IlliniHusker

I'm old enough to remember the NU - Mich St connection. It's Bob Devaney. The coach that raised NU out of the doldrums and put us back on the national scene. He came from Michigan and was recommended by Michigan State's coach. Devaney won 2 National Championships. His most famous quote - "800 million Chinese don't care about Nebraska football." Kinda keeps things in perspectives!!! One of his line backers was Barry Alverez. You may have hear of him. Wisconsin's Hall of Fame Coach. I've always thought that NU belongs in the Big 10.

I've been to 5 Big 10 stadiums: MICHIGAN - great fans; good seats anywhere in stadium (bring your binoculars). Found great apple cider on side roads leading to Ann Arbor. Poor parking / tailgating. ILLINOIS - stadium reminds me of NU BEFORE the expansion. Good parking / tailgating facilities. Saw opposing fans drink too much and get ejected from the stadium (a good thing!). PURDUE - kinda ugly, but dedicated fans. Parking a problem. Damon's restaurant had the best ribs I've ever found. INDIANA - a campus that most reminded me of KU. Lots of trees, scenery (sp?) but fans that don't give a s*#t. MINNESOTA - I witnessed the 84-0 NU victory with the "scoring explosion" team. Hard to judge fan support when NU scored 3 TD's every quarter! I'm looking forward to visiting these and other Big 10 campuses when NU comes to win. GBR

Not sure what advantages the "pods" bring to a super conference; other than confusion. SEC has East - West Conference champ game, Big 12 has had North - South champ game. I seems logical that Big 10 (16?) would have an East - West champ game.

From what I've read, Pitt will never be offered a position in the Big 10. Why? Joe Pa would block it. He doesn't want any more recruiting competition in Pennsylvania.

So far I haven't read anything about NU's special teams during the spring practice. Will Niels Paul continue to return KOs and punts?

I hope we see Cody Green and/or LaTravis Washington play most of the Holiday Bowl. Don't think we should wait till sping practice to start the competition. In my opinion that the O-line was primarily responsible for the regression in our offense this season, but Lee can't run the option and his passing is very inconsistent. Lets try someone else!

Concerning Coach Cotton, I once had a boss who pointed out that there was a HUGE problem in my operational area of responsibility. He gave me a pep talk by saying - "I like you and I'm pulling for you. I just hope, for your sake and the sake of your job, that you figure out a way to solve YOUR problem and solve it quickly." I got the point!

Who will the Big 10 (11) most likely add? First look within their existing state boundries: If ND wanted in, they would get the "red carpet" treatment and be added so fast it would make your head spin. Problem - ND likes it the way it is and won't give up its exclusive NBC TV contract. Pitt - makes the most sense; 2nd university from Pennsylvania. Problem - Joe Pa doesn't want them and Joe Pa is one of the main pushers behind the expansion (or so I've read). If Pitt applies, the other Big 10 members may overrule Joe Pa. ISU - makes NO sense from adding TV sets. Any MAC school? No. Mich & MSU would stop other Mich schools and I can't believe that OSU would allow Ohio in. Expanding to another state: Rutgers - may end up as a compromise addition, but not ideal from a sports viewpoint and doubtful from a TV audience viewpoint. People in NY/NJ don't care that much about college football. Missouri - to me this makes the most sense. Adds a big population state w/ lots of TV's. Also - I think that it would really benefit MU financially. Argument that MU would lose recruits from Texas makes no sense. Arkansas left the SW conference to join the SEC because they were always behind the Texas mob. Their FB team has done just as well in the SEC as they ever did when they were associated with Texas / SW Conf. My opinion is that MU jumping from Big 12 brings in TCU and the North division loses even more power. This is NOT GOOD FOR NEBRASKA! Just hope that Pitt is the one!

If my memory is right, I kept hearing about how strong our O line was in the fall (pre-season). Boasts about "pounding the ball". I don't buy the excuse about injuries -- J. Burkes was lost for the year and Hickman was dinged up a lot. But 2008 saw Murta missing time and Christensen lost for most of the year and the O line was respectable! Remember, they were respectable during the last year of Callahan. The defense has gotten better because the coaches HAVE TAUGHT THE PLAYERS. Suh credits the coaches with his dramatic improvement from Soph to Jr to Sr. True, he had talent, but the coaches brought it out. I don't think Jared Crick was a highly recruited DT, but he looks like an up-and-coming All-Big XII player. The same could be said about our D backs. That has NOT happened on the offense, especially the O line. No one seems to get any better. I'm confident that Bo and Tom will make the right decisions.

