of the blocking on certain running plays leave a defensive player unguarded or the defense shifts to the right and then the RB runs right into that coverage. Why? An RB going straight into coverage and gaining no yards happened more than once tonight. Stick with what works with some - smash mouth football created by holes right through the middle. It would be nice to mix in some play action passes and utilize the TE more. Using misdirection worked a couple of times. But to keep running the same types of plays over and over when they aren't resulting in any yardage, but not using the ones that do just baffles me. Regardless, I am reeling over how amazing our defense worked as a unit and that the Huskers won! GBR! I agree, I am a harsh critic of Wats and his play calling, I'm just not ready to dump him. I especially hate those shotgun draw options when Lee gets a yard and a half. But I do think tonight went as planned for him. I don't understand what we lost from this season, ISU and Baylor are not much better than those sun belt team we walloped. Yeah, he's not the OC I want because I would obviously like to see the Huskers run smash mouth football - what was our signature offense and now a dying breed. But I don't know if now would be the time. I don't know who would replace him, and I think too much change too fast wouldn't be good for the program. I just would like to see him stick with the plays that work and continue to manage the clock. But with offense consistently getting three and outs, I just don't want them to wear down the defense. But if we can beat Oklahoma, then we should have been able to roll over ISU and Baylor. And we struggled against them. Heck, we should have rolled over Texas Tech too. But if our D continues to play this way and we can get even a small amount of momentum on offense, then we should win the rest of our games and see Texas in the Big 12 championship.

Uncomplicated? I don't know how much more scaled down an offense can get?!?! What was the stat they showed in the 3rd or 4th qtr on ABC. Of the last 16 plays....15 had been runs and 1 a pass....and we ran it following that on screen stat!!! I would argue that tonight was Watson's best game. He did exactly what he had to do to put the defense in a position to win the game. That may sound facetious, but it is genuine. He called a conservative game with limited mistakes; we had enough ball possession and yards to win. Our real problem is our redzone offense we left probably 14 points on the field. We definitely needed to be more conservative in this game. I loved that he called more running plays, but I question how they are running some of those plays. Our most successful running plays were right through the middle with holes created by the OL. The rest of the running plays seemed to "fancy" for lack of better words. Some of the blocking on certain running plays leave a defensive player unguarded or the defense shifts to the right and then the RB runs right into that coverage. Why? An RB going straight into coverage and gaining no yards happened more than once tonight. Stick with what works with some - smash mouth football created by holes right through the middle. It would be nice to mix in some play action passes and utilize the TE more. Using misdirection worked a couple of times. But to keep running the same types of plays over and over when they aren't resulting in any yardage, but not using the ones that do just baffles me. Regardless, I am reeling over how amazing our defense worked as a unit and that the Huskers won! GBR!

I think he receives a lot of blame because he doesn't cater to the talent we have on the offense and doesn't adjust his game plan when necessary. He can't expect the same thing from Lee and company that we saw out of Ganz and company... but he doesn't seem to realize that or make the adjustments.

Yeah, but it would be nice to see Watson call uncomplicated plays for our struggling and injury ridden offense. Running plays have been our forte when called, yet Watson rarely uses them?! Use and I formation and run, run, run!!

And Amakumara was our 2nd Yardage wise anyway That kinda made me throw up in my mouth a little....and it's true. LOL! Sad, but true!

HAHA

He's already admitted in several threads that he's willing to eat some crow! Take a look around!

Our offensive line is not spectacular by any means. But I still think the problem lies more with play calls than anything else. The WCO is just silly and over complicates - what should be simple plays - ... as is seen w/ the complicated blocking schematics in most plays. And when you have a QB, as in Lee, that likes to audible it causes a lot of problems for this inexperienced offensive line. Watson needs to stick to simple plays that gain yardage and can cater to our offense as a whole. A simple I back formation, play action passes, and misdirection are all we need for offense to be successful. All they need to do is drill those plays over and over in practice until they are executed perfectly. And I think this style of offense would be executed better by Green. Lee showed me nothing new tonight... as in poor faking capabilities, no urgency, and being extremely indecisive.

They did pick Lee, yes, but if he was really as good as they say he was in practice, why did they try to go get a guy who never played a snap of D1 football and had only 1 year of eligibility? I know there were depth issues at quarterback, but there must have been some concern for Lee if they actually tried to pull that one off. Well the OP who seems to have a fairly neutral stance of views of the QB seems to think Lee looks better in practice than Green. And obviously against fluff teams Lee put up great numbers. I don't think his worst performance was the VT game, and although he didn't look exceptional, he didn't look horrific either. He was able to drive the team down to the redzone but was unable to complete. In the past few games, he hasn't even been able to get the team down the field. We have the same offensive line and receivers, although our RB haven't been consistent due to injury. What's the difference between the VT game and the TT/ISU game? The latter two have worse defenses overall, and he couldn't move the ball at all?!? To me, it just makes sense to have Green start at this point. Obviously with Witt transferring and Spano getting injured, there was a depth problem. And I'm sure there was some concern, but initially he had to have shown a better performance in practice than Green. And like I said, it didn't translate into real games with pressure.

