IlliniHusker

I trust that any change will be well thought out & rumors don't always come true. It is interesting to note that the one 5 star recruit that NU has committed so far is Andre Jones, a DB from Fresno with 4.4 speed. I believe that recruits can't officially sign up till Febr, so this is kinda like rumors.

Alamo Bowl match ups: NU - Iowa would be a good midlands match up. I think NU would win handlily and show mid-American prospects that NU is the better program. NU - Mich would be a scary match up. NU is #3 and Mich is #1 of the winningest college programs in history. Two schools with GREAT FAN SUPPORT!!! Other than Nebraska I can't think of another university whose fans BLEED school colors like Michigan. (Well maybe ND, but they have a much, much smaller alumni base.) Michigan fan bleed Blue! Think of Michigan's super WR's for the past few years. If NU plays and BEATS Mich, I think we would have a better shot at recruiting 4 and 5 star receivers! Its a gamble .... we may be stomped by Michigan .... but lets roll the dice, play and beat Michigan! That would be wonderful. Regardless of who we play - GRB

I don't know if this is relavent to the CU-NU discussion, but decided to add my input anyway. For many year here in Illinois my family met with other family to watch the CU-NU game on TV. I'm a Big Red fan and NU grad. Our friend's wife is a Colorado native, a CU grad and a CU fan. It was great fun to talk about the game and relish a NU win or get sympathy for an NU loss. The shared pain / joy always kept the game in proper perspective. When it was over, we both were still friends and WISHED THE BEST for each other's institution! Maybe this was easier from about 1000 miles away from Folsom Field. Maybe we realized that football was not the most important thing in life. Maybe we knew that friends were more important that being "rivals". Maybe not all CU fans should be painted with the one broad brush of morons. Maybe we should thank all those NU leaders and fans who have set a good example of sportsmanship in the past. I think role models are VERY important to a culture.

Zac is a surprising warrior for the Big Red. I say "surprising" because his background is OU - a long time rival of NU! Its obvious that Zac has become a "Husker" in the truest sense of the word. Does that mean the true spirit of Nebraska football extends to players who love this game for what it is? Who respond to loyal fans? Who care more for the tradition and University than they care for NFL $ ....? Yes! Yes! and Hell Yes!

Frankly I agree with Cubuffan32265. As I started to read this thread I immediately thought of NU going into a Big 12 championship game after CU destroyed us! Judging by the number of upset in these conference championship games, I have to wonder if they really make sense. IMO that the whole reason for most conference play-off games (SEC, Big 12, ACC) is simply $$$ rather than finding out who the true conference "champ" is!

I confess that I picked CU to beat my beloved NU today. My heart was calling for a BIG RED WIN, but my mind kept saying "look at the past few games". The team kept saying that BC was a great coach and they really like playing for the whole staff.... they just didn't seem to show any real noticable improvement in so many key areas of their game. IMO that the O-Line play was the main reason for this huge win. The defense also returned to their peak form, but the O-Line surprised me on the level of pass protection with TWO FRESHMEN STARTING! The future looks very bright indeed.

I just hope the CU admin will help the "true" Buffs fans dominate over the few idiots that really hurt the school's reputation today. My first thought was "Thank goodness it wasn't NU fans acting like that..." Then I realized that NU has a lot of fans who are good sports and gratious, but there are undoubtedly enough crazies at every major university to create a bad image. It would be interesting to find out which positive pressures keep the lid on (tradition? self-image? peer pressure? agressive security? vocal coaches? etc?). In the long run it hurts everyone in the Big 12 when a member school has such problems. Hope CU can improve its control over the bad fans for their own good and everyone in the Big 12.

FANTASTIC GAME! After the opening 2 series I thought "here we go again", but then both the offense and defense played their best games of the year. NU quit being its own worst enemy. Colorado had lots of reasons to play well, but the BIG RED just dismantled them. Wasn't this the same score that Miami beat CU by and I think that game was in Miami. What an amazing & wonderful surprise. The program took a quantum leap forward! GBR

Read in USA Today that Houston Bowl sign on TCU (10-1).

He said they push the limits of the rule that forbids using linemen to gain height. “We’re not supposed to use them to jump higher, but it happens so quick that the refs don’t usually see it,” Potter said. Why admit to this? Its one thing to have the opposing coach complain to the refs, its quite another to have your own team saying they are doing something illegal. I just don't get it.

I was at the ISU game in Ames in 2002 and had no trouble with the fans.

