SnowBigRed

I agree Benny. I think this guy needs a serious push from NU staff. Takes on blocks well, seems to have a nose for the ball, decent speed, good frame.

Recruiting only matter when there is development of players as well. Wisconsin has had 11 4* recruits and no 5* recruits in the past 4 recruiting classes, yet they are a much better club than NU right now. Stanford is #4 in the nation currently with 22 4* recruits and no 5* during the same period. Boise State has less than both I'm sure, and I highly doubt anybody wants to play K-State this year either. Okie State has 17 4* and no 5* players in the past 4 cycles. For comparison, Nebraska has had 26 4* and 1 5* in that time period. Nebraska's problem is development and scheme changes more than recruiting itself. Granted, we aren't the only team that underachieves with good recruits (Texas, Clemson, Florida State, S Carolina). I have faith in Bo that he can keep the staff a little more continuous and that development will begin to come around for this team.

Martinez has been a much better game manager this year, which is good to see. However, it seems to me like he has lost a step a little bit this year in terms of speed and explosiveness. Maybe I'm wrong.

This game was a win....and nothing else. The Oline was less than mediocre, the entire defense looked soft and very unphysical, db's still have no clue how to make plays on the ball in the air, receivers had too many drops. I'd say the game ball would have to go to Martinez or Burkhead on O, and David on D. The rest of the team looked very meh today. However, a win is a win, and NU is now 8-2, with a very solid 10-2 season obtainable, so I'm happy. I'm sure glad we didn't play Okie State today.....good gravy.

Wouldn't most D's be pretty damn good if you had stud D-linemen or 3 good LB's? There's some pretty good defenses (and offenses for that matter) out there that don't have near the talent Nebraska does. Nebraska is young and the D is complex, so it will take time. But on the other hand, maybe the coaches need to simplify it a little and just let the guys play.

I've thought all year that getting rid of the Peso to go to a more traditional 4-3 was kind of unnecessary. Why stop doing what you are good at? The Peso can be an effective run stopper as well, as long as it is schemed well. Be a little different than the rest of the Big 10 Bo, and stick with the peso.

Baker is one of the most overrated players in recent memory. I honestly can't remember someone with 5* talent that starts as a sophomore that is more unproductive, yet continues to start every game (Fisher somewhat comes to mind though). The younger guys just not any better?

I'm not a defensive genius by any means, but I guess I just don't understand why Nebraska had to change the defense to a more traditional 4-3 set. I just don't buy the whole Big 10 being more physical than the Big 12 talk. I think they should have stuck with what they know, what they are good at, the 4-2-5 look. Surely the Pelinis can scheme around the more physical teams (Wiscy, OSU, Iowa) and still be able to keep up with the more spread teams (UM, NW). I just don't understand why Nebraska needed to completely scrap what they were good at just to "fit in" to the new conference. They don't have to do the same thing as everybody else. Have Dennard, SJB, at corners, maybe Smith and Osborne at safeties (both of which are pretty good sized safeties) and Stafford at the rover, monster, peso, whatever they call it. Stafford is damn near as big as David. Need to find one more LB that covers a lot of ground and is a sure tackler, and then whichever 4 DL they want. It sure would be nice to have a guy like Phil Dillard to roam the middle a little, but I just don't know if there is a guy like that on the team. I guess I'm just a firm believer in doing what you know and what you are used to, rather than changing it all up just for the sake of changing. NU has recruited for the 4-2-5 for the past few years, and those are the types of guys they have, so use them to their strengths. Then again, maybe NU makes the switch to a traditional 4-3 and has great success with it. At that point, I will eat my words.

11-1, and then getting rocked by Wisc in the CCG again (not rocked, but a closer loss). I honestly believe this is what happens. Michigan will scare the crap out of the ol Huskers, but they come out of Ann Arbor with a close win. The rest of the games really don't worry me much. I'm sure I'll be eating my words at the end of the year, but that's ok because it's happened before. I think the OSU game, although not a good full game, will hopefully spark this team. The Pelinis know defense too well to let the pillow fighting continue. Hopefully the offense keeps reeling off full games like the 2nd half against OSU. With that said, I still don't think they can beat Wisconsin.

I agree with most of your points dan, but the fact of the matter is that Nebraska kicked the living p*ss out of a dang good defense for 25 minutes in the 2nd half. NU might have lost had Miller not gotten hurt, but they might have won too. NU could have probably scored on the last drive if they needed too, making it a 2 touchdown game. I think the momentum was clearly in Nebraska's favor in the 2nd half, and remember that Miller is just a freshman. So to say that Nebraska loses if Miller doesn't get hurt is debatable. I honestly think NU still wins, Miller or not. But, in general, I am still not impressed with NU as a whole, but I hope and think the way they finished this game will swing some momentum their way. Should they play the remainder of the season with a little fire in their bellies, I really think they can go places. NU is very young, and these guys will only get (hopefully) better.

Everything you said...plus inexperience/young players. I have no problems with Raymond at this point due to this being his first year at NU, so I will give him a little time to teach these boys up before I criticize too much. My problem is with everybody saying the reason the d is pretty poor this year is because of the loss of Hagg, Gomes, and Amukamara. Go back to preseason of 2009. Gomes and Hagg were not even listed on the two-deep, and Prince was a converted tailback, yet Sanders turned all of these guys into All-Conference players. The 2009 D had a little more support (a lot more maybe) at LB and DL, but were those three guys that much more talented than the guys that NU has here now? I find it hard to believe that they are. Sanders took guys with good potential (which NU has now too) and turned them into one of the best secondaries in the nation. I will give Raymond time to develop his technique and schemes with these guys, but I truly believe that we'd be seeing a different D had Sanders stayed, at least at this point in the season.

Truer words never spoken.

I was just about ready to post this same topic, although I would have come up with a better thread title. But the fact remains that Nebraska is not even close to being in the same echelon as Boise, let along LSU, Bama, OU, etc. This is the same Fresno team that every Husker fan tried to defend, by saying "David Carr is a great player" and "Pat Hill always has the boys ready to play in big games". Is there a bigger game than against the #5 team in the nation, at home, in prime time (albeit a Friday night)? Boise's defense looks fast, physical, and disciplined, and they are eating Fresno for lunch. It pains me to to say it, but I hope Nebraska gets to Boise's level someday soon.

Country Fest in Cadott, WI, is better than the Windmill Festival in Comstock. They got that going for them. Ah, who am I kidding. Comstock was awesome.

"Where the hell is everybody?"

Found this to be somewhat interesting. Sorry if already posted. http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/the-geography-of-college-football-fans-and-realignment-chaos/

I've never been to Laramie on a game day, but I've had a nice time at the Cowboy and at Lovejoy's. As stated earlier, it is not a real big town, so there isn't a ton of options. The downtown scene has been fun every time I've been there.

Anybody else see Compton slip and fall in this? Not to get this off topic, but he doesn't seem the most fleet of foot.

The answer to the question is pretty simple really. The answer is "who knows?". I know that is an obvious cop-out, but it's the truth. Yes, Wisconsin hasn't played anybody (come on, USD? Really?), so it's tough to say who will have the best offense at this juncture. Nebraska played poorly defensively against UWash, which made them look a lot better than they probably actually are. Ask Eastern Washington. Wisconsin has looked pretty unstoppable, but the defenses they have played are pretty laughable. Hopefully Nebraska can get a good handle on what they Wiscy is doing, and turn up the heat a little bit and play the kind of defense we have become accustomed to the past 2 years. If they do that, NU walks out of Madison with a win. If they play like they have the first 3 weeks, Wisconsin has a great shot of winning in what will probably be a shootout (at least we hope it is a shootout at that point). But to give a little more concrete answer to the question posed by the OP, no, I do not think Washington is the best offense we'll see this year.

tallest building in the state You're joking right? I don't think so. Holy crap he wasn't kidding. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_by_U.S._state Who gives a damn about tall buildings when you can have: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Hole http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_River_Range http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_Range and last but not least http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_National_Park I'd take all that over tall buildings and big cities any day.

I wish I could make it out next weekend. I love Laramie and the state of Wyoming in general. Had myself a damn fine time at the Cowboy downtown last winter.

Maybe I'm an idiot (probable and likely), but I don't understand this thread.

