tclhuskerfan

I can absolutely live with you explanation rather than just basing it on his antics....fair enough.... I will counter that with I hope people are basing it off of his previous games (years) because I am not sure many guys could have taken a 3rd string walk-on QB ( non-mobile)...allowing def to focus solely on Ameer..... and 2nd teir offensive line and attacked a defense, described by many experts as one of the best front 7s in the big 10..... He didn't coach Quincy to drop 2-3 balls that he normally catches.. or asked Ameer to fumble (again).... Iowa flat out beat us up front today....they are the better team and if friggin sucks....but, it doesn't fall solely on the HC.... players have to make plays. So you're saying the players didn't execute (again)??

Nebhawk, good assessment of the conference setup. I do think Michigan has a lot more problems than it even appears right now. I guess I'm curious what kind of "boost" we would get. When UNL hired Bo, they drastically wanted an improved defense. He delivered that improvement in the first two years (thanks in large part to Suh and company). Then we switch conferences and get caught in limbo with the types of players we had recruited (mainly undersized defensive front seven) and as we started this year we struggled. A 1/3 to halfway through the season the defense started to click. The offense started as the focal point of the year. As the injury bug hit, the team was forced to rely on 2nd, 3rd and 4th options at a number of spots and still managed a respectable record (by most standards). I'm afraid pulling the plug on this coaching staff could cause more damage than good. Maybe there's a candidate who could bring in a staff that would match or exceed Bo and Co. but I'm in the camp that believes this group can turn things around still. Would you still feel the same way if a Hail Mary was batted down and an extra point was made? Those are the differences between 2-2 our last 4 games and 0-4. Though the 2 wins showed a lot of guts and perseverance, the included some really opportunistic breaks. The 2 losses were not even close. Change is hard is so cliche, yet it paralyzes most of us into believing inaction is the safest choice.

I can't even consider the prima donna thing. I have to think positive thoughts right now after this weekend.

I hope this isn't true. I'd say based upon what we've seen on the field that Fisher, Brown & Joseph have the best units this season. I think Beck for the most part called a pretty effective offense. Weren't we first in the BIG? Yesterday wasn't his shining moment, but being down 2 TD's in the blink of an eye & a defense that could stop absolutely nothing will change what you want to do pretty quickly.

This is what happens when your staff is made up of "yes" men and inexperience. Who's going to question or challenge Bo on this coaching staff? I can't imagine anyone except maybe Ron Brown. Who can Bo go to inside the program even during the season who has been thru these situations before? Tom Osborne? He's already said that he stays out of things unless Bo asks for help. Even then I would be hard pressed to believe that Tom's going press Bo on the tough decisions like defensive scheme and personnel changes. Bo has had two major opportunities to surround himself with capable counterparts on both sides of the ball with the coordinator hires. I like a lot of things I see Beck doing and I like JP's enthusiasm. I'm convinced when the going gets tough, they look to Bo to take over. I'm also convinced they're on the other side of that headset when Bo's spitting nails. I'm guessing they're not pushing back. I really like the hire of Joseph and coach Kaz I'm pretty look-warm to cold on, but I at least think those are steps in the right direction. Two experienced guys from major BCS conference teams (though neither is on any kind of upward trajectory) is an upgrade in "purchased" talent. You compare them to Beck & JP who would have likely stuck around (if the coordinator was forced to keep them) in their position coaching roles. It's been expressed at nauseum on this board and many others that Nebraska shouldn't be a training ground for coaches. I'm OK with the training of position coaches but when your coach is OJT, we don't need the next two in charge under him to be as well. At this point I'm not sure what the answers are. I'm just a message board poster and I probably spend more time thinking about it than I should. This is a big offseason for Bo. I hope he makes the changes/decisions to get the product on the field improved. I'm not crazy about Bo and his stubborness with fans, media, officials, schemes, "execution", on field discipline, most of his coaching hire choices and recruiting. He has improved somewhat when it comes to the media, fans and even the officials (or TV is just tired of the drama) and recruiting. Now if he can continue improving in those areas and the others mentioned it would be natural that the product on the field would improve. The issue is with all of these things is they are tied to the very fabric of who Bo is in at least his public persona. I think that most Husker fans would love to see Bo turn this thing around, myself included. From what I've seen over the past 5 years I'm losing faith Bo staying his typical course will make this happen. Bo, I'm rooting for you to prove you to make the necessary changes. GBR!!!