We will most likely lose to CU, so the Houston Bowl looks very possible. That is a good news / bad news situation. Good news - great exposure to Houston Tx high school football players & coaches. Bad news - we would probably face Houston! - the school that accuses NU of backing out of an opening game against them at the start of the season! Believe they called NU "gutless" or words to that effect. If we play them and win - fine; but if we play and lose - I would guess that really hurts our recruiting in Texas. Houston would be at home + have a revenge motive (whether its true or not). Bottom line - I hope we go to Champs.

CU 31 NU 21 Rushing 95 Passing 275

My one and only trip to Boulder for a CU - NU game was in the late 1960's. Wanted to treat my two younger brothers to a big time college game and night on the town in Denver before both went into the Army and Viet Nam. We had a good night in Denver with a great dinner at the Golden Ox (still there?), but the game was scary. The CU fans were rude and threw snow balls at the NU fans. We got out of Boulder as fast as we could after the game. That was way before the NC years. From the comments above, CU fan got worse rather than better. I've disliked CU ever since. I'd like to see the Big Red beats the living s**t out of them.

I find it a little bizarre that the "weak" north division has 4 bowl reps and the "stong" south division has 3.

I'm POSITIVE we CAN win, but wouldn't bet a red cent that we will win. Believe the team quit at the KU game. They hadn't quit all year up going into the KU fiasco. To win they must start off the 1st Qt as if it were the 3rd Qt and not get behind by a couple of TDs. Also, the defense must return to its agressive smart play with sound tackling and the blackshirt attitude. This game means a lot more to us than it does to KSU. If NU doesn't play with emotion than it means the coaching staff has lost the team.

KSU = 24 NU = 21 Rushing = 80 Passing = 250

Its true that we don't seem to have team leaders that can fire up their team mates, but I remember many years when T.O.'s teams were criticized as being "too business like", too professional and emotionless. Yet they won and usually dominated with their business like approach. I not upset about the lack of emotion among the players. I'm upset about the very predictable play calling; especially the first scripted plays. I'm pretty sure that we have started off with 3 running plays up the middle in each of the last 4 or 5 games. In each case its 3 and out, followed by a successful creative drive and score by the opponents. Its not the players that determine the plays.

Those stats are really depressing. The only "dominance" we have is with T.Nunn returning punts..... then I realize that most of the recent games Nunn is on the bench and Grixby is our punt returner. Go figure!

Firing BC now would be a total disaster. After the FS firing we have to show that we have the patience to back our coaching staff. Ex - changing Defensive Coordinators for 3 straight years created a nightmare. But the point is well taken - I also believe we are nearing a crisis. If we don't win another game (a distinct possibility based on the last 2 games), I believe the recruiting effort will be seriously hurt. I don't care how great our past was and how great our fan support is, at some point the star high school recruits are NOT going to sign up with a team that goes 5-6 for 2 straight years .... while everyone says they are on the way back. Considering the extremely weak schedule, that just doesn't spell "improvement" to me. LETS FACE IT - WE HAVE GOT TO BEAT EITHER KU OR KSU.

First - MJ - the statistics are depressing & very revealing at the same time. Second - the 15 (?) scripted plays that Callahan / Norvell start each game with are just horrible. Usually we are 3 and out after most of these scripped series. That puts extreme pressure on the defense, who has to face opponents with MUCH BETTER scripted game plans. Result - down 2 or 3 TD's before we really make any GAME ADJUSTMENTS. Finally - what's so sacred about the scripted plays? Why can't we start making offensive adjustments after the first or second series? Doesn't our D make adjustments as soon as they see what the opposition is doing? I'm just a fan, but maybe some of the football experts on the panel can explain this to me!

NU 13 KU 6 Rushing 10 (based on recent games) Passing 220

NU has caught fire at some point in the last 5 games and the team never gives up. The problem is we can't put 4 quarters together. Guess that's the hallmark of a very mediocre team. The most worrisome thing about the 2005 team is the lack of improvement in the O-line during the year. Our rushing figures have steadily dropped off and for the last 2 games we are 1-dimensional. The TV announcers seem so proud of the fact that the NU offensive plays are split pretty evenly between rushing and passing, but the yds per rush is so poor that we essentially don't have a rushing attack. What success we've had with passing has NOT opened up the rushing game. Unless we can run the ball, I think we will lose the last 3 games. Boy I hope I'm wrong!

The O-line starts each game as horrible. The D gets blown out early than recovers and plays with intensity. Pre-game preparation is really questionable.

This NU team is more frustrating to watch than last year because I had hopes of seeing more offensive balance & consistancy as the season progressed. If you remember our O-line last year was fairly decent and we had a reasonable rushing attack. The O-line is much much worse that it was a year ago and that has crippled any rushing game, so we're one-dimensional. KU beat Mizzou today 13-3, KSU played CU to a stand-off and finally lost 23-20. Lets face it, we could easily lose the next 3 games!