1. An O line that can create holes to run thru and occasionally dominate. 2. A new O line coach (probably needed to do #1) 3. A healthy Helu and Rex B all season. 4. A QB who doesn't get rattled when trying to pass. 5. IF WE RUN THE OPTION, a QB who can run and make a pitch. 6. WR who get space between themselves and the opposition. 7. WR who don't drop the ball so often. 8. A scheme to throw more often to our TE's (the best bunch of receivers we have). 9. No stupid penalties when we get in the Red Zone. 10. A able DT to replace Suh (no one will match him, just want to D line to play well). Gee, it looks like our problem is on Offense. Do we need a new OC? Tom and Bo will have to make that decision.

KU, KSU and CU do NOT have a defense that is anywhere close to OU's. I believe our offense will look better than it actually is...... then Texas will bring us down to reality.

I believe we will end up 7 - 5 but for the life of me I can't predict the 3 team we will beat. OU seems very doubtful but the other 4 is a toss up. My hope is that the offense finds some "team chemistry" which converts to CONFIDENCE and no more turnovers. IF that happens (and only the offense themselves can fix it), then we should beat Baylor, CU and KSU based on a talent gap. The ONLY reason KSU is looking so good is that they have what NU doesn't have - TEAM CHEMISTRY and CONFIDENCE. Just my thoughts, Go Big Red

NU 31 ISU 10 Rushing 205 Passing 230

Nebraska 41 Tex Tech 21 NU Rushing 195 Passing 310

CENTEXHUSKER provided a good summary from some (?) analyst. Based solely on that I'd be surprised if the backup is anyone other than Marcus Mendoza. By far he has the most experience and has proven he has potential to be a receiver as well as a RB. Hope Rex recovers completely and will contribute next year.

I can't get on the webcast at huskers.com, so I gave up an tried ESPN Gamecast. At least that gave some play by play info until it froze up 30 minutes ago. The conversation there said they were overloaded with NU fans! Why can't these idiots expand their bandwidth or something? Thank goodness for the HuskerBoard!

Another Illini citizen who loves the Huskers, was born in Norfork, Ne and graduated from NU. I'm especially proud of the fact that I'm NOT FROM CHICAGO. (That's the home town of King Daley and Emporer Oboma.) Ah, the politicians from Illinois... the most corrupt state in the union. I've lost track of how many ex-Governors have served time in our great prison system. Go Big Red!

I believe the polls are based on the whole season, not how strong a team is at the end. Using that standard, NU should not be ranked.... we never beat a team in the top 25. Personnally I believe NU is a top 20-25 team at the end of the season. Voters won't see it that way. I'm looking forward to next season already!

OU could very easily lose to Fla. 1) Stoops has been unable to inspire the Sooners for bowl games; they have lost 4 of the last 5 bowls 2) Fla moved the ball against Bama without Percy Harvin & Percy will be back for the bowl game. Bama's defense is better than OU's. 3) Fla has the speed to match OU on both sides of the ball. Last, but not least, 4) OU has one of the lowest graduation rate among all big time college football teams; i.e., they aren't very smart!

I believe Suh should be MVP. Reason - the play of the D-Line improved so much during the season that teams we were able to beat teams that we lost to last year; especially KU and CU. Suh was primarily responsible for the disruption that occurred during key games. Remember, last year Ganz led our offense to high scores and huge offensive numbers but we still lost! If the defense hadn't improved, I believe we would have finished 6 - 6 with Ganz again posting huge passing numbers and lots of points; but with losing games.

NU 45 CU 24 Rushing 225 Passing 340

The drop off in Opponents scoring as the game goes on is a real encouragement. I'm very pleased with the defensive adjustments that Bo makes. It feels like NU has called twice as many time-outs on defense as Watson has on offense.

The CU game might be closer than expected because the Buffs will need a win over NU to become bowl elgible (assuming they lose to Okie State tonight). IMO that Bo Pelini will have the team fired up enough to overcome this CU incentive. Bo has been pushing for a strong finish for months.

I'm most impressed about 2 changes this year - 1) The offensive coaches (Watson) are willing to change their approach to fit the skill of the EXISTING players instead of forcing a "system" onto the players. This approach hasn't happened in the prior 4 yrs. After trying to "pound the rock" with 3 good backs and a vetern O-Line, the staff decided we were more effective by spreading the receivers and going with our "true" stength; not what we hoped the strength would be. 2) Our defense tries to attack the other team and the defense actually makes adjustments at half time! What a breath of fresh air. Go Big Red.

Am I the only one who looked at the OSU running back and thought of Cory Ross..... small, quick and playing with a huge heart and a ton of courage. The USC loss was great for college football this season. The media "experts" had already crowned USC the national champion and now they have to back track and start looking at the games one week at a time.