Offensively: Much better on the o-line. Maybe UW was soft, but I really don't think that was the case. The oline looked like they meshed together a lot better today, and were much more physical. Backs ran hard, and the combination of Rex's tough yards and the frosh rb's speed and elusiveness, I feel fairly good about the running game. Martinez managed the game a lot better. Still sucks as a passer, but if the running game is working well, play action will open up and he does ok with that. He still shys away from contact, which is fine if he's going to slide, but if he's not going to slide, he needs to lower his shoulder. Reed, Bell and Enunwa are studs and need more opportunities. Turner is still not being used as much as he needs to be. Kinnie might be picking splinters out of his butt by the Wisconsin game. Overall, much better, but not good enough to win in conference play. Defensively: Not really sure what to say. They flat out sucked today. Secondary is and will take a lot of the heat, but they weren't helped out by the rest of the D at all. The D's crappiness all fed off of each other. The Dline was not getting pressure by themselves (kind of makes sense due to 5-6 blockers vs. 4 rushers, although Suh would tell you otherwise). The linebackers are not good enough to blitz one and still cover assignments with the other 2, therefore not helping the Dline by occupying a blocker. The secondary isn't good enough to lock down receivers to allow linebackers to be lost to blitz packages....yada yada yada. Defense is the epitome of "team", and we just don't have the playmakers at all 3 levels to disrupt good offenses. Dennard coming back will help, but what happens if he goes down again? Is our defense this year like our offense last year, where one guy may make or break a season? I hope not. One guy should not effect a defense quite that much. If the defense keeps up at this pace, I would have no problems taking the over in Wisconsin scoring 45 points. I have faith that the Pelinis will figure it out, but the D WILL cost us more games than the offense this year. Sad to say. Everything else: Little disappointed in the team's intensity for 4 quarters. We were up 44-17 and looking to cruise to a bigger win that last year, and the team kind of packed it in. Give UW credit, they came to play, and it took some questionable reffing and a huge boner on special teams for us to put it away. I was not happy to see UW make a game of it in the 4th quarter. This game could have been a 65-17 game, but they team didn't want it enough. That's on the coaches. Bo seems like a guy that would keep pushing to beat every team by 70 pts if they could, but he doesn't seem to preach that on the field. I'd like to see a lot more killer instinct from the team. I'm sick and tired of watching teams crawl back into games they have no business being in (OkSt and OU last year come to mind). I don't know if I feel any better about this team this week than I did last week to be honest. But I've always tried to be an optimist in life, and until the Cornhuskers actually lose, I won't all that upset. Here's to a 3-0 start to the '11 season.

Agreed. A lot of teams have a few games where they just look downright bad, but still get wins. A few examples in NU's somewhat recent history: 1994 NU 42 Wyoming 32 NU-National Champs Wyo- 6-6 1997 NU 38 Central Florida 24 NU - National Champs UCF - 5-6 in 2nd year of 1A ball (they did have Culpepper however) NU 45 Mizzou 38 (OT) NU - National Champs Mizzou - 7-5 1999 NU - 20 Southern Miss - 13 NU - 12-1, Conference Champs, Fiesta Bowl Champs USM - 9-3, Conf-USA Champs (decent) 2001 NU - 21 TCU - 7 NU - 11-2, MNC game, top 10 finish TCU - 6-6 My point is, Nebraska has struggled in games in seasons where they ended up being good teams. No need in jumping ship on these guys after a few somewhat lackluster games. They are 2-0 right now. I will be the first to admit that Nebraska has shown a ton of holes in their armor, but the same was probably said after all the games I mentioned above. Until they actually lose, who really cares how they look?

This is one of the best articles ever posted on this site. The "not highly recruited" and walk-on kids from Nebraska played major parts in the dominance of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and will play a major part in the dominance of the 2010s (hopefully). There are kids all over this state, from Chadron to Falls City, Ponca to Imperial, that would give their right nut to put on that red 'N' on Saturdays. Bo and this staff realizes this in the same way that Osborne did. There is good HS football in this state, and I hope the Huskers continue to show that. On a related note, I'd really like for the Skers to find a way to get Shoff, Schany and Ott (Iowa commit) into Lincoln. We need to keep our best talent in state and not let them slip away, especially to the Squawks to the east. It breaks my heart to see talented kids not get an opportunity to play for the team they love. Edit: And yes, I do realize that there is a limited amount of scholarships this year. I just hope we can get them to Lincoln somehow.