We know the coaches picked Lee as the starting QB for a reason. I don't think anyone is doubting that he looks great in practice and is probably overall a better passer. But he can't translate his performance from practice into a real game. Is that his fault? I'm not sure. It could be that he is wearing the green jersey too much or the practices are too soft, and he can't handle the real pressure from a game. It could be a lack of confidence. And I feel that part of the lack of confidence comes from indecisive coaches and fair weathered fans. The coaches need to pick a starter and stick with him for the rest of this season. I just don't think it's mentally fair to them and it leaves our offense with no identity. Lee is/was definitely not the sole reason for all of losses. We have a terrible offensive line, injured running backs, and wide receivers that can't hold onto the ball. But Lee also can't run. Putting him in there to start and trying to do any running plays with Lee is just dangerous. He doesn't run correctly. He stands nearly erect, and that leaves him open to have the ball stripped so easily. And he can't fake... at all. The defense reads him so easily. With all of these offensive problems, it makes sense to have a more mobile QB starting the game. Green could scramble and gain some yards, and Lee can't. Green may not be as great as everyone wants him to be, and maybe Lee might be able to gain confidence if the coaches didn't flip flop every week. If the coaches have no faith in their starting QBs, then we can't expect the offense to feel any differently!! But this season is what it is. And I think we need some mobility that Green can provide due to a boatload of offensive problems.

I disagree, Shawn Watson is an awful playcaller. If we have a scared QB, why didnt we run the ball more? Why is Shawn Watson so quick to abandon any efforts to establish the run, even when our offense is having success with it? Why (against Missouri) wasnt Rex Burkhead given the ball more in the 3rd quarter when he was the only offensive player who had really done anything? Why instead did Shawn Watson stick so heavily to the pass & make no effort to establish the run when Zac Lee hadnt completed 1 single pass in the entire 3rd quarter? Why is our offense as a whole so undisciplined? Does none of that fall on the offensive coordinator, who is paid big bucks to put a productive offense on the field? I completely disagree that 'Wats is fine'.

I always remember JP being that way! He was always out on left field making random comments or pissing people off. You either love or hate the guy. But regardless, he says whatever he thinks! IMO, he seemed like he's come out of his past a better person, and I never thought, "Wow this guy is a past heroin addict, he just seems fried, and I'm going to completely discredit everything he says because of it... etc, etc"

This has absolutely no merit, and it's just an assumption. An assumption based on Bo and Watson's comments discrediting the other at times. To me, I feel like the two of them don't get along or see eye to eye at all. I wouldn't be surprised if Watson doesn't have a job at the end of the year, although I don't know who would replace him... Bo seems like, on the football field, he would be really hard to get along with. And Watson's ridiculous play calls probably don't help matters. As far as Green and Lee go... I want Green to see some playing time - close game or not. His redshirt is burned and he needs to get some snaps under his belt. I would like to see Green start, but at this point I'm just done debating why or what if. Just give the kid some snaps and let's see what he can do!

Definitely not out of left field on any of his comments. IMO JP seemed really enthusiastic about his love of the Huskers and what they can do to improve. And I have wanted the Huskers to go back to running the Power I or option since Osborne/Solich left! I really miss the power Neb used to have! On another note, I also agree with JP about having tougher practices. I think that's why Lee looks so great during practice and then sucks eggs during games. And if that's the way practices go, then Lee will continue to be starting QB now and possibly next year as well....

Who really cares what his past entails? He had several surgeries, got addicted to painkillers and then his addiction progressed to cocaine and heroin. There have been several people with sordid pasts... but what difference does that make. He overcame his addictions, shared his struggles with everyone, and is now living a drug free life. This has no merit on any of the comments he was making during the show!! Why would Nebraska be embarrassed to have him showing support for the Huskers?!? Because he made some mistakes in the past... all of us have!! Sure, I may not have a history of drug or alcohol abuse, but I still have some regrets. We get past those and become better people for learning from it. JP made some excellent points. I feel it would be much easier for us to recruit some solid players on the offensive line and some talented RB than to compete with big name Div 1 programs for WR. I do feel like we need to gain an identity, and I think it would be best served by sticking to the Nebraska tradition of being a powerhouse and using grunt work to get down the field. I loved his comment about whether teams won or lost to Nebraska, they always walked away knowing they played the Huskers. That is definitely lacking from the program now as no team, including Sunbelt Conference, are intimidated to play us. And with these past five or six years, teams aren't even intimidated to play us at Memorial Stadium!! I also agree that their is not any leadership at all on the offensive line. Seriously, somebody needs to step up and try to get their crap together... and that's supposed to lay in the hands of the QB and Lee is not getting it together! And I'm glad he noticed how ZL is constantly losing confidence after a few bad plays. If he doesn't have confidence in himself and in the team, how can anyone on offense have any confidence? JP has always said things as he sees them, he just doesn't hold anything back. And that's one of the reasons I like him!