Do you think that they held back this offense until the CCG? They averaged 19 pts a game on offense in the 3 games (out of 4) that they lost at the end of the season. Not to mention ALL overtime games, with more time to score. I have a difficult time believing that Wisky's coaching staff had that much foresight to think they were going to play in the CCG, so they tanked the end of the season for one shot at the Rose Bowl. I'll give you the swinging gate (which of course worked) and the qb throwback pass were probably held back for the bright lights, but the rest was finding a weakness and exploiting it. My guess is they put in the UCLA game. Watched us consistently get KILLED in space and on the edge and thought, "Why don't we try that?" If we don't see a heavy dose of that in the bowl game, I would be astonished. If we do see it, I have no faith that we will do the things to rectify the problem.

Beck didn't do T Mart any favors tonight. He scrapped our offense early. No power sweeps or commitment to the running game. This resulted in a lack of play action where Taylor excels in the passing game. Personally I would have loved to see designed quick draw plays against the 2 D End/3 linebacker line that Wisky played during our 3rd and long plays. At least that would have given us a chance to agressively seek a hole to run through instead of watching Taylor get immediate pressure or perceived pressure and throw off balance/out of offense or take a sack.

I'd argue that the reason we came back in the end has more to do with talent than Strength and Conditioning. We stopped making mistakes. We have more talen in the skill positions than the teams that we beat. We recruited the talent, didn't develop it in the trenches where we used to take that for granted. I'd love to be wrong. I just call it as I see it.

There was a story posted about the Wisky v Penn St game where either the coaches or players on the Wisky offenseive squad talked about the adjustments that PSU made on defense to widen the d ends stance and this essentially put the breaks on Wisky's offense. I don't know if it's because of scheme (this is my guess) or personnel, but I'm dumbfounded by the lack of play by our defensive ends. Send them around the edge! Considering how fiery Bo is as a coach he sure plays a passive defense since he became head coach. Even back in '03 he made Demarrio Williams a stud pass rusher switching him from lineback from d end. I think, and actually it's more hope, that Bo will understand that this is college football and momentum plays a huge roll. He has to force the issue and force quarterbacks into mistakes. He sees it first hand with his own quarterback.

I think Dobson is out of his league. I know that this isn't the 70's, 80's and even 90's where we had a distinct advantage in facitlities, but does it look like we are slower, weaker and less athletic than most of the teams that we play considering all 22 starters on both sides of the ball? Recruiting is a large piece of that puzzle, but do you see a lot of guys developing athletically year after year? We used to be the poster boy for developing small town Nebraska linemen into All Americans. Now I see some regression, especially on defense. I know that some will argue Long, Choi, Jackson (even Abdullah), but you have to ask yourself if that's actually a reason to argue that there's a regression in athletic development with Dobson. There are a lot of issues with this team if you are like me and you want to see the Huskers back contending for National Titles, but I believe it starts with Strenght and Conditioning and I don't feel that Dobson is taking boys and making them men in the weight room.

I don't understand the play in the defensive backfield paired with the lack of agressiveness front seven. We seem to have excellent coverage in the secondary but not have pressure in the backfield. I'm not even talking about pressure on the quarterback. For example, I'm not sure why there is no one in the backfield AT ALL when you do a thow back to the quarterback. Why do we not have ANYONE in the backfield EVER. Wisky could do any trick play they wanted because we don't put pressure in the backfield to essentially blow up the play. With our cover corners, pressuring the quarterback into a bad decision should be the bread and butter of the defense. Why don't we ever pressure the edges with the defensive ends? They line up inside the tackles? I'm dumbfounded by this defense. Isn't the most basic responsibilty to contain the edge and force the offense back into the middle???

If you count Field Goals + Extra Points Alex Henery is ahead of Ressel, Henery 96.65% to Ressel's 96.09%. So as a "kicker", Alex is "techincally" more accurate. Plus, 6 of Henery's 8 Field Goal misses have come from 50+ yards. Ressel has attempted 2 kicks beyond 50 yards and made one, with that one being from exactly 50 yards. Henerey has made a 52 & 53 yarder this year alone. AND we all know how clutch he was on a 57 yarder against the Buffs 2 years ago. My money's on Alex if I have a team lining up for the winning kick. You can have Ressel or any other kicker that has played college ball for that matter. Herbie & even the infamous Brent Musburger would agree if you heard what they said during the